Mortal Secrets

Jeff's boss Terrance met him at a coffee shop at 1 AM in the morning.

He had brown hair and had a confident glint in his eye along with a scar that went down the right side of his face. However, even with that scar he looked rather kind and unintimidating. He gave off the aura of someone that went to the marines and yet even the most terrified toddler wouldn't be scared of him.

"Hey, so why call me out to drink coffee so late? Did you finally decide to play Mortal Secrets with me?"

Jeff shook his head, and got straight to the point.

"This isn't about Mortal Secrets. This is about another game. A game where the pay is 400,000 dollars a year."

"You mean someone offered you money to play a game? I thought you were done with that life Jeff." Terrance rolled his eyes and instantly realized what this had to do with. Jeff had always been bad at making decisions when women were involved. "Is it her? Did she finally return?"

Jeff nodded his head and drank a coffee spiked with whiskey. "Yes, it's her. She's as beautiful and cunning as always."

Terrance took a deep breath and smiled at an angry looking attendant.

Even though the store was open twenty-four hours, it normally let its staff slack off at night. However, with Terrance and Jeff there quite a few customers had come into the store. Jeff and Terrance were famous from years ago, and many people still liked to be around them.

Starstruck.

A few women even seemed starstruck and one had wanted to take a picture.

"Jeff, I'm one hundred percent sure Angela likes you. I don't understand why you think she doesn't like you. Why waste your time? Do you want people to hate you! I hate you for not telling her how you feel."

Jeff's answer was to be expected as was the rest of the conversation that would follow. However, there was one unique thing that happened.

"It's because I promised my mother something, Terrance. I promised her that when I got married the woman that I got married to would ask me out. I don't know why she told me to make a woman like me so much… but I have to listen to her! She died with that last request."

"Virgin asshole, or no… There was those 5 times haha…"

Terrance took a swig of a black American coffee and finally got down to business. His underlying rage had been quelled and he seemed intent on listening.

"Do they want me too? Do they want the leader from the seventh year?"

"I don't know," Jeff answered with an annoyed look on his face. "Why, you have to be my boss everywhere I go? Even when I competed, I still remember hearing your words ringing in my ear."

Terrance shook his head and took out his checkbook.

"Listen, I'll give you a severance package if you're serious. We got a lot of clients because of you. However, if I find out this falls through, do you think I'll hire you back?"

Jeff and Terrance paused and both muttered "Of course,"

A laughter followed between the two of them and then a waitress came over in a short pink shirt with a white top. She seemed new and almost too pretty for the air around her. Her beautiful features could only be described as beyond the heavenly gates of beautiful.

"Excuse me, but I have a request from a doctor. Terrance… he'd like you to be part of the team."

Terrance got handed a check and his eyes almost instantly fell out of their sockets.

"One… one million beautiful…"

"I know… He's generous. He'd like you to come watch Jeff and see if you can give any tips."

The two of them looked at each other and suddenly realized the realness of this situation. This much money had never been offered to either of them before, and it made them feel… strange.

"Why? Why pay me so much."

"He's rich because of various reasons. Let's just say with prediction comes money."

Jeff nodded his head and waddled his brows at Terrance.

"Well, looks like you're still richer than I am. Want to see who can drink their coffee the fastest?"

They had silly competitions like this all the time, but suddenly two men almost died from coffee asphyxiation.

___

Jeff found Angela waiting at his house sitting in front of a computer.

Her ravishing looks had not diminished, and he couldn't help but remember her nickname Poison Queen.

She'd been a Venom Wielder in Throne Wars one of the most popular games in the world when they'd dominated the circuit. She'd struck fear and also broke hearts just by playing games with such beauty, and yet as usual she seemed to have a sultry stare gleaming at Jeff's eyes.

"You know you could compliment me once in a while."

"I have to focus on what's ahead of us. We're versing an AI by ourselves with one million years of experience. We need to find a way to beat it, correct."

"He beat a million people!" Marcus came out from the kitchen with nearly ten pounds of food in his hand, clearly relishing in his upcoming pay. "I can finally eat all I want haha! This is the greatest day ever."

Jeff sighed and pointed at the table.

"Shall we begin planning how to beat the smartest person we ever faced? It did say any game we wanted to play we could play right."

Marcus nodded his head, but clearly had already forgotten. For some reason, this event was so huge that it was hard to remember. One of the paradoxes of golden opportunities.

"I think the doctor sent us a text about that." Marcus took out his phone after gorging in a handful of chips into his mouth. "Mmm, nothing better!"

Jeff smiled and walked over to the table and sat down and looked at the text.

"Guys, I think there is only one way to beat this thing. Shall we do what we did against the first AI. Make it encounter something it never experienced."

Jeff and Marcus looked at each other and laughed.

When they'd beaten the AI during the 2025 marathon day gaming competition at the South Screen Center, they'd never imagined it be because they did something no humans would ever try.

They had been playing Throne Wars, and decided to go for a rush on the boss, the Green Phantom King, which was normally impossible to kill unless you spent 10 minutes fighting it perfectly.

The angst they felt that day doing something so risky could not be described in words, but even though the AI had scouted them out it seemed at a loss for words and just attacked their base.

Throne Wars had three main bases and each base amplified the abilities of the characters controlled by the teams, so normally in a 3 x 3 match almost all players had to take care defending their bases.

However, when they killed the boss, the AI had yet to destroy their base fully which allowed them to do something else that most people considered stupid. They self-destructed their base to gain a temporary boost in something called a suicide rush.

Basically, each player playing had a base to control… and they won because they played like noobs. They won because they did something no other player or human would do unless they were complete idiots. Perhaps the smartest people could be described as knowing how to be an idiot at the right time.

"So… what's the plan? What game should we play first?"

"Have you have watched the movie, the Hunger Games?"

Jeff quickly started to write down a plan for how to beat the AI. His eyes flashed with a glint of intelligence as he acutely scripted down his plan.

His finger speed was stunning from years of playing games.

"This is it."

Jeff held up a piece of paper, and Marcus rolled his eyes.

"Are you kidding me? Are you wasting my time!"

Jeff took one of Marcus' apples and gently took a bite out of it.

"I want to play a game of wasting time. Let's see who wins."