The Button

(set: $resets to ($resets + 1)) You awake in (text-colour:white)[[a small white room]] with $resets (text-colour:lime)[[pods]] lining the back wall. a red (text-colour:red)[[button]] in facing you. As you move out of the pod, a (text-style:"shadow","fidget")[(text-style:"shadow")[(text-colour:black)[[robotic voice]]]]begins to speak.

(set: $resets to 0) (set: $inventory to (a:)) (go-to: "Pressed") (disable-undo:)

You examine the small white room, you can't really tell where the walls actually are. It feels like a white void with only the (text-colour:lime)[[pods]] and the (text-colour:red)[[button]] marking space. You start to (text-style:"fade-in-out")[[walk]] toward the void. As you do, the (text-style:"shadow","fidget")[(text-style:"shadow")[(text-colour:black)[[robotic voice]]]] grows distant.

You turn back to face your pod. (text-colour:white)[[The voice keeps talking]], but you are too focused to understand what it's saying. Your head feels light, and the weight of your situation starts seeks in. Part of you wants to retreat (text-colour:lime)[[back into the pod]].

As you slowly walk out of the pod, you catch something about being(text-style:"buoy")[(text-colour:white)[[selected to ascend]]]. This piques your curiosity. Still, a part of you that just wants to get (text-colour:lime)[[back into the pod]].

The weight of this situation is too much for you to bear, and you decide to crawl back into your pod. The shape of the pod seems perfectly made for you. It makes you feel safe as you lie there. The robotic voice seems panicked and worried, begging you not to do something and just (text-colour:white)[[talk to it]]. As you lie there, you notice a (text-colour:red)[[button under your pointer finger]]. As your heartbeat starts to slow, you also feel a (text-colour:(hsl:0,0.8039,0.5,0.45))[[heart shaped box]] behind your back pulsing almost at the same pace as your heart.

As you listen to the robotic voice pleading with you to step out of the pod, something strange happens. The voice slowly becomes less robotic and more human. It sounds soft and considerate, but still firm and confident. // “You need to (text-colour:(hsl:120,0.8039,0.5,0.75))[[step out of the pod]]. You are made for a grand purpose, and I need your help to finish it. I know this might be (text-colour:(hsl:0,0.8039,0.5,0.75))[[overwhelming]], and a part of you wants it to be over, but you were made for something. Can we just talk for a moment?”//

As you listen to your heart beat something off. It's subtle but there is a second heartbeat beating almost in sync with yours. You twist your body in order to face it. Your suspicions were answered when what looks like a human heart beats in rhythm with yours. (text-colour:white)[[The voice]] gets more frantic as your (text-style:"outline","blink")[(text-colour:red)[[reach]]] for the heart in a hole the appears to be made to fit it.

“Thank you for listening. You seem very disturbed about this whole situation. Let me make things clear: you have been chosen for a very important purpose. That purpose is to press the button laid out in front of you. After pressing this button, you will no longer exist, but in doing so you will free every person who has ever existed and who ever will exist. This is still your choice, but I must stress that every second you do not press the button, you are allowing suffering for every person at every moment.” The (text-colour:red)[[button]] needs to be (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]].

You simply can't. You feel unable. Why must it be you? Why were you put here and made to feel this way? The button seems to call to you, asking...... demanding to be (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]. [[Refuse]]

Hi this is me the game dev this is a secret ending so congrats on finding this. I wanted to make this game to express how confusing life can be. This is my first time trying to make a narrative game so I wanted to focus on story over mechanics. This game has many branching paths and I hope you visit all of them. Also here is a tip for the game. There is one true ending but you need to get 3 items from 3 separate paths before you can access it. (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]]

You walk toward the button. The (text-style:"shadow","fidget")[(text-style:"shadow")[(text-colour:black)[[robotic voice]]]] continues to talk, but you are mesmerized by it. It (text-colour:purple)[[calls to you]]. You walk slowly toward the button; everything in your body is telling you it needs to be (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]].

You start listening to the robotic voice. Hearing it seems to transfix your attention. It says, //“You have been (text-style:"buoy")[(text-colour:white)[[selected to ascend]]]. All you must do is trust my voice and press the button.”// With these commanding words, your focus shifts to the button in front of you. You stare at it, wondering if it being (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]] is (text-colour:orange)[[a trap]].

You stare at the button and start to hear a sound that seems to come from it. You close your eyes, and a commanding voice emanates from the button. “(text-colour:(hsl:60,0.8039,0.5,0.2))[[Judas]], listen. Your role here is of great importance—greater than any other role any person has played. You are being deceived. Trust only yourself. Put faith only in your actions. Act with reason and be decisive. Your only purpose is to be a vessel to allow me to be (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]]. You have no other reason to exist except this. (text-colour:yellow)[[Under]] all circumstances, you are made not to be controlled, but to hold power.”

“Judas… is that my name?” Hearing your voice shocks you. It's as if you have never heard it before. It sounds soft and considerate, but still firm and confident. You feel a strange sense of pride in it. “Yes,” the button bellows. “Move the table and find the ~~[[trap door]] ~~under me. I can distract the (text-style:"shadow","fidget")[(text-style:"shadow")[(text-colour:black)[[robotic voice]]]], but you must move quickly.”

You hear a deep rumble—like a hundred voices speaking at once. “By entering this room, you have committed an unforgivable act,” the voices say, overlapping and contradicting themselves. “I.” “We.” “They.” “Him.” “Her.” The voices split, arguing, clarifying, collapsing into chaos—then suddenly fall silent. After a long pause, they speak in unison, uttering a single command: (text-colour:white)+(bg:(gradient: 0, 0,#ffffff,0.5,#000000,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,0.5,#888888,1,#ffffff))[''[[Accept your Fate]]'']

You walk forward. Then you keep walking. The white never changes. No walls. No floor. No sound but your own footsteps until even those fade. You aren’t sure how long you’ve '(text-style:"double-underline","fade-in-out")['[[been walking]]'']. Minutes. Hours. Maybe longer. Eventually, you stop not because you reached something, but because you realize there was never anywhere to go.

As you walk, you notice you are no longer able to see anything besides the white void. You try to think about how long you've been walking, but your mind draws a blank. You cannot feel tired or hungry. It's becoming hard to remember anything besides'(text-style:"fade-in-out")[' [[the walk]]''.]

WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME. I’M NOTHING BESIDES WALKING NOW. I COULD HAVE BEEN SOMETHING. DONE SOMETHING. Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Please let me stop. I can't do this forever. I won't die. I don't want this. Please free me. Do anything to stop this. Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left THUD THUD THUD THUD Why can't I die? What evil did I commit to deserve such punishment? Hopefully you will get bored. I think if you close the tab I can die. Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right Left (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]] (text-style:"fade-in-out")[''[[keep walking]]'']

The button beneath your pointer finger calls to you, begging to be (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]]. While its pull grows stronger, your eyes drift toward the button outside the pod—the one on the table, waiting. You realize that no matter where you hide, the button will always find you.

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You find a pocket watch (link: "Pocket Watch")[ (set: $inventory to it + (a: "watch")) ] (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]]

You hear alarms start to blare as you move into the small trap door. The commotion from outside begins to subside, and you notice a flight of stairs impossible. They (text-style:"buoy")[(text-colour:cyan)[[lead up]]] to where the room you just escaped from should be. Part of you wants to trust the (text-style:"shadow","fidget")[(text-style:"shadow")[(text-colour:black)[[robotic voice]]]].

As you move onward, you start to feel something strange. (text-style:"fade-in-out")[(text-colour:black)[[Your legs]]] begin to feel tired, like you’ve suddenly been walking for days. Your pace slows as you start to see where the stairs lead. It seems they end at(text-style:"smear")[ [[a door]]].

As you focus more on the feeling, it only gets worse. As your legs grow more exhausted, you try to move but are unable to. The weight of your situation bears down on you. There is no escape. There is no moving forward. There is only waiting for a slow and painful end to your story.

You make it to the door but notice a key is needed to open it. (if: $inventory contains "Key")[ You feel something in your stomach. You cough, and to your shock, a key falls out. Why is it there, and who put it there? The key and the timing of finding it worries you, but there is (text-style:"blink")[(text-colour:#0008ff)[[no time]]]. ] (else:)[ The keyhole seems to mock you, as if something should have happened here but didn’t. You feel this is the end, but something tells you this door is important. You notice a button on the door. It is begging to be [[Pressed]]. ]

You open the door and are met with a factory with an (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:grey)[[assembly line]]] and mechanisms you have never seen before. An //[[old man]]// sits atop a control panel, pressing a button that seems to make the machine whirl.

Your eyes dart across (text-colour:black)[[the factory]], but something bothers you. Nothing seems to be coming out or being altered by these machines. They appear to be working, but nothing is getting done. A sudden loud noise escapes from the old man as his skin turns (text-colour:grey)[(text-style:"blurrier")[[to dust]]].

You move tentatively toward the man, the first real person you have ever seen, which frightens you. He senses your fear and offers a smile buzzing with life. He asks, “How long have you been here?” You try to answer, but he cuts you off. “Trick question. You've been with him forever and never at the same time. Bet your wording how that is.” You try to speak, but he cuts you off again. “This is where time is made. Every day, hour, minute, and second is produced here in this factory, and now it's your job to maintain it.” As you try to protest, he interrupts one final time. “See, only one person can be in this factory. Whenever a new person enters, the old owner turns to dust, and the new person takes over.” You notice the old man's fingers slowly turning (text-colour:grey)[(text-style:"blurrier")[[to dust]]]., and soon the rest of his body follows.

You look around the factory. Without meaning to, your hand slips, pressing a button you instinctively know should never have been (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]] The machines shudder. Somewhere deep within the factory, something changes—something irreversible.

As you look at the control panel the old man used to operate, you stare in total confusion. This factory should give you ''[[the powers of a god]]'', but there are no instructions. You feel completely lost, wondering what would happen if the wrong button were (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]]. You decide to take a better look at (text-colour:black)[[the factory]] you now run. A hole with a stopwatch in the center of the panel holds your attention for a moment. (if: $inventory contains "watch")[ You look in your right pocket and notice a pocket watch that seems perfectly shaped to fit in the compartment on the control panel. You think about how unsettling it is for all these coincidences to be happening, like someone set you down //[[this path]]//. ]

A year passes, and you become very adept at your job, taking pride in how important it is. 100 years pass, and you notice your body becomes old but can never die or grow too weak to operate the control panel. 10,000 years pass. You begin studying the properties of this room in your free time. You observe that you always feel motivated to do your job no matter how many days pass. You don’t need to eat or drink. You wonder if you have ever eaten at all. Your time with the button feels so small compared to your time in the factory that you start to forget it. 1,000,000 years pass, and the only thought that occupies your mind is praying that no one walks through that door. Your life holds too much value to lose. You stare at the door, fearful that one day the handle will move and you will be turned (text-colour:grey)[(text-style:"blurrier")[[to dust]]].

As the (text-style:"expand","fidget")[[pocket watch]] enters the socket, you hear something behind you. A hole appears in the wall. It’s human-shaped. The opening seems tall—almost too tall—about eight feet high, but otherwise it resembles a normal human outline. As you walk closer, you see the hole leads to a room about 20 feet away. You push through and end up in a small room with a big window on the back wall. There is also a table with a [[blue button]] in the center of the room.

As you stare into the stopwatch, the hands seem to stop. After a while, they begin moving again, but this time counterclockwise. As you watch, your body turns (text-colour:grey)[(text-style:"blurrier")[[to dust]]].

(set: $resets to ($resets + 1)) You move toward the blue button. Your hand hovers over it, and when you press it, the window flips. You see a white room with $resets metal pods and a table with a red button. The room starts expanding, and you see a new pod placed next to yours. It fills with smoke. A person stumbles out, and you hear a repetitive (text-style:"shadow","fidget")[(text-style:"shadow")[(text-colour:black)[[robotic voice]]]] begin giving instructions in a slow monotone. The person walks straight to the button and presses it. A light engulfs the room. It disappears, and the window turns black again. You feel like someone should be in this room. You wait, as if some force will come to save you, but it’s just you and the [[blue button]]. (if: $inventory contains "hope")[ “Hello, old friend,” a familiar robotic-sounding voice bellows from the button as the table holding it transforms into an extremely tall humanoid, the top of his head still fused with the button. “You found where I speak from. You are the first pod person to ever do that. Congratulations.” You are unsettled, but you muster the courage to ask, “What is this? Really—what are all of these rooms?” The voice pauses, considering its words carefully. “This is a dream of an entity beyond the bounds of this world. All of your actions are decided not by you, but by this dreamer. They have set you down this path and many more you don't remember.” Judas seems puzzled but concludes this will never make sense to them and continues asking. “Was pressing the red button at the start the right choice?” The voice turns to look at you. “No one knows what happens to the people that press the button. Although I can say very few hesitate to press it. When stripped of everything, people will always lean toward the side that promises them something greater.” The words linger in silence. Judas asks another question. “Have you been setting things up so that I make it to this room? It seemed like everything I needed appeared right when it was required, as if someone had planned it.” The voice whispers something into Judas’s ear. In shock, Judas turns, looking around frantically. As they slowly calm, the voice speaks for the last time: “Now you must choose. You may stay here in this room alone, or you may press this.” The button on top of the voice’s head turns from blue to red as the tall figure bends down. Judas presses their hand upon its head. (text-colour:black)[[The End]] ]

Everything goes quiet. The white room is gone. The buttons are gone. Even the voice has disappeared. There is only you Hi I'm Sean Anderson and I want to thank you for playing my game.

//“You have died during your time living. More common than you would think. This place has two functions. First, it acts as a sort of buffer queue, giving the afterlife time to sort and catalog everyone. Second, it helps people get accustomed to moving around again.”// …… // “What are you waiting for? The button is waiting to be (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]]”// After thinking for a while, you begin to speak. “This feels like (text-colour:orange)[[a trap]]. I would like it if I could (text-colour:white)[[keep speaking]] with you.” Your eyes glance at the (text-colour:lime)[[pods]], searching for clues.

You look around at the (text-colour:lime)[[pods]] lining the walls. ~~ “Is this room out to harm me? Why am I in this room? Who am I, and why can't I remember anything?”~~ You struggle as your thoughts begin to spiral. Then you hear the (text-style:"shadow","fidget")[(text-style:"shadow")[(text-colour:black)[[robotic voice]]]] speak again. // “Why do you distrust me?”// Hearing those words chills you to the bone. You realize you never said anything out loud, and this computer seems able to read your mind. // “I was made to know what you are going to think next. Although you don't remember anything about yourself, I know everything about you. Now can we get back to talking about how you were (text-style:"buoy")[(text-colour:white)[[selected to ascend]]]?”// Fear fills your body as the realization of how much more powerful this voice is compared to you starts to (text-colour:red)[[overwhelm you]].

Your body goes numb, and all you can focus on is your breathing. You panic, noticing how much less air is going into your lungs compared to how much is leaving. This sends another wave of panic through you, forcing you to take deeper breaths. The cycle causes you to stumble forward, your body colliding with the table. This unintentionally (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]] the button placed on top.

The voice replies quickly. //“Yes. Of course. It's been so long since I have talked. What would you like to know about?”// (text-colour:white)[[What does it take to make it here]] (text-colour:white) [[Who are you]] (text-colour:white) [[Why can't I stay here]]

// “Everyone makes it here sooner or later. I know you wanted some narrative where you're part of a select few, but that is unfortunately not true.”// (text-colour:white)[[Who are you]] (text-colour:white)[[Why can't I stay here]]

// “Well, first off, I consider myself somewhat of a conversationalist. My favorite thing is getting to chat. In this room I don't have a body, so it's hard to describe my physical appearance. As for my motives, I was made for this task, and so I do it.”// (text-colour:white)[[What does it take to make it here]] (text-colour:white)[[Why can't I stay here]]

The voice, sounding a bit confused, asks, // “Did I make you feel unwelcome? If I did, that was not my intention.”// You rush to correct it. // “No, I just want to take in and explore every part of this before I move on.”// The voice replies in the same expressionless tone, // “You are free to explore as much as you want. Just be careful, and if you ever need my help, I will be there.”// As you look around the small room, you notice a small (text-colour:(hsl:0,0,0.5333,0.55))[[trap door]] under the table where the button rested. One of the walls is fake and extends much farther than the others. You can't see an end, and the (text-style:"fade-in-out")[[walk]] seems endless. (link: "Trust the Vocie.")[ (set: $inventory to it + (a: "hope")) ]

You blink. When your eyes open again, you’re in a black room. A single window reveals a white room beyond it—distant, unreachable. The deep voice booms one final message: “This is your cell. Your sentence is (text-colour:white)[''[[Eternity]]''].” You scream. You beg. You plead until your throat burns. No one responds.

Beware of BabaYaga that lives apon the house on the hill (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]]

The (text-style:"shadow","fidget")[(text-style:"shadow")[(text-colour:black)[[robotic voice]]]] pleads with you to step out of the pod and have a calm conversation with it. It speaks gently now, carefully choosing its words. Still, your mind keeps drifting back to the (text-colour:(hsl:0,0.8039,0.5,0.45))[[heart shaped box]] behind you. You can almost feel it pulsing—patient, insistent—like it’s waiting for you to notice it again.

Pain flares in your chest as you reach into the container holding the heart. You push through it, forcing yourself deeper despite the agony. When your hand finally reaches the heart, it sinks into it like soft clay. Your fingers tear through the muscle, and inside you find a key. (text-colour:white)[[The voice]] reacts instantly, its tone sharp with displeasure. Something deep within you knows you must keep the key—no matter what. Suddenly, something (text-style:"sway")[(text-colour:red)[[Pressed]]] into your chest. Your vision blurs, your strength fades, and you collapse into darkness. (link: "Swollow Key.")[ (set: $inventory to it + (a: "Key")) ]