Respawn in Reality: Game Over, Player One

Chapter 2

Mike’s smile disappeared. His face turned cold and mean. "Back pay? For what? You just lost us the most important game of the year. Read your contract, Leo. Section four, paragraph two. 'In the event of a severe failure to perform, the organization can terminate the player and withhold all remaining funds.' You broke the team's trust."

"You shot me in the back!" Leo screamed, stepping toward Mike.

Mike moved faster than Leo expected. He reached out, grabbed Leo by the collar of his cheap, faded t-shirt, and shoved him hard backward. 

Leo stumbled, his thin body crashing into a small glass coffee table. The table didn't break, but the sharp corner hit his back hard. Leo gasped in pain.

"Look at you," Mike spat, looking down at Leo with pure disgust. "You are pathetic. You come into our house wearing rags. You smell like a cheap diner. You don't fit the brand, Leo. You are a poor, sad loser. And nobody wants to watch a loser on stage."

Julian walked over and tossed a dirty, wet duffel bag onto the floor next to Leo. "I packed your stuff," Julian said with a laugh. "Try not to leave any dirt on the floor when you walk out."

Leo looked at his bag. It held everything he owned in the world. Two pairs of jeans, a few shirts, and a broken phone charger.

"Get out," Mike ordered, pointing to the front door. "If I ever see your face near this gaming house again, I will have the security guards break your fingers. You'll never hold a mouse again. Game over, Leo."

Leo wanted to fight. He wanted to punch Mike in his perfect, smiling face. But he knew he couldn't. He was weak. He hadn't eaten a real meal in two days. He was small, and he was alone.

Slowly, his body aching from the fall, Leo picked up his bag. He didn't look at Mike or Julian. He didn't look at his silent teammates. He just kept his head down and walked out the door.

The cold hit him the second he stepped outside. It wasn't just raining; it was a freezing, heavy downpour. 

The sky above the city was a dark, angry gray. The wind blew fiercely, cutting right through Leo's thin cotton shirt. 

Within seconds, he was completely soaked. The water ran down his face, mixing with the hot tears of frustration and anger that he could no longer hold back.

He walked away from the massive gates of the Team Apex mansion. He didn't have money for a bus. He didn't have money for a taxi. He had to walk the five miles back to the dirty, dangerous part of the city where he lived.

Every step felt like stepping on broken glass. His sneakers had holes in the bottom, and the freezing puddle water soaked his socks.

“What am I going to do?” he thought wildly. His mind was racing, panic setting in. “I don't have rent. I don't have food. I have nothing.”

He was twenty-two years old, and his life was entirely over. He had dropped out of college to pursue esports because it was his only talent. He was a genius at gaming. He understood numbers, timing, and strategy better than anyone in the world. But none of that mattered in the real world. 

The real world did not care about your high score. The real world only cared about money and power.

Leo hugged his arms around his chest, trying to keep warm. He was shivering violently. His teeth crashed together over and over.

As he walked past the bright neon signs of restaurants and stores, the smell of warm food hit him. Hot pizza. Roasted meat. Fresh bread. His stomach twisted into a tight, painful knot. He felt dizzy.

“Just keep walking,” he told himself. “Just make it home.”

But his body was failing him. The stress of the betrayal, the freezing cold, and the severe lack of food were all crashing down on him at once.

Suddenly, a sharp, burning pain shot through his chest.

Leo stopped walking. He dropped his bag. He grabbed his shirt right over his heart. It felt like someone had pushed a hot knife between his ribs.

"Ah..." Leo gasped. He couldn't pull air into his lungs.

He stumbled to the side, leaning heavily against the brick wall of a dark alleyway. The main street was busy with cars driving by, splashing water, but no one looked at him. Nobody cared about a sick kid in an alley.

The pain in his chest got worse. It started to spread to his left arm. His fingers went completely numb.

“Am I having a heart attack?” Leo thought in pure terror. “I'm too young. This can't be happening.”

But his heart was beating at a lethal speed. Thump-thump-thump-thump. It was entirely out of control.

Then, another feeling started. It didn't feel like a heart attack anymore. It felt like fire. A strange, boiling heat began at the base of his neck, right on his spine. 

The heat shot down his back and then exploded into every vein in his body. It felt like his blood was turning into acid.

Leo fell to his knees. The dirty, wet concrete tore the fabric of his cheap jeans. He hit the ground hard, splashing into a puddle of cold, muddy water mixed with old trash.

Through the agonizing pain, a memory flashed in his mind.

Five years ago. He was seventeen, and he needed rent money. He had seen a flyer on a college bulletin board. Paid Medical Trial. $500 cash. Safe and easy. 

He went to a strange, clean building on the edge of the city. They told him it was an experimental allergy medicine. 

They gave him a shot in the back of his neck and handed him five hundred dollars. He had a fever for a day, but then he felt fine. He had forgotten all about it. He had never known the true name of the drug.

He didn't know it was illegal military technology. He didn't know it was called Project Prometheus.

And he didn't know that the microscopic nanites had been asleep in his blood for five years, waiting for his body to experience a life-or-death level of biological stress to finally wake up.

Leo’s body arched backward in the mud. His eyes rolled up into his head. The heat in his veins reached his brain. It felt like an electrical storm was exploding behind his eyes.

His cortisol stress hormones spiked beyond human limits. His heart rate hit a tempo that should have killed him instantly.

Deep inside his cells, millions of dormant, microscopic machines suddenly turned on. They began to repair, calculate, and rewrite his biology.

Leo let out one final, choking breath, and then the world went completely black.