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This car is so awesome! It was the Lamborghini Sesto Elemento. 

It had G-TR tires; there was a lightning bolt on each side. It said        

big bold letters. I was the richest kid in the game! I had to buy 

that car! Yes! It was loading! Just then an ad popped up. 

 It read: 

The picture was a skeleton wearing a dark, creepy robe with a 

hood. There was golden lightning all over him, which was giving 

a look that he had ultimate power. I guessed the game would be 

pretty cool just like the picture, so I clicked the "PLAY NOW" 

button. The window said that I have to download the game so I 

did as I must. It showed me the accept button five times with 

different

information on top but I don't care about small print that has 

nothing important on it. I just wanted that game! I almost didn't 

care about anything else but about downloading the game at this 

moment. Then I clicked "Install". I could almost see the word in 

fire. Then a loading bar came up saying "20 mins and 29 secs 

remaining". I guess I can spend my time with a snack. I went 

downst— oops, where are my manners?   I forgot to introduce 

myself.   My name is Marcus McDonald. I am 9 years old and I 

love video games. I have Black Ops, Black Ops II, MW3, GTA, 

GTA II, GTA III, GTA IV, GTA V, Car Town (the one I was 

playing just now), and a lot more and now I am going to get 

GOLDEN EMPIRE! I have black hair and brown eyes. I think I 

look OK. Now where was I?  

Oh yes, I was going down to the kitchen. I got some crackers and a 

banana. I played Black Ops II while eating. Oh yeah! 50-5 score! 

I totally put down this player named D4RK-R4IN7. Then I went 

upstairs to check on the download. 

Just in time! The load just finished! It said             . I held the 

mouse firmly and-- 

”Marcus, are you done your homework?" Perfect timing, Mom.  

Mom is a grade 11 biology teacher and cares about schoolwork 

more than almost anything (you probably noticed that since the 

first thing she said after coming in was not "hi Marcus" or "how 

are you, Marcus?") She also has dark, black hair with piercing blue 

eyes. People say that I have her hair but not the eyes. I just have 

dull hazel eyes, ‘the eyes of your Father,’ Mom once told me even 

though my father was one of the rarest topics she ever talked about 

with me.

She divorced my father when I was only two years old. I can hardly 

remember him! OK, now back into present time, I came down 

saying,  

"Did you teach biology today?" 

"Sorry Marcus," she replied. "You know how much I care about 

your studies; it's for your own good, not mine." 

 "I know, but can you please come up with a better greeting?" 

 Mom sighed.

 "I'll try Marcus. So anyway, did you finish your homework?" 

 I groaned. 

 "Yep, there were two pages on the planets of the Solar System. It 

was kinda' hard." 

 "Great!" was Mom's response. “I love it when teachers give a little

 challenge! Anyways, when will you learn to speak proper 

English?”

    “Sorry Mom, but what’s so bad about slang anyways?” Mom gave 

what we both call the “Speech of Silence”. “Now can I go upstairs 

and use the computer for a while?”

    “Sure, but only for one hour. I’ll give you 30 minutes extra if 

you log off exactly when I tell you to.”

    “Deal,” I confirmed as I ran up the stairs.

    While I was running excitedly to my room, I had so many 

questions. Would I be the best player? Will it be hard? What kind 

of avatar would I have? When I got to my destination, the same 

screen as before showed up. I held the mouse firmly and clicked 

the “FINISH” link. Then another window that said “Would you 

like to run file?” Immediately, I clicked the “Yes” button. The 

very next moment, a full screen window that said “Preparing 

Weapons"

and a loading bar going pretty fast popped up. Right when the bar 

hit 100%, the screen went pitch black. I thought it would come 

back again, but two minutes later it still hadn’t come on.   I thought 

it was wise not to tell Mom about the weird incident that 

happened. 

“Marcus, come! It’s been one hour!”      One hour! How is that even 

possible! OK, maybe it wasn’t two minutes but I’m extra patient 

so that’s what it felt like.

    “Coming Mom!” I shouted back. I think I know exactly who 

can help and not spoil my little “secret”. 

“Mom, can I go over to Zach’s?”

    “What’s the magic word?”

    “Please, whatever.”

    “Sure but come back in 30 minutes for dinner, OK?”

    “Kay. BRB”

Zach (nickname for Zachary) McLaughlin, my blonde close-crop 

haired best friend is a total computer geek and lives right next 

door which pretty convenient. I think Zach and I would make a 

pretty good team for finding out what’s going on and other stuff 

that happens later. He could use his computer smarts and I could 

use my—well, general knowledge. I ran out the front door as fast 

as I could and rang a round, copper colored doorbell. A few 

seconds later, the door opened revealing a blonde haired man with 

a light mustache in his late 20s’. He reminded me of my father. 

    “Hello, Marcus! How are you doing?” He asked.

    “I’m fine, Mr. McLaughlin. I was just wondering if I can 

come over and stay with Zach 'til about 6:30 p.m. tonight."

Zach’s father frowned. “I'm sorry, Marcus. Zachary just went to a

 party. I guess you’ll have to come over another day; he won’t be 

back for another two hours. Sorry again.”

    “OK, thank you for letting me know. Bye,” I said a little 

disappointedly.

    The way back home, I walked slowly. When I arrived, Mom 

asked, “Why are you back so early? It’s hardly been a minute!”

    “Zach wasn’t home. Can I go tomorrow? It’s a Saturday.”

    “As if I don’t know it’s Saturday.” She replied sarcastically. 

“Sure, you can go.”

    Later I had my dinner, mashed potatoes. I usually love Mom’s 

extra cheese, extra butter warm mash, but I couldn’t eat like 

normal. I was filled with one big worry: What if Zach didn’t have a 

way to help? If so, would I have to tell Mom? 

    “Are you OK, Marcus?” Mom asked.

    “Huh? Oh yeah, I was just thinking about what to do at Zach’s,” 

I half-lied.

    When I fell asleep later that night, I had a horrible nightmare. I 

saw Mom and another man quarreling. The man was wearing a lab 

coat. He looked familiar. I had had a feeling that I wouldn’t like it if 

any of them would get hurt. I couldn’t make out what they were 

saying exactly. But I could make out the words “role model” and 

“my son”. Were they referring to me? Was the man trying to do 

something to me? Then everything went out and saw Mom and the 

man each holding a white piece of paper with something written on 

them that I couldn’t read. Then I felt some tapping on my back. I 

woke up to find that Mom was doing the tapping.

    “Why would you wake up on a weekend?” I asked.

    “The earlier you wake up, the more time you can stay at Zach’s,” 

Mom responded.

    “He probably hasn’t even woken up yet,” I said as I stuffed my 

head in my pillow.

    “It’s already 10 o'clock, genius,” Mom said mockingly. take

    What! That nightmare was only like, 15 minutes!

    “Why do you look so shocked? Did you have a nightmare?”

    “Yeah, but I don’t remember much. I think you were in it.”I 

answered.

    “Oh well,” Mom said kind of worriedly. ”Eat your breakfast and 

take care of your personal hygiene, change and then you can visit 

Zach,” She instructed. I didn’t ask why she was so worried for 

some reason.    

    “All right Mom,” I said as I ran down. I ate my Chocolate 

Cheerios as fast as I could. That probably took me three minutes. 

Then I finished my cool glass of chocolate milk in 15 seconds and 

brushed my teeth, ran as fast as lightning into my room and dressed 

into my general clothes. And 20 seconds later I was bolting out the 

door.    

    “Bye Mom!”

    “Bye Marcus!” I heard as I closed the door.

Right when I heard the door click closed, I darted to the house next 

door. Right when I rang the doorbell, the door revealed Zach!

    “Hey Marcus!” He greeted

    “Hey dude,” I greeted back. “Listen, I got a problem with my 

computer. I think you can help me. We’ll need your laptop or 

computer.”

    “Well come on in,” Zach welcomed. 

As soon as I took off my shoes we both sprinted at full speed to 

Zach’s room. When we got there, we jumped onto his beanbag 

chairs. He was so lucky to have them! 

     “All right! So what’s wrong with your computer?” Zach asked

     “When my new game that I downloaded was loading, the screen 

went black,” I answered.

“Ouch.   That’s a blackout. I’m afraid you won't be able to turn your 

computer on again, Zach said sadly. 

“What! There has to be a way!”

    “Sorry, but there is no solution other than replacing the 

motherboard which would cost more than $200 that anyone has 

ever come up with yet. But we can find out how it happened.” I 

could tell he felt bad for me. “So tell me everything that happened 

before the computer wet out.”

    “Okay, first I was born into my mo—“

    “Starting when you turned on the computer,” Zach corrected.

    “Oh, OK, I was playing Car Town and an ad popped up,” I 

procedured.

    “What did it say?”

    “GOLDEN EMPIRE, PLAY NOW,”

    “Great,” he said as he searched up “golden empire”. “This might 

help us find some information,” Zach said hopefully. When he 

pressed enter, the first result said “Golden Empire ǀ Official Site.” 

When Zach clicked it, there were four different links. They read: 

“Home”, “DOWNLOAD NOW”, “About us” and “Game Setup”.

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