set in Niederaichbach, Germany
28th May, 2026
Father sits at this exact place in the second storey of his cottage right next to his window with his morning coffee every day, and he uses this computer for the same amount of time, from fifty to fifty seven minutes around nine in the morning. His habits on the computer are very predictable. He clicks on the browser for Internet Explorer, he sometimes opens a PDF or Word document accidentally when he means to move it to the trash. Sometimes when he thinks he’s left-clicking, he right-clicks. And sometimes when he thinks he’s selecting an application, he opens another one. Today he has opened a folder that he thought was going to lead to his pictures, but he must have clicked on the wrong one, and when he tries to go back, he goes too far, which results in him leaving his ID and accidentally entering his son’s. Why did his son not use any password on the shared family computer? Father supposes that even back then, Son didn’t put anything of consequence or importance on his profile in the computer. As Father tries to go back to his own account, he presses something else, which seems to change the screen entirely.
What is this? The screen flashes the words Wizardry.
Is this one of the video games Son played during his childhood?
Father presses the Escape button, but it’s not working. Father clicks random keys on his keyboard, but that results in the game starting. He sees boxes with a lot of words and names inside them: Tavern, Training Grounds, and a lot of random numbers. Father’s eyes squint. It hurts his eyes to see the neon.
Father bends down to reset his computer.
But as he does so, he knocks over his coffee mug, spilling it all over the hardwood floor.
Scheiße.
Father calls out for his wife to help with the cleaning. He does his best with the handkerchief he normally uses to clean his specs. As he waits for his wife, he can’t help but look outside the window.
Das ist eine ansicht.
He thinks this every time he looks out that window.
In between the thistles, on the other side of the road and the mound of the hill, lies Niederaichbach Castle. From his angle, he sees the long and imposing yellow-painted wall three storeys high, then the ride tiled roof, and on its side its tower. Niederaichbach Castle was built in the thirteenth century by the Aichpeckens, a family of nobles whose blood remained of importance to Niederaichbach village. Father didn’t want to be near the nuclear plant, the first one also to be decommissioned in Europe, or a typical town view near the bank or supermarket. Father wanted a view he could enjoy every day. And so, he picked this place, on the hills on the other side of the Isar river, where he could have a bountiful forest to walk into and a castle to look up to when he wanted that peace and serenity.
His wife is taking her time. Perhaps she’s in the toilet. Father’s done his best to clean up, but the smell of coffee seems to have merged with the aging smell of the hardwood. It will probably remain there even if they really scrub it. Father can’t stand being crouched for so long as it causes his ankles to hurt. He goes back to sitting in his chair. He looks at the names on the screen and decides to click on Maze. Suddenly he’s in a room with lines for walls, all by himself. He presses the Down button. That causes him to move downwards. He presses the Right button. That causes him to go that way, towards a staircase.
What happens if he goes down? What would be on that floor?
He puts on his glasses to protect his eyes from the screen. He thinks about how much his son used to love to waste hours on these games when he was a boy, not talking to anyone, only paying attention to his computer.
He wonders what the fuss is about.
He decides he’s going to play this game.
28th May 2026, Wizardry
I am the wanderer. I am in a castle. There are huge brick walls all around me: one wall on the left, one wall on the right, and there’s no light. I have a sword. I have a shield. I am covered in armour. But I don’t have a torch. Where can I get a torch?
I can walk up or down but I know there’s a dragon somewhere. There might be goblins or bats as well. And what about the thieves? This is not a well-guarded castle. There will be thieves, ready to ambush and raid me at any moment for my gold.
It’s so dark, it’s so eerie. I don’t know why I’ve been put here. Why do I even want to raid this castle? I’ve been told my princess is at the end, but I’ve never met her. I don’t know who she really is.
I don’t want to walk up, I don’t want to walk down. Is there a door in this wall? I think there is. Maybe it will lead me out. I want to go out.
There are three goblins. I only have ten hit points. They are all hitting me with their bat. Do I hit them with my sword? Do I defend?
I don’t want to fight.
But if I don’t, I am going to die…
18th June 2026
This infernal game. It’s been almost a month, and Father still can’t get out of the bloody dungeon. He’s at least learned how to recruit mages and thieves. He knows what it means to form a party. And he has figured out what buttons to press to attack, heal, and escape.
But how can he exit the dungeon?
Every time his wife comes to the computer with a drink on a tray, she smiles at him. He knows she thinks it is funny how seriously he is taking it. He remembers the time when his son was a boy and she’d do the same thing for him, bring him his favourite sparkling apple juice as he wasted hours on the computer, not studying, not meeting his friends, but trying to beat these games. At the time Father did not understand. He’d go to his son an hour before his bedtime and force him to start studying so that at least he’d get some chemistry or mathematics into his head.
Perhaps Mother doesn’t interrupt him because she likes reliving these moments, albeit with a much older man.
,, Do you want to play for me?”
,, Nein,” Mother says. ,, I’ve seen how games have ruined others. I am fine with my other tasks.”
,, But you are smarter than me. I know you’ll go further.”
He rubs his wife’s arm to show that he wants more than just giving her a compliment.
She shows a little bit of her cleavage from under her pyjamas. It turns him on.
She sits on him, and they make out. They take off their clothes and do it on the seat, against the window, and on the sofa.
Afterwards, Mother dresses herself and says, ,, I have to start lunch. Are you coming to help?”
It takes some time for Father to recuperate his stamina after an orgasm. He remains lying there, his eyes closed and his feet crossed against the sofa’s edge. He wonders whether it’d be a good use of his time to help his wife with the de-shelling of the boiled eggs and the cutting of the vegetables.
But he has finally found the bronze key, which means the silver key is near.
He gets back to his feet and sits naked at the computer.
,, I’ll come in some time,” he says as he reboots the game.
His wife sighs and leaves, and he knows what that means, but he really wants to find the silver key, and he’s convinced he can do it by the end of the day.
18th June 2026, Wizardry
I finally found the silver key, but a team of ghouls caught me and my party afterwards and made quick work of me. I resurrected and made my way to the training grounds, where I recruited a new mage, priest, fighter, and thief. We are all still at very low levels. We’re going to get obliterated again. In this game, everyone eventually dies. But while we’re alive, we go from zero to something, and that’s the part that is addicting. I like seeing the progress. I just don’t like seeing it get wiped out again and again.
The priest prays before we start. The thief is scared. He has heard the stories of all the deaths. His eyes are already sunken into their sockets. He’s afraid that he most likely won’t survive. The mage asks me why I keep trying. I tell her that I don’t know any better. It feels like there’s nothing else I can do except fight. It seems to be the only motivation I have in this world. I want to kill the monsters; I want to scale the maze; I want to find my wealth, my castle, my summit and get to the top of it. The things we do don’t make any sense in a vacuum. We just do it because it’s what seems most natural to us.
The thief is crying. He clutches the mud in the ground as if he doesn’t want to go.
The priest finishes praying.
The mage nods her head as we face the entrance. I think she wants to kiss me.
We face the maze again. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like we have been programmed to enter it. No matter how much we fear the idea of fighting, when the time comes, fighting becomes instinct. I’m sure countless doubts and fears are running through each of our heads, and yet our feet move forward, and our weapons are held in front of us in case anything is ready to attack. I’ve seen death far more times than imaginable. I’m sure all of these warriors will also perish.
But we fight because we are meant to fight, and I am sure the others would not want it any other way.
11th August 2026
Father has found one of the kids from the neighbourhood. He is actually Herr Weber’s son, a twelve-year-old who lives in the cottage next door. He is a fat boy with freckles and sandy blond hair. He loves the cookies Mother makes.
That’s all it took to lure him to come play this game: a promise of free unlimited cookies.
But despite being a child raised on video games, he’s struggling even more than Father.
Father asks, berating him, ,, Why can’t you clear the first floor?”
,, It’s hard,” Herr Weber’s son says. He munches on his cookie, muffling the rest of his speech. ,, This isn’t Fortnite. There are…buttons and…what is this…this one…I don’t know what it does…”
,, Slowly, speak slowly,” Father says. He wants to ask first of all what is Fortnite. And then he wants to clarify whether the boy understands the goal of the game or knows how to use a keyboard. Father’s computer is old, and most of these kids have been raised on touchscreens.
,, I don’t know!” the boy says, consternated. But he puts down the cookie and starts clicking the mouse. He flings himself into some bats and dies. He resurrects the team, walks through the line of walls and doors and stairs. The boy tries for another hour. But then the cookies run out, and the boy yawns.
,, I’m sleepy,” he tells Father.
,, You’re about to find the bronze key. You can take a rest after that.”
,, I want to go home!”
,, Do you want the free cookies or not?”
The boy groans. His stomach deflates, causing his childish man boobs to droop over his belly. He’s so obese for his age, Father thinks. Does Mr Weber never let the boy out for exercise?
Mother comes with a new batch of cookies, the steam wafting up from the melted chocolate. The boy shoots out of his chair and grabs them, getting chocolate stains all over his fingers. He’s still a good German boy at heart and finds a wet wipe and cleans himself up before touching the computer. But there’s chocolate on his chin and cheeks.
As he goes back to gaming, Father wipes the boy’s cheeks with a wipe. He smiles as he does so. He used to do things like this for his own son when he was young.
But the boy’s not getting any better at the game, and it starts getting close to the hour of supper.
When it’s getting to five, he dashes away. ,, Such a hard game!” he quips. ,, I’ll not play it again!”
Father’s probably never going to see the boy again, and he squeezes the iron knob in annoyance as he shuts the door to his house. Boys of that age aren’t used to computer games of the eighties. It was in vain for Father to even ask for his help. If Father’s going to beat this game, he’s going to have to find a way to employ someone of Son’s age, or he’s just going to have to keep trying to beat it himself.
Why doesn’t Son come back to help him beat it?
1 February 2027, Wizardry
Will I ever leave this maze? I’m starting to question if that is even my goal. Perhaps I am getting something out of the infinite deaths, the constant failings. Perhaps this is why I have been put in this circumstance. I am not here to prove that overcoming the impossible is the natural outcome. I am here to show that most die, most fail, most struggle, and I am like most others.
For once, I am able to accept it. I am not really a hero. I am not really a protagonist. I am meant to drink mead and not wine. I will never have my opulent castle with hundreds of dames, squires, and horses.
I will keep trying because that is what has been built into me: the inexhaustible desire to succeed. I don’t think there has been any other trait programmed into me, and I accept that.
It doesn’t matter whether I reach the end of the maze. I was born because I was meant to keep trying.
5 March 2036
,, So, you finally beat the game,” says Son, looking over Father’s shoulder.
,, Yes, yes, I have,” Father says. It’s not been without a cost. The wrinkles around the sides of his eyes are pronounced even when he doesn’t smile. Father’s always been losing hair, but it’s greyed significantly. It’s not only the video game that has caused these stresses. Father has also been getting older. After that first year, he started taking breaks. He’d only boot up the computer programme once in a while, and if he failed once, he wouldn’t pick it back up immediately. He’d only revisit it when he was bored or in the mood to prove to himself that he could beat it.
He got lucky with that spell that threw the final boss into another dimension. Otherwise, he’d have been killed in one or two turns, like always.
Father used the amulet to leave the maze. He received the ending message. The wanderer has recovered the amulet, he has passed the overlord’s test. He’s been given a lot of money and a promotion as a reward. And he’s received a rank of honour.
Father takes off his glasses. He presses his palm into his eye bags as he wipes away a tear.
,, There, there,” Son says, patting him on the back.
,, I’m not a little boy,” Father says as he puts his glasses back on. Something about Son’s touch has reminded him that he’s won countless awards as a doctor, and getting an imaginary one in a video game has no real meaning. ,,And I would have beaten this game if you had come back earlier.”
Son chuckles. ,, Wizardry is hard. It’s a game from before video games were commonly played. It doesn’t follow the rules modern games make you used to. I don’t think I could have helped you much.”
,, Still, it would have been nice to have you at home earlier.”
,, Would you have let me enjoyed other guys at this home? And what about the constant nagging, to make money, to have a job you’d be proud of, not one I’d actually want to do?”
Father takes the handkerchief, pretends to wipe his glasses with it. No, he wouldn’t have, and it’s stil hard for him not to nag his son over his life decisions. Son is in his forties, but Son is also his son, and given how much more of life Father has lived, Father can’t help but feel that Son would have had an easier life if he had just listened to his father, rather than trying so hard to make his life work on his own terms.
Anyways, Son is a bit more mature these days. He doesn’t ruminate on the sore points. He lets Father have his opinion, and he is open to letting the conversation change, shift, and evolve.
Son asks his Father randomly,, So, how did you finally beat it?”
,, I don’t know,” Father says, and he shrugs. ,, I think I just got lucky. I think that’s what all these games need. You need a bit of luck.” Then, he asks Son, ,, How did you beat this game?”
Son laughs.
,, I’ve never beaten Wizardry.”
Father turns around, his face puffing out in disbelief.
,, But you were playing this game all the time as a little boy.”
Son laughs again, even louder.
,, I was playing Sonic the Hedgehog,” Son says. He stands over his father, leaning his body against Father’s head as he takes the mouse out of Father’s hand, showing him another place in the computer where Son’s games are installed.
Father smells the mix of cologne and sweat on his son’s body. Father closes his eyes, remembering how different the smells were when Son was a little boy.
Son opens the game, and now a new, much more vibrantly coloured programme has started. It’s so blue, so neon, so irritating on the eyes.
Son asks Father, ,, Do you want me to show you how to play this one?”
The last thing Father wants to do is get addicted to another video game, and yet Father sees the earnestness in Son’s eyes, something he hasn’t seen in decades.
,, Sure,” Father says, leaning his head into Son’s chest. ,, Let’s play this one instead.”
