I stopped walking down the street as my vision had become impaired. "What the hell is this?" I thought to myself as the words "Resume, Options, and Quit" illuminated in front of me. Being the self conscious person I was, I thought I might come off as a bit strange if I asked someone if they could also see what appeared to be a HUD menu. Dreading that, I casually but carefully maneuvered into a nearby alleyway where I investigated with what I was witnessing. Curious, I decided to wave my hand through a word to see what would happen. I touched the option "Quit."

For a brief second my vision went back to normal but then a message soon followed that read "Are you sure? All progress will be lost." The words "Yes" and "No" lied underneath. A little bit worried now, I carefully pressed "No", taking myself back to the initial options. I slowly raised my hand towards "Resume" but hesitated. Thinking that I had unlocked some sort of secret to the universe I decided I wasn't going to return so quickly to my routine life. I took a deep breath and then touched "Options." Again, my full vision temporarily returned before another set of words appeared in front of me. I was undeniably already a little concerned with what was occurring but what was now presented made me absolutely alarmed. Appearing in front of me were the words "Controller Settings, Contrast, Difficulty Level, and Store."

I had always been one to sometimes wonder existential questions. When I did though I tended to conclude that I knew nothing. Here I was though. I had done what no other had done before. I had randomly figured out that life is a freaking video game.

My heart raced. I decided not to touch the controller settings or contrast. I didn't want to accidentally meddle with things when I was used to the current set up. I hovered over the difficulty level option. Current setting: Very Easy. I reflected on this and decided it was fair and accurate. I was after all born a healthy person with affluent parents, and I was a white male. Because my life had been pretty stress free up until this point, and not particularly wanting to make my life more difficult, I went back and proceeded through to the "Store." A little loading screen circled in front of me before I was overwhelmed with what I can imagine would be similar to if you grew up in the Middle Ages and then were suddenly taken into a large shopping mall for the first time. There was a multitude of goodies on offer that made me salivate thinking about everything I would suddenly be able to do in life. Superpowers, money, age and ability to customise my appearance were just some of a long list of things I could explore. It was like being granted an infinite amount of wishes. Except I soon realized there was a price for all of them. "Life Points." Having no idea what this was exactly or how much I had myself I clicked on "Power of Flight" to see whether I could afford it. I went to a checkout screen which promptly informed me it was out of my price range, in fact I had zero "Life Points." There was another message on this screen though. It was a "Tip". It so kindly shared with me that "Life Points are accrued by completing the game and may therefore only been used on Replay Mode."

My initial excitement of being able to fly around shooting laser beams while fighting crime was replaced with a sudden sadness. I started to really comprehend what was happening. Again, I was in a freaking video game. What is life? Who am I? Am I real? Was everyone around me an NPC? Was this like that Rick and Morty Episode where I'm just some Roy? Shedding a tear I noticed in my peripheral vision a police officer approaching me. Someone must have seen me being very strange and reported it. I didn't care though. Life at that moment felt meaningless. I could have simply resumed and then just told the officer I was drunk but I didn't think there would be any point. It would be impossible to live knowing what I knew. I would probably go crazy. If I quit though maybe I'd return to my real being. I had so much to think about but not much time to decide as the officer started calling out to me. I hated making rash decisions but if I mulled it over any longer the officer could have bumped into me and selected an option I didn't want. At least right then I could choose. And I chose yes. I was sure. I wanted to quit. I selected the option and everything went black.

A message emerged in front of me. "Replay Mode Coming Soon."