"C'mon, I just need one more Gem of Enlightenment. Goddess of RNG, lend me the power of your bosom of fortune, let just one more gem drop!"
The speed runner's hopes and dreams of winning the top speedrunner rankings for the classic RPG "Statuary of Honor" were riding on this last run. If he didn't get at least two of the rare magic consumable, Gem of Enlightenment, to drop from the Mystic Elementals, he wouldn't be able to shave off the ten seconds off the dungeon boss fight to break the world record. If only one more gem would drop...
"Argggh, this game is so rigged, what the fuck man!"
The elemental disappeared after casting his last remaining spell, leaving behind nothing but a few common items. He knew the drop rate would be stupidly low at less than a fiftieth of a percent, but after fifty or so kills the chances of a drop shouldn't be that bad...
The young man leaned back in his gaming chair, lightly perspiring from the intensity of the run, and from the sudden fit of rage over his failure.
Frustrated, he clamped his head between his hands, "That so would've been a winning run. Bullshit! Getting a run like that again would be even less likely than the gem's drop rate. I'm done with this game, it's too broken!"
This speed runner's name is Johnny Rivers, known for his near unbeatable records in nearly every genre of videogame. RPG, Survival, RTS, Fighting, FPS, and a plethora of other genres. Whether it was glitch-less or with glitches, any percent, full playthroughs, or conditionally restricted, he's done it all.
Online, he goes by the handle SpeedRun_Demon, and runs a live stream channel with the same moniker. However, those who dared to tune in to his live streams would know him by his more infamous nickname, "The Raging Demon", for his temper tantrums on stream. If it weren't for his absolute skills in speed-running, he might not have even succeeded as a streamer for that same reason.
The door to Johnny's room shuddered from the impact of a meaty fist. Most likely his agitated father, he thought. Must've been the yelling that got him riled up again. He wished his parents would just ignore it as he ignored them. He turned off the webcam and recording software he was using for the run. He wasn't streaming today, so nobody would hear anything.
"Yeah yeah, I'll keep it down."
"Come down to the kitchen for a minute Johnny, your mother and I need to talk to you!"
"I'll be down in a minute." He responded with a reluctant sigh. Another lecture again, no doubt.
-
"Yeah, what is it?" Johnny mumbled as he entered the kitchen, the usual lecture hall. His hand reached up to scratch his head. He was about to continue speaking but stopped midway when he saw the grave expressions on his parents' faces upon entering the room. This wasn't the usual lecture, was it?
"Johnny, your mother and were talking," His father began, his hands clasped together, eyes locked onto Johnny's, "about your future."
He didn't like where this was going. "What do you mean?"
"Look, your older brother finished medical school last year, Mickey is already taking advanced placement courses in preparation for college, and Nathan is exceeding what the two of them put together couldn't have done at his age." His mother continued. "We just, you know, wanted to see you put forth some effort too."
His father's head nodded slowly in agreement, "Why don't you go back to college again son, you were doing fine. You don't have much longer until you finish. You'll be able to get a decent job once you're out. You'll one-hundred percent be glad you did."
Johnny was wondering when this talk would come up. Ever since he dropped out of college a little over a year ago, an awkward rift opened and began to widen between his parents and himself. He tried to ignore it for the most part, since he committed himself to quit college. In his opinion, streaming and games were better anyway, so why bother with an education that wouldn't get him anywhere he wanted to be. Moreover, he was finally making a living from his channel, perhaps not as much as some other professions would make, but it was paying off, despite his parent's pessimistic expectations. They had no right to push him away from what he built.
"I have a job, and it's something I want to do. Why would I go back just to ruin that?" He retorted, heatedly.
His mother sighed. Such a difficult boy, she lamented inwardly. Despite her dismay, she put on her "mother knows best" smile, and continued with the most soothing voice she could muster.
"We don't want you to give up your gaming, we just want you to get a good education before you fly off from the nest without knowing how to fly. You did so well in high school, you could finish college in another year as well..."
"How is straight C's and D's any good? Is that going to get me anywhere? How can you say that I was doing well at all! Of all the people in the world, you're the last one I need patronizing me!"
Johnny's face reddened from the embarrassment and anger that welled in in chest. He had never performed well in school, but his parents forced him into it regardless of what he thought of it. Be it in elementary school, where he has once held back a grade, or in high school, where he had to take the entrance exams twice just to get into the school his brothers attended.
For Johnny, it was as if every failure he endured, his siblings enjoyed twice the successes and more. Even now, his younger brothers, both of whom were many years younger than him, were beyond his reach. Throughout his entire life, he had lived in all of his siblings' shadows, big and small. In the past, and in the present.
And now he lived in the penumbra, which slowly crept toward its darker counterpart, cast by his parents. Theirs were the worst of all, for, on top of not understanding his suffering, they also looked down at him from the peaks and troughs of their more experienced lives.
It was in his third year of college that he realized he was fed up with the ordeals of education. At first, it was simply classes. The lectures were boring, he would say to his parents, and some attendance days were skipped.
After a failed attempt at romance, more complaints were dubiously lodged against education, and some more days were skipped.
The last straw came when the friends that Johnny "thought" he had, decided to ditch him after a karaoke night gone wrong. Too many drinks were had, and one thing led to another, Johnny found himself passed out, with the snacks he had eaten all over himself and the floor. Sure, he was a light drinker, and yes, it was embarrassing, he admitted. But why did he have to be ostracized for a little mistake like that?
From that point on, his attendance gradually dropped off until he withdrew from college altogether. He isolated himself in his bedroom and streamed games, speedrunning those same games, and breaking record after record until the unending cycle became his daily medication for the shame that clawed its way toward his heart.
Johnny couldn't be one of the bright and talented children his parents were so used to raising. He just didn't have the lucky number when it came to life, and the RNG was entirely weighted against his favor. Long ago, when he still went to college, he made those excuses in halfhearted attempts at justifying his self-pity, but now, they seemed to become more and more like reality every passing day.
His father sternly gazed at Johnny, whose head was lowered to avoid eye contact with his parents, "No one is patronizing you. Your mother is just trying to..."
"What do either of you know? I'm not a prodigy, I don't have the talents to achieve anything like my brothers..."
"Why now?" He asked himself inwardly.
Johnny thought he managed to bottle up these feelings tight, but now they erupted forth, entirely out of his control.
"Why do I have to let it loose now? Why didn't they understand?"
Why couldn't they understand that he couldn't, and wouldn't become a successful man like his older brother? He didn't, and would never do better than his younger brothers.
"Why can't they just leave me in peace." His inner voice cried desperately.
"Johnny, listen..."
"Just forget it! I'm done talking about it, it's already done and over with, there's nothing left to discuss!"
He shouted those words so loudly his parents flinched in surprise from the painful volume of his words. He stormed away from the kitchen, to the stairs that led back up to his room on the second floor. His younger siblings' rooms were there as well. Their eyes cautiously peeked out from their slightly ajar bedroom doors to watch Johnny slam the door to his room. They winced at the flood of muffled vulgarities that leaked out.
Johnny's parents were left behind in the wake of his brief eruption of emotion. They looked at each other worriedly. "We might have to take a different approach," His father said, "and the only one I can think of is..."
-
The next morning was agonizing for Johnny. He stayed up late into the night stewing in the argument he had with his parents yesterday and awakened with little sleep. His normally pale white complexion took a more translucent, unhealthy shade of light gray. The shaggy, almost shoulder-length brown bird's nest on top of his head was in tangles, and his green eyes, which overlooked dark bags of exhaustion, were encompassed with a halo of bloody tendrils.
He couldn't stand steadily, reducing him from his usual 170-centimeter height to a hunched 160-centimeters. A yawn attempted to escape from his throat, but a weak squeak and gurgle were all that managed to emerge. His throat was dry.
"I'm not ready for today, am I." He despondently muttered to himself.
Indeed, he wasn't, though he didn't realize it in the fuzzy, sleepless stupor he muddled about in. There was a lot more he wasn't ready for. That is, he was not ready for the news that was waiting for him downstairs.