John was sweating profusely and breathing in ragged wisps. His focus was intense, fingers pistoning rapidly. His other hand deftly handled a stiff rod with minimal movements. The hours had passed by quickly, but the fatigue was slowing him down. He was so close. The characters on the screen he was watching began to blur. He quickly rubbed his eyes to regain his focus before continuing his efforts. He was on the brink of culmination and he couldn't stop now. He was about to break his previous record.

"Almost theeeere," he said quietly through gritted teeth.

Then the basement door opened with its loud creaking, and then it bangs its doorknob onto a pipe with a loud clang as it reaches its apex. "John, honey? It's almost time for dinner, but I'd like for you to take the trash out before we eat. And don't forget to take the bins out to the curb."

John slammed his hands onto the console in frustration as he stared at the high score in disbelief. He was only 100 points away from topping his previous high score in Gauntlet, and not just any high score, but a single-try high score; no continues allowed. "Moooom! I told you I was recording!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie. Be sure to wash up for dinner." his mother commanded before closing the rickety door.

John rubbed his face and let out a long sigh and then turned to shut off his overhead camera. Maybe I can salvage some B-roll, he thought to himself. Then his phone dinged. It was Facebook. His anxiety spiked as he quickly unlocked his phone to see that it was indeed from the man who claims to own a fully functioning Polybius arcade cabinet. His groin even stirred as he opened the message that read:

“John,

Those terms you mentioned are acceptable. I can have the unit delivered to you by tomorrow for the $12,000 agreed upon. You have my cashtag. Payment is due upon delivery.

Victor”

John almost dropped his phone. He had been nagging Victor for the better part of a year, and he finally managed to get him to agree to a price. He was frozen in awe, exhilaration, and a bit of nervousness. Polybius is the pièce de résistance to any collection. A mythical cabinet that was thought to be just an urban legend. That is, until now.

Since John lives in his mom's basement, it has allowed him to save up his meager earnings from his YouTube channel, and after reluctantly parting with his incredibly rare Pac-Land cabinet, he managed to scrape enough together. He almost puked when the delivery men carried it away.

He almost couldn't contain himself as he sat at his computer and posted about it on Reddit. His head was reeling from the emotional roller coaster, and he hit, 'Send' before thinking about the consequences. He watched as the upvotes and comments slowly but surely came in, in a steady stream.

"Yeah, right!"

"Another one bites the dust"

"TROLL!!! BLOCKED!!!"

"I wish i could afford to burn 12 G! Sucker!"

It frustrated him, but soon they would know the truth. Soon, his YouTube channel would blow up. He began to ponder the possibilities as he was then startled by the basement door opening again, again creaking and bumping into the pipe with a clang.

"Dinner's on the table. Don't forget to do what I asked."

"Yes, mom! I'll be right up." He sighed again as he blankly stared at the upvotes rising steadily for a moment. How badly he wanted a friend to whom to brag. Bragging online is like licking a 9-volt battery and expecting it to taste like a lollipop. His stomach then grumbled at the passive thought of food, and so he grabbed his trash can and began clearing the trash still on his desk before going upstairs, taking them in twos.

As he sat at the dinner table, he smiled at his mother as she sat at her place.

"Thanks for cooking dinner, mom."

"Oh, you're welcome. Sounds like something reversed your mood." she said, then taking a sip of her water.

"Well, you remember that arcade cabinet I've been saving up for?"

"Uh huh," she responded, then taking a bite of food.

"So, the guy finally agreed to a price. It's being delivered tomorrow."

His mother finished her bite before responding, "That's nice, dear."

He knows that she's genuinely happy for him, but he also knows that she's never understood what these games mean to him and others like him. Especially ones as rare as Polybius. She will soon understand, he thought. He will finally prove to her that video games matter.

Later that night as he was responding to the nicer comments on Reddit, he received another message from Victor. It was a video with the caption:

"Thought you'd like to see some real game footage"

The video's thumbnail had some motion blur, but the colors were vibrant as per the rumors. His eyes went wide as he sat back in his gaming chair and played the video. It was only twenty-five seconds long, but it was heaven to him at that moment. Even if it didn't have the most vivid colors he's ever seen in an 8-bit game, the shapes were fast-moving and slightly hypnotic, causing him to be even more entranced.

When the video ended abruptly, he felt like he was snapped out of a slight trance. He brushed it off as just his excitement, but it was harder to brush off the fact that he had a raging erection tenting his jeans. It caused him to pause for a moment before playing it again. He relaxed his right arm and held the phone with his left. He was really trying to focus on the gameplay to get an idea of its objectives. He couldn't believe that he was getting to see real game footage.

When the video ended, again he felt like he was snapped out of a trance, only this time, he had pulled out his seven inch cock and was still mindlessly stroking it. He couldn't understand why, but he didn't seem to want to stop either. He set the video to repeat continuously. Each time the video would play, he would notice that his stroking would become faster. Each time he questioned why he was masturbating, but continued to not care to have an answer.

He was starting to get a grip on the gameplay. Two small colorful patterns were to be fit together before colorful moving targets would need to be hit, and then you would move ahead and repeat this process as it gets mildly harder each time. He began to repeat in his head, 'Connect the patterns, hit the targets, move ahead.' By the time the video had played for the twentieth time, John was slumped in a drooling stupor with his hand and lap covered in cum and his hand still jerked slightly on his flaccid penis as though it was still trying to stroke it. There was a foggy sense that he was still awake and vaguely aware of his surroundings, but his vision was mostly filled with the colorful hypnotic patterns from the game footage.

He heard the basement door open. He heard his mother call to him. He felt his nerves building, knowing that she might come down and see him in this state. She doesn't like having to come down, but he then heard her call out again as she slowly began to step down the steep, creaky stairs. Despite his spiked anxiety, he couldn't snap himself out of his stupor.

"John, are you sleeping?" she asked as she made it down the last few steps.

He wanted to yell out to her, but he couldn't.

"John, sweetie?" He then heard her gasp as she no doubt saw that his cock was out and that there was cum all over his lap.

He wondered why she didn't just leave, but then he could vaguely see her out of the corner of his eye bend down to pick up his cell phone. 'Mother, no!' he wanted to yell. He wanted to rip the phone out of her hands, but he could only sit there and wonder what it might do to her as she still stood there. John felt a deep guilt when he heard her moans before she collapsed. She's a classy, old-fashioned woman that most likely never performs self gratification.

The next morning, John awoke in bed not having any memories of the night before. He didn't try to remember as it felt like every other morning to him. He's not much of a morning person, but today was possibly the biggest day of his mostly pitiful life. He almost couldn't contain himself and his impatience was being tested not knowing exactly when it was to be delivered.

As eleven o'clock rolled around, he suddenly got the notion to go see Isabella, a young woman who works at a local diner and is an avid gamer. He has had a crush on her ever since she showed up for a Gauntlet tournament he had hosted when he got the game several years prior. Isabella is of mixed race from the Mediterranean. She looks Greek, but has the olive complexion of an Italian. She's tall for a woman and has a skinny athletic build. To most, her nerdiness makes her not as pretty as others, but she has big ice blue eyes that have that dark rim on the outer edge of the iris.

He sat at one of her tables, and she surprised him by coming up from behind. "I thought you said that you wouldn't come here anymore."

He had, and he had meant it. "Yeah, well, you're going to want to hear about this."

Isabella shifted her weight onto her other foot in an annoyed manner. "Yeah, and what's that?" Her tone filled with even more annoyance.

"I scored Polybius."

Her posture and expression immediately changed. "Wait. What? There's no way."

"No, seriously. You should come over tonight. I invited a few local gamers, too." That was a lie, but he knew that she wouldn't come if she knew that she was coming alone.

"I—" she stammered with an unsure look on her face.

"Look," he said as he quickly pulled out his cell phone and unlocked it, "I have a video of some real game footage." However, when he got to the message, it had been deleted, and then a sudden flood of memories of the night before crashed into his brain and he was suddenly struck with seeing the hypnotic patterns from the game footage.

"John. John! Hey!" she said, shaking him by his shoulder.

He snapped out of his slight trance and startled her as he bolted out of the booth saying, "I have to go." He realized that he had not seen his mother that morning. "Come by at nine." He then ran home as fast as he could.

When John bolted through the kitchen door, he was surprised to see his mother. She was a bit startled, but continued to stir the brownie mix in a large bowl on the counter.

"Are you okay? Was someone chasing you?"

"Uh, no, mom. I'm good." He stood there and watched her to see if there were any clues as to whether or not she could remember the night before. Was it a dream? "Did, uh, anything interesting happen last night?"

"Hmm, not that I can recall. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason in particular."

"Alright, son. Oh, and by the way, your game thingy arrived. I had them take it downstairs."

John was struck with excitement, trepidation, and a little bit of guilt that caused him to be momentarily paralyzed. He was about to ask her if she had remembered tucking him in last night, but that and the guilt got swept aside by the realization that it was actually there. It was in the basement waiting for him. The need to see it, touch it, play it, had all the recent high strangeness momentarily forgotten as he bolted down the stairs. The doorknob hit the pipe so hard that it rang like a bell for several seconds. He barely heard his mother gasp as he slowed for the last few steps, and he could now see the back of the cabinet.

His jaw was now slacked as he approached the unit. There was a bit of dust in the vents and a few strands of cobwebs, but it looked to be in good shape for being over forty years old. He knew, though, that if even one of the bad rumors about it were true, then it would have most likely sat in someone's private collection or in storage for most of those years. He couldn't help but trace his hand along it as he slowly came around to the front of it. It was a basic cabinet with plain sides.

His eyes slightly teared up just as the front of the unit was coming into view. He was feeling tingly as the marquee with the name, Polybius, came into view. His eyes slowly came down and his brow furled heavily as he saw the strange joystick on the control panel. He was further confused by the fact that there were no buttons, but he leaned down to look at the large joystick that looked a bit like a joystick for a plane or jet, except that it looked like your hand would go inside of it somehow.

He was very anxious to see if it would boot up, and so he stopped speculating and went and grabbed his dolly to move the unit to where he could plug it in. The cabinet was a lot heavier than he expected, but he managed to get it into the spot where Pac-Land was. He hurriedly plugged it in, but was disappointed when he didn't hear anything. He raced around to the front, and even though the screen was still blank, he could tell that the monitor was on.

He stared in awe as it slowly warmed up and the title screen materialized. It looked just like the screenshot image that's been floating around since the beginning. He spent a long moment going over the simple title screen. This was it. The urban legend right there in his home. He was touching it, breathing it in, and trying to contain his inner child that wanted to jump and hoot and just go crazy in a tantrum of wild energy. At 32, he didn't allow himself to act like that anymore, but the temptation was very hard to resist.

A pang of nerves and his subconscious reminding him of the previous night was easily overcome with how badly he wanted to play. He went and grabbed a handful of mock quarters and put them on the control panel before grabbing one and crouching to put it into the coin slot. It was then that he noticed that the control panel was flush with the coin slot panel, and as he went to put the mock quarter in, he noticed a strange three inch ring of red LEDs just below the control panel. They were not lit up and he couldn't see anything else that hinted as to why they were there. He dropped the coin in and stood to see that the credits number had indeed changed to, '1'.

Another pang of nerves struck him as he took a deep breath. There was no start button, so he slowly slid his right hand into the joystick. He could feel his fingers slide through plastic rings that fit around the tips of his fingers. He found that the two on his index and middle fingers would move slightly like a trigger, and he was startled as the title screen disappeared and a short tune played from the speakers while the game graphics began to light up the screen.

It was a bit of a jarring tune, but his reaction was overshadowed by his fascination at the colorful shapes dancing across the screen in a scintillating pattern. He could see the targets and patterns that floated around. The game was waiting for him to connect the two patterns. After his fascination ended, he attempted to move the joystick and he quickly understood how it was affecting the two patterns, and this reminded him of how some reticles work on jet fighter simulators.

It was a bit hard for him to focus on the small patterns amongst the scintillating shapes, but as he pulled the triggers, he noted that the second one would cause the patterns to turn ninety degrees. Turning them while moving them allowed him to see them better and he could now see how they were to fit together like a puzzle when he got them near to each other. After connecting them, the targets began slowly moving toward him and the connected patterns were now the reticle to use to aim his shots.

He was unprepared for how the reticle became more sluggish at this point, and when one of the targets disappeared without him shooting it, the graphics dimmed to present the words, 'Game Over' while a short bassy tone played. It was not allowing him a way to continue, and before long, the title screen replaced the gameplay. Like with the video before, he felt like he was snapped out of a trance, only, it felt like it was stronger this time. Sure enough, when he looked down, he had a raging boner testing the elasticity of the crotch in his jeans.

His brow furled a bit and he could feel his anxiety building. To him, it was a strange coincidence, but it wasn't yet a red flag. His concern was well overcome by his motivation to at least pass the first level. He used his left hand to put in a coin and shifted his stance to be more well balanced.

This time around, he was more prepared for the sluggishness of the reticle, but he was not prepared for the jolt of good feelings he got in his groin when he shot the first target. It wasn't a big surge, but it was enough for him to miss the next target. When he snapped out of the trance, he looked down at his erection that now had a small wet spot at the apex of the tent. He couldn't explain the horniness, but in his mind, there was no way that a game from 1981 could have technology capable of affecting him in that manner.

He shook it off as coincidence, but as he started up the game again, it happened again when he shot the first target. He ignored it until he shot the next one and it happened again, and then he froze in a slight panic as the game ended once more. This time when he looked, the wet spot was bigger and his cock flexed from having been aroused so much. He felt more precum ooze out, and when he went to remove his hand from the joystick, he couldn't. His panic soon turned into terror. He pulled harder, threatening to break it, but his hand was still stuck. He hadn't even noticed it clamp around his hand.

He froze, staring at his trapped hand. Sweat began to bead along his forehead and he swallowed hard. He was unsure as to what to do. His phone was out of reach. He thought about calling out to his mother, but then he thought about how she'll rub it in his face and he'll finally be forced to go and get a real job. Something he's tried and failed at enough times. He took in a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. He couldn't shake the feeling of how closely this resembled the story plots of The Twilight Zone. He didn't want himself getting fully panicked, and so he took another few deep breaths so that he could try and focus.

He thought about waiting for Isabella, but he had no idea if she was even coming. Then, as he looked up to the monitor, he thought, 'Well, maybe if I beat the game.' His stomach fluttered at the thought. The arousal factor had him concerned as it was well beyond coincidence. He then realized that it was possible that it somehow injected him with something, and that the images were able to manipulate the right part of his brain for it to affect his hormones in that way. He felt like it might not be that dangerous if it's only causing him to be aroused.

Along with his confidence in playing video games, it was enough to convince him to try. He took in another deep breath and held it as he put in another mock quarter, then releasing it slowly as he prepared himself. He wiped his brow as he pulled the trigger to start the game.

This time around, he was prepared for it all. He was passing levels with relative ease, but he was noticing that the pleasure was incrementally increasing with the difficulty of the levels. He was doing his best to resist the pleasure, but as he was approaching level fifty, the sensations were getting harder to ignore. He was beginning to wonder just how many levels the game had. He knew there would be a memory limit to it, but that would most likely mean a total of 256 levels. If the arousal keeps increasing, he wasn't sure just how long he could last before creaming his pants.

As he got to level sixty, the sensations were causing him to jolt his hips, and they were feeling better than anything he had ever felt. It was really starting to become a distraction. He couldn't let it get to him. He had to test out his theory and hopefully get his hand free. At the next level, his hips began to involuntarily gyrate, humping the air. He didn't notice it until one of the jolts of arousal caused him to bump into the panel on level sixty-five.

At level sixty-eight, he felt as though his orgasm was coming to the point of no return. He wasn't even paying attention to the level number, and as he hit the final target, the game suddenly paused and dimmed while a command appeared saying, "Enter key to continue."

"What?" he said softly, brow furling heavily. He felt his body relax after snapping out of the trance as though his muscles had all been tensed up. He was sweating more profusely now, and as he looked down at the long dark stain in his jeans, he saw that the ring of red LEDs were lit and circling what was now a hole in the center. His heart skipped a beat and a wave of panic flowed throughout him. It was hard for him to think with so much blood hanging out in his groin for so long, but he was quick to associate his burgeoning erection with the key. The thought of actually putting his dick in there seemed ludicrous, though. He knew that this was the point at which the character in the story should turn back, fold their hand, not run upstairs. He tried to pull his hand away, but he was expecting it to be futile. It was.

His face winced with worry as he let out a strong sigh. He was frustrated that his pièce de résistance was turning out to be a Monkey's Paw. He would be a laughing stock on YouTube and Reddit. His dream of showing up his mother; crushed. He felt defeated, and a bit cheated. As much as all of that should've deterred him, his logic was telling him that he had no other options. It would be a leap of faith. However, if there were to be any saving grace out of this situation, it just might be necessary to go all-in.

He looked down with ragged breath to see that his cock was still at full attention, and was still throbbing and leaking precum. This added to his motivation to go through with it, and with another sigh, he unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, then pulled them and his briefs down enough to free his above average cock. It was so sensitive that it nearly exploded from that stimulation. He stared at it while it still throbbed and oozed out precum with a disgusted look on his face. He had never felt that horny in his life. He felt like if he would've recalled a single image of pornography at that moment, it would've erupted. However, as he looked back up at the game, it seemed to make sense that that's what it wanted, even though he couldn't understand why it would want his sperm.

John huffed and then told himself that there's no turning back now. A phrase he uses to push himself over the edge and stop deliberating. Without another thought, he moved forward and had to stoop a bit to line up his cock to the hole. He took a nervous breath that he held for a moment until his cock was all the way inside. The game quickly started back up, now on level sixty-nine, but the speed of the game was suddenly much faster and he flinched as he rushed to get playing.

Once he connected the two patterns, he felt something inside the hole mechanically stroking his cock much like how an esophagus works. There was a thin layer of a smooth fabric that made it feel really good. It was almost too distracting, but he managed to hit the first target, and the resulting jolt of arousal caused him to begin to orgasm. He felt it build up all the way from his balls and one really long spurt of cum flew out with a stifled moan from him. His hips bucked once in rhythm with it, and it was almost enough to distract him, but he pulled through. He hit the second target, and again, a long spurt of cum came out that felt a bit stronger than the last one. He stifled another moan and nearly lost his footing, but his motivation to get his hand free made him force himself to focus on the third and final target.

He winced at the possibility that he would miss it, but a quick, last minute adjustment got the reticle on target, and when he fired, the resulting jolt of arousal was the strongest yet. He thrust his cock hard into the hole as one last very long spurt of cum came out, forcing John to nearly scream with pleasure. He threw his head back and scrunched his eyes as the spurt lasted nearly three seconds. Just as he felt his hand come free from the joystick, he thought he felt a quick pinprick on the head of his dick before collapsing onto his back.

John was now paralyzed in a catatonic state. His eyes were bulged open, but all he could see were the dancing shapes of the game. His body twitched a little here and there, but he did hear the game shut down.

Before long, he heard the basement door open and clang. "John? John, are you okay?"

John couldn't respond, and even if he could, his mind was scrambled and unable to form coherent thoughts. He did feel a bit of panic as she climbed down the stairs. Then something clicked in his brain. The scintillating patterns disappeared only for his vision to go red. He felt his cock rise to attention once more as he sat up. When his mother came into view, he instead saw her as one of the small patterns, and then another appeared in his vision as they danced around like in the game. His hand naturally went to his joystick as he stood and began to chant, "Connect the patterns, hit the targets, move ahead, insert key to win." It was almost a mumble. His hand twitched his cock, which to him, was controlling the patterns to get them to connect. He could no longer hear her as she questioned his motive.

He drew closer to her, and once the patterns were connected, he struck his mother three times where the targets showed on her body. He now had a strength well beyond his own. Her frail body could not withstand them, and she fell to the ground with a whimper and a grunt that John could neither hear nor understand, even if he had heard it. He then moved upon her, opening her legs to find the hole. He had to put in the key to win. He tore at her clothing as she tried to crawl away, still barely conscious. She screamed as he plunged his cock into her, raping her with great force and speed.

His mother whimpered and cried out, but even if she was fully conscious and screaming at the top of her lungs, it would've mattered not. It didn't take him long to cum, pulling her arm out of its socket as he pulled on it to have leverage. His mother couldn't take it, soon having a heart attack from which she wouldn't recover.

John felt a calm that soothed his heavy breathing as he stood. His cock remained hard, throbbing and jolting. As he looked around, though, there were no more patterns or targets, and so he sat and waited for the next patterns to appear and put his hand on his cock in preparation.

Roughly an hour passed. Then there was a knock on the door upstairs. Isabella had actually come and as she opened the door to call inside, her pattern showed up to his vision. John immediately stood, and as he slowly made his way upstairs, he worked his joystick to connect the patterns. By the time he got to the top of the stairs, he had them connected, and he began to run toward the targets. Isabella screamed, but had no time to react to his new-found speed. The targets were hit, easily knocking her out, and then he moved ahead and inserted the key to win.

When he finished inside of her, he felt another calm that soothed him and had him sit to wait for the next level. It wouldn't be long before the cops showed up as someone had heard Isabella's scream.

Their patterns appeared as they knocked on the door and declared themselves.

He had the patterns connected as they busted the door down, but as he leapt to hit them, he was not prepared for these targets to shoot back.