Editor’s Note: This story is inspired by the game Fortnite, which was developed by Epic Games. Content Warning for gun usage and video game violence.
One day I was playing squads on Fortnite with my friends when all of a sudden my TV started glowing. I put my hand up to the screen and my hand went through it. I was confused. Then I said into the mic, “Hey guys, are you seeing this?”
Zaniya asked, “Seeing what?”
Then I realized only I could be part of the Fortnite world. Maybe. Is this what I actually think it is? I cautiously walked in, and I realized I was in a lobby. I thought Fortnite had a lobby. I was in a Fortnite lobby! I remembered I was with my friends. I slapped my forehead thinking, am I dreaming or hallucinating? I thought if I was in Fortnite I could change what I was wearing. I went into the clothing section and saw all my skins. In order to test my theory that I was not dreaming or hallucinating, I went to the emote section and saw all my emotes. Next to Vbucks, I saw everything that I had in real life I had here in this virtual world. It’s like I entered Fortnite – or did I?
I heard a voice say, “Games starting in 3, 2, 1!”
I was immediately transported through the air and brought to what looked like the waiting place from my gaming experience. This was different. It looked exactly like Fortnite but you could not get killed. I floated over to the Battle Bus, and then we flew into my favorite game. I figured I was in Fortnite, so I got ready to win a game. I dropped and landed at a humongous house and walked inside. I picked up a gun and started firing it. Firing the gun felt good and I thought, I think I’ll like it here. I grabbed the loot and after I was done, I had an AR, a shotgun, an RPG, and healing. A few seconds later, I could hear footsteps and got ready. As soon as they came inside the person tried to shoot me but I jumped so high. I was surprised how high I could jump! I shot at him and lasered him and he died. I looked up and watched in amazement as I saw my kills, my health, my ammo, and my building materials. I wondered if someone was playing me and I was the character in Fortnite. I did a move only I knew to test my theory. I set C4 bombs everywhere, got a gun, and shot the house down. The loot rained down on me. Then I built my own house/base to live in and protect myself. I made windows and doors and everything that belongs in a base and more. A few more people came to the house. I bombed, sniped, shot out the air, and killed everyone. I, ZRC, ended the game with a win and 20 kills.
Later that day, I, ZRC, was relaxing and partying at Party Hub. I was thinking about how good I was and how I won every game I went to. I knew this was a dream come true and I would never leave. The excitement was like a bubble about to burst when I heard over the intercom, “Come to the lounge where you will meet all agents.” I ran to the inter-lounge and saw Skye, Midas, Meoscles, Pelly, and Brutus. Over the intercom, I heard they were going to pick one person to become a new agent in Fortnite. Everyone cheered! I was full of excitement. Midas said “Drum roll please, the new agent also the best Fortnite player here other than us is ZRC!” I said, “YES!” and jumped for joy! My friends said “Yeah man!”
After everyone left the lounge, the agents told me to stay behind and pick my favorite gun to be my weapon as an agent, and to make a new skin.
I picked a shotgun and the skin I made had a wolf mask. My hands and arms were covered in ice and my body was very muscular with abs and biceps. I looked down. I was wearing an ice skin with an ice shotgun and ice arms and hands. Being an agent was hard work. I had to pick henchmen to work as assistants. I had to pick a place to stay where I lived. I chose to make Salty Springs into an ice land with a mansion in the front with henchmen as guards. I had become a hot drop, which means everyone is coming here to get my gun. Whenever someone killed me, I would just respawn into another game. I checked my pocket to see if I had my phone. When I pulled out my phone, a piece of paper appeared in my hands and told me to call myself. I called myself and on the phone screen. It said, Zahir has answered. He heard my voice saying, “Hello? Hello?” Then I asked, “Can you play me on Fortnite?”
“Wait, what do you mean to play you? Don’t you see me the new agent bro? I don’t know what you’re talking about, bye.”
ZRC thought that maybe he did not know he was in the game. He knew he wanted to be the best Fortnite player in the world, but to do that he had to defeat Ssunde and the X Brothers. The X Brothers are a glitch that prevent people from winning but they don’t have an external body. They are bots programmed into the game. They just think they are real people but they are actually glitches programmed to ruin the game. My team is the Beard. His special ability is that he can drive things really well like helicopters, boats, and stuff. Zanirock’s special ability is that she can shoot really fast, faster than me, ZRC 2008. I have the special ability to have the best aim in the world and the best leadership in the world. I also have a specialized gun and henchmen. My team and I were itching to battle Ssundee after we placed second best in the world, but Ssundee is always in front. I sometimes wonder how he is so good. Gameday was in 2 days. Today, everyone was partying at Party Royale. Me and my team were having a good time laughing and joking around when our opponents came and said, “Good luck, you’ll need it ‘cause you’re going down!”
When the X Brothers turned around, I saw them glitch for a second. I told my team, and they said, “What are you talking about?”
“We saw nothing man, just worry about having fun,” we replied.
It was Game Day. My team put on their game faces and walked out into the lobby.
We heard the last words from this bot, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1!”
We were launched into the Battle Bus and jumped out.
Skye dove into the tallest building there. They looted the place and then saw one of the X Brothers. They said, “3, 2, 1,” and killed him in 3 shots.
His brother was hot in pursuit when both X Brothers came out of a bush and said, “We are still here.”
“I talked about how I killed you. Are you hacking at the same time?”
They said, “We are a hack.”
Ssundee came up from the ground and surrounded them. As the leader I am, I took the lead and I shot Ssundee then 360 no-scoped one of the X Brothers. I one-pumped the other X Brother, but they rose back up. We did the only other thing we could do: Trap them with traps. We got spike traps and built a tower so they could not get out and ran 5 seconds later. They heard a noise. Then we heard, “You have won the place of the Best Fortnite Player in the World!” Ssundee and the X Brothers came out of the tower by hacking them. They tried to shoot us but then they went stiff. We all looked up and saw the Fortnite agents controlling him. They said, “You cheated! The penalty is that you get banned from Fortnite FOREVER.”
Me and my team said, “Yes sir!” and we heard my voice in the real world say, “Yes sir!” I got a VIC-Roy and won the place of Best Fortnite player. A machine transported me back home. Now, I had two powers: being able to have the best aim in the world and being able to go in and out of video games whenever I wanted. When I stepped out of the game, my sister, Kyle, and my real self were frozen for a second. Then I thought maybe I freeze time every time I go into a game. After that, I joined my real body, and I played Fortnite.