Chapter 7: Woman’s sixth sense.

“Time’s up, Yellow Team wins!”

“What? That’s impossible, they didn’t score!” Someone from the crowd yells and startles everybody.

The multiple screens start to fade and shows the results of the match. Mr. Ackerman and his son are staring flabbergasted at the screen.

“Why didn’t get the full swing bonus? Something must be wrong with the system.”

“They have to call a judge.”

“That… My eyes are deceiving me? 8.540 with the full swing bonus is 12.540 versus yellow’s team 12.476 points, the blue team should have won by a tiny margin, what’s going on?”

There is a commotion and all sort of murmurs could be heard in the crowd.

“HAHAHAHAHA.” Mr. Smith breaks the murmurs with a thunderous laugh. Mr. Ackerman and Alfred Ackerman are caught off guard by his attitude. Even the technician and some people form the crowd turn to look at him. “HAHAHA, it was all a fake, it was all a fake! Never in my life have I seen a plot like that. HAHAHAHAHA.” His laughter seems incontrollable.

“Mr. Smith, are you alright? What are you talking about?” The technician couldn’t hold the curiosity.

“HAHAHAHA, tell someone to replay the last minute of the player SunnySideUp. HAHAHA.” Mr. Smith says those words with effort. His laugh interrupted him several times while trying to speak.

The technician makes a call from his phone with a strange look in his face, he didn’t understand why Mr. Smith gave him that order. Still his curiosity was high. However, before he finished giving the order from his phone there is a commotion coming from where the player’s VRD are located in the first floor. Turning to look, everybody discover that someone is throwing up without even having time to detach the sensors.

“HAHAHAHA, so it was him, it was him! HAHAHAHA. Give the poor kid some medicine to cure motion sickness. HAHAHA” Mr. Smith’s face is as red as a tomato. He is laughing with almost no air left in his lungs. Even Mr. Ackerman pats his back in an attempt to calm him down. The technician doesn’t understand why but still he tells someone in the crowd to go to the medical pavilion and help the guy that is throwing up with something for motion sickness.

Not much time later, the replay who Mr. Smith spoke of starts playing in one of the screens. Everybody who heard the instruction not long ago, knowing that this was the source of the laughter of Mr. Smith, watched with curiosity. Mr. Smith calmed down a little but from time to time he could burst in laughter with no apparent reason.

SunnySideUp was one of the members of the Red Team. The replay starts playing when he is in the midst of the brawl. Suddenly he is grabbed by arms and feet and he is launched downhill. The next 45 seconds of the replay shows him just rolling downhill nonstop at high speed. He was launched with such brutal force that he could not stop by any means. Since the hill is just covered by snow without any obstacle there is nothing to stop him.

No one understood what is so special about someone rolling downhill until the end of the recording.

He rolled downhill for more 800 meters. He covered the 1.000 meters. He scored. Because of him the Blue Team couldn’t get a full swing bonus.

When SunnySideUp got to the sniper’s base in the replay Mr. Smith once again bursts into that airless and thunderous laughter. No one dares to make any sound, their minds are literally blown. Mr. Ackerman and Alfred Ackerman are truly astonished watching slack-jawed that and the other replays without daring to say a word.

The yellow team tossed SunnySideUp downhill in the left side of the hill and they quickly went to the right side drawing the sniper’s attention to them. Even when they dispersed they didn’t drew near the rolling Mutant. They were dodging, but in truth, they were attracting the focus of the snipers to them! Even the final act of the Battle Droid of running in a straight line being an easy target was an act to focus the attention on him so they didn’t turn to look to the left side and see the rolling SunnySideUp!

Seeing all this the crowd finally understood. No one knew that the rolling point of view was one member of the Red Team so they ignored it. Naturally they didn’t knew that Mr. Smith ordered to play in the screens each point of view of each player in that match and Mr. Smith was the only one who realized what was so special about that rolling person.

Some people started to laugh and comment. They understood too why Mr. Smith said something about motion sickness. After spinning for 800 meters in the Virtual Reality, who wouldn’t throw up?

“Haha, ha… ha… phew… sigh…” Mr. Smith tries to calm down and faces Mr. Ackerman. “Ahem… sigh… So, as I said earlier, double or nothing for the third round?”

♫ ♪ ♫

I straight my posture in the chair of the VRD as I start to carefully remove the helmet. The first thing I notice is that under my jacket, in the neck of my shirt, there are some blood stains. Saying that it was drenched had to be an exaggeration from Ana. Maybe Ana has some sort of blood phobia and she overacted a little saying that I was drenched in blood, after all, it was just a nosebleed.

Since the neck is already stained I use the shoulder of the white shirt to wipe my mouth and nose as I turn to look at Ana.

“Shouldn’t you be happy? We won you know.” I say while smiling towards Ana who has a troubled look. There was still traces of blood in the skin between my mouth and nose, and in my chin that I couldn’t wipe. “There’s no need to hug me but at least smile.” My tone is soft and gentle.

“You dummy!” There are traces of tears on the corner of Ana’s eyes.

“Eh…” I scratched my head. I have no idea of what to do. “Hey, calm down, I just have blood coagulation problems, when I make a tiny cut in my skin it’s really hard for it to heal, so because of the position I assumed and the helmet the wound in my nose maybe reopened or something.” I stand up and remove the rest of the sensors and the motion gloves. I approach Ana and pat her shoulder while trying to make her smile. “It’s no big deal, you don’t have to worry that much.”

Ana’s head bump softly on my chest. Without lifting her head, she grabs both of my arms and her hands make way until my shoulders where she finally rest her hands. “Are you telling me the truth?” Ana's tone is low and her voice trembles.

I am truly shocked by Ana’s actions and words. I don’t know what to do. Suddenly I feel an urge to embrace and hug her, but I shake my head trying to remain clear minded. I don’t want to take advantage of the shocked Ana.

I caress Ana’s wrist and hold her hands. Looking at her forehead I say, “Of course I’m saying the truth. Why would I lie to you?”

Ana slowly tilts her head upwards meeting my gaze. She looks straight into my eyes. “Do you swear to me that you are not lying?” Ana says in a soft and charming tone.

My body stiffs. ‘Why would she asks me if I’m lying? Does she knows something? No… it can be, she just met me again today.’ I try to shake my head but when I meet Ana’s eyes I am infatuated. She is not wearing her round glasses and has a longing look. Her eyelashes has moisture in the tip, and his deep black pupils were too beautiful. She is biting her scarlet lips, and her nose has a slight pink blush. I couldn’t speak nor avert my eyes from that beautiful face.

I don’t know if it was just some seconds or minutes that I spent looking at her. When I finally regain my senses and try to scratch my head but Ana doesn’t let go my hand. I helplessly shake my head. “I told you, why would I lie to you?” I say trying to sound annoyed and trying not to look to her eyes.

“Swear to me!” Ana replies immediately.

‘This girl…’ I am inwardly stunned by her stubbornness, this is a whole new level. “Ana, really, stop that, we just met again today and you are doubting me?” I push her gently, “Moreover, I need to wash my face, I’m a mess.” I point at my neck.

Ana bit her lips. It was as if something inside her mind was telling her to push me a bit more for some reason, but at the same time she doesn’t have a reason to push me more. I see as she helplessly sighs and uses a napkin to wipe the blood from my face.

I just stand up and remain quiet while letting her clean my neck and face. She rubs my nose and my chin but in the middle of doing so, her thumb finger touches my lips and she stops there, unmoving. She extends her hand and caresses my cheek. I could feel the softness of the skin of her delicate trembling hands. She caresses me so casually that I have no time to react and become fully absorbed in the mood.

I look at her directly in her eyes and she looks at mine. Our faces draw near and near, our foreheads touch slightly and…

“To all players who classified to the 3rd round please come to the lobby to reassign a Virtual Reality Drive.” A female voice resounds through multiple speakers in the floor.

‘Crap I got carried away.’ I think looking at Ana.

‘Damn it, they ruined this.’ Ana thinks looking at me.

Ana immediately blushed and turns her back to me. She picks her glasses from a nearby table and put them hastily. I just remain there still dumbfounded. I have no idea what should I say or do.

“Let’s go.” Ana regains her composure and holds my wrist.

“Go where?” I ask. I am suspicious of the quick change in attitude of Ana. This question is turning pretty common.

“To get you a new shirt dummy.” Ana replies with a casual tone.

“What? I don’t have money to buy anything right now!” My tone is a bit loud and startles some people nearby.

Ana just glares at me.

Without her saying a word, I could understand what she means. She wants to buy a shirt for me. With my hands finally free, I helplessly scratch my head and I couldn’t find an excuse to decline her offer. I sigh inwardly and finally say, “Fine, but it has to be the cheapest one.”

“Yay.” Ana happily chants victory and nestles herself in my arm.

I do my best effort to cover the neck of my shirt with the jacket and start walking with Ana. I try to shake Ana in order to pick up the optic link from the helmet of the Virtual Reality Drive more easily but she doesn’t give me one centimeter, so I have to do it with just one hand and a half.

We went downstairs to the first floor. In the lobby there are four rows of people trying to receive the new token for the 3rd round from four respective counters. Since all of them has almost the same number of people I select the rightmost one and wait there patiently with Ana glued to my arm. Not much time passes and I notice a foul odor. I immediately look at his back and see some staff members wiping the floor. ‘Did someone vomited in a FPS game?’ I shrug slightly.

I had no idea that I was the culprit behind the scenes.

END OF CHAPTER 7