Now, only three minutes were left, and then after what looked like a victorious lead by Till, they both were tied up again. Ro had some seriously great talent, Kylith thought. She wondered if she could reach Ro's level some day. Even after 12 minutes of that excruciating battle, she didn't even break a single drop of sweat.
"Is she that confident?" Kylith muttered under her breath. The older guy behind her let out a small laugh. He might just get his 100 today.
Posker shook her head. "Something's wrong, Kylith," Posker whispered, so no one else could hear. She nodded at Till's screen, "It's endgame right now, he has all the great resistance potions and none of them has been touched. See, Ro has used almost all of hers. But Till still has a lot. He is not using them, on purpose. I have a feeling that..."
Kylith realized what was going on in shock. It was so obvious. "But why?"
Posker looked around at the others to see if they had noticed. Sure enough, there were a few streamers at the back who were recording and looked noticeably distressed.
Kylith turned her head back to look at Till fighting for his life in the duel, or pretending to, at least.
The game was rigged.
She didn't know whether to hate Ro for setting up whatever deal it was with him or to hate Till for fooling them all. Annoyed, she screamed out loud, "TILL PLEASE GIVE IT YOUR ALL!" she clutched the rail separating them and the players, "WHATEVER HAPPENS," she screamed, "DO, NOT, LOSE!"
Posker turned to stare at her in awe. And then she too joined in, "TILL, YOU HAVE TO WIN!"
Someone from behind them screamed again, "Till, you have to win!"
"Till you have to win!" a few more started screaming, and half the crowd erupted in chant. "Till you have to win!"
"Till you have to win!"
Till, you have to win.
While the internet hub was in a frenzy, the Chief General of Hanil Province, Kylith's father, had just arrived at the Royal Sitting. A small palace-like structure built next to the actual palace solely for court meetings and other matters of discussion. Once you entered the premises of the Royal Sitting, you are being watched and your voice recorded. Every important meeting is also recorded and the recorded file is instantly deleted from the main server and stored in the Royal Locker, which trusted historians then open and create written records of, a tradition the Kingdom had since the old times.
If there was one place you need to hide in without the fear of getting harmed, it was the Royal Sitting. There were no washrooms in this building either, so that every nook and cranny within this place was under careful scrutiny.
"Anthur," the King addressed his Chief General as the doors of the main hall opened. He was the first one to reach, as usual.
"Your Grace," he knelt.
"It's quite the fortune that you came in here first, I have been meaning to share a few things of note with you."
The General stood up and stood in attention, curious of what he had to say, but not showing it. "Your grace should have called for me."
"No, no, that would lead to at least a few stray minds thinking what the issue was. It was for the best that we found ourselves unaccompanied by chance." It was clear that he was a big believer of fate. His frequent visits to the province Oracle (who is a Physician, of a special category) didn't prove otherwise.
The general glanced up at the cameras recording them. The King laughed, "The information is definitely recorded, but they will be disclosed only when we become history or if it will help solve a crime. You know this. In normal circumstances, all that is recorded, remains confidential nevertheless."
The general half-bowed. "I understand."
"Come closer, Anthur."
When they were at normal distance from each other, like friends who were meeting each other after a long time, the King spoke. "My son, the crown prince."
Chief Anthur nodded.
"He has fallen sick. My heart aches, almost the way it ached when the Queen left us, but I have no escape but to cope. The rope of the Kingdom cannot fall into empty hands, lest undeserving fools lust of catching a glimpse of its end. I care about my people, my wonderful snow-gold city. And it needs a healthy heir. I suggested him to find a noble woman to marry and spend his last days with, but he disagrees. He is now the only heir the kingdom has."
The chief general's eyes gave away a break in emotion. The inhabitants of court knew that the prince had not set foot on main grounds in a while. But he didn't expect him to be critically unhealthy. The general had watched his daughter and the prince grow up, and the prince had always been a healthy child, bouncing with spurts of energy and teeming with knowledge in his royal dark-blue eyes, that was sometimes mistaken for black, the color of his late mother's eyes.
"Has Your Grace tried curing the crown prince?"
"It is of no use. The sickness is rare." He hesitated for a while, and then decided to reveal the truth. "I'm afraid the my son has become a Vessel. The Physicians speak of no potent cure. So as the father of not just my son, but also my beautiful Arnäšk, my allegiance to the crown on my head drives me to strive to keep the bloodline of my ancestors untarnished."
The word 'Vessel' was sure to jolt the chief general's brain a bit. A human being chosen as a Vessel was quite common, but no one really knew about it since the human was selected at random, sometimes from the noble class and sometimes from the middle classes and lower ones. Almost all humans, once chosen as a Vessel, end up dead.
But a Royal being chosen as a Vessel was a once in a thousand year phenomenon.
"A Vessel..." the general thought, "By which god?" One can also decide how bad the situation of the Vessel is depending on how powerful the god who caused it. If it was a minor god, maybe the person can be saved with some strong spells. But if it was a more powerful one, you might need more than one person to dispel it, or maybe it wouldn't be possible at all.
And it makes things harder if it's a god with some history of revenge. Because some times, their gods get tired of looking down from the skies and collecting in their offerings. That's when they chose to manifest in a human being and influence the world they created by direct intervention. Just that in most cases, the human beings they chose are too weak to handle their power. But there have been times when Vessels have come out alive and successfully wreaked absolute havoc.
"We are not too certain about that. The Ancient Expert is taking care of him currently. He says we cannot tell unless the god speaks through the prince or symptoms start to show in later stages of becoming a Vessel. The Expert says he might have two months left before symptoms start appearing."
The Chief General nodded in understanding.
"Convince my son," the King's eyes were filled with hopelessness, except for the reflection of the general's face in his eyes. "The Kingdom of Arnäšk can not kneel in front of adversity."
The Chief General's eyes shifted as the order was placed upon him. A wife for the crown prince, in less than two months, and also with the aims of producing an heir. This was no strange order, but it was the first time the Chief had to do it.
The remaining generals of each province rolled in slowly and took their seats and the court meeting commenced. When the meeting was almost over, a guard barged in with an emergency call.
"What is the matter?" the King's voice boomed across the main hall.
"Your Grace!" the guard faced his head towards the ground, "The C-C-rown Prince is missing!"
At the internet hub, the crowd had dissipated. One by one, they started going home. The live streamers were still inside, giving the viewers a recap of the match and obviously, elegantly begging for subscribers and content engagement.
"Till, who seemed mostly passive throughout the second half of the game turned the tables just 20 seconds before the duel ended! Guys you had to see it live, it was so rad! Bro just froze Ro's trademark Double Sword Attack. But in the 3 second time gap that Ro took to melt off the freeze, Till played the card none of us expected-"
Another person jumped in front of the camera in excitement and screamed, "He detonated the Gold Bomb on her guys! The gold bomb which only three players in the entire game received. He actually used it on her!"
The streamer took back the camera with a laugh, "That's right, Till had an astonishing win with the help of the most expensive limited edition item in the game, the Gold Bomb."
Kylith and Posker sat at the waiting tables of the internet cafe and watched the aftermath unfold.
"Hey, do you think it was fair of him to use the bomb?" Posker asked.
"Why not? They were allowed to use power ups."
"But this was too overpowered, right? It makes him look like as if he wouldn't have won if he didn't have the bomb."
Kylith rested her head against the wall, "I don't know man. Something is going on between Ro and Till. The game wasn't fair from the beginning. If you noticed, he was confused and nervous until we all started cheering for him. After that, he seemed like he was pulled into reality and then actually started fighting back."
"So you're saying there's someone who influenced him to lose to Ro on purpose?"
"Something like that."
"You're just jealous Ro has Till all to herself."
Kylith gave her the stink eye, "Gosh no. I'm just curious that's all-" Kylith perked up as she saw Till leave the hub, Ro following right behind him. She grabbed Posker's hand. "Let's go."
"Where??" Posker was pulled behind her friend and they walked down the street, at a safe distance from the two players. "Stalking. This is fun," Posker noted unenthusiastically.
"Keep your phone ready, just in case we need to record something important."
They both turned a left into a smaller road that led into vast farmlands and small houses in the middle of each land. Once they were far into the road, they stopped. The two stalkers hid behind a huge sitting rock on the side of the rocky road.
Ro turned back to look at Till who was standing like a pile of cement. She looked annoyed at him. Then she stepped forward and slapped him across his cheek. Kylith stared at Posker who stared back at her with the same wide eyes.
Till didn't move an inch, and just continued staring at her.
"Why?" Ro asked. "At the last moment?"
Till rubbed his own cheek slightly and smiled. "That one hurt, Aurora."
"Clearly not enough to bring you to your senses," she muttered under her breath, her eyes seething with fury. She stepped forward and slapped him across the other cheek.
"Ugh," she shook her own hand because of the reaction pain in her palm.
Posker held Kylith's arm tight in fear as Till stumbled back this time and laughed a bit. "Are you done?"
"At least give me an explanation for all this, Till. What you did in there, that was not what we agreed on."
"I was just having a fair duel with you, Ro. And I won, by all means. Just admit the defeat and let's move on."
"No!" Ro screeched, "You knew what winning this meant to me. I told you that if I win this, I'd become the next CEO of Onset. You knew that, but you went and did that even after you knew this. Or did you forget?"
Till shook his head, "I didn't forget. I just didn't care. My fans were cheering for me. I couldn't disappoint them by hiding what I can truly do. "
"What you can truly do? The only reason you won was because of the Gold Bomb, which I helped you win!"
Till looked up at the sky and laughed. "You done with your self-praise? As my rival, you knew I could play the Gold Bomb card, so you should have just prepared for the worst in advance. The fact that you didn't just proves that I'm a better gamer than you."
"Yeah right, Till! I'm done! I'm done with everyone, I'm done with you! I'm done with this scam of a game."
He scoffed, "Says the scammer herself," he muttered under his breath. That triggered Ro and she walked towards him and raised her hand once more
"Stop it!" Kylith stood up with her head bowed down and held her hands together. "Please."