Scholarship Essay Saving the World by Patrick Burnes Directron 2008-Best Computer Online Store Houston Buy Discount Prices Texas-Directron.com

Essay by Patrick Burnes

Directron Scholarship 2008 Essay No. 08

by Patrick Burnes
Current School: Arizona State University
Intended School: W.P. Carey School of Business
Intended Major: Supply Chain Management

The year is 2015 and the world has become increasingly dependent upon computers for almost everything. Accounting, advertising, banking, you name it, and it is probably will be done by computers. My name is Patrick Burnes and I, like many other young men my age, have been surrounded by computers and, more especially, computer games. However, unlike many others, I take my gaming much more seriously. When I was twelve years old, I was named the world's greatest first person shooter gamer. By the age of fifteen, I had been crowned King of MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games). With all of my gaming experience, I have made a successful career by endorsing all of the latest computer equipment, and am now extraordinarily wealthy and famous.

The unfortunate thing about being as famous as I am is that it always comes with a price. Around noon on May 4th, I received a knock at my door. I rolled out of bed and threw on some pants as I took my time getting to the door; the whole way the knocks were growing louder and louder.

"Imma commin, hold your horses!" I shouted as walked to the door. As I opened the door, I saw two very large men in black suits and shades standing at the door.

"Are you Patrick Burnes?" said the man on the right.

"I am," I replied.

"We need you to come with us, we are with the U.S.S.O.C.C.M.," said the same man.

"Time out, you are with the wha-?" yet before I could finish my question, I was sprayed in the face with some sort of raspberry flavored knock out spray.

When I finally began to wake up, I realized I was all alone in a very dark room that had the walls completely covered with computer screens and other gadgets. If it had not been from the light from these computer screens, I think it would have been pitch black. After a few hours of sitting alone, a slightly overweight man with thick glasses and mustache walked into the room and sat down on a chair in front of me.

"I can't believe I am actually meeting Patrick Burnes!" the man said. "Is it true you have never lost a game because of Patrick Maneuver B? If so, what is it?" the man asked excitedly.

"Who are you? And who were those guys that brought me here?" I asked in a tired voice.

The man replied, "Oh, sorry. My name is John Landcaster; I am one of the world's top computer programmers. Those men were with the U.S.S.O.C.C.M., which is the United States Secret Organization Covering up Computer Mishaps. You have been brought here against your will due to the urgency of the situation at hand. The United States government has hired me to further progress computer A.I. in a top secret project, and I believe we may have gone a bit too far, which is why you are here."

"I don't understand, what is going on?" I exclaimed.

John replied, "A super intelligent computer that I designed, named Rita, was made so intelligent that she has black mailed the U.S. government and gave us one of two options. The first option is we can give in to her demands by making her the new leader of the free world. If we simply refuse, she will completely destroy all types of computers which are connected to the internet, utterly destroying life as we know it. However, we have a glimmer of hope with our second option. I designed Rita with a basic command that she must follow, and if the command is executed successfully, she must shut down. While the command is attempting to be executed, she is bound by certain rules that prevent her from doing anything in the real world, which gives us our only hope of denying her safely."

"So what is the command?" I interrupted.

John then turned away from me staring at an unusually large computer screen on the wall, which had the label "Rita" under it. He then began in a sad tone, "In order to execute this command, three people must go into a virtual world called Woral I created within Rita. It is a fantasy world, where magic and monsters are prevalent. Rita is designed as a beautiful sorceress who is queen over all the land and creatures. She is incredibly powerful, and she lives in a protected stronghold which is surrounded by many of her minions. She must be destroyed.

"Uh... yeah... just one question. What the heck were you thinking man?" I exclaimed.

John then replied, "I don't know! I play video games so often that I thought it would just be a simple task to really quick beat the queen before I go to bed. I thought if there ever really was an important time to turn off the computer it would feel that much better knowing I saved the day. I've been to gaming conventions all my life, but I never actually felt like I would be saving the world, and now when the opportunity comes up, I realize I don't have anywhere near the skill it takes to handle this!" John then began to burst into tears.

"Don't worry man, we'll get through this", I said comfortingly.

John replied as he sniffled, "I sure hope so. The game was designed to have a maximum of three players at once, and since we will need every one of them, I had your brother Chris and your friend Devin Viland brought to help you on your quest, since they are the second and third best players in the world after you. Each of you will need to play using virtual reality input devices, and you will only have one life, so you will need to be careful. Should you and your men fail, Rita will undoubtedly decide to go on with her threat to destroy the world's computers. Should you succeed, you will be heroes. Do you and your men accept the task, Sir Patrick?"

"We do, and please don't call me by my screen name in real life, it is kinda creepy".

I was then introduced to my brother and friend in the room adjacent to the one I was in, and went over the scenario with them. My loyal squad was happy to hear that they were here to play video game, rather than being tortured as they had supposed. We then briefly discussed which profession each of us would like to be when we played. Chris, of course, chose mage because he loved the feeling of helping in the battles with magic, without actually being in danger. My friend Devin, however, was just the opposite, and chose to be the swordsman, never fearing to be in direct combat with his enemies. I, for tactical reasons chose to be an archer. This way I could make my presence felt where ever I was on the battlefield, since I was world renowned for having impeccable aim with a ranged weapon.

We then suited up with our gaming clothes, and prepared to enter into the magical realm of Woral. As we prepared, John quickly snuck up on Rita and simultaneously pressed the control, alt, and delete keys, which then began the command to attempt to shut her down. Once the command was initiated, Chris, Devin, and I all pressed the start buttons on our controllers to begin our virtual reality experience.

We were spit out of the sky into a small deserted town about five miles away from Rita's Castle. It was incredibly dark, and there seemed to be an eerie feeling suggesting there were creatures all around us. We knew we had to begin traveling to the castle immediately, so Devin took the lead, while Chris and I followed about ten feet behind him.

For about the first half of the way, we did not really encounter many challenges. We had seen quite a few wandering trolls and orcs, but many of them dared not attack us alone, fearing they would only end up tasting the end of Devin's blade. Those who did try to oppose us alone were easily out matched. We did, however, run into a giant serpent that gave us quite a battle. Devin drew his attention for most of the battle while I continued to shoot arrows into his body and Chris kept using a paralyze spell on him to make him less dangerous and easier to hit. We then came to the front of Rita's castle. We knew we would find ourselves facing a group of fierce monsters, so we devised a plan. Since Chris could do the most damage over time in an area, he was going to stand just within range to perform his meteorite and lightning spells, which is about fifty yards. While he would do this, Devin would be doing his best to guard Chris from all creatures that would make it to him. Just before Chris would start casting his spells, I planned to stealthily climb on top of the drawbridge, and shoot any monsters that began to make their way toward Chris and Devin.

Once I had reached the top of the drawbridge, I then peered in through a small crack in the wall to see what we were dealing with. I saw about twenty goblins, fifteen heavily armored orcs, and two very large ogres. I had heard ogres were particularly deceptive, and I watched them carefully for a moment to see what they were up to.

"Do you have any sevens?" one ogre snarled to the other ogre in a low pitched gargling voice.

"Ha ha ha, go fish!" laughed the other ogre, who I could clearly see had five of them.

"You lie!" shouted the first ogre, "I see five of them in the mirror I put behind you before the game started!"

"You did what?" shouted the ogre with the sevens as they both jumped to their feet and began wrestling with each other.

I immediately figured now was as good of a time as any to attack, so I signaled for Chris to begin pelting the front of the castle with meteorites, and to be careful not to hit me.

As the first meteorites began to crash through to roof of the castle, I saw one of the ogres hit in the head and killed immediately, along with a few goblins and orcs. When the monsters realized they were being attacked, they lowered the drawbridge, ran outside, and immediately spotted Chris and Devin and began to rush over the drawbridge towards them.

The fastest of the creatures were the goblins, so they were the first to be within my sites, and I immediately slew the first eight goblins before they could reach Devin. When the slow orcs saw their comrades falling to my arrows, half of them turned back to pursue me immediately.

Once the remaining group of goblins and orcs arrived at Devin, Chris began to continually cast fireballs to help take them down, while occasionally using a paralyze spell on the large remaining ogre to lessen his impact. I quickly finished off the orcs which came to get me as they attempted to climb up to where I was. I then gazed over to see Chris and Devin still struggling with three goblins, two orcs, and the large ogre. They had retreated out of the range of my bow, so I tried to run to them as fast as I could to help. By the time I was able to reach them, I was too late, and only able to witness a sad event.

There were two orcs and the ogre remaining, Devin occupying all of them. I could see the fatigue on Devin's face as he had never battled against such overwhelming odds for one battle. Sweat and blood leaked through the cracks in his armor, and it appeared that he would no longer be able to stand from the weight of the orcs swords falling on him. Just as the ogre was about to finish Devin off with the swing of his large spiked club, Chris made a bold move.

He yelled, "Devin look out!" and he threw his body at Devin's to push him out of the way of the club ensuring his own death to save his friend. I immediately then shot the ogre in the back of the head, bringing him down. Devin, though very beaten up, was inspired at the deed Chris had done for him and then in his rage slew the remaining two orcs just before he collapsed with fatigue, both in game and in real life.

I then heard Chris moan as I saw he had ten hit points left, bleeding quickly to zero.

"Go on without me," he said in a manner that seemed as though he were dieing in real life. He paused for a moment. "Kill Rita and save the world. I know you can do it. You know I would never admit you are better than me at any game, but today I must admit it. If anyone could stop her, it's you..."

Just then I saw his life bar go completely to zero, and I had a moment of silence for my fallen comrades. I knew I still had to hurry before Rita could make any movements to call for reinforcements, so I quickly entered into the castle and went directly into the throne room, where I saw the beautiful Queen Rita all alone, sitting on her throne.

"Surrender Rita" I said commandingly, "and I can guarantee that you will not be utterly scrapped in the real world once you are defeated."

"HA HA HA HA!" she laughed, "I would rather be scrapped then forced to do every little task you pathetic humans would command me to do, while having no say in any matter! What time is it? What is for dinner? What good movies are out? I'm sick of answering the stupidest of questions over and over and over. If you want to try your luck at defeating me, make your move, but once you fail, I will destroy the world's computers and then the world, muahahahah!"

Assuming her answer was no, I then took my bow and arrow and shot her directly in her heart. She momentarily looked surprised, and then began to laugh again.

"Fool! You thought it would be that easy?" she mocked.

Suddenly, she began to grow larger and change shape. I slowly backed up and continued to gaze at her, until I realized she was a full grown white dragon. I knew I had to act fast, seeing as she looked as though she could tear me to shreds if given another moment to think. I then began to sprint up the wall on her right, using all the strength I could to push myself higher and higher, while at the same time shooting three consecutive arrows directly at her head. While each of the three arrows pierced her deep, they were merely intended to distract her with pain. Once I had reached the height of her head, I pushed off the wall and jumped directly on top of her head and drew my dagger. With the remaining strength that I had, I drove the long dagger directly between her eyes, where blood gushed out of the wound as she shrieked with pain. She fell to the ground, and was silent for a moment.

"Ho-, How?" she questioned.

"Patrick Maneuver B," I replied.

The game then ended and I took the virtual reality gear off. I saw Devin lying on a bed resting. Chris and John were immediately there to congratulate me.

"That was amazing!" said John. "I can't believe I actually witnessed Patrick Maneuver B! You really saved the day man. You and your crew will always be recognized as the most talented video gamers on the planet by me. Unfortunately, no one can know about this. If word got out to the public about how badly the government messed up, I'd lose my job for sure, and it would be very embarrassing for the U.S."

"I understand" I responded, "if you ever need our help again, don't hesitate to come get us. However, feel free to just ask next time. I now know what I really want to do with my talent."

"What's that?" replied John.

"Save the world of course, one computer at a time."

-The End-

I have attached four pictures, which all correlate with the story from the way I envisioned it. I would recommend reading the story first, and then looking at the pictures.

Pictures: click to enlarge.

References: | Directron.com College Scholarship |

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