Chapter 4
December 21st, the Winter solstice, the day with the shortest amount of light. For me, that amount was mere seconds, as I woke up to blood stains on my walls. Based off of those blood stains, I already knew that somebody was dead. In the beginning, I was asking myself, “who?” when really, I should have been asking myself, “how many?” My answer: everyone. My younger brother and sister, along with my mother and father. All dead with a small M carved into their still hearts.
I was only 18, and already feeling the loneliness of an adult.
I needed consolement, so I grabbed my phone and contacted my girlfriend. She told me that she would be right over. While I waited, I needed to see Murtaugh’s motive to do this. All I found was a file labeled “Strike_1”. I feared reading it, as I was already traumatized enough by the death of my immediate family. The only question I ever have for Mateusz’s corpse to this day is WHY THE HELL DID YOU MAKE A PROJECT SO LETHAL IT KILLED MY FUCKING FAMILY!
I was convinced. The only way I could get this fucking demon out of my life was if I played his games of hell. So I moved on to Submachine 2: The Ritual.
My first thoughts were that since I practically killed off the player in Submachine 1, there would be a new player in Submachine 2. My thought was correct, as there was no wisdom gem for the player to use, nor was there a “note” that the player had to begin with. While the real version of this game took me only two minutes to complete, this version took me 2 hours with 1 of those hours being speculation about the nature of the notes.
First up, since there was no wisdom gem in my inventory, I assumed that I would have to find one. When I explored what I could, there was the usual cog wheel and a hammer. I asked myself, “Why would I need a hammer?” Then I remembered a conversation with fellow Discord members.
November 19th, 2017:
Chryoyo: Oh yeah! You'd be shocked how much I’ve learned from doing this. just looking over different kinds of arcades alone was fun. By the way @Faustas, I can confirm that arcade machine is a fake
Sundex: ??? I am interested now!
Faustas: What really?
Chryoyo: Wellllll, in terms of the lore, I can’t really tell you why, but I can say it is meant to look real.
Sundex: Was it meant to conceal the karma portal within?
Chryoyo: I couldn’t tell ya. Faustas, I noticed that it had two buttons on one side and two analog sticks on the other thus starting the idea. Every detail of this arcade cabinet is slightly off, not making sense or matching with anything in the past. Almost as if someone was trying to build a fake.
Sundex: Oh.
Chryoyo: From the type of cabinet to the title, interface, wiring, coin slot, structure, control panel, and everything you can imagine, none of it is correct or accurate. At least not if we compared it to reality. Of course, Mat probably just doesn't know what an arcade cabinet looks like. XD. And I’m just over thinking that!
Faustas: Everyone knows what an arcade is, so I can disagree on that (well in my opinion).
Chryoyo: You're probably right. Maybe it was meant to be obvious. And if that's the case, then what was this fake arcade cabinet used for?
Sundex: To conceal the looks of the karma portal that brought us there in the first place.
Faustas: It's most likely false that it's fake and unusable. The player used it in submachine 1.
He got to the end. Then, the machine became unusable.
Chryoyo: Welp ^_^ there ya go. Looks like we all agree. Time to make a wiki page about the arcade lmao
“The arcade machine is a fake,” I said to myself. “That could only mean—” I knew what to do. I used the hammer on the arcade machine, and it broke, leaving only a karma portal behind. Stepping into it led me to a bloodshot red basement exit. The circular stretch of rooms was surrounding nothing more than the red slotted door. Upon re-entering, I could finally obtain the red wisdom gem and leave that location. From there, the game played normal for a short time. The cog wheel and wisdom gem powered up the two ladders, and that was it. Nothing after that small moment was normal. In fact, this was where the “Ritual” portion of the title really kicked in.
6 notes, 5 puzzles, and a whole Lighthouse to explore, including its literally endless sewer system. The worst part about this was the severity of the notes. Only 5 of them had a date: January of 2019, and the same 5 talked about Project_M. The 1st one talked about how the development of it was going, and how Mateusz hit a roadblock while making the game and has moved on to Submachine: The Engine.
- Project_M #1 Sub 2.PNG (118.15 KiB) Viewed 4510 times
The 2nd talked about how something was compelling him to move back to project_M, and how he didn’t know what that force was. The 3rd described the release of Submachine: The Engine, but also states that the force compelling him to work on Project_M is getting stronger. The 4th note states that he is now back to work on Project_M, but has discovered a bug. The 5th is actually a Youtube link, which I watched only to find a visual depiction of Mateusz’s death.
All I remember about the mid-game travels is that they were AS LONG AS BLOODY HELL! The end-game, however, I remember more of. So I got this card labeled “Mateusz’s ID”, a “Karmic Coil” and “Anti-karmic Coil”, along with a “Fuse”. All of these should have powered up a karma portal that is the light at the top of the lighthouse. Instead, their respective slots are gone and they were set down around a pentagram of some sort. The problem was that I was missing an item and I didn’t know what it was. Supposedly, I had to collect all 20… no, 25 secrets! Finally, when I got through all of that, I went back up to the spot of the Pentagram and started setting them down, slowly counting as I did.
“1, 2, 3, 4—” A knock at the door interrupted me.
“5, 6, 7, 8—” From that knock came a voice.
“9, 10, 11, 12—” The most familiar voice!
I shut my laptop, ran up to the door, opened it, and gave my girlfriend a hug, crying both tears of sadness and joy as she replied with a hug of her own. “What is the matter?” she asked, confused at my tears.
I told her everything I knew for certain about: The link, the website, the games; everything. Then, I told her about the death of my family, and I burst into tears again. “I already felt lonely enough,” I cried, “Never seeing you is painful enough … but never seeing my family again … do you know how that feels?”
At this point, she was emotionless. Then all of a sudden she burst into tears as well and hugged me harder than before. “I would never be able to know how you feel,” she said, “but I can say that this too shall pass. If you want, I can stay for a while and help you cope.”
“What about forever?” I asked in a whisper, as I was too sad to speak with pride.
She rubbed my head and gave me a kiss, saying, “Sure thing. Anything for you to be happy in this time of great despair.” Afterwards, we sat down on a couch and held each other tight as we watched TV throughout the night, solely to keep our minds off of everything, and help us both drift off to sleep.
That day will not only be a “day of grievance” for me, but also a “day of regret.” In fact, that kiss was not only my first, but also my last.