It was tied.
Match point.
The kind of moment where the world just... muted. You won't hear breathing. You wouldn't see any blinking. My fingers moved on muscle memory alone, tapping at the screen. Sweat dripped off my jaw, waiting to hit the floor.
4–4. Next point decides it all.
[DarkFlare_93]: YO WTF IS THIS COMEBACK??
[ZaiZen]: Zeroth COOKING. BRO IS POSSESSED
[noobSlayz]: HOW IS HE STILL ALIVE??? 1 HP CLUTCH???
[CringeCollector]: this dude been grinding in hell or sum
[MomImFamous]: someone check his pulse. is he even HUMAN?
[PetalVortex]: win this for every solo queue warrior
[MrMechanical]: he’s doing 300 APM with one hand bruh
[SunGod69]: LITERAL GOD GAMER MOMENT
[Observer]: …he hasn’t missed a single input in 2 mins
[ZerothSimpsUnite]: THIS IS ART. THIS IS CINEMA.
This wasn’t just a game.
This was everything.
This tournament? My golden ticket. My shot at going pro. I didn’t have a plan B—hell, I didn’t even have a plan A that didn’t involve pixels and potential. I skipped school. Ditched work. Ghosted social life as if it was a side quest I couldn’t be bothered to accept. My parents? Pretty sure they stopped hoping a while ago. They wanted college. I wanted championships.
And yeah, maybe they weren’t wrong. My old classmates were out there posting graduation pics and job offers. While I was in a dim room, drenched in sweat, fingers flying, body still as death except for the click-click-click of determination.
I hadn’t slept. Barely ate. Just scrims, matches, muscle memory drills until the skin on my thumbs peeled. I bled for this.
But if I won this match...
A million in prize money. Life-changing. Parent-impressing. Future-securing.
Maybe they’d finally say my name without the sigh at the end.
So yeah.
If it came down to it—
I’d die to win this.
TOURNAMENT: WORLD FATE DUEL — GRAND FINALS
MODE: SOLO CLASH (BEST OF 5)
STATUS: FINAL ROUND — TIED 4:4
TIME REMAINING: 00:47
PLAYER 1: Zeroth [YOU]
- HP: 12%
- Energy: 4%
- Buffs: "Clutch Instinct", "Last Resolve"
- Status: ARMOR BROKEN — VISION BLURRING — SYSTEM FATIGUE WARNING
What would you even think about in a moment like this? The prize money? The career? The headlines that promised a future if I won?
Yeah… no.
If I’m being honest—painfully honest—I wasn’t thinking about any of that.
Looking at the score, it was do or die.
And I meant that.
If I lost, I’d uninstall the game, wipe the app, maybe even torch my whole account and finally get a job like everyone else. Call it a “character arc.” If I won? Maybe the world opened up. Sponsorships. A contract. Actual respect.
But in that moment?
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
None of that mattered.
The only thought in my head was—how the hell do I beat this guy?
[ArcadiaSlice]: DESTINX LOCKED IN, NO WAY HE LOSES THIS
[NovaBunny]: zeroth clutch incoming?? he’s built different
[PixelEater44]: nah Zeroth’s hands shaking LMAO
[MythRift]: BRO’S RUNNING ON COFFEE AND COPIUM
[MidnightPidgeon]: destinx combo clean asf ngl
[Heartline]: how tf is Zeroth STILL alive
[BlinkRush]: he’s dancing on death, man. RESPECT
[CritCraft]: TEAM ZEROTH WHERE YOU AT
[HexSpammer]: fate blessed destinx today, it’s over
[RunicDagger]: i swear if Zeroth wins this i’ll shave my head
[GhostPatch]: this is art. win or lose, these two GOATS
[TunaMage]: zeroth’s eyes not even blinking
[SoulStrider]: everyone doubting till he lands ONE parry. watch.
[AngelOfAPM]: this match is LITERALLY fate vs instinct
[MochiTank]: destinx got the foresight buff. zeroth’s fried
[Obscurial]: he’s gonna reverse it. i FEEL it
[SpookTape]: I STG IF ZEROTH CLUTCHES THIS
[LunaNova]: THIS IS PEAK GAMING HISTORY
[PhaseSlicer]: destinx = domination
[VoidVesper]: zeroth is the underdog KING
I didn’t think. I couldn’t.
He lunged. His momentum was brutal, and yeah, I couldn’t match it. Not in raw power. Not in speed. Not in anything, really.
So what did I do?
I closed my eyes.
Just for a second.
Let myself feel it—the weight of everything. The zero I started from. The hours. The humiliations. The climb. The nights where I played ‘til my fingers went numb, wondering if I’d ever make it here.
That’s how motivation works for me. It’s not loud. It’s not hype.
It’s survival instinct.
If I’m locked in?
I don’t just play. I possess the game.
I bend it. Twist it. Break the damn code if I have to.
The viewers feel it. The scouts definitely feel it. And this poor bastard I'm against? He had no idea what was coming.
[RunicDagger]: HE LANDED IT. OH MY GOD
[PixelEater44]: HES ACTUALLY COOKING
[NovaBunny]: WHAT IS THIS MOVEMENT
[MidnightPidgeon]: NAH BRO’S POSSESSED
[Heartline]: FATEBREAKER COMBO UNLOCKED??
[CritCraft]: THAT’S NEW — THAT MOVE WASN’T IN THE PATCH NOTES
[BlinkRush]: HE’S TRANSCENDING. THIS IS NOT NORMAL
[ArcadiaSlice]: DESTINX DOWN. THIS IS NOT A DRILL
[TunaMage]: ZEROTHHHHHH. JUST. ENDED. HIM.
[Obscurial]: FATE REWRITTEN. HOLY FK**
[SpookTape]: CHAMPION. ZEROTH. CROWN HIM
The stream chat was roaring, but it all sounded miles away.
As far as I could tell, I wasn’t even me anymore. I was just... a vessel. Something possessed. Not by a god, not by greatness—something raw. Ugly. Pure. Some desperate fire that shouldn’t have burned this long, but did anyway.
Was it the doubt? The years of being the “useless son”? God, I hated that. I hated the idea that I won because of them. The ones who told me I’d never make it. The voices that pushed me here.
But… maybe that’s exactly why I did.
And the worst part?
It felt… relieving.
It wasn't satisfying. Not triumphant. Just relieving. Like finally exhaling after drowning for years. I couldn’t move. Not because I was in shock—though I probably was—but because I’d bled out every ounce of energy just to stay upright.
I wanted to smile. To scream. To say, I did it.
Instead, I just froze.
[MomImFamous]: HE REALLY WON
[Observer]: …i was wrong
[PetalVortex]: no way… he actually did it
[ZaiZen]: zeroth… bro…
Goddamn it…
[SoulStrider]: …yo why isn’t he celebrating?
[VoidVesper]: chat… he’s not moving
[HexSpammer]: wait
[MochiTank]: BRO?
[MythRift]: …please tell me this is part of the stream
[GhostPatch]: …
Then my monitor flickered.
VICTORY: CHAMPION — Zeroth
I let out a soft laugh.
It was ridiculous—all of it. I should’ve been jumping, screaming, tearing my shirt off and running a victory lap around my room. The stream chat was pure chaos. Caps-lock celebrations. Shock. Hype. Memes already being born in real time.
But me?
I just leaned back in my chair, muted the mic, shut off the cam, and breathed.
Only I could hear the laugh. Quiet. Tired. The kind of sound that doesn’t come from joy, but relief.
Then the tears followed.
“I finally did it…”
This was it. The peak. The single greatest thing I’d ever done.
So yeah—I cried. Of course I did.
I was alone. I had been for a long time.
All the nights I didn’t sleep. The days I skipped meals just to grind. The moments I felt like my dreams were dragging me through glass, and I had no one left in my corner...
They all led to this.
And it worked.
I made it.
I sat there for a while, collecting myself. Then I gathered what little strength I had left, stood up from my chair, and headed toward the door—ready to scream, to tell my parents, to finally say, See? I was right. I made it.
But then—
The room tilted.
Hard.
I blinked. My vision swam. The monitor blurred into glowing shapes. My legs wobbled. My chest tightened with a familiar sudden pain.
And then—
Darkness.
The last thing I saw before I hit the ground…
Was my name.
Still glowing on the monitor.
Then a loud sound of me falling.
THUD.
…………
………..
……
……….
>>> SYSTEM ALERT: USER VITAL SIGNS — CRITICAL
>>> PHYSICAL STATUS:
- Heartrate: Failing
- Oxygen: Dropping
- Consciousness: Slipping
>>> WARNING: Neural link unstable…
>>> YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR LIMIT.
...
>>> SYSTEM QUERY:
DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?
> [YES]
> [NO]
...No input detected.
...
>>> OVERRIDE ENGAGED.
>>> TRANSFERRING CONSCIOUSNESS…
>>> DESTINATION: [CLASSIFIED]
>>> THREAD ID: FATEBOUND-0001
>>> SYSTEM TYPE: ASCENSION PROTOCOL DETECTED
>>> REBOOTING…
