1 A Failure's Second Chance

"*BAM!* Can't believe this dumb piece of sh*t!"

Slamming the desk of her table, an annoyed grumble of a meaty voice sounded out. That annoyance came from a room covered entirely by darkness. Its only source of light was the gleaming luster of a monitor.

"What? What do you mean it was my fault? Are you blind!?"

"What kind of f*cking support keeps aiming for kills?"

A teenage girl who recently lost a rank match in a MOBA game was gazing at a computer screen with her jaws clenched. Along with her were dozens of rubbishes scattered throughout the table, alongside empty soda drinks beside the monitor.

Eyeglasses covered her sapphire-like eyes while her long brunette hair was utterly disheveled. Sadly, she wasn't a cute nerd girl of some sort. She was the opposite of it. A young ugly duck who was on the obese side of the spectrum.

Her name was Mercedes Reed, a somewhat magnificent and underserving for someone like her. She was a NEET. In simpler terms, a loser and a failure of society. As a disappointment to her family, she threw herself into her room as an exile.

Though, as a matter of fact, it was a way to distract herself from reality. It wasn't that she was in exile. Mercedes was simply afraid of what would come if she went outside her room. Could she stare at her mother and little sister in the eye? No, perhaps not.

Continuing on after the rank match defeat in the MOBA game, Mercedes hasn't concluded in making a fuss about her teammate.

"Why bother playing a rank match when you can't properly play support? Like, why not pick DPS if you wanted to carry?" Mercedes was annoyed by the DPS Wannabe Support. Instead of going team play, that guy concentrated his build on dealing last hits.

For Mercedes, the DPS Wannabe Support was an annoying teammate.

It was hard when no one could help the CC teammate, and the DPSs immediately died after the CC lost its effects. The one support which was supposed to be hammering down the enemies or making sure DPSs don't get killed was the one dealing hits instead.

While effective in killing enemies, it mostly ends up with their entire team being wiped out, with the enemy team having 2 players alive and well.

"*Sigh...* There's nothing I can do about it." Mercedes stretches her meaty arms upward. Mercedes yawned and continued. "Well, this shouldn't be a problem. I can take back the lost mmr in the next game."

"However, that's a quest for the Mercedes tomorrow." Mercedes was a little bit tired. It had been over 28 hours since she last took a nap. She also still hadn't gotten over losing a game while being roasted by her opponents.

So she decided to take a break from the MOBA and access the internet instead. The internet might calm her mind. After all, there's no more calming than the web for a loser like her.

Skimming through the posts of a discussion website with a robot logo. A place where basement dwellers gather. Mercedes upvoted and downvoted posts that caught her eye. Dozens of them were unfunny memes that somehow got a chuckle out of her.

But as Mercedes kept turning the mouse scroll, she noticed a strange post that captured her interest.

"Hmm... What's this?" Looking at an unusual post, Mercedes decided to read it for more context. Silence enveloped her for the first seconds, but as time passed, she began chuckling for no reason. "Hahaha, One in a million chance? For a second chance in life?"

"I can't believe this bull! What, is this a lottery!? Can't believe someone actually made this post."

After reading the post that caught her interest, Mercedes couldn't help but explode in an erratic chuckle. It was too hilarious that she had difficulty breathing after ten seconds of continuous laughing. The post was an obvious scam. Only losers would fall for it.

"The poster didn't even bother making it subtle. What a scam." Mercedes scoffed in annoyance and kept scrolling through the website. Now that she had gotten a laugh from that post. She couldn't care much about it anymore.

She didn't plan on wasting more time on scams where there might be more things she could laugh at on this website. That was the kind of loser Mercedes was. She was amongst the target audience of this website, a basement dweller.

As she went downwards through the website, something creepy happened. The display froze and started scrolling back to where the scam post resided.

Mercedes furrowed her eyebrows upon noticing the spine-chilling phenomenon. Though, she turns a blind eye to it. For her, it was nothing more but her internet acting up. Sadly she was proven wrong. While she scrolled away from the post, the display froze and returned to its previous location.

"What the- The scam post again? Did the internet disconnect? What is this ping?" She wanted to slam the keyboard in instinct, but fortunately, she stopped the intrusive thought. Mercedes took a deep breath and calmly laid back in the comfy chair.

*Creak...*

Mercedes closes her eyes while numerous thoughts surge through her hair. After a short while, she opened her eyelids, revealing her sapphire-like irises. Looking silently at the computer display's gleaming luster, Mercedes continued quietly thinking.

The monitor's radiance was the only illumination that kept the room from being entirely enveloped by jet-black darkness. Mercedes rarely turned on the lights in her room, and she was too lazy to stand up and open the lights.

"What should I do?" Mercedes wondered as no idea emerged in her mind. She didn't know how to fix this problem. Or Mercedes was too lazy to even attempt to fix it. Before she could continue thinking about it, something kept blinking in the notification box.

Mercedes raised an eyebrow upon noticing it. She scrutinized it before clicking the notification box to reveal who it was.

"Wait... This name... Is this the name of that dumb scam poster? Why the hell did he give me a notification?" Mercedes was a bit surprised by the unexpected notification. It wasn't intensely horrifying, but it was a little creepy nonetheless.

After looking at the notification for five seconds, she shook her head and ignored it.

"Let's restart the PC for now."

Mercedes didn't bother reading the notification coming from that scam post. If she decided to open it, it would be a problem if she got bombarded with more messages. With this thought process in mind, Mercedes continued thinking about her situation.

"Although, that was a little bit creepy." Mercedes lightly chuckled as having your computer freeze on one post while having a notification from that poster speaks of a horror scene. However, it was nothing more but a coincidence to her.

But having thought that, she wasn't wholly convinced by the idea of coincidence. Mercedes was a coward who liked to see others frightened yet was someone easily terrified herself. So strange things happening was a phenomenon she'd rather avoid.

Regrettably, Mercedes had the worse luck of all. The computer screen blacked out, leaving her consumed by darkness. She lost her perception, and she could only hear her breath.

"Woah, woah, woah! Sh*t... The computer just died. I haven't even restarted it yet." Her body jolted out when the screen blacked out. Chills kept throughout her spine while her skin turned pale. Mercedes kept darting glances despite not being able to see anything.

Seconds later, she noticed the CPU neon lights lustrous in the dark. It must have been the monitor that died. Although, that didn't stop her body from trembling for no reason. She couldn't help but grit her teeth in annoyance. "I should have opened the lights."

Wanting to open the lights and check whether or not the cables were connected correctly, Mercedes ought to get out of her comfy chair. Yet as she was about to leave, the monitor shone again in lustrous dazzle. Albeit, there were words imprinted on it now.

The imprinted sentence was six words that kept repeating throughout the screen.

"Do you want a second chance... What?" Mercedes was confused upon reading the suspicious words written on her monitor. It was the exact words that were on the scam poster.

Her eyes squinted as things jumped away from what she considered common sense. It might be a good hacker messing with her, or this was something else. A phenomenon that might change everything for a loser like her.

"If I want it, what could you do about it?" Mercedes uttered, and the words imprinted on the monitor changed. "Huh, say Yes if I want to receive my second chance? What kind of joke is this?" The more she conversed with it, the higher Mercedes's doubts stood.

"*Sigh...* Alright... Yes, I want my second chance." Mercedes gazed at the computer screen and waited for the computer ghost to answer. She wondered if something would happen. But unfortunately, it was something else.

"Ackkk!!!" A pulsing feeling encapsulated Mercedes's chest. It was heavy and hard, like a battering ram beating her body. "Urrghhh!!! It hurts!!! F*CK!!!" Mercedes couldn't take the pain and fell from the chair she had laid on.

*BAM!*

As Mercedes's body toppled to the smooth and cold wooden floor, her perception slowly escaped her grasp. Her head became soft and light as a feather. It didn't take too long for Mercedes's consciousness to black out while her body lay on the floor, unmoving like a corpse.

The clock kept ticking, and a ring sounded out in her mind.

*Ding!*

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[𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬! 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐄𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦, 𝐀𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐒 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭.]

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