Everyone stood around Jayden as he booted up the Xbox. He plugged in his hard-drive and keyboard, sweating because he was unsure if his plan could work. The game’s loading screen popped up, causing everyone to wait in anticipation to see if the spirit noticed the additional hardware.
‘You sure this will work?’ Gorgie asked Jayden.
‘It will,’ Hank replied, his tone brimming with confidence even if he was hiding his fear. ‘If any nerd can pull it off, it would be him.’
Jayden chuckled, ‘thanks guys.’
Everyone smiled as the game ran as normal, and it seemed to them the spirit hadn’t noticed. No time to waste, Jayden thought to himself as he started up a new game. As the game loaded in, he created his character and went through the psyche evaluation Doc Mitchell has every player go through. Yet, as soon as Jayden left his house, he snatched his keyboard and opened up the console command. With the pre-typed prompts already coded into the keyboard, Jayden had every mission relating to Mr House completed, he put on god mode, and gave himself the most powerful equipment in the game as well as the .357 magnum revolver with the different ammo types, in case things went sideways.
However, before he could teleport himself to Hoover Dam to finish the game. His left hand on the keyboard slammed into the controller. He let out a blood-curdling scream as he felt his hands were being dipped in hot magma. Jayden tried to pull away, but the palms of his hands fused to the plastic controller, followed by his tendons and veins entangling into the internal compartments. Forcing him to keep his hands on the gaming device, nor could Jayden do something drastic like separating himself from the controller without major complications.
Dameo slapped Hank away from the keyboard before he could grab it. ‘Don’t! The spirit might have control of it now. If you touch it, it might kill you.’
Hank glared at him in frustration. ‘What am I meant to do? Let him do it alone?’
Before anyone could answer, a Securitron spawned into the town of Goodsprings with Yes-Man’s face on its cracked monitor. Jayden realised that talking with the spirit would mean certain death. Alright, it figured me out. Jayden thought to himself.
He went into the inventory and pulled out the magnum and shot the Securitron, causing it to become hostile to prevent Jayden being in dialogue with the spirit. Jayden then used the reload dash exploit with the revolver to escape Yes-Man and Goodsprings. Zooming across great distances before areas could even load or render properly. If I can’t get to the Dam as planned, I’ll get there quickly. Jayden thought to himself as he zoomed across the desert landscape.
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The spirit knew what Jayden was doing, so to stop him it tried to spawn every enemy type in hopes to slow him down. From the Mole Rat straight to the Legendary Bloatfly, there were no limits to what the spirit would do to slow Jayden down.
As Jayden made it to Novac, an NCR Trooper shot at him. Jayden felt his cheek split open like he had been sliced open by a rusty knife. ‘Shit!’ Jayden shouted as blood oozed from his face, it became clear to him and everyone around that the spirit wasn’t playing around anymore. It had been insulted, frustrated that someone manipulated its code and played the game it manifested unfairly. Even though he didn’t lose any health due to him being in god mode, the spirit didn’t care. Jayden had only one option, and that was to win at all costs. Since there was no guarantee that the use of console commands could work again, and there was even a chance that the reload dash exploit might be fixed if he was killed. Defeat wasn’t an option, not when the fate of humanity is at stake.
As he made it past Boulder City and into Hoover Dam, every enemy turned their gaze to Jayden and tried to attack him. While Jayden was fast, he couldn’t dodge every attack flung at him. His shirt was drenched in crimson red as bullet holes mystically formed, Jayden spat out blood as his lungs began to be filled with blood. Jayden coughed violently, his body slumped to the side as he struggled to keep himself up. His eyes become heavy, tired, his soul calling for him to rest.
‘I wasn’t hoping to use this.’ Hank pulled out a syringe and inserted it down Jayden’s neck to inject a clear liquid before he pulled it out.
‘What the fuck did you do?’ Dameo shouted.
Hank shrugged as carefully watched Jayden. ‘I gave him meth.’
Jayden screamed himself wide awake, his heart pounding erratically while he forced his body upright so he could continue playing the game. Unaware that his body is riddled with bullet holes and how his lungs and stomach is full of his own blood. He kept going and going, ignoring how much pain he was in and how close to death he was.
As he entered the Legate's camp, he grabbed the Fat Man and nuked the final boss like it was nothing before he pushed himself to meet with the Securitron army waiting for him at the gate. Besides meeting Lee Oliver, he was only greeted by a Securitron with Robert House’s face. Besides anything unusual, the dialogue between the player and the NPC was similar to that in the released version of the game. Hank placed two fingers to his temple and scanned the console, but found no traces of magical or spiritual energies. The creature had been slain.
However, Jayden couldn’t care to celebrate his victory over the spirit. He skipped all the dialogue and went straight to the slideshow, which was where he immediately collapsed from shock. A hero of humanity, a defender against a creature who pretended to be an innocent game.