Liam Barett:
"Okay," I say, adjusting my disguises. Patting down the overall and sliding my hat around, I look myself over again and smile.
"This work will. This will most definitely work. Fingers crossed."
Taking a deep breath, I walk right up to the Gaming Cube, the giant, magnificent cube still pulsing with weird green energy. Armed with a mop and a bucket, I approach the glass doors but stop. The same glass doors slide open, and two men walk out and stand in front of me. The first one is very tall with short brown hair, and the second person is slightly shorter, bald, and round with dark skin. They're both wearing a light-grey shirt with long, dark-brown pants. Seeing me, they both cross their arms.
"Can we help you?" The tall one asks me.
"Uhhh, I'm the janitor," I reply. "Just doing some cleaning. Yeah, cleaning. You know."
"Yeah, I know," the second guard says.
"You do?"
"Yeah. I know that the janitorial team comes only at night on Tuesday and Thursday."
The first man, confirmed now to be a security guard, uncrosses his arms and points behind me.
"Leave," he says, sounding like a dog about to bite me.
"Okay, okay," I say, quickly backing up. I put my hands up, turn around, and leave. Running all the way back to my apartment, I drop the mop, the bucket, and my hat. I slam my hand into my open palm.
"Plan B it is!"
Hearing footsteps, I turn to see Jordan walking into the living room with a half-eaten granola bar in his hand.
"Hey," he says, his teeth covered in chocolates and nuts. "Is that my old work uniform? Why are you wearing it?"
"No reasons," I say, unzipping the overall. However, as I'm taking off Jordan's old uniform, I feel something in one of the pockets.
"What in the world?"
Grabbing it, I pull out a bright yellow Twinkie bar.
"Dips," Jordan shouts, lunging forward and grabbing the Twinkie bar and disappearing back into his room. I look at Jordan's bedroom door and can only think of one thing.
"Jordan hasn't worn this in almost three years."
I shake my head and prepare for plan B.
Returning the very next day, wearing sunglasses and a sticky fake mustache, I comb my hair to make it look as professional as I can. Grabbing the thick textbooks I brought along, I smile and walk up to the sliding glass doors. To my surprise, the same two security guards walk out and cross their arms.
"Hello," I say, waving at the guards. "I am Professor, uuhhh, Cubewright. I am...a...professional...engineer, here to do an important inspection."
The two guards look at each other before turning back to me.
"I spent 4 hours looking for a fake mustache I got for a coin machine, and yet, I didn't spend any time thinking of a better lie."
I mentally slap myself in the face even before the guard shoots his finger out and tells me to leave again.
"At least I can take this off now."
Grabbing the fake mustache, I then rip it off. However, the mustache leaves a hot, stinging pain between my nose and lip. I bite my tongue and force myself not to scream.
".....Ouch."
I return two days later. I have no prop. I have no costume. I have nothing but the clothes on my back. The two security guards see me, and already, they have their arms crossed. The tall guard uncrosses his arms. About to point behind me, I reach them first and clap my hands together.
"Please," I beg, lowering my head and raising my clapped hands. "Just let me in. Let me play the Gaming Cube again! It was, no, still is easily the greatest thing I have ever tried in my life! In the Gaming Cube, I was a fierce warrior! Sort of. I want to relive that! I want to swing an axe and fight goblins and maybe even come face-to-face with that giant dragon! So please, let me in! I'm begging you!"
"Okay, enough," the second guard says. He uncrosses his arms but doesn't point anywhere. Instead, he puts his hands up, like they're shields.
"Listen, kid. Sorry, but we can't let anyone in. The whole raffle thing? That was just a beta test. The company is making the final adjustment now. Until then, no re-entries."
I let out the biggest sigh. My shoulders drop like rocks. My head hangs low. With nothing left, I drag my feet back to the apartment. Dropping like a sack of potatoes onto my seat, I spin in it and look at my computer and microphone.
"What to do? What to do?"
My head is still filled with nothing but the Gaming Cube. Memories of the greasy meats roasting over the fire make my stomach grumble. The weight of the battle axe still clings to my hand. Unfortunately, even my phatnom stab wounds also stay on my chest. Rubbing my chest with my shirt, I start up my computer and my microphone. Instead of gameplay, I start recording a vlog.
"Hello, hello everyone," I say, smiling and spreading out my hands. "I have something very important to tell you. You don't know this, but very recently, I got to try this amazing thing called the Gaming Cube! It's like VR, but so much better. No headset. No controllers. Just a flash and bam! There you are, in a forest, feeling the wind against your skin! Hahaha!"
I spent the rest of the day going on and on about the Gaming Cube, even drawing a picture of the darn goblin that killed me.
"This is the bastard that shived me," I say, pointing at my sketch. "Well, he's a whole lot uglier, but still, you get the idea."
By the time I'm done talking, I check the recording and can't believe it. I had ranted on for over thirty minutes. Normally, I don't make videos that go past twenty minutes. I publish the video praising the Gaming Cube and wait, but somehow, it makes my subscriber count drop.
"Well, that sucks."
I push my microphone and keyboard out of the way before letting my head fall onto my desk.
I can't be sure how long I stayed like this, or how many days have passed. I did what I could to keep EpicFailGamer94 alive. I played more games, did more playthroughs, and gave my honest reviews, but no matter what games I played, how much I failed, or how badly I failed, no one seems to notice.
I sigh again as I slowly eat a small bowl of cereal. Tapping my spoon against the bowl, scrolling through different YouTubers, watching as more successful players laugh and show off their skills, the video stops, and an ad appears. About to push the skid ad button, my finger freezes.
"Breaking news," the ad says, "The New Gaming Cube Opens! Come and Check it Out!"
I choke on a piece of cereal as I watch some familiar players swing their weapons and shoot magic spells from their hands, combined with some explosions and dramatic, heroic music. Still watching, I even see the recording of me dropping my axe and jumping around, holding my foot.
"Really? They couldn't use different footage. Wait, the Gaming Cube is open! Oh my god! It's finally happening! This is it. This is my moment!"
Not wanting to waste another second, I run as fast as I can into my room and smash open my piggy bank, pink, glass shards shattering everywhere.
"Aww, man. So, sorry, little fellow."
Grabbing one of the little shards, I bow my head in respect, collect my whole savings, and run back to the Gaming Cube. Running like a man possessed, I turn the corner, but stop, the bottom of my shoes skidding against the sidewalk.
"Ooohhh," I moan. "I did not expect that."
The Gaming Cube already has a line, but it isn't just a line. It stretched down the whole block before turning around the corner and disappearing. I look closer and see not just gamers, but also cosplayers, dressed in cardboard armor and holding toy swords, influencers with selfie sticks posing, and even one grandma, sitting in a chair while knitting. Judging from all the people, there's a chance the line stretched even further, maybe around the second corner.
"Oh, come on! Are you kidding me?"
I have to jog down the line and around the corner. I almost cry when I see that the line doesn't stretch around the second corner. Only about halfway to it. Breathing in through my teeth and then exhaling, I jog all the way down to the end of the line. Out of breath when I get to the end, I see someone in a full dragon costume, horned, tails and scales all included. The man is already camped out, sitting in a folding chair with two large bags of snacks.
"Long wait," I ask while leaning against a wall to catch my breath.
The dragon-man nods.
"Oh yeah. I've been here since three in the morning. Heard the line is moving at about two people per hour."
"Fantastic," I say, still panting and wiping sweatbeads.