You floated in the whiteness, weapon in hand. Suddenly, tiny pixels swarmed around you to create the vibrant landscape, It looked surreal, pixelated trees drooping with huge, black fruits. At least, that's what you think it is. A monotone, robotic voice filled the air.

"Chose your path, play the game."

It then abruptly went silent.

The air in front of you glitched, morphing into three small, pixelated rectangles that floated in front of you

1.go to the black fruits

2.go straight ahead, ignoring the fruits

3.climb the trees

What do you chose?

Jacob picked the fruits.

The black fruit felt strangely warm in his hand, like it had a pulse. Its surface wasn’t smooth but covered in tiny shifting pixels that crawled beneath his fingers. The moment he tugged it free from the branch, the entire tree shuddered as if exhaling.

The robotic voice returned, glitching at the edges.

“Item acquired… anomaly detected.”

Jacob frowned. “Anomaly?”

The fruit split open with a soft crack. A single, enormous pixelated eye, blinked up at him with a wet, digital squelch. It looked terrified, iris rotating round in its red-juice stained socket wildly. The jungle around Jacob distorted, trees stretching taller, their trunks bending like rubber.

The eye inside the fruit widened. “Don’t let it see me.”

Jacob staggered back. “See you? What’s--”

The sky tore open like a ripped screen. A colossal silhouette leaned through the glitching tear, its shape made of jagged polygons and corrupted textures. It scanned the jungle with a sweeping red beam. The eye inside the fruit thrashed.

Jacob’s heart hammered. The beam was getting closer, burning through trees, dissolving pixelated leaves into static.

“Player decision required.”

Jacob stalled, then stuffed the fruit into his mouth, tongue rolling over the saline-bitter membrane of the eyeball, teeth avoiding all the parts that did not taste sweet.