The Homeless Gamer Now Rules Over The Land of Eternal Rain

Prologue: The Homeless Gamer

“Where’d he go?! Find him!” A man’s voice could be heard cutting through the deafening sound of heavy rainfall. Another man leaned tightly against a brick wall in an alley nearby, breathing heavily. He wore a gray trench coat with a white shirt, black pants, and white shoes. His black shaggy hair drooped on his face from being soaked, with drops of water falling off his beard. His chest heaved as he peered over his shoulder, seeing beams from people’s flashlights cutting through the darkness of the night, his brown eyes darted around for any other threat before he lay his head against the wall. “Come on, Theo, calm down,” he muttered to himself. Theo Miller, a 30-year-old homeless man from New York City. He used to be a security consultant with knowledge of hacking before getting blacklisted. He received debt from an unknown family member, and when he couldn’t pay it off, the loan sharks created rumors, blackmail, and ruined his reputation.

“There he is!” Theo widened his eyes as he ran further into an alley, as a flashlight pointed at him, as he ran as fast as he could towards the other side. Headlights of cars lit up the streets as he ran between traffic, as people honked their horns at him for the disruption. He soon ran downstairs, leading into the subway as he looked behind them, several men close behind. His eyes looked towards the train as he ran towards it desperately. But he...tripped. His wet body slid across the floor face-first before turning his head behind him and seeing the grunts getting closer. “Shoot, shoot, shoot!” Theo yelled in panic before getting up and running again. “Hold on!” they yelled as he reached for the door as which closed, and made it just in time. He breathed heavily as people stared at him, and he sat down on one of the seats and laid his hand on the glass window and slid his hair back to get the wet bangs out of his face. Theo looked at the window to see his reflection with his nose bleeding. Probably from when he fell. He wiped the blood off with his sleeve and sighed.

Theo folded his arms and rested against the seat of the subway. Currently in Manhattan, he rode the A Train to Far Rockaway in Queens. He looked to his left and saw a man in a business suit arguing on his phone, squeezing a stress ball, while a child on his right sat on the floor of the train, throwing a baseball against the door. Theo closed his eyes and tried to collect his thoughts. He remembers when a fortune teller told him as a child he would experience misery the older he got, but now he’s wondering if she was cursing him and not just telling his fortune. As he thought this, the man squeezing the stress ball yelled “SCREW YOU!” before throwing it down the hall of the train, before it bounced off a window, to a pole, and onto Theo’s cheek. Theo let out a sigh. “At least it wasn’t worse,” he muttered before a baseball hit him in the face and then onto his lap, followed by the crying of a child.

A woman came up to him apologetically, “I’m so sorry! He threw the ball in a fit. Can I have it back?” Theo looked at her with a deadpan expression. “Yeah. Sure,” he said before handing the ball back to her and starting to rub his cheek from the sting when she turned away. Theo gave a small huff of laughter to himself. Ever since he was young, he had bad luck, but it seemed to just get worse as he got older. He smiled and closed his eyes again as a couple of musicians using guitars played music on some seats next to him, letting the melody of their music pass the time on the way to Queens.

When he stepped out of the subway, he looked around carefully. There didn’t seem to be anyone suspicious lurking about. Good. He walked out into the street above the subway and checked his watch. 1:30 AM. He can’t believe those goons practically chased him all night. “Alright...now. Time for the next hideout, I guess,” he said to himself. Theo had more than several hideouts scattered throughout New York, often in abandoned buildings or sewers. The next location he was heading for was the New York State Pavilion Observation Towers, located in Flushing Meadows in Corona Park. In order to get there, he had to take the 7 Train next at Times Square and get off at Mets–Willets Point Station. He felt nervous the whole way, getting soaked by the rain every time he stepped outside to make it to the next location. “I hate the rain so much,” he grumbled. He never liked the rain, but today just made it all the more grating.

When he finally made it to Corona Park, it was emptier than usual due to the rain. There were wide open paths lined with trees and patches of grass. The air was slightly damp, and there were distant echoes from the nearby stadiums. The deeper into the park he went, the quieter it became. The Unisphere, a massive steel globe from the World’s Fair, came into view, a beautiful sight, even in the dark night where drips of water fell through its frame. Approaching the New York State Pavilion rose like a rusted monument, with three towering observation decks and what remained of the Tent of Tomorrow, a gigantic flat circle connected by beams and suspended by cables and held up by pillars beneath pavement showing a giant replica of a map of New York, resting on the floor, cracked by wear and neglect. The sight was sad in a way, a reminder of a forgotten ambition of when New York looked forward to the space age in 1964.

After giving the area one more careful scan, it was time to sneak in. Fencing and locked gates surrounded the complex, and there was no public access. The elevators were defunct, and the stairs were unstable. There were some security guards around, but they were more active during the day. Thankfully, there was a breached section of the fencing, weakened by time and structurally compromised by past urban explorers. Theo made his way past the weakened section while being careful of any people guarding the area and began to climb up the rusted maintenance staircase to the tallest observation tower. Inside the circular observation deck was one of his several sanctuaries. His ‘Homeless Gamer Room’.

Before the loan sharks ruined his reputation and cost him his job, he knew there was no way to pay off the enormous sum placed upon him. He began to buy food, supplies, power stations, and portable Wi-Fi hotspots with directional antennas to connect to nearby public networks, along with sleeping bags for rest, and several laptops to place in the locations. With his experience in hacking and previous occupation as a security consultant, it wasn’t too difficult to find buildings to sneak into and set up places to hide. What’s even better is that places like these were illegal to enter, so the loan sharks probably wouldn’t even consider looking for him here. To make some extra money for food, he would stream games at random times. He didn’t have a big audience because of that, but an urban explorer's ‘homeless gamer’ was an attention grabber to those who found out. Like for any homeless person, a small donation went a long way. Whenever he would make videos, he would put cardboard and foam around the area to help soundproof the room.

He tiredly looked at the laptop sitting next to the winding staircase in the center of the room. Next to the laptop on the floor was a power box, a wi-fi hotspot, a rope, and a ‘Tengu’ mask. Theo had a mask he wore for every location scattered throughout the city. He respected Japanese mythology and chose the Tengu mask for his Tent of Tomorrow hideout, or what he referred to as his ‘Sky Bunker’. A rogue spirit. A guardian of forgotten places. A Tengu mask was perfect for this location. Theo played many games over the course of his life, many of which were Japanese RPGs. Because Japan’s creations in animation, comics, and video games were a part of his childhood, he gained some familiarity with some of Japan’s mythology, and came to admire figures from it.

He sat down and picked up the mask, its nose extending in front of him as he turned on the camera and began to record. “Helloooooo, everyone! It’s me! The Homeless Gamer! As you know, I’ve been hopping to various places, living a life of danger while bringing you entertainment with my awesome gaming skills and incredible stories! Get this. Recently, some bad guys tried catching me again, but they failed as always! But as always, I’ve had some bad luck. It rained for what felt like forever, and on the way here on a subway, I got hit in the face by a stress ball and a baseball from a businessman and a kid. I swear, you would think the universe is playing dodgeball with me! Why are there so many balls?! Anyway, last time I kicked everyone’s butts in some fighting games, but I feel like taking a break from that and going back to an RPG, so today-”

BANG!

Theo froze at the sound of a gunshot and quickly closed the laptop. He lowered and turned his head slightly, trying to listen for nearby noises. For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of rain and thunder, but he began to hear the creaking of metal before hearing a crash below. “Hey! You okay?!” he heard a man yell. He recognized that voice. It was those stupid loan sharks again. Well, he planned ahead for this, too. He grabbed the rope nearby and ran towards the railing of the observation deck to tie the rope to it to get ready to go down to the other observation tower. He looked over his shoulder to see a man climb out of the stairs as Theo tried to hurry up the knot. He looked over one last time as several more men began to walk towards him. Getting ready to jump, a flash of lightning struck down the observation tower he was going to jump to, and it fell down to the Tent of Tomorrow.

Theo’s eyes widened before softening as he drooped in defeat, giving a small smile as a voice came from behind him. “Now THAT is bad luck, isn’t it, Theo?” the voice said amusingly as he walked towards Theo. The man had blonde, slicked back hair with purple sunglasses, wearing a purple suit with a black undershirt. “Hey Robbie,” Theo said as he turned to face the man. “You’ve been eluding us for over a year now, Theo. That’s way longer than most. But you owe us a debt.” Robbie smirked, holding the Tengu mask that was previously on the ground. “You’re the ‘Homeless Gamer’, right? You actually got some fans in that amount of time. My son is one of them, you know. I don’t like the idea of killing you. Especially with how creative you are, plus your past occupation.” Theo glared before smiling in an annoyed expression. “Yeah. Before you ruined my reputation,” he replied. “Besides, I don’t owe you a single coin. That’s between you and the relative I had no idea existed.”

Robbie tapped his fingers across the Tengu mask. “We’ve been over this, Theo. You have a cousin who died. He had a gambling problem. He took out a loan from us, went broke, and on the form we got both your and his signature. Upon his death, the debt fell to you.” Theo dropped his smile and yelled, “I didn’t sign any paper!” he yelled as more lightning struck. “And do you have any way to prove that?” Robbie calmly asked Theo. “You didn’t know of your cousin, but he knew of you. His gambling problem was terrible, and no company would give him a credit card to fuel his addiction. My company offers a credit card, granted on the illegal side of things, as long as there’s some collateral. One way is a co-signed joint debt. We looked into his family situation, and you turned out to be his last living family member. I looked further into you and wanted to hire you. But as we both know, you didn’t want to pay off the debt because it would take the rest of your life to do so, or work for me.” Robbie lowered his head and glared at Theo. “But you didn’t do either. You ran away. You planned ahead. But my reach extends far. This wasn’t going to last forever. You could have lived comfortably as my employee, but you were too morally righteous to work with criminals. Ironic that you use abandoned buildings that are illegal to enter as your hideouts. This is your last chance, Theo. Work for me as my employee, or I will take your organs. It won’t be enough to pay off your cousin’s debt, but it’s better than nothing. Choose.”

Robbie and the men behind him waited patiently for Theo’s answer. Heavy winds began picking up as Theo turned back again and put his hands on the railing. “You know, Robbie, there is actually another option. It’s one where neither of us wins.” he said calmly. Robbie furrowed his brow. “What are you talking about, Theo?” Theo flashed him a smile as another flash of lightning covered the area. He began to walk towards Robbie as the men behind him put their hands on their guns. But he suddenly stopped and turned around and ran towards the railing at full speed as incredible gusts of wind blew off Robbie’s sunglasses to reveal his horrified expression. If Theo hit the pavement from the height they were at, his organs wouldn’t be salvageable. Robbie was dumbfounded, and his grip loosened on the Tengu mask as it flew off with the wind, as Theo jumped over the railing with a smile on his face. Robbie’s face turn from horror to anger as veins formed on his face. “YOU CRAZY MOTHER F-”

Lightning struck Theo in a flash of light.