Okay, so, I am SO sorry that this took so long to come out. But between working on other projects, job searching, and a now ongoing DnD group, which you can find in the This Bites! Discord if anyone is interested, I just wasn't putting in the time this story deserved. But, I'm here now, and will be again. Now, on with the Vidya james.

And of course, the winning vote.

Spoiler: Winning Vote

[X] Play in an Online Tournament (Monthly Event) (Costs 3 Energy)

Now, let's clear this with no continues, shall we?

It was Wednesday now, and you felt like you deserved a break after the insanity that has been your life this past, what, 2 and a bit weeks? Jesus, it feels more like a few months.

Thus, you found yourself feeling COMPLETELY justified to laze deep into and around you favorite full body sized, black circle chair, and losing yourself into the mind-numbing joy and anger inducer that was Goo Zombies.

Spoiler: Chair

You intellectually knew that the game was just a bastardization of Call of Duty and Plants Vs. Zombies, but damn if it wasn't satisfying with its excellent visuals and developed characters. Course, there was also the player interaction itself, which just added a whole other level, you felt.

TheTrueFB: Damn it SpicedBoy! Don't you pull that Cheap-Ass Sniper shot! Come down here and die like a man!

FriendlyFire: Oh please, you just salty cause ya keep walking into turrets Fatty! Watch a real player!

Leon-Chamo: So help me, if we lose cause of you F*ckers I WILL FIND A WAY TO PUNCH YOU THROUGH THIS SCREEN!

Truly, the best of humanity. It was where you learned the majority of your swears from.

But, you weren't here to grief anyone (at least, for the time being), no, tonight was the monthly server wide tournament used to determine the best player in the region. And so far, you were doing much better than the average nerd. The reason being? The sheer fact that to be a Genius of your level, your brain was used to moving at higher speeds than the average dork. And your reflexes were pretty sharp too, from a combination of learning to anticipate mishaps in your Lab, and your Grandparents cutlery lessons as a child... (Wrong! This is Shrimp fork! *Shring!* Ah, STOP THROWING THEM AT ME GRANDPA!)

As you shivered at remembering some of your more... let's say 'exotic' childhood, you quickly had your sniper jump form the tower he was situated at, narrowly avoiding the sudden explosion brought about by rocket fire.

Now that brought you back to the present. By all means, you SHOULD have been dominating these matches, but for some reason, you weren't.

Instead, out of all the server, it had come down to these three others. You knew TrueFB, and while a bit of a surprise, wasn't really as much of one when you remembered he was an actual human being with interests.

Now, the other two. THEY were the question.

FriendlyFire was a girl. Like, not someone using a girl character, or a voice changer, but a LEGITIMATE GIRL. That was a rarity, especially at the high level performance that playing these kind of games usually took for. And she was unknown outside of that too. No SpiceView channel, no posts on social media about it claiming credit, if she were't verified, you'd think she was a bot or something. And the reaction time... It was unreal. One second she would be standing in an open field, and the next she would have dodged your first shot, and then fired back based on where the attack came from. It was unreal.

And Leon... lived up to his name. When he talked, he always sounded angry or unamused at best, but his character was the anti-thesis to every bit of that. If you don't have in constant line of sight, be sure to expect a knife or other melee weapon to strike right at your weak point. And even then, the one in your sight might be a trap dummy. The kind of maximization needed for a character that fast and strong, to survive this long in a game SUPPOSED to be played at long range, to last to these levels... was just insane.

So it was safe to say that you had your work cut out for you, and were of course loving every minute of it.

This was a world where you stood equal with everyone else. Things could be quantified, easily explained and accounted for, and no actual harm could come to you. In a way, it was the closest place that could be described as 'Paradise' to you. Except not as sad as that sounded, you think, leading a follow-up rocket shot to where you believe FB was hiding, and getting rewarded with a deluge of swearing proving you correct.

You couldn't stop the grin from coming to your face as you saw that that had been his last life, leaving only you, Fire, and Leon 'standing' as it were.

At this point, all three of you would be receiving gifts and bonus' worth the effort to all this, but it wasn't about the tourney anymore. Now, you wanted to see who was the best. And it WAS personal.

So, with a silence uncommon to the voice chat of this game, we all silently headed our own direction, and prepared our area.

You of course went to the Forest area, and began to set any and every trap you had either available or could make. And that was a LOT.

Thus, you waited in the center of your constructed Death-Maze, weapon ready to shoot the first thing that moved, hands at the ready on the controller, snacks and other distractions long forgotten.

You watched as large gouts of Fire shot into the digital sky just like it did in Thailand. You heard the springing of your traps drawing ever closer to your location, and then you saw it.

There was FriendlyFire, standing there with her pure red clothing that looked like something out of a superhero manga, but you knew was high level, showing not a scratch from your traps.

That's alright though, they were just distractions to anyone of their level. Their real purpose was to get someone in her exact position after all.

This reminded you of the one thing that you loved the most about this game. The creatable weapon option. Any player, at any level, can create any weapon so long as they have the means and materials to do so. And when you're a boy genius who can crack the system on where to find what, and the know-how to do it...

You raised your tr-Machine gun, and let it rip. It was a weapon with three barrels pointing in three different directions and had a large cannon right in the middle. In the real world, such a thing would simply fire wildly once in a general direction at best, or fall into a horrifyingly dangerous pile of scrap at the worst. In the game however?

The three barrels spun to life, spraying their justice across the long and far of the field, with the third barrel blocking any thought of over head strikes. Meanwhile, the canon at the front was constantly firing different payloads, sometimes regular cannon balls, sometime incendiaries and smoke bombs, all randomized just as you had made it to be. The only problem of such a great weapon? It was too heavy to move. Literally, it had the same weight class as a vehicle, but you got around that little limit by getting it labeled as a 'Movable Trap'.

As you grinned in Victory, seeing Fire lose one of her remaining lives, it was however soon wiped away at seeing her duck past the right wall of bullets that had been blocking her path before.

You were flabbergasted at this. What had happened? Did she get intangibility equipment? Was that a thing? What had ha-!

SpicedBoy: You cheeky Bitch! You used your Invincibility frames from your Death! HOW! Those are only a thing for a fifth of a second!

So incredulous was your thought that you couldn't help but yell it out in disbelief. You grit your teeth as you heard back the mocking reply, easily imaging the female on the other end to be wearing a Shit-eating grin.

FriendlyFire: Ha! That was a neat trick Spicy, but you need to be a lot quicker than THAT to put me out!

As you were about to shoot back your own comeback to that, you were cut off by the the tell tale sign of your character dying, prompting you to once again pay attention to the screen, only to see Fire's character doing their prechosen Victory! Dance.

You exhaled a rough gasp of breath at coming so close to victory, but still being so far.

Still, you couldn't keep off the slightly tired grin from coming to your face as you collapsed in your chair.

SpicedBoy: Ha. Gtta say, pissed that I lost, but at least it was a good shot, yeah?

You were about to log off for the night to check what prizes you had one from getting second place, but were once again shocked when you got a reply back.

FriendlyFire: Hell yeah! You nearly got me with that Bastard cannon ya got there! That was Awesome! You gonna do this again next month too?

Your eyes showed their surprise for a moment at the genuine excitement you heard in her voice, instead of the gloating you were expecting, but you quickly got them back to normal, and shot back an amused reply.

SpicedBoy: I might be busy then, but I'll try my best to do so. That work for you?

This time, the reply was instantaneous.

FriendlyFire: You better Spicy! I need good player to keep my skills SHARP. So do nothing less than your best, GOT IT!

As you looked at the message one more time, you let another smile grow on your face.

SpicedBoy: Sure.

This done, you finally logged off, feeling lighten than you had been in a long time, for more than one reason.

END OF DAY/ CHAPTER

1) Yeah, I turned Goo Zombies into a giant collaboration of Overwatch, Destiny, and generic Zombie Survival Games. Hope ya don't mind.

GAINED!:

The Silver Metal: For the next 'month' all searches or actions towards building, finding, or otherwise producing long-ranged weapon will either produce more, or better quality results. This 'month' will last for the next 2 Wu Hunts done.

QUEST!: Where do Embers Come From?: Find out the real identity of FriendlyFire.

QUEST! The Smallest Shadow, The Darkest Hole: Find out the real identity of Leon-Chamo.

END OF GAINS.

And that's it. So, was it worth the wait? I poured plenty of inspiration in, and made sure to stir firmly, so it should have turned out pretty good. And for the next installation, It'll be out by Friday at the latest. And this time, I MEAN IT.

Right! Before I forget! We have just discovered some of our first quests outside of Hunting for Wu! Since these are the first two, they won't be TOO difficult... hopefully, but both can lead to Discovering more Quests, or leading into Chain Quests! Try and Complete as many of them as possible! So do your best! And keep your new bonus in mind as well.

God, getting to Thursday has taken more than a month..