Page 103 of Forbidden Game

“You won’t be glad when I leave you in the dust.”

“Nah, mate. This is my stage.” He grins and runs a hand through his sandy hair.

“Oh yeah? What did you do, lick it and claim it?”

“Actually, I made sweet, sweet love to it.”

I laugh and then curse myself for letting my guard down. This is what he does. Stupid fucking Aussie charmer. I would like the guy if we weren’t always pitted against each other. Until I win that damn championship, I’ve got to keep him squarely where he belongs.

“All the way from Down Under, let’s hear it for CreepyPillows.” The announcer’s voice ends our conversation, and Creep rolls his eyes as one of the event staff ushers him to head up the staircase.

I jump up and down a few times, shaking myself out as I wait.

“And last, but certainly not least, he’s the mysterious man in blue. The one, the only, EnglishCoffee.”

I jog up the stairs and onto the stage. The bright lights are muted by my mask, and I make a show of waving to the crowd, blowing them kisses and being as extra as I can. People expect me to be larger than life, and I’m not here to give them any less, even if there’s a pit of fear inside me.

I settle at my desk, which has been set up with all my gear. Van is on my left and his sister is on my right. Creep, thankfully, isn’t anywhere in my direct eyesight.

I slide off my mask and pull my headphones back up. The noise canceling goes into effect immediately and drowns out sounds around me. I give my wrists a quick roll before getting my hands in position. The sensitivity levels seem to be right, but I give my mouse a few shakes, just to make sure.

My heart beats steadily in my chest as I wait.

The announcer counts down, and the second he says “one,” I click on the Start button.

The game starts, and muscle memory kicks in. I know this game. I’ve practiced. I’ve got this.

Those first few minutes are always the most adrenaline inducing. If you don’t start off perfectly, you might as well quit and not waste your time. My heartrate begins to level out as I keep playing, and I successfully get through the first mission without any hiccups.

The first hour passes in a blur, and so far, everything is on track. I haven’t messed up any of the skips. I did heed Syd’s advice, and I purposely ignored one of the new glitches I’d mastered, which would’ve shaved off a solid three minutes, instead opting to save it for the championship.

I just had to hope that everything else I’d improved on would be enough to beat Creep.

I pull out my revolvers and kill the store clerk in front of me, stealing his keys so I can bypass the mission objective. My morality meter takes a dip, but it’s not an issue in the long run. I’ll only need to worry about it if something goes wrong.

I would regret that thought.

I’m almost through the second hour when I catch movement from the corner of my eye. That split second distraction costs me. My character was in the middle of world traveling. I had to make sure to double bounce when I landed at my new destination in order to use the momentum to blast myself across the town to the next mission point.

Instead, I miss it.

“Shit,” I mutter.

A fucking noob mistake.

I scramble to shove an NPC off their neo-bike and begin speeding it through the streets. Except I run over a few more NPCs in the process, and my morality meter begins dipping lower. When it turns deep red, a bounty logo pops up in the corner of my screen.

“Fuck.”

I finally make it to the quest point and skip through the dialogue, but my heart rate isn’t slowing down. I have no idea how much time I just cost myself. That was one of the worst things I could’ve missed.

Everything starts going downhill from there, and I just get more and more mad at myself. In my hyped-up state, I miss a shot and end up nerve-gassing myself. It happens three more times until I succeed in taking down a watchtower.

Each time I screw up, I fall deeper into the cracks of my brain. Spiraling further and further.

It’s when I hear cheering so loud that it breaks through my headphones that I know I’ve lost.

It’s probably another twenty minutes until I finish the game.

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