Gamelit Novel 21 (at the crossroads) (Patreon)

            Killz’s first PVP battle was a cinematographer’s dream, especially the way it happened. Everyone expected the leet MOBA player to hunt players, not the other way around… but Killz and Goldie had been heading north for the Banewood Hills, the level 11-20 area, killing every itinerant NPC and any animal they could snipe from the road, when they’d been knifed in the back by a team of assassins. Ray’s stream key didn’t give him access to the assassins’ feeds, but he saw the beta tags on their names and it didn’t take a genius to guess their motivations… what could be better for their numbers than to attack the one beta team that was doing something so interesting the whole internet was talking about it?

            Needless to say, it didn’t go the way they planned. It did last longer than Ray expected, which gave him plenty of time to swing the camera around and get the best angles on the action, slow-moing the right places to make the sweet, sweet damage numbers hang in the air longer. Bonus: there was dialogue. The assassins taunted; Killz slapped back; Goldie went maximum snark. There were multiple exchanges of words and blows. Ray was there for every second of it. Best part? The attack was completely random. Had nothing to do with Killz’s quest to become Public Enemy Number One… the jokers just wanted to be the first beta team to take down another beta team. They were, instead, the first beta team to die to another beta team, but that was fame, too. Especially when they respawned vowing revenge, which—Ray checked their channel—they totally did.

            The conversation between Killz and Goldie after they dispatched their new sworn enemies was just as perfect, because the RPG-loving Goldie spent all of it trying to convince his PVP-loving partner that becoming player hunters was the new hotness… but Killz disagreed. He wanted to wreck the AI, “stress-test it until it begs for mercy,” in his words. “I’m already a PVP god,” he continued. “I don’t need to prove it against roleplaying scrubs. It’s not a challenge. Now… messing with you losers and your game world… that’s fun.”

            Ray clipped that immediately and made a short out of it, because if that didn’t go viral as something everyone was going to love to hate, or use to prove, he wasn’t a channel manager. He also did a “best of” quips reel, cutting out the wittiest parts of the dialogue and interlacing it with the best shots of the attacks. He even put up a poll, which he generally didn’t bother with, to see whether people wanted more PVP action or more “Messing With the AI” shenanigans… he used a long, sad pan over the ruins of Donner’s Creek for a headliner graphic, and liked it enough to make it the banner for the day. Then it occurred to him that there was material for a longer video about Killz’s past as a MOBA player, so he put in a mobile order for two boba teas and started researching.

            Three hours later, he came up for air and had a look at the channel with proprietary pride. Not all Killz’s MOBA channel viewers had come over, but more and more were showing up every hour. The aggregate comment stream sidebar never stopped, and it was full of people talking about the duel and Donner’s Beck. They were turning the latter into a verb as he watched: “whats he gonna donnersbeck next.”

            Riding high on success, Ray indulged in a very long shower and dug into his refrigerator for leftover pizza. While it was rotating in the microwave, he brought up his second responsibility, because he was feeling mellow and that was probably the best mood for Bard Wonder and his lectures on lore.

            …he was just in time for the song.

            When the last string stopped vibrating, leaving only the sound of the creek and the faint chorus of frogs, he stared at the monitor for several heartbeats, then lunged for his mouse. Skating back through the footage, he started moving the camera, backing it up, getting the scope of the thing in the shot. He panned back over the ruined village, returned to the kid with the instrument, easing into the close shot of his fingers on the strings… started playing with the audio levels, to make it feel closer to the viewer, and then amping up the ambient noises toward the end. It was brilliant. It was like something from a movie. Like something from the same movie as the Killz/Goldie channel. The tragedy of Donner’s Beck from multiple sides.

            Did he dare…? If he made the link too obvious, the kid’s channel might explode with the kind of viewers who weren’t into lore and humor and cooking. Ray wasn’t sure he wanted to be a party to the carnage the internet-of-trolls would wreak on a hapless teen and his obviously clueless mom. But how amazing would it be to tie these stories together? If he was careful… oh God, and the kid actually gave him something to work with, with those heartfelt vows. Ray rubbed his face. If he played the cards wrong, he’d make a meeting between the two teams inevitable, and then Killz would wipe the floor with them and destroy Donner’s Beck again, and that would suck. Not just for the channels either, but for the players. Even Killz and Goldie, because having them PVP a couple of trolls who were asking for it was one thing… setting them up against a pathetic mom-and-son combo would make them look like monsters.

            …but people loved to watch monsters….

            Ray tapped his finger on the mouse, lightly, and tried to decide what to do next.

***

            Nick surprised her by showing up for breakfast, bleary-eyed and with hair sticking up every which way... and then by rummaging in the cabinet for a pan. “I’ll make bacon,” he said. “And toast. Is bacon and toast good? I don’t think I can make eggs without burning them.”

            Amanda wasn’t sure he could make bacon without burning it, but she was willing to let him try. “Bacon and toast sounds great.”

            More noises now while she listened, bemused: a plastic package opening, the toaster button being depressed. The toast would be cold long before the bacon was done, but timing could wait until he had more confidence. Amanda intended to stay awake in case he needed help, but she drifted off and woke up twenty minutes later to the smell of fried bacon and the call: “It’s ready! I think. It looks done enough, anyway!” At the table, he set out the plates, family-style, and added, “I tried frying the bread in the bacon grease like we did in the game. Maybe it worked? At least, I didn’t set anything on fire.” He plucked up a piece and chomped. “Oh, no, it’s great!”

            Amanda laughed. “Here’s to not setting anything on fire.”

            Over breakfast, he told her about the quest he’d started to restore the town. “I know we’re supposed to get you to the capital, but this feels more important. To me, anyway. Do you mind?”

            “Nope.” She paused. “Is there a reason I would?”

            “Well, the point of the beta is to get you to the capital, and then we both get stuff….”

            “Is there a time limit?” Amanda asked. “The only thing I remember in the contract is that it seemed like a long time to me. Two months?”

            “One month,” Nick said.

            “Isn’t that long enough to get to the capital and still help the villagers?”

            He brightened. “It should be. As long as you don’t think it’s too depressing?”

            “To rebuild a village?” She put her chin in her hand and arched her brows. “I think I stand a better chance of being helpful doing that than… I don’t know. Killing a zombie army.”

            “There are no zombie armies,” Nick promised, and then ruined it by finishing, “That I know of.”

            “If there are, you stand in front.”

            He laughed. “My character class isn’t tank material, but… I’ll tank anything for you, Mom.”

            “That’s so sweet of you that I’ll pretend I know what it meant!”

            As expected, that set him off again and she watched him laugh with pleasure… and even understood the explanation afterwards, that a ‘tank’ was a character that took damage from monsters so that other, more fragile characters could work on killing it without getting squished. By that standard, she thought she should be the tank, because it was her parental duty to get between her kid and danger. Her avatar’s pony body certainly looked sturdy enough, even if it wasn’t the brawny behemoth other centaurs were.

            “Breakfast was great,” Amanda said. “Especially the toast. Thank you for cooking.”

            “You’re welcome. I even turned the stovetop off!”

            “Are you sure?”

            “Yep.”

            “Doublecheck?”

            He rolled his eyes, but he did, and he had, in fact, done everything right. “Should I wash these pans?”

            Amanda grinned. “Leave them for your father. Let’s go play Omen Galaxica.”