The Possession of phantomboy01

WORK IN PROGRESS

When I saw the videos on YouTube showcasing the intense gameplay of Phantom Forces, I was more than thrilled. For once, there was an FPS might mother would most likely let me play. With the Call of Duty franchise and CS: GO not meeting her “child-friendly standards”, the popular Roblox FPS was my only option.

So, I made an account. This brand-new account would be entirely dedicated to Phantom Forces, so I labeled my avatar as phantomboy01. Don’t bother looking it up, you won’t find it. Anyways, my mother was there to observe the game as I played for the first time. There was a bit of blood, but as long as my teammates weren’t swearing in the chat and no personal information was being leaked, she didn’t say a thing and left the room for me to concentrate on my ever-growing killstreak.

Despite I was playing for the first time, I actually had some skill. I’m not trying to brag or anything, it was the truth. I only died once during my very first round, with over ten kills on my name. I guess those months of watching endless videos on the game really paid off. I had the perfect loadouts written in my head and was able to move swiftly through every map without getting lost on what to do and where to go.

Before long, I was on Rank 50 and had an arsenal of some of the best weapons in the game. I felt so good, I even considered starting a YouTube channel to show off my respectable skills. Unfortunately, my mother said no, as it didn’t meet her “internet-safety standards.” It was probably for the best. I continued playing, striding in the direction of rank 100. Unfortunately, I never reached that. And I still struggle to rationalize the reason for my account’s downfall.

Okay, you may be confused by what I just said. So I’ll start from the beginning.

It all started on a Saturday evening. After wolfing down the rest of my dinner (much to my mother’s disapproval), I excitedly rushed into my bedroom and hopped into my luxurious gaming chair. I proceeded to log into Roblox and join my favorite game. I hooked up with my friends on Discord so we could communicate and strategize much better instead of having to frantically type in the chat box. Microphones in hand, we discussed the perfect plan. We had come up with over three different procedures for every map over the course of a few months. With that, we always got a pretty high win streak, and we moved faster than everybody else. All it took was some good memorization skills.

The map we started out on was the good ol’ neighborhood. KSGs were the best firearms for that particular setting, and we all knew that very well. We stormed every house, blasting every enemy player that came within our view. Aiming was effortless, as we had been doing it for so long. Before long, the match was done, and we had completely decimated the ghost team. Another job well done.

My friends and I complimented each other and proceeded on to the next round. We were teleported to the new dust map. Though it was rather plain, it was easy to maneuver, and really put my parkour skills to the test. So it was fun, nevertheless. I continued to play, getting headshots all the way. It wasn’t until the match was halfway through until I noticed something off. There was a player just standing there, out in the open as bullets whizzed past him. The username was doodooDuty123. I assumed he was AFK, and took that as an advantage, sniping him with my Intervention.

This is when things started getting out of hand. The player immediately went on to accusing me of cheating and tried to justify his opinion by attempting to bypass the filter, failing miserably. I cringed. I tried to assure him that I was no cheater, saying over and over that it was his fault for not being on his toes the whole time, but my friends just told me to let it go. I couldn’t. It was the first time someone had ever accused me of not playing by the rules when I clearly was. I thought this player was the dumbest user in Roblox, and I wanted to show him how I felt. And so I said something that completely flew over the filter’s head.

“Go perish in a hole, you miscreant.”

I honestly felt good after that, but then I became concerned when the player left in response. He wasn’t going to report me, was he? I mean—he started it. If anything, he would get banned too. I shook my head and continued to play. After a couple more rounds, I called it a night, bid my friends farewell, and shut off my computer.

The next morning, I hopped on Roblox just to enjoy myself a bit before breakfast. I had a church that day which meant less computer time, and more worshipping. Once I accessed my Roblox profile page though, I noticed something wasn’t right. Upon looking at my avatar I noticed it was different. Originally, it just resembled a classic avatar with pal-hair, because I never bothered changing it. This time, however, the head was green instead of white, and the smiley face was replaced with a horrific-looking mask. The mask contained shadowy skin pores and bloodshot eyes, and a jagged tooth-baring smile. It looked authentically plastic, and I couldn’t help but give kudos to whoever modeled it.

Still, I was in shock. I couldn’t recall anytime in which I messed around with my avatar. Could this be the Roblox corporations doing? In the past, I noticed all sorts of items appearing on my inventory page. At first, I was weirded out by it, but then I got used to the strange occurrence. I shook it off, thinking that maybe this was some sort of lame prank that the moderators decided to pull off. I went to my user page, accessed the avatar editor, and removed the mask.

I had fun, though it had only been half an hour before my parents called me in to eat. Oh well, at least I had gotten a few wins.

The church was rather boring for me, and only got me more excited to play Phantom Forces. Yes, I said I wasn’t able to play on Sundays, but I didn’t plan on filling my parents in on my plans for the noontime. So, when I finally got home, I made sure my parents were fully occupied before hopping back onto Roblox. But when I clicked to log in, I came face to face with a message I thought I would never see. My mouth hung agape, as the words of the message clicked to together like slowly progressing tiles.

“Account Deleted – Our content moderators have determined that your behavior at Roblox has been in violation of our Terms of Service – Reviewed 6/9/2019 3:21:38 AM…”

I was dumbstruck, to say the least. How did this happen? Why did this happen? I examined the message further to find the answer. It was far from what I expected.

“Moderator Note: Do not attempt to harm others with subliminal/unknown phrases.”

What the heck were they talking about? Subliminal phrases? What did I ever do wrong? A lump formed in my throat; tears welled up in my eyes. Now before you call me a baby, I already see the problem. It was just an online game, I know. But it took me an excruciatingly long time reach the place I was at in Phantom Forces. I was doing so well. But all that time and effort amounted up to nothing. I thought I would never be the best player. It was as if there was a solid brick wall in front of my destiny. I was so close to it, but it was unreachable.

I cried until something on the screen caught my eye. Below the message, was a box of some sort. I wiped the tears out of my eyes and stared at the screen hard until my soggy vision came into focus. Inside the box, was some text, claiming what I did to deserve the ban.

“Reason: Spam – Offensive Item: The devil uses us in our sleep…”

Now I was really confused... I didn’t remember spamming anything, nor do I remember spraying the phrase “the devil uses us in our sleep” throughout any Roblox groups. I tried to get in contact with the moderators to prove my innocence, but I never got to that. So, I came to the decision to make an alt account. Starting over wasn’t that bad however, it gave me an excuse to use some of the older guns for nostalgia. And with the great skills I had already obtained, I got back to level 40 in a flash. I still missed my original account, however. Fortunately, the ban only lasted one month, and it was soon appealed. I was happy, to say the least. I would finally be able to hop back on track and beat my friends to level 100. At least, that’s what I dreamed about. As I said before, that never happened. And the reason for it, I thought I would never have to face again.

I was happy, to say the least. I would finally be able to hop back on track and beat my friends to level 100. At least, that’s what I dreamed about. As I said before, that never happened. And the reason for it, I thought I would never have to face again.

It was a Monday evening, so I wouldn’t have much time to play seen as the following day brought me to school. So after “eating” my dinner, I rushed into my room and activated my computer, awaiting all the fun challenges the new Phantom Forces update would bring me. One of these challenges was to obtain the long-awaited HK-416 full auto. You could take somebody in four shots from any rage, no matter what point of them you hit. You’d just have to get used to the recoil. At least, that’s what I heard.

Anyways, once I tried to log into Roblox, I was met with a message claiming that I was already logged in. I should’ve just saved my username and password, but it was too late for that now. Curious, as well as deeply flustered, I logged into my other account and searched up my original to try and figure out what was going on.

My heart stopped when I discovered phantomboy01 was online. This couldn’t be right, I clearly logged out the night before when I was finally unbanned. There has to be some understanding, maybe a bug of some sort. I’m sure all hope isn’t lost, I assured myself. I held back to urge to slam my fists on my desk until they were red or punch a hole in my computer screen. No, make that three holes. Nevertheless, I didn’t get mad. I laughed actually. Phantom Forces was my favorite game, and I didn’t want to have to complete everything only to wait tirelessly for the next update. Maybe starting over once again wouldn’t be that bad.

I jokingly sent my old account a friend request. When the time came for my return, if there was going to be one, I would accept that request on my original account. But the time came sooner then I thought. A few minutes later, a notification appeared. I clicked on it, and my heart came to an abrupt halt once more.

phantomboy01 had somehow accepted my friend request.