Let’s move to Julian’s side.
14:00—Julian is still playing Call of Duty: Mutant Apocalypse.
Julian, along with 50 other players, is fighting an event boss called the Corruption Whale. After unleashing its deadly skill, the Corruption Whale is now using a shield—for 10 minutes, the shield covers its entire body. Julian and the remaining players are unaware that the boss is preparing to unleash its deadly skill. Julian stops firing after seeing the boss silent in midair—in a defensive position. Julian starts checking the remaining player information by pressing R1 on his controller.
"Damn, there are 24 players left—including the five remaining whale players," Julian said.
"His attack is insane—his corruption wave instantly kills players with less than 50% health—even Susujahe died instantly despite wearing rare armor," Julian continued with a tense expression.
"Luckily, I got legendary armor in last month’s gacha" Julian continued, checking his health bar.
Julian closed the information window and opened his storage by pressing R2+Triangle.
"I should heal myself first—I only have 10 rare potions left, huh?" Julian asked, looking at his items.
"Haaa... Does that mean I have to farm again—in the Madura Region?" Julian asked with a tired expression.
Julian began to look at Chaos.
"Chaos is still holding on because he’s a whale player—which has lots of rare and legendary items" Julian said.
Chaos continued shooting at the whale and grabbing ammo for his two weapons—a submachine gun and a sniper rifle.
"Thankfully, ammo loot for various weapons appears every second—so he can keep attacking, hahaha," Julian said with an awkward laugh.
Julian looked back at the boss—which was in defensive mode.
"But, the developers have really set up the boss well—even the whale players can only reduce his shield bar by a few percent with their rare and legendary items" Julian said, looking at the boss, which was still in the sky.
"It’s understandable that whale players can’t defeat it right away, because the developers didn’t reveal the boss’s element before the event started" Julian continued.
The boss has three elements—Electricity, Water, and Earth.
"According to the information, the only way to destroy its defenses is to wait for weapons from the airdrop—that way, when the shield breaks, the whale players can use their legendary items to attack simultaneously," Julian said.
Julian was getting frustrated and started shooting at the boss again. But by chance, a notification appeared, informing him that an airdrop containing a weapon that could destroy the boss’s defenses for 5 minutes had arrived.
"Nice! Help has finally arrived!" Julian said happily.
Julian saw an airplane flying to his right and starting to drop airdrops.
"Chaos, I’ll get the weapon, you keep shooting at the whale—so its shield bar keeps decreasing!" Julian shouted.
"Roger that!" Chaos replied, continuing to shoot at the boss.
Julian immediately moved towards the airdrop’s landing location.
"There are only five participating Whale players left, so our chance of winning depends on the airdrop weapons. If the defenses are broken, I’ll just hand the rest over to Chaos—who has a $300 weapon" Julian said.
But when he arrived, someone had already snatched it.
"Ahh!!," Julian said, startled.
"OI!, THAT WEAPON I SAW FIRST! WHY DID YOU TAKE IT!?" Julian shouted into the mic, annoyed, and hurled profanities.
The player who took Julian’s weapon silent in front of him, then turned to face Julian and said,
"Shut up!... A newbie like you, just shut up and watch!" the player replied arrogantly.
The player immediately ran away from Julian. After seeing the player’s ranking, Julian could only hold back his anger and grit his teeth.
"Tch!, Damn it, just because you’re a Red Star ranking makes you arrogant!" Julian said with an annoyed expression and tone.
Julian looked back at the boss.
"Damn it! The shield bar is still 6 more to destroy—" Julian said.
Suddenly, the Boss went back into attack mode and began to rage.
"Damn! that rage—it must be to unleash its signature skill!" Julian continued with a tense expression.
Julian’s expression immediately changed, as he suddenly remembered that a player had already used an airdrop weapon.
"But don’t worry, the one who took the Airdrop weapon is Red Star rank—so I’ll just hand it over to him" Julian said, starting to move the joystick again.
Julian pressed the R1+X buttons on the controller to contact his teammate—ChaosKing.
"Chaos, the weapon is with another player—get ready to use your AWM Killer Marlin"
"Okay!" Chaos replied.
"According to information, the corruption wave attack will only be launched twice—so we’ll finish this in one attack, Chaos!
"Roger that!" Chaos replied.
Julian took off his headset, took a deep breath, and said,
"ARGH!!! ROLLING GOAT!!! MERMAID LICE!!! BAT VIRUS!!!..." Julian shouted, uttering curses. He said these words so his mother wouldn’t get angry when she heard his anger.
The mission failed, and all players died instantly from the boss’s skill, Rain of Corruption.
"JULIAN! DON’T SCREAM, GO TO SLEEP IF YOU HAVE NO OTHER TO DO!" Sekar shouted, who was cooking instant noodles in the kitchen.
Julian immediately fell silent and replied,
"A-ALRIGHT, MOM!" Julian shouted to his mother.
Julian sat back down and said,
"Damn, that player, I thought he was a real pro, but he looks ridiculous—his shots can’t even hit the boss’s head accurately!," Julian said with an annoyed expression and tone, staring at his TV screen.
"Doesn’t he know that the airdrop sniper rifle only has one bullet?!,"
"Plus, that’s the only weapon that can penetrate the whale’s defenses!"
Soon, chats from Susujahe65 and ChaosKing appeared on the screen—filled with their complaints and anger.
"Even they look annoyed, hahaha" Julian said with an awkward laugh.
Julian began typing a message.
"I’m going offline now. If you guys want to play again, feel free to. I’m going to bed because I have a fever" Julian said.
After sending the message, Julian immediately logged out and deactivated his PS7.
Julian stood up from the sofa and stretched his arms.
"Haa, forget it, I’m still tired from the fight," Julian said.
Julian turned off his TV, grabbed his phone, and walked to bed. Julian lay down on the bed, watching an anime—one where the main character was dating a Yandere girl.
"Maybe this can be a reference for me to deal with Anindya—if she gets angry again" Julian muttered, staring at his phone.
"So the reason you want to break up with me is because you choose her over me?
The main character turned his face to the right.
"Y-yeah" the main character replied with an uncomfortable expression and tone.
"I see..." the Heroine said in a low, heavy tone.
"Then—DIE!!!" the Heroine shouted, pulling a dagger from her skirt pocket.
Julian, watching the scene, immediately expressed fear.
"U-uwah, anime these season is so brutal" Julian muttered with a frightened expression.
Julian placed his phone on his chest and stared up at the ceiling of his room.
"Sigh, is it possible that Anindya could be like that?" Julian asked, staring at the ceiling.
Julian was momentarily stunned, but soon he laughed awkwardly.
"Ha-hahaha no way, maybe she would be like that over a small matter," Julian said, staring at the ceiling.
"Come on, don’t think negatively, I’d better scroll through social media" Julian continued.
Julian took his phone back and started browsing social media. While scrolling, a thought occurred to Julian.
"Now that I think about it, it seems like the one who sent the gangsters really is the boss of the drug dealer, huh?" Julian asked.
"If that’s true, then that means they’re targeting me now, right?," Julian continued.
"But why don’t I feel scared?... Normal people should be afraid, but I feel different. When I fight, I actually feel like I’m having fun" Julian continued. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novel⦿fire.net
Julian put his phone back on his chest and stared at the ceiling.
"It feels like me in middle school. Could it be that my old instincts are resurfacing?..." Julian muttered.
Julian was silent for a long time after saying those words. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, as if his thoughts had been dragged back to the past—to the time when he was still a brawling delinquent. Julian closed his eyes and said
"Never mind... it’s probably just... a coincidence," Julian said.
Julian opened his eyes.
"Now I should think about Anindya’s reaction—if I tell her what happened" Julian said.
Julian tilted his body to the left.
"Let me guess, her reaction will definitely be—’Really? Then we’ll skip school tomorrow and go find the boss!’ She’ll probably say something like that in an excited tone" Julian said with an awkward smile.
Julian paused for a few seconds to think. He finally had an idea.
"Should I just keep it a secret? But..." Julian said.
"... I tell her or not, she’ll still find out from her bodyguards who helped me" Julian continued.
"Well, I should just go to sleep. My head’s been spinning from all the thinking, and I’m hoping that sleeping will help the bruises on my face disappear" Julian said.
Julian closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.