003 Forward

A week had gone by since Lady Luck had mercy on Illio and he scored the Chronosphere voucher card. It was something that he couldn't fathom. A free top of the line system! That was simply unheard of which made him quite wary but he wasn't going to let any ray of hope slip by him.

After putting on his most decent looking set of Clothes he decided to pursue it. To Illio's surprise, when he went to the Chronos store in order to redeem the voucher not only did he get a fully customized set up specific to his body metrics but he was told he was only one in 10 new users who had acquired this voucher. As such in order to level the playing field he would obtain a hidden 'secret' which would allow him to even the playing field against the more experienced players once he entered the game.

SOS was always developing thanks to the actions of its players. As a new player one would be so far behind they would never be able to catch up to the content and other users simply because of class advancements, items, skills, titles, Etc.

Since this could cause a possible discontentment and reduce the number of players who decide to purchase and join SOS, something needed to be done.

As such, in order to encourage more people to join SOS and not feel left out, Chronos was trying this new Voucher program. Think of it as a golden ticket to the chocolate factory type of thing.

This was the explanation that Illio was given when he asked about the voucher. To his knowledge this wasn't something ever done and now he understood their logic at least. He had no idea what the future complaints from users would entail seeing as to how they never had any aid before. Many would consider this a violation of Chronos' promise to their players to not interfere with the game.

Something was clearly brewing but Illio couldn't care less. That wasn't his problem. It could be considered a violation and if he made it big, people would hate him, however that was another problem for another day. Illio would not argue as he was getting a free pass for the first time in his life. Besides, Illio was on a mission. He had goals and ambitions to achieve and he after being used all his life, he was going to selfishly play to get to the top.

Why not, He would finally arrive to SOS and in his eyes he was going to be the one to shake everything.

It would be five years since SOS' initial release, which meant Illio had to catch up to those who had been playing that long. With the difficulty of the game being so high, most would believe that to be an impossible feat, but those same people didn't know that Illio had something that hardly any one had.

A hunger and necessity to be the best. He also had the hidden 'secret' in wait.

….

Illio tied his long curly hair back after showering and putting a black shirt and jeans on. He looked at himself in the mirror and thought that if he took better care of himself, he could actually pass off as attractive. His high cheekbones and blue eyes across his light smooth skin would make him the envy of many. Of course right now due to the malnutrition having taken a toll on him, he wasn't operating at the fullness of what he could look like. It didn't matter though since being in romantic relationships was not a priority.

Illio had been spending the past few days getting his run down flat as clean and decent looking as possible. The Chronosphere installation technicians were arriving later today and setting up a new top of the line system. Of course a copy of SOS came with it so he was able to get everything he needed to.

A week ago when he had little more than $1000 from the petty thievery committed, he spent hours agonizing and planning his next steps as he came to an important decision.

If he was to make a living from playing SOS, he would need to dedicate every moment of his life to it. That means he would need to drop work and just do this. The money would be enough to cover basic living expenses and minimum debt payments for 3 months.

The difficulty of SOS was impossibly unfathomable which is what made it so attractive to players. Could he in 3 months overcome this and generate money to live from?

If he couldn't then all this was a failure and he would be back where he started.

Useless and desolate.

There was no choice, he needed to, Illio couldn't waste this valuable opportunity that life had handed him.

With that resolve he made a quick call and quit his job at the garbage disposal company in order to move forward with his plan to make SOS his life.

"This is Ted at Big Dumps, how can I help you?"

"Hey Ted it's Illio."

"Oh hey what's going on?"

"Nothing I was just calling to say I quit, goodbye."

"Wait what?! What do you mean you-"

Illio didn't care what Ted would say. He had pushed his life forward with the recent decisions and there would be no going back now. Thus there was no more point in continuing that conversation

As any fan he had studied in depth the contents of SOS, watched tutorials, videos and committed so much to memory but only now was he going to have an opportunity to practice all that he learned for the past 5 years.

Eagerness had taken ahold of Illio's heart as he counted down the minutes before the technicians arrival.

~Knock Knock Knock~

That was the sound of the technicians ready to install his future. Illio opened the door without hesitation and greeted them.

"Umm yes....we are here to install….."

The technician paused as he took in the sight of a run down living space. Disgust and worry overcame him as he wondered how someone was allowed to live in this deteriorated of a place.

Illio didn't want to garner unneeded attention and so quickly ushered him in.

"The new top of the line Chronosphere V5 right? I'm Illio, this is the correct place."

Still in shock by the absurd living conditions that were presented before him, the technician simply closed his mouth, confirmed the information, and called his team to set up the Chronosphere capsule.

Two hours later Illio was finally alone and giddy with joy.

After locking the doors to his flat, effectively sealing himself off from the world, he ran a quick check on his to do list to make sure that there would be no one and nothing to bother him.

-Buy food ( Done)

-Pay electrical ( Done)

-Pay Rent ( Done)

-Pay Debt Collector (Done)

Everything is done, he thought to himself.

Now let the beginning of everything start.

With that he jumped into the Chronosphere, signed into SOS and was transported into what would become his future.