Dark World Activated

Prologue

Buzz buzz

Eric- Game at 9. Then drinks.

A smile crept on my lips as I read my friend's message. Amidst this constant bugging for setting up a presentation, I found it motivating. 

"Ivan! Is it done?" Screamed my HR and I raised my hands in 'done'.

"Thank god, you're a savior." She wrapped her arms around my neck and placed a chastised kiss on my cheek, surprising me.

Well, if that's the case, I am always ready to do it.

A smirk appeared as I sent her the file. Suddenly, I glanced at the time and sighed in relief.

"Time for some killing!" I practically felt renewed energy.

Grabbing my things, signing off, I dashed out not before picking my coffee. 

Sipping it, I headed to a small, decent house that belongs to me. Yeah, I bought it from my extra jobs that I worked until I settled with this permanent one. The company and experience is great. If only they paid more.

But I am not complaining much. I was able to get myself a Honda, which is fine by me, to be honest. Plus, I get time to play games that I love.

Yo boy, you're right! I am a gamer. It's crazy but I have won every single one of them. The thrill I get keeps me going and alive. This sometimes makes me guilty as it overpowers my feelings for my girlfriend. 

The worse is, she knows it too. At first she was supportive yet she got angry when I chose gaming over our date. I mean common dude, she needs to understand that we can do the talking and stuff some other times, too. Right?

I live for gaming and game for living. You get it? 

There is a reason as to why I am termed as the Game Slayer. My friends take bets, they made a little business out of my passion. It's cool though, we get our shares and I cannot ask for more.

I cut off the ignition and stepped out of my garage to the inside of the house. My eyes momentarily grew as I found Diana setting up a table in the living room.

"Oh, Ivan! You came." She brushed her hair to one side before running to hug me.

I was stunned.

It was always great to see her but why today? I don't want to upset her. 

"Hi, Diana." I placed a kiss on her forehead and she pulled back, skeptically glancing at me.

"Don't tell me!" She demanded and I sighed. 

"It was already planned, I am sorry." I said clearly not wanting it to happen.

The moment I kissed her forehead she knew it. It was always that way.

"I wanted to surprise you!" She was exasperated and I felt sorry.

"I'll make it up to you." I promised. Right then the door clicked open and a loud voice followed.

"Hey, dude! You got in here first." My eyes trailed to my two friends who were over-energized.

They had parcels in their hands and stopped when they saw Diana giving me a wary look.

The guilt was clear on their faces too.

"Just great!" Diana muttered and scrambled around before picking her purse and left in anger.

"Diana!" I called but she didn't stop.

"Bye." Kavin called back to her, irking her more and within minutes she was gone.

"That looked bad." Eric commented as he patted my back and gingerly took the sofa.

"She was definitely putting effort here." He said and I frowned.

Eric pointed to the entry tickets of the greatest arcade event and I felt crap.

"Dammit!" I cursed and he shrugged.

"Anyway, we brought food. Wanna get over it?" Kavin asked just as carelessly and I sighed.

"Fine! I'll take a quick bath. You guys go ahead." I stripped real quick and took a warm bath.

Getting comfortable, we soon dug into food before I felt a newfound energy in me as I took my place behind the medium sized screen.

My fingers tingle and itch.

“So, what game is it today?” I asked Kavin who suddenly became excited.

“Bro, this is called the Ultimate Dark World. Some dude gave it to me with a challenge. He asked to stream the game just to ensure we weren’t cheating.” Kavin took the seat next to me while Eric adjusted the settings on the other monitor.

“What the actual f**k! A Game Slayer need not cheat!” It baffled me- the assumptions.

How can he even think that?

“Right? It’s a matter of fifty thousand dollars, though.” Kavin said and we stopped immediately.

Honestly, everything stopped at that moment.

“50, f*****g thousand dollars!” Eric and I screamed; cornering him.

“Yeah! Jeez.” Kavin cleared his head; annoyed. 

He is sensitive to loud noises so we don't blame him. Even when I am gaming, he watches it without sound while me and Eric practically plan on becoming deaf with the headphones.

“Who was this guy?” Eric asked and Kavin scratched his chin to recall.

“Some Garfield dude. He said they are the developers of the game. If any of us clears the game, we will win 50000 USD as game testers.” Kavin explained and my breathing was still abnormal.

Who in their right minds would have thought we would stumble into someone like him?

“Isn’t that suspicious?” Eric asked while doing research on the same on the internet.

“Stop being pessimistic all the time. Last time I checked the game developers do give rewards for their best player or testers. They just need authentic feedback and proof so as to find ways to modify their games or platforms.” Kavin snapped.

I agreed with him.

It isn’t the first time we have been kind of sponsored; so, it is fair.

“There’s nothing wrong with being cautious!” Eric countered.

It was finally my turn to intervene. I cannot believe my luck.

“Alright, guys! We are doing this.” I announced and Eric gave an enquiring look that I brushed off.

“Fine by me.” He replied and I smiled at them.

So, here we would be winning some good money. Maybe, later apologize to Diana and make up with her. What would be better than winning some green and legs?

A wide grin plastered on my face as I let Kavin do the set up.

“It’s an AR game.” Kevin explained handing over the head input and controllers.

I feel my day is getting better.

“So, we are starting it. Let me know how the game is so I would join it too. We can never say no to a great game, right?” Kavin sounded joyful by the time I had put on the head-view and gripped onto my controllers in both hands.

“It better be good.” Not a fan of VR to be honest. Last time I puked since the graphics were killer.

“Okay then.” I watched as the screen molded and the loud sound of electronic beam hit my ears.

“Don’t forget to read the instructions! The man stressed on it.” Kavin’s voice was distant.

Regardless, I don’t waste my time on going through melancholic instructions. Thus, I kept skipping the deep barely robotic voice and my first impression was--

“WOW!”

“Please read the terms and conditions before continuing the game--”

The voice was cut off immediately as I depressed the next button.

“Dark World Mode is activating. Please wait while your profile is set up.”

*Electronic jingle*

“Profile setting done. Location retrieved. Setting up the location…”

*Electronic jingle*

“Location set-up done. Allow access to your contacts.”

*Electronic jingle*

I frowned but let Eric do it. He is great at connecting electronic devices.

“Access granted. Contact list updated.”

“Get over it already!” I mumbled; too excited to wait when I found my place in enhanced HD augmented reality.

If you ignore the color contrast that made it seem gloomy, my area looked better than it is. A small part of me wanted it to be the reality.

“Add security before proceeding with the game.”

Now honestly, I wish I could have read the instructions. Why do I need security anyway?

If I look around me, there was Eric, Kavin as they are but apart from that there were faces on the contact list.

“Prioritize your friends.” The operator reminded me and I tried to figure it out on my own.

There were no resources provided. I have to earn them so what could I keep as security for now? As welcome rewards they have stacked my account with one mediclaim life and few coins; none of it qualifying as security.

Then I noticed Diana’s profile. She had 1500 gold bars!

Fucking hell!

So, I put her as security and the operator blurted.

“Security accepted! Prioritize your friends.” It reminded me again and I immediately marked Kavin as 1st, Eric as second.

There was Mark, my senior, which I marked as 3rd.

“The game is about to begin in 3, 2, 1....”

And dramatically, the lights went out…

The world lit up and I felt myself standing there alone with space-sky surrounding me.

“Welcome to the Dark World. You have fifteen minutes to unlock phase two with the escape code. All the best!”

I stared around me. Anxiety creeped as I heard the fade tik tik of the clock in the background.

“Escape code! What could it be?” I tried to think as I was currently in my room all alone.

“It could be anything! Think carefully.” The system replied and I was stunned.

I wonder what it could be. There are numerous things around me.

“It is the Dark world, the hint revolves around it.” The system blared and I sucked in deep breaths to try using my brains.

Something to do with it! It might be either darkness, light, evil or good. 

As far as I can think these are related to the theme. Should I look at things accordingly?

Since the system didn’t interject I took it as a positive sign and started rummaging through each item-- all forms of light sources, LED, flashlights, etc. plus thick fabric, blankets, and other such stuff that can make it dark when used.

While at it, I noticed a green path illuminated in front of me. It pointed to my left and I quickly dropped the items to follow it. I was pretty sure it would be navigating me to where I needed to bring the item. I ran in its direction down the stairs. The path darkened with each step and I shrieked as I missed a step or two; landing on my head.

While I literally felt the hit, I noticed the green neon mark illuminating towards the kitchen. Standing up, I ran there and found the backdoor illuminating briefly for a few seconds before everything turned black.

“f**k!” I stomped my feet knowing it will take time to trace my way back up and find any suitable object.

But now I have a clue.

It’s got something to do with the door. So, what could it be?

Wrecking my brain, I decided to do something witty, whether they accept it or not. At first I tried to fumble around to reach the key holders and get a spare key. However, it was impossible. My key holder was in the living area. Kitchen was slightly inside.

So, I needed to find another way. Smartly, I turned the stove on and sighed as it barely illuminated my surroundings.

Picking up my paper clip, a knife, a screw-driver and a magnet, I tried to pick the lock. As soon as I put the paper clip in, I was electrocuted!

My whole body fidgeted and drained before being thrown away. For a few minutes my brain went numb; muscles dazed and I felt like crying. It sucked!

“Half time gone”

The operator pointed.

It tore me up! I wanted to shout at it or cry but ended up getting up and turned the gas off. I cared less this time and felt the walls until I crawled back up the stairs and reached for my closet.

In the drawer was an extra set of keys.

Picking them, I actually slid down the stairs ignoring the aching pain in my buttocks and again took the same path. I felt for the door and tried each key. Every time it was the wrong one, the door strangely electrocuted me.

I f*****g hated it.

“One last minute left.”

It said and I scoffed, going for the final key that eventually opened the door. The door illuminated in slight-blue light followed by the light around me.

“Phase one completed. Welcome to Phase two.”

Momentarily, I tried to forget the stings inside my body and sulked.

If not for the physical surreal emotions, the game wasn’t that hard.

***

“You won!”

After about two hours of playing, I was exhausted. Right when I heard those two words, I immediately removed the head view and sat on the floor.

Eric and Kavin rushed towards me.

“We won, we won, Ivan. Well Done!” Kavin shook me but I lay flat on my back, trying to grasp my mentality.

I was worn out. 

Eric gave me a bright grin mixed with concern.

“Here, you need this.” He passed me a beer can and I gulped it within seconds.

“Yeah! Let’s get started!” Kavin jumped up and wiggled his body before grabbing on to the drinks placed on our desk.

Amused, I watched him mimic my actions. Soon we were getting drunk on the pretext of celebration and the weekend.

Nonetheless, I couldn’t shake off the ingrained experience from that shitty amazing game. “The Dark World”.

The graphics were of another level. It involved strategy, skills and is a free-form MMO. It brought immersion from the VR and combined it with AR that was amazing. If it left me shaking, you know what I am talking about.

But hey! That Garfield dude can suck my toe! He thinks he could challenge the Game Slayer. I don’t remember when I passed out on the floor; but damn, I needed it.

However, I am not sure if I was dreaming or not when I heard that stupid male voice come alive--

“Part 2 of the Dark World Activated.”

***