Game V.S. Gamer (A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Story) *ON HOLD*

Chapter 1: The Ultimate Game

"Sheesh, could this day get any worse...?" (y/n) groaned at having been handed yet another exam. She hated school. With a passion. There was too much drama and the only thing that really kept her coming back was the fact that one of her closest friends actually wanted to do well in life.
"Hehehe. Calm down, (y/n)," her best friend, (bf/n), said with a weak smile as she also accepted her history test and sat back down in her desk.
"Calm down? You expect me to be calm after all of those insults and stuff Lying Lili threw your way? And just too periods ago, no less!" the tomboyish teen angrily replied at having to breifly relive the annoying memory.
(bf/n) simply sighed as she began sharpening a small number 2 pencil and started writing her name on the test. Halfway through the awkward silence of the moment, a quiet reply came. "Lili West has always been a troublemaker. It's not really much of a suprise that she went and told half our grade that I've got a secret thug life, although you know I don't. I mean, honestly, half the preps hate her guts just as much as we do, but nobody's done anything to stop her..."
"Which is why I keep tellin' ya we need to do something about it..."
"I'll be fine, really. With friends like you, Emmet, and Karin, I could care less about that Lil' idiot," (bf/n) responded as she turned her attention back to the test at hand.
It took several seconds for the other teen to process the pun her friend had just said before she snickered as quietly as she could manage. It wasn't a very good pun, true, but just that her best friend had attempted was good enough. Alright, fine. I give up... (bf/n)'s optimism is so contagious, though, the girl thought with a smile as she began the dreaded test. I suppose I should just take that advice and look on the bright side for awhile. It's Friday already, and we planned to go have a sleepover for the weekend once our homework's over and done with. At least, THERE, Lili can't have her way... her mind wandered as she effortlessly filled in blank lines with the correct answers to the question which had been placed on the pages before her.
Although she was rather decent at history, and could memorize the answers better than many of the other students in her class, (y/n) had one reason in particular as to why she hated this subject the most. It was boring, just like her life. Things were rather predictable, and that was the one thing she couldn't stand. Wasn't life supposed to be some exciting adventure where going from day to day was never the same? Weren't you supposed to wake up each morning and have almost no clue (aside from the general things like eating, sleeping, going to school) what you were going to do or what was going to happen? That'd be nice, sure, but it was far from the truth. It pained her to even think this, but hanging out with her friends and going on "random" excursions to the mall, or the nearby pizza shop were beginning to become dull and monotonous.
(y/n) sighed and laid her head in her crossed set of arms on her desk, annoyed that things were how they were and nothing could really be done to change it. Already, despite class being nearly over, she desperately wished she was at home in her 'Dungeon' where she kept her favorite games. At least games were unpredictable, depending on who you were playing against. Why else would she start thinking about giving (bf/n) a rain check on their sleepover? It'd be a break in the routine, and she could finally find something that interested her. Gaming was her favorite pastime, and she excelled at it to the point where one could see it as an art form, regardless of what kind of game it was. Collectable card games, strategy games, board games, rhythm games, dating sims, thinking games, word puzzles - she played them all. However, the one she excelled at best was videogames. Arcade-style multiplayer roleplaying adventure games, to be more precise. There was just something about going on some epic quest to save another world from certain doom and destruction that made her want to continue playing again and again.
Well, it wasn't long before school ended, and (y/n) was standing in front of her locker to grab her things and head home. She had just about finished her locker combination and opened it, when she heard an obnoxious laugh from behind her. Ugh. Please, not this again... she thought as she glanced into the mirror which was magnetized on her door, dreading the idea of turning around and looking behind her. Ignoring the (f/c) frame which held the glass to the metal, she looked at the images of two girls reflected. The first was obviously her, standing closest to the mirror with her (e/c) eyes and (h/c) hair which was styled exactly how she normally had it: pulled back in a loose ponytail with her bangs tucked behind her ear. However, the second girl was obviously her arch rival and the worst prep in the entire school. With her perfect brown hair let down to the middle of her back, curvy figure, and smooth complexion, she was easily recognizable. "Lili West..."
"Hmph. You'd better recognize me, you low life!"
"Why are you even here...?" (y/n) questioned, trying to keep her tone even, having glanced away from the mirror to avoid eye contact with the horrid witch of Middleground High.
"Uh, this is the hallway I always use to get to the buses. Duh!" Lili said with a smirk, knowing what she was about to do.
"Ugh. Look just because this is the hall you use doesn't mean this is the hall you own, okay?" the teen sighed, grabbing her textbooks and putting them in her backpack calmly as she didn't realize that she was about to have the most embarrassing moment of her life.
"Whatever. Not like I care..." the brunette sneered, effortlessly fake tripping herself on her victim's ankle. As she went down, the wicked girl quickly brought up her pencil, unfastened the small clasp and zipper holding up the other's skirt, then placed the pencil back in her case.
Unfortunately, (y/n) hadn't noticed. She went to stand, slinging her backpack over her shoulder just when her skirt had managed to slip down to her knees. At first, the hall was dead quiet, but then several guys behind her began laughing up a storm, causing her cheeks to turn a deep shade of red as she realized what had just happened. Immediately, she pivoted on her feet, turning so she could curl up in a ball, using her knees and backpack to cover up her (f/c) underpants, resisting the unbelievable urge to find something to throw at the cause of her dispair. Swearing under her breath that she would someday get revenge for this, she buried her head in her backpack until she was quite sure that everyone else had left.
When she was absolutely positive that the coast was clear, (y/n) stood up and put her skirt back on properly. Once she had accomplished that much, she double checked her backpack and shut her locker before leaving out the front doors of her school. None of the buses were waiting outside like they should have been, and what was worse was the fact that she had forgotten to bring her cell phone. Dang it! This is so unfair! she thought to herself as she began what she expected would be the longest and most boring walk she had ever taken.
However, what she hadn't expected was that her friends - all three of them - had overheard what had happened to her and decided to tag along.
"Hey, (y/n)!" her best friend called out, dashing from behind a nearby tree, "Wait for us!"
"(bf/n)? What are you doing here?!" (y/n) questioned, obviously suprised by the sudden encounter. "A-And whaddaya mean, 'us'?"
"Geez, I sure feel appreciated..." a young 15-year-old sophomore sighed, the sarcasm quite evident in his tone as he crossed his arms and rolled his dark brown eyes in annoyance. "It's almost like she didn't want us to stick around after all that embarrassment...!"
"Ahem. That's more like 'harassment', if you ask me, Emmet," another girl with jet black hair snapped back in response, giving her boyfriend a good sock in the shoulder for what it was worth.
"Karin, what have I told you about playing nice?" (bf/n) grunted, attempting to separate the two much like a frustrated father would with a set of tangled-up Christmas lights.
At witnessing the scene laid out before her, (y/n) couldn't help but lean up against the tree her best friend had emerged from, hold her stomach, and laugh uncontrollably. She felt like she was the lucky one to have such good friends and not the other way around as she had constantly been told. The three immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at her in confusion, listening to her laughter as it filled the formerly empty, silent air. "You guys...! I can't believe you!"
"I will never understand women as long as I live..." Emmet said, shaking his head and tossing his slightly wavy brown hair around.
"I suppose that's a good thing, though. If you can't, then none of the guys can..." (bf/n) interjected, walking along the sidewalk near the school. "You gonna come with? Or am I just chopped liver to you?"
The other three quickly caught up, reducing the space between the four of them as they went along on their way. Much of the journey was spent talking about typical, high school problems and concerns, such as whether the next movie coming out would be any good, how all the "adults" of society were running the country, and if they had even the slightest chance of passing midterms in order to avoid sticking around for another year after being a senior. But, eventually, the route they were using took them past the local mall. Curious as to what could be going on to cause such a sudden burst of attendance, (y/n) suggested they go inside and investigate. What they found was nothing short of pure awesome.
"Guys! They're showcasing that new system I was telling you about!" (y/n) shouted in excitement.
"Which one would that be, again?" Emmet questioned, not even remotely interested.
"Emmet, do you always have to be this dense?" Karin sighed, annoyed. "I'm not a gamer like, (y/n), and even I know about the neXus!"
"Wait, isn't that the one where they made a home-compatible virtual reality for the average gamer?" (bf/n) wondered.
"Dude, they did better than that! They say you can actually go inside the game!" (y/n) squealed, literally inches away from fangirling.
"Wait, like in the Matrix or something?!" Emmet exclaimed, stunned.
"Exactly like the Matrix, but in this one you don't die if it's game over. I say we check it out!" Karin said with a smile as she and (y/n) proceeded to drag the other friends in their crew to the large skylit atrium in the center of the mall, anxious to see what was going on. Both sides of the roped-off area towards the front had posters depicting the game to be demo-ed: Fate of Heroes - Crystal Destiny. It appeared, at a glance, to be your typical, full-party, turn-based adventure game set in mideval times. However, at the very bottom, in small print, it mentioned something about a multiplayer function that was still in the process of refinement. Between the two posters was what seemed to be a checkup bed, like the ones they used in doctor's offices. Several wires with suction cups at the end and a headset with a visor were laying on the bed in question, waiting to be put on by the one who gained the coveted position of "first gamer".
Many of the players here in attendence were male, much to (y/n)'s annoyance. Did nobody believe in gamer girls anymore? And, to make things worse, only one would be chosen to take part in the demo hosted by the three main programmers of the game, who were sitting in silver folding chairs to the right of their mechanical pride and joy. She watched intently as several scraps of paper and pencils were passed around. Apperently the choice would be made by lottery. She could handle that. At the very least, it was fair. Each of the four friends took a paper scrap and pencil, proceeding to write their names on them before folding them up and placing them in several cans that were also being passed as well.
"Do you think we'll be picked?" (y/n) questioned, watching with eager anticipation as she saw the cans being brought up to the front as it's contents were being poured out in a large bowl of sorts.
"Doubt it," Karin replied with a sigh. "There are way too many people here. And you keep forgetting, only one of us can go. If anybody, I hope it's you."
"Yeah. You are the Gaming Goddess of (y/t), after all..." Emmet trailed off, looking longingly at the food stand only a few yards away.
"Shhhhh!" (bf/n) hissed, clamping a hand on her friend's mouth. "Do you want EVERYONE and their GRANDMOTHER to be on top of (y/n)?! Honestly!"
The culprit simply glared at his captor as he sighed, inwardly admitting defeat. In the meantime, the youngest of the three programmers - an older teenage girl with long, strawberry blond hair - stood up from her chair and approached the bowl filled with names. For several seconds, the silence of the moment nearly made Emmet throw off the hand covering his mouth so he could shout something random and break it. However, the young woman quickly spoke up, reaching into the bowl and grabbing a single strip of paper and reading from it. "Would (bf/n) please come up to the front? You are the one chosen for the position of 'first gamer' for the neXus."
(y/n)'s eyes widened some at this. The chances were slim, of course, but she hadn't quite expected her best friend to be chosen. She blinked a little and looked to (bf/n), who seemed pale as a sheet. Apperantly, she didn't think she'd be chosen, either. "Come on. I know you can do this."
"But, I don't know if I want to... You should take my chance, (y/n)!" the young girl hesitantly replied.
"No. You won, fair and square. You should go," Emmet said, gently nudging (bf/n) in the general direction of the system.
Karin smiled at seeing this, giving a thumbs-up sign to her friend as she whispered, "Go knock 'em dead, kay?"
(y/n) watched silently as her best friend slowly made her way to the front and stood before the three programmers. She hated admitting it to herself, but she was rather jelous at the moment. I was kinda hoping I'd get to play first... she thought, not noticing that another familiar face was watching her from amidst the crowd. Soon enough, though, she heard the annoying laughter once again. "GOSH DARNIT, LILI! CAN YOU LEAVE ME ALONE FOR ONCE IN YOUR FREAKIN' LIFE?!"
"What? Little old me? What ever could you be talking about?" the brunette sarcastically questioned in a cutesy tone.
"We know what you did, ya 'Lil Idiot! Now back off before--!" Emmet began, his face getting red with anger.
But, unfortunately, the young teen never finished his empty threat. For you see, in that moment, the power mysteriously went out for a breif moment in time. Nobody knew the cause of the sudden surge, nor did many of the innocent gamers really care. All they understood was that there wasn't any electricity running in the building, and that was reason enough for many of the girls to scream and panic until the backup generators kicked in and restored the lights, along with the other electrical equipment needed for the demonstration. The three programmers were busy trying to calm everyone down, so none of them noticed their demo gamer, (bf/n), was experiencing complications.
(y/n) watched in horror as her best friend went pale, inhaled sharply, then went limp and seemingly lifeless right before her eyes. She swallowed nervously and hastily made her way up to the top of the platform, where the bed was that held her unmoving body as she checked briefly for a pulse. It was slow, but not stopped entirely, which was good. "H-Hey... You... What'd you do to (bf/n)?" she asked the programmers, her voice somehow sounding completely unlike her own.
"What do you mean, what did we do? We just--!" the eldest of the three, a tall, slightly tanned male with deep blue eyes began, then quickly cut himself off when he saw the condition of their first gamer. His eyes went wide in suprise as he looked to the young woman who had called her up in the first place. "You said this couldn't happen! I thought the system was foolproof against surges!"
"We never tested it with people inside them during an outage, Kent! You should know that!" she then turned to (y/n) and continued, "Look, I know this will sound really crazy, but you have to go through Fate of Heroes to find that girl! You're the Gaming Goddess of this place, so you're the only one who can make it in that world without dying! We can't get through to her from this side, so this is our only chance!"
"What the heck are you talking about?!" (y/n) demanded, obviously frightened and slightly annoyed by the lack of adequate information. "I don't get it!"
"Please... Just trust me on this..." she pleaded, staring into her widening (e/c) eyes as she said this.
"(y/n), I don't know about this. Something doesn't feel right here..." Karin spoke up, trying to be the voice of reason. "We should just go call the ambulance and see what they have to say."

IF (Y/N) CHOOSES TO...
->Call the ambulance and wait until professional help arrives, proceed to Chapter 3
->Trust the gaming programmer and question for further information, proceed to Chapter 2