Kevin Burns looked at the machine in awe. This was the biggest machine he had seen at the arcade, and bigger meant better, right? At least, that is what he thought with his eight-year-old brain. And the machine cost five dollars too?! That was much more expensive than the usual quarters that the rest of the machines usually cost. Not to mention, it was all the money the young had on him, but being more expensive meant it was more fun, right? Clearly, this young boy thought that bigger was always better. Alright, Kevin quickly made up his mind. It was going to cost him a week's worth of allowance, but he just needed to use that machine!
The young boy excitedly fed the machine his money and hopped onto the treadmill. Then, the machine came to life, and words appeared on the interface.
"Welcome to your walk through life. Please Select the direction you wish to go." There were two options presented to Kevin: forward and backward. This confused Kevin. Why would anyone want to go backward on a treadmill? So, he chose the forward option. After that, the machine then asked him to confirm the settings. There were many settings that Kevin didn't quite understand, so he just left them in their default settings.
One option, however, caught his eye. It was an option with the three letters G, B, and S and nothing else. The young boy had no idea what those three letters meant, but he liked the G of all those letters, so he pressed that option and then pressed the confirm button.
"Begin walking." The treadmill started to move, and Kevin began walking. The treadmill moved at a nice and leisurely speed, which was perfect for a young boy like Kevin. It gave him time to admire the scenery the cabinet had generated on the walls around him. Wait, was this his school? At first, Kevin didn't think much of it. He just thought it was cool, and the schools sent pictures for the makers to use or something. However, after a little while of walking, Kevin began to notice that things were looking a bit off. His point of view seemed higher than it was before, and the scenery had changed to a different school. Kevin looked down and noticed that his clothes had changed. Where was his favorite superhero shirt? Wait, no, that wasn't all his entire body had changed. He was taller now! What was going on?! It was then he noticed the red number on the screen in front of him.
"Current age: 12 Years, 2 Months." Wait, was this machine making him older? Was that what "A walk in life meant." At first, he wanted to get off the thing as it was freaking him out, but then something within him changed. Strange memories that he knew he hadn't experienced himself, but it felt so real. It was memories of watching high schoolers from the high school across his own school. They looked so cool and looked like they had so much fun that he wanted to be like them. So, Kevin walked on with dreams that may or may not have been implanted by a machine in his heart.
Once he reached age 14, the treadmill suddenly raised to a sharp incline that almost caused Kevin to fall off. It was almost like the machine was trying to throw him off, but Kevin took it as a challenge. He clutched the handles of the treadmill and kept walking forward. This was quite the workout, as Kevin was breaking a sweat doing this. Maybe it was because of this exercise that his body not only got taller but also more muscular as well. The scenery even changed from a school to a football field. But Kevin only took note of these changes briefly as he returned his focus to the red number that showed his age. He kept walking the number reached 18, and that was when Kevin stopped the machine.
Phew, the cabinet did not make it easy for him to reach this age, as Kevin had to catch his breath. Still, despite being tired as hell, Kevin was feeling great, like his body was used to rigorous exercise. Once he finally caught his breath the now-young man looked up and saw that the walls had turned into mirrors, and Kevin was now looking at his new body for the first time. He was huge! He must have been over six feet tall, and he was very muscular. He was even pretty handsome, in his opinion, with his chiseled jaw and chin scruff he was growing. At first, he was flexing his muscles and checking out his body with childish glee, but then the mental changes caught up with his physical changes.
While the young and innocent child was still a part of him, he wasn't a kid anymore. He was a High School Senior now and the big man on campus. Kevin was a confident and somewhat cocky football player. An alpha male in his high school.
"Well, that was the best five dollars I ever spent in my life. I need to try that again." Though, Kevin realized that he didn't have the money on him right now. Well, that was fine; he just needed to find some money. In the meantime, he probably should take some time to explore his new life. Maybe even show the cabinet to his friends, both new and old.