Betrayed and Murdered

Brave felt extremely tired after staying up all night. For seventy-two hours straight, without sleeping and hardly blinking, he finished the final coding sequence for Immortal Kingdom. The game would be displayed tomorrow at his graduation from Penn State's prestigious gaming program. He would also be the youngest at the graduation since he had only just turned thirteen.

He hopped on the bus and went down to Game Center a store where their final projects would be showcased. He immediately handed the game over to his professor, and waited for the audience to file in. If he got first place, he'd get a two-million-dollar grant, and he excitedly waited for the file to be loaded.

His classmates compared to him were like giants, and he had yet to truly go through puberty. One of them, Mitsuwa Tokugawa, was his best friend, and his only ally in the program. He sat down next to him as the administrators started campaigning in the various kingdom building games.

After five hours, he saw his game on the screen with its cruddy interface and display. To his amazement, their jaws dropped experiencing the graphics and campaign editor in his game.

"Who did this! Which kid did this?"

"This is fantastic! I've never seen such good, realistic graphics in a student's game!"

"The interface… it's beyond perfect! Which one of you made the game! Come here right away!"

Tokugawa pat Brave on the back as he looked around nervously at his aggrieved opponents and the chagrin they were displaying on their countenances. It was beyond humiliating to be beaten by a thirteen-year-old, and he felt their eyes beaming into his back like lasers ready to fire and kill him!

"I created the game. I'm sorry it's not fully finished, and the graphics are only so so…" Brave felt humiliated standing in front of his work.

On the other hand, the people examining his game were stunned! Compared to the other students, it was like an actual gaming studio created the game. However, when they looked at the code of the game, they could tell only one person had worked on it.

The code had been completely and utterly optimized. Only a few geniuses would know how to code with the least lines of code! They were utterly astounded that the game even ran and ran perfectly on their crappy computers. They started clapping as Brave felt embarrassed. What had the quality of this gaming program fallen to if he was getting clapped at?

They still patted him on the back after, and his Dean came over and gave him a hug calling him 'their school's greatest genius.' Were these crazy lunatics on crack, or did he not realize the potential of Immortal Kingdom?

"You… you seem to be surprised we chose you, boy. However, your game is truly unique and one of a kind!"

"We want to buy this game for five million dollars off of you, albeit with giving you the full reward for your graduation project…"

Brave gulped as a large ball of confusion traveled down his throat. "Are you serious? You are really choosing me?"

Brave smiled as his classmates all secretly grounded their hands and feet. Seeing the seven million dollar check starting to be written, one of the students even pulled out a gun and fired up into the air!

Brave gulped and held up his hands in fright as his best friend pointed the gun at him. Seeing Tokugawa with a gun in his hand, the officers in the venue could only rush towards him with batons.

The government had outlawed guns, and only collectors were able to truly gather working guns in the year 2035. As for the officers, they knew that they couldn't make it in time if this man truly wished to kill Brave.

Surprisingly, all of the students cheered him on, though, to the shock of the school's Dean. Like a scared nest of bugs on the stage, all the judges, and Deans ran away from Brave leaving him metaphorically naked on stage by himself. As for the police officers, they were tripped by the students off the stage, as Tokugawa stood up and approached him.

"You really think I would want to hang out with you little shit?"

"The only reason I even decided to talk to your stupid ass was to keep you from creating a game…"

"I invited you to all those parties and outings just to keep you from coding… However, look at this! You betrayed all my hard work your stupid bastard!"

Brave swallowed his fear one more time and tried to eat humble pie. "I didn't win… Your game is clearly better than mine, and the judges just chose me because I was young…."

"They say victory favors the young and foolish… I was just a young and foolish friend who didn't yet know the heavens…"

Tokugawa clapped his gun as the police officers neared him with their batons. A loud bang sounded and a bullet pierced into one of the police officer's feet. Sending them stumbling forward, they crashed into a computer monitor and shook realizing they were powerless.

Brave held his ears as the rest of the students kept clapping like evil little beasts. Brave had wanted to create games to get away from such beasts and bullies. However, now one had a gun pointed at him, and the authorities had fallen to the floor.

His 'best friend' then laughed and shook his head.

"You're an idiot Brave… Sorry, but I hope death is a true friend to you. Good bye you little greedy shit!"

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Brave looked down at three bullets shot at his feet missing his body. However, unfortunately some blood appeared to be coming out of his heart. He dropped to the floor as the world started to disappear. He hadn't been expecting to die such a miserable death, and his former friend walked up to him and pointed the gun at his head.

"You… you are stupid for trusting anyone Brave…. May you reincarnate in hell you little bitch!"

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Three more bullets rocketed into Brave's head causing all of his efforts to rise away in smoke…