Master PC - The Great Game Ch. 01

The world, time itself, slowly came to a halt after that, and everything within Matt's limited view was drained of color, as if he was now looking through a grayscale camera lens.

Both Sarah and Jamie were frozen mid-orgasm, the looks on their faces expressing the amount of pleasure that they were receiving from watching one another performances as their hands were soaked in their own respective juices.

Amy and Andy had stripped off their gear and were double-teaming Francine as she stood on all fours on the table, eating out Amy while Andy had a firm hold of her hips and was thrusting himself completely into the big, Sinstagram-level model's ass that she dearly prided herself on.

Mars had taken about three fourths of Trent's length as he was pushing down on her head with both hands, making a face that could only mean he was pumping a thick load down the poor girl's throat.

"But how would you feel, if none of it was real?"

I... What? Matt weakly thought, just as he caught sight of a smoking, black hand placing itself on his shoulder at the edge of his peripheral vision.

"Observe."

With a blink of his eyes, the reality Matt knew dissolved before him.

In the frozen pocket of time that he found himself in, Matt had control of his body once more, which happened to be the only thing in his vicinity that had any color to it.

He blinked a few times and balled his hands up into fists as tight as his muscles would allow, then slammed them down on the table in front of him and let out a mighty roar that caused the still air around his unshaven face to shimmer and vibrate.

Breathing heavily, as if he was a starving beast freshly unchained, his eyes flicked around the table for the deserving target for his wrath.

However, the general sight that had appeared around him shocked and stifled the rage that'd been boiling over for the past eternity in which he was consciously incapacitated.

Sitting in their usual seats, fully clothed and half-asleep, was each member of the group with an expression of mild enjoyment on their faces, while the tracksuit-wearing Trent was sitting in the once-vacant seat next to Francine with a balled up hand that was aimed towards a multitude of different-sided dice scattered out in front of him on the stable.

His sister and friends just sat there with their heads down and eyes closed, as if the chaos that was taking place mere seconds ago had never happened.

"That's because it didn't."

Matt, now able to move, whipped his head around at the sound of the distorted, broken voice that spoke to him.

There wasn't anything there that resembled the black smoke that had touched him a moment ago; his sales counter was as vacant as the rest of the store aside from those at the table.

"Apologies, but we do not have long, and my appearance is irrelevant for the time being. No pun intended."

Matt slowly turned back around to face the group, his heart threatening to explode within his chest from the sheer adrenaline pumping through him and a torrent of mixed emotions that he was overcome with.

"I believe you're familiar with a man named Lawrence, is this correct?"

"I am." Matt grunted, glaring at the tracksuit-wearing pretty boy who was sitting in said person's seat. "He's never missed a game before, until today."

"He's dead."

"What?" Matt asked, taken aback by the declaration. "How?"

"That man over there, Trent Stone, drove Lawrence to insanity over the past several years, using the software that he has installed onto his phone. It is a digital program known as Master PC, a tool that acts as a gateway into the infinite number of universes and timelines that run parallel to this one. With the power it possesses, even in that smaller, more limited version he's currently using to toy with you all, one takes the form of a god to those around them.

"Lawrence was unable to cope with the dismantling of his life, unable to seek any form of assistance during that time, and unable to prematurely end his suffering. Sold by his father into the custody of Trent Stone, the young businessman harvested the natural talent that Lawrence's mind so that he would be able to experiment with Master PC and its inner workings. Sadly, Trent is a coddled, rich kid with a fickle sense of morality, and couldn't stop himself from abusing the man at every opportunity. Lawrence worked as his diligent slave for almost every single day of the week these last four years, and finally found a way to take his own life using the program, with some assistance from an unwitting assassin.

"Unfortunately, hours before Lawrence was killed, he mistakenly unleashed something into the world that even he could not fully comprehend. Something that was meant to stay locked away, deep within the coded prison of Master PC. Something that will stop at nothing until every last soul on this planet is bent to its will.

"... But, as humans normally do when under the heavy burden of guilt, Lawrence decided to give existence one final chance for redemption as he was struck by a brief moment of sanity.

"He kindly requested that I find you, Matt, as soon as this Great Game of his begins, so that we may attempt to put a stop to the impending doomsday that will occur if what I spoke of extends its reach beyond the limits of this city."

Matt didn't know where to begin.

Poor Lawrence, he thought to himself, what a life...

He'd always been private about his life outside of the game, but came in and role-played with him and the group like it was the greatest thing in the world, which is an attitude that Matt had always been fond of when he hosted the shop's get-togethers.

The guy was hard to look at, and didn't shower as well as he could have, but he was a fun guy to have come up with a working Bard-zerker build for his character, and, well...

He was going to be missed, Matt thought with a frown.

Secondly, apparently there existed a computer program that acted as a debug menu for reality, and it was in the hands of the two biggest, most arrogant shitheads on the planet: Trent and his infamous father, Robert Stone.

Matt didn't know anything about Lawrence's family though, he realized, trying to recall the man who pawned off his son into a lifetime of servitude for a sociopath who wanted to tinker with the laws of physics, but instead wound up creating some kind of annoyingly-vague monster that wants to rule the world.

"Good, it looks like you've got the gist of things."

"So, who are you supposed to be, exactly? And why the hell did Lawrence point you in my direction?" Matt bitterly asked, his skin covered in goosebumps and the hairs on his arms standing on end from the uncomfortable stillness of frozen time. "Not that I'm ungrateful for the rescue."

"The mass hallucination you're all experiencing would have been dissolved at this very moment, regardless of my involvement. There will be time for a proper discussion, later. For now, I suggest you listen carefully to the message that each of you are about to receive."

"What message?"

"Oh, and try not to get too distracted by the heads-up-display."

When the voice went silent, color flashed back into the word just as Trent was throwing a four-sided die onto the table.

"Alright, Mars, you're getting... Three pints of my cum down that greedy little throat of yours." He laughed, looking up at the group as their eyes twitched began to flutter open. "I... uh..."

Grinning with vengeance, Matt relished the look on Trent's face when the two of them made eye contact.

Then, for a brief instant, Matt's vision was engulfed with countless numbers and letters, all fighting amongst one-another like static as they settled into a thin, expanding, white grid that vanished as soon as it appeared.

Matt's smile fell as he looked up towards the ceiling at seemingly nothing, but what he was trying to focus on was the small, barely noticeable wording that had appeared in the upper-left corner of his peripherals.

MasterPCv2.0.exe

He couldn't directly look at the text, but something clicked when he stilled his vision and focused on that part of his sight, as if a sort of "mind's eye" had dislocated itself like a cursor and then highlighted said text once it was placed over it.

Something else then clicked, this time audibly, like that of the mouse plugged into his laptop, and then more information displayed itself in the very center of his vision in a fine, white font.

"Welcome to Master PC's Command Center...

"The Master allows you to become a virtual god to the people around you.

"You now possess the power to bend their reality to your specifications.

"You are the Master's Official Representative."

As the six others fully regained consciousness and became aware of their current situation, each of their faces formed expressions that emphasized their own, unique dismay.

"Awe." Amy and Andy whined with disappointment.

Jamie sighed, then put his arms over his chest and looked down in shame.

Francine just nervously glanced around at everyone, quietly asking if that'd just happened.

Sarah's demeanor was relatively the same as Jamie's, only her face was glowing red with embarrassment as her hands were tightly folded together between her thighs.

Mars hadn't moved or reacted to anything since opening her eyes, she just remained still with a wide-eyed gaze burning into an empty spot on the table.

If it weren't for the fact that Trent was still there, each of them may have been able to convince themselves that they just had some kind of wet daydream and move on with their lives.

Sadly, he was a shining and terrifying symbol as to what just happened to them.

"So!" Matt boomed, slamming his large hands down on the table as he quickly rose to his feet, which caused everyone, especially Trent, to jump in surprise. "How would you like to die? Slow and painful? Or slower, and even more-"

"Citizens of Imperial City." A deep, unnerving voice came from every speaker located in and around the shop, as well as any others that happened to be located within the perimeter of the island. Next, every screen and monitor followed suit, displaying a colossal man standing up and shrouded by the darkness of the room he occupied, with a windowed backdrop behind him that showed the city's primary downtown streets. "I come to you all today bearing horrible news." He said. If it weren't for the moving cars and hordes of confused people walking around the sidewalks, one would think the man was speaking over a still photograph.

"My father, your beloved Mayor, Arthur Willis, was murdered in cold blood last night. In his own home, no less." Despite the mood he was trying to convey with his words, something about his tone suggested he felt a sense of satisfaction in his statements. "Under normal circumstances, there would be a funeral, some kind of memorial erected in honor, perhaps. I regret to inform you all, that there is unfortunately no time for such trivialities, and I have personally seen to the deposition of his corpse myself.

"We, this city, every single one of us, are now at war.

"Our connection to the outside world has been completely severed, and any ties or obligations that you may have had outside of our city are no longer of concern. We have been forgotten, abandoned, and left to suffer at the hands of our betters. At this very moment, everything you know has, and will continue to change, from here on out.

"For far too long have these incorporeal puppeteers hid in the shadows, those who would see us, the human race, as nothing but rambunctious insects that should do nothing except sit quietly and be complacent. My father was the first casualty in this conflict that they started, and he will most certainly not be the last. Fortunately I, Lawrence Willis, your newly appointed Mayor and Master, have a solution that will even the playing-field on both sides."

"What the fuck?" Was the table's general consensus, in their own individual phrasing.

Matt had a few questions for this new friend of his, and for the alleged dead man on the large television screen hanging up on one of the store's walls, his voice coming in loud and clear through the surround-sound speakers that were mainly just used to play customer-friendly music throughout the day.

From as little as he could make out, Matt didn't recognize the shrimpy, awkward nobody that had a salivating problem and a hunchback.

If this really was Lawrence, then he'd done some serious work to himself with Master PC since the two had last seen each other.

The fear Trent had been feeling as he watched the others break free of his mind control was a thing of the past, now having been replaced by a chilling horror that he could feel in the depths of his very bones at the mention of his new Mayor's name.

Everyone else was still confused and baffled as to why the Hercules-figured gentleman in a white suit was claiming to be their absent fellow player, and what he was going on about regarding some kind of war that had just kicked off in their city.

"For some time, my father had been in possession of a unique computer program that allowed him to transform and shape this city to his liking. Him, Robert Stone, and Jerimiah Richmond, they all served the ones who hide behind the curtain, using its unlimited power with moderate discretion as the three did their bidding on the sidelines. They did their jobs fine, boldly, even. But in the end, they were all betrayed and butchered like cattle, by the same beings that would see the same happen to you.

"I offer you, the people of Imperial City, a chance. A chance to take control of your life, a chance to take what is rightfully yours, a chance to save yourselves from the impending apocalypse. I offer you, everyone, your ticket to freedom.

"Each and every computer, mobile, laptop, and desktop, will have an unspecified version of Master PC installed onto them, and you all now have a randomized, twenty-digit, alpha-numerical password assigned to each of you, one that you will never have any trouble recalling at a moment's notice.

"Being that the foundation for our way of living has now been forever changed, all previous forms of currency within the city are now worthless. If you desire to make any kind of monetary transaction with another individual or establishment, you will find that the capital you have obtained and saved up throughout your life has been analyzed and exchanged for a credit based currency that is linked to your registered Master PC account, which cannot be artificially altered by the program itself.

"We still live in a society, my fair citizens. Just because you are being gifted with power that even the gods fear, does not mean you should devolve into the animals that those beings think we are. The laws have changed little, and will be enforced by a team of elite soldiers that can easily apprehend and recondition anyone who is caught breaking them.

"Also, any and all previous mental and physical alterations brought on by Master PC that may have affected you fine citizens in the past have been rendered null and void.

"To those waking up from their dream, welcome back to the real world.

"You all now possess the power to bend reality to your specifications.

"I am the one, true Master, and you are all my Representatives.

"Good luck."

As Lawrence finished, he seemed to open up his eyes for the first time from under the veil of darkness his features were hidden behind, the iris of his eyes glowing with an odd, out-of-place, crystalline pattern.

All across the store, as well as the city, the feed was cut, and the lives of just over two million people were changed forever in the blink of an eye.

"So, yeah, it's been fun, you guys." Trent said, scrambling to put the dice that he'd brought into a small, plum-colored, cloth bag, then stuffed it down the front of his track pants and whatever type of underwear he was wearing. "I promise I'll come back tomorrow and let you guys chew me out, what happened a minute ago wasn't supposed to go down like that."

"How was it supposed to go down?" Sarah shouted in a shaky tone with tears of shame in her eyes, astonished by the nerve of Trent thinking he could just dip out without anyone having a problem with it. "And where the fuck do you think you're going?!"

"Good question." Matt spat, taking a few quick steps in Trent's direction and half-spotting Mars fiddling around with her phone out of the corner of his focused sight.

"Ah, well..." Trent stopped in his tracks after getting snapped at, having just rounded the corner of the table and was a few feet away from the door at that point. He turned around to face the disgruntled group of nerds. "Y'see, Matt rubbed me the wrong way, and I was just going to screw with him for a bit and then wipe your memories, except his. Sorry..." Trent said with a shrug. "Now, if you don't mind me, Mayor Fish just said my dad was 'butchered' along with his own and that prick Richmond. Since I just spoke to the guy a couple of hours ago, I'd like to go and make sure that he's just spouting a load of bull-"

BANG!

Everyone shouted and screamed at the sound of the gunshot, then Matt swiftly ripped away the gun that had just suddenly appeared out of nowhere and directly into Mars' hands as Trent's body spun and tumbled down onto the floor.

The silence that followed was heavy as everyone took in what they'd just witnessed.

Mars had killed Trent right where he stood.

Matt sighed, remembering the terrible things that Trent had made her do when under his influence, and the things he made the shy thing say against her will.

Everyone's got their fetishes that they don't like to talk about, even Sarah, apparently, he thought to himself as he also felt something in his stomach turn at the reminder.

"Mars..." Sarah said somberly, placing a hand on her trembling shoulder.

"He called me a trap." She said, softly and quickly, the rage within still boiling hotter the more she thought about his comment. "The son of a bitch called me a trap... Give me the gun back, Matt! I'm not through with this piece of-!"

"Relax, sit down." He said, his tone kind and sympathetic.

Matt's words took effect without hesitation, and Mars sat back down and stopped trying to jump on him to get the weapon from his hand.

Her eyes opened wide after that, just as everyone else's did, even Matt's, realizing what he had just done.

If Mars could panic, she likely would have, but the barrage of thoughts of things that Matt could have her do when under his control mixed in with the forced pacification was, well, let's just say that it's a good thing her black dress masked the outlines of erections well.

"I'm outta' here." Francine said, standing up as she took a break from looking through the multitude of options available to her on the mobile Master PC's version one-point-six. Just as the bronze bikini-wearing bimbo was just about to turn and leave, she paused and glanced down at the pathetic lump of lard that she called a husband. "Are you coming, or what?"

Jamie looked up into her eyes with a deep sense of emptiness in his own.

Now that she had the program, Francine wouldn't need him anymore, he thought to himself.

Jamie nodded, and the two got up and began to leave without another word.

"Dibs." Amy said.

"Agreed."