Reality is expensive

I looked at the brochure that the salesman just handed over to me earlier at the transport station. Currently, only one word could describe my feeling, EXPENSIVE. the word rang in my head as I went through the content.

'Well, there goes my plan on buying a house. I need to save up years just for the deposit alone. I will have to eat only a meal a day,' I kept on calculating in my head as I walked in the store to buy some basic necessity and comparing prices.

The huge screen in front of the tower was showing an advertisement for a game that would launch in 2 days. It was a game that made a lot of people interested in and the content was interesting. the catchphrase flashed through together with the game background music (You can be anything YOU want! Live the Life coming soon!)

'This is getting more expensive. Argh! I need to activate the game key before it launch in 2 days,' I quickly paid for my stuff and ran back to my studio apartment.

I managed to catch up to the train and it was a peaceful ride home. It was packed with people that were discussing about the game. I was lucky to grab the game key in a draw. The developers of the game (LTL - Live the Live) gave only 1,000 copies of game key for free world wide and the lucky winners also won a holowatch that would sync with the game itself. I already wore the watch and the function was similar to a normal holowatch but it came with some features on its screen such as profile, L-coins, market and communication. All of the features that related to the game was currently unable to activate until the game start.

"Did you know that LTL has so many races prepare for the players"

"Yeah, I already plan to be an elf race"

"But the developer announced yesterday that there will not be any top up charges available" "Really!"

"Yes. Apparently, it is to prevent rich people to level up without effort by pumping credits [1-Credit : the currency]"

"But they still can buy material using credits, just not the game currency. Also real life trade for coins is still available but the ratio is 100 credits to 1 L-coins. The developer is working with the security internationally to prevent bio of the players being leaked"

The conversation about the game was never ending. I reached my home safely and my Holohomebot greeted me, "Welcome back, Noir".

"I am back, Kuro," I replied my Holohomebot that shaped like a kitten currently and the whole studio apartment lit up. At once glance, my queen sized bed was at the left corner next to the glass window door, my computer table next to the virtual gamepod on the other side and Kuro's home station that shaped like an egg was beside my computer. On the right side of the entrance door was the toilet, further along a sliding partition for the tiny kitchen and the fridge situated in the wall that separated kitchen and my bed.

I rented this studio apartment the moment I started to work as a part time cashier and a gamer that generates currency for guilds. I did not know who my parents were nor did I pursue further education. I left the orphanage as soon as I graduated from school and got a cashier job to get as much savings to rent this apartment.

"Kuro, set up my gamepod for the LTL game key activation," I gave a simple order to Kuro and his holograph body slide to the gamepod with him replying yes.

"Noir, your gamepod is already set for the game in another 2 days. Please remember to finish your part time work quota by tomorrow for the extra off day," Kuro spoke after several minutes as I was cooking my dinner.

[1] Credit - World Currency