By the time, Leroy Fletcher hurried to his room, his room mate was already there. Looking at the blonde haired boy, lying half dead on the sofa, Leroy didn't feel any bad. He still had intention to strangle him for few moments.

"You b*st*rd! Where the heck were you? How could you run away without letting me know?" He screamed at the barely awake boy. Don't believe what you see. Asher was a strong boy. He was a Beaumont, for heavens sake. And Beaumonts don't rise greenhouse flowers. Asher had held first rank since he came to Norton. Though half of the credit has to go to Leroy for firmly staying in second place, it can't diminish the power of Asher.

Asher woke up with a start, thanks to screams and he really looked like a twin to Leroy. One was blond haired and other was black haired. Asher had deep blue, Beaumont eyes and Leroy was lucky enough to have darkest brown eyes. But the look of them....barely alive, part human , part zombie....yeah, they were looking like twins. If Leroy had it bad, Asher didn't have it easy either.

Asher groaned. "Don't start! I'll pay the penalty, alright? Just let me lie here. I want to enjoy last few hours of my freedom."

And that was not dramatic. Not at all.

Leroy showed the poor boy and sat next to him. "What happened?" If Leroy was a cheapskate, then Asher was a miser. To him to pay the penalty without bargaining... something must have happened. Something big. Something life changing.

"I lost. I completely lost." Asher started crying his eyes out. A single concern and the dam holding his heart burst through.

There are various types of crying. And Asher....sigh, his was worst sort. It made people run away instead of comforting him. Leroy was a hard soul. He merely found a box of tissues from Asher's side of common room and handed the tissues once in a while. The box was dangerously close to be empty when Asher finally stopped crying and started hiccupping once a while.

"What am I supposed to do, Lee? What should I do?" He asked. Leroy could only shrug his shoulders. How was he supposed to answer when he had no clue about what had happened?

Slowly, Asher disclosed the story.

Asher was a bookworm and geek. He was not meant to be a president or CEO of the company but to be research head. His family was okay with it too. His elder brother had all the requisite characters to be dominant CEO. So Asher had spent nearly four years in the college choosing what he wanted to study rather than what he was supposed to. He excelled in it too. Maybe due to his desire or maybe due to Leroy being on his heels all the time. Whatever was the reason. But the blissful period ended early for Asher.

Beaumonts were entering into games and they wanted Asher to helm it.

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"Come on! I don't believe it. Out of all the Beaumonts, they want you to be the spearhead? Not your twin sister Ashley or your big bad brother Alan?" Leroy asked. Though he had never met any of the Beaumonts other than the cry baby here, he knew all about them.

The hiccups stopped suddenly. Apparently this genius had not thought of this. Leroy did however believe about Beaumonts entering games. Many of the successful businesses did that. To expand their network and to find new ways to mint money, entering this arena was must. But not all could survive with their head held high. The old giants within the gaming industry would never allow every rich family enter and destroy what they had built for years. It will be a long uphill struggle.

"The reason doesn't matter." Asher spoke suddenly. "What is certain is that I will have to play games." And apparently that was crux of the matter. "I don't have enough time to sleep between my projects, studies and keeping my rank. Where am I supposed to find time to play?" Asher cried dramatically.

Asher was a good student. But he earned his first place because he worked his *ss off for it. As he had put it, him being first ranker would be sole highlight of his whole life. Even he knew he would never achieve heights of glory once he stepped into society. For that reason, he had been paying maintenance fee for certain maverick (cough, cough, Leroy Fletcher) to maintain second rank and not overachieve and go for first place.

"I heard this new game can be played even when we sleep. So what's the problem?"

"Yes. The stupid game developers believe that every person sleeps for seven to eight hours a day and have planned it accordingly. Last time I slept for solid eight hours was in my freshman year, when I joined this place." Asher snapped. Asher loved sleeping in but he could not indulge in this thanks to this freak of nature who easily got second rank without much effort. How big was the difference between him, a hard working genius and this lazy bum? Four marks. In total. If he had not forsaken his sleep and studied hard, he would have give up his first place.

Leroy laughed loud at that. He knew his roommate 's problem now. If eyes could shoot laser, Leroy would be deader than dead in that instant. " Come on man! I know a feasible solution for your problem. Don't worry it will definitely work out." He started pitching the idea. Leroy was consistent. He used same magical words and used same tried and tested formula to cajole Ashley. And it worked like a charm this time too.

" What do I need to do?" Asher asked, sitting a bit straighter.

"Ah ah aa! Fee first?"

"Fine, fine, I'll pay the usual." Asher agreed hurriedly.

"Special times, special price, my friend!" Leroy would never miss a chance to make more money. " This will be our last semester, final exams. And...your problem is bigger than usual."

Asher bit his lip for a moment but he bit the bait. " Fine! How much is it?"

" Ten times the price!" And before Asher could exclaim, he continued, " That's with friends and family discount. Think hard because I'll quote exact price if you start bargaining."

Asher turned silent. The threat was real. He had suffered for ignoring the disclaimer.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's the solution?"

Leroy grinned. Such a easy pot of gold. He might never get duch a chance again.

" Ever watched crabs in the basket? It doesn't matter which crabs climbs higher. In the end, the remaining ones pull it down. That's what you have to do. If you can't have enough time to study, ensure others don't either."

While Asher was digesting the clue, Leroy threw another bait. " For a bit extra, I'll spread the news in an indeginous way and you won't have to worry." Asher had to nod at that. He could not think of ways of ensuring others did not get extra time to study. But he had a big problem at hand though. " What about you then?"

"Pay me!"

"Huh?"

" Pay me extra for every hour I spend in the game. This way I'll have even less time to study." And that way how a certain someone was conned to pay a devil to play games and waste time.

Without the cash incentive, Leroy would not have entered the new game at all.

Now that he had the incentive, Leroy was determined to milk this cow as much as possible.