Chapter 1

Mat was looking at his wrist like he was unaware of owning one. He was hesitant about pushing the bluish metallic bracelet. Its elegant design felt flat compare to his unbuttoned sleeve of a white uniform shirt and overall sloppy fashion care.

"Ah screw it!" he said with a resilient voice and touched it. The simple act revealed a holographic screen, but before the text could be readable he said with a crackling voice.

"Call dad," on the screen appears a photo of his dad. Man in early forties with a genuine smile and unkempt several-days old beard.

"Yes?" Mat hears a voice and nervously leans on a concrete wall of the school.

"I blew it," he says as if somebody put his voice on low volume.

"You sure?" dad asks without any apparent emotion.

"Well, this year the judges were pretty straightforward. Waste no time, move fast...business...anyway. They picked Jerry, that awkward kid with public speech trouble, and Ponny. She was obvious, but still only two people from the whole school!"

"I don't care about the rest of the school though,"

"Sorry, didn't mean to downplay it,"

"It's okay," says the dad and pauses with a slight sigh. "It's not like I or your mother was chosen. It is a shame but life goes on. We won't celebrate with a big party but with telling you everything we know about the public school,"

"Thanks, dad,"

"You better not still be at school! Come and forget that place!"

"C-could you tell mum?"

"Ah, that is why you call me first. Honestly, pretty easy way to tell the outcome before you say anything,"

"Please!"

"Of course, you go home and take it easy,"

"Thanks, dad,"

"No wondering to any bar just yet!"

"Of course,"

"You promise! We will come sooner! I will find out If your buddies took you for a first legal shoot,"

"Don't worry we are..." Mat stops but it was too late.

"You what?"

"N-nothing...thanks for telling mum! I am going home! Bye!"

"Mat!" he ends the call and smiles. His dad was right, failing the test was almost expected. Only the brightest kids were chosen for the prestigious scholarships in the capital. At least he didn't have to move!

"Dad banned alcohol, but didn't ban other stuff!" he says looking at his WristWatch. He could now connect to all the adult content and...the sooner he got home the better!

***

"Try it today! The ultimate gamble! One year's worth of lottery tickets! Thousand credit! Come and try it!" an electronic voice from WW said and vibrated his arm. It was so sudden he jerked his arm and accidentally hit a pole.

"Auuu..." he moans and opened the WW window. It showcased an advertisement for a government-sponsored lottery. His parents didn't like ads on their WW since they mostly just disturbed them, but it was illegal to use them on kids. It was a weird badge of adulthood, so he wasn't that dismissive of it.

"I can gamble now!" he says realizing that he found another possible way to enjoy a new level of freedom. However, the government only allowed slight government-regulated gambling and proudly presented the system as the best system is designed for the protection of people's lives and freedoms. Compromise if you will. Every adult received lottery tickets, numbers of which are taken every time they gambled based on the amount of money waged. Which simply meant you couldn't wage a lot of money often.

"Weird that the tickets are not proportional to the bet..." he felt like it would be meant most people would not participate.

"Although most people don't gamble as much and have a surplus of the tickets, so they want to encourage them to play? Whatever! Let's try it! Adult Mat coming here!" it took him five minutes to fiddle with the menus to send the money and wait.

"Winner is announced at midnight? Well, enough time to explore other benefits of being fifteen!" he yells enthusiastically. Finally, his burst of positivity made a few passersby look at him curiously. The correct adult response, of course, was to run away to his house.

***

Mat was lying on his bed watching an adult-rated movie on a wall-sized screen. Surrounded by pillows, a giant glass of bubbling liquid, and several bags of fried potato chips. There was no audio disturbing his parents or sister because it was sent to his inner headphones.

"Oooh!" he says feeling the emotions of the bloody hero, losing his arm. In a bloody none-censured way.

"Gross," he says while still watching the scene with exciting curiosity.

"Agh!" he jumped and spilled the soda on the waterproof sheets. The hero was injured again exactly at the same Mat was surprised by the slight vibration of his WW.

"Lowery result will be available in 10....9..." the WW showed and he finally remembered that something like that happened earlier. While he was calming down from the jump scare he stopped the movie and watch the number 1 change to 0.

"Congratulation! You are the winner!" appeared on the screen and a lovely celebratory tone started playing.

Amazing! He won! He started to laugh!

"You have won the 1st prize! Congratulation! For further steps, you will be contacted tomorrow by our officer. Please be at your address at 9:00 am! Thank you for playing National Lottery -SaGe!"

"What first prize? What is the first prize anyway?" he asked and the hologram changed from his following commands.

"Holy shit!" HOLY SHIT!" he yelled and run from his room to immediately face his father in the hallway, coming from the bathroom with an electronic toothbrush in his mouth.

"What is..."

"I won a planet in a lottery!"

"What?"

"I! WON! PLANET!" he yells and shows his WW window to him.

"Holy shit!" says his father.