One Hundred Thousand

“Now for our sixty-seventh match up for RAGME, we have Cement for their first, and possibly their last map and round of their lives! Again, we have randomly picked players with similar ELO for an entertaining game!”

“Indeed! And oh boy, we might have a very stacked match-up! 7atiate is an up-and-coming tier two player for ‘See and Sour,’ and he shows promise with his raw mechanical aim. With a 75% headshot rate, he is a force to be reckoned with!”

“Luckily enough, or perhaps unluckily enough for him, he is assigned to the Task Force, and as you know, the one-tap headshot Kalas is exclusive for the Insurgents. So, Insurgents with a faster reflex will be able to stand a chance!”

“Interesting loadout though for the Insurgents. Mehry will be ‘Sawing’ for the team, but this might prove to be a game-changer or game-ender for the Insurgents since only four players will be effectively entering the site. But weird things can happen as we’ve seen in our past games!”

“Such miracles might be negligible in this ELO however. Nevertheless, a hype game all around! Now that the preparation phase is about to end, let us see how the game shall be decided!”

The players on both sides look into each other’s eyes, not knowing if they could entrust their lives; each one wondering and doubting the capability of their peers. Such interaction is made possible without a screen representing. Now, they truly embody their skills and fears with an overwhelming, surreal sensation, and unnerving control, but they can only trust themselves. Somehow, with a few words communicated, the Task Force and Insurgents move fluidly, almost as one. Knives out, then guns out.

“It seems to me that the Insurgents’ game plan is to rush one site and get it over with. No mind games, no psychological plays, only pure material, and mechanics.”

“It’s quite ironic you say that, considering their ELOs.”

He laughs. “Perhaps the pressure of their actual life on the line made them throw the nuances of this game out of the window, to make it more simple.”

“Gives little to no room for error though, especially since they’ll have to synergize on the spot!”

“I hoped for the better though. I’m yet to see high-level plays in this tournament.”

“It seems like the Insurgents are slowing down, to feel the map for a while, though they don’t have any lurks.”

“The Task Force is ready for it though!”

“Here comes the execute!”

Smokes rain down and completely block the sightlines, isolating the core of the site. Despite that, three Task Forces remain hidden within the site, now isolated from reinforcements. A deafening flash—then another, signals and invigorates ropley jump onto the site, sporadically flicking around for opponents to clear.

“Incredible entry movement from ropley!

(INS)ropley ->(+) (TF)saskia

“Promising first blood, but he’s quite disconnected-”

Tremor quickly follows suit, half-blinded from their own flash.

(*)(INS)TREMOR -> (TF)dr.pines

“Tremor soaking up damage, but still keeping up the numbers!”

“I must say ropley seems to have choreographed his pathing really-”

Paranoia starts to spread into ropley’s aim, as he sporadically looks around, randomly and rapidly clearing every corner of the site, and he has started to feel a bit lost. Then, a distinct, metallic clunk hits the ground beside him.

(TF)saskia+(TF)dr.pines @ (INS)ropley

“saskia! From window!”

“Incredible nade, through the smokes and chaos!”

“The bomb isn’t even planted yet! The Insurgents are taking their sweet time, and there remains one rat on site!”

Two consecutive flash grenades from both sides pop above their heads. In the sea of chaos, the rest of the Insurgents rush onto the site, determined to take control once and for all.

“banPramo must be careful-OH!

(*)(INS)TREMOR+(INS)ropley -> (TF) banPramo!

“Unlucky timing!”

“It’s the signal for their retake!”

Three quick bursts resound, and three Insurgents fall dead in two seconds.

(TF)7atiate+(TF)dr.pines ->(+) (INS)TREMOR

(TF)7atiate -> (+) (INS)sinneR

(TF)7atiate -> (+) (INS)Mehry

“7atiate!!” the commentators resound in unison.

“He’s insane! Very careless from the Insurgents! 7atiate capitalizes on it!”

“She almost had him!”

“Mehry?”

“Yeah! But 7atiate is too fast.”

“Still, he must be careful, Insight is as quiet as a mouse.”

“7atiate is suspicious of a smoke play. He has an idea where Insight could be.”

“yuriel is rotating from mid fast. 7atiate knows he must play his time so he can play with yuriel. And Insight must aggress or he’ll lose his timing!”

7atiate calmly walks to one side with his aim trained at the near edge of the smoke, confident in his aim to quickly flick to the other side if need be. yuriel now has arrived and fallen silent as he walks towards the smoke.

“The comms are very good here. yuriel is made aware of the situation. Now both know what to do.”

“Once the smoke fades, the round is over.”

“It’s basically over though.”

With a quick strafe, Insight peeks through the smoke and taps yuriel in the head.

(INS)Insight ->(+) (TF)yuriel

At the same time, walking with his back turned into the crosshair of 7atiate. But in two quick motions, Insight crouches beneath 7atiate’s bursts and sprays him down.

(INS)Insight -> (TF)yuriel

“WHAT!?”

“7atiate whiffs!!”

“Nasty 180 from Insight!”

Insurgents win.

Insight quickly collapses on the ground, throwing his rifle away, palm to his forehead, and leans his head up against the wall.

“Why?” he weakly mouths and pounds the ground.

****************************************************************

A young man, carrying a smile and a large paper bag, almost happily leaping and frolicking on his way home. Now, he faces the road, almost taking a step forward despite the red light’s wishes, and then a car whizzes by.

“Imagine I get isekai’d right now,” he chuckles to himself, still smiling despite the grim joke.

This time, instead of breaking the law, he preserves his life and crosses at the green light.

Arriving home in one piece, he rips the plastic wrapping of the box inside the bag into pieces.

“Run and Gun…” he reads the big letters on the box, and his eyes follow down to the smaller prints, “Mindscape Edition… IGE inside. IGE? Ah, Imagine Graphics Engine. The future is now, and in my hands, huh?”

He quickly takes out the contents of the box: a large headset, which looks like a 360-degree helmet, or a decapitated lollipop, a hose-sized cord with a large 1000-watt power supply, straps of various sizes, and foams for the headset.

“This looks, very dystopian…” He inspects the helmet from all sides as he peels off the plastic wrapping. Then, he glances at his watch. “I guess I’ll try it out now. Besides, I’ve been waiting for this for so long.”

He plugs the power cord into the helmet and tests the fit of it on his head. “It’s too loose. Is this what these foams are for?” He spends several minutes only on finding the perfect fit and combination of straps and foams for the helmet until finally deciding on one. “Alright, maybe now I can play…”

As he wears it, he notices that nothing happens.

“How do I switch this on? Is it even plug?” He takes it off again and reconnects the power cord to the helmet and the wall socket before wearing it again.

“The hell? Hello?” He knocks on the exterior of the headset, but nothing happens. “Cool, what did I expect for a first-gen product?” He takes it off again impatiently and finds a manual in the box. “Didn’t think I’d actually read this.” Then, he sees an illustration of how to turn it on, and he shouts. “Why the hell is the power button IN there!? Who designed this!?”

After calming down for a minute, he removes some foam and presses the power button with great effort before returning the foam to its place and placing it on his head. “Okay, maybe NOW I can play…”

A bright cyan screen appears. He looks all around him, and all he could see was an endless wall of cyan. “Huh?”

Then, a text appears in front of him: /!\ UPDATE REQUIRED

Please connect the Mindscape to a PC to continue

“BRUH!”

He decides to finish the setup another time.

The weekend arrives, and he wears, what he hopes is a fully complete and properly set-upped product. He sighs as he sees a world of cyan. “I swear I’m going to throw this away if I have to update again!!” Thankfully, for the headset, a different screen greets him. A scene of clouds becomes his entire world, where he seems to stand above the pure, white, and unrevealing clouds. His eyes are pulled towards the puffy and lifelike clouds. It seems so physical, but out of reach for his virtual self. Then, a text appears in front of him: Please lay on a flat and comfortable surface to continue using the Mindscape.

His face contorts in confusion. “Why do I need to do that?” But he follows with little hesitation, but with much excitement. The moment he does this, he feels his body go limp. He tries to contract and move his muscles, but he feels no feedback. It is as if his head became apart from his body. “It feels like I’m beheaded” he tries to speak, but even his mouth fails to cooperate. But before his mind begins to panic, he feels his brain begin to become sluggish. He could only focus on his heart palpitating almost unnaturally. “No… is this how I go?” is his last thought.

****************************************************************

He wakes up from what felt like a long slumber. He opens his eyes to see the bright blue sky. He mistakes it for the dreaded cyan screen of update at first, but the sensations of the cool breeze, the grass rustling and tickling beside him, the dry, warm ground, and the texture of the soil against his skin. “Did I die?” He lifts himself and looks around. His eyes dart around in confusion.

An endless world of green and blue with no other defining features of the land. No trees, no seas, only clouds and grass. Sensing a presence behind him, he quickly turns around, and he almost jumped in surprise.

People, many people. People seemed to come from nowhere, some were lying down unconscious, some were standing around, confused, and some had formed groups, most inquiring about what in this world is going on. But one thing is for sure, “They are fellow Mindscape users…” He chuckles to himself, “Mindscapers? But then… RAG is the only game available for it.” His eyes go wide. “These are all RAG players?” His eyes soak in the large expanse of dots against the green plains. “Last time I checked, over a hundred thousand bought the headset. So, this must be a hundred thousand people… in a single place!”

He starts blinking his eyes rapidly, realizing something. “Wait, my vision… it’s not blurry.”

Suddenly, the entire earth shook as a booming, robotic, feminine voice speaks from the heavens, “The game will now begin. Please wait a few moments.”

Slowly, the dots—the people begin to fade. As it slowly approached him, he could see people fading quickly in front of his eyes. It is frightening. As fearsome as a supernatural phenomenon. “It’s about to be my turn.” He, then, is raptured away.

In the blink of an eye, he finds himself in a very familiar place. A very familiar scene; the same thing he sees almost every day of his gaming life. “Isn’t this the menu?” Except, it doesn’t have the usual text and interactive elements that make a menu, and is crowded with people. A sudden curiousity causes him to look behind him. “Woah… so, this is what is behind me… all this time?” He laughs. Then, a sudden vibration on his right wrist almost made him jump. He looks at his wrist and notices a mysterious band on it. Then, a hologram pops up. “Oh, so this is the menu now? Interesting. I guess I’ll play a game now.”

As soon as he queues up for an unranked match, he is sent into a surreal version of the ‘Blueshore’ map. He feels the texture of the sand against his shoes, the damp and humid air wafting his back—the sound of the water departing and arriving. But most of all, something felt odd. He looks to his teammates, and himself.

“These aren’t my clothes… and we… we all look the same. We all look like Insurgents.”

He wobbles a little, slightly disorientated. He notices his other teammates’ bewildered expressions. One teammate screamed as they look a teammate’s face.

“Don’t scream at me,” an irritated male complains.

“Sorry,” a female voice apologizes.

This gives shivers in his spine. “Even as far as character appearances to keep the game’s essence,” he thinks to himself. He feels his wrist vibrate again, and he looks at it to see the buy menu for weapons, armor, and utility. He also checks his wristband if he could see the statistics, which he could. And his player name is highlighted, ‘Insight.’

He hears the subtle ticking, signaling the near-start of the match. So, he quickly buys a Fifty heavy pistol but has no idea how to switch to it.

“How do I…”

He observes the other teammates, who are also struggling with the controls. The match starts, and all of them were at spawn.

“Um, so how do we move?” another male teammate asks.

“I think we can move as normal… Faby,” another male teammate remarks.

Insight looks up at the other teammates and notices their nametags above them: Faby, 1-er, nYn_, brUK

Then, Insight steps forward once, immediately stopping before he falls face-first to the sand. He speaks up, “It seems like we’re moving the same speed as the game, boys.”

“Boys?” nYn_ reacts. “I’m not a boy.”

Insight shrugs as he takes another step. “This isn’t realistic.”

“This isn’t aimed for realism,” 1-er says. “It’s meant to be as close to the game as possible.”

“While in virtual reality?” brUK asks.

“Not virtual reality. Mind reality.”

“What are you talking about?” Faby asks.

“Are you stupid? How did you buy this headset without knowing that?”

“Chill out, 1-er,” nYn says.

“No need to be rude,” Faby retorts.

Insight jumps, and he notes that it feels the same as the game on the computer. “So, the mechanics are the exact same, except that we are in the game?”

“Exactly. This guy knows it.”

Everyone starts trying out the controls, realizing that it feels the exact same as how they would have played it on the computer.

“But how? This is a totally different platform,” brUK asks.“

1-er shrugs, “I don’t know.”

“And why?”

1-er shrugs again, “Don’t ask me that. I’m not the dev.”

Thirty seconds have passed, and a minute and fifteen seconds remain.

“I wonder if the TF is struggling the same,” Insight remarks.

“Must be,” says 1-er with nonchalant confidence.

“I hope so,” nYn_ adds.

They finally move to A site and mindlessly enter the site without preparation. Instantly, brUK gets punished with a shot to his head. “OUCH! Backsite, one!” He communicates as a spectator.

Insight and 1-er immediately focus on clearing the back-site, while the other two rush mindlessly into mid=site, and nYn_ starts planting with the site not cleared.

“Why are you planting!?” 1-er shouts, as he trades brUK for his shooter.

Then, an opponent shoots at nYn_ but only lands one body shot as nYn_ jumps around, screaming in panic.

“Shut up, damn!”

“Ah! Ah! It hurts!”

“Shut…” For some reason, 1-er hesitates to continue speaking. And for the split-second he was distracted, he gets sprayed down by another TF. “TF spawn!” he shouts, almost screeching.

Insight immediately peeks, his sights pre-aimed at the last seen position on the map, and prefixes a tap onto the opponent’s head, successfully trading.

“Good trade.”

“I’m planting.”

Faby then lays a smoke down for nYn_, and 1-er complains, “Why did you smoke? You’re just giving them cover-”

“Can you shut up, 1-er?” Faby retorts. “You’re dead.”

“Dead because of you.”

“Clear comms.” Insight interrupts, silencing both.

Faby retreats into A main, but dies. “AH! Flank already! So many nerds in this game.”

Insight immediately starts pushing into spawn behind smoke and cover. nYn_ fearing for her life. “Insight, help me!”

Insight does not respond, his sole focus is on defending the bomb.

“The bullets really hurt, but it’s not as intense,” Faby comments.

“Yeah. That’s crazy they added that. Makes the game much scarier to play,” brUK replies.

“Insight, help, please!” she moans.

“Don’t help her,” 1-er chuckles.

“Bro, like what is wrong with you?” brUK asks indignantly. “You’re toxic as hell.”

“I’m toxic as hell? Shut your mouth, kid.”

“What’s your problem, man?” Faby joins in.

“My problem, is-”

“Clear comms,” Insight sighs, wishing there was a mute button. He manages to sneak up behind a box overlooking the bomb. The smokes fade away, and nYn_ is revealed staying on top of the bomb she planted, now beeping slightly faster. Immediately, she gets shot down by two players. “AW!! Why does that hurt- Insight, why did you let me die?”

Then, two opponents start approaching the bomb, and Insight calmly two-taps both of their heads and immediately crouches behind the box, looking beside and behind him, searching for the final opponent.

“Damn! He’s clean with it!” brUK reacts.

“Nice!” Faby adds.

“I’m better though.”

Insight remains behind the box, and once he hears a tap, he quickly peeks out and shoots him twice in the body and quickly runs away before the bomb explodes.

“Nice!” The three except 1-er shout in unison.

“Damn, I whiffed,” Insight thinks to himself.