After a break from the game and formulating a new plan. They figured that the spirit might want them to go around the game and visit certain locations before they could even beat it. However, they don’t desire to waste any time or explore as much as they want. So, they’ll go to places of interest that have story significance like Nipton and straight up to Novac, Boulder City, 188 Trading Post, and directly to New Vegas.
The idea was to cover as much ground as possible and head directly to Yes-Man and ideally complete a few quests or achieve a few conditions. They reasoned that every other character could be deleted or killed, and since Yes-Man was the only non-killable NPC in the game, it might give them the chance to beat the spirit. Though that was a hunch they had. A collection of theories they spent a few hours on without a clue on if it was correct or grounded in a reality that was made by the spirit. They were going in blind, and they knew it.
Gorgie took the controller, booted up the Xbox, and played the cursed game. As he travelled down to Nipton, he prepared himself for something gruesome and twisted the spirit conjured into the game to make the massacre of Nipton look like a picnic in comparison. Instead, he arrived in a clean town. It had no crosses with the crucified, nor did they have any burn piles or any signs of conflict. It was empty, but the place was calm, too calm. Besides heading off straight to Novac like they originally planned. They discussed and agreed to explore the town hall to see if there were any strange oddities to document.
As Gorgie entered the town hall, he was loaded into the New Vegas strip. Like everything, it was empty and void of life. But everyone smiled. They knew they were close to their goal, to at least achieve the first step of their plan to beat the spirit that haunted the game. But before Gorgie could move, he was locked in dialogue with a Securitron, a mechanical guard that defended the New Vegas area. Besides having a face of a police officer, a soldier, or any of the Securitron characters. It was blank, a white screen with a single static streak on the left side of the screen.
‘Hello, Gorgie.’ The subtitles said without the company of a voiceover. As the dialogue screen ended, Gorgie had his character turn around to face multiple Securitrons in a hostile state. Before he could react, his character was shot and killed. His character was torn apart like a piece of meat being shredded by a chainsaw.
Gorgie fell to the ground, screaming in agony as his body spasmed violently. Jayden jumped over the couch to hold on to Gorgie so he wouldn't hurt himself. Hank pulled out his Glock and aimed it at the Xbox while Dameo swore in a panic at how everything went down.
‘Jesus!’ Gorgie groaned, his jaw clenched so tight he could shatter his teeth.
‘It’s okay,’ Jayden tried to sooth him. ‘Everything is going to be fine.’
Dameo glanced at the screen, frozen the moment Gorgie’s character was killed with a light buzzing sound coming from the TV’s speakers. He was aware of how spirits would attack their targets, but he never imagined seeing the effects of a psychic blast on full display. How something happening in the game could cause unspeakable pain to the victim. Dameo winced as the TV screen turned to black. It was at that moment he figured out what the spirit was capable of. What the spirit displayed was not even a fraction of what it was capable of. It was a simple demonstration of the kind of harm it could inflict on them if and whenever it wanted to.
The screen buzzed again, revealing a black void with a single Securitron standing alone in the middle. ‘What the hell?’ Jayden mumbled, baffled at what he was looking at. ‘What kind of trick is it playing?’
‘The fucked up kind!’ Hank replied, his Glock trained on the console. ‘Maybe it’s best I destroy it, find a different way to kill it!’
‘No!’ Gorgie spat while he struggled to sit himself up. ‘we have to beat it here.’ Jayden gave back the Xbox controller once Gorgie tried searching for it.
‘Look, are you sure you want to keep playing?’ Jayden concernedly asked. In response, Gorgie gave him a silent nod.
Gorgie had his character move towards the Securitron. To either find answers, or at least understand what was going on. Before he could get any closer, however, he locked into dialogue with the Securitron and zoomed right up to it, revealing it to have the twisted smiling face of Yes-Man.
The robot NPC waved at them. ‘How are you doing?’ Yes-Man said in a cheery tone. ‘I am glad you are here with me. How do you feel?’ After Yes-Man talked, Gorgie and everyone else waited for a dialogue box to pop up so they could reply. ‘Come on Gorgie! Don’t tell me you have cold feet.’
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‘Wh… what do you want?’ Gorgie asked, trying his best to hide his pain that almost escaped his throat.
‘I want you to play!’ Yes-Man pointed at random spots on the screen. ‘I want all of you to play.’
‘Why?’
‘Why?’ Yes-Man replied, unsure what Gorgie meant. ‘I want to have fun, that’s why.’ It pointed at everyone in the room again. ‘I know all of you. Hank is an addict, Jayden is a “nice guy”, Gorgie is a silly goose and social outcast, while Dameo does unspeakable things. All of you are unique.’
Hank scoffed as he lined up his aim. ‘This thing is fucking annoying!’
The screen flickered. Before anyone could react, Hank jammed his Glock under his jaw with his finger twitching on the trigger.
‘Tsk, tsk, tsk. That is really rude of you. I don’t like how you behaved.’ Yes-Man chuckled while Hank tried to move, only to have his efforts go in vain. ‘Maybe I should push down a little.’
‘Wait!’ Jayden said multiple times to get the spirit’s attention. ‘If you want us to play, we need to know the rules.’
‘Rules?’ Yes-Man asked in confusion. ‘Why do you need to know the rules?’
Jayden thought for a moment, trying to come up with a convincing response to get the spirit to spare Hank. ‘Well, you want us to play and we came here to play with you. How could we have fun if we don’t know how to play?’
‘What about him?’ Yes-Man said, referring to Hank.
‘Well, he is also a player in the game. He is our team captain. Without him, we don’t have a fair chance of winning.’ Dameo pleaded.
The spirit considered their words, and seeing the logic of their conviction, it let go of its control over Hank. ‘Okay, he can stay.’ Yes-Man gleefully said.
‘Okay, so what are the rules? How do we win the game?’ Jayden asked.
‘Simple!’ Yes-Man clapped. ‘You only need to get the ending slide show after winning the battle of Hoover Dam.’
Jayden raised a brow. ‘Does faction matter? Quest we need to complete? Anything?’
‘Nope, all you need to do is win the battle and get the ending slide. It’s that simple!’ Yes-Man explained.
‘Then why make it difficult for us to complete?’ Hank asked while he rubbed his lower jaw.
‘Well, silly, it won’t be fun if it is too easy.’ Yes-Man chuckled like it was a child. ‘But now you know, let’s play the game!’
Jayden raised his hands. ‘Wait! I want to ask something of you. If you don’t mind.’
‘Sure, ask me anything.’ Yes-Man replied while the TV buzzed, a subtle way to tell Jayden that he should be quick.
Jayden gave the spirit a false smile. ‘I want to play the game, new save and everything. I’ll even start tomorrow if you like.’
‘But Gorgie didn’t finish.’ Yes-Man pouted.
‘But he will, just after I had my turn. It’ll be fun, I promise.’
Yes-Man paused, its smiling face frozen on the screen for what felt like an eternity for them. ‘Okay, but you better play tomorrow.’ It replied before the TV and the gaming console turned itself off.
Gorgie sighed in relief, trying to catch his breath after his body was inflamed. Hank walked around the room, trying to understand how a spirit took control of his entire body, while Dameo sat in a corner of the room to calm himself down to prevent a panic attack. In the meantime, Jayden stared at the dead TV with a blank expression, his mind screaming in terror at what he would need to do.