The Man of the House

“You know, forth place wasn’t bad.”

I had managed to just make the end of the duo’s competition. Avery and my sister had failed to make the top three, but they came in fourth place. Bethany was a bit depressed, so I was trying to cheer her up.

“That bastard was using a cheat combo. They should have outlawed that shit.” Avery declared. “It wasn’t your fault.”

There turned out to be very few boys in the duos. On most teams that had a boy, he was just a token presence. Since teams were made up of five, and the people who were in duos couldn’t be in singles and vice versa, the boy was mostly made to wait until the final match while the three best girls took their turns. Other than for that one all-boy team, we were the only other one that broke that mold.

I had wanted to know if the boys who fought in the duo won one of the top three spots, but it turned out they lost miserably. Was it because they were ugly and that celebrity cunt didn’t want to hit on them? Maybe it was because this match was fighter games, and they instinctively felt that boys shouldn’t be good at such a game. It was also possible that I had imagined the fixed match from the beginning.

When I had pressed the celebrity girl earlier, she had a look on her face like she didn’t know what I was talking about. She had claimed the boys got a handicap, but that might have just been a means to get back at me at the moment. It hadn’t given me the confirmation I was looking for. I lifted my phone and sent out a text. However, as I returned to the main screen, I saw a message had been left. My heart surged for a moment, and I remained frozen as I stared at it. I had been waiting for this message for weeks, and it arrived finally? Should I open it?

“Brother?” Bethany touched my arm, seeming to notice I had gone silent.

“We lost one competition and won another. You can still be the MVPs of this tournament.” I declared, putting the phone away and smiling at my teammates. “And even if we fail, I’ll take you all out for dinner, on me.”

I had been trying to be encouraging, but the girls suddenly turned shy on me. Each of the girls blushed. Dina cleaned her glasses while Katie looked down nervously. Avery turned her head to the side, her lips pursed.

“As if I’d let a boy pay. What kind of woman do you take me for?”

“A cheap woman?” Dina declared.

“Oi!”

The other girls let out giggles, and I chuckled as well before saying. “I just wanted to let you guys know that whatever happens, I’m happy we were on a team together. Thanks for inviting me.”

The girls suddenly grew shy again.

“Jeese, just like a boy to get all emotional.” Avery scratched the back of her neck.

“What did you say?” I frowned.

“Brother is just a boy, after all.”

“Do you want to fight? I’ll take you all on!” I growled at them.

The girls broke into laughter again as I glared at them.

“Alright, alright… your very scary.” Avery lifted his hand defensively. “Let’s talk strategy before the game.”

We put our game faces on and started to discuss what was important. Avery was a surprisingly good leader. She had read a book on running gaming teams and was able to direct us properly. It was mostly a discussion of what strategy we were going to use and the various contingency plans if this happened or that. We knew which game we’d be playing at this point, so we made sure to prepare our best strategy. It at least had been a game we had all practiced with, so I felt confident we could do well.

“That should cover just about everything.” Dina, the expert on this came and our strategist finished her explanation.

“Great. If we win top three… I’ll be the one taking you out.” Avery declared, looking at me.

“Uh… you mean taking us all out as a team, right?” Katie cut in.

“Eh? I’m not paying for women?”

“She is a cheap bastard!” Bethany snapped.

“Girls, there is one more thing…” I hesitated for a moment, suddenly doubting whether I should say anything.

“What is it?” Bethany turned to me, their growing spat being interrupted.

I had been thinking about it since we had started discussing the next match, and I wasn’t sure if I should tell them or not. I was afraid that this would only cause future issues. I knew that there was still a bit of prejudice in gaming, and if they even suspected that some cheating was going on, it might create problems, the kind of problems that could get us completely kicked out. After a moment of thought, I decided to continue.

“Just… watch out for the Pocket Rockets, okay?”

“Pocket Rockets? The boy’s team?” Katie gave a bewildered look.

“They aren’t much of a threat,” Avery responded. “That one leader might have a little skill to get third place, but didn’t you beat him? Besides, the other two boys in the duo played awful. They weren’t even in the top ten. I don’t mean to be offensive, but they aren’t that impressive.”

I clenched my teeth for a moment but decided since I already warned them, I might as well tell them all of it. “In the first game, it might not be a coincidence that the only two boy players won.”

“What?” Dina frowned while Avery straightened her slouching posture.

“Brother? What are you saying?” Bethany asked for clarification.

“I’m not certain, but I think the gamers rigged it so boys had an advantage.”

All of the girls put on looks of shock, but that quickly turned to anger.

“Those fucking sluts! I bet that blue-haired cock was licking pussy all night to get them to do that!” Avery snarled before I gave her a sharp look. “Ah… not you though…”

As they realized that the person who had benefitted most from this cheating policy was their team, the steam quickly was released from their anger. Their expressions fell into ones of deep thought, and a few even looked a bit guilty.

“I don’t think the boys know about it,” I responded. “And I don’t know if they only did it for the one tournament or if they’d do it for the others too. Hell, I don’t even know if they did it that time. I’m just saying something felt off about it when I was playing. That’s why I wanted to give you all a heads up before we began. It’d be best to avoid the girl’s team completely. If they have some advantage, like slightly higher health or deal more damage, then they’d be dangerous to pick on. We’d only be handing them points.”

“Right, well, we’ll just be careful then.” Avery, who had been the angriest to hear it, swallowed her anger and nodded to the group.  

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. “The groups will be starting. Please head backstage.”

The five of us nervously shared a few looks, and then opened the door and headed out. We had already been through this twice. The only difference this time was that we came out onto the stage as a group. We got our table where five displays with five keyboards and mouses set in a circle. There was such a table for each team, and they filled up the stage until it was rather crowded. When our team was called, I instinctively looked toward the judging panel.

The guest judge was there, staring in my direction with a glower. In the past, she had been catering to her small crowd of fans, throwing them flirtatious looks and occasionally signing something for them, but now, even though the guys were as excitable as ever, she completely ignored them. To the other judges, it looked like she was taking her job seriously, so they only nodded. I had another feeling about it.

“Did something happen between you and her?” Bethany whispered as quietly as she could to still be heard over the screaming crowds.

“I’ll tell you about it later,” I replied.

Although I had told them about the cheating because it was relevant, I feared telling them that women’s connection to it would only be a distraction. We came to win.

“The match will take place in a massive multiplayer group battle royale.” The announcer spoke up. “Every team will be on the map. The map will shrink after every 90 seconds. Killing enemy nets you one point, and dying causes you to lose a point. Find your weapons and whichever team has the most points by the end of the match wins.”

The game opened into the lobby and we were able to pick our characters. I put on my headphones and started getting to work. I was given a male avatar, although he was in nothing but a mankini. I wished that I could just pick a female character instead, but it appeared they were preselected. Well, that was a joke, because I’m sure someone selected this avatar specifically for me. Was it that perverted celebrity?

I didn’t have any time to dwell on it, as the game loaded up shortly after. We landed as a group. We chose a busy location, and immediately scrambled to find weapons. I usually preferred to land outside the dense locations. Weapons took longer to find, but it also wasn’t a mess of death and danger. However, in this game that depended on points, every moment counted.

I had only managed to find a single pistol when I started hearing gunfire nearby. I could see one of my teammates was getting hit, so I converged on their position. On the way, I found a chest and seeing that they were no longer in danger, I opened it, awarding myself with a machine gun instead. It was then that I ran into my first enemy. I started taking them down, but a second popped up at the same time. I cursed my luck, but just as I was getting cornered, Bethany and Katie showed up. I was knocked down, but they were able to revive me after the other two were knocked out.

It wasn’t all success. Dina and Avery both ended up getting killed before they could reform with us. After they respawned and we all met up, we then ended up in a battle five on five against another team. Three of us fell in the fight before they were knocked out. By the time we left the city, our score was only three.

At first, we worked on getting better weapons and moving toward a more strategic spot. Dina had been familiar with the map, so we not only knew where to go, but what strategies to use to maximize our points. The game only took fifteen minutes, so it wasn’t long until we had to abandon that spot and move to one closer in. We weren’t lucky enough to have a spot that was where the map was closing in.

I tried not to pay too much attention to the clock, but I could see the points rising on the other teams. We hovering around third place. I could see the all-boys team was just behind us. We hadn’t encountered them directly, but that didn’t mean the other teams didn’t go to them. The girls probably thought that they were easy meat, so they gravitated toward them. This had the unexpected consequence of giving them more chances to get kills of their own.

At that moment, my screen suddenly flashed strangely, and I saw characters through the walls that were my enemies. I so was confused by the scene that I didn’t even defend as someone rounded a corner and killed me. I heard angry muttering, and before I could respawn, the screen fell back into the lobby.

{You have been kicked for cheating.}

Wait, what?