"Dum-didi-dum-dum~"
I hummed a completely off-key tune my eyes glued to the monitor. The harsh blue light of the screen was the only illumination in my pitch-black room. My fingers hammered the mechanical keyboard and slammed the mouse with god-tier APM. With every frantic click my armies in the medieval grand strategy game rearranged their formations and utterly devastated the virtual battlefield.
I wasn't just mindless rushing with a massive doomstack like some brain-dead noob. The psychological warfare I was orchestrating behind the screen was a masterpiece of pure sadistic genius.
Long before declaring formal war I had already flooded the enemy Empire's heavily fortified capital with a network of spies. I bribed their rotten aristocrats with mountains of gold triggering massive factional civil wars. I flooded their slums and markets with the free-spirited culture and sweet exotic luxuries of the nomad tribes. It was a flawless cultural invasion.
The Imperial citizens started hating their own royal family. By the time I actually attacked the Empire was already a hollow rotting tree.
When the massive Empire finally realized they were getting played they raged hard. They marched tens of thousands of heavy cavalry and mixed infantry straight into the steppes trying to force a decisive battle. I just laughed at their pathetic attempt at a frontal assault.
Against heavy ironclad troops marching at a snail's pace I deployed pure mobility. My horse archers wearing light leather armor scattered like the wind. It was endless kiting. I faked retreats stretched out their formations and then sent a covert detachment to absolutely nuke their massive supply trains in the rear. Every single scrap of their food and weapons burned to ashes.
Starving and exhausted the Imperial soldiers were forced to slaughter their own warhorses just to survive. As they collapsed from fatigue my nomad warriors swept in like a hurricane unleashed a pitch-black storm of arrows and rode off laughing at their misery.
Without engaging in a single direct clash I completely wiped out an army of hundreds of thousands. The great Imperial force was reduced to bloodstained dust.
Eventually the supposedly impenetrable cross-shaped gates of the Imperial Capital were thrown wide open. Not by my siege engines but by the starving rioting peasants of their own city.
The game transitioned into a gorgeous cinematic cutscene.
My nomad warriors stood with cold blades right in front of the luxurious Imperial throne. The fat greedy Emperor completely oblivious to reality was groveling on the marble floor weeping like a pathetic child.
"Oh Great Khan of the Steppes! Please I beg of you spare my worthless life!" the Emperor sobbed rubbing his greasy forehead against the floor. "I will surrender this massive Empire and the glorious throne to you! If it pleases you I will send my beautiful Empress and my three young untouched Princesses straight to your bedchambers! Just let me live!"
The guy was literally selling off his country and his own family for cheap. I didn't even hesitate.
I clicked the left mouse button and mercilessly chopped his pathetic head off. A fountain of red pixels erupted on screen. Massive heavy horns blared through my headset as the Empire's last symbol a colossal cross-spire came crashing down.
[TOTAL WARFARE VICTORY!]
Massive bloody red text dominated the monitor. I rolled my stiff neck leaned deep into my gaming chair and smiled with pure satisfaction.
"Man the Nomad Faction is absolutely god-tier. Toying with enemies using insane mobility trampling everything under hoof and burning it all to the ground. That's the good stuff."
The closing cinematic was a blood-pumping masterpiece.
Thousands of cavalrymen kicked up a sandstorm that blotted out the sun. The magnificent millennial cities of the Empire were reduced to ashes. The arrogant citizens were bound in ropes screaming in terror as they were dragged off as slaves.
Victorious warriors piled mountains of looted gold in the ruined palace raising their cups in triumph. Even the surviving aristocratic women and the royal-blooded Empress and Princesses shivered in shredded silk dresses forcibly bowing to kiss the boots of the savage nomads.
A solemn chillingly glorious narration echoed over the ending screen.
[Your name shall be carved into the bloody annals of history as a ruthless conqueror and the sole Supreme Overlord of a new era. Every land under the sun is your territory. Every soul walking this earth is your eternal slave.]
"Ahhh... pure dopamine injection straight to the veins."
I stretched my arms chuckling aimlessly. The massive sense of achievement from conquering a virtual continent over a three-day sleepless binge rushed through my bloodstream.
But the moment the conqueror's anthem faded the silence in my room felt piercingly cold. My good mood evaporated the second I hit the power button on the monitor. A crushing wave of depression filled my empty stomach.
"Fuck my life... I just conquered the world in a game but in reality I'm rotting away in the corner of this apartment."
I pushed myself up and walked into the living room. I wasn't living in some stinking cramped shoebox or a moldy basement. It was a highly remodeled high-rise apartment that represented the absolute peak of middle-class living. Marble floors stylish indirect lighting a premium leather sofa. On the outside it was the perfect nest.
But inside this perfect space I was just a leftover piece of human garbage without a job. Actually it was more accurate to say my job was forcefully ripped away from me.
I walked over to the window and pulled up the blinds. The boundary between night and dawn had already passed and the morning sun was rising. The bustling morning commute unfolded below.
Fathers in clean suits being sent off by their wives. Kids hopping onto bright yellow kindergarten buses. Students rushing to school. It was an incredibly normal energetic morning routine.
"Haa..."
A heavy sigh escaped my lips. Just twenty-two months ago I was a part of that normal scenery. A completely average hardworking school teacher. That was my past life.
Everything went to hell during a summer beach vacation with my fiancée.
Hot sun crashing waves. It was the perfect getaway until I found a woman unconscious and dying in a quiet corner of the beach. I didn't hesitate. I had CPR training. Driven by the pure innocent desire to save a human life I performed chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
By some miracle she coughed up seawater and started breathing. People actually clapped for me.
But the reward for my good deed was an absolute nightmare. The woman I saved sued me for sexual assault.
I thought it was a sick joke. I believed the truth would set me free. But reality was an absolute bitch. The moment the police forwarded the sexual assault charge my school was legally notified. The administration flipped out. Without a single internal investigation I was instantly suspended.
The police interrogations were aggressive and the prosecutors mechanically indicted me. Simply because I was a man society treated me like a rabid dog and dragged me into the courtroom guilty until proven innocent.
"Look you're going to have to go to court look the judge in the eye hear the gavel bang and hear him say 'not guilty' from his own mouth."
My lawyer's dry mechanical voice still echoed in my ears.
"The moment a sex crime charge is forwarded your employer is notified. Naturally you'll be fired. Even if you get acquitted later you won't get your job back. They've already cleared out your desk. There's no open slot for you anymore."
Twenty-two months of sheer legal hell. I blew my entire life savings on attorney fees and fought a soul-crushing battle in court.
In the end I barely managed to get a 'Not Guilty' verdict but it was a completely hollow victory. There was no job to go back to. Because of twisted legal loopholes I couldn't even counter-sue for false accusations to get my legal fees back. One single session of CPR to save a dying stranger completely shattered my entire existence.
The worst part was my fiancée.
We had looked into each other's eyes on that beach promising eternal love. But the moment the trial dragged on she tossed me away like a pair of used trash bags. She said the 'criminal' tag was too much of a burden found some rich guy and left without a second glance.
I turned my back to the blinding morning sun and stood blankly in the middle of my living room. I had remodeled this apartment dreaming it would be a lovely nest for me and my ex. Now it was just a massive grave holding my deep depression and fake virtual victories.
The only silver lining in this absolute clusterfuck of a life was my passive income. Thanks to a commercial building my late parents left behind and a solid portfolio of dividend stocks I could afford to just breathe play games and exist as a NEET for the rest of my life.
"Thank fuck I have money at least. If I didn't I would have jumped off a bridge a long time ago."
Mumbling bitterly I dragged my feet to the kitchen. I opened the fridge and popped a can of cheap beer.
7:00 AM.
Watching the wage slaves commute to work while chugging a morning beer tasted violently cold and bitter.