The address on the back of the card belonged to a school on the other side of the district, two bus rides and a fifteen minute walk from Karl’s apartment.
By the time he got there, the sun had already dropped behind the buildings, and the school gates stood wide open with a line of people stretching along the fence.
An actual line. For a local exhibition match.
Karl slowed his steps and just stared for a moment.
A part of him didn’t think the man was telling the truth, since he didn’t hear of any tournament from any major source.
There were banners hanging above the entrance with the Horizona Lanes logo printed across them, students selling drinks out of coolers by the gate, and somewhere deeper inside, a speaker was blasting the game’s login theme loud enough to reach the street.
’All this for a small match between two schools?’
Then again, he understood it better than most. This was the first official dive event in the district. Tonight, ten people were going to do something the rest of the world had only watched in a trailer.
People would pay to see that. Judging by the line, people already had.
Karl pulled his black mask a little higher over his nose, tugged his hood forward, and let the crowd swallow him.
Nobody looked at him twice.
That was the plan.
...
The gymnasium had been turned into something between an arena and a concert hall.
A stage stood at the far end with two long tables facing each other, five chairs behind each. And on those tables, resting on padded stands like museum pieces, were the helmets.
Sleek and Black, just as it was in the trailer.
Karl felt his chest tighten at the sight of them, which annoyed him a little. He was twenty-one, not some kid pressing his face against a store window.
Still, he stared.
"You came. And here I thought you’d change your mind...again.."
The voice came from right beside him, and Karl nearly jumped out of his hoodie.
The man in the suit had appeared out of nowhere again, hands folded behind his back, gazing up at the stage like the two of them were old friends admiring a painting.
"You keep doing that," Karl said.
"Doing what?"
"Appearing from nowhere. Stoo, it’s getting annoying."
"Oh you need not worry about that. Come, the team is waiting in the back." The man was already walking. "Well. I say waiting. That might be generous."
Karl followed him through a side door and down a hallway that smelled like floor polish and old sneakers, until they reached what was probably a staff room on normal days.
Four players in matching grey and blue jackets were spread around it.
A tall guy sat backwards on a chair scrolling his phone. Another leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and his eyes shut.
A girl with a high ponytail was stretching her wrists in the corner, and the last one, another girl, sat cross-legged on an equipment crate with a bottle of water dangling from two fingers.
"Everyone," the coach announced, "the stand-in I mentioned. He’ll be taking jungle role tonight."
For a second, nobody moved.
Then the tall one lowered his phone just enough to look Karl over. Hoodie, mask, worn out shoes.
"Does the stand-in have a name?"
"Kazu is fine."
That got a short laugh out of the guy against the wall, though his eyes stayed shut.
"Kazu? The top global ranker? Haha, dont bull shit me."
Karl said nothing. There was nothing worth saying to that.
"Coach, be serious for once," the tall one went on, turning his attention away like Karl was furniture. "Ren breaks his arm and this is the replacement? We don’t know him. We don’t know if he can even play."
"He can play," the coach said pleasantly.
"Based on what?"
"Based on the fact that I said so. Or are my words so little now that you can doubt them."
The room went quiet in that specific way rooms did when everyone had already lost this argument before.
Karl kept his face still, but inside, something old and familiar settled over him. The feeling of standing in a group photo he wasn’t actually part of.
’Doesn’t matter. I’m not here to make friends with them anyway. Try the helmet, take the money, go home and mom works one less weekend. That’s the whole job.’
"You can relax, you know."
The girl on the crate had hopped down without him noticing. Up close she was around his age, with light hair pulled loosely to one side and the kind of easy expression that didn’t seem to know what a tense room was.
She held out the water bottle. Unopened.
"Elsa," she said. "Mage main as well. Ignore those three, they’re grieving. Ren was basically our mascot."
Karl looked at the bottle, then at her, then took it.
"Kazu."
"So I heard." Her eyes went to his mask, openly curious. "Are you famous or just ugly?"
"Ug-.... Neither?"
Elsa blinked, and then a grin spread across her face like he’d passed some test he didn’t know he was taking.
"He said neither, lol. Coach, I like this one."
"Don’t encourage her," the ponytail girl muttered from the corner.
Elsa ignored that completely and leaned in a little, dropping her voice like they were sharing a secret.
"Nervous? First dive and all."
"Not really. I guess." Karl managed to give an half assed response.
"Liar." She said it warmly, almost approvingly. "Which is not so bad if you think about it. I am also nervous.."
Before Karl could decide what to do with that, a staff member stuck their head through the door and called both teams to the stage.
...
The walk out was loud.
The crowd had filled every bleacher and half the floor, phones already raised, and the noise pressed against Karl’s ears in a way ranked queue at three in the morning never had.
The opposing squad crossed paths with them near the stage steps. Matching red jackets, cleaner shoes, and at the front of them, a guy with bleached hair who slowed down just enough to make it a moment.
His eyes found Karl’s mask immediately.
"So it’s true. They lost their jungler and dressed up a charity case." He smiled around at his own team. "Hey, masked man. You know we’re diving, right? The helmet reads your face. Everyone’s going to see it in there anyway."
A few of his teammates snickered.
Karl met his eyes and held them. "I am well aware of that."
The best response he could think of in that moment.
The smile flickered, just slightly.
Elsa’s laugh burst out behind him, completely undignified, and she had to cover her mouth as the red team moved on.
"Oh, I really like this one."
On stage, an announcer ran through the rules. Exhibition format, one match, five versus five, every player diving for the very first time. The crowd cheered at that line the hardest.
Then the helmets were handed out.
Karl held his in both hands.
It was heavier than he expected, cool against his palms, with a faint smell of new plastic.
When he turned it over, a soft hum was already coming from inside it, patient, like a held breath.
’Years on the ladder. Years watching everyone with money pass me by. And now the first dive in the district, and somehow I’m holding one.’
His hands were steady. He noticed that, and was quietly proud of it.
Down the table, the reactions rolled out one by one. The tall guy put his on like it might bite him. The one who never opened his eyes finally opened them, wide.
The ponytail girl whispered something to herself, and beside Karl, Elsa pulled hers halfway on, paused, and knocked her knuckles lightly against his arm.
"See you inside, masked man."
The announcer’s voice boomed. "Divers, ready! Connection in five!"
Karl slid the helmet on. The crowd noise vanished like a door closing.
"Four!"
Darkness. Soft padding against his cheeks. His own heartbeat, suddenly very loud.
"Three!"
’... This shouldn’t be that hard right?’
"Two!"
The hum rose to a whine.
"One! Dive!"
The world tilted, and for one breathless moment Karl was falling gently through warm black water, weightless, formless, and it was beautiful.
Then something went wrong.
A raw current tore through the center of his skull, white and violent, like the helmet had reached into his head and was violently trying to cause as much damage as possible.
His whole mind lit up at once, every nerve screaming down a wire.
He couldn’t scream, and neither could he move.
However, before he knew it...
He fell.