Girl don't know how to take picture.

Did I really get that many horror games for The Winter Jackpot? Or does Mr. Wheel have a grudge on me? I end up playing SIMULACRA 2, a horror game surrounding trying to use someone's phone to solve a mystery.

Jumping into the game, I have the ability to pick my role. I decide to go with being a junior detective. I don't know what the difference between that and tabloid reporter is. I'm sure there is a difference. But I go with the detective for now. I meet up with Detective Murilo. Apparently, I the junior detective have always wanted to tack on a bigger case. And this would be one of them. Detective Murilo pulls out a phone and makes it clear that the operation we are conducting is to be between only me and him. Or it's the end for both of us... career wise... que quite the intro sequence. And I am then given access to the phone. Right off the bat the background image is corrupted as fuck... ah I'm sure it's normal. I get some text messages from Murilo to confirm that all communication will work. So it turns out this is a secret operation because the chief had already closed this case apparently. An open and shut accidental death. Either the chief is beyond clueless or extremely lazy. I guess this station has gone through some bad budget cuts and they're trying to save every penny possible. Including just marking every case as solved. But I guess Murilo knew there was more to this case. Which is why he sto... sorry... borrowed this individual's phone. This individual being named Maya. A young girl who was found dead in her apartment. But there was suspicions that Maya knew she was going to die. I take a look at the few videos saved on her phone. The first of which being her and her friends taking a group picture... not realizing it was put on video. Oh my gosh silly Maya. The second of which being her just trying to take a chill video when the light above her starts to flash on and off... weird. The video in the process also corrupts and distorts. The 3rd being the most creepy. These videos very quickly go from innocent to Maya has gone fucking crazy. With each video getting more corrupted than the last. Maya felt something was coming for her. And that it's her fault that this... thing is coming for her. Maya's photos are definitely more innocent looking. They're your average photos every young woman would take. A bunch of group friend photos and a bunch of food pictures too. Seems like Maya really enjoyed going out.

However there was one photo in particular that was all fucked up and corrupted. It's hard to make it out but it looks like it's a dark room sort of. And then the last photo is of her horribly framed... hmm... I speak back with Murilo who explains that this reminds him of other cases of unexplained deaths and disappearances. He'll be assigning me to the Department of Obscure Phenomena. Or... DOOP for short. A group that deals with the supernatural... okay seriously? A department in the police force that deals with ghosts essentially... okay sure. Murilo explains I have to restore the phone. I can do that by using the WARDEN app which is used to recover lost and corrupted data from phones. Murilo sends me a tutorial video created by none other than him which goes through a brief explanation of WARDEN. Or Wireless Autonomous Recovery anD Enforcement Network. Long story short... you click a scan button on the bottom right corner of the screen and it will give you context of the clue. So I restore Maya's phone which also restores the background image. Doing so gives me 6 new apps to play with. Surfer, Kimera, Jabbr, Phone, Chats, and Mail. Now it's my job to get the case file for Maya. That I can get from WARDEN. Of course it's easier said than done. Firstly, I need to get her full name, I need to know the status of the case, and the month of it too. I tried Maya Snooperglentookle as just a possible guess to her full name... I was very wrong... The surfer app doesn't seem to contain anything useful. Only a few bookmarks for some... goop looking store page, a gym service, and a service hosted by this Rex Keegan dude who claims I can earn 500 bucks daily just by liking posts on Kimera? OH FUCK YES SIGN ME UP!... all the spots are full already. Well shit I guess I have to go back to my 9 to 5 job. Sadge. Kimera seems to be an Instagram inspired app. With the first post I see being by none other than the an Rex himself. Who basically calls out someone who signed up for his course and still somehow found failure and wants to allegedly shift blame. And I guess it was such a big deal that Rex really had to make the drama public.

I mean yeah I get people can be dicks on the internet sometimes... but sometimes being a dick to attack a dick... I really don't know where I was going with that. XD! And the post right below was from none other than our girl Maya herself as she thanks everyone for the 100,000 followers she got. At least we get a wholesome post right after a dick filled post. Also we find out that Maya's full name is Maya Crane. And after doing some brute forcing, I was able to find her case file under closed in October. Boy... she didn't look to good when she was dead... there was a brief interview associated with this autopsy... very big emphasis on... brief... talking about the file with Murilo, he seems to be as clueless really as I am. But he does lay some critical information that CCTV cameras were essentially hijacked during her death... huh... odd... I see a notification of a group text. Looks like Maya had added her friends in said group text just a few months before her death. Typical young people bitching over what the group name should be. Hoping to get some more info, I join the conversation but make it clear that I am not Maya. Just a detective looking for clues. They claim that hadn't seen Maya on the day of her death. But they do mention her strange behaviors prior. Which makes sense considering one of the videos that was on her phone. I guess it had to do something with her follower count that made her go crazy?... seriously? I guess she always wanted high influence and if she couldn't have that, then it would stress her out to hell. But there's no way that is the reason why she passed... okay now what is going on? Suddenly the background on Maya's phone has changed to a back shot of her in front of a black background... now her fucking phone is bugging out and now Maya is spinning around... what kinds of possessed spirits suddenly just now got into her phone? Not even a reboot is safe. Though it does look like once her phone is fully rebooted, that things are back to normal. But who knows how long this will last? Speaking again with Murilo, he suggests that now I speak to her friends one at a time. Maybe some more... private chats will open up more information.

I start with Mina... well... not before recovering another corrupted video file from her phone. Maya is very stressed out here too. Maya knows something is up. I don't know what it is but she certainly knows that something must be destroyed before... catastrophe. Seems like Maya had a plan. Keep her laptop webcam rolling at all times to reveal any crucial information. Now it's a matter of getting access to said webcam footage. Anyways, now I talk to Mina. She seems very distraught about Maya's passing. Given those 2 were very close friends. That Maya helped Mina become the woman she is today. Though the question is... how did Mina know about the anonymous phone call? Was Mina in the area? Was she the tipper? That definitely seems... odd... Next, I talk to Mr. Big Business Rex himself. A crucial clue I pick up here is Rex saying he'd be okay if he disconnected entirely with Maya. Seems like he was a big factor to Maya's success. But with her gone now, Rex would have to refigure out his own career path. Just like Mina, Rex also knows... maybe a little too much? In this case, Maya's face injuries... oh sure... lucky guess... right... Rex really seemed worried about his own success more than Maya's death. Welp... one more friend to talk to. Arya. As good friends as they are, there was a moment Arya got a little pissed at Maya and literally wished for her disappearance. Man this is just getting weirder and weirder. Trying to talk to her isn't very easy. Instantly she is defensive about everything. Seems suspicious for someone who was allegedly a good friend to Maya. That and her stress about her Kimera follower count going down. Oh yeah these are young people obsessed with social media. I forgot. Arya being... very obsessed... and just like Mina and Rex, Arya also reveals information she shouldn't know. In this case, where Maya's body was found... you know I almost want to say that Mina, Rex, and Arya were responsible for Maya's death... but... fuck that almost seems TOO obvious. Snooping around a little on this Kimera app... I see a video from Mina who I guess recently did a live show. Her and her alligator tears are very thankful for the fans who attended. And she also gives a shoutout to Maya for being her biggest inspiration.

You know I am a little... odded by that "Beware, the worst is yet to come" sign behind her... I would scroll a little more... but this... advertisement looking thing suddenly pulls me inside it. And no matter what I do, I can't get away from it. So I have no choice but to partake in this weird ass survey that kind of starts innocently... but as it goes on it just gets creepier and creepier... I guess my choices make me a diva... alrighty then! That's where I go to hang it up for the night...

heh... hang up... phone... hehe...