Saturday nights.
If one was to ask you this, when in a week do people make the, let's call them, most interesting decisions, it would be right there and then.
Sunday nights?
Oh we hate those.
Monday nights?
Nope. Never. Too busy.
Tuesday nights?
What even is that?
Wednesday nights?
Smack dab in the middle of the working week? Nah...
Thursday nights?
Well... some people get off work on these days, but that tends to be the case for students, and just students.
Friday nights?
Well... most people get off work here and so do most students. However, everybody's still reeling from the monstrosity that was the previous week.
And that leaves us with Saturday nights.
That's right.
In those nights, you feel like no one can stop you.
And that doesn't just go for you. No, most everybody is free on those nights.
It's the time when the entirety of the people, at least in that designated time zone, find themselves doing what normal folk could describe as... "interesting."
Children playing video games till late, adults going to party, you name it.
After all, you're free (for a little while), and the immdeiate stress of Monday is a whole day away. And hey, the last week was brutal, wasn't it? But, no. Let's not think about that. Let's think about Saturday night.
The most worry free night of all.
Perhaps this "Saturday night effect" could explain as to why none of them said a word about the time.
It was already past midnight.
Even Julianne Hunter would have ordinarily sent her son to bed by this time.
But hey...
... it's a Saturday.
So why kill the vibe?
Besides...
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Max: Woooh! 23 kills.
Ken: Good job.
Max: Yeah, thanks.
That thanks meant a lot more than just a simple acknowledgement of a complement.
After all, in this particular case, Max and Ken were working together, with a non too familiar class.
Luke: You two work really well together.
Rose: Yeah!
To say that the pair's teamwork had captured the attention of all the teens would be an understatement.
Max and Ken simply smiled.
Julianne: Agreed. (thinking: Max working offense and Ken working support. An obvious strategy. But... the way they work together....)
Tiffany: Yeah...
Even Tiffany had to admit. She was shocked.
The name of the game was the Warring Dimensia 2 class, the Collaborates.
A class of warriors that hyper prioritise working together to succeed in battle.
Their philosophy was simple. Man was not meant to fight alone. No, man was meant to fight with a team.
And so, in these battles, their whole shtick was working side by side. Each player needing a teammate to correspond with.
As a result of this, their weapons tended to be somewhat complimentary to one anothers.
So, say for example, if one had a gun, the other would have a short range force field.
If one had a flash grenade, the other would have a jet pack.
The simple idea was for the pair to work together to succeed.
And... as a result of the incredible combos they could make, they were a truly formidable race to do battle with.
However, like with all things, they weren't perfect.
One could say it was an interesting thing that every class had at least one glaring flaw that made them difficult to use.
And perhaps, the same goes for most things in this world.
And in the case of this class, it was this.
While the combos were truly terrifying, the majority of them required that both players remained in close proximity to one another. Not that big of a deal, given the fact that they could then pull off combos and end things in a 2v1 or even 2v more than 1 pretty efficiently.
But if those two people can't communicate properly, problems would arise.
And there was yet another glaring issue.
Max: I got your six.
Ken: Hmph.
If any one of the players died, the death of the other player was absolutely certain.
After all, all their weapons were so dependant on team work, that if one ever died, they would be left with what was probably best explained as a worse than average character in the game.
You simply can't be any weaker than a lone collaborate. It's just not possible.
To top it all off, the collaborates, since they were trained to work together from birth, all had such specific and symbiotic weapon styles that if one member of a pair was playing offense, the other would have to play defense, with no exceptions.
Of course, there were offensive team pairs, but the benefits of defense plus offense were too good to pass up.
A force field and a gun basically ensured free damage as long as the collaborate could keep the shield up.
But if either died, the other would almost definetly be screwed.
Such is the way of the collaborates.
If your brother dies, so will you, child.
So.... defend him. With everything you have! For he and he alone, is everything.
That is the motto and way of life of the collaborates.
All thus was naturally well known to Max and Ken, as well as every other player of the game.
As a result, whenever one knew one was playing against the Collaborates, one would immediately adapt one's strategies, choosing to focus on just one of them.
After all, if even one foe dies, that's the end of it. Right?
While not being exactly true, it was almost always the case.
Such was the way of Warring Dimensia 2. If any class had a weakness, other players would be quick to take advantage of said weakness.
And so, in response, the users of any said class would begin to create counter measures focused on avoiding the exploitation of their weaknesses.
For the collaborates, that often meant doing anything and anything to prevent one's comrade from meeting his end.
How would that be done? Perhaps by working in groups of four to take care of each other as one massive cohesive unit.
Or, more commonly, by doubling down on the advantages of working as a team, or in an almost ironic sense, trying to make up for the weaknesses of the collaborates, simply made the pair of players play even more as collaborates should.
As a team.
However, that was not the solution Max and Ken came up with.
A heavy gunfire could be heard from the game screen.
Max: Woooooh!
Ken: Hmph.
Max: We got 'em!
And that they did.
It was the ol' triple ruse.
While it was impossible for those in the collaborates to switch weapons and then use them, it wasn't the same thing for the enemy's weapons.
To be sure, there was a massive 35% damage debuff when using another Dimension's weapon.
That was to emulate the difficulty of using weapons one was unused to.
But also, to ensure that players still had the option to rob the enemy of their own weapons.
Simply put, "You can use them, but you won't be that good at it. But still, you can use them."
This was the plan Max had come up with.
Rather than play full on offense plus defense.
Max: Got em again.
Ken: Hmph.
Why not just rob the enemy blind and discard the other weapons?
Surely, if any players, if any at all, would just straight up rob the enemy, it would be insane enough. But... to discard your own team player weapons? That was a massive risk.
And... because no one could see it coming, because no one contemplated it working.... After all, why drop everything the collaborates stood for?
Max's answer?
Because... why not? After all, the weapons suck when they're alone.
And how did this help them?
Well... for one thing, it made it possible for Ken and Max to collaborate from a much greater distance. And for another...
Max: 30! Woohoo!
He high-fived Ken, who quietly smiled and continued to play.
It allowed them to use strategies that no one would expect.
After all, if a shield man had a machine gun rather than a shield, what would you do?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
And to make things even more entertaining, Max decided to switch things up from time to time, having Ken play main offense while he played defense by acting as though he was being careless, straying further away from his partner.
Such was Warring Dimensia 2.
Truly a man eat man world.
