[WP] A man suddenly appears on a submarine deep in the ocean, with no recollection of how he got there. What's worse, no matter how much they ascend, they can't seem to surface

As the lids of my eyes tore open, I could see the shapes of pipes and panels, cords and cogwheels--all draped in a red cloak of light. Every few seconds, the room shook and the lights flickered. I could smell the oxygen tanks pumping faint clouds from the vents. The room was a bit chilly. I arose from my position flat on my back.

I scanned the room with my eyes once more to orient myself.

"Where could this be!?"

There was a small dim lit window in the upper corner of one of the room's inlets. I tried to peer out of it but it was too dark. It must be night. I must be in some kind of vehicle or factory.

I decided to explore the rest of the room to look for an exit. There was a metal door with slats and a round, glass window. There was a control room with cranks, pulleys and bottons I had no idea about. There was a window pane in the front and I could see a beam of light. Faintly I saw something floating across the frame. It was a shadowy thing, possibly a large bird whose details were lost in the flood of the light rays. Outside seemed a tint of dark blue.

I looked down and there, on the panel, I saw to my horror: AQUATIC CONTROL CENTER VBX41.

My biggest fear! Was I underwater? I decided to try and pilot the vessel. I pulled on some of the levers and grabbed the steering contraption. I pulled back as I remembered some things from VR headset sims I used to play when I was in college.

The vehicle began to rise and shake, and shudder, and rise more slowly. Over the duration of about 14 minutes, I saw no change in the color or lighting of the water outside the window.

I persisted and rose for about an half hour with no avail. No surface was in sight. I decided to steer and play around with the controls--a risk I was willing to take.

I managed to find an underwater cave. I was surprised at how I was picking up the controls.

With a thud, the room shook and the lights went off. I fiddled with the buttons and frantically spammed the mechanical interface to my heart's content. Hopeless, I sat there, in a capsule suspended in the depths of an ocean with no contact with the outside world and oxygen levels likely depleting. I would soon be just a blip in this timeline....my eyes grew to the weight of anchors...

Once again, I find myself lying on the floor. I wipe the crust off of my eyes. I must've dozed off. I was dizzy from the thin oxygen in the air and my vision was a little blurry. The window in the corner was now a light, bright cyan.

Is that the sky?

I grabbed the crank on one of the ceiling hatches and barely managed to turn it open. I kicked it open with my foot while holding onto the ladder.

A well-groomed Asian business man in a black suit pulled me fully out of the submarine, in a strong accent:

"Congratulations, my friend, you have truly earned your 50 billion won."

I looked around and saw the iconic red jumpsuits and black PlayStation button style face masks.

"The show was based on a real contest!?!?!?" I was baffled.

"Correction, my dear friend," the Korean host interjected, "the show was the inspiration!"