Blue Star.
In the monitoring room of the research group, the surveillance screens worked restlessly day and night.
Different feeds flickered on every screen. The real-time displays of several computers were projected onto the main wall, divided into multiple grids. Each grid showed a "patient" playing a stand-alone game.
A technician leaned back in his chair, holding a half-empty cup of cold coffee. His eyes shifted from one screen to another in a routine sweep.
His eyelids felt heavy, and dark circles hung beneath his eyes. Working overtime day after day had made caffeine increasingly ineffective.
On the screen, Zhou Ping was playing the stand-alone game 《Super Mario》. He controlled Mario to stand in front of a green warp pipe. The pipe's opening pointed upward, and two round eyes were drawn on it.
The technician's gaze drifted away, then snapped right back.
In the game, Mario jumped and stepped on a Goomba.
Instead of being flattened and disappearing like in a normal game, the Goomba exploded.
At the moment of the explosion, a mist of red pixelated blood erupted on the screen. The Goomba's pixelated corpse remained on the ground—a tiny clump of mush that looked exceptionally jarring against the green grass.
Then, the corpse was gradually devoured by a circular black shadow. The shadow slowly expanded from beneath the corpse, swallowing the Goomba's remains bit by bit until absolutely nothing was left.
The technician's hand holding the coffee cup froze. He rubbed his eyes, but when he looked again, Mario had already walked in front of another green warp pipe, out of which a vine was crawling.
Under normal circumstances, a Piranha Plant should have been there. Now, however, the vine was covered in eyes, and its tip was a baby's mouth that opened and closed repeatedly. Every time it opened, it revealed a row of dense, pixelated fangs.
Mucus coated the vine, with droplets slowly dripping down, leaving behind thin pixelated trails.
The technician could faintly sense that the mouth was emitting the crying sound of an infant.
Zhou Ping controlled Mario to jump over the vine and run to the flagpole at the end of the castle level. Hanging from the flagpole was a suspended little figure. Pixelated, its head and limbs dangled limply, completely motionless on the pole.
The figure had no facial features, only a blank cluster of pixels.
Mario accelerated, jumped, and grabbed the flagpole.
The castle gates slowly opened. Behind them lay a pitch-black darkness, with a light flickering faintly inside.
Mario walked into the darkness. The level's background music was still playing. The melody hadn't changed, but every note sounded muffled and heavy.
Without rewinding the surveillance footage, the technician set his coffee cup on the desk and pulled up the operation logs of Zhou Ping's computer.
The logs scrolled from the top of the screen to the bottom. There was not a single anomaly, no external command inputs, no script injections, and absolutely no trace of any attempt to modify the game files.
The game was pre-installed, the operating system was a clean install, the hard drive was brand new, there was no internet connection, and the USB ports were physically sealed.
No one had touched this computer. So... why had Super Mario turned into such a bloody, twisted modification?
The technician picked up the phone and dialed the Section Chief's number.
The call was answered on the very first ring.
“Section Chief, we have a major situation! The game on Zhou Ping's computer has undergone an unknown mutation!”
...
The meeting room was packed with people, including researchers, technical experts, psychological experts, and security advisors.
Every face was etched with varying degrees of exhaustion and anxiety.
The stand-alone game 《Super Mario》 that Zhou Ping was playing had mutated, displaying a large amount of bloody and violent content, as well as imagery related to sacrificial rituals.
Zhou Ping's stand-alone game was playing on the large screen, frozen on the frame where an altar appeared.
The altar was pixelated, built from the crudest pixel blocks, yet its outline was distinct. A glowing circular pattern was carved into its surface.
The Section Chief sat at the head of the table and lightly tapped his fingers twice.
The whispering in the meeting room ceased.
“Quiet. Can anyone tell me what exactly is going on here?”
Technical Expert A stood up and spoke rapidly, pouring out everything he knew in an effort to distance himself from any responsibility.
“We personally set up the computers provided to the 'patients.' The operating systems are clean installs, the hard drives are brand new, and the games are genuine installation packages downloaded from official channels. There is no internet connection, no USB ports, and they are physically isolated. Every step was logged, and every procedure was signed off on.”
He paused slightly before continuing slowly, “Theoretically, it is impossible for the game to mutate. But in reality, it did.”
Security Advisor B knitted his brows tightly, deep furrows creasing his forehead as he asked the question on everyone's mind.
“Is there any possibility that Zhou Ping modified the game files while playing, using some method we're unaware of?”
Technical Expert A shook his head. “Impossible. All operations are logged. He hasn't attempted any command inputs; he's just playing the game normally with a keyboard and mouse. Even if he wanted to make modifications, he doesn't have the permissions. The system drive is set to read-only mode.”
Psychological Expert C pushed up his glasses. “So, some unknown force altered the game?”
The meeting room fell instantly silent.
They weren't shocked by the statement, because they all knew it was likely correct.
A few months ago, such words would have been treated as a joke, but now, no one could bring themselves to laugh.
The Section Chief looked around the room. “Let's hear your thoughts. Everyone, speak freely.”
Security Advisor B was the first to speak. As a representative of the conservatives, he advocated for absolute caution.
“We must stop this immediately. Zhou Ping and the others suddenly demanding to play computer games might not have been a whim. I suspect it was premeditated.”
“Currently, we don't know what consequences this mutated game might bring. If it triggers an illness like the Nightmare Sickness, we won't be able to bear the risk.”
“Therefore, I suggest we immediately confiscate all the computers and revoke their gaming privileges.”
Technical Expert A began shaking his head before Security Advisor B could even finish. “I disagree!”
“First, the computers are physically isolated and not connected to the internet. The mutation only occurred on Zhou Ping's machine, while the other computers remain normal. This indicates that the mutation isn't spreading through conventional means. It might vary from person to person, and perhaps only Zhou Ping can trigger it.”
“Second, I've already sent someone to test this. We had a normal game researcher use the exact same computer, the same game, and the same operational steps, and nothing happened. The game was just regular Mario, without any blood or sacrificial elements.”
“Third, and most importantly, Zhou Ping's life or death is no longer what matters. We need the truth. If we stop this now, we will lose the chance to uncover the truth forever!”
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