i didn't read any reviews or descriptions and i thought the zup! games would be nice, relaxing puzzle games.

they were cheap.

i bought the bundle.

i played the first one. i played the second one. i played the third, and the fourth, and the fifth, and now here i am.

i feel dirty.

when i started playing i noticed that i was getting an awful lot of achievements. like, a lot. tons, even. i kept playing. i finished the first one and didn't really question why i had 118 achievements after playing a game for half an hour. i didn't really question why i was even playing the game. i just played it.

four thousand seven hundred and forty achievements later and i start wondering what i've been doing with my life. why have i been clicking the little red boxes? when did i start clicking them, and when did i lose track of the fact that i was clicking them? when did they turn into circles? when did the blatant portal rip-offs appear?

i didn't know. i still don't know.

my mind started to wander and i started asking myself more questions. was zup! even a game? was the thing i was doing even considered playing a game? i didn't know, but i continued on.

i continued to unlock achievements. more and more and more of them. so many that there was a constant flow of notifications in the corner. steady and constant. i didn't know what i was doing to achieve them, but there i was. achieving them.

i found that the constant stream of achievements was mesmerizing. near the end i was paying more attention to watching them all pop than the actual game. one achievement, two achievements, three, four, five...

i don't know where along the journey that i realized i was playing an achievement simulator. probably fairly early. i didn't stop though. after all, i paid for these games. because they looked like relaxing puzzles. because they were cheap.

regardless of when i realized it, i kept clicking.

four thousand seven hundred and forty achievements.

four thousand seven hundred and forty achievements.

four thousand seven hundred and forty achievements.

where did they all come from?

time had become an abstract concept. how long had i been clicking? how long had the steady stream of achievements been going for? how long would it continue?

when i finished this one, the fifth one, i checked my achievement progress. i was missing some. i felt compelled to complete them all and so i started clicking randomly. eventually i was rewarded thirty achievements for clicking the settings button.

i stopped after that. i felt... unclean. dirty. i had a shower. and i still feel dirty.

i don't think the zup! will ever wash away. i will have to live with what i've done. and i will, because life goes on and i must continue living.

after all, i have to find out what's at the end of zup! zero.

more achievements, i can only assume. but i won't know until i try, and so i will carry on, live on, to see if i can escape what i can only assume is some level of zup! hell.

edit: i initially had this as recommended. i don't know why. probably still mesmerized by the achievement stream. i do not recommend anything about zup!