Chapter 8: Game of Gods (2)
—
From Spider-man's make-shift costume Enrique knew this spider was Tom Holland's one, so he had to visit Queens when he decided to meet the friendly neighbourhood hero.
From what he gathered in the past few hours, Peter started this superhero deal about a month ago. These days he only came out at night, so Enrique was planning to do heroism by himself until night came.
He could have started something big himself to draw Spiderman's attention and act like he saved the day, but he had read too many of those scenarios happening in the comics and knew it never ended well. Say, Mysterio, for example. So he decided to let things play naturally.
Soon it turned out that today was Enrique's lucky day (while some others had their luck down the gutter) because he came across a burning building in Queens. That big of a fire would surely get Peter out before night.
["Why do you smile like that seeing a fire?"] He heard Mut's confused voice in his mind. ["What a weird child."]
Enrique decided to play hero before Peter could come.
——
"Hey, nerd! Eating that cheap shit like usual?" A short chubby brown boy, Flash Thompson, yelled from the side as he got a laugh from his friends.
However Peter, the target of the insult, didn't even turn to look which caused the boy to yell out some more insults.
Peter shrugged.
After fighting criminals with his life literally on the line, these insults just didn't hit Peter like before. Rather, it came out as childish instead.
"If only he knew who he was insulting." The fat boy sitting beside Peter said, chuckling as he ate his food.
"Shh, Ned, not here." Peter whispered, watching the fat boy's eyes go wide as he put a finger over his own lips. "Good."
Just then, Peter felt his phone vibrate in his pants in a manner that meant it was a 'Breaking News'. He took out his phone and checked the latest notifications.
"Holy shit, Ned." Peter cursed as he read the news. "It's a fire. Ned, I need to go."
As Ned tried to say something, Peter threw him a thumbs up and ran while gulping down on a water bottle.
It's a three-story building where the fire started, so there were at least a dozen people in there. He had to hurry, or there would surely be casualties.
Peter changed into his red hoodie, blue trousers, and goggles, and swung through the skyscrapers of Queens, New York. Soon, he reached the emergency scene where firefighters were putting out the fire. That was their job, and Spiderman's job was to save anybody who may be inside the fire.
"Are there people still inside?" Peter asked as he dropped in front of a firefighter, making the man blink before he nodded.
"Yes, but-"
"Alright, I am going in." Saying so, Peter was about to jump inside the burning three-story building, however…
"There is no need for that." A low crispy voice said and once Peter turned to the source of the sound, he found a large man flying down from the third floor, a girl on his embrace who had her arms wrapped around his neck in fear. "She was the last person inside."
The man wore a pristine white costume, a big lightning symbol on his chest within where small black orbs danced as if it was a live wallpaper. His white cape floated behind him, and a gold and white mask covered his face under the hoodie.
'Who the hell is this cool dude??' Peter stared in awe as the new superhero dropped down in front of him, letting the firefighter from before take care of the girl as he reached his hand towards Spiderman.
"Huh?" Peter blinked. "Ah, handshake."
Peter quickly shook his hand. "Hi, Spiderman, fancy seeing you here." Peter said, mixing up in nervousness. "Uh, um, you are?"
The man took off his hoodie, revealing a smiling, handsome face.
Peter was so jealous.
'Tall, cool suit, low crispy voice, and a handsome face.' He noted. 'I lack all first three of them.'
"Name’s Abaddon." The man said. "Means angel of abyss, or bottomless pit. Depending on the source.”
"Aha," Peter kept shaking hands. That was a cool name, although his pristine white suit coupled with cold silver eyes didn't go well with the ‘abyss’ theme. "I think I heard rumours about you. But didn't think I would actually meet you here. Thanks for, uh, saving the people here. I was certainly too late."
Abaddon finally looked down on their shaking hands as Peter let it go, making the man chuckle. "Yes, I was hesitating to come here since Queens is your region. But noticing the fire, I decided to come anyway. Hope you won't mind."
"Hey, no way. I am a Spider not a wolf. Territories aren't my thing." Peter said, pointing at himself. "But, what do we now-"
Peter didn't finish his words. As his [Peter Tingle] flinched, his head snapped to the side. "Dude, did you sense that?"
"My senses aren't on a superhuman level." Abaddon said as he started to float in the air. "Let's move, I heard your senses are sharp, we better trust it."
Peter nodded and followed behind him. He flew, and Peter swung behind him. Peter couldn't help but feel self conscious. Didn't he look too lame beside this shining dude?
——
[“Hmm, calling yourself Abaddon of all things.”] the Goddess said.
“It sounds cool in my head.” Enrique said in a whisper.
[“Thought you'd call yourself Mut’s Pharaoh, but haah, you broke my heart. But I suppose it does suit you somewhat, since it was the Demiurge who sent you here. Angel of abyss basically means Angel of Demiurge.”]
Enrique shrugged. That wasn't his intention. He rather focused on his job.
He spent the rest of the day with Spiderman, cornering thugs and taking down criminals, before night came. It was honestly a fun time for Enrique. It had been a long time since he did street fights, so his techniques were a bit rough around the edges. But seeing Spiderman fight, he learned some moves as well.
'I really have to find someone to learn some martial arts.' He made a mental note. He wasn't that strong physically, even with the suit on. If not for his indestructible body, he was pretty sure even a (somewhat) natural human like Natasha would be able to take him down.
Enrique didn't try to convert anyone today, nor did he mug the criminals he defeated. It was nighttime, and he and Spiderman were on top of a skyscraper at the moment. Enrique tossed the boy a pack of McDonald's while opening his own pack.
As he was about to take a bite, Spiderman pulled up his mask just enough to reveal his mouth, about to eat as well, and Entique feigned surprise.
"Hey," Entique said. "How old are you?"
Peter choked on his food, he probably thought Enrique wouldn't notice in the darkness, and immediately pulled down his mask. "W-what do you mean?" He asked in a faked deeper voice. "I-I an old enough to drive."
"Right. You are what, fifteen? Sixteen?" Enrique inquired. "Really, what the fuck, kid?"
"Hey! We fought beside each other all day, drop it down already!" Peter tried, grunting. "...Saving lives shouldn't need a minimum age."
That actually was a quotable line.
Enrique listened to him before sighing. "Fine, you got a point and I will stop. You are a capable superhero, I admit." He shrugged. "But don't you have, like, school and stuff? Isn't this hard to manage?"
"Well, yeah, I guess." Peter rubbed the back of his head after drinking water. "I actually ran from my lunch break. I wasn't even full, but learning about a fire in the city I couldn't just sit still and eat. That's actually why I accepted your offer of eating here, on top of a freaking 70-story building. Kinda feels refreshing though."
"Oh wow." Enrique took a bite of his food, leaning against the fence of the rooftop. "It's been hard on you. What's your name? Real one."
Peter kept munching on his food, not answering his question.
"Fine." Enrique sighed. "Do I use my godly super powers to figure it out? Peter Parker?" Peter choked again. "Don't worry, nobody can read my mind so your secret is safe here."
"Dude!" Peter yelled after he emptied another bottle down his throat. "You don't just peek at people's personal life like that!"
"Hey, calm down, I was just curious."
"What kind of power was that even? Mind reading? S-shit, don't look at my memories of the night that I got my powers!"
"That's specific. Let me-" Peter almost broke down, so Enrique stopped and laughed. "Don't worry, I don't have mind reading powers. You just dropped this while you were fighting." He took out a money bag from his pocket, Peter's money bag, and handed it over. "Don't carry it when you are doing this, Peter. People can easily track you down."
Peter didn't drop it, Enrique had pickpocketed it. But his advice was legit though, if that counted.
Peter moved like a dumbfounded robot and accepted his money bag. "You saw my student ID…" he muttered before signing and taking off his mask entirely, revealing a childish but handsome face "Ugh, fine, let's go all the way." He reached out a hand for a handshake. "Peter Parker, nice to meet you."
Enrique accepted his hand as his Super Suit morphed into a casual white attire. "Enrique Nova. Nice to meet you as well."
Peter laughed sheepishly and withdrew his hand back, before grabbing the burger he was eating and stuffing his mouth with it. "So, Enrique," he said while speaking. "What do you do for a living? Now that you know I am a student, I think I deserve to know a bit about your personal life as well."
"I thought you would never ask." Enrique smiled as he took out his phone from his pockets. He was about to speak, but Peter raised a hand.
"Wait, so, I just missed this. Your Super Suit can shape shift. So cool. But wait, then where was this phone when you were wearing your Suit? It didn't have pockets." Peter asked, intrigued and charmed like any teenager would in his situation.
"Well," Enrique looked up at the sky. "It's all thanks to my Mother, Goddess Mut's, graceful power. Everything in my pocket supposedly ends up in her heaven, Aaru, when I wear the Super Suit."
"Damn," Peter wowed. "Didn't take you for the religious type."
"She's real." Enrique said. "Like, literally. Gods are real. Zeus, Odin. You saw the news a few weeks ago? About that unlift-able hammer that was being posted everywhere in social media a few months ago? That's the hammer of Thor, from the Norse Mythology."
Peter had by then stopped eating. After a minute, he managed to say- "Proof?"
Enrique clasped his hands in front of him. "My lovely Goddess, if you may."
Immediately, the sky brightened, and…
*Crack-Rumble*
The clear sky, the entirety of it, was severed in two by a huge bolt of lightning.
Peter stared in awe.
"I mean, you can doubt and just say this is an extension of my power, and I can't really disprove that." Enrique said. "But yeah, it's up to you if you want to believe it or not."
"Damn it." Peter hissed out. "Holy shit. So like, um, is Aphrodite real too?"
"Teenagers." Enrique chuckled. "And yes, she is."
After a few minutes of chatting about this and that, Peter seemed convinced. It seems the recent incident of gaining his power left him very open minded about these things. Peter shared some of his secrets too. As it turned out, this Peter actually had organic webs. That's new. This also made Enrique realise this wasn't a simple mixture of X-Men and MCU, there were very weird aspects like the blonde-haired Sabertooth, when somehow still looked like Liev Schreiber. At the same time, Jean Grey didn't look like any of her Movie counterparts, and rather had that comic-book body and face, just like Rogue.
Though Enrique preferred those girls as they looked now, he also understood that this was a goddamn bizarre symphony of many realities. So everything might go wrong by the simplest change.
After a while, Enrique decided to ignore these details and continued from where he left.
"About what I do for a living. I am a game developer." He watched Peter's eyes grow wide once more. "Actually, I recently just made this one mobile game. Wanna try playing?"
He opened the [Subway Surfer] app and tossed his phone over to Peter who yelped and caught the device. "Dude, this looks expensive, don't just throw it like that." He complained before starting the game. "Let's see…"
The screen darkened and a fancy logo saying [Nova Games] arose on the screen, then came the logo of Subway Surfers. The familiar scene of a boy painting a train popped up as Enrique watched Peter click start.
Peter’s character got arrested immediately.
The next try was a lengthier, and the one after that was more. Minutes passed and Peter kept getting arrested sooner or later. At his 3rd capture, an announcement popped up.
[Revive?]
"Hey, this didn't come out earlier!" Peter complained.
"It only appears every third arrest." Enrique explained as he watched Peter click [Revive]. Immediately the pop-up changed to a cartoonish chibi statue of Mut, her olive skin contrasting gorgeously with her wavy long white hair where a vulture crown rested. Below her chibi form, some text was written in bold text.
[Pray to the Divine Mother, and she shall grant you your wish.]
[Pray] - [Start Over]
"What's this about?" Peter turned to Enrique. "Is this a way to convert me?"
"It's just a game." Enrique said with a shrug. "You are not actually accepting to join her religion or anything, are you? The text doesn't say that."
Now that Peter accepted Gods were a real thing, he thought of his words carefully. In the end, he decided it made sense and clicked [Pray] as Enrique narrowed his eyes.
The screen flashed soft golden and immediately the game continued from where Peter was arrested and Enrique heard a surprised voice in his ears.
["It… worked."] Mut said in his head. ["He didn't become a believer, so it's not like it really worked, but I got faith points when he clicked Pray. Quite a bit of it for something this insignificant. I… this is very interesting, something like this has never happened before."]
Because something like smartphone games never existed when Egyptian Pantheon was prosperous, so nobody had ever tried it since. Though she said Peter didn't become a believer just because he clicked Pray, Enrique wasn't worried. If given time, he could develop a game where one would need to be forced to believe. For example, if there was a rumour that Genshin Impact game gave you any item or character you prayed for wholeheartedly to Mut, many many crazy gamers would do it.
Enrique wasn't even joking. The gacha fanbase were cracked in the head.
"Hey, this is kinda fun." Peter said as he continued playing. "You really made this? Why isn't it popular?"
"Because I just released it today and you're probably the first person to ever play it." Enrique said, watching the teenager cheer aloud. "Heh, you seem happy. Hmm, hey, how about I take a picture of you playing? With your mask on, of course. I will even pay you, how does a thousand dollar sound?"
"Holy shit, for real??" Peter looked at him in shock. For a 15 year old, $1,000 was pretty neat pocket money, especially for Peter. However, he soon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Is that okay though? That J Jonah Johnson guy might use it to say- [Hey look, Spiderman is playing games instead of saving people!] or something like that." Peter said, imitating the old reporter's voice, making Enrique crackle up. "Yeah, that guy's a dick. I don't know why he's so rude with me, man. Feels kinda bad sometimes."
"Huh."
"You know, I do this job for nobody in particular. I do it because I like helping people. But that guy just puts off everything I do…"
Enrique patted Peter's shoulders. He actually took a liking to this kid. He was carrying a lot of pressure for a 15-year-old.
Peter's logic was correct, though. However, Enrique had a counter for it.
"Not if we put a caption like– [Even Spiderman takes a break! Kids, don't overdo yourselves!] –before that guy can say anything." Enrique shrugged, watching Peter consider it for a moment before grinning.
"That actually sounds dope. I saw many kids overworking their asses without any solid reason. Spiderman can help them! Sure, take a picture. How do I pose?"
Enrique told Peter his plan, and the lad agreed without any trouble. Enrique then changed his suit again, this time his cape turned into a backpack, from within which he took out an expensive camera. Peter was surprised, so he gave him the same explanation of Aaru.
In truth, Enrique could change his costume in thousands of different manners and therefore store thousands of different things in his thousand different pockets and backpacks. That was a neat trick, and Enrique planned to abuse the shit out of it.
A minute later, after Enrique found a good view, Peter jumped from the top of the 70-story building they were on, flinging a line of web from his right hand while his left played Subway Surfers. Enrique moved perfectly behind him, swiftly clicking a perfect picture.
This single picture, in the next week, would become all time popular.
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Chapter 8: Game of Gods (2)
—
From Spider-man's make-shift costume Enrique knew this spider was Tom Holland's one, so he had to visit Queens when he decided to meet the friendly neighbourhood hero.
From what he gathered in the past few hours, Peter started this superhero deal about a month ago. These days he only came out at night, so Enrique was planning to do heroism by himself until night came.
He could have started something big himself to draw Spiderman's attention and act like he saved the day, but he had read too many of those scenarios happening in the comics and knew it never ended well. Say, Mysterio, for example. So he decided to let things play naturally.
Soon it turned out that today was Enrique's lucky day (while some others had their luck down the gutter) because he came across a burning building in Queens. That big of a fire would surely get Peter out before night.
["Why do you smile like that seeing a fire?"] He heard Mut's confused voice in his mind. ["What a weird child."]
Enrique decided to play hero before Peter could come.
——
"Hey, nerd! Eating that cheap shit like usual?" A short chubby brown boy, Flash Thompson, yelled from the side as he got a laugh from his friends.
However Peter, the target of the insult, didn't even turn to look which caused the boy to yell out some more insults.
Peter shrugged.
After fighting criminals with his life literally on the line, these insults just didn't hit Peter like before. Rather, it came out as childish instead.
"If only he knew who he was insulting." The fat boy sitting beside Peter said, chuckling as he ate his food.
"Shh, Ned, not here." Peter whispered, watching the fat boy's eyes go wide as he put a finger over his own lips. "Good."
Just then, Peter felt his phone vibrate in his pants in a manner that meant it was a 'Breaking News'. He took out his phone and checked the latest notifications.
"Holy shit, Ned." Peter cursed as he read the news. "It's a fire. Ned, I need to go."
As Ned tried to say something, Peter threw him a thumbs up and ran while gulping down on a water bottle.
It's a three-story building where the fire started, so there were at least a dozen people in there. He had to hurry, or there would surely be casualties.
Peter changed into his red hoodie, blue trousers, and goggles, and swung through the skyscrapers of Queens, New York. Soon, he reached the emergency scene where firefighters were putting out the fire. That was their job, and Spiderman's job was to save anybody who may be inside the fire.
"Are there people still inside?" Peter asked as he dropped in front of a firefighter, making the man blink before he nodded.
"Yes, but-"
"Alright, I am going in." Saying so, Peter was about to jump inside the burning three-story building, however…
"There is no need for that." A low crispy voice said and once Peter turned to the source of the sound, he found a large man flying down from the third floor, a girl on his embrace who had her arms wrapped around his neck in fear. "She was the last person inside."
The man wore a pristine white costume, a big lightning symbol on his chest within where small black orbs danced as if it was a live wallpaper. His white cape floated behind him, and a gold and white mask covered his face under the hoodie.
'Who the hell is this cool dude??' Peter stared in awe as the new superhero dropped down in front of him, letting the firefighter from before take care of the girl as he reached his hand towards Spiderman.
"Huh?" Peter blinked. "Ah, handshake."
Peter quickly shook his hand. "Hi, Spiderman, fancy seeing you here." Peter said, mixing up in nervousness. "Uh, um, you are?"
The man took off his hoodie, revealing a smiling, handsome face.
Peter was so jealous.
'Tall, cool suit, low crispy voice, and a handsome face.' He noted. 'I lack all first three of them.'
"Name’s Abaddon." The man said. "Means angel of abyss, or bottomless pit. Depending on the source.”
"Aha," Peter kept shaking hands. That was a cool name, although his pristine white suit coupled with cold silver eyes didn't go well with the ‘abyss’ theme. "I think I heard rumours about you. But didn't think I would actually meet you here. Thanks for, uh, saving the people here. I was certainly too late."
Abaddon finally looked down on their shaking hands as Peter let it go, making the man chuckle. "Yes, I was hesitating to come here since Queens is your region. But noticing the fire, I decided to come anyway. Hope you won't mind."
"Hey, no way. I am a Spider not a wolf. Territories aren't my thing." Peter said, pointing at himself. "But, what do we now-"
Peter didn't finish his words. As his [Peter Tingle] flinched, his head snapped to the side. "Dude, did you sense that?"
"My senses aren't on a superhuman level." Abaddon said as he started to float in the air. "Let's move, I heard your senses are sharp, we better trust it."
Peter nodded and followed behind him. He flew, and Peter swung behind him. Peter couldn't help but feel self conscious. Didn't he look too lame beside this shining dude?
——
[“Hmm, calling yourself Abaddon of all things.”] the Goddess said.
“It sounds cool in my head.” Enrique said in a whisper.
[“Thought you'd call yourself Mut’s Pharaoh, but haah, you broke my heart. But I suppose it does suit you somewhat, since it was the Demiurge who sent you here. Angel of abyss basically means Angel of Demiurge.”]
Enrique shrugged. That wasn't his intention. He rather focused on his job.
He spent the rest of the day with Spiderman, cornering thugs and taking down criminals, before night came. It was honestly a fun time for Enrique. It had been a long time since he did street fights, so his techniques were a bit rough around the edges. But seeing Spiderman fight, he learned some moves as well.
'I really have to find someone to learn some martial arts.' He made a mental note. He wasn't that strong physically, even with the suit on. If not for his indestructible body, he was pretty sure even a (somewhat) natural human like Natasha would be able to take him down.
Enrique didn't try to convert anyone today, nor did he mug the criminals he defeated. It was nighttime, and he and Spiderman were on top of a skyscraper at the moment. Enrique tossed the boy a pack of McDonald's while opening his own pack.
As he was about to take a bite, Spiderman pulled up his mask just enough to reveal his mouth, about to eat as well, and Entique feigned surprise.
"Hey," Entique said. "How old are you?"
Peter choked on his food, he probably thought Enrique wouldn't notice in the darkness, and immediately pulled down his mask. "W-what do you mean?" He asked in a faked deeper voice. "I-I an old enough to drive."
"Right. You are what, fifteen? Sixteen?" Enrique inquired. "Really, what the fuck, kid?"
"Hey! We fought beside each other all day, drop it down already!" Peter tried, grunting. "...Saving lives shouldn't need a minimum age."
That actually was a quotable line.
Enrique listened to him before sighing. "Fine, you got a point and I will stop. You are a capable superhero, I admit." He shrugged. "But don't you have, like, school and stuff? Isn't this hard to manage?"
"Well, yeah, I guess." Peter rubbed the back of his head after drinking water. "I actually ran from my lunch break. I wasn't even full, but learning about a fire in the city I couldn't just sit still and eat. That's actually why I accepted your offer of eating here, on top of a freaking 70-story building. Kinda feels refreshing though."
"Oh wow." Enrique took a bite of his food, leaning against the fence of the rooftop. "It's been hard on you. What's your name? Real one."
Peter kept munching on his food, not answering his question.
"Fine." Enrique sighed. "Do I use my godly super powers to figure it out? Peter Parker?" Peter choked again. "Don't worry, nobody can read my mind so your secret is safe here."
"Dude!" Peter yelled after he emptied another bottle down his throat. "You don't just peek at people's personal life like that!"
"Hey, calm down, I was just curious."
"What kind of power was that even? Mind reading? S-shit, don't look at my memories of the night that I got my powers!"
"That's specific. Let me-" Peter almost broke down, so Enrique stopped and laughed. "Don't worry, I don't have mind reading powers. You just dropped this while you were fighting." He took out a money bag from his pocket, Peter's money bag, and handed it over. "Don't carry it when you are doing this, Peter. People can easily track you down."
Peter didn't drop it, Enrique had pickpocketed it. But his advice was legit though, if that counted.
Peter moved like a dumbfounded robot and accepted his money bag. "You saw my student ID…" he muttered before signing and taking off his mask entirely, revealing a childish but handsome face "Ugh, fine, let's go all the way." He reached out a hand for a handshake. "Peter Parker, nice to meet you."
Enrique accepted his hand as his Super Suit morphed into a casual white attire. "Enrique Nova. Nice to meet you as well."
Peter laughed sheepishly and withdrew his hand back, before grabbing the burger he was eating and stuffing his mouth with it. "So, Enrique," he said while speaking. "What do you do for a living? Now that you know I am a student, I think I deserve to know a bit about your personal life as well."
"I thought you would never ask." Enrique smiled as he took out his phone from his pockets. He was about to speak, but Peter raised a hand.
"Wait, so, I just missed this. Your Super Suit can shape shift. So cool. But wait, then where was this phone when you were wearing your Suit? It didn't have pockets." Peter asked, intrigued and charmed like any teenager would in his situation.
"Well," Enrique looked up at the sky. "It's all thanks to my Mother, Goddess Mut's, graceful power. Everything in my pocket supposedly ends up in her heaven, Aaru, when I wear the Super Suit."
"Damn," Peter wowed. "Didn't take you for the religious type."
"She's real." Enrique said. "Like, literally. Gods are real. Zeus, Odin. You saw the news a few weeks ago? About that unlift-able hammer that was being posted everywhere in social media a few months ago? That's the hammer of Thor, from the Norse Mythology."
Peter had by then stopped eating. After a minute, he managed to say- "Proof?"
Enrique clasped his hands in front of him. "My lovely Goddess, if you may."
Immediately, the sky brightened, and…
*Crack-Rumble*
The clear sky, the entirety of it, was severed in two by a huge bolt of lightning.
Peter stared in awe.
"I mean, you can doubt and just say this is an extension of my power, and I can't really disprove that." Enrique said. "But yeah, it's up to you if you want to believe it or not."
"Damn it." Peter hissed out. "Holy shit. So like, um, is Aphrodite real too?"
"Teenagers." Enrique chuckled. "And yes, she is."
After a few minutes of chatting about this and that, Peter seemed convinced. It seems the recent incident of gaining his power left him very open minded about these things. Peter shared some of his secrets too. As it turned out, this Peter actually had organic webs. That's new. This also made Enrique realise this wasn't a simple mixture of X-Men and MCU, there were very weird aspects like the blonde-haired Sabertooth, when somehow still looked like Liev Schreiber. At the same time, Jean Grey didn't look like any of her Movie counterparts, and rather had that comic-book body and face, just like Rogue.
Though Enrique preferred those girls as they looked now, he also understood that this was a goddamn bizarre symphony of many realities. So everything might go wrong by the simplest change.
After a while, Enrique decided to ignore these details and continued from where he left.
"About what I do for a living. I am a game developer." He watched Peter's eyes grow wide once more. "Actually, I recently just made this one mobile game. Wanna try playing?"
He opened the [Subway Surfer] app and tossed his phone over to Peter who yelped and caught the device. "Dude, this looks expensive, don't just throw it like that." He complained before starting the game. "Let's see…"
The screen darkened and a fancy logo saying [Nova Games] arose on the screen, then came the logo of Subway Surfers. The familiar scene of a boy painting a train popped up as Enrique watched Peter click start.
Peter’s character got arrested immediately.
The next try was a lengthier, and the one after that was more. Minutes passed and Peter kept getting arrested sooner or later. At his 3rd capture, an announcement popped up.
[Revive?]
"Hey, this didn't come out earlier!" Peter complained.
"It only appears every third arrest." Enrique explained as he watched Peter click [Revive]. Immediately the pop-up changed to a cartoonish chibi statue of Mut, her olive skin contrasting gorgeously with her wavy long white hair where a vulture crown rested. Below her chibi form, some text was written in bold text.
[Pray to the Divine Mother, and she shall grant you your wish.]
[Pray] - [Start Over]
"What's this about?" Peter turned to Enrique. "Is this a way to convert me?"
"It's just a game." Enrique said with a shrug. "You are not actually accepting to join her religion or anything, are you? The text doesn't say that."
Now that Peter accepted Gods were a real thing, he thought of his words carefully. In the end, he decided it made sense and clicked [Pray] as Enrique narrowed his eyes.
The screen flashed soft golden and immediately the game continued from where Peter was arrested and Enrique heard a surprised voice in his ears.
["It… worked."] Mut said in his head. ["He didn't become a believer, so it's not like it really worked, but I got faith points when he clicked Pray. Quite a bit of it for something this insignificant. I… this is very interesting, something like this has never happened before."]
Because something like smartphone games never existed when Egyptian Pantheon was prosperous, so nobody had ever tried it since. Though she said Peter didn't become a believer just because he clicked Pray, Enrique wasn't worried. If given time, he could develop a game where one would need to be forced to believe. For example, if there was a rumour that Genshin Impact game gave you any item or character you prayed for wholeheartedly to Mut, many many crazy gamers would do it.
Enrique wasn't even joking. The gacha fanbase were cracked in the head.
"Hey, this is kinda fun." Peter said as he continued playing. "You really made this? Why isn't it popular?"
"Because I just released it today and you're probably the first person to ever play it." Enrique said, watching the teenager cheer aloud. "Heh, you seem happy. Hmm, hey, how about I take a picture of you playing? With your mask on, of course. I will even pay you, how does a thousand dollar sound?"
"Holy shit, for real??" Peter looked at him in shock. For a 15 year old, $1,000 was pretty neat pocket money, especially for Peter. However, he soon rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Is that okay though? That J Jonah Johnson guy might use it to say- [Hey look, Spiderman is playing games instead of saving people!] or something like that." Peter said, imitating the old reporter's voice, making Enrique crackle up. "Yeah, that guy's a dick. I don't know why he's so rude with me, man. Feels kinda bad sometimes."
"Huh."
"You know, I do this job for nobody in particular. I do it because I like helping people. But that guy just puts off everything I do…"
Enrique patted Peter's shoulders. He actually took a liking to this kid. He was carrying a lot of pressure for a 15-year-old.
Peter's logic was correct, though. However, Enrique had a counter for it.
"Not if we put a caption like– [Even Spiderman takes a break! Kids, don't overdo yourselves!] –before that guy can say anything." Enrique shrugged, watching Peter consider it for a moment before grinning.
"That actually sounds dope. I saw many kids overworking their asses without any solid reason. Spiderman can help them! Sure, take a picture. How do I pose?"
Enrique told Peter his plan, and the lad agreed without any trouble. Enrique then changed his suit again, this time his cape turned into a backpack, from within which he took out an expensive camera. Peter was surprised, so he gave him the same explanation of Aaru.
In truth, Enrique could change his costume in thousands of different manners and therefore store thousands of different things in his thousand different pockets and backpacks. That was a neat trick, and Enrique planned to abuse the shit out of it.
A minute later, after Enrique found a good view, Peter jumped from the top of the 70-story building they were on, flinging a line of web from his right hand while his left played Subway Surfers. Enrique moved perfectly behind him, swiftly clicking a perfect picture.
This single picture, in the next week, would become all time popular.
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