Chapter 68: Noah and His Struggle with His Potato Phone.
In the following days, Noah started spending part of his lunch period in the secluded area where he had found Iris playing.
It didn’t happen every day.
Sometimes Iris arrived first and left as soon as she heard too many voices nearby. Other times she chose a different spot without warning, but when their paths crossed, she no longer tried to escape right away.
Their conversations were still limited, and Iris mainly talked about the game.
Noah had learned that it was called Crystal Kingdom and that it was one of the most popular competitive titles on mobile devices. It featured five-versus-five matches, over a hundred characters, ranked seasons, and professional tournaments.
Iris knew every detail, so much so that she could explain a character’s mechanics, mention changes made several years ago, and recall exactly how long an ability took to cooldown at each level.
Noah enjoyed listening to her, and he had also noticed that Iris was much more expressive when she talked about video games.
She was still serious, but she answered without long silences and didn’t seem to be looking for an excuse to leave.
That day, Noah sat on the same wooden bench while Iris reviewed the replay of her latest match.
"Your team lost again."
He said. Iris lifted her phone and pointed at the screen.
"The top laner died seven times in ten minutes!"
Noah looked at the stats.
"That’s quite a lot."
"He also ignored every signal."
"Maybe he didn’t see them."
"There were twenty-three."
"I take it back."
Iris opened the replay of a play and began explaining every mistake.
Noah paid attention for a moment, but then glanced at his own phone.
It was a basic model. Good enough for texting, checking the Clover app, and watching videos, but it didn’t have much storage or a decent processor.
Even so, Crystal Kingdom was available to download.
Noah had been thinking about installing it ever since he started talking with Iris, but the problem was that the file took up almost all the free space.
He had to delete several apps, duplicate photos, and saved videos.
The download had taken all night, but now, finally, he had the game installed.
Noah looked at Iris.
"I want to play a match."
She stopped talking.
"You?"
"Yeah."
"Did you already install the game?"
Noah raised his phone, and Iris looked at the device. Her expression changed slightly.
"On that?"
"It’s a phone."
"It’s a very old phone."
"It’s not that old."
"How much memory does it have?"
Noah checked the info.
"Four gigabytes."
Iris stayed silent.
"Is that bad?"
Noah asked.
"The game recommends eight."
"But it let me install it."
"You can also jump into a pool without knowing how to swim."
Noah looked at her.
"That sounded harsh."
"But it’s a direct comparison to what you want to do."
"I get it."
Iris extended her hand.
"Let me see it."
Noah handed her the phone and she started checking the settings.
"You’re using medium graphics quality."
"It was the automatic setting."
"The automatic setting is wrong."
She lowered the quality to the minimum, disabled shadows, reduced effects, and capped the frames per second, making the game look much simpler.
"Now it looks like it’s from twenty years ago."
Noah said.
"Now it might actually run."
"That ’might’ doesn’t inspire confidence."
Iris handed the phone back to him.
"Have you finished the tutorial?"
"Yeah."
"How many matches have you played?"
"None."
Iris went still again.
"Then you can’t play ranked."
"I wasn’t planning to."
"Good."
Noah opened a normal match.
"Play with me."
Iris looked straight at him.
"You want me to queue with you?"
"Yeah."
"Your account is level two."
"That’s why I need help."
Iris looked down at her own phone.
’He wants to play with me?’
She tried to keep a normal expression.
’It’s just one match.’
Noah kept waiting, so Iris opened her friends list.
"What’s your username?"
Noah showed her the screen.
[NOVICE_NOAH.]
Iris read it.
"That’s a bad name."
"The one I wanted was already taken."
"What did you want?"
"NOAH."
"Of course it was taken."
"Then I tried NOAH1."
"Was that taken too?"
"Then I tried NOAH2."
Iris closed her eyes.
"I see how you ended up with that name."
She added the account and Noah received a notification.
[CRYSTALZERO wants to be your friend.]
He accepted.
"Now all your followers will be able to see you added a level-two player."
Noah said. Iris looked at him.
"They don’t usually check my friends list."
"Some probably do."
"If anyone asks, I’ll say it was a mistake."
"How kind."
Iris created a party and invited him.
"Use a simple character."
Noah looked through the list.
"Which one?"
"A tanky one."
"I want to use this one."
He pointed at a fast-moving swordsman, but Iris shook her head.
"No."
"Why?"
"It requires precision."
"I can do it."
"You don’t know the controls well."
"I’ll learn."
Iris sighed.
"Then don’t complain when you die."
The match started searching for opponents and Noah held the phone with both hands.
The screen took a while to load.
The character portraits appeared one by one, and then the image froze.
Noah waited.
"Has it started yet?"
He asked.
"Yeah."
"My screen is still showing the selection."
Iris looked at her phone.
"Your character is standing still in the base."
"Wait."
Noah tapped the screen several times and the image suddenly changed.
His character appeared outside the base and walked straight into a wall.
"Why is it moving by itself?"
"It’s not moving by itself."
Iris replied.
"You touched the control while the screen was frozen."
The character kept bumping into the wall.
"How do I stop it?"
"Take your finger off."
"I’m not touching it."
"Then wait."
The connection stabilized and Noah managed to change direction.
"Done."
"You already lost thirty seconds."
"It just started."
"A lot can happen in thirty seconds."
Noah followed Iris toward a side lane.
She was using a support character capable of creating crystal barriers.
"Stay behind me."
She ordered, but Noah answered.
"My character uses a sword."
"And you don’t know how to play it."
Noah obeyed without saying anything else.
They reached the first wave of minions and Noah tried to attack, but he pressed the wrong ability.
His character charged forward at high speed and ended up under an enemy turret.
"Go back!"
Iris said.
"That’s what I’m trying to do!"
The screen froze again while the turret attacked several times, and by the time the screen responded, Noah’s character was already dead.
A message appeared.
[FIRST BLOOD.]
Iris closed her eyes.
"I told you to use a tanky character."
"The button was stuck to the side."
"There’s plenty of space between the buttons."
"On my screen they’re really small."
"You can change their size."
"Ah... I didn’t know that."
"It was in the tutorial."
"Maybe I skipped it."
Iris slowly turned toward him.
"You skipped the tutorial?"
"Just part of it."
"Which part?"
"Maybe the controls explanation."
"That was the important part."
Noah smiled guiltily and Iris returned to the game.
"Open the options when you respawn."
Noah followed her instructions.
He increased the button size and moved some abilities to more comfortable positions.
"Better."
"Don’t go under the turret again."
"I won’t."
The character respawned and Noah returned to the lane.
For almost a minute he managed to stay behind Iris until he tried to attack an enemy with low health.
He pressed the right ability and his character advanced, but the enemy sidestepped.
Noah kept going and ended up between two opponents, so Iris raised a barrier to protect him.
"Retreat."
"I’m trying."
"You’re advancing."
"The control isn’t responding."
"Move it backward."
"I am."
The phone vibrated and the screen showed a warning.
[HIGH TEMPERATURE: Performance may be reduced.]
Noah felt the heat in his hands and understood that the problems were only just beginning.