pwn
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Fred had no idea what was going on. He knew this game inside and out. He had been playing the franchise for years, and knew how it worked. He should be easily winning matches and raking in the digital renown. And yet, that was not what was happening.
Fred was, in fact, losing. And not by a small amount either. He was being decimated. Crushed. Dominated at every turn. Nothing he did was enough to score even once. What was worse was who he was losing to. If the voice chat was to be believed, all his opponents were teenagers. People who had barely hit puberty, who were less than half his age, were obliterating him in one of his favorite games. And, as was the way of teens, they were not being gracious winners.
After another round of verbal bashing by his squeaky-voiced opponents, he finally had enough. He set the controller down and closed his eyes for a moment. His mind drifted back to when he could actually win a match. What was different between then and now? He had more experience to draw from these days. He had learned more ways to eek out victories. More ways to game the system without actually cheating. And yet, none of that seemed to matter.
He looked at his hands. There were a few faint lines forming on the back of them. Nothing too noticeable, at least not yet, but they were there. A looming sense of dread came over him. Could it be? Could it simply be his age that was slowing him down? Fred was not old. At least, he did not think of himself as old. He had not even hit 50 yet. There was no way he was slowing down that much.
Was there?
Sure there were a few dull aches in his wrists that had not been there a few years ago, but nothing really painful. And sure his eyes were not as good as they used to be, but so what? He could still see just fine. And maybe his reflexes were not up to par anymore. He shook his head and forced that line of thought out of his mind. Sure he was getting older, but he was certainly not old.
He looked at the controller again. It had taken him a lot of practice to get used to the new console’s control system, but that was no longer a factor. But it used to take a lot less time to adapt to a new system. Another head shake. Another train of thought forced to be abandoned. He would figure this out.
He would figure it out. He would win at least one match. One round. That was all he needed. Hell, he would even settle for losing by a narrow margin. Just something that told him he still had it. That he was not too old to enjoy his old hobby. Something to tell him that, no matter what happened, he could still call himself a gamer.
At that moment, that was all he needed.
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I'm kind of surprised this one's here. I never thought I'd see modern gamer lingo in a dictionary (or dictionary adjacent website). I guess it's true that language is an ever evolving thing.
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