Chapter 43

Struggler Pizza

[ {Mind Link} Level 5 -> 9

{Conjuring} Level 5 -> 10 ]

[ As an added bonus for toppling the Eldritch Horror… money!

Versecoins: 500,000 ]

[ And one more thing…

+5 Bonus Points! | Use them in any Stat you want! Or hold onto them, you dirty hoarder. ]

That lovely screen greeted me when I woke up. I didn’t know how long it had been there, desperately flashing to get me to read all my cool achievements. The only thing I could really comprehend right now was I was a hell of a lot richer than when I woke up today.

If it still was today.

I sat up. I was in my bed. A normal function of the Interverse. If you lose consciousness it sends you to a safe place, the default being, yep, your room. Surprisingly, I didn’t have a migraine. In fact, I could barely feel my brain at all. Not numb, exactly just… quiet. My energy had been completely spent.

I exited out of the spoils of success and switched to the impossible task of getting my body to move. But it just wasn’t happening. I sighed.

With me basically bed ridden while I waited for my body to stop being dumb, I jumped into my menu. First, I sent a message to Stephen.

[ Dude! Are you awake yet?? ]

I gave him thirty seconds to respond. He didn’t. So I looked up if there had been any details about our victory posted.

Oh yeah. It was not just a small story within the greater web of the tournament, it was the whole freaking face of it.

[ The first combat victory for the “Strugglers”! ]

[ The “Strugglers” have toppled the beast! ]

The headlines were all saying the same thing, endlessly. We were the first ones to beat one of the monsters in combat, apparently, which made our victory stand out in a sea of less exciting feats. There had been cooking challenges, races, fishing competitons, freaking coding to the death. Just about any Stat that existed had pitted a monster infested User against a team of others.

But somehow we were the first to win in the combat side. That made me extremely nervous—the extra attention especially so. I worried that someone would find out about what we were really using to win… but I tried to fight those worries. Our teacher had to have known this could have been a possibility. If he pressed on teaching us then it would be okay.

But there was another problem.

[ Who is the man that united ninety-eight other Users to defeat a monster? ]

[ The search for the leader of the “Strugglers” rages on, hours after he emerged victorious. ]

The headlines were endless. The whole Interverse seemed obsessed with Stephen, he had gotten all the credit for what we did. Which… okay, we kind of had to make it that way, but it still wasn’t great news. I had no idea how Stephen would handle this. It would either freak him out and shut him down, or he would get the biggest head in the Interverse.

I searched for mentions of me but I’d all been written out of the narrative. I found one thread though.

[ Ugh, I’m so jealous of that noob that was with the Struggler leader. Anyone mondo jealous she got to be used by him? ]

[ {CookieQueen}: I am, he is so damn hot. I want him to use me for whatever he wants ;) ]

[ {BoobsBoobsBoob}: I want his hands all over me, touching, fondling, heading toward my… ]

Mother of God, that last one progressed into a full on sex scene. Now I was super worried about how Stephen was going to take all this. I wasn’t, like, jealous… just… nervous.

A message from Stephen popped up.

[ Sorry, about that. How long was I out for? ]

I messaged him back.

[ Sleeping beauty rises! I guess like five or six hours. It’s okay, I haven’t been awake for long. Can you move yet? ]

[ No, I’m sore all over. Let me get where I can move and I’ll invite you to the writing nook. ]

I debated what to do the whole time I waited. Did I tell him not to look up anything until we were together? If I did that he would DEFINITELY search immedieatly. But if I just let him be he might discover it on his own. I really needed to be there, I could judge his reaction and try and keep him from going too far down either path.

Before I knew it, twenty minutes had passed with me still not decided on a coarse of action, and an invite popped in my vision. Wow, okay, so he probably hadn’t searched yet. Great.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I accepted and was beamed over. Stephen was already at our booth, laid over one whole side of it. I plopped down opposite of him.

“Man, do you feel as weird as I do? My brain…”

“Feels blank?” I said. “Yeah, it’s real strange.”

“Does it go away? I think I prefer the headaches.”

“Spoken like a true not sufferer of migraines.” I joked. He didn’t have the energy to argue his point. “But I’m sure it will when our MP reserves are back up. I’m already feeling better than when I woke up.”

“I tried drinking an MP potion, didn’t do a damn thing.”

“Of course not,” I said. “Like our teacher said, it’s not really magic that we are using. Can’t be recharged in a traditional way.”

“Well it’s bullshit.”

I agreed with him there.

There was a lull in the conversation and I recognized it for what it was: my chance to ease him into what to expect when going online.

“Stephen… I’ve got to tell you—“

Angelia exploded into the room. “Finally! The two sleepy heads awake! How is the most famous man in the Interverse doing??”

I motioned for her to stop talking the moment she spawned in but she didn’t stop a single beat. The secret was out.

Stephen popped his head over the side of the booth. “Who are you talking to?”

“You haven’t heard yet!?” She skipped over and threw her screen at him. “Man, you’re in for a surprise.”

She motioined me to scoot over and squeezed in beside me. And immediately went into her menu. A pink drink would soon follow. Twice in one day. Yet again I wondered: where were her parents?

Stephen’s eyes got wider and wider the more he scrolled.

“This is…”

Which way would he fall? Overwhelmed or would his head inflate to sizes unseen?

“AWESOME!!” He exclaimed, my worst fears coming true. “Darcy, did you see all this? We’re famous!”

“I saw. It’s… a lot,” I said.

“It is—and it’s all about us! The first people to beat one of those monsters in combat!”

He kept saying we. I couldn’t help but smile at that. Maybe I wouldn’t lose him to a big head after all.

The girl nudged me. “Cheer up, Darcy! Company is on its way.”

She was out of her menu and there wasn’t a pink drink in sight. I swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”

I’d barely gotten the question out before the first wave of people teleported in, hooping and hollering.

“Oh no, please tell me you didn’t invite—“

“Yep! All one hundred! Well, minus the pyscho bitch, of course.” She winked at me then hopped off the booth, walking toward the entrance. “Welcome guys! Darcy, put in some orders for pizza—we’re gonna need a lot.”

I made no moves to do that. Stephen sat up, glanced at the crowd forming for a second, but then back to me. He could see something was wrong. "It’s okay, Darce, don’t worry about the pizzas, I’ll put the order—"

A loud holler and a wave of people converged on Stephen and yanked him up into the air.

“Struggler King! Struggler King!” They chanted.

He tried to fight out of their grasp for a while but it was impossible, he was dragged away and his fighting soon became laughter.

Struggler King, huh? I laughed to myself. I never thought the goofy and gangly red head I met in that support group would ever be given a title like that. I played my part and went into the menu to place orders for the pizzas. Cheese and pepperoni, nothing fancy.

Wait a second. I canceled out the order, a huge grin on my face. This was a momentous occasion. We needed pizza worthy of the “Struggler King” and there was only one person who could cook pizzas deserving of him.

My eyes glazed over and I was in my house, seeing things through the wall of the kitchen. Sam was on the couch, watching a nature show on the TV. It looked like… a fish laying eggs?

“Hey, Sam!” I said.

The little guy threw his hands up, spilling a bowl of popcorn. He peeked around from behind the front of the couch. “M-miss? You gave me a friight!”

“Sorry about that, dude. I, uh, I’ve got a favor. You don’t have to say yes, but we are throwing a party, would you like to cook us some pizzas? Just letting you know, there are ninety-nine people here, I’m sure that’s a lot to—“

“A PARTY??” He jumped over the couch and bounded toward me. “Please! I have not cooked for that many people in so long!”

I laughed at his overwhelming enthusiasm. “Okay, great, if you think you can handle it.”

“I was born to serve.” His eyes sparkled.

He was a strange little dude. But his pizza was sure to be a hit and I maaaaaybe had the ulterior motive of maaaaaaybe upsetting Stephen a little. You know. Maybe.

I summoned Sam and he appeared in front of me on the table. He jumped into the air. “I am ready to serve!!”

His shrill voice cut through some of the bustling around and a lot of people turned and laughed at the small little meat man, likely never seeing anything quite like him before.

“Miss! Please point me to the kitchen!” He said with a salute.

“Uhhh,” I went through the room options and, sure enough, there was a Kitchen attatched to our layer of the writing nook.

“Okay, I’ll send you over. I don’t know what kind of food options you’ll have, try not to make anything too weird. Cheese and pepperoni. But cooked to your godly level. Okay?”

He saluted again and I laughed, sending him off to the kitchen. He was still saluting as he disappeared.

After I sent Sam off, I didn’t know what to do with myself. Stephen was absolutely surrounded, bascaly being passed around by everyone. I caught sight of Angelia at another table, finally having her pink drink—about five. She was in the middle of a competition with the big and buff Reginald. It would be funny if they became friends, a very unlikely pair.

More and more people slipped into my booth, laughing and joking. If I had my helmet on maybe someone would have said something to me but with it off, I was even more of a ghost. I abandoned the table and took up residence in the perfect party spot: a corner, away from everyone.

“Speech, speech, speeeeeech!” A guy started chanting and before long the entire room was shouting it.

The crowd currently around Stephen manhandled him up onto one of the tables. He laughed, looking kind of drunk with attention.

“Fellow strugglers!” He started, to huge cheers, everyone losing it at their favorite name for themselves. “I think you are all well aware of this, but… we fucking did it!!”

He held up his hands and the crowd went wild.

“We beat that psycho monster and we all are moving on in the tournament! I know this is the first of many individual victories. The Intereverse will never forget the Strugglers!”

“Struggler King, Struggler King, Struggler Kiiiiiing!” The room rocked with their chanting.

“I just want to say, that I couldn’t have done this alone.”

I stopped, perked my head. Could it be? He was going to tell them the truth?

“Without all of you none of this would have been possible! To the Strugglers!!”

The crowd went absolutely wild. My dark corner felt just a tad darker. Was this how I lost him? He could be my friend when we were both losers, but would he still feel the same now that he was the Struggler King? I didn’t have much hope.

I slunk away, my head hung down, trying to bring as little attention to myself as possible. I headed toward the exit, wanting to just step back into the entrance lobby for a second, calm my thoughts.

Instead, I walked right into a brick wall. I bounced off and looked up, finding not a wall but a slightly familiar man.

Minus the skull mask.