Page 15 of Gamers' Omega

We took a minute to rearrange the tokens Pico had disrupted, then resumed the game.

It didn’t take long for the guys’ concerns about resources to manifest. The game was a solo dungeon dive, with the goal of being the first to beat the tenth level. However, simply surviving long enough to reach the lower levels seemed to be the true challenge. While there were plenty of encounter, treasure, and trap cards, the ones for food and healing items were in short supply.

“Good bird,” Pico mumbled from my shoulder. “Pretty boy. Step up. Gimme kiss. I love you.”

I smiled. His little sleepy mumbles meant that he was about to fall asleep on my shoulder again, which was adorable.

My turn came around and I studied the cards in my hand. There was no way I was going to make it to the end of the game unless I found more resource cards.

I drew a card, and was faced with a floor boss. I quickly considered my options: fight, or retreat and hope to draw some resource cards. I was low on health tokens, but would likely survive the battle. However I would enter the next level vith very low health and energy.

A glance at the cards for the current floor was enough to make the decision. I was the first to draw a boss card for that floor, but the pile was significantly smaller than that for the next floor. I had a better chance of finding the items I needed if I pushed forward and had a chance to grab resources first.

“Floor boss,” I declared. “I’m fighting.”

One of Beck’s eyebrows went up, but he gave no other indication that he was wondering what I was doing. The other three all asked if I was sure given how low I was on health.

Pico was grinding his beak again, and I took that as a sign I was on the right path.

I won the battle, and it proved to be the correct move. I’d picked up several resource cards—using some and holding others in inventory—before anybody else joined me on the floor.

Beck was the first to mirror my strategy, but by then I’d managed to refine it. I ended up winning the game, with Beck in close second.

“What did you think?” Freddie asked as he gathered the pieces to put away.

I grinned. “That was fun!”

“Of course you loved it,” Ian grumbled. “You won.”

“He won because he had a strategy,” Beck explained. “It was the most obvious one, but it confirmed my initial thoughts: the game favors the bold. We’re still playing fairly straightforward, but there are enough card options to make for some really competitive rounds.”

“It’s still early,” Tony said. “Wanna watch a movie before you head home?”

I hummed. “Sure.”

“Sweet!” Ian chirped. “We’ve got the latestSpacediversmovie. Does that work?”

“Ooh! I haven’t seen that one yet. I was moving when it came out and didn’t find the time until after it left theaters.”

Ian laughed. “It’s long but good.”

I grinned. “Tomorrow’s my day off, so I don’t have to worry about getting to bed early.”

“I’ll start the popcorn,” Tony declared.

∞∞∞

I blinked my eyes open and briefly wondered where I was. Luckily, it took less than a minute for me to realize that I’d fallen asleep during the movie.

The guys’ house was quiet and mostly dark—with only some dim illumination coming from the light over the table.

I sat up from where I’d slumped on the couch and saw Freddie working on a laptop.

“You’re awake,” he said softly.

I rubbed my head, stood, and shuffled over to sit across from him at the table. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

He smiled. “It’s fine.”