Game On

Chapter Twelve: "Lulu To The Rescue"

The Game Master's hologram faded away, leaving those in the throne room in stunned silence. It wasn't long though, before one of the Dwarven players snapped out. "What an asshole! What gives him the right to fuck with peoples' lives like this?! What is it all for in the end?!" A few players tried to shush the Dwarf in case the Game Master was still listening, but he ignored them to spit out. "How does he expect us to win this? Did you see what that boss could do?! He was just the first one!" Mark gently took Sean's arm, leading him a short way from the others to whisper to him softly. "Did you catch what the Game Master said?" Sean tried to recall. He'd been so shaken up by the Game Master killing the other player that he barely focused on the details. Giving Mark a tiny shrug, Mark informed him uneasily. "He called us 'Gamers.' Like he knew..." Sean scoffed a bit, before relaxing enough to retort. "Mark, we are. What is so suspicious about that?"

Mark shook his head, glancing around as he told Sean coolly. "The Game Master said there were only so many gamers in this game. People that got early access, like us. The other half are new players. Young. Old. People that don't play games for a living or often enough to be called gamers." As that sank in, Sean exhaled out uneasily. "You're right. But... he could have just been speaking generally." Mark stepped away from Sean, calling out to the group over the chatter of the others. "HEY! Does anyone here have less than a year's worth of gaming under their belt? Doesn't matter the game. Raise your hand." The others all blinked and looked around. Not a single person raised their hand. One of the female elves shot back at Mark curiously. "Why are you asking?" Mark scanned the group with his eyes, answering honestly. "I'm trying to figure something out. So, everyone here has a couple years worth of gaming experience? No one here is a noob to playing games similar to this?"

A few people smirked or chuckled to themselves, shaking their heads. Kol moved through the crowd to get closer to them as Mark turned to Sean and stated in a clear voice. "He knew we were all gamers. The Game Master's experiment could be testing us." The crowd burst into loud chatter, until Kol yelled out to silence them and then asked Mark swiftly. "Why would he care about that? It's a game. Gamers like us will dominate it. Casual players won't stand a chance without a respawn mechanic." Mark nodded, then replied confidently. "I don't know. But I think it is something worth noting. If he is testing Hardcore Gamers against Casual Players... Every boss we kill could mean something bad for them." On of the human players chuckled sarcastically, blurting out seriously. "Then let's make sure that we are on the winning side. No Casual Player is going to make me a vegetable! If this is a team based thing, then we should win this hands down!"

Mark stormed up to the man, towering over him in both height and muscle as an Aesir. Glaring at the man, Mark snapped out loudly over the laughter of the man's friends. "Don't you get it! This is not a game! This effects peoples' lives! Children!" The human snorted, glaring back at up at Mark as he sneered out bitterly. "I don't know them. They shouldn't be playing a game like this if they don't have the skill for it. That is THEIR problem. Not mine, old man. I'm here to win the game." Mark's fingers curled into fists, when he growled out at him. "You think you're so tough... but you aren't worth the shit you're made of." The man shoved Mark, yelling out like a preening peacock. "You wanna go, old man?! I'll kick your ass! I'll end you right here!" His buddies started to surround Mark, until Kol and a few other players stepped in to separate them. Sean rushed up to Mark's defense as Kol shouted to those around them. "Knock it off! Save it for the boss fights or none of us are getting out of here, assholes!"

One of the female elves by Kol leaned closer to look at Mark and Sean with narrowed eyes, before exclaiming in excitement. "Oh, my stars! It's Markiplier!" Sean's heart fell into the pit of his stomach as the others turned to look at them more closely. Backing up a step or two, Mark tried to block Sean from view as he uttered out under his breath. "Oh, fuck..." Those that didn't know who they were asked others near them. While those that did began to stalk forward toward him before rushing in with excited squeals. Within seconds, they were surrounded and bombarded with questions and praises. Sean pressed his back to Mark's as people reached out to touch him, causing him to whine out nervously. "Mark?!" Mark reached back to touch Sean's hip, anxiously telling him over the fans. "Ya. I know..." The fans closed in, talking over each other until Sean felt unsafe and started to fear being torn apart by them or getting hurt as they started to fight to get closer to him.