Hikikomori (No Game No Life X Reader)

Binary

4am.

Tuesday morning.

Somewhere in the heart of Tokyo, in an ordinary house, in a darkened room only illuminated by the light of computer screens, sat a trio of siblings, gamers. Throughout their lives they had always excelled at gaming. Though it was never worth much in their world. What would excelling at such a lifestyle prove? That they were less than nothing? A waste of space, doing nothing other than overcoming other people with the exact same useless hobby? Maybe so. But even so, this tale is about a group of gamers who dominate the gaming scene and yet, nobody knows of their name, as they leave their names blank upon any prompt in which a name is asked. Players among the community have given these top tier players the unofficial name of 'Blank'. But as notable as they were, they still lived lives as any other hikikomori would. Until the night came.

4am.

Tuesday 'morning'

"C'mon, Shiro, wake up! I can't handle a 1v4! You're much more well versed at this than I am!"
"Mmm...learn to play with your...your...feet...I wanna....sleep..." was the response.
You rolled your eyes as you watched your brother awkwardly shift about with his hands on one set of keyboard and mouse and feet on another, before you turned back to the fighting game you were in the middle of.

"Well, fine! If you want to let me die, then go right ahead!" Sora yelled. He shifted his glance from the four computer screens in front of him to the screen you had propped up on a lower desk. He lowered his gaze until he was staring right at you. You could feel him burrowing into your soul.

"Could ya maybe not try and have a staring contest with me while at risk of putting our reputation in jeopardy?" You snapped. " 'Blank' never loses." "Relax, lil (sis/bro)." Sora laughed. "Just wanted to watch you work your magic. A 50-hit combo and he didn't even so much as touch you?".

You sighed. "It's all just a buncha 1s and 0s coming your way. Each line of code has its own counteractive line of code. All you gotta do is get inside your opponent's head, predict their thought process and react based off what you're seeing. Then, all it takes is one little counterattack and..."

Your character finished off the opponent, completely unfazed, unharmed and unaffected by a single attack. The title flashed with golden word you weren't unfamiliar with seeing. 'YOU WIN'

"...and they roll over on themselves every single time." you finished. You dropped your controller on the desk, leaned back against Sora's chair and closed your eyes, ready to call it a night. You were finally dozing off when you felt a violent shake of Sora's chair. You shot up with drowsy eyes and a snarky attitude to boot.

"Ugh...what...the hell, Sora?" you snapped. He beckoned you to look at his screen. An email sent from an unknown user. "Who...is it?" came a small voice from the other side of the room. Shiro, your younger sister, rubbing her eyes as she approached you both.

You gently rubbed her messy white hair. Her mere presence was usually enough to help you keep calm. "An email inviting us to a game of online chess." Sora answered back, getting up out of his chair. "I'll let you take care of this one, sis." Shiro yawned. For any other person, chess would be a full on strategy game. Shiro wasn''t like that. She liked to think of it as more along the lines of of tic tac toe. Hell, she even defeated a high quality chess AI more than 100 times on its hardest difficulty, no sweat involved.
Mental gymnastics and disorientations were never your forte, unlike Sora and Shiro. The most you had was a honed sense of reflexes and instinctive predictions, meaning once you had an opponent nailed down, you could almost always tell what they were planning and a quick wit to outsmart them, guaranteeing victory.

Shiro yawned again and stepped in front of the computer, clicking the link to the game. But something didn't sit right with you. It's not at all a common thing for people to sense chess invites via email. What was so special about this person that they had to so formally flag us down just to play a game of chess?

"Got any predictions for what they're gonna do?" Sora teased, nudging you slightly. You shot back a murderous, sleep deprived death stare. "I just don't see why someone would be so formal in an invite to a simple game of chess." You looked at Shiro who, to your surprise, was actually struggling quite a bit. Sora looked at you and nodded in agreement, and you both sat down to aid the struggling sibling.

A long...long while later, you all sat in front of the screen. It had been done. You had beaten this mystery user and were ready to just sleep through the day. But before you could relax in the comfort of your bed you felt a clasp around your wrist.

"Wait...it's...not DONE?!" You yelled, slouching back into the chair. "Please, calm down." Shiro replied. You rested your head on the table. "But I wanna sleeeeeeeeeep!" you wailed. Sora sat you upright. "Look, it's just a reply from the guy we beat. No biggie." You all stared at the reply...

"Great work...

If you're really that good at games...

Isn't the world a tough place to live?
What do you think of your world?
Is it fun? Is it easy to live in?

If there were a world where everything was decided by straightforward games...

What would you think about that?"

You were lost trying to comprehend what was going on. 'A world where everything was decided by games?' What did that mean? You looked at Sora who simply stared at the screen. Before long, he reached out and typed his response.

"If a world like that truly exists, then we were all born into the wrong one."

Upon sending the response, the screen suddenly turned static. For a moment, you thought that Sora had lost his computer to some sort of virus...but it wasn't just his screen. Shiro's laptop and your computer screen were both static as well. This definitely wasn't normal.

You each stepped away from the screens. Shiro gripped on tightly to Sora's arm. "Brother, what's happening?" she asked. As if to answer her question, a flash of white reached across the room, blinding and engulfing all of you.

When you finally opened your eyes, the first thing you saw was ahuge earth like continent. OK...but why are we looking at this? And why is it so windy? And why is it getting closer....unless....

OH MY GOD

"WE'RE FALLING TO OUR DEATHS!!!!!" came a not so distant voice.

Yeah. What Sora said.

You desperately grabbed onto your brother's t-shirt and screamed as you plummeted to your doom.

Little did you know, that this little journey to the ground wasn't the end.

It was just the beginning.

God dammit.