Like A Boss

Alfred Pennyworth was a man who couldn't be described with just one word. It was difficult to even describe the man. Butler-extraordinaire who acts like a boss. He could do everything from maintaining the Wayne Manor to owning criminals. Alfred isn't exactly a tech-savvy man but he knew the how to use electronics. After all, if Oracle wasn't available, Alfred was the man.

The thing is, what does he do when nobody is in the manor and when he has completed his job? Bruce never bothered to think what Alfred would do when no one is around. Dick and Tim once made a joke that Alfred would use the Bat-computer to browse through memes on the internet. It was half true. Except that, he didn't browse the internet.

It had all started when Tim secretly installed a new game on the Bat-computer. If Bruce found out, hilarity would ensue. Besides, he doubted that he would say yes if he asked so secrecy it was. The size of the game was small when compared to the storage size of the SSDs running the Bat-computer so there was a chance Bruce wouldn't notice a slight change in the capacity. Or maybe he knew but decided to keep quiet about it but that's a story for another day.

The point is, once the game was installed, Tim had played through the campaign within a few hours. Bruce was in Metropolis so he decided to put the computer to 'good' use, which is why he even spared time to play the multiplayer mode but his fun was short-lived when he an emergency came up. There was a bank robbery in downtown Gotham so he wasted no time leaving the Bat-cave with Nightwing.

Alfred, of course, watched them leave before he thought of resuming his regular routine. As he passed the Bat-computer, he noticed the screen wasn't displaying the usual information he would see. Instead, he saw a huge title that spelled 'Call of Work: Black List'.

"It would seem Master Tim has forgotten to shut down the game," he muttered to himself and attempted to end the software but instead, the screen redirected to the zombies menu. Another window popped up. 'Would you like to go through the tutorial?'

Alfred stared at the screen for a few moments. There was something about the game that caught his attention, that made his fingers twitched, wanting to grab the controller that was sitting innocently on the table, next to the keyboard. It's not like he had anything else to do. It was a slow day with Master Bruce gone for a few days.

"I think I can spare a few minutes, just to see what's so great about this game," he said to himself calmly before taking a seat on the swivelling black leather chair. He grabbed the controller and read the pop up again before pressing 'X' to continue.

The tutorial showed Alfred the basic controls of the game. It took him a few minutes to understand which button does what and when he was finally able to get a concrete understanding of the controls, he went to 'Solo Play'.

What he didn't expect was a zombie popping out of nowhere and viciously attacking him. As a first time player, it was natural for his character to die since he had aimlessly shot everywhere but the zombie. There was blood and a huge 'Game Over' sign popped up, followed by laughter and he couldn't help but think of how it somewhat resembled the Joker. God forbid that madman pops up as a zombie in the game.

After a couple of losses, Alfred began to understand how the game works. He needed to grab the items and build it on the bench to open the door. He then learned that upgrading guns as also added value to his hard-earned points as he was able to finish off the zombies quicker. What he didn't understand was when he decided to walk out of the area. He nearly got a heart attack when a small, baby-like zombie jumped on his character's head and began scratching him like crazy. He fended off the zombie before running back into the area, not wanting to be killed. After all, he managed to reach the fifth wave and that was impressive to him since he had earlier struggled to pass the second wave.

Thirty minutes turned into an hour and an hour turned into two. It was about three hours later when he heard the sound of engines roaring into the Bat-cave. Alfred immediately set the controller in its original spot and shut down the computer before calmly greeting the two superheroes like a boss.

"Welcome back, Master Dick, Master Tim," Alfred said. "I assume you managed to apprehend the robbers?"

Nightwing took off his helmet. "We did before Gordon told us Poison Ivy escaped. Tim nearly got kissed by her."

"She nearly hypnotised me," the younger superhero corrected in a grumble.

"I'm sure victory would have favoured your side regardless of being hypnotised."

As Nightwing was about to approach the staircase, he stopped and turned around. "By the way Alfred, do you have any idea where my car keys are? I kinda lost them earlier today and can't find them anywhere. Can you help me?"

Alfred nodded. "Very well, Master Dick. I'm sure they're lying around the manor somewhere."

Tim patiently waited for Alfred and Dick to leave before he happily sat down on the chair and turned on the Bat-computer. He started the game with a grin plastered on his face. He selected Zombies mode and his grin disappeared when he saw his zombies mode stats. He had 1521 kills and 10 deaths.

His brows furrowed in confusion. He didn't recall playing zombies mode. As a matter of fact, he hasn't even started zombies mode yet. How did he manage to get such kills? The only person who was in the Bat-cave was him and….Alfred.

"Alfred was playing Call of Work?" Tim muttered in shock, the idea slowly sinking into his head before he stared at the screen again. "Not bad, Alfred. Not bad at all."

The end