Gaming in Merseault Prison

My name is Frost. I'm a black mage. In this world where supernatural powers run rampant, I've always been careful to hide my identity. I should have stayed anonymous forever, but...

“Teammate, are you a bot or what?!?! How could you throw a game when we're so far ahead?!”

I got trolled in a game. For some reason, my teammate suddenly went nuts and started feeding, throwing a match we'd nearly won.

That was my twenty-eighth loss in a row today. Every time, I lost because my teammates went crazy. I was absolutely furious.

I was so angry I was practically fuming. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got, until I decided to teach my trolling teammate a lesson.

Furiously, I sent a message: “Just wait. I'll come find you.” Then I used black magic to locate my teammate. Maybe my skills weren't quite up to par, because the spell lagged by half a beat. By the time I stepped into the space tunnel, I finally learned where my teammate was.

The Mersault Prison.

Me: “...” Seriously, dude?

Why was a criminal playing video games? Fine, play all you want, but why be so terrible at it? I'd rather believe you were trolling than believe you were actually that bad!

I stepped through the space-time tunnel and locked eyes with a frail young man with black hair and pale skin.

I saw the message on his phone screen, and we stared at each other.

He smiled and held out a hand. “Hello, I'm Fyodor. I'm sorry I trolled you earlier. I did it on purpose. My apologies.”

It turned out someone had broken into the prison and accidentally left behind a phone, which Fyodor had picked up. The phone's original owner hadn't finished the game, so Fyodor had been responsible for all the bot-like moves afterward.

Me: “?” Maybe take a look at my wand before you keep talking.

Fyodor immediately changed his tune. “I just made a bet with my cellmate, and I lost, so I have to say the opposite of what I mean. I wasn't doing it on purpose. I mean, I didn't mean to troll you.”

I lowered my wand. “You'd better be telling the truth.”

But after thinking it over, I decided I couldn't just let him off that easily. I pulled out my wand again and stared hard at Fyodor. “So you're just plain bad?”

“...” Fyodor stared at the glowing green tip of my wand and fell silent for a moment. He thought about a lot of things. “Yes.”

“What are you?”

“...Just plain bad.”

For certain reasons, I decided to stay at Mersault Prison for a while, without the guards finding out.

One day, Fyodor introduced me to the cellmate he'd made that bet with. “This is Dazai.”

Dazai seemed a little better at the game than Fyodor, which delighted me. “Want to play as a trio?”

“...” Dazai and Fyodor fell silent at the same time.

“Sure.”

After that, I was rarely sabotaged by stupid random teammates. Teammates I'd raised myself had better teamwork. Well, actually, they didn't. But at least when I got trolled, I could still find the enemy.

P.S. Some silly everyday antics from the Mersault Prison crew. There will be some original details added to keep the story flowing. The protagonist is an irritable shut-in black mage who thinks about nothing but video games! I want to write something upbeat and make everyone lose their minds.

Theme: Spread truth, goodness, and beauty