Time flowed in grooves.

With the club now part of my daily life, and a schedule that would remain certain for however many years I spent in this village, my life started to become stagnant. By no means was it stagnant like a degraded pond infested with yucky stuff and algae. God, I hate algae.

Instead, life was stagnant like a glacier. The ice was pure and the crystals were complex. Everything moved ever so slightly.

Some days were serene and filled with normalcy, and the other days were weekends.

Weekends were special.

###

"OI, RUNE HANDLE YOUR FUGGIN SQUAD! THESE LITTLE SHITS CAN'T HIT A DEAD WHALE IF YOU TOLD THEM TO!"

"Dude! I'm trying! This is your fault anyway! What else did you expect joining the public lobby?!" My companion shouted over the line.

Rune had a point. The mistake did sort of lie on me. Buttt… In my defence-

"I didn't expect twelve-year-olds to be playing R rated games!"

I picked up my AK420 and aimed it at a unicorn skinned n00b just waiting to get obliterated. It was in the middle of a nuclear waste swamp. Not the one with neon green graphics, one with rotting black skulls and the stench of corpses.

Damn, game graphics have evolved.

"Bruh, you're 12." Rune joined me from behind.

I mean… He wasn't wrong. But I did consider myself a little older than most for obvious reasons. Point being, my psyche was fully capable of handling a game like this.

Which game, you ask? 'Call of Apex: ActiviewMi 2'. The biggest VRFPS out right now.

"Also what is that unicorn head doing?" Rune put his hand on my shoulder. "Oh… Oh no… NO! Eww! Is he doing what I think he's doing?!" He stepped back before grabbing his face to stop himself from puking.

"Uhhuh… Looks kinda fascinating, doesn't it? Like watching people play with poop coloured slime." I added. "Or like watching people unironically enjoy natto."

"Mao, he's making out with his Kat V-pet." V pet were virtual pets. Kat was furry.

"I knooooowww." I sighed. Having seen enough, I pulled the trigger and gave the unicorn head a unicorn head shot.

Rule one of confronting Mao- never expose him to any form of bestiality. Even if it's technically a furry.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. Mao and Rune together, and not fighting? No way!

To which I'll say, yes way.

I understand that Rune and I have had our differences in the past. But he was 12. The most immature anyone can be. Now that he has grown in age (24) and in emotional stability, he has become a rather pleasant dude to be around. Also, he's a hell of a gamer.

That's what brought us closer in the first place.

Two years ago, we were given a VR headset for beta testing. Since we are big shots and all. The bigger companies wanted some celebrity endorsements.

At first, we were incompatible but as years passed by, we experienced more and more virtual battlefields together... We became friends.

"Oi, let's head to their base." I issued my suggestion. "Is friendly fire on?"

"I think so."

"Great, let's just kill the rest of our team, they would probably get us into a bigger mess."

We snuck away from the nuclear waste section of the map. Our teammates were blue dots on the maps. So we played 'match the dots' and turned the dots on the map into dots in our kill sheet.

In VRFPSs with friendly fire, teammates are a liability. Especially when the teammates are barely old enough to understand how merf guns work.

After hurrying along the way we ended up at the enemy base and boy was it a sight. A bunch of clowns.

Literally.

I would say that there was something surreal about seeing a bunch of clowns in a dilapidated noire world of a gruesome war, ruins and fallen buildings… But it strangely fit the scene very well.

A horror movie. That's what this was.

We had the high ground and weren't too shy about how incognito we were. So the clowns did turn their attention towards us instantly.

"World Rank 9: JokerIsLifeImDefinitelyAbove14." The squad was notorious for scaring all the newbies into submission and indoctrinating them into their ranks.

"One we beat them, we'll be in the Top 10." That would make us the top 10 players in every mainstream VRFPS out there.

"This took way longer than I expected."

The next thing you knew slurs started circling around the whole group.

"Rune, you ready?"

"You bet I am."

On the count of 3, the 2 of us jumped and began the cleansing.

The clowns in front of us got their names wiped off the census every time my AK420 got pointed at them. There was no room for survival. There was no way that two of the best players would lose to a bunch of clowns.

They were all easy kills. So easy that it didn't make sense that they were in the top 10.

This game didn't account for your physical capabilities, but it did account for your dexterity. And boy did I have dexterity.

"Our slurs are not working!" A clown shouted.

"HOW?! ARE THESE PEOPLE NOT STREAMING? THEY'LL GET THEIR CHANNELS BANNED!"

"No, they must be streaming! Anyone playing competitive is here for the streamer money!"

Too bad for them, we were already filthy rich.

"Ughhh! This isn't working!" The leader clown shouted. "Initiate Plan B!"

Flags popped up in my vision.

'You're being reported for aimbotting.'

'You're being reported for aimbotting.'

'You're being reported for aimbotting.'

This was probably the best compliment I- as a true chad gamer could have hoped for. I continued to shoot the clowns.

'The claims have been turned void.'

"Let's turn those flags around!"

'MaoIsLord killed It1.'

'MaoIsLord killed It7.'

'RuneScapedYoMama killed It3.'

'RuneScapedYoMama killed It8.'

It was a massacre.

In the end, there was only one man left in their team. And Rune and I both stood there covered in clownjuice.

The ruins were dotted with censored clown bodies.

"So it has come down to this." I smouldered.

"Those clowns messed with the wrong veterans." Rune put his foot on a rock.

We were the winners.

Nothing could stop us now. The victory was ours. And with this, we would reach our 10th consecutive win to land us in the Top 10 squad in the game. My short term life goal was this far away from being accomplished.

Both of us aimed at the clown who had already thrown his hands up in the air. The leader clown. His nose was larger than the rest.

""Any last words?"" Squad MaRu said in unison.

.

.

.

"Uhhh... Warui Clown janai yo…"

And with that, we applied pressure to the top of our fing-

'You have been disconnected from the game.'

"Huh?" The screen blackened and I was brought back to my senses. That was too abrupt!

"NOOOO! WTF JUST HAPPENED?!" I shouted while taking my helmet off.

"WE WERE SO FRIGGIN CLO- oh."

There was an elderly woman staring right into my soul.

"Mao-kun. I think I told you that you should sleep at 10 o'clock right?" Obaa-chan looked like she would end my whole gamer career.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Do you know what time it is?"

"It's… ur."

"Hmm?"

"4."

"You are right about that."

"Do you know how much time that leaves you for sleep?"

"Nn..o."

"It leaves you with a grand total of 0 hours." She smiled. "But I'm not a bad lady. So today you can sleep until 7, I will handle your chores personally."

"Really???"

"Yes. But in return…"

"?"

"You'll do the dishes for a week." It didn't feel all that bad at first. But you need to know, dishes meant 7 different meals, for 5 people and a dog. Well 6, if you included Yuuno's appetite.

It was an inhumane workload. I had to get out of it!

"No."

"Yes." She said as she started walking away.

"No!"

"Yes."

"NOOOOO!!!"

"Yes." She went completely out of sight. "This is what you get for playing those silly games with that helmet on all day."

"You old people don't understand the complexity of ga-!"

"Did you say anything?"

"No, ma'am."

If only she wasn't my benefactor!

Devastated I jumped into my futon. And pulled out my phone.

Anyways~

'Did you kill him? Are we finally rank 9 now?' I texted Rune.

'No. Drunk Hime tripped over the wires. Did you?'

Eh? No way this was happening.

'No. Obaa-chan pulled the plug.'

'Ah… it's a shame… Well, there's always next time.'

He replied calmly.

'Yeah, next time. It wasn't that hard... haha.'

'haha.'

With that our conversation ended.

Blood started dripping down my eyes. It was hard. Very hard.

That night the twitter accounts of a young man and a boy saw a lot of activity.