章 2: Apollo
Inside a badly lighten Lan house in the middle of Aris VII downtown a dirty hairy young man was crazily clicking his mouse and keyboard nonstop.
On the monitor in front of him a war was taking place, units fighting, running, shooting and dying everywhere, and while to many this was a picture of chaos, to him it was a perfectly executed strategy.
A few seconds later, his confidence was proven true as more and more of the enemy units started falling while his units were kept alive due to a chaotic rotation and mitigation of damage.
[YOU WON!!!]
Accompanied by the opponent surrender the winning message appeared in the monitor. The young man celebrated, getting off his chair and clenching his right hand and then relaxed, throwing his body on the chair again which almost topple the chair.
"WOHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"I would be thankful if you stop horsing around. These chairs are expensive and I doubt you will have the money to pay a new one if you break them!"
From behind him a voice suddenly call out, giving him a scare. He turns around and see the young manager with an annoyed face staring back at him.
"Oh, come on Josh, I was just excited for finally reaching Pro League in 4XW. And considering how much I contributed to your store in all these years it should earn me a chair or two."
"I don't care. Don't break the equipment. If you do I will make you pay it!"
"Acknowledge. Sorry."
"Good. Now, you time is up. Get out of here and go home."
"Can't I extend my time?"
"No! If you keep this up you will die. And if you die, I will be the one the cops will blame!"
"Stop joking around. There is no way I'm going to die from playing a bit of PC games."
"It was not just a bit! You have been playing for longer than 30 hours! Stop wasting my time and go home! I got this whole place reserved starting 15 minutes from now and still got to finish cleaning up!"
"So that's the real reason! All right Josh, I will go now."
"And don't forget to take a shower! You stink! Damn, how will I get rid of your smell in 15 minutes!?"
"That sounds extremely gay, Josh."
"Fuck you!"
The young man waves to Josh who is showing him his middle finger and starts heading out. He climbs the stairs down and stops by the cashier, where a little 14 years old blond girl greets him.
"Hello little May, how much do I have to pay?"
"Uncle Pollo stop making fun of my name! Let's see... All night plus 22 hours!? That's over 30 hours! Uncle Pollo, are you crazy!?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm crazy, crazy for you! Now tell me how much."
"It's 160 credits, minus your discount from VIP, totaling in 128 credits."
"Can you make it 125?"
"...Even if I don't you will still only pay 125 right? Sigh...Okay."
Taking out the money from his wallet and giving it to her, Apollo smiles and says.
"I love you, May!"
"Uncle, you stink! Go look for someone closer to your age!"
"May's love is so brutal... but I love it!"
"Shut up, you idiot!"
Waving good bye to bright red May, Apollo exits the Lan house.
It was already past evening, the lights in the streets were fully lighten but they were far from enough to light all the darkness that engulfed the city.
Apollo looked up, enjoying the view of the skyscrapers full of animated advertising made in all kind of different colors. The flying cars flew right and left in invisible highways that only their navigation A.I. could see, and the dome's ceiling projected the image of rain clouds and a count down of less than 5 minutes.
"Crap! I got to get out of here fast!"
Taking out from his bag a simple board with small circles below it, Apollo threw it to the ground while spelling "Activate.". The board stopped falling 5cm from the ground and kept floating even after Apollo stepped over it.
"Accelerate, Sprint Speed."
Slowly, the board started accelerating until it reached around 30 km/h, which was just as fast as a human in full sprint. Actually the board could go as fast as twice that speed but for safety reasons pretty much no one dared to use full speed while inside the city.
As the count down in the ceiling was over and the rain started to fall from the sky Apollo had just reached home. Taking out his shoes and putting his indoor slippers and leave the floating board on it's charger fixed on the wall. Without a care on the world, Apollo enters the kitchen and prepares his lunch, exiting with a three sandwiches made of bread, cheese, ham and butter, and a glass of orange juice. He sits on the sofa and turns on the TV to watch the news.
"Man is found dead in his own apartment, the police discards the possibility of suicide but has no leads on the murderer. The city anniversary is drawing near, discover the new events the cyber mayor is preparing this year. Richest man in the world comes back after having disappeared for 50 years, what happened to him and why is he back only now? Atenis C2 Station's Mayor election is drawing near, hear the main candidates and their proposals. This and a lot more in today's news! Stay tuned!"
"Seems like nothing new on the news. We got the police not doing their job, events to distract the population along with famous people gossip and completely biased politic opinions."
A short opening song starts to play and after it's finished the announcer start to present the news but Apollo already lost all interest on it, and is concentrated on finishing his sandwiches.
Minutes fly by and finally the last piece is eaten. Apollo gets up again to wash the dishes, leaving the TV on. As the water flows down hitting the plate on his hand and his other hand works the sponge rhythmically to clean all the dirt, Apollo's ears suddenly hear three terms in a single phrase "Tournament", "4XW" and "1 billion credits". The time seem to stop, Apollo's eyes open wide, his hair stands up as if he had taken a shock and a scream gets out of his mouth:
"WAIT! WHAAAAAAAAAT!??????"
Letting go of everything in his hands, Apollo runs back to the TV and shout commands in a almost desperate voice.
"TV, Backtrack, 30 seconds!"
The TV's A.I. answers backtracking the news 30 secs as commanded and the reporter restart the interview with a blond fat young man.
"So Mr. Golden Fang, what brought you back after 50 years of isolation?"
"When I went out, I announced I would only come back after making my dream come true."
"Oh! So you have completed your dream and came back?"
"Exactly! But this is not what I want to talk about! Today I came here to make an announcement!"
The reporter looks confused, not knowing what was going on, and before he has the time to say anything Golden Fang continues.
"Today I announce the reopening of the Golden Fang Tournament! All pro players of Mith of Empires, 4XW, Strategy of Doom and Complete Conquest XII are invited to enter! The final prize is a secret but the prize for a single victory is 1 billion credits! Now, pro players from around the galaxy, enter your emails and subscribe as there are limited vacancies. Good luck and that's all!"
The fatty gets up from his chair and exit the room marching triumphantly, leaving the stunned reporter behind. A second later the reporter wakes up and looking back at the camera announces the end of the interview.
"What!? 1 billion for a single victory!? Is this guy crazy?? TV, Backtrack, 60 seconds!"
The A.I. does it's job and Apollo watches the news again and again. Not entirely convinced Apollo grabs his phone and check his email and sure enough the invitation is there.
(How lucky am I? If I didn't turn Pro this morning I would never get this chance! 1 Billion credits! This guy is crazy! And this happens just when my money was getting low again! Today is truly my lucky day!)
"Hell! It's real! Fast! I got to subscribe fast!"
Clicking on the subscribe button, he is taken to a contract page with a huge contract. He skips the contract and click on the confirm button on the end of the page.
[Subscription Confirmed!]
[Welcome to Golden Fang Tournament!]
"Yeah! I did it! Now I only need to win once and I will become billionaire!!"
Apollo jumped up and down from happiness just like a kid who won his first video game, and only after a full hour he was able to calm down his euphoria and start to think again.
(Wait... Where is this tournament? I was so focused on signing in that I didn't even read where it will happen! Also, when will it happen? Hell, I don't even know what kind of tournament it is!!)
Finally taking notice he knew nothing about the tournament, Apollo starts a crazy chase after the information he needs but no matter where he looks there is no information at all. Apollo goes back to the register page but the page only shows the message:
[Subscription Confirmed!]
[Welcome to Golden Fang Tournament!]
Even after clearing his phone history and cache the message is still the same.
"Fuck! What do I do now!? The simple thought of missing this chance...! This is not funny!!!"
Apollo keeps looking and looking and finally finds a post in a forum talking about this.
The author of the post, whose login is IronWall, comments he signed up to the tournament but doesn't know where it is and is asking for help.
"This guy is just like me!"
The replies he receive are only laughs and jokes. Some people calling him a liar, others telling him stupid addresses and impossible dates.
"Damn! There are only trolls here..."
Even so, Apollo decides to reply in a private message, saying he is the same as IronWall.
"I see, so you are the same. Then let's make an alliance! Let's keep looking, if anyone of us find out the answers, then he will send the answer of the other? All right?"
"Sure!"
With this promise in place, Apollo calmed down a little but still kept looking for the answer.
Time does not stop and soon a whole month was gone.
Apollo had already given up the tournament, but still kept contact with IronWall. The two had a lot in common and had fun talking to each other. That day, as Apollo arrived home, he was stopped by 2 men in black suits. They approached him and one asked "Apollo?".
"Ye--Arg...."
As Apollo started confirming his identity, his whole world when black and he lost conscience.
From behind him a third man appeared with a stun gun while the two in front of him stepped forward to catch his unconscious body. The third men press the communicator near his ear and says:
"Target Acquired! Commencing transportation!"
Simultaneously a black flying car arrived and Apollo is put in the back passenger's sit. The men enter the car from the other doors and the car disappear silently just like it appeared.
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