The Keyboard - Part 2 [The Twilight Zone]

[Viking4s 10,791]

The Keyboard

[The Twilight Zone]

 

"There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call The Twilight Zone."

— Rod Serling

 

Read Part 1 here

 ​ ​ 

Part 2

 

The next day, Jānis went to the Institute and attended the lessons as usual, and left as soon as the last course was finished. Back to his rented bedroom, he jumped straight onto his computer to complete the usual daily missions. But against all expectations, he could not repeat the skills he had exhibited the day before. A feeling of frustration built over the growing hour of play. Something was off, but he could not tell exactly what. He paused and held his head between his hands, with his eyes fixing the bewitched keyboard’s back-lighting waves.

 

His eyes stopped over the functional keys, the flashing button from yesterday’s evening was not emitting any light. It was an ordinary button like any other; the only particularity was the icon on top of it: a stylised white fist, like you would see in an Instant Messages emoji. He pressed it on and off. The intermittent flashing would blink when the button was activated. “Hum, weird. What is the function of this feature?” he pondered. The teenager recalled that that same icon was displayed inside the pop-up of the Active Gaming Emulator screen message. Feeling hungry, he left the desk, grabbed some junk food and started nibbling some bacon flavoured crisps.

 

After snacking, Jānis returned to play TO. Astonishingly, all his shots were pin-point to their targets, his maneuverers were tight and clean, his skill was restored - the magic was sparkling anew. Despite enjoying a gorgeous moment, he was even more mystified than before, “Why the inconsistency in the level of play? How can I control it? If I can’t master it, it’s of no use to me.” Even with his revived prowess, the frustration was surging back.

 

After a moment of deep analysis, connecting all the clues together, a striking idea, as estranged as incredible, shook his train of thoughts. When he played at his best, the special button was activated! Was the Active Gaming Emulator solely responsible for his increased skills?” he speculated. Once logged on a random battle he put to the test his theory, playing with and without the enhancer feature. Quickly it became apparent that the keyboard had a significant impact on his gameplay output. Jānis could not deny it as the results were as clear as crystal.

 

Highly curious and very excited about what he discovered, he experimented further to understand how he could use this to his advantage. He found out that no visible program was associated with it, so it should not be detected by the EC (E-sport Checker). The device did not appear to be a hacking tool either, rather an interface granting a fast exchange of information between the game and his mind. He could not explain the exact process, but it looked like the keyboard could anticipate his thoughts and actions, like slowing normal time or accelerating his mental processing, providing a more acute response than a player could normally attain.

 

That was an absurd idea, but Jānis didn’t really mind as long as it worked, that was all he needed as a proof. One annoying point was that the enhancement worked only on TO, the intermittent light simply refused to activate on other games he attempted to play. More importantly, his ego was torn apart, he could not accept the fact that the keyboard was doing all the job and not him, the skilled e-sport player. To prove that he was still in command he decided to look inside it and see if he could learn more about it. The careful investigation of the inside revealed nothing special, which he had basically anticipated. Still in the quest for information, the boy called the Help Service of the electronic company. After a couple of seconds, a phone attendant greeted him, and a short discussion ensued.
 

“What is this Active Gaming Emulator system on my keyboard?” He asked bluntly.

 

The female assistant replied in a neutral tone: “Dear client, I will explain these details one time and one time only. The AGE, a patented mechanism, uses a time dilatation effect to borrow some of your future time and add it to your present time, giving you additional room to perfectly adjust your gameplay. You, and only you will benefit from this, any other player will not experience this boost at all.”

 

“Hum?” Janis articulated and scratched his head. “Taking time from your future? Come on, this is pure science fiction.”

 

“There are a couple of rules to follow,” the voice informed him. “Firstly, you cannot use it more than one hour per day. If you play longer than the intended limit, the time borrowed to your future will be charged exponentially. Secondly, important games, such as play-offs, semi-finals and finals, are charged ten times more. Finally, the effects are not reversible, once the boost is activated, your used time will not be refunded.”

 

“You are kidding right!? It’s a prank surely.” The young boy terminated the call, in a hot-headed move.

 

Jānis was annoyed: “Who do they think I am? A kid? This was a total marketing stunt!”

 

The boy was now convinced that he was an excellent player. The keyboard was just faster than the previous one, and the AGE system made his movements even swifter. In conclusion, his low performance moments were just bad luck, or a lack of concentration, nothing more.  

 

Though, I will leave it ON just in case…

 

TBC...

[Flexoo 6,980]

Approved.

 

Edits:

- a couple of grammar fixes related mainly to commas, plural nouns and tenses.

 

---

 

Interesting one. You let me hanging with the end of this chapter. I wonder if my prediction of how will this continue be correct or not.

[SkilL-KoRnEL 117]

LOL you copy my keyboard!

[Viking4s 10,791]

Interesting one. You let me hanging with the end of this chapter. I wonder if my prediction of how will this continue be correct or not.

We are halfway through the story, and I'll try to write an unexpected ending or at least make you doubt before the end.

 

LOL you copy my keyboard!

A word of advice: get ride of it quickly.

[kaisdf 3,320]

A great sci-fi piece, full of plenty of timey-wimey stuff. Love it! 

[TankiNoob2000 231]

I must say this is impressive

[Lose 881]

dang gg 

[P.4.R.K.O.U.R 329]

Reminds me of the mysterious Goosebumps novels... Amazing.

[Viking4s 10,791]

A great sci-fi piece, full of plenty of timey-wimey stuff. Love it! 

Thanks a lot. I am not sure about the meaning of "timey-wimey stuff", is that positif?

(And I will try to deliver the next part quicker :) - I have the story-line locked now)

 

 

I must say this is impressive

Thank you.

 

dang gg 

Thank you.

 

Reminds me of the mysterious Goosebumps novels... Amazing.

Thanks for the comparison. I never read those. They are Novellas (over 20k words), I'll be lucky if I reach 5K words with this story.

[LIMITFULL 1,793]

Cool stuff @Viking4s!!

Poor little kid will look like an old man soon enough.  I think I saw a movie about that - or was it the reverse?
I've been using my keyboard too much - can't remember much anymore - old age setting in...

[Viking4s 10,791]

Cool stuff @Viking4s!!

Poor little kid will look like an old man soon enough.  I think I saw a movie about that - or was it the reverse?

I've been using my keyboard too much - can't remember much anymore - old age setting in...

lol, you are getting older and .... wiser. There is this movie when you use too much magic you get older, maybe it is that one: The Covenant.

we are not getting any younger anyway