Rex looked at the monitor to see that Sarah's in game name, was highlighted on the leader board, but not in the first place but in second place.
The chatbox at the left bottom of the screen flashed with strings of messages from the person who won the first place. Sarah's hands reached for her keyboard as soon as she saw the messages. Her typing was frantic, each keystroke was loud as if she was trying to smash her frustrations.
DarKnight71: Hahahaha, pay up IronfisT
IronfisT: ******* the only reason you won is because of that skip
"Don't tell me you bet on this race"
Sarah heard Rex's voice as she took off her headphones but couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt and didn't look at him in the eyes. She only looked at the screen monitor as if it was the fault of DarKnight71 for challenging her.
"Did you use all of the gift card money I gave you on this race"
"Umm, not all of it….."
"How much is there left"
"A hundred"
"How much did you lost in this game"
"A hundred and eighty"
"That much!"
"I just have to win it back okay"
Rex sighed as he touched his forehead. The gift money he gave her was three hundred which was enough to buy more than a dozen games depending on he price yet she had already spent almost two thirds of it on this race. He didn't know when Sarah even got into using money to bet in games. She only ever used money to buy games but never used them for in game purchases but this was different.
"Since when did you start using money to do stuff in game"
Sensing the gaze targeted at her, Sarah responded
"Okay, fine it was when I first won against you in character races"
Rex and Sarah would race for whoever got the characters first when they were young but Rex, due to his luck would always win and because of that Sarah became frustrated at the constant losses and finally recharged using her pocket money and won for the first time but soon after she wanted to say that she cheated during that win, Rex had to leave for the army.
"I was so close to winning it but lost because he used a shortcut"
"If I play it again, I am sure to win"
"I won way more money here than that"
"And where did it all go, that you had to even use the gift money I gave you"
"….Gacha"
A small voice was heard and Rex immediately knew where she had spent all of her money on. Combined with her horrendous gacha luck, Rex wanted to silently cry for all the money she had spent though it was still a drop in the bucket compared to his own money, it was still money.
"Wait till I win it, I will get back way more than I even lost"
Before he even had a chance to intervene, the timer passed and the race started again, this time, it was triple or nothing.
Rex made himself comfortable, leaning back on the bed frame, crossing his arms watching the monitor as the race started. The cars roared to life, speeding down the track at breakneck speeds. Sarah's fingers danced across the controller, as she focused on the monitor intently. Rex knew about this game as well, he even tried it before in his own time, in his room.
It was a game of luck and skill both combined. There were many tracks to go through as well as fuel system and damage system. During the tracks there were boost gained from many ways. This map which Sarah was playing on now was within the deep forest and the boosts were dropped from the trees. The fuel system was for speed burning. As you gain more speed you burn more fuel but the fuel could be refuelled at stations as well as repair the car due to the damage system but if there was no damage done to the car, it could maintain top speed.
Rex also played on this map as well. Though there were many routes which one could go through, which Rex went was none of the ones which other people choose yet he won the game through it. Though there was a bit of luck at play, it was undoubted that he was also skilled.
The track which Sarah and most of the people took was the best route according to analytics and was the least effected by luck but it was still present. Of course Rex didn't know it, he just saw that Sarah and the DarKnight71 was neck to neck while being ahead of other players. Though DarKnight71 used skips which were present from time to time, due to Sarah's own mechanical skills, they were still neck to neck. It was clear that Sarah was not as knowledge about the game as much as DarKnight71.
But at the cross of an intersection, three items dropped from the trees. One was a rocket, one was a dome and the other one was a plus sign which meant a heal. Due to the positions, DarKnight71 got the rocket and Sarah knew what to get which was the dome. DarKnight71 immediately used the rocket and targeted her. Sarah used the shield and blocked the rocket but it ricocheted from the dome and struck a tree to which was in Sarah's way. She had to dodge and go to other road from the intersection or else she would crash.
"Noo, I lost"
Though Sarah was still using her controller to control the car, it was clear that she was unfocused. Rex didn't know why she was saying that she lost even though she could still go through the path she crossed into.
"Why are you saying that? The race isn't over yet."
"Because this path is slower and also has the most risks"
"There's no way I can catch up now," Sarah said, her voice filled with despair.
Rex leaned forward, studying the screen. He recognized the alternate path she was on. It was longer and riskier, filled with tight turns and jumps, but it also had more opportunities for boosts which was also the path which Rex took during the time he played,
"Switch," Rex said suddenly.
Sarah blinked in surprise as her controller got snatched from her own hands.
"What"