To Accept a Challenge

A blue sky appeared before me. Puffy white clouds swirled around, moving effortlessly through the breeze. A large plain of grass spanned as far as the eye could see. My body started to run. The fields rolled by, the sound of footsteps crunching the grass underneath. Soon, I came across an edge. Below, there was no ground nor any water. It was simply nothing: a void. A little further and higher past the edge, there was another grassy plain. I kept running. Then, I jumped off the edge, trying to land on the next plain.

I rose higher and higher into the air, getting further and further from the edge. But I wasn’t high enough. I wasn’t far enough. I needed to jump even higher. I needed to go even further. Otherwise, the void below would swallow me. Otherwise, I would never make it in time. Otherwise, I would never beat Mona.

Then, I dashed, landing safely on the grassy plain, and kept running.

There were sixteen of us in a room, each holding a controller, trying to beat Casus: the chosen game for the Video Game Tournament. At first, it seemed like a simple platformer with four levels. The movement options were your standard left, right, jump, and crouch. In addition, there was a dash you could perform to get a bit further than your max height and distance, though you could only perform it once in mid-air. Playing the game casually was like a simple stroll through a park. However, we were speedrunning the game, which was more akin to walking on magma with metal rods constantly stabbing at your feet. There were so many crazy and ridiculous maneuvers that made it possible to complete the hours-long game in under ten minutes. I had to give props to the speedrunners who attempted to get world records. I watched the first place record holder with Mona and man were his tricks insane. I mean, the speedrunner beat the game in under five minutes…

Anyways, here we all were attempting to beat the first world. The room only contained us participants and the game consoles. I was told this was for better concentration, which I was thankful for. There were, however, a few cameras to allow the spectators and judges outside the room to view. Aito and Lego were both watching Mona and I compete from there.

For those spectators, this probably looked like a casual outing between rivals. However, the air inside the room was tense. I mean seriously tense. The only sounds you heard were the quick flicks of analog sticks and some buttons being mashed. You barely heard anyone breathing. If you looked over at someone’s face, it seemed like they were preparing to die. It’s literally just a game; it’s not gonna kill you if you lose, I thought, not understanding their reasoning. I knew you had to be serious to win, but the faces were just overkill. However, there was one person who was completely serene, even flashing an evil grin as her fingers effortlessly moved across the controller…

“The first one to finish is Mona Amin, moving onto the second world with a time of two minutes, thirty-two seconds!”

Yep, Mona had just qualified for the second round. The rest of us were still only halfway through the world. I figured this would happen, though that was only because I saw her practice runs. My guess was she tried and successfully pulled off a bunch of insane tricks she saw in the speedrun videos. She only had a week of practice, but she ended up only two seconds off the world-record pace for World 1. I know none of us are professional gamers, but still…

It took another two minutes before the second, third, and fourth place competitors finished the world. Hmm, where was I? Well…

“Lucas Small comes in seventh with a time of five minutes, one second! Only one slot remains to move onto the second round!”

Maybe I should’ve practiced World 1 a bit more, I thought, frustration and embarrassment seeping onto my face. I had fallen off the stage on the third jump–one of the easiest in the game. I stole a quick glance at Mona to judge her reaction. She was remaining completely composed. However, I noticed her chest barely twitching up and down. Yep, she’s laughing at me. I had started to pick up on Mona’s cues ever since we hung out at Lego’s. Basically, if you knew where to look, you saw just how bad Mona was at maintaining her dignified act. Even when I point that out though, she just playfully redirects to my shortcomings. Sometimes, I thought she was even worse than Lego when she teased me.

Soon enough, the eighth person beat World 1, eliminating the other eight from the tournament. The remaining seven and I were moving onto the next round: World 2. We were given a five minute reprieve to get some water and use the restroom. We were playing games casually after all, so there was no way any of us were going to make it to the end without a few breaks. Maybe a few competitors were that good, but I definitely wasn’t. These quick breaks were miracles in disguise. I gulped down some water from my bottle and dried my sweaty hands with a towel. My hands were a bit sore, but it was nothing compared to the excruciating pain of that all day session with Mona. I couldn’t even pick up a pencil for a while. Stealing a glance towards Mona, I saw her practicing something on the controller–most likely a trick for the next world.

If I were to describe Mona’s gaming talent in a single word, she would definitely be a ‘witch.’ She researched the basics of the game to a fundamental level. Whenever she didn’t have a technique to solve a problem, she created and quickly improved on it. She even held her own against top players. According to the other competitors, the students actually started calling her the ‘Crimson Witch’ after she beat one of the top players in some other crazy, difficult platformer. All in all, Mona was a terrifying adversary.

However, even witches could be beaten, with the right strategy anyways.

“Lucas Small is the first to complete the second world with a time of three seconds!”

Hey, the rules never stated that abusing glitches weren’t allowed. I looked over at Mona, shooting her an evil grin of my own. She smiled back, her eyes glistening with intensity. She sped up her button mashing even faster than before. She breezed through the second world, completing it only a minute later. Mona’s really scary when she’s motivated. Mona seemed to notice that thought lingering on my face, replacing her already evil grin with a playful yet intense smile. I slightly sank into my chair before breaking eye contact.

After another two minutes, the next student finished the second world. I looked over and saw a girl slightly shorter than me. She had a well toned body, wearing a sweater crop-top with long, tight-fitting exercise pants. She gave off a similar aura to Mona, though not in an authoritative or respectful manner. It was more…gross. I saw her sneaking glances at Mona like a creepy stalker. I looked back to see how Mona was reacting, but her face was completely expressionless. Not sure whether that’s because she doesn’t care or that she’s too creeped out.

Half a minute after her, another student snagged the final spot. He had a highly chiseled body, which was evident through his semi-transparent shirt. He also stole glances at Mona, but it was more of a murderous glare than a creepy admiration. Everyone’s vying to crush Mona here, huh. Mona, on the other hand, wasn’t even sparing him a glance. That only seemed to make the dude’s glare even more deadly. It was so bad that I had to turn around completely to avoid the one-sided intensity.

After another break, it was finally time to run through World 3. Unlike the previous two worlds, we were drawing lots for a one-on-one bout. I had no idea why the organizers decided to do it this way, but I didn’t really care either. I was more worried about the opponent I drew. Mona and the other competitor left for a separate viewing room. I sat down in the seat and looked over my right shoulder. Murder man was sitting next to me, warming up his fingers. He glanced over at me for a brief moment. The way he glared screamed ‘you’re an inferior pest.’ It didn’t seem like he was going to take me seriously. I was okay with that though. If he thought I was inferior…

I just simply had to crush him.

Hey, I was trying to grant Mona’s wish, which meant I needed to face her. Plus, it wasn’t as if I could avoid going up against this guy. So, that only left crushing him.

Get it? Got it? Good.

“Go!” the host declared. Murder man and I were off. World 3 had plenty of routes, ranging from a hour-long stroll through a mountain path to a one-minute death jump into a volcano. Obviously, the more risky the route, the faster it was to beat the level. I took one of the more riskier routes which required some perfectly-timed inputs. With all my practice though, I thought I could clear them about 95% of the time, so I wasn’t too worried. Surprisingly enough, murder man also took the same route. Though, looking at his face, he seemed to really want to take a safer path.

Murder man wasn’t that bad of a player; he was only a second or two behind me in the beginning. However, he slowly began to lag further behind since he stopped at sections to do some slower but safer setups. Soon, the gap between us widened to ten seconds. At this rate, I was feeling slightly overconfident that I would make it to the finals.

Nearing the end of the world, murder man now lagged fifteen seconds behind. I was approaching the last required perfectly-timed input on the path; it was a giant jump. The trick required me to jump at the very edge and dash at the maximum height of my jump. It needed my complete concentration to time it correctly. To make it easier on myself, I counted down from five once I passed an indicator: a stone stalagmite shaped like a castle. It was convenient how perfectly it lined up.

I passed the stalagmite.

Five, I started counting in my head.

Four.

Three.

Two.

On–

My chair jostled, breaking my concentration. I ran off the edge and died. I looked down to find the source. I saw murder man’s foot quickly pulling away from the leg of my chair; he was sneering. Erg, I have to start over at the midpoint. It was my turn to lag a minute behind murder man, though at that point it really didn’t matter. The edge was only a few seconds away from the end, so unless he fell, I wouldn’t catch up in time.

Murder man cleared the jump, making it to the end and beating the world. The host announced him as the winner, so I guessed they hadn’t seen him kick the chair. Seeing him smirk like he won legitimately, only one emotion stirred inside me. I wasn’t mad that he sabotaged me. I wasn’t scared of him. I wasn’t even sad that I couldn’t fulfill Mona’s wish.

All I felt was pity.

I made my way over to the waiting room as my emotions cooled down. There was still the loser’s bracket to determine third and fourth place, so I was going to play the final world regardless. However, I was a bit depressed that I wouldn’t be able to grant Mona’s wish.

I opened the waiting room door. Mona and the toned girl walked out, getting ready for their own fight. Mona had two expressions mixed on her face. Towards me, she gave a soft smile. At the same time, she gave murder man a look of disgust. It was the first time I had ever seen her look so terrifying. I think she might have noticed the sabotage.

I sat down in the waiting room, taking the farthest seat from murder man, while Mona and the toned girl warmed up. The race began half a minute later. Not surprising anyone, Mona ran through the hardest route. The toned girl took a less complex route, though she had to somehow make up for a two minute deficit. Mona’s diligence and skill pretty much made it a one-sided victory. Only a video game god or a crafty devil can barely beat Mona, after all.

Mona came up to a series of jumps midway through the level. It required ridiculously precise movements, such that it killed almost 40% of all speedruns for the game. Mona, of course, made perfect inputs, swiftly moving across the route without breaking a sweat. As she approached the final jump, I saw a small grin cross her face.

Then, she jumped…right through the wall.

Getting stuck in a wall was almost always a softlock, making it impossible to continue the game without restarting from World 1. Normally, I would have thought that Mona got extremely unlucky. However, this was Mona, so everyone had their mouths agape. The wall Mona got softlocked in was essentially a nearly impossible trick to do. The only way to get in that situation would be to softlock yourself on purpose.

Mona stood up and strolled out of the room, leaving the flabbergasted host to announce the toned girl as the winner. I thought the toned girl would be mad because of Mona’s self-sabotage, but she was actually gleaming with even more admiration. She’s seriously gonna become an actual crazy stalker at this rate. Murder man, on the other hand, was cursing at the top of his lungs. It sounded like he really wanted to face Mona since she always ignored him.

Mona arrived in the waiting room, never dropping her smile. She ignored the curses murder man spat at her. Instead, she looked over at me, her eyes once again gleaming with expectation. It took me a moment to process what she was implying until…

“Now onto the loser’s bracket! Mona Amin and Lucas Small, please make your way to the consoles.”

Mona had lost, but now she could challenge me once more. I gave an exasperated sigh and returned her smile with a soft one of my own. I guess I better make good on her wish. We both left the waiting room, sitting down in the chairs, getting ready for our battle to begin again. I didn’t turn to check on Mona, but I was sure she was grinning, figuring out how best to win. I couldn’t say I was any different though; I was doing the exact same thing.

“Both competitors at the ready?” We both nodded our heads, our attention solely focused on the game in front of us. The countdown began. We both put on our fiercest smiles.

It was time to have some fun.