“What do you want from me?”
“It’s almost two days since I won the game,” I said. “Yet you’re still safe and sound.”
“Once again, what do you want?” He interrupted me. “And how did you get in the house without triggering the security system?”
“Although you were trying to convince me that your uncle was going to whack you, it doesn’t seem to be the case. Told you he was just threatening you,” I said ignoring the second question he had asked.
He said nothing this time. He just stared at me, waiting for me to go on.
“How does it feel knowing every player who got killed in the game are dead in real life by now while you’re still alive?”
“I feel nothing. Why should I? It’s not my fault they were dumb enough to play this game.”
“You have no business being alive. Everyone who lost is dead now. The same goes for my girlfriend. She’s dead. You woulda been dead too if it was not for you hacking the game.”
“I say it again,” Thomas Morrison aka Vic Morgan said. “It’s not my fault. And you can’t blame me for your girlfriend’s death.”
“Oh really? You already forgot that you went out of your way to get both her and me killed, huh?”
He just stared at me for a second.
“Why are you here?” He asked, a worried tone in his voice now.
Instead of answering, I looked around the room and spotted a pod at one wall.
“So this is the pod you use to hack the game, right?” I asked.
“What do you want?”
“I want you to answer the question.”
“Get outta here,” he ordered. He tried to look tough, but I could tell he was scared. He was afraid that I might have come here to revenge my girlfriend’s death.
I reached under my jacket and drew a Berretta M9 form the shoulder holster under my left arm.
“What? You’re gonna kill me, huh? If you shoot, neighbors will hear the sound. It’s a very rich neighborhood, so the cops will be here in nothing flat.”
Saying nothing, I reached into one of my jacket’s pockets and took out a sound suppressor. I quickly screwed it onto the handgun and pointed the pistol at Thomas. It took all of a second for his face to go ashen.
“Don’t do it, man,” he stuttered. “Don’t kill me, bro. Don’t––”
“Shut up,” I cut him off. “Just ask some questions and maybe I won’t kill ya.”
“What questions?” He croaked.
“First of all, did you create this pod over there to hack the game?”
“I already told you, in the game, remember?”
“Yes or no?” I said. “You better not annoy me.”
“Yes, I created the pod.”
“How many games have you played so far?”
He frowned, trying to remember. “I’m not sure. I don’t count them, y’know.”
“Fair enough. On to the next question. Are you going to play another Battle Royale Online game when it begins?”
“Guess you know the answer,” he said and when I pointed the gun right between his eyes, he added hastily, “Yes, I will. My uncle won’t leave me alone till I win and get the money for him.”
“Okay.”
I thought what else I should ask him about, but nothing came to my mind. What Thomas had just told me should be enough. I lowered the pistol, took the sound suppressor off, pocketed it, and holstered the handgun.
Thomas watched me intently.
“That’s all,” I said. As I promised, I won’t waste ya.”
“That’s all you want to know?” He said sounding as if he was expecting some kind of trick.
“Yes,” I said as I started to turn around. “So long.”
“Wait,” he said urgently. “What the heck was it all about?”
Ignoring the guy, I left the house. When back in my car, I took my cell phone from the pocket of my jacket and glanced at the screen. The call was still active.
I put the phone to my ear and asked, “Have you heard what he said?”
“Every word,” Rick Dillon answered on the other end of the line.
“Have you tracked the place?”
“Yep. You did well, Jason. Come back.”
He disconnected the call. I wasted no time turning my car over and driving away.
Once I entered the Battle Royale Online building, I was met by two security guards. They led me into the gaming room filled with a number of pods, which according to Thomas Morrison aka Vic Morgan, the developers unofficially called the players’ coffins. I looked around the place. The first time I had been to this place had been just before the game started. The room had been filled with players, technical and security personnel.
Most of them of the pods were empty now, though. Except for one pod by which stood a middle-aged man named Rick Dillon who was one of the senior moderators of the game. There were no people except for the two security guards, the senior moderator, the player inside the pod, and me in the room now.
When the two security guards led me to the senior moderator, he extended his right arm, smiling insincerely.
“It’s nice to see you again, Jason,” he said.
Ignoring the awaiting hand of the senior moderator, I flicked my gaze past him and looked through the glass lid of the pod. Inside lay a beautiful raven-haired girl.
It was Jennifer.
My girlfriend was sound asleep although she shouldn’t be.
“Why in the world is she still in there?” I inquired sternly.
“We were just waiting for you to arrive,” Rick Dillon replied, the fake smile still plastered on his face. “Don’t you worry, Jason. Now that you’ve arrived, I’ll wake her up in a moment.”
He then walked to the pod’s control panel and started to type in the command. A few seconds later, the glass lid swung to the side and Jennifer opened her eyes. She blinked once, twice, then slowly sat up in her pod, and looked around before resting her beautiful eyes on me.
“Jason, what’s going on?” She asked, confused. “I don’t understand–– I shot myself in the game, so why I’m alive? And why are you––”
“I’ll explain everything to you later,” I interrupted her. “Let’s get the heck outta here first.”
I helped my girlfriend to get out of her pod.
“It’s been a pleasure working with you, Jason,” Rick Dillon said. “You helped us a lot.”
Totally ignoring the guy, I turned away from him. As Jennifer and I started toward the exit, the two security guards made as if to tag along.
I waved them away. “Don’t bother; we know where the way out is.”
Nonetheless, they walked along with us. Guessed with my having freaked out and roughed up several security guards the last time I had been to the gaming room, the two security guards were eager to make sure I wouldn’t cause any trouble again.
I started to tell Jennifer what had happened while she had been asleep only when we were in my car and driving away from the Battle Royale Online building.
“Do you remember Rick Dillon?” I asked.
“Sounds familiar. Wasn’t it one of the moderators who sent us a message after we barely got away from the hacker’s gang?”
“That’s correct. After you shot herself to death in the game, I was the last player standing. I woke up in the real world and saw this guy standing by my pod and staring at me. Long story short. He told me that the developers had been trying to find the hacker known as Vic Morgan for a long time without any success. After Rick Dillon detected him monitoring the game and harassing us, he kicked him out. As you well know, Vic Morgan then reconnected to the game to mess with us again. He was so obsessed with us Rick Dillon and other moderators were started to think you and me might have something to do with the hacker. So although you lost, they didn’t deactivate your pod because they wanted to interrogate both of us. They started with me. When I saw how eager Rick Dillon and the develop
ers were to find the hacker, I realized it was my chance to save you. So I told them that I would find the hacker for them if they let you out. They considered my offer and gave me forty-eight hours to find the hacker. So we struck a deal. If I found the hacker in time, they would let you out. If I didn’t, they would deactivate the pod you were sleeping in, which, as you know, would result in your death.”
“Guess you’ve nailed it considering I’m sitting in your car right now,” Jennifer said smiling.
“Yes.”
“How’d you find him?”
“No matter whether I would find the hacker, I won the game, so the developers gave me a million dollars. I hired a private eye to find Vic Morgan. The hacker had told me a lot about himself in the game. I knew that he was paralyzed from the waist down and that he lived with his rich uncle in Lincoln Park. So with all this information, it wasn’t all that hard for the private eye to find the guy.”
“What are they going to do to him now?”
“Don’t know. Probably they’ll punish him.”
“Or they might as well hire him,” Jennifer suggested. “Taking him in may benefit them more than punishing him.”
“Yeah, probably. I don’t really care about what happens to him next. They’ve made good on their promise to let you out, so I haven’t lost you and can be with you again. That’s all that matters to me.”
Jennifer reached out with her left hand and touched my right shoulder. “Thank you, Jason.”
“Now that I told you what happened while you were asleep, can you answer one question, Jen?”
“Of course. Shoot.”
“What were you thinking when you decided to play the game? You knew that the glitch you told me about had long since been fixed, right? Yet you decided to play the game anyway. Why? You knew very well that there could be only one winner in the game. So even if every player got killed and we were the only two survivors, we couldn’t both leave the game alive. One of us would have to die so that the other one could win and leave the game. You knew that. So why did you decide to play the game? We would’ve had to go through all this if you’d just sit tight for a few hours till I won the game on my own.”
When I finally stopped ranting, Jennifer said calmly, “Jason, I couldn’t just sit on my ass doing nothing while you were in the game, trying hard to get yourself killed. Yes, I knew that we couldn’t both win the game. But I didn’t really think you had any real chance of winning. So I just wanted to be with you until the very end. I couldn’t and can’t imagine my life without you. The thought that you might die, and especially that you might die alone in the game, was unbearable. So I decided to play as well. I wanted to help you to win the game, but in fact, I didn’t really think that we could win, considering. Which was why I didn’t consider what we would do if we actually got to the final stage of the game and were the only two survivors in the game. Like I said, I’d rather die than live without you, so after we dealt with the cheaters, I realized what I had to do. I demanded that you drop your guns so that you couldn’t beat me to what I was about to do to myself. Well, guess I answered the question you asked.”
Suddenly, a wave of affection for Jennifer washed over me. I wanted to hug and kiss my girlfriend and I would’ve done so if I hadn’t been behind the steering wheel, driving through the traffic-choked streets of Chicago.
“By the way, you said you coulda won by yourself, huh? Jason, you gotta admit that if it wasn’t for me, you might not have won the game.”
“Oh really? Why would you say that?”
“Think about it. How would you have dealt with the gang led by Vic Morgan? You sure as heck couldn’t drive away and shoot at them simultaneously, could you? Or how would you have dealt with the two cheaters perched on the hill if I hadn’t been distracting them by firing my grenade launcher on them?”
“Well, I see your point. Probably you’re right.”
Jennifer wanted to joke again, but then she suddenly got very serious. “Jason, I almost forgot!”
“What’s that?”
“What about your mom?”
“Don’t worry. While the private eye was looking for the hacker, I paid for the surgery. A couple of hours ago, the doctor gave me a call to say that everything went fine and that my mom was awake and doing well.”
“That’s great news, Jason!”
“I’m now heading to the hospital to pay her a visit, by the way. Do you want to go with me to see her?”
“Sure thing. Your mom is a wonderful woman. I’m so happy for her.”
“She’s surely gonna ask where I’ve gotten the money for the surgery. I don’t know what to say to her.”
“You might as well tell her the truth.”
I glanced at my girlfriend and said, “Really? I remember you telling me that she wouldn’t approve my intention to play the Battle Royale Online game the other day.”
“Now that it’s over, you can tell her, Jason. Unless you’re gonna play this game again someday.”
“No freaking way. One time was more than enough.”
We laughed happy that we were done with the game.
We continued to chat and trade jokes as we were driving farther and farther away from the Battle Royale Online building.
The End
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The Last Player Standing: A Dystopian LitRPG Novel Page 21
