Chapter 1: Zero Conflict

“So what’s the point of this game? Is there a goal or is it just endless battles?” Spencer asked while the impressive opening cutscene played out on his phone.

Chris’ laugh rumbled the rickety table in the corner of the wide lunch room. “It’s fun dude. Some people are in it for the combat, but there’s an incredible story and some sick cutscenes. You have to grind out the missions to get to them so if it's a story you’re after the payoff will take a bit longer compared to the combat. Besides, you’ve got a head for strategy. I think you’ll be really good at this.”

Spencer shot his friend a weary look.

“What? You’re charismatic and enjoy military stuff.” Chris shook his head. “You said you wanted to try it so just try it man. No one has a gun to your back.”

Spencer sighed and went about signing up a new profile onto the mobile gacha game that had consumed his friend’s life over the past few months. Zero Conflict boasted an enormous playerbase of extremely loyal fans. While Spencer had never been one for mobile gaming as a whole, he was willing to dive in and see what all the fuss was about. 

“At this rate lunch is going to finish before you even get to play a level.” Chris teased as Spencer went through the lengthy process of verifying his email address and selecting a username.

The school cafeteria buzzed with the usual drone of hundreds of conversations all happening at the same time. Spencer finally managed to sign in only to be greeted by a few fanciful flashes and a dozen extremely attractive anime style girls posing on the screen. All of them were wearing bathing suits of some kind. Some wore tight one piece suits, some wore stylish school swimsuits, and a few were in revealing bikinis. Spencer raised an eyebrow at Chris who’s face had turned a bit red.

“So how much porn am I going to be exposed to?” Spencer asked matter of factly. “Should I wait until later today when I can be home with the door closed and a bottle of lotion nearby?”

Chris socked him hard in the ribs and Spencer laughed while rubbing the point of impact.

“I’m joking. I’m joking.”

“It’s a seasonal promotion.” Chris sniffed indignantly as he reached over and tapped the ‘X’ in the corner of the screen to dismiss the swimsuit display. “You know, since summer is coming right up.”

“Right of course.” Spencer nodded in mock seriousness. “The changing seasons.” 

Chris scoffed and didn’t respond. Instead, he pointed at Spencer’s phone where a beautiful girl welcomed Spencer to the game and began to explain the UI elements. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties. She wore a black dress with intricate purple highlights along the edges. Sharp purple eyes, angular face, and a killer hourglass figure. 

“So is she on my combat team or whatever it is?” Spencer asked as he followed the tutorial’s directions. “She’s cute.”

Chris glanced down and smirked. “Ah yes, the mythical Sarah. An S level engie, but with the current pool of potential pulls you almost never see her. New players actually get double luck for the first few pulls so you have a chance to get her, but you know zero point zero zero one percent chance doubled is still basically zero.”

“Engie?”

Chris nodded. “Engineered human. Engie for short. That’s what the characters are called. Don’t worry about it right now. It’s part of the story.”

“So why have Sarah be the tutorial giver if I’m never going to see her again?” Spencer asked as he thumbed through Sarah’s explanation of the position based team combat.

Chris shrugged. “Tease you with the knowledge that she exists and hopefully push you to drop enough cash to potentially add her to your roster. She’s really great though. Even this far into the game she’s still a top pickup. The game will introduce character roles pretty quick here, but Sarah is one of the few characters that can fill any role on your team.”

“Sounds busted.” Spencer comments as he continues clicking through the tutorial explanations.

Chris nodded. “Her fellow S ranked characters will out class her in any specific role given enough investment, but she’s better than every A ranked character across the board. She’s durable, has insane sustain, and does great damage. That and people love her frosty gaze.”

After lengthy explanations for the combat, gacha mechanic for pulling characters, and the abundant premium currencies, Sarah’s text began to describe a bonus Spencer would be receiving in a moment.

“What’s a boon?” Spencer looked up at his friend who smiled wide.

“Ah, yeah, so that’s a bonus that will shape your entire experience with the game.” Chris leaned over to look at Spencer’s phone directly. “Basically it’s like a specialty randomly given to you at the start of making a new profile. They’re pretty cool. There’s stuff like range specialty, melee specialty, a bonus for having your team as skimpily dressed as possible.”

Spencer rolled his eyes and laughed. “What fantastic gameplay.”

Chris grinned as well. They both heard a chime and looked down in time to see Spencer’s boon appear on screen.

“Double damage?” Spencer read off.

Chris slapped his back and whooped. “That’s a really good one. Careful though, it goes both ways. You deal way more, but you take twice as much too.”

Chris launched into a lengthy discourse about the history of double damage teams and the period where it was the top boon to roll for.

Spencer glanced at the clock. “We’re out of time man.”

“It’s a shame we don’t ride the same bus home.” Chris sighed dramatically and began picking up his bag.

Spencer shrugged and picked up his own stuff as he locked his phone and slipped it into his pocket.

“Is your mom still pissed that we moved?” He asked as they followed the crowd out of the cafeteria and out into the school hallways.

Chris grimaced. “Yeah, well, you know how it is. I guess since our grandparents immigrated here together my mom thought our families were bound together for eternity or something weird like that. Don’t worry about it man I think she’s just jealous of the neighborhood you guys live in now even if it is way less asian than my mom likes. Besides, it’s still close enough that we’ve always gone to the same schools.”

Chris held out a fist and Spencer tapped it with his own.

“See you later man.” Spencer began to walk towards his next class. “I’ll play more and let you know how it goes.”

“You better.” Chris called back. “I’m going to write up a guide for you. Count your blessings that you know me!”

Spencer shook his head and walked off to class with a smile.

******

The rest of the day flew by and before he knew it Spencer was sitting on the noisy yellow bus as it rumbled away from the school and towards his home in northern Lancaster. Spencer was too immersed into building his Zero Conflict team on his phone to notice another student slide into the seat next to him.

“Yo.”

Spencer finally glanced up and smiled at the younger boy next to him.

“Yo yourself Steven.” Spencer chuckled and turned back to his phone screen. “No debate team today?

Though he always got along well with Steven, being a year apart age wise and the fact that the younger guy’s parents had him involved with never ending extra curricular activities meant they rarely got a chance to talk outside of their shared bus ride home. If Steven rode the bus home at all that is.

Steven snickered. “Not today. Officially Mr. Stevenson is out sick, but rumor is he got caught cheating on his wife and she slashed his tires last night.”

Spencer’s eyes went wide. “I guess the debate coach couldn’t talk his way out of that one then, eh?”

Steven laughed. “Not one of the subjects we cover unfortunately. What about you? Weren’t you working at In-N-Out after school?”

Spencer shrugged. “I had a bad series of tests that didn’t go my way and my parents blamed the part time job. I argued against it but… you know how they get.”

“Yeah.” Steven’s own parents were cut from similar cloth so Spencer knew the younger boy understood completely. “But hey, most high schoolers don’t want after school jobs. More free time and all that. So… silver lining?”

Spencer didn’t answer. Truthfully he enjoyed staying busy. The work wasn’t fun, but having personal money to spend on his hobbies was nice and fulfilling. Now that he wasn’t working he had to ask his parents anytime he wanted to buy something. Not an easy ask when your parents are penny pinchers.

Steven peered at Spencer’s phone as a fanciful battle took place on the bright screen.

“No way.” Steven drew back in mock horror. “Did Chris finally corrupt you into full on degeneracy?”

Spencer frowned and held up his phone as one of the characters struck a suggestive pose and unleashed an ability. “I was told this was a high form of culture.”

That earned a laugh out of his friend.

“I knew it was only a matter of time.”

Spencer shrugged. “Chris has been down lately so I thought I might give one of his favorite pastimes a try to cheer him up a bit. I don’t foresee myself getting nearly as into it as he is, but it’s not as insufferable as I thought it would be.”

“What’s got Chris depressed enough that you felt the need to sacrifice your own sanity?” Steven asked as the bus rounded a particularly sharp corner and everyone collectively slid across the bench seats a few inches.

“He asked out a girl.” Spencer said simply. “Didn’t go well.”

“Ah.” Steven grimaced.

A particular laugh pierced through the rumbling bus noises and other students chatting on the ride home. It was a clear tinkling laugh that caused Spencer to immediately blush upon hearing it. The reaction didn’t pass Steven’s notice.

“I suppose his failure is giving you second thoughts?” Steven sat up slightly to peer at the group of kids near the very back of the bus. “Didn’t you say this year was the year you’d talk to her?”

Spencer couldn’t help but follow his gaze. A pair of girls sat in the second to last row of seats. The girl on the right was Emily, definitely a cute girl with long black hair and a fair complexion, but in Spencer’s eyes she fell short of her best friend who sat across from her. Mary had lush, bouncy brown hair and a killer smile to match her joyous personality. Spencer had been riding the same bus as her for a while now and always told his friends that he’d strike up a conversation with her someday. It was mostly just talk. 

The two guys in the very last seat towered over everyone else and Spencer immediately identified the unmistakable duo of Trevor and Marco, the stars of the basketball team. They were nice enough as guys go. Definitely not some ruthless bullies like Spencer had first thought when he saw the massive players for the first time, but they were close with Emily and Mary and that alone made Spencer a little jealous of them.

Spencer wasn’t particularly bad looking in his opinion. At five foot ten he wasn’t breaking any height records, but it was a respectable height considering how short his family was on average. He was slim, dark hair, matching eyes, and a nice smile. Definitely not as strong as either Trevor or Marco, but surely there wasn’t too much difference between Spencer and the athletes in the back of the bus.

“She’s not dating anyone right now.” Steven nudged Spencer’s shoulder. “And I doubt Trevor or Marco would make a big scene if you just went over and introduced yourself.”

Spencer sunk back into his seat and sighed. “Yeah… Maybe.”

There was a notification chime and Spencer glanced down at the open game on his phone. His party had perished while he wasn’t looking.

“Whoops.” Spencer closed the game and finished the rest of the bus ride staring out of the window with uncertain melancholy eating at his insides.