'Damn! Those pests of police! Always, trying to suck the blood of common people. Damn! If only Johnnie was here, I would've already raided their headquarters and had their superintendent wear his underwear on his head!!!!'
Anger flushed in my head along with the terrible heat of the summer days, further increasing my temperature and the severity of my 'danger' aura. But truth be told, I'm quite an amiable person. I'm friendly and helpful and every single one of my old classmates can attest to that. I may have been a little selfish at times, but I've covered for many of my classmates back in my days and did proxies for many.
There is only one problem. After getting a freelancer job, I rarely get out of the house and whenever I do, I usually wrap myself around. I guess, that is a reflex I picked up from the time in Imperial Delhi where I had to wrap to protect myself from the dangerous pollution in the air. Now, I usually do it to beat some of my old and new friends. But I, really am a good person.
"Mom, is that guy on drugs?"
"Shhhhh!! Why do you want to kill your mother!!!!" whispered the mother as she distanced herself from both her child and me. But I'm not angry. Instead, I feel a kindred spirit from her. I know how pesky children can be. You don't need to distance yourself from me. Come near and we shall bitch about our children all year round. I'm a qualified househusband, even in terms of gossiping and bitching.
But anyway, my dream about bitching about children will never be fulfilled and as such, I hurried towards the city center with the bat in my hand.
'Damn! Why did I have to take the heaviest bat of all?!!'
…
It took me fifteen more minutes to get where Eric wanted me to be and to be honest, for a second, I thought he had duped me completely. I mean, why would any sane human being would want another human being to come to the city center in the scorching heat of the summer afternoon but then again, Eric is no human. He is an animal which has somehow got the ability to talk human language. If not, I'm pretty sure he would've been chewing on some grasses in a zoo or somewhere wild.
Eric's proper name is Ekansh Bakshi and he is one of my college friends whom I've been able to keep touch with. He is one of the dozens of sons in an ultra-modern joint family and lived in a penthouse along with his little brother, Ishaan, which was bought by his rich mom near the city apartment center (He's a momma's boy but don't tell him that. He gets a little depressed whenever someone calls him that). Currently, he is an unemployed blood-sucker whose only livelihood is begging for money from his mother or grandmother, both of whom lives a few apartments away and from collecting occasional rent from other people. Oh! Did I forget to mention that he is also a swindler.
Anyway, I had been friends with him since first semester of my college and at first, I thought that he was a simple guy with a simple background. I mean, he looked like it with skinny arms and an amiable, always-smiling face. But only in my sophomore years, did I find out how much of a trouble-maker and cancer he was. He had destroyed countless lives of people, including mine by introducing me to the underworld (Nah! Truth be told, it wasn't him who introduced me but Johnnie who did, but he doesn't need to know that. But he did destroy my life by forcing me to come a drinking party where I first met my wife. If he didn't, I wouldn't have to deal with two pesky little demon spawns!!)
After graduating from college, he went back to his family in Fortune City while I stayed in Imperial Delhi with my wife. There was minimal contact during this phase because I was pretty sure that if I pick up any calls from him, the CBI or IMID (Imperial Military Intelligence Department) would come knocking on my door. But he didn't forget me, something which I'm both thankful and pissed about. After coming to Fortune City, he was the first one who helped me buy this beautiful house of mine and that's about all. Other than that, he has never ever helped me anytime except for eating our dinner scraps. (He is in a state of perpetual poverty even though he lives in one of the most expensive penthouses in all of Fortune City, so he comes by sometimes to eat all the dinner scraps if there is.)
Anyway, it didn't take me long enough to find him from the sea-load of people congregating in the city-center. And look at it, he's not alone. Along with him, there are also two of my college friends, Chinu and Sammy, both of whom relocated here a couple of years later after I came. (By the way, both of them aren't unemployed like Eric but instead do full-time jobs in corporate companies.)
But along with them, there was also a few hundreds of men, mostly teenagers and twenty-year-olds forming a long winding human snake outside a shop called Centaur Official Gaming Store. I have heard of this company, after all, it is one of the most famous gaming retailer in the whole of Federation and it is also a branch of the Unicorn Fantasy Games, the gaming company which created some of the blockbusters games of 22nd Century, including the one called The New World.
I was surprised for a second but after checking a little, I was pretty sure that I was in Game Avenue no.97 in city center. So, without further ado, I walked calmly towards Eric and the gang with my nailed bat over my shoulders.
…
"Hey, asshole! What the fuck are you doin'! Don't cut the line!!"
…
Three seconds.
It wasn't even three seconds that I started walking towards Eric when someone form the back curses at me. And this ALWAYS pisses me off!!!
"Which arsehole just said that, huh?!!!" I forget about Eric immediately and turn back to face whichever dork just cursed at me. As for the culprits, the teenagers, they didn't expect being stared down their souls like a red-eyes demon. I mean, I was very pissed at that time and was pretty sleep-deprived, so red eyes is common, isn't it guys?!
"W-we aren't scared of ya'! W-we will call the police!!" cried one of the dork teenagers and it hit a nerve.
But alas, teenagers are nothing but evolved devil spawns with a suicidal urge to die sooner than they are intended to. And today, I don't mind sending a few to their early graves.
"Hihihi…" I laughed maniacally as I closed the distance with my nailed bad in both hands while the teenager group of dorks shivered in their toes. I clutched the handle of the bat and was just about to bash the head of one of the dorks when a swift hand pulled my shoulder and stepped forward between me and the teenagers.
"Woah! Woah! Woah! The heat is really getting to some people ain't it? haha!" said Eric as he sandwiches himself between me and the dorks.
"Guys, don't you know to respect the old and senile, I mean, wise men? And this guy here is the oldest of us here, so by logic, he can cut a little line, can't he?!" Eric reasoned with his twisted logic but more importantly, did he just call me senile!!!
"N-no! Cutting line is not appropriate! What if there's no gaming cabin available when we get our chance!!" reasoned one of the dorks to which, Eric replied with a smile while patting his shoulder, "Look kid, there's enough gaming cabin in there for your entire family and grandchildren. You don't need to worry about not getting one, instead, you should worry about getting out of here alive. The person behind me is a devil and he won't hesitate to kill you. In fact, he LIKES to torture people, ESPECIALLY children and teenagers. So, do you still want to go up and argue with him?"
The teenagers were still a little hesitant but as Eric's pale and skinny face came closer and closer they replied with a vehement shake and as soon as they did, Eric pulled my arm and took me to Chinu and Sammy. In the way, some young adults shouted their frustration but a single look from me was enough to stop them in their tracks.
"So… what's with the bat?" Eric asks as he looks at me with a big bright smile.
I smile back at him and reply, "It's just for you. Do you want to have a taste?"
"No, thanks!" he rejects immediately and turns forward, not willing to talk to me further in fear of getting bashed but Chinu turned back and beamed at me, "Hey Ave, how's ya doin'?"
"Sleep-deprived." I reply promptly as I poke Eric's back with the nail-head of my bat.
"Hii! Hey, I'm innocent here. In fact, I'm a Saint here, okay? You should thank me!" Eric retorts but the nails only dig deeper into his shirt.
"Hiiiii!!!"
"Anyway, I bet this fool hasn't told you about the reason for us being here. Let me tell you," Sammy says as he swaps his place with Eric for a short while.
"You see, last month, I quit my previous job." Sammy says with a serious look but I was pretty shocked.
Looking at my shocked face, he rolled his eyes and replied, "Hey, don't look at me like that. I got a recommendation letter from one of the branch companies of Unicorn Fantasy Games. It's a work-from-home kinda job so you don't need to worry about me leaving you guys. Anyway, my new job is like a game tester for the Unicorn where I need to play their games as intensely as possible to find all potential bugs before other gamers do. That's the reason why I'm here to order myself a gaming cabin."
"Then how come there's so many people here?" I ask a perfectly reasonable question to which Sammy shrugs his shoulder and replies, "I don't know. There was only a dozen of us and maybe someone exposed the secret but it might not be a secret in the first place." He replies coolly but then pats my shoulders and says, "My dear friend, play this game at least once. You will thank me later." He said proudly but I rolled my eyes.
It was just a game, anyway *shrugs* but wait, which game is he talking about?!
It took fifteen more minutes for our turn to come. Chinu went first, followed by Eric. When it was Sammy's turn, he took out a golden card and shows it to the employee who was standing outside. A shocked expression came over his face before he hid and gave his professional smile. He went in and finally it was my turn.
But the moment, I stepped into the red line which divided the shop's boundary from outside, a big explosion happened right above me and before I could move away or something, a big spray of … confetti fell from above.
"Congratulations sir, you are our 10,000th customer! You have won a Premium Golden Account!!"
"…Huh…"
…