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‘Gyaaaahhhhh!’ Duman grit his teeth, and Gantlos had to catch his wrist to stop him throwing his phone across the room.
‘What have we said about rage-quitting and throwing stuff?’ Gantlos asked, raising an eyebrow.
Duman sighed. ‘That it’s your thing and not to throw expensive stuff.’
‘Exactly. If the game is that hard, just leave it and play something else.’
‘I can’t!’ Duman shook his phone, glowering at the sad little green creature staring out at him. ‘I gotta reach the next box!’
‘I warned you you’d get too invested if you started playing Cut the Rope,’ Gantlos sighed. ‘Look, it can’t be that hard.’
‘Oh yeah?’ Duman held out his phone, gesturing for Gantlos to take it. ‘Prove it. If it can’t be that hard, you beat the level. Go on, I dare you.’
‘You dare me, a dark wizard capable of caving in a mountain…to beat a phone game about candy and a tiny green thing.’
‘Yes.’ Duman nodded. ‘I do.’
Gantlos rolled his eyes and took the phone. ‘Fine. Can’t be that hard.’
Ten minutes later and Duman had to stop his phone being hurled across the room by its prior saviour.
‘I told you so.’
‘This is the most annoying thing in the history of ever!’ Gantlos snapped, glowering at Om Nom on the screen. ‘Stop giving me a sad face, I refuse to feel guilt over ones and zeros.’ Om Nom did not stop, and Gantlos shoved the phone back at Duman. ‘Okay, you were right, it’s hard. Why would you devote so much time to something so annoying?’
‘Because I’m not gonna lose! And also, it’s fun when you win. I can do the other levels just fine, it’s just this one…there’s gotta be a way to beat it and move on…’
Ogron walked into the room, levitating a book in front of him and narrowly avoiding walking into things. An idea started to tap at Duman’s brain, and his lips curled into a thoughtful smirk.
‘What?’ Gantlos followed his gaze. ‘…Duman, no. Not Ogron.’
‘You really want to lose to a phone game?’
Gantlos glowered down at the phone, faltering. ‘…You know how he can get with games.’
‘Obsessive and victorious. Exactly what we need to beat the level.’
‘We?’
‘You devoted ten minutes of your time and rage to this, you’re involved now. C’mon…’ Duman held up the phone. ‘For Om Nom.’
Gantlos sighed, facepalming. ‘Fine…for the weird green thing that won’t stop giving me sad eyes. But just this once. And only this level. I’m not having a repeat of when you couldn’t beat Mario Kart.’
‘Shifter’s honour.’ Duman held up a hand in pledge, reminding himself not to cross his fingers. He turned to Ogron with a smirk, before quickly affixing a disappointed expression to is face. ‘God…this is so annoying…I swear, nobody could ever beat this level…not me…not Gantlos…not even the tech fairy from the Winx.’ That was a lie, she probably could, but he was aware you couldn’t go manipulate your enemies into beating games for you.
Ogron glanced up momentarily, curiosity piqued, but he returned to his book a moment later. Didn’t matter, he’d taken the bait.
‘You’d have to be the smartest person ever to figure this out…’ Duman sighed. Silence. He nudged Gantlos.
‘…Oh…uh…yeah. You’d have to be a genius or something.’ Not the finest manipulation ever, but Gantlos had other strengths. Like being able to punch a tree in half. That was so hot.
The book was rapidly failing to keep Ogron’s attention, their leader now surreptitiously watching them both from over its pages.
Duman brought them home. ‘I guess we’ll just never ever beat this level…we’re just not smart enough.’
Snap. The trap went off, and Ogron put his book down. ‘…What are you two doing?’
‘Oh, I have this game on my phone called Cut the Rope.’ Duman casually held it out for Ogron to inspect. ‘Logic puzzles and whatever. I did most of it real easy, but this one level is just getting me…’
‘Well it can’t be that hard if you completed most of the game…’ Duman ignored the emphasis on you. He was smart enough to pull this little plan off, after all.
Ogron looked up from the phone, eyes sparking with curiosity. ‘…How do you play?’
‘Oh, well…’ Duman took the phone. ‘Watch. You just cut the rope, like this…these blue circles make new ropes…and the bubbles make it float…’ As per usual, Duman crashed and burned in his attempts to beat the level, but Ogron’s interest was piqued.
‘Well, see, there, you overestimated how far it would swing,’ he remarked, gesturing to where the candy had regrettably fallen right out of the box. And you need that first rope later, don’t cut it…’
Duman exchanged a glance with Gantlos as though thinking something over, when in fact, everything was falling into place perfectly.
‘…You think you can do better?’
Ogron scoffed. ‘Obviously.’
‘Then have at it.’ Duman passed him the phone, and Ogron rolled his eyes.
‘Easy.’ Not so much… Ogron lost to spiders, to spikes, to the edges of the box, his frown lines deepening with every failed attempt. He was doing far better than Duman, and yet, the win seemed to elude him.
‘Bloody hell…’ Ogron shook his head, glaring at the screen. ‘This…is…’
‘Hard?’ Duman offered, and Ogron frowned.
‘No…it’s just a phone game…it’s not hard, just…complex. I’ll puzzle it out.’ That was the plan.
Eventually, Ogron had tried so many different attempts that he found himself repeating some. To prevent such a disaster, he began plotting his tries on a notepad, scribbling and scowling as he tried and failed time and time again.
‘Oh come on! It’s the bloody spider again! What does a spider even want with candy, it’s twice its size!’ Ogron ripped a whole page from his notebook, and Gantlos had to duck to avoid it.
‘…You sure this is still a good idea?’ Gantlos looked moderately concerned by now, but Duman knew this was all just Ogron’s process. Besides, it was out of their hands now even if they regretted it; nothing would stop Ogron once he got his hands on a challenge. The world would burn before Ogron let this go.
Not that that made it go any faster. Duman hadn’t anticipated it would take quite this long…he found himself lying back on the couch, bored out of his mind as Ogron muttered and swiped, growling at the phone intermittently. He tried busying himself by stealth-braiding Gantlos’s hair (it was exactly what it sounded like) but Gantlos detected him and swatted him away. The ensuing swatting match didn’t take up much time, so the afternoon passed in a rather dull manner. Though watching Ogron was kinda interesting.
‘I’VE DONE IT!’
Duman jackrabbited upright at the exclamation, ears pricked up on high alert.
‘I’ve done it! Duman, I’ve done it, I gave the tiny creature the candy, look!’ Ogron pointed to the phone screen, displaying the completed level. ‘See?’
‘Hell yeah! Ogron, that’s awesome!’ Finally, he could move on-
‘So you don’t need all the stars to move on?’
‘…What?’ Ogron glanced between Gantlos and the phone. ‘Are the stars important? I thought the objective was to simply give the creature the candy.’
Gantlos shrugged. ‘I dunno. I was pretty sure you were meant to collect all the stars. But I might be wrong.’
Duman could hear the gears in Ogron’s mind turning, bringing him to the realisation that he had an imperfect result glaring up at him.
‘…You don’t need all the stars to move on.’
‘Yes I do.’ Ogron plopped down cross-legged on the floor, hitting the restart button. ‘…One of the stars is vanishing, why is it vanishing?’
‘Oh, it’s timed, you only have a few seconds to get it-’
Ogron stared at him in quiet horror. ‘This contains a time element? That changes everything!’ He snapped his fingers, calling over his notepad and a whiteboard he just apparently kept around. ‘Gentlemen, I am not losing to a timed star and a spider.’
‘Great going…’ Duman muttered. ‘You had to mention the stars?’
‘This was your idea, genius,’ Gantlos hissed back. Duman had no comeback.
The room gradually took on the appearance of the command centre for a manned mission to the moon, covered in scrawling and physics calculations, crossed out attempt ideas adorning the whiteboard.
‘Ogron…you got a spell that can take you into games, why don’t you just use that and levitate the candy over?’ Gantlos asked, lying half asleep against Duman. Apparently they were not supposed to leave during this time.
Ogron looked affronted to his very core. ‘That’s cheating, Gantlos.’
‘You’re an evil wizard, why do you care?’
‘Because…because- just because! Shush, you’ll break my focus.’
Duman was starting to wonder if this might have perhaps been a terrible idea. It had been hours, this was a game, it had to be beatable! Unless it was just meant to make him want to buy the hints. But they had almost zero money, and even Duman wouldn’t make a decision as stupid as to spend that on a game. Plus, Anagan had most of it to go out and buy food.
‘I think I have it!’ Ogron beamed, holding up a tattered piece of paper like it held the Ten Commandments. ‘I need to cut this and then hit that and then the bubble and….yes! Yes, this will work! Nobody breathe!’
‘Ogron, I have to brea-’
‘I said nobody breathe, Duman!’ Ogron hit repeat, eyes narrowing with more focus than he usually displayed in battle. ‘Die, digital candy! Die!’ Okay, how come Ogron was allowed to breathe?! That was so unfair.
The door opened, and Duman’s ears pricked up. Footsteps. Anagan was back. Oh, he was gonna get in so much trouble for causing this…
‘Hey, guys, what’s…’ Anagan stared, dumbfounded, at the situation before him. ‘…The hell?’
‘Shhhhh!’ Duman held a finger to his lips. ‘We’re not allowed to breathe.’
‘…Why?’
‘Cut and pop and SPIDER! Ha! Not today!’
Anagan’s eyes narrowed. ‘…Who gave Ogron a phone game?’
Duman looked away awkwardly. ‘Shh, he’s almost done.’
‘I DID IT!’ Ogron jumped up in elation, doing a small dance of celebration. ‘I did it! Man ends the machine, take that, technology!’ He tossed the phone back to Duman, as nonchalant as if his attempts had taken only a few minutes and not half the day. ‘Told you I could do it.’
‘That was pretty sick,’ Duman admitted. ‘And now I can play the next level.’
‘…There’s another level?’ Ogron glanced back at the phone. ‘That I could beat?’
‘Ohhhh no.’ Anagan shook his head. ‘You remember the great Candy Crush fiasco? You and that phone were like Golem and the ring, no. As your friend, no.’
‘It wasn’t that bad.’
‘You stopped sleeping.’ Anagan raised an eyebrow at Duman. ‘Did you do this?’
‘…He beat the level.’
‘We will be having words later.’
Duman grimaced. Had he gone slightly overboard? Yeah, probably. But, at the end of the day, at least he could finally move onto the next level.
Dammit.
The next level was hard too.