Afterlife Games

"No."

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The place where players lives are similar to college dormitories. It was practically an endless array of 6 story tall apartment buildngs located along the outer borders of the shopping district.

That's the entire map of the game itself according to my uncle, the massive game lobby building at the centre, shopping district covers a radius of around two or three kilometers from the game lobby, and at the outermost region lies the living spaces, of which the players just call apartments.

Going beyond that, is what the earpiece describes as 'endless prairie'.

Every players has their own apartments provided by the game free of charge.

Points can be used to enhance living conditions, but basic needs of a living space is already fulfilled for free.

Players knows their designated apartment from, you guessed it, the telepathic earpiece.

"Would you like to summon your key from your inventory?"

"Yes."

The key appeared on my hand, etched on it is the location of my apartment, room 037 of block #111.

My apartment was very far away from my uncle's, and a room transfer is not possible.

"Meet up in front of this restaurant every single morning after waking up, you hear me?" uncle told me before I went to sleep.

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After I've gotten my sleep in, we have food at the restaurant near my apartment that uncle told me about before I went to sleep.

I did feel a little bit guilty leaving him behind back then, but since it was something easy that I could do, I did it, I now have 7380 points to my name, 7370 after this meal.

I've never seen my patient and cheerful uncle look so disappointed and enraged, walking out that door from stage 1-4 was the first time ever.

I don't think I did anything wrong however, objectively speaking, I only did something that hurts his feelings and his outdated expectations of me, sweeping the levels are only beneficial to us.

Thus, I didn't feel like stopping.

"Why shouldn't we clear stage 5?"

"It's 'attempt' stage 5. And I said no, we're not doing it, we don't know what could happen." A vehement refusal yet again.

Everything went out as I had expected actually.

I was unable to perform at my prime for stage 1-2 and 1-3, 1-2 because I was sleep deprived, 1-3 because I had just woken up without breakfast.

With 1-3 as warmup for 1-4, I think I just broke another record, which I was hoping I would do, so my uncle could find me easier, if he didn't wait right outside all the time that is.

1-2 was boring, I was just supposed to lead a successful expedition, and on the way we encountered Hearts soldiers.

I solved the issue diplomatically, no violence was even required.

1-3 was exciting, I only had 10 minutes to make preparations for an invasion from Spades soldiers into our territory, with the requirement that maximum casualties Diamonds could suffer for this attack is 5.

I took 2 minutes to sprint to the gate and grabbed a few weapons, starts firing frantically at everything other than humans, startled absolutely everyone, the gates guard came to stop me and I threatened them not to move any closer.

Eventually the commotion had every ranked officers rushing to the scene, the gate of the Diamonds territory.

Voila, everyone's ready, there's weapons there too, though they all thought I was high on cocaine at the moment, they arrived and that's all that matters.

Spades didn't send much soldiers, so they were no matched for us, just Two of Diamonds alone was enough to finish them off.

1-4 was yet another boring one, or maybe it was just too easy for me.

Clubs planted two more spies, I found them with the clues at hand, just like 1-1, I'd even say effortlessly.

It went as well as I would expect, and I'm really eager to enter stage 1-5 too, especially with the reward of hp bar tempting me.

I was too tired though, so I stepped out of the game eventually.

"It's multiplayer, you could protect me in there." I don't really think I need it, but he definitely wants to, and like I said before, free is always good, I like free protection from the 7th best player in the game.

"Yeah but you can't protect yourself."

I don't want to say "I've proven I can." It'd most certainly anger him yet again.

He's already a lot calmer than a few hours before, I didn't want to reignite the flames of rage for no good reason.

"Aren't you the 7th best player in the game? I feel you could probably take on the level just by yourself."

"Well that's true but..."

"So why not? You could beat it yourself, I don't even need to do anything to get the hp bar."

My uncle didn't retort immediately, that means I've made progress in convincing him.

"And it'd be more safe for me as after that, I will have the hp bar, it'd be way harder for me to be eliminated."

Since he's worried about my safety, I thought this point will be effective.

I can tell by a glance that a lot of thoughts were clouding his mind, he looked down on the plate, analysing the information he had given while twirling the fork in hand, I couldn't tell exactly what he was thinking.

"God I hate it when you make good points."

It worked.

"Why do you wanna do it so quickly anyways? Few months of training beforehand doesn't hurt."

"I'm just really curious about something in the game."

"What is it?"

"It's hard to explain."

It's because during 1-4, I saw the man in the maroon blazer head upstairs of the laboratory, I'm both curious about the man's identity and the place upstairs which I've yet to explore.

"Whatever, but you stay close, and you don't get to call the shots." He says while pointing the fork at me, feels kinda like a threat.

"Ok." I stood up while answering him, then confidently waltz out of the restaurant towards the game lobby building without him, knowing full well he'll catch up.

Even after the betrayal of trust, he's still the person I remember, a kind, understanding uncle who will still do anything to help me.

It feels like I'm manipulating and exploiting his kindness, which is partly the reason why I betrayed his trust and completed three campaign stages alone, aside from my own pride not willing to accept charity.

But if he's fine with helping me altruistically, I thought I'm fine with it too.

"Remember, stay close, no risky plays."

"Got it."

He reminds me once again before we enter into separate rooms in the game lobby.

I walked into the cylindrical glass chamber, closed my eyes, and the next thing I know is I woke up standing in a completely pitch black environment, with nothing, no walls, no light, yet my entire body was still visible.

"What games would you like to play?" That's the earpiece, just like everything else in this game, joining games also only required thoughts.

"Campaign stage 1-5." I thought.

"This is a multiplayer game for five players, will you like to start a new game, join a random game with insufficient players or join a specific game with insufficient players."

"Join Frostbite's game." Uncle told me beforehand that he will be starting the game.

"Joined, two out of five players thus far."

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"There's a game with two players already in, quick, we're joining it."

In another room in the game lobby, a young woman with short hair and a younger boy with a cap on were conversing.

"Go to another room and join Frostbite's game, quick." The woman said.

"Even after we joined, there's still one spot left for them." The boy speaks timidly with a weak voice.

"I'll kill him if it's just one, don't worry about it, just join."

The boy hesitated. Seeing the fear in the 14 year old boy's eyes, the woman reaffirmed,

"Join, I'll make sure we get out alive."

The boy is still hesitant, but he eventually managed to voluntarily control his movements again and scampered out the room into another.

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"Player Shockwave joined, three out of five players thus far."

"Player Kenneth Spears joined, four out of five players thus far."

"Player Corpse joined, five out of five player. Game starting..."