"Where am I?" Blaze thought as he looked about in an empty room filled with nothing but an active mist of darkness.
At this moment, Blaze was conflicted and the feeling of anxiety coupled with a foreboding sense of insecurity made him feel discomfort.
"The last thing I remember was, me being in my gaming room rejoicing after finally defeating the final boss in the game when a notification suddenly pops up..." Blaze thought for a while and suddenly it came back "the notification!!,they promised me a cash reward of 10million dollars if I could complete the final task. So…,is this the final task. Sitting in a dark room without furniture,I can totally do it. After that,that cash reward would be mine!".
Everytime Blaze thought of the cash reward, he'd be distracted from his thought.
He stayed there for 3 hours, sometimes standing up to walk around the room which seemed as though he was walking around in circles, which also confuzzled him.
How'd he know that he was there for 3 hours?, after sitting for some minutes, a digital clock suddenly appeared and what confused yet scared him, was the fact that the clock seemed to follow him everywhere he went.
30 minutes in, he heard a **PING** sound and a voice suddenly said "System Online- Welcome User 432234!".
Few days ago...….
"Haa!, What a day" Blaze sighs, sitting on his comfy bed.
He'd recently just got back from college after countless classes,"who knew being a business major was this hard!!" He thought.
Not that he's really into business though, he just didn't know what to do with his life and decided to make as much money as he could.
His parents weren't rich and his father got into an accident which made him a vegetable. so,he had to juggle many part-time jobs to finance his studies and his parents as well as his two little rascals for siblings.
He was in his final years as a business major college student and would graduate in less than a month.
After graduation what would he do?, Nothing was his answer because in a city full of educated people who fights, just for a chance to get hired in a company, he was no more than an ant amidst countless elephants. They could trample him at anytime and besides that, he really doesn't like stress and also couldn't quit his part-time jobs because he had a family to support.
He wanted to drain out every negative thought he had and what better way to do that than…e-sport!.
He loved that people loved him online.
He had exceptional and unbeatable skills when it comes to gaming.
So, he washed up, wore a comfortable pair of clothes and head to his little gaming room after having his dinner.
Lucky for him, the place where he got hired as a delivery guy was closed due to the owner's personal reason and he wasn't needed in his other workplaces.
He connected his computer, logged into the game which he was playing and waited for some minutes for the lockdown - countdown in the game to finish and when it finally did, he was very thrilled, he continued the tournament whereby he was to play with other players as a team ( which was optional),so he chose to play alone and he was good at it.
He used a very rare method called "HMSM [Hate Me Support Me]" to climb up the trend board/leaderboard in the game.
This HMSM method was a gaming method he'd came up with. A method whereby, the more people talked about him, the more famous he got and the more higher he climbs the Leaderboard.
Since his HMSM tactic didn't work on the tournament which was a PVP (player versus player) game, he would show off his skills and easily defeat even the most formidable player, rising in rank and at the same time, boost his HMSM tactic. To him, it was a 3 in 1 deal.
After playing for what seemed like hours and occasionally berating other players on the chat box, which in turn earned him a blow-up hate comment from other players/team, he finally made it to the final stage in the tournament.
This stage required all the participants which made it this far, to play against each other as a/an team/individual.
He now very much wanted to pair up with someone but was rejected by all.
He pitied they because he knew he would win. After all he was very sure in his gaming skills.
The lockdown - countdown eventually began earning players enough time to rest and relax before the final stage to determine who claims the cash prize.
He wasn't hungry because he'd already eaten and it was weekend so he needn't worry about going to class and his shift at a pizza shop starts 12 noon.
He waited for 20 minutes and when the countdown ended and the game was opened, it was as though everyone had ganged up against him and there was no one besides him in the game.
He was being attacked by all the players at the same time but he was unfazed.
He cracked his fingers and started clicking on the keyboard as though his life depended on it.
There was a total of 3 players per team and only 3 teams made it to the finals.
So, he was being attacked by a total of 9 players at the same time.
It seemed he got very popular but in a negative way.
"Being famous is being famous,even if you're infamous" was his go-to quote for his "HMSM" method.
He soon eliminated 5 out of 9 players and focused on the remaining 4 and easily taking out 2 more.
The remaining 2 players were at a lost. Because even they too wanted the cash prize so they gave it their all but compared with Blaze's gaming skills and experiences, they were just a speck of resisting dust.
He gave it to them for being persistent and unyielding but he too wanted the cash prize so, he eliminated them and won.
He was then told to enter his bank details in a secluded box, which he did without hesitation.
After all he didn't have that much money stored in it.
His reward was then placed in pending and he went to bed as it was already past 2am.
He slept like a cat, beside his cat and woke up at 9am the next day.
He checked the game and saw that the transfer had already been made.
He rushed to his phone and checked his account balance and found a sum of 10 thousand dollars added to it.
He felt very thrilled and prayed for more opportunities like that.
He hugged his lazy cat, Blake and rolled around on his bed.
After a while, he calmed down and then decided to start his morning.
He chatted with his friends on their group chat, contacted his mother and sent her 6 thousand dollars, keeping the rest for himself.
He really doesn't spend much. So he sent that much to his mother.
He bickered with his twin siblings which were already 13 and ended the call after saying goodbye to his mother.
By the time he was done with everything, it was already 9:39am.
He cleaned his apartment and showered then ate breakfast and by then, it was already 10:57am in the morning.
He had an hour three minutes before his shift.
So he decided to walk to his workplace and hopefully get there on time and he did.
He clocked out at 4pm and then to his other part-time job at a restaurant where he served as a waiter which he eventually clocked out at 9pm he then when to his other part-time job in a bar where he served as a bartender….