"Damn it, he's tapped us again."
It was the third time that day Digit had been selected for battle. It was only natural, since he was one of the more powerful dinosaurs in his app, but he could usually depend on the high cost of his awakening to protect him from constant use. The park manager, unfortunately, had acquired a great deal of dino bucks when he made a trade at the harbor, and he was blowing through them like crazy. His top tier fighters were facing the brunt of this spending, and it was only getting worse.
As the battle loaded, Digit scratched his chin and struck up a conversation with his Indominus companion, who would soon merge with him when the manager had enough DNA to spare.
"This is our third battle today, you know."
"Yeah. I'm aware. It sucks."
"I mean, I enjoy a good brawl every now and then, especially since I always win, but this is getting ridiculous."
"It's our job. And he woke us up fair and square."
"Yeah, but dino bucks aren't enough to magically make us ready and willing. Even pixels get tired."
"I thought we were vector-based models."
"Not the display."
"Right, well, statistically speaking, all that matters are numbers in a turn-based battle."
"I don't think so."
"Don't go crazy on me again. If you start listing off statistics and clawing yourself- It's starting."
The loading screen had disappeared, replaced by the inside of a run-down Visitors' Center. Digit occupied the second slot in the battle, and he was glad, because the first opponent had the type advantage. He watched from his icon as his partner faced the amphibian.
The park manager, foolish as he was, took the opportunity to attack the opponent without the benefit of surplus attack value. Had he reserved two more points, he may have been able to take down the first attacker and suffer the loss of his own dinosaur at the hands of the next opponent, which was a herbivore. Being the weaker type, this herbivore would have given up all of its attack points, leaving it open for Digit's wrath. After that, the remaining pterosaur would have been easy to pick off either by Digit or whomever was in the third slot, but unfortunately, this was all speculation. At the moment, Digit was about to face the amphibian who had knocked out his predecessor, and he was at least three points short of a clean victory.
Digit had never lost before. For the first time in his not-life, he had a reason to be nervous. Could he make it out of this with more than half of his health bar left over? It was hard to say. He wasn't sure what percentage of damage was added on with multiple attack points. It just wasn't necessary information when he was guaranteed to win. He stared at his opponent, who was about to attack.
Then, everything went blank. A few seconds later, the world returned to its power-on state. Digit was once again locked by a barrier of dino bucks. He turned to his companion, who wasn't looking well.
"What happened?"
"He quit the game. He must have forgotten that it was a live battle and tried to exploit a glitch or something."
"Oh . . . I was hoping he might have seen my predicament."
"He did. But he didn't exit for your sake. He doesn't save us for our own benefit, you know. He just wants to win."
"I choose to believe he cares."
"Any chosen belief is by default invalid. You can fool yourself, but not all hope is productive."
"My attitude has no bearing on truth, I know, but at least when I choose my own truths, I feel better about all this."
"Then you'll feel good until you're deleted."
Digit nodded.
"That's the idea."