Chapter 86: Entering the Game World
Boom!
A deafening crack of thunder shook the heavens. Dark, bruised clouds choked the sky, unleashing a torrential downpour while jagged, branch-like lightning fractured the gloom. The Rustbucket sat parked beneath the flickering canopy of a desolate gas station, taking a brief respite from the storm.
Inside the motorhome, the rhythmic drumming of rain against the metal roof provided a steady lullaby. Grandpa Max was dead to the world, snoring peacefully on the fold-out bed. Across the cabin, Ben sat glued to the sofa, a pair of oversized headphones clamped over his ears as his thumbs mashed the buttons of a game controller. The screen flashed with the vibrant, pixelated violence of the Sumo Slammers video game. Gwen sat nearby, her chin propped on her hand, staring blankly out the rain-streaked window with a look of utter boredom.
Klein was nowhere to be seen. He had ventured out into the deluge a while ago, muttering something about the gas station convenience store having a pathetic snack selection and heading off to find a proper supermarket.
Tearing her gaze away from the dreary weather, Gwen let out a loud, exaggerated sigh. She turned her attention to her cousin. "Ugh, I am so bored. I am so incredibly bored that even your mindless, button-mashing game actually looks fun right now. Hand it over, Ben. Let me play."
Ben didn't even blink, his eyes locked on the screen. "Yeah, right! Sorry, Dork, but I already have a comrade-in-arms." He leaned away as she reached for the console. "Besides, why would I waste my time playing with you?"
A sly smirk crept onto Gwen's face. She knew exactly which buttons to push. "I don't know," she drawled, leaning back and crossing her arms. "Maybe to prove that the great Sumo Slammers champion isn't afraid of losing to a girl who has never even touched the game before?"
The bait was taken instantly. Ben's thumbs froze. He hit the pause button, his eyes narrowing into a competitive glare. Without a word, he yanked a spare controller from the tangle of wires and tossed it directly at her chest.
Ten minutes later, Ben was experiencing a brutal, soul-crushing reality check.
It was a harsh reminder that years of dedicated, greasy-fingered practice could be rendered entirely useless in the face of raw, infuriating talent. Gwen, who barely knew the controls, was absolutely wiping the floor with him. Every combo he attempted was perfectly countered. Every special move was blocked.
Ben's fragile gamer ego shattered into a million pieces. His face flushed red, and the sore loser within him took the wheel. Waiting for a split second when Gwen glanced away to brush a strand of hair from her face, Ben lunged. He snatched her controller right out of her grip and aggressively mashed the directional pad, marching her digital samurai straight off a pixelated cliff. The game character had started with three lives. Two rapid-fire virtual suicides later, Gwen's avatar was down to its final life.
"Hey!" Gwen shrieked, snatching the plastic controller back. She planted her hands on her hips, her eyes blazing. "Ben! You are such a jerk!"
Ben simply offered a thick-skinned, unapologetic smirk, leaning back into the sofa cushions. But karma was swift. Even with his dirty tactics, the scoreboard mocked him. His points were still trailing pathetically behind hers.
The sight of the blinking numbers broke him completely. Frustration boiling over, Ben slammed his right hand down onto the dial of the Omnitrix on his left wrist. A brilliant flash of emerald light illuminated the dim cabin. Where a ten-year-old boy had sat, Upgrade now crouched.
The galvanic mechamorph didn't hesitate. He melted forward, his liquid-metal body surging directly into the plastic casing of the game console. The screen glitched, green circuitry patterns overriding the display, and in a blink, Gwen's high score was completely erased.
"Ben Tennyson!" Gwen screamed, her voice hitting a pitch that nearly woke Grandpa Max. "You are absolutely despicable! You are the worst sore loser on the planet, and you are going to get what is coming to you!"
Furious beyond reason, she lunged forward, grabbing the sides of the smoking, Upgrade-infected game console with both hands, trying to shake him out of it.
Boom!
A monstrous clap of thunder detonated directly overhead. At that exact fraction of a second, a blinding bolt of blue lightning struck the gas station's power grid. The massive electrical surge traveled straight through the hookup cables, racing into the Rustbucket and surging violently up the game console's power cord.
A blinding, crackling sphere of deep blue energy engulfed the television and the console. When the harsh light faded, the space in front of the sofa was completely empty. Gwen was gone. Upgrade was gone. Only the charred, gently smoking remains of the plastic console sat on the floor.
A moment later, the pneumatic hiss of the Rustbucket's door sounded. Klein stepped inside, shaking the rain from his jacket and carrying two heavily loaded grocery bags. He kicked the door shut behind him and blinked at the empty living area, his gaze dropping to the smoking electronics.
"Hmm?" Klein muttered, his brow furrowing in mild confusion. "Where did they go?"
...
Meanwhile, in a completely different dimension, the sky burned a gloomy, pixelated crimson. There was no solid earth to speak of, only massive, jagged islands of rock floating suspended in an endless void. The architecture clinging to these floating landmasses was distinctly feudal Japan, a stylized Edo-period landscape ripped straight from a digital fever dream.
In a flash of static, two figures materialized on a cobblestone street. Ben, now clad in bulky, traditional samurai armor, and Gwen, dressed in a sleek, dark ninja outfit, stumbled into existence.
Ben spun around, his eyes wide as he took in the impossible, floating pagodas and the blood-red sky. He looked down, suddenly registering the heavy plates of armor strapped to his chest and the woven sandals on his feet. "Whoa, what is going on?!"
Gwen quickly scanned the area, her sharp mind piecing the puzzle together. The floating islands, the paper lanterns, the distinct art style, it was an exact replica of the background from their gaming session. She remembered the blinding flash of blue electricity. "The lightning," she realized aloud, her voice tight with disbelief. "That power surge... it must have sent us straight into the Sumo Slammers game."
Ben's initial shock instantly evaporated, replaced by wide-eyed, unrestrained excitement. He pumped his armored fists into the air. "Are you kidding me? That is so cool!"
Gwen shot him a withering glare, her hands returning to their familiar position on her hips. "It is not cool at all, Dweeb! Get us out of here right now!"
"Alright, alright, keep your hair on," Ben muttered, waving her off. "I will just go Upgrade again and hack us an exit." He patted down his bulky samurai gear, finally locating the familiar dial of the Omnitrix fused smoothly into the gauntlet of his left forearm.
Confidently, he gripped the dial and gave it a twist. Nothing happened. The core didn't pop up. The green hourglass symbol remained dark. He twisted it harder, tapping the faceplate, but the device was completely dead. A cold sweat broke out on the back of his neck. "Uh... we might not be able to get out for now. The aliens are gone."
"What did you just say?!" Gwen practically teleported to his side, snatching his left wrist. She yanked at the dial herself, her fingers slipping against the unyielding metal. There was absolutely nothing inside.
Panic flaring, Gwen closed her eyes and reached deep inward, trying to summon the familiar, warm hum of her Anodite mana. She tried to spark the pink energy that usually answered her call, but there was nothing. Just an empty, digital void. "Me too. I can't transform, and I can't use any magic."
"So what are we supposed to do now?" Ben asked, the reality of their situation finally sinking in. He looked at his cousin expectantly. As much as it pained his pride to admit it, Gwen was indeed a little smarter than him. If anyone could figure out a cheat code for this mess, it was her.
Gwen opened her mouth, her brow furrowed as she formulated a plan. "Well..."
Crunch.
She didn't get to finish her sentence. A massive shadow eclipsed the street, followed instantly by a heavy, metallic thud. A spherical Sumo Robot, a bizarre, meter-wide iron ball with stubby, mechanical limbs and a grotesquely painted, scowling face, dropped straight out of the crimson sky, flattening Ben into the cobblestones like a heavily armored pancake.
A shower of glowing pixels erupted from the impact zone. A few feet away, a swirling vortex of binary code and light rapidly coalesced, reforming into Ben's coughing, sputtering figure.
Gwen jumped back, her heart hammering in her chest. As Ben staggered to his feet, she noticed something glowing on his pauldron. There were three circular slots carved into the metal of his shoulder armor, but only one of them was illuminated with a faint, pulsing light. A terrible realization washed over her. She looked down at her own sleek ninja shoulder guard. Just like Ben's, only a single circle was glowing. The other two were dark and lifeless. The memory of Ben snatching her controller and marching her off a cliff flashed in her mind.
Ben followed her horrified gaze, looking from his shoulder to hers. The color drained from his face. "You... you only have one life left! And so do I!"
"Now is not the time to talk about this! Let us get out of here!" Gwen snapped, grabbing his armored forearm.
She yanked him forward just as the ground began to tremble. From the alleyways and rooftops, a swarm of spherical Sumo Robots poured into the street, their stubby metal legs clanking menacingly against the stone as they gave chase.
They sprinted down the winding Edo-style streets, but the mechanical horde was relentless. Within moments, their path was blocked. Dozens of the heavy iron spheres rolled and stomped into a tight circle, completely cutting off their escape route.
The robots lunged, their painted faces twisted in permanent scowls. Gwen reacted on pure instinct. Benefiting from the programmed agility of her ninja class, she moved like water. She vaulted over a charging sphere, backflipped off a paper lantern, and landed gracefully on a wooden cart, completely untouched. The clunky robots couldn't even track her movements.
Ben, however, was burdened by his bulky samurai class. He threw a heavy, armored punch, knocking one robot back, but his recovery time was too slow. Another iron sphere slammed into his side, knocking him off balance. He stumbled, directly into the path of a third robot winding up for a crushing blow. Fortunately, a swift kick from Gwen sent the attacker skidding away, saving him from being flattened a second time.
She landed beside him, her breathing slightly elevated. "Focus, Ben! I have a feeling that if we lose even our last life in here, then we are probably really gone."
Ben's playful demeanor vanished. He nodded grimly, his jaw setting as he scanned the overwhelming numbers closing in around them. As his eyes swept the battlefield, a glint of gold caught his attention. Hovering in mid-air above the curved tile roof of a distant house was an ornate, glowing wooden crate.
"That is... a Treasure Chest?! Gwen! Look over there!" Ben called out, lowering his shoulder and charging forward, determined to break through the mechanical blockade to reach the prize.
Gwen followed his gaze, spotting the floating box. Ben threw a devastating right hook, the programmed strength of his avatar leaving a deep, fist-shaped dent in the iron casing of a Sumo Robot. Beside him, Gwen delivered a spinning roundhouse kick that launched another heavy sphere entirely off the floating island.
Clearing a narrow path, the cousins sprinted toward the nearest structure. Tapping into their new digital physics, they leaped. The gravity here was forgiving; both Ben and Gwen soared three or four meters into the air, landing effortlessly on the curved eaves of the roof. They dashed across the clay tiles, their movements impossibly fluid, executing parkour maneuvers that would have been impossible in the real world.
Reaching the edge of the pagoda, Ben coiled his legs and launched himself across the gap toward a tall building. He sailed through the air, his armored hand outstretched, and successfully slapped the floating wooden crate.
The moment his fingers made contact, the Treasure Chest shattered into a burst of brilliant white light. The glow faded, leaving behind two massive gold coins, each twenty centimeters in diameter, hovering gently in mid-air.
Ben's eyes widened in delight as he examined the coin nearest to him. Embossed on its golden surface was the unmistakable insignia of a curved blade. He reached out and snatched it from the air. "The Sumo Slammer Sword is about to show its might!"
The coin dissolved instantly, transforming into a stream of radiant golden light that gathered in Ben's palm. The data solidified, stretching out to form a magnificent, meter-long katana with a gleaming, razor-sharp edge.
Armed and dangerous, Ben leaped straight down from the rooftop into the mob of robots below. He swung the massive blade with both hands. The digital steel cleaved through the air, slicing an oncoming Sumo Robot cleanly in half with a single, effortless strike. Spinning on his heel, Ben brought the sword around in a wide arc, bisecting two more iron spheres that tried to flank him from the side.
Having obtained the Sumo Slammer Sword, Ben quickly carved a path through the mechanical horde, dismantling the remaining robots surrounding him in just a few sweeping moves.
Up on top of the tall building, Gwen approached the second floating coin. She reached out and touched the glowing gold surface. It dissolved just like Ben's, but instead of a weapon, it materialized into a pristine sheet of white paper.
She caught it as it fell. The white paper had a detailed map drawn on it, but beneath the topography, a line of text recorded a secondary function. Following the instructions, Gwen rapidly folded the white paper along its creases. The moment the final fold was made, the paper flashed with light, transforming and expanding until she was holding a massive, snowflake-shaped shuriken the size of a washbasin.
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