Sen was laying in bed growing slightly frustrated. He had played games until 3 in the morning until his roommate Rich got mad at him. He had class at 9 the next day but he couldn't get to sleep. After about 20 more minutes of staring at the ceiling he decided to get some fresh air.
He fumbled around the dark room looking for his jacket. He quietly put on the jacket and his shoes by the door then left the apartment in his pajamas.
Sen had to be quiet or risk one of Rich's explosive episodes. Rich was quick to anger. He would even yell at children for bumping into him. So unless there was a reason to get yelled at for 2 hours he didn't want to make Rich mad. Sen had tried to swap dorm rooms with other people but no one wanted to deal with Rich.
Thinking about Rich, Sen left his dorm and went for a walk. It was very peaceful although pretty chilly. The street lights left multiple shadows behind him as he walked down the street. Sen just kept walking. Almost a mile away from the comfort of his dorms he started getting cold and tired. Right as he was going to turn around he noticed something.
"When did this get built?"
It was a building with the same grey brick as all the other nearby buildings however above the entrance in purple neon read the words "Otherworldly Arcade." Sen didn't usually go to arcades but he was sure he would have noticed one this close to campus. As he pulled out his phone to take a picture, he noticed a flashing neon OPEN sign.
Sen spent about 1 second weighing sleep vs weird arcade. Sen decided that he would be dumb not to check out the arcade. He quickly walked up to the door and went inside. The ceiling was a mirror which made the room feel very tall and the floor was a carpet with the pattern only used for arcades and laser tag and successfully evoked a feeling of nostalgia. The inside didn't have any actual game machines however, just a single ticket machine.
Usually this would have been enough to creep Sen out, however today he was feeling adventurous. Walking up to the ticket machine he read the machine figuring out the payment method.
One time payment of 800 gold(Loan available) for unlimited tickets.
50% of your total Mental energy for 1 ticket
Put finger here to pay
There were 2 payment options one seemed to use energy and one used a currency Sen didn't have. As a college student Sen was naturally cautious of loans. So he chose to pay with mental energy. After deciding the payment method Sen put his finger where directed and suddenly a screen popped up in his eyes. The screen was similar to an RPG text box and could expand and shrink based on his thoughts.
It read:
"Hello Sen. Welcome to the world of Raphe, your stay is limited by the time you spend awake however feel free to enjoy our world however you wish in the time you spend. Your placement on Raphe will be based on time zone and season. Think "open" and your menu will appear. Good luck!"
After he finished reading it another screen with just the number 10 popped up. Then the number started going down. Sen was shocked still as all this happened. Finally his brain started working again as the number reached 1.
"Oh, damn" and then he lost consciousness.
When he woke up he was in his bed. His alarm clock had woken him up. Sen was lost in thought about his dream until Rich started yelling at him to turn off the alarm. Shaken out of his stupor Sen checked the time as he turned off the alarm. It was almost 9 am already.
"Oh no I'm going to be late."
"Just let me sleep" Rich groaned.
Ignoring Rich, Sen rushed off to class. In his rush he didn't notice that he had his shoes and jacket on or that he ran to class in his pajamas.