Start New Game?

I feel it important to introduce myself, as without that none of this is going to make sense. My name is Nicholas, I am 32 years old. I am not married, no current relationship, all I have is 2 cats, Penny and Nickel. Penny is a male orange tabby, Nickel being a Russian gray cat. I am in no way saddened by my situation nor do I feel that I am lesser. I love my life, I love my cats, and I did not ask for any of what is to follow.

I work as a design manager / web designer. This breaks down to me spending most days looking over code, exporting it, looking at it again, and then making changes. It is not the most interesting of careers, nor is it the worst. I get paid enough to afford my life and still put something into my savings. Nothing out of the ordinary really occurred ever. I mean there were times when work got heavy or a website crashed, but nothing which would stop everything in its tracks. It was actually a normal Wednesday for me. I was in my office, my three screens all displaying the process I go through: Assets / Images, Codes, Output. What was not expected was the code which popped up.

Anonymous: Hello
ND: hello? who is this?
Anonymous: My name is not the important part of this.
ND: how did you get onto my system then and why do you not have a username?
Anonymous: You ask too many questions for someone who is not in a position of power
ND: what is it you need then? i have a job to do
Anonymous: You are to stand up and go to the server room
ND: you have the wrong department man, you want IT. look for Shaun.
Conversation ended by ND

Weird, I know. I mean we at the company did have an internal chat feature, but it was always linked to our usernames and often had a custom picture or avatar. But this Anonymous had neither and was also somehow able to not go through any of the people before me. See I am not the first person you would be sent to, and a chain of messages should have come with him from the office manager, receptionist, or help desk. Instead it just popped up. Once closed, feeling it was over I got back to my task. That was until it came back.

Anonymous has started a chat
Anonymous: End the chat again and you will be punished.
ND: seriously, i do not have time for this.
Anonymous: Nor I. So do as I say Nicholas
ND: was you saying my name supposed to scare me? we are on a shared system, my name is public
Anonymous: Nicholas Demaque, 1438 Westbrook Ave, Apartment 645, 2 cats.
ND: less public, but still.
ND: who is this anyway? is this some prank from IT or from the helpdesk?
Anonymous: Go to the server room, Now.

I guess it was a slow day and I was willing to indulge this random person, so leaving my desk I went to our server room. In doing so, this genius should have realized I would leave the computer. It was only when I got into the server room that everything changed. My phone went off.

New Message : RESTRICTED
“Grab the external hard drive and come back - Anon”

Shockingly there was a random hard drive sitting on the stool which we used for having to rewire or change the wiring system. I picked it up, looked it over, and decided it was normal enough.

It was a common LaCroie hard drive, with an orange bumper around it, and looked to be in new condition. No dust, no scraps, no damage. If nothing else, it would be a great storage location.

Back at my desk I had messages waiting.

Anonymous: You take too long.
Anonymous: Where are you?
Anonymous: Keep me waiting and see what happens.
ND: calm down, i walk at a normal pace
​ND: thanks for the hard drive?
Anonymous: Plug it in and load the first file
Chat ended by Anonymous

Welcome to the Glitch.

Your name is Nicholas, I am 32 years old. You are not married, no current relationship, all you have is 2 cats, Penny and Nickel. Penny is a male orange tabby, Nickel being a Russian gray cat. You are not saddened by the situation nor do you feel that you are lesser. 


Your life is to end in [2 days] to continue please move the hard drive to a new location and we will allow you to access someone else to take your place. Your time will be reset and you will be allowed to continue your “life”.

Would you like to play?
(Yes) (No)

Whomever gets the hard drive next, please do not listen to me. Break the drive, destroy it, ignore me. They own me now, I lost the game and…

Welcome to Glitch, where life is currency.

What is your life really worth? Play and find out.