Ch.7: The Game - TITAN (1)

"Crap on a cracker!" I growled as I woke up feeling all energetic.

Trying to recollect stuff and get my mind set, I scratched my butt with my left hand and my head with the right. Yep, that had become a habit now.

So, I woke up in my house, met Maisie, sent her out, watched TITAN again, and cuddled with Mylo. 'Ah, that whorish cat!'

'Am I missing something else? I feel like I am,' I thought, standing up from the couch.

Mylo was nowhere to be found, and the TV was still on.

"Oh yeah, Bullock!" I cursed, rushing towards my computer. "The darn gig Lackney got us! It's supposed to be today, right?" I asked myself out loud.

Yeah, I slept that night, and today is a new day.

I tapped on my keys, turning on the computer and logging into my TITAN account when my eyes suddenly caught the time. "Oh good lord! It's evening? How?"

The time displayed was 04:02 pm. How was it possible that I slept at night and woke up in the evening the next day?!

F**k!!!! I was definitely worn out yesterday. Seems the game not only drained my time in the real world but also my energy.

"Boose! I have just 58 minutes. Ugh, it's 57 now," I groaned annoyedly.

Planning myself roughly, I decided at heart that I'd just play a round or two of TITAN on my computer to prep myself for the gig and then take a quick bath with the last minutes I have.

Yeah, I'd be able to meet up well, by roughly 8 or 10 minutes late.

Already being logged into my TITAN account, I turned off my online light that showed I was online, now off, seemingly saying I was offline.

It's just a notification, anyway.

Well, I didn't want Lackney to catch me online, that's it!

I quickly fixed myself in a random game, tapping the accept button to the most recent request to join a game.

Well, this is the thing: anyone can send any random player a request to be in a team with them, invite them to play a round with them, and so forth, and it's left to the other person to accept or decline it.

Not to brag, but I had over 29 requests to play rounds with teams and players, but I usually didn't have the leisure time to play because I was busy being lazy!

Yeah! I was ranked number 25 in the whole TITAN game, meaning that in the whole world, I was at rank 25—yes, a bit of a senior amongst the thousands of players.

Blrrr, it was something worth swelling my head at.

"Dang it! It's a full squad!" I cursed upon seeing the game and battlefield. Well, my avatar was MK, so, yeah, just letting you know.

"Hey, you guys," I spoke into the game's speaker, calling out to my teammates who were spread out thin and afar, which I didn't really know.

Well, it wasn't relevant to know them.

I quickly hid myself in a position where no one was going to guess I was hidden, and well, no one really noticed my presence. The opposition team still believed my team had only 4 members while they had 5, not realizing I, the 5th player, had joined.

I quickly activated MK's bazooka, which can only be activated twice in a round for me (well, it's based on your Ranking with MK. Some could activate the bazooka even up to six times in a round, e.g., players like X, Mopso), shooting at the opposition team's most skillful guy in the game with the avatar Ragnarok.

Ragnarok was one of the most powerful avatars in the game, and this player using him, added with the player's skillful attempts to almost getting close to the last gem, was too intimidating.

He needed to go down first, and oh yeah, the game had already been going on before I joined, so it seemed my team had gotten one gem while the other team had gotten one, the remaining one that this 'Ragnarok' guy was about to take.

"Fudge!" I cursed as I realized the dude I had just shot without knocking down had a full squad of three following behind, hurrying towards my location because my failed shot at the opposition teammate had exposed my hidden spot.

But who was I?

I was a seasoned player, battle-hardened by many a pixelated skirmishes, an expert in the fine art of virtual survival.

Having endured countless similar scenarios in the game, facing a gazillion failed escape attempts, playing in a grandmaster lobby without the proper IQ was basically the same as spelling doom for oneself and receiving a huge deduction point, known as a minus.

Yet, I was no ordinary player. I was a quick-thinking, fast-acting digital warrior.

Without freaking out, I swiftly set up my launchpad, my fingers moving with the speed and precision of a concert pianist on their fifth espresso.

Time was of the essence, and I had none to waste.

Swiping my launchpad to the extreme, I tapped on the launch button the next instant, without a moment to dawdle on my predestined destination.

I was a decisive force to be reckoned with, navigating the treacherous virtual landscape with unmatched agility and precision.

"Booyah!" I exclaimed, gleefully tapping into the soar button.

My avatar, MK, prepared to take off into the sky with his hands shot back and his head raised up like a majestic, albeit pixelated, bald eagle.

Zooming off into the air, I quickly activated my security, ensuring my triple glow wall engulfed me as I soared.

It was a digital fortress, a high-flying, glow-walled force to be reckoned with.

Pa! Pa! Pa!

The sound of the enemy squad shooting at the triple glow wall I placed at the soles of my feet echoed in my ears.

I knew at that moment they had somehow managed to break through my defenses, and my days—or more accurately, the seconds I could live—were numbered.