"What in the 8-bit Hell is that? Does Persica have a gummi spaceship or something?" Gamer gawked, which also let everybody know that wasn't Sam's updated ship.
The UFO spread open its tentacles as if they were pincers. This widened its underside, where a compartment extended some kind of apparatus. It looked like a conduit rod. Some kind of energy charged up at its tip, and then it fired a bolt of energy. Against expectations, the beam travelled at a sloth's pace.
"Friend or foe?" Minnie asked.
"Hard to say. It looks like they're dropping something, or someone, off," Gamer couldn't tell from their distance.
"It might be an abduction ray," Sonia noted its slow descent. "Aliens might be here to imprison us, and then strip us, probe us, and then impregnate us with hundreds of alien eggs!"
Sonia grew increasingly frantic and horny, and everybody else looked at her for a hard minute. The projectile was nearly grounded.
Asterion reasoned, "What are the chances it's a weapon? And this is some sort of alien attack?"
"An alien takeover with one space invader? That's stupid!" Gamer pressed X to doubt. He watched the beam nearly touchdown, "Besides, what weapon shoots a beam that sluggish? I don't see it..."
A monumental explosion domed out from where the beam contacted the ground. It vaporized buildings, and sent bodies flying everywhere. It created a shockwave with the force of a hurricane.
That confirmed it and everybody yelled, "It's a weapon!"
A myriad of pixels rained in near the group. The avatar of Dimitri formed and faced the group with a dour scowl.
Asterion moved forward and imposed, "Dimitri?"
"Ah! Wanna fight?! Wanna fuuuck? Wanna fight?!" Gamer bounced side-to-side like an overhyped boxer.
Dimitri ignored the criminal and addressed his father, "You need to check the game's status."
Asterion raised an eyebrow, but went ahead and checked. Sonia did it out of curiosity, and Samira went ahead and preemptively sent (O_O)! to let Gamer know of a radical change.
"No way..." Sonia became unnerved.
"What's wrong?" Minnie started to worry.
"Permadeath..." Asterion closed his screen and glared with a deep indignation. The word ran like a jolt of lightning through Gamer and Sonia. Minnie still didn't understand, so Asterion continued, "There's a setting in video games called permadeath. When enabled, it prevents a player from respawning after death."
"Like Gamer and I," Minnie understood.
"It's dangerous, but lucrative," Sonia explained the temptation. However, there was a level of anxiety she expressed. Her eyes darted to all the potential threats around her.
"However," Asterion sounded like he needed to make it clear for Minnie. "During the early years when gaming started to hold more sway on the world stage, corporations seized the opportunity to abuse new laws and exploit gamers. They utilized rules like permadeath and linked it to accounts. Meaning if anybody died in any game, their account would die. They'd never be able to log on anywhere."
"Your account is linked to your social security, which means you can't have more than one," Sonia added. It was all very daunting for the shellie.
"It created a class divide amongst gamers. Elites versus scrubs. Those who held higher scores were able to move political power and squash low-tier players into oblivion. Games were ruled by whoever could pay-to-win or bot-assisted cheaters. All fueled by the corporations looking to make money," Asterion finished.
"Late stage capitalism for video games," Samira ( - ~ - )
"Until the Tennis for Two movement," Dimitri brought up.
"Tennis for Two?" Minnie kept the exposition train rolling.
"It was a massive political movement that reshaped how video games were integrated into government," Sonia picked up the history lesson. "It reformed the international video game council, took power out of corporate hands, and set regulations far more fair for all players, not just the rich."
"And established the Total High Score system, for those wanting a reward to the risk," Gamer stared at the back of Asterion's head.
"A lot of good people lost their accounts during that time," the revolutionary minotaur closed his eyes and reminisced. When he opened them, he expressed his disgust, "Which is why I'm appalled that the council would reintroduce account permadeath onto Chanterelle."
"That means all of you are in super danger!" Minnie realized the gravity of the option.
"It wasn't the council's decision. Cheating apparently runs in the family," Dimitri glared at Gamer.
"Of course..." Gamer cursed his father.
"That's an arrestable offense!" Sonia saw the blatant abuse of power.
"I don't understand the way they think. I just came on to warn you that the permadeath isn't the only thing they're changing," Dimitri said to his father. His eyes glanced behind them, and the group turned.
The alien spaceship had hovered sideways across the skies. It fired multiple beams that slowly descended on the village. The closest beams erupted upon touchdown. The meandering onslaught began.
"Does Persica have anything to fight something like that?" Asterion frantically asked Gamer.
"Something no threat can handle...an independent girlfriend!" Gamer took his broomstick out. Aside from Sam, they didn't have many aerial solutions. He looked to Asterion and Sonia, "I understand if you want to log out. Permadeath is bullshit."
"Lots of points – slow rate of fire – my incredible skills," Sonia listed, and then grinned. "Call me crazy, but I'm in."
Asterion was next, and he eyed his son. Dimitri pleaded, "It's going to become worse. I know what games mean to you."
"I'm in," Asterion chose his side.
"Dad!" Dimitri cried.
"They wanna go hard, let's get hardcore!" Gamer flipped onto his broom. He floated up and checked with his team, "Who wants to go get Persica and Sa..."
"Can't stop, won't stop," Sonia darted away after equipping her bounce accessory. She used her speed and some glitches to propel herself towards the lakefront. She narrowly avoided the extraterrestrial bombardment.
"Okay, solved. Minnie, since your shell makes you invincible, how about you evacuate the village? Get them in the castle," Gamer instructed.
"On it!" Minnie went without hesitation. Dimitri instantly shunted backwards into a portal. Another opened next to Minnie, and Dimitri flew out with a flying kick. Minnie squawked, "Perfect..."
Asterion timed his own attack and clashed with Dimitri. He freed Minnie up, who thanked him and took the save as a sign to keep running.
"You need to log out, son. Your score is more important than the council's demands," Asterion pushed against his boy.
"You'd never understand," Dimitri used his father's words against him. "It'll never be any other way than this."
"Oh, great, another to join the Daddy Issues Club. Welcome," Gamer brandished his sarcasm. He floated higher up on the broom and drifted sideways.
"( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) DIC"
Dimitri sneered at Gamer, "Quiet, cheater. You dishonor video games and make a mockery out of everything we stand for. You're just a distraction."
"Oh, thank goodness. I was a little worried that...boomshakalaka!" Gamer pulled out his zapper and fired a few beams. Dimitri perfect guarded each one with a sweeping block.
"Is that the best you got?"
"I'm the distraction; tag battle, bitch!" Gamer smirked.
A fist rattled Dimitri and caused him to stumble. He grit through it and faced his assaulter; Asterion. The father reiterated, "I taught you never to let your guard down."
Dimitri's sneer persisted, "Really, dad? Cheap shots? Good luck reaching heaven as hell falls upon you!"
"Bah, we don't need luck. We've got friends," Gamer brushed off. He gave Asterion a salute, and then zipped away towards the spaceship.
Gamer headed straight for the alien spaceship. Dimitri dismissed his confidence, "Friends? He barely knows anybody, and he wants to throw around that word? What a hypocrite."
Dimitri rushed his father, but was jumpscared when a text box appeared in front of him with ✋👁️👄👁️🤚 Asterion rushed forward, the text box disappeared, and he walloped his son in the face with a haymaker. Dimitri stumbled back again, aghast at the second cheap shot.
"How dare you?! Where the hell is your honor, father?!" Dimitri spat.
"You've clearly forgotten the whole point of playing games. Permadeath, the council, breaking Chanterelle: you've all lost sight of it," Asterion cinched his fighting position. The world rumbled and textures glitched. Armageddon descended upon Chanterelle.
"What's more important than being the best?"
Asterion bestowed Dimitri with a very Gamer-like smirk, "Having fun."