The Renowned Phantom God

The world message popped up on all players' screen, but nobody paid attention to it.

It was just a Wild Boss, and someone just beat it, what does it have to do with them?

But of course, there are still people who read the notice and was pretty disappointed.

"I thought Phantom God was the best player of Steel Tempest, he can't even beat the Towering Giant or Water Deity under 30 minutes?" All the experienced, and not new to the game all thought.

Daniel was, of course, oblivious to these, and he doesn't care. As for the people who watched Phantom God fighting the boss, they were pretty exhilarated of what they just watched.

"Damn, this Phantom God's skill allows him to fight with the Towering Giant even without armor on!" The crowd thought.

"I guess the difference between us is heaven and earth, and it seems that I will not be able to reach heaven anytime soon, even in my entire life." The second-ranked player smiled bitterly in defeat.

Damn! This guy's a monster, a freak, actually, no words can describe him! Just who is this Phantom God?

As for Daniel, he didn't care and collected what must be collected. He then equipped all of his equipment, and made his way to Tempest City.

...

Daniel turned off his computer once again.

"Damn, that was actually pretty boring." Daniel sighed inwardly. He didn't expect it to be that easy, although it seemed hard on the outside, but for Daniel, it was not! In fact, he didn't even use his full capabilities!

If anybody can hear Daniel's thoughts and know his emotions of disappointment for beating the Towering Giant, and coining it as 'easy.' They would surely spew out a bucket of blood, and die from anger!

That was the Towering Giant for goodness sake! No one has ever beaten it before without equipment on, and you f*cking say it was EASY!? Why don't you ascend to the heavens then!?

Just then, he heard his phone ringing. He took it out, and it was a smartphone that is the most expensive in the current market! It was the latest Universe III smartphone of Sentient Corp.!

Anybody would be jealous once they see this high tech piece of technology.

"Hey, bro!" A crisp, and low voice sounded on the other line. "What's up?"

"Oh, hey, Kyle!" Daniel said in a surprised voice. "Why did you call?"

It was Kyle, one of his friends in school. Although he was termed as an 'introvert, ' he was actually not. He just doesn't like talking much, and is a man who values words like gold when facing other people. But once you get to know him, and become his friend, only then will you see the insane, and fascinating attitude of Daniel! He's not good at expressing himself, but when it comes to friendship, he still has many of them, even though he's termed as an 'introvert.'

Kyle is an 18-year-old WatchTuber that has over 5,000,000 subscribers. He's actually one of the youngest renowned WatchTubers in WatchTube history. His videos contained videos of games, such as League of Legends, Steel Tempest, Fortnite: Battle Royale, and many others. He also streams sometimes, and is also pretty popular.

However, Daniel was even more popular! He has a Youtube channel named "Phantom God, " the same as all of his IGNs. And, surprisingly, it has over hundreds of millions of subscribers! He earns so much money for a single video. He doesn't use a face camera, but Daniel's skills in gaming was renowned, and many people discovered the channel once they heard it in different forums. The popularity of his channel was only spread by word of mouth! Also, his skillful editing has caught the attention of many. He also does some tutorials sometimes, which garners over 20 million likes each, and always has over a billion views! In fact, even if it was not a tutorial, just full gameplays, highlights, walkthroughs, and many more, it still garners over 10 millions likes and will always have hundreds of millions of views! He is the renowned Phantom God feared amongst, not just the gaming industry, but also the entertainment industry! Youtube also knows that it is not bots who watches these videos, and was genuine people! He is currently the most popular WatchTuber in the whole world, but Daniel doesn't care about this. He just casually edits, and uploads every single video of his, without caring for the likes, dislikes, and views. Youtube also doesn't know who the WatchTuber Phantom God is, nor where he lives, or any information about him as he uses fake information, except for his bank account. As for why? Because Daniel never redeemed his Play Buttons, Daniel only received money! Tons of money!

And, you guessed it, Kyle doesn't know his real identity.

"I'll cut straight to the point!" Kyle said. "I found a new game you might enjoy!"

"Oh, really?" Daniel dismayed when he heard this. Gaming, for him, was now pretty tedious. Although he enjoys it, he just can't get the challenge he wants. Every single time he enters a new game, he would always be the one who would emerge on the top, and very fast at that.

"Hey, hey, hey, why do you sound so down? Do you not trust your own brother?"

"It's just that..." Before Daniel can finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Kyle.

"The game is called Universal Guardians!" Kyle said. "Actually, we are invited to Beta Test!"

"Huh?" Daniel's voice still contained dissatisfaction although his brother just said beta testing. He doesn't like finding bugs, it was too boring! He wants challenge, real challenge!

"Don't worry. This game, I already tried it for myself, you'll know what I mean. I'll text you the address. Be there at 10 AM, don't forget to come, because if you don't, I'll kill you!" Kyle laughed mischievously.

"Can you, though? I'll be the one to kill you first!" Daniel said jokingly.

"If you say so, goodbye!"

"You just don't know who I am..." Daniel sighed. If Kyle only knew that he is Phantom God, perhaps he will actually be scared to invite him, or some sort.

...

6 AM in the morning, Daniel went downstairs on his extremely well-furnished and very extravagant house, and brushed his teeth. He then took a shower before cooking a simple breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes for himself. All his actions only took one hour. He then went up to his room, and opened his computer.

"Still 3 hours left, what shall I do?" Daniel glanced at his computer screen, trying to think of something fun to do.

"Huh, I guess I'll just play random games." Daniel opened a program he designed himself, which picks a random game on the game list that he has. The games list also includes games on mobile, Playstation, and many different consoles.

This program was called the "Randomizer." Although it was simplistic, and has a simple coding, anyone would be surprised that this gaming freak can actually code. But if one actually thought about it, it's not strange for a gaming addict to know how to code, right?

But the real surprising thing is that Daniel's mastery of coding. He's a master of many programming languages! Python, Java, C++, HTML, JavaScript, C#, SQL, PHP, Rust, Swift, Go, C, Scala, Hibernate, Swing, and many more. He's actually also at a grandmaster level of coding! In fact, his grade on Information and Communications Technology, or ICT, is 100! A real perfect 100!

Although he's a gaming addict, don't underestimate his other capabilities! He can do many other things, for example, the food he ate just now seems 'mediocre' in his tastes. But if Kyle was there, and he ate Daniel's home cooked food, he will immediately transported to cloud nine!

Maybe you're saying that Daniel just bought this in the market. No, he did not! He bought the ingredients in the market, but not the food itself. Once a week, during every Saturday at 10 AM to 12 PM, he takes the time to create ingredients for his own food for the whole week. The bacon, pancake, and eggs he cooked? Those were all his own recipes!

He learned this from his mother, which now, sadly, passed away already. In fact, both of his parents passed away already, but that didn't stop him from getting to the point he is currently at. His parents died when he was still an 'innocent' 13 year old! After mourning, his relatives consoled him, and his uncles and aunties even wanted to take him in. But Daniel rejected it! They were startled of Daniel's decision, but they knew that Daniel was a smart child, so they silently decided that they will only take care of him in the dark, silently protecting him. But it surprised them that he didn't need those protection, and caring from them!

The year 2018, the year Daniel's parents died.

Left with a bank account containing only 100,000 Pesos (1), and the house that his parents' sweat and blood was poured into, Daniel racked his brains on how to make a living.

He studied hard, on how to take care of his own laundry, how to iron his clothes, how to fold things, how to fix things, and many different basic chores around the house that his father didn't have the chance to teach him. As an only child, he was pretty spoiled, and was treated like a king by his parents, now that he lost them, he realized that he can't live by himself.

His determination and willpower pushed him on living even if it was hard on him. Sometimes, he would even cry on his own bed, until he slept. Of course, he only cried while on his house, his sadness, when surrounded by his friends, cannot be shown for some reason. He can't show his weak side to them as his friends made him happy every time he's at a loss.

After a month of hard work of learning these things, and going to school, he persevered, and is now proficient of all the tasks. After a month, he was only left with a little over 89,000 Pesos! Which is considered pretty high by Daniel.

At first, he didn't know how he would earn money. At that time, he then thought of an idea, and heard of Youtube! He thought that it is a pretty good way to earn money, he bought an editing software to invest his money into, and also sought some good games to post in Youtube.

That's when he tried League of Legends, and many other games.

At first, he was saddened by the fact that his videos weren't viewed by many. But he persisted on continuing. Those days were the time when he was still having fun on playing games.

10 videos later, more and more people discovered the channel "Phantom God, " on Youtube, and subscribed. He now had 10,000 subscribers! This pumped him on more and more, until he got to where he was. And the surprising fact is that he never revealed his face once on camera! The audience was only enchanted on Daniel's skills on playing games, and that already opted them to subscribe! Many people always scream 'This is pure skill!' or 'GG!' or different expressions whenever they watch Phantom God play. They would even rewatch the videos several times because of the skill involved in it, and also the skillful editing! Many non League Of Legends players watched Daniel's highlights, and was allured to the game. Riot even gave a reward to Daniel because of that fact.

Daniel, however, didn't like much attention, and never appeared on camera whatsoever. This angered some of his fans, but, in the end, they were still allured by Phantom God's game plays, and their anger dissipated. Now, over a billion player play League of Legends because of Phantom God. Steel Tempest also gained its international popularity because of Daniel's channel, Phantom God! Many companies tried to find Daniel, but its like Daniel didn't want to be found.

How did he escape their informants? By learning programming! This was how he learned programming and coding, because of his hate for attention! His godly skills stemmed from very peculiar origins, except for his cooking.

Now, as an independent 18-year-old man, and a millionaire, he can still escape cameras pointing at him, and avoid Riot, Blizzard, and even Sentient Corp's extremely advanced technologies from finding him!

He also kept his mouth shut whenever gaming is the topic, why? Because of his extremely vast, extensive, and very accurate knowledge in gaming, he never talked! Heck, even when he wants to play with his friends with mobile games, he still reluctantly disagrees! Why? For the sake of his identity! He purely hates attention to the bone that much, and he can never trust any of his friends with his identity, because of fear of them spreading it, even Kyle, his best friend, doesn't know that he's Phantom God!

Okay, enough about Daniel's life story.

The Randomizer randomly picked a game for Daniel.

It was...

Tetris Effect!

"I haven't played this game although I bought it..." Daniel mumbled. In his entire life, he never played Tetris, much less Tetris Effect!

He started his research on the game, and found out that it was basically a visually enhanced, and a better Tetris game. They even introduced something called Dodecahexatris, which is a term exclusive to Tetris Effect by clearing 16 or more lines in a single turn!

"Huh." Daniel scoffed and started his PlayStation 4 on the large screen TV on his large, highly-technological room. "I think this would be fun."

Daniel started to play, and eventually got used to its controls. He was just fooling around at first, until he got into the immersive gameplay of Tetris Effect.

He then lost, at 250,000 points.

"This is... Actually pretty good!" Daniel was astonished at the immersive gameplay that this single game has. He then turned on his VR headset, and put it on to make the game even more immersive.

It was 7:30 at that time.

He entered the so-called "zone" and was filled with extreme concentration. The atmosphere in the room can be called tense because of Daniel's own concentration that only high-leveled players would be able to emit. This state can only be broken by Daniel alone.

He played.

After about 10 minutes, he got a Dodecahexatris. The first time can be considered beginner's luck as he only played a few games, but after another 10 minutes, he got another Dodecahexatris!

Any Tetris player would know how hard it is to get a Dodecahexatris, yet a beginner like Daniel actually got two in a row?

What would kill them though is that Daniel always got a Dodecahexatris! If the creators of Tetris Effect were to see Daniel's skillful plays, they would surely spew blood out! Brother, can you be less ferocious? We did not make the game that easy, okay!? How can you just get a Dodecahexatris, time and time again!?

Of course, nobody would be able to see this skillful plays of Daniel unless he uploaded it on his channel.

After 30 minutes, he already got three Dodecahexatrises! And his score was already over 100,000

He played, and only got defeated after scoring over 700,000 points! And he was just a beginner? No! Any good Tetris player will not see any trace of a 'beginner' on Daniel's plays anymore! They would see him as someone who played for years!

Unless they actually knew that he only played a couple games for two hours! And that was even his first time!

"Damn, if my hands didn't become sore, I would surely be able to continue..." Daniel sighed to himself.

If any Tetris player were to hear the reason why Daniel lost, they would surely slap him silly! Hey, brother, are you messing with us? Couldn't you have just paused the game?

Daniel also had this realization.

"F*ck! I forgot about pausing..." A veteran and hardcore gamer like Daniel actually forgot the pause function. If any gamer were to hear that reason, they would surely die laughing their a*ses off. But of course, Daniel had a good reason. The game was too immersive to the point that his eyes couldn't even get off the screen for a second, and he was just pulled through the game itself. Plus, wearing the VR headset, this immersive gameplay was enhanced even further.

"Sigh, next time. Anyways, it's already 9:00..." Daniel looked at the clock in his bedroom.

He turned off his television, and turned any electronic on his house. He was alone, in such a big house, not even a single maid, or a bodyguard can be seen. Of course, with the latest technology in hand, his house was pretty safe, but it isn't safe enough!

"I really need to hire bodyguards..." Daniel muttered before going to his garage and getting on a very fancy and flashy sports car.

He already has his own license to drive, and bought this car just this year. He was pretty excited to go and try this car for his own.

Daniel drove out of the garage, before getting out of the car, closing the garage, and closing the gates for his house. "I really need to get some roommates, or in this case, housemates."

He then walked into his car, and drove.

"Maybe I can get Kyle to be with me..." But he quickly rejected this thought. If they were seen living together, then wouldn't that make them a laughingstock, and be termed as 'gay?'

Although Daniel didn't have any anger towards gay people, he still wouldn't want to be termed as one. In fact, he supports the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer) community, but he didn't want to be termed as one of them! He even has a few gay and lesbian friends, there's even a single bisexual.

Wait...

Daniel entertained the thought once again. It's not strange for WatchTubers to have their own partners, and even a team living in a single house. What if he revealed himself to be Phantom God?

He thought of it hard while driving. As a world-class gamer, he can do this tasks easily, multitasking? Pretty easy, he even eats while playing, but driving while thinking of other things? That was purely suicide! Well, not for Daniel though.

Maybe it's time for the world to know the identity of Phantom God. Are they ready?

Daniel then returned to his senses and drove faster to a coffee shop to get some coffee. He also read some gaming news on his smartphone to kill time.

"Is the world really ready for my identity?" Daniel said to himself, wondering if he should really reveal himself as Phantom God. He was weighing the pros and cons.

"Meh, I'll just deal with it when the time comes." Daniel then played games on his phone while drinking coffee.

...

1. Philippine Peso, not Mexican Peso