Eric Deckhan is an astronomer blogger. He has an insatiable curiosity for all things cosmic and digital. He spent hours browsing the internet. He pored over downloaded telemetry and viewed NASA digital images. He lived in a small, tech-savvy apartment in the heart of the city. His latest discovery is “Umbra Digital.” It is an augmented reality game. He downloaded it from Red Mine, a Chinese app store. Red Mine is well known for its obscure, intriguing and illegal content. The game was a mesh of complex algorithms and shadowy graphics. It promised an adventure into a world unseen. It was a virtual parallel dimension beyond the known. He found himself at a crossroads of reality and the unknown.
As Eric delved into the game, the shadows it brought to life began to whisper secrets and ancient stories. This blurred the lines between his reality and the world within his phone. The whispers grew more insistent. They revealed tales of an ancient deity. The being’s presence was as dark and unfathomable as the void of space itself. Each interaction with the game pulled Eric deeper into its grasp. The shadows became more intense, their forms more distinct. It was as if they were reaching out from the digital world into his own.
On Thursday night, an unexplainable urge drove Eric out of his apartment, and into his car for short drive. He pulled up at an abandoned logistics warehouse on the outskirts of town. He walked inside. This is part is supposition, but there, we he encountered the manifestation of the deity. Later he wrote that it was a towering entity radiating power and darkness. Its very presence warped the air around it. As Eric reached out towards the shadowy figure, the world around him began to slip into darkness.
When he awoke later that night, several hours had passed, the world as he knew it had altered him. Darkness shrouded the sky, with the sun being nothing more than a memory. The virtual shadows all spoke in unison now. A haunting chorus that echoed the deity’s ominous intent. In a desperate attempt to sever the connection, Eric tried to delete the app, but he could not. He tired to warned his friends of the danger, but his message were not delivered. But it was too late. The shadows had transcended their digital realm. They had become a part of him. An unrelenting voice whispered from the depths of his being.
Over the weekend, Eric watched as his own reflection began to fade into nothingness. His body transformed into a mere silhouette, another shadow among the shadows. He theorised that Umbra Digital was not a game. It was a conduit for the entity seeking a vessel in our world. And he, Eric Deckhan, had become that unwitting vessel, a token in a game that had transgressed time and space.
On Monday, Eric went out and wandered the streets looking for some food. Seen by his friends, he was unresponsive to their greetings. They tried in vain to get his attention and pull him back. The Entity radiated an aurora. They shunned him because his transformation was unnerving. His long unfocused gaze shocked them. Eric sealed his fate and destined himself to become one with the shadows. His humanity slipped away, leaving behind a shell of the man he once was, a whisper in the darkness.
In his final hours, Eric shared his story online. As incoherent and rambling it was, it was a last-ditch effort to warn others way from the Umbra Digital App. His last posted messages are a chilling testament to his experience. They taunt people not to use the App. They’re a cautionary tale of a young man’s curiosity. And they reveal that the game was far more than it seemed. If you read them, they are a sorry plea to avoid the fate that had befallen him. Do not use Umbra Digital. Eric Deckhan vanished. His physical presence ceased, his online persisting until his logon session timed out. His real-world existence faded into obscurity and his online digital presence ceased.
The name Eric Deckhan is a digital legend. Look him up online, his blog is still there. You can still download Umbra Digital from Red Mine. All that remains is a few posts as reminder of the thin veil separating our world from the unknown.