The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series, Dan Sugralinov [the read aloud family TXT] 📗

took up their positions and cloaked themselves with a camouflage effect.

“Don’t worry,” my assistant said, forcing a cheerful tone. “You can do it, I believe in you!”

“Of course I can!” Even though she was just doing her job, my assistant was the only one keeping me from feeling totally alone. I hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. “Good night, and may they never wake…”

I cut off abruptly, realizing what I’d said. Kerry looked at me strangely, nodded:

“Yeah, let’s hope some of the contestants oversleep the Games tomorrow!”

I ignored her strange reply and went into my room.

Opening a bottle of Nuka-Cola, I fell back heavily onto the bed and started to read what people were saying about the Demonic Games online.

The internet was buzzing, with most of the action beneath Ian Mitchell’s material:

Clean up your act, Snowstorm!

 

How to Lose Trust the Kiran Jackson Way

 

Ian colorfully described my misadventures, analyzed what motivated the viewers to choose the worst players of the day in previous years of the Demonic Games, and summed it all up by pointing out that even an independent survey among Disgardium Daily viewers showed that I should have been the best player of the day, or at least far from the worst.

At the end, he addressed Kiran Jackson:

Admit it, Mr. Jackson: you messed up. You don’t want the Threat to stay in the Games. That’s obvious. I know from insider sources that Alex Sheppard was sent to the court of the gods a day before the Games started — to an Ordeal! Which, as you know, is usually a one-way ticket to character loss.

 

And what was he being judged for? For bringing the undead to the lands of the living! Good joke, Snowstorm. Why didn’t you judge Mr. Horvac Onegut for his no less reckless actions? After all, he’s the one who started an endless war between the Commonwealth and the Empire!

 

Actually, don’t answer that. I know all your lame excuses: you have no influence on the Celestial Arbitration, you don’t interfere with the gameplay, it was just a coincidence… Blah blah blah…

 

Yesterday, I asked Chloe (Community and Connections Director at Snowstorm) a question: “Why this universal hatred for Scyth?”

 

I told her exactly what I think about recent events at the Games — that all this is an attempt by Snowstorm to give the other contestants an advantage, and that I’d bet my year’s paycheck that these obstructions to Alex Sheppard are from the corporation.

 

Cliffhanger answered, and I quote: “As you know, he’s a cheater! Everything he achieved, he achieved dishonestly, and people suffer because of his actions!” The tone of her words only convinced me that I am right — that Snowstorm is manipulating the voting results.

 

Our provisional estimate and surveys showed us that at least one third of the audience sympathizes with the class-A Threat, and another quarter, although they may not support him, would still rather see him in the Games than out. Two thirds of those surveyed are sure that Scyth will be a centrally important figure in the tournament.

 

In the meantime, what does your so-called viewers’ vote show? That 92.75% voted for him as the worst player?

 

You must know how ridiculous that looks. Not even the dictators of the past massaged the numbers this hard!

 

I felt the same excitement I had felt before the battle for Tiamat’s temple. Only yesterday, I was only just starting to think that Snowstorm was interfering. Now it was obvious not only to me, but to the viewers too. Now that was a damn good feeling!

Maybe the people weren’t standing up for me, but for the right not to have their opinions overridden by the corporation, but I still felt the powerful wave not pulling me down, but lifting me up, onto its very crest.

Below, it was clear that chief editor Clark Katz had enabled moderator mode, and comments in support of me showed at the top.

2kan | +14.11m | 3 hours ago

 

After the first day, I told myself: Scyth is hopeless. Both as a person and a player. He hasn’t done anything special. I don’t know who he is in real life, but it’s obvious he’s an ordinary guy who was just a kid yesterday. Four hundred contestants behaved like morons when they attacked him right out of the gate, and to be honest, I expected the response to be something serious. But nothing happened except poor Messiah and Destiny-Silver-Spoon-Windsor taking a dive.

 

I couldn’t have been more wrong, guys! Today Scyth showed us what we’ve all been waiting for. Amazing plays! Keep it up, Threat!

 

Poppa Scooter (+12.74m | 2 hours ago

 

LOL when those dumbass mages revived back at the Companions! I must have watched the clip 10 times! Their faces would make a great surprise meme lmao! Can’t wait for tomorrow!

 

Bosun | +7.69m | 12 minutes ago

 

Snowstorm, if all your meddling gets Scyth knocked out of the games tomorrow, I swear I’ll unsub from all your services! Who’s with me?

 

Uplifted, I tossed and turned in my bed for a long time. I fell asleep late and not for long enough. In restless dreams I fell victim to the ever ravenous Companions and the Atling slimes, plummeted into the abyss with no way to enable Flight, burned in hellfire and for some reason found myself naked onstage next to Octius, who shouted:

“A round of applause for Scyth, who has managed to find no clothes at all in three years in the Cursed Chasm!”

My mind accepted these tortures with surprising calm. After the real terrors threatening my friends and family with death, and the events I survived in the Nether, my threshold of perception had changed. That which would have been a nightmare for me a year