00:00In California in 2017, Val loves to play a first-person shooter called Field of Fire.
00:05She's very good at it and her nickname Speedrun is famous in gaming circles.
00:09Her dream is to win a tournament and become a professional.
00:11One morning her father Carlos reminds her that he called in a favor to get her a job interview with
00:15his brother, pointing out how important this is because she hasn't had a job for months.
00:19He asks her to pick up her grandmother from the doctors when she's done,
00:22and Val reluctantly agrees. Val leaves the house in nice clothes for her interview,
00:26but this is a trick. Her boyfriend Evan is waiting for her outside and Val changes into casual clothes
00:31as soon as gets in his car. Evan thinks Val shouldn't be skipping an interview to go to a video
00:35game
00:35tournament, but Val says she'll just call in sick. The prize is $10,000, so if she wins she can
00:41finally
00:41go pro. Unfortunately Evan has bad news, the best player in the community will also be participating.
00:46When they make it to the arena, everyone is already going crazy over Roy also known as Kilohertz.
00:51He's been People's Choice Gamer of the Year and appeared on magazine covers.
00:54Even the commentators are sure he'll win. Val is desperate to defeat him,
00:58but Evan reminds her she's not here to win, she's here to qualify. The game begins and Evan is the
01:03only one cheering for Val. She's the first player to get a kill and get points on the board, but
01:08Roy
01:08suddenly appears from across the map and starts stealing her kills. Sometimes he stops playing
01:12just to high-five his fans and even covers his eyes while playing just to show off. Val doesn't give
01:17up and continues to give her best until she and Roy are tied. With only a few seconds left on
01:21the clock,
01:22Val has an opponent in front of her and has the chance to kill them to win,
01:25however she sees Roy nearby and starts chasing him to get a glory kill. To her shock,
01:30Roy's character disappears from the screen and reappears behind hers to kill her, winning the
01:33tournament. On her way out Val keeps ranting about Roy, not understanding how he could pull off
01:38movements that are faster than human reaction. Evan tries to bring the mood up by pointing out she's
01:42made it to finals, but Val thinks it's useless if she can't beat Roy. Speaking of Roy,
01:47he approaches Val and mocks her for a few minutes before leaving to take selfies with his fans.
01:51While Evan goes to get the car, Val is approached by Kojima, who congratulates her on her playing
01:56today but points out she'll lose tomorrow. He claims to be a fairy grandmother and gives her his
02:00card, saying that if she wants to win she'll need his help. Kojima also confirms that Val was right
02:05about Roy, nobody can humanly be that good. When Val gets home, Carlos asks about the interview and
02:10she pretends it was fine, but he talked to his brother and knows she didn't even show up. She didn't
02:14pick up
02:15her grandmother either, and Carlos almost lost his job because he had to do it himself. He announces
02:19Val will have the interview tomorrow so she tries to tell him about the finals, which are her dream
02:23and also could bring good money. However Carlos says this isn't about money, it's about Val lying
02:28to him and only thinking about herself. This makes Val snap, saying that she doesn't want a crappy life
02:33or job like his and that she understands why her mother left. Afterward Val opens a job application on
02:38her computer but ends up switching it to a gaming stream. Worried about Roy, she takes Kojima's card
02:43and decides to visit the address. She finds a place called the Gold Saucer, which turns out to be a
02:47gaming cafe. Kojima doesn't even say hi, he just makes her sit and play. Val picks a bullet hell game
02:53at its highest difficulty, so she loses in seconds. Then Kojima tells her to take a sip of Impulse 9,
02:59which Val thinks it's an energy drink. When he opens the bottle, the fizzing sound makes everyone
03:03in the room turn to look at him. Kojima promises it's a normal drunk and pours it into the cap
03:07for her.
03:08When Val drinks it, she feels her brain completely changing, her senses are heightened and her
03:12reaction time reaches an incredible speed. Now she can beat the hard game without losing
03:16a single life. Moments later Val snaps out of the effects and finds herself at a table with Kojima,
03:21who explains that Impulse 9 stretches time. The harder it stretched the harder it snaps back,
03:26and Val was out for an hour. He can sell her a bottle of Impulse 9 for $500 but that's
03:31all the money
03:31Val has left, not to mention it would be cheating. Kojima points out that Roy doesn't think it's wrong and
03:36takes his call to sell him more Impulse. After seeing all the high scores she achieved with just
03:40a sip, she decides to buy it. The next day, Val takes a sip of Impulse 9 before the tournament
03:46starts. Time slows down for her as the game begins and she can kill opponents without breaking a sweat.
03:51Unfortunately Roy keeps drinking Impulse 9 and soon catches up to her, quickly passing her by a few
03:56points. Soon the effects of Impulse 9 end for Val, who is so desperate to win that she ends up
04:00drinking
04:01the whole bottle. With her fastest reflexes yet, Val kills Roy's character and wins the tournament.
04:06The effects of so much Impulse 9 last much longer and Val wakes up to find herself in the year
04:102029
04:11AI, which means after Impulse. She's living in an old dirty house with three children who call her
04:16mommy, and the shock makes her throw up. When her husband Evan tries checking on her,
04:20she runs outside and discovers this is a post-apocalyptic future with people living on the
04:24streets and using chemical toilets. Evan runs after her to give her a gas mask before reminding the
04:28kids that it's time to study. While the couple takes the kids to school,
04:32Evan reminds Val of their chores, they take turns scavenging the wastelands and being on gate duty.
04:37One of the children picks up dried dog poop thinking it's a neat rock and asks Val to save
04:40it so she can have it back after class. School turns out to be a teacher with a few tables
04:45in
04:45the middle of the street. The teacher teaches the kids that if they see a death lizard they must run
04:49and hide. Val wants to talk to Evan about this strange situation but she's interrupted by a
04:53neighbor calling her sheriff. The woman explains another neighbor snapped back from Impulse
04:57last night and doesn't remember the last eight years of his life. Deputy Dan drags that man out
05:01of his tent and calls him a Pulser, causing Evan to insult the guy. It turns out Pulsers are people
05:06who drank too much impulse and became useless, which caused the apocalypse. The president was also a
05:11Pulser and snapped back with his finger on the nuke button. Evan wants to beat the guy up but Dan
05:15stops him and asks Val for orders since the guy has no useful skills. Still confused, Val tells Dan to
05:21kick the man out. Afterward Evan wants to know what Val wanted to talk about, but Val doesn't want to
05:25be
05:25kicked out so she pretends she just has a stomach ache. Evan reveals that they ate Beatles last
05:29night while Dan pushes the Pulser out of town and closes the gate. At that moment the weather alarm
05:34goes off and everyone puts on their gas masks. Later at home Val is freaking out because she doesn't
05:38know what to do with a baby. She thinks of calling her father for help, but he's already dead and
05:43his
05:43ashes are in an urn nearby. Val reminds herself she's a strong champion to put herself together before
05:48she's called by Dan, who reminds her it's time for latrine duty. Apparently in this future Val is a sheriff,
05:53a sanitation commissioner, a scavenger, and a mom all at the same time. Val spends the rest of the
05:59day cleaning toilets, which leaves her very tired. But when she goes home she can't rest because she
06:03must take care of the kids while Evan is on gate duty. Days pass with the same routine and Val
06:08is
06:08tired of it. Sometimes she gets gate duty too, which means staring at nothing for hours. There's also
06:13doing the laundry, pedaling a bicycle to recharge the generator, and eating terrible food. The kids try
06:18connecting with her and even gift her a drawing of her, but she's cold and aloof. One night Val comes
06:23home
06:23to discover Field of Fire on TV. It turns out that Evan pedals a bicycle to power up the game
06:28console
06:28for a game night once a month. Instead of sleeping before her next shift, Val shows her kids what an
06:33amazing player she is and even teaches them how to play, which allows her to finally bond with them.
06:38A few hours later, Val is still playing with the kids because she forgot to take over her gate shift.
06:43Evan shows up to inform her nobody was there to open the gate for Dan and he's been killed by
06:46a
06:46death lizard. Dan's wife yells at Val before Evan reminds her it's still her shift, so now Val has to
06:52stand at the gate and deal with her guilt. In the morning Val tells Evan she can't do this anymore.
06:56If they work all day and taking a break punishes them, then she doesn't see the point of living.
07:00Evan offers comforting words, saying that she's been the most amazing wife and mother,
07:04not to mention responsible, so she shouldn't let one mistake put her down.
07:08This isn't enough for Val, so she waits for Evan to leave before packing a few things and writing a
07:13goodbye letter. Evan wakes up to find his wife gone and reads the letter to discover she was a
07:17pulsar. She apologizes and agrees that pulsars have no place in civilized society, that's why she's
07:22left. Meanwhile Val walks through the wastelands and finds the bodies of other pulsars. After
07:27wandering for hours under the scorching sun she's shocked to find the gold saucer, which isn't as
07:31shiny and new as it used to be. However Kojima is still inside looking exactly the same as 12 years
07:36ago and keeps the store running, thanks to solar panels. Val yells at him for ruining her life,
07:41so Kojima tells her he can't do refunds but he can do store credit. He pulls out a huge bottle
07:45of Impulse 9,
07:46saying she can drink the whole bottle and stay in the store playing videos until she dies,
07:50which is a better life than she is now. Val takes the offer and sits down to play,
07:54but at that moment she remembers her daughter's drawing and notices it says my hero in the corner.
07:59As she thinks about all the things her family has told her, Val decides to go back to town. Later
08:03at
08:04the gate Evan won't open the door for Val and tells her to go away, thinking she only came back
08:08because the wastelands are even worse than town life. Val slides the drawing under the gate and
08:12explains that she wants to be the person her kids think she is. She promises to do all the
08:16chores, take double shifts, and do whatever it takes to make it work. However it's hard for Evan
08:21because she doesn't remember the last 12 years of their life together. The moment is interrupted
08:25when they hear gunfire in the distance. Evan yells that the death lizards are coming and the alarms go
08:29off, so Val takes the chance to slip in while Evan goes to find their kids. Everyone in town is
08:34panicking and packing the essentials to hide in the ravine because they have nobody to protect them,
08:38their deputy is dead and their sheriff is an impulse junkie. If they don't run,
08:41the lizards will kill them. Not wanting to lose her home, Val joins her family and tells
08:46them to hide while she does her job. Then Val goes to the gate and gets a few things ready
08:50like fuel
08:50barrels and the big bottle of Impulse 9. The lizards arrive in a truck and Val is surprised to see
08:55Roy
08:55as their leader. He recognizes her too and mocks her as he describes how his gang will eat her and
09:00her
09:00family. Suddenly Val throws the impulse bottle and Roy realizes she's drunk at all. The gang gets ready
09:05to attack, but Val is now much faster and shoots the barrels to create a big explosion. She shoots a
09:10gangster as he flies by while another one dies of his own grenade. Val continues shooting to kill
09:15a few more guys, but a stray bullet from the enemy hits her shoulder and makes her fall.
09:19She still manages to shoot down the last gangster, only to bring her hand down when Roy shoots back.
09:24He gets ready to deliver the killing shot, however Val dodges it and shoots him in return,
09:28finally killing him. Afterward Val shoots a flare to alert the others that the town is safe.
09:33Val then dies with her daughter's drawing in her hand.
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09:41Thanks for watching.
