Chapter 1: Prologue: Cheater!

A jarring riff of guitar accompanied the jolting, jittery vibrations of a cell phone skittering against the wooden nightstand tore through the peaceful quiet of the night. "The smell of rusty metal, dead zerg, and napalm-!"

The song was muffled by a hand reaching across the speaker in a tight clench, dragging the light closer to examine the caller flashing on the screen. A bleary-eyed, frustrated groan slipped free as the thumb mashed down on 'answer', "What do you want, Dex? It's two in the morning...!" The anger was plain in the tone, the sleepiness slowly fading from the snarling voice as the speaker sat up in bed and rubbed at his eyes with the free hand.

"Your in-game name, dude. My install just wrapped up a bit ago, even with my connection. Yours should be done by now, right?" There was a long pause, followed by a scramble off the bed, nearly tripping over the clothing scattered on the floor. "The release was tonight? Wait, how long was I asleep? I thought it was tomorrow!" A cackle of derisive laughter echoed over the speaker, before devolving into a coughing fit. "You forgot!? I can't believe it, ace Commander Jack left his troops in the lurch for two whole hours and counting?"

The mockery was meant to be good-natured, but the genuine disbelief was also easing into the voice, knowing his best friend's obsession. Jack Donovan, or as the few friends he kept regular contact with tauntingly called him, Commander Jack. The man played real-time strategy games. Exclusively real-time strategy games, and he was damn competitive about it... to the point none of his social circle wanted to play with him. He insisted he didn't have the hands and the reflexes for shooters, felt like he was suffocating when he had to sit and wait three minutes for his opponents over and over in turn-based games, and considered MOBAs as a game where he only got to command one troop too straightforward.

"Consider it me giving you a head-start! I'll call you back later!" Hanging up without waiting for a response, Jack tossed the phone back onto his bed as he all but rolled out of bed directly into his computer chair. It was done with such ease it had to be a practiced motion, almost like he spent most of his time in one or the other, and only moved to transition between the two.

It wasn't far from the truth. When he wasn't working, he spent the vast majority of his time doing just that, gaming until he was ready to crash and unceremoniously toppling into bed to pass out... if not just dozing off against his desk. The 24-year-old had pudgy figure that was mostly flab, and only kept from looking round as a baby harp seal by the fact he was almost six and a half feet tall. The extra weight must have balanced across his frame. He had pale skin from a lack of outdoor activity that never extended beyond getting in and out of a car and driving, and shaggy brown hair that was too long to be stylish but too short to be grown out intentionally, the sort of style one developed after being too lazy to see a barber for too long.

Brown eyes squinted at the glare of the screen turning on as he woke his computer from sleep mode and started frantically urging his software to boot up a little bit faster as he worked through the launcher program. Tonight was the night they were finally going to release the third game in the Starcraft series! It had been almost twenty years since the second one came out, and it was a classic that was still being played to this day. In fact, even the original still had somewhat of a cult following in certain countries!

The reason he was so excited was it was one of Jack's favorite games, and the game he performed the best at. After a few more frantic clicks, a progress bar booted up and showed the install beginning, but now there was an agonizing wait for it to finish. Especially knowing that everyone else was getting to play it while he waited! It was agony! Putting off the thought of browsing the internet casually, just in case there were already leaks and spoilers going around as seems to be the case more often than not with new releases, he glanced at the next game in his library, Starcraft 2. Why not boot it up for one more last hurrah before moving on to the sequel? It would keep his mind off things, and it wasn't like everyone was going to drop this one totally just because the new one was out.

A few minutes later, he was slamming his fist off the desk in frustration as another formation of troops happened to be exactly where they would intercept his troops crossing the map. Again. For what had to be the fourth or fifth time by now. His mouse almost rattled with the way he was manhandling it, the rapid-fire clicking showing his intent to battle against the odds. Odds he was fairly certain weren't exactly on the level to begin with. Too many little coincidences in enemy placement, every choice of his being countered as if his opponent saw him coming. Like he was being read like a book by a pro, or being led by the nose by a- "Cheater!" he shouted, and typed it into the chat function at the same time.

The only response was an infuriating smile emoji, and two letters. It was customary to see two letters at the end of a match, but this wasn't the friendly 'GG' that most offered. Oh no. This was the most basic taunt, the eternal provocation after a game.

'EZ'.

The last of his burning buildings exploded but a moment later, and with the 'DEFEAT' banner on his screen, his opponent left without another word. Jack was fuming, and in the after-game screen, immediately went to check his opponent's profile.
1000 W - 0 L. It was a mockery! A thousand wins without losing? No one can be that perfect! And the fact he was the last one in the list left him fuming, needing some outlet. "It probably won't do anything to report this cheater, but I can't just sit around and do nothing, it'll drive me crazy..."

In moments, he was filing a complaint through the system... one that wasn't entirely subjective. Calling out the repeated 'luck' that had to be cheating, and the fact that the opponent was a terrible, worthless commander who wouldn't be worth anything without their cheats. It was more catharsis than anything else, venting his frustration. He was going to just cancel the report and move on, enjoy the rest of the night when the new game was done installing, when a new text box appeared.

'Are you a more competent commander?' and a simple yes or no choice in a pop-up. Staring at the screen blankly for a few seconds, he knew this wasn't something that was supposed to happen. He hadn't even technically submitted his complaint yet, but was supposedly getting a reply? Still, what harm could it do? And he genuinely believed in his decision on the matter. He clicked on yes, idly wondering if there was some sort of follow up reply.

It was hard to tell emotion through text, and this could have been anyone who sent him the same smiling emoji that had been mocking him just minutes ago, but he had a strong gut feeling it was the same person who he had played against. He just knew it.

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Stuck there in the middle of his screen, text appeared below it, letter by letter.

'P-r-o-v-e i-t'.

And then everything went black.

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