The sound of chaotic gunfire.
Marcus Shaw played with a calm face, exuding the aura of a "big shot" even down to a single strand of hair.
Oliver Scott played and scread, "Bro!" "Bro, bro, bro—" using every term in the book to express various styles, each one matching his emotions and expressions to convey different anings.
Nora Scott found it surprising.
"Sis."
Marcus Shaw was the first to notice Nora Scott and imdiately greeted her.
Imrsed in the ga, Oliver only shifted his gaze and noticed Nora’s presence after hearing Marcus’s voice.
"Sis! You’re back?"
Oliver was surprised by Nora’s appearance and then felt a bit guilty.
The surprise was because he thought Nora would stay next door overnight, didn’t expect her to co back so soon.
Feeling guilty because—
He got caught playing gas red-handed, a bit awkward.
Though he knew Nora was open-minded and probably wouldn’t care about his gaming, he used to be strictly managed by Alma Ferreira back ho, with only studies and talents allowed. Anything seen as "idle" was strictly forbidden. So this "caught in the act" guilt was purely a subconscious psychological reaction.
"Yeah." Nora nodded, intending to leave but paused when she noticed Oliver’s gaze glued to her. She glanced at the TV screen, frowned, and reminded, "Don’t look at , just play properly."
"...Huh?"
Oliver was taken aback.
She urged him to play well?
Even though he suspected Nora wouldn’t mind, he didn’t expect her to look so "relieved," and he was surprised for quite a while.
Until Marcus urged him, he snapped back to his senses, picked up the controller, and continued playing.
For a while, he was totally out of sync.
Nora sat on the sofa, crossed her legs, watched them play for a while, then pulled out her phone and started fiddling with various gaming apps out of boredom.
Recently, Miguel Smith had been slacking off, not recomnding any fun new gas to her.
The last he recomnded was still that "Maze" made by a high school student.
She opened it out of sheer boredom.
This ga trained the mind, was highly flexible, and had no single solution. Over the past few months, she had intermittently played and discovered six ways to clear it, unsure if there were others. Feeling idle, she planned to explore other possibilities.
In playing, half an hour passed.
She felt a bit sleepy.
The chaotic ga background noise stopped; Marcus and Oliver took a break.
Putting down the ga controller, Oliver stretched, caught a glimpse of Nora deeply engrossed in her ga, got curious, scratched his nose, and then stealthily crept over to her.
Yet, before he could see, Nora already raised her head, glanced at him.
Caught in the act, Oliver felt embarrassed for a second, coughed lightly, then straightforwardly asked, "Sis, what are you playing?"
"A ga called Maze."
"Cough—"
Just as Nora finished speaking, Marcus, who was drinking water by the water cooler, choked smoothly.
Oliver turned his head casually and said, "Bro, be careful."
Marcus: "..."
He slightly turned his head and seeing Nora playing on her phone with her legs crossed, felt sowhat complicated.
Seeing Marcus was fine, Oliver’s thoughts quickly shifted from Marcus to asking Nora, "Is it fun?"
"Yeah, quite fun." Nora assessed, "Though it’s roughly made, with a single style, its playability is high. Not sure how many solutions there are, I’ve only found six so far."
"Just six."
Marcus suddenly inserted a calm remark after drinking his remaining half cup of water.
Nora was stunned, looked at him slightly curious, "You play too?"
"...Yeah."
Marcus nodded.
"Tried them all?"
"Yeah."
"Oh."
Wanting to explore the seventh solution, Nora tossed her phone aside, feeling a bit disappointed.
She furrowed her brow, "Can only wait for Maze 2 then."
Marcus was slightly stunned; his gaze lingered on Nora with hesitation briefly, then he lowered his eyes and asked, "You’re waiting for 2?"
"Yeah."
"...Soon."
Marcus casually remarked.
After hesitating for a mont, Nora turned suddenly, propping her elbow on the sofa, eyebrow raised at Marcus, "Wasn’t the author a high school student planning to put it on hold to focus on studies?"
Marcus was taken aback, "How do you know?"
Maze players knowing about a sequel isn’t surprising.
But, the "high school student" and "focusing on studies" part, only Miguel Smith knew.
—Her networking skills, isn’t it kind of uncanny?
Even recognizing his online friend...
Nora responded with a simple "Hmm," planned to say "Miguel Smith ntioned it," but her phone buzzed. It was a call from Lanel, so she stopped talking, took the phone to the balcony to answer it.
Although Marcus was full of questions, seeing Nora busy with real business, he held back and didn’t ask more.
With Nora’s endorsent, Oliver also took out his phone to search for "Maze," only not to find it in the store.
"It’s not there."
Glancing at Oliver’s phone brand, Marcus casually remarked, "Not available in this system’s app store."
"Huh?"
Oliver tilted his head, a bit puzzled.
"No version for this system?" Oliver paused, realizing sothing was off, "No way, Sis’s phone is the sa model as mine!"
"..."
Pausing for a mont, Marcus didn’t speak, instead took out his phone, fiddled with it.
Soon, Oliver’s phone vibrated, showing a file sent from Marcus.
Seeing the unknown file, Oliver looked over, puzzled.
Marcus calmly said, "Download it, install."
"...Oh."
Oliver complied without questioning.
In the span of Nora’s phone call, Oliver successfully installed the ga.
But, he hasn’t started playing yet.
Nora ca over, glanced at Marcus, then thoughtfully asked, "Are you keeping up with recently released gas?"
"...A bit."
He had an interest in gas; usually tried out new quality gas.
However, this year, quality ga releases were very few.
"Any fun gas?" Nora asked.
Oliver: "..."
Being a rare gar, Oliver felt this topic wasn’t relevant to him.
"There’s one, but—"
"What?"
Nora pressed.
After a slight pause, Marcus said, "It’s a horror ga."
"Scary?"
"Manageable." Marcus nodded slightly, then, noticing Nora’s hand, reminded her, "There’s a part at the end that’s tricky to operate."
He knew Nora’s hand speed—it was abysmally bad.
Nora could only handle puzzle, casual, and simulation gas.
This ga, if played without detours and completed successfully, wouldn’t take more than two hours.
If Nora played, even if she could calmly face the horror scenes with strong nerves, just getting stuck at the finale requiring swift Escape might keep Nora playing until morning...
"Oh." Nora understood Marcus’s implication, glanced at the two of them, and impassively asked, "Are you two reviewing tonight?"
"...No reviewing, planning to relax tonight."
The clueless Oliver answered truthfully.
"..."
Marcus simply kept silent.
Five minutes later, Marcus and Oliver found themselves forcibly dragged to the study by Nora, sitting on either side of her.
The desk was cleared, with Marcus’s laptop placed on it.
—His computer already had the ga software, bypassing the download step.
Computer booted up, Nora saw the clean desktop; the few apps that were there were ones she hadn’t used before, couldn’t understand them.
Ga opened, Nora thought about Miguel Smith always live streaming horror gaplays—"screaming alone isn’t as good as screaming together."
Horror and thrill were ant to be shared.
Hence, Nora had a sudden idea, "Can you stream it, without showing face, without making noise?"
"...Yes."
Marcus replied.
Nora asked, "Do you have a Station X account?"
"Yes."
"Then use your account to stream."
Marcus: "..."
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