"Dammit!! We lost it."
"Calm down, man... Nothing can be done when there are hackers."
One male said in the voice chat of the friends' game. Someone from that voice chat said,
"Yeah, stop being so short-tempered, Leroy," another agreed, agreeing with the latter man in the voice chat.
Leroy sighed, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Yeah... my life is shit already." Leroy inhaled, continuing to play the game but slightly irritable towards his past mistakes early on in his gaming life.
"It was the decision you made that time... nothing could be done. I told you that time as well that you could have just taken back the top seat by defeating him."
"I guess I was the shitty idiot there." Leroy mumbled somberly, becoming more saddened whenever he thinks back to that day.
Leroy's old career consisted of him being a pro gamer. He even earned the title "The Master," mainly because he would always start a new game in the hardest mode and finish it in the way it was supposed to be. He was at the top whenever it was about gaming. No one could beat him. But someone changed that forever.
This special someone was named Rowan Collins. Rowan just suddenly waltzed in and changed everything in gamer history, including Leroy's life. After that, he became known as "The Forbidden." He won every single game against Leroy... even the unknown ones... which was a big blow to Leroy's ego, as he had never felt defeat before, or that's the story others are more familiar with.
In reality, Leroy was cheated by Rowan right before the game. It was a formality that both teams should meet each other before the matches. During that session, Rowan gave him a limited edition energy drink in the name of "His Biggest Fan," with Leroy drinking the liquid without much doubt. That's how he got drugged, which intentionally hindered his performance that day, and he got destroyed in front of thousands of players. Somehow that day only the hosts decided to do drug tests, which became a career-ending move.
Leroy had to face humiliation from that day forward. Because of that situation, he was reprimanded from gaming and opened a small store with leftover money he had from his old career. Since then, he lived for his vengeance.
But he wasn't abandoned by everyone. His teammates, Kennard Dixon and Horace Walton, stuck by Leroy's side. These three being the best of friends. Both Kennard and Horace thought of supporting Leroy for now with finances. As time went by, they would try to bring Leroy back to the crew.
While the three were quiet, each thinking of something related to Leroy's situation, Leroy had suddenly received a notification.
"Great, someone's bugging already..." Leroy seemed to be a tad annoyed with attending to random messages.
"Keep your cool, bud..." Kennard mumbled, being able to feel the irritation from Leroy's words.
"Yeah, don't get your panties in a twist already." Horace chuckled, though he finding his friend's irritated state unpleasant and mildly annoying.
"Huh- Weird… Hold on. Let me send y'all a screenshot of this." Said the man, finding something quite strange with the message he'd received.
Horace and Kennard took a gander at the screenshot Leroy had sent, both in a small state of curiosity.
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"A game invitation?" Both of them felt weird about it.
"Yeah, I know. Normally a trailer or something releases, but I've never heard of this game, let alone of its existence."
"Who cares? Just accept it... You'll probably get some cash as their beta player," Kennard thought, trying to see it as an opportunity to help Leroy make some money.
"Wait-—what the hell... I got the same message about three minutes ago." Horace informed, slightly surprised seeing it was the same invitation he'd received, though he didn't give the coincidence much thought.
"Really?" Leroy inquired, stunned to hear he wasn't the only one to be a beta player for the game.
"Odd... I just got a message right now, and it's the same invitation y'all got." Kennard said, feeling a bit wary of the message.
Once the three had all gotten the message, another pop-up showed, revealing a difficulty level and its options.
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"I know what I'm choosing already," Horace shrugged, feeling that Medium would be the best, deciding to play the game the way it should be played.
"Same. I think that medium mode would be the best." Kennard agrees.
"As usual, I am going with Impossible Mode." Leroy was still confident in his ability to defeat any game at its hardest difficulty.
"Why always the hardest mode? Give it a trial run in an easier mode.." Ken suggested it to him.
"No need. I'll finish this game in one run on the hardest mode. Besides, it's more fun that way".
"Don't even bother, Ken...He's not going to listen," Horace sighed, exhausted by this matter already.
After they all had chosen their difficulty, another pop-up message appeared, allowing them to choose an In-Game Name.
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Kennard chose his username, feeling as if it fit him best. "Sken_walker."
Horace chose his username next, deciding on his usual. "Honkshoo"
Lastly, Leroy chose his classic username. "Vanix."
The three boys put in their usernames, the game installing on their PC. Soon enough, the downloading was done. But for some reason, they couldn't access the game even though the installation was done, seemingly without any problems.
"Am I not functioning well right now, or is this not working...?" Kennard asked the other two.
"No, man, something is wrong," Leroy replies to Kennard.
"Ditto." Horace agrees with Leroy.
Leroy thinks to check the file of the game. "Let me check everything real quick..."
After going through the files of it, he noticed that this game can only be played in VR.
"Well, damn... this game can only be played in the VC Set" Leroy sighs.
"We both have it; just let me connect it."
"... I have a VR set, but it's a year old, I think... I just hope it supports".
After connecting it to the VR set, a message comes up on his PC.
<<'VR Set' connection found. Connecting with your PC…>>
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"Are you all ready?" Leroy asked both Kennard and Horace.
"Yes, sir! Better than ever." They both answer with energy.
When loading the game, everything turned black as if he was in some kind of void. Suddenly a shiny blue screen appears in front of his eyes saying...
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"Ngh-... Why does my head hurt...?" Leroy groans, opening his eyes and taking in his surroundings.
"Wait, where am I!? And why do I have my Real-World Body?" Leroy exclaimed, shocked that his appearance looked the same as in the real world.
"I didn't even get to set up my character design yet..." Leroy mumbled, calming down a little but still on edge.
He looks around the room that he had awakened in.
"So, I guess this must be the lobby of the game?"
"Oh great... another idiot came," some unknown figure says.
Leroy was offended but kept his cool.
"What? Are there other players also? Looks like only 5 people?" Leroy counts.
"Hey, welcome to your Death Place," another person speaks up.
"What? Death Place?" Leroy felt stunned and confused, not being able to comprehend what the man was saying.
"Because your life is a game now."
Leroy stayed silent for what seemed like forever, his mind swirling with many thoughts as well as his heart swirling with many emotions.
"What?"