ARTHUR

A young man with a very sickly tone of skin and wearing some old clothes was seen walking along the street. He was gnashing his teeth and cursing under his breath.

"Those wicked souls, they refused to employ me just because of my dressing"

This young man's name was Arthur, he was coming back from a job interview and based on how angry and depressed he looked, the results were already known.

Arthur a young man barely twenty years of age, was just like the typical young man everywhere. Confused about his future prospects, which were truly looking bad.

As he hailed from a poor home, he was barely able to graduate from college and had to look for work to support his old and ailing father and his teenage sister.

His father, a man who had worked and toiled hard his whole life, life was cruel to him as he lost his wife to a disease few days after she gave birth to their second child. He was barely able to support his children to have the necessary education and now he was battling with some series of illness which always got him hospitalized from time to time.

Arthur as the only son in the house had to look for job to support his family. Although he was a bright young man, the society was just cruel in it's demand. His efforts to secure a good work has always turned futile, as he was always refused due to some excuses with most of them based in his dressings.

Although he was able to secure some odd jobs here and there which were barely enough to pay his little sister school fees and to survive. And now with the latest disappointment he felt his future was really looking bleak.

As he was trudging along the street he saw an advertisement billboard, displaying the release of a new virtual reality game called "The Chronicles of the Gods".

Well virtual games has been going on for quite a long time, and with the subsequent release of different virtual games the whole virtual reality game had been revolutionized. The last few decades has seen a massive improvements in virtual games. The technology in the 22nd century were no joke after all.

But this newly introduced game "The chronicles of the Gods", has always been advertised for quite a while now, like two years ago. And now it was advertised that it would be released a week from now. The new game has always been talked about on how it will change the whole industry of virtual games as it will have a compatibility of 97% with reality, which was terrifying, as it will not be any different from reality itself. The game was even made popular with the talks of how the game coins can be sold and bought with the real world currency, which made it instantly popular among the common folks as it was the first virtual game to possess such features.

Arthur has been hearing about this new game for a while now and quite frankly he was not really interested in it, he was barely able to get by in his daily life, how would he be able to concentrate on games. Although he had tried playing a few virtual games in the past but with the problems burdening him now he figured that he won't have the time for some games.

Just as Arthur got home, he saw his younger sister Katie sitting in the living room with her eyes glued to the door as if she was expecting him to come in at any moment. He was perplexed as she fixed him an expectant look.

"What?"

He asked his sister.

"How was the place you went to, were you able to get the job?"

His sister threw out questions at him in a fast manner as a testament of how anxious she was about him getting the job.

"No"

Arthur replied in a frustrated manner.

His sister slumped back to the chair in a defeated manner, it was obvious that she was really disappointed. The whole family was really hoping he would be able to get a job soon as his sister education fees and his father medical fees were growing, and to make things worse they were owing quite the number of debts.

Katie squeezed her mouth together and said,

"What are we going to do now, dad's medical fees is due and he needs a urgent resupply of drugs at the hospital. The doctor also said that his surgery needs to be done as soon as possible or the disease will get worse overtime if the surgery was delayed.

"I don't know, I'm just tired. I guess I will have to take up more odd jobs and try to look for another company that's hiring".

Arthur replied his sister.

The two siblings were wondering how they're going to go about it as they can't leave their father to die in the hospital.

Later in the day, Arthur got a call from his best friend Mark.

Mark has always been friends with Arthur for quite a long time now. His family were quite rich, which was also one of the reasons while things did not get out of hands for Arthur's family as Mark was helping out with the hospital bills of Arthur's dad.

"Hey buddy, how are you doing?. I heard you went out to look for work, so how was it?. Did you secure the job?.

Mark's voice was heard on the phone.

"Hey Mark. I'm good." "Those bastards rejected me".

Arthur replied his friend tiredly.

"That's too bad, I was really hoping you would be able to secure this job." Mark felt bad about it and he was obviously disappointed too

"Me too" Arthur said back to his friend.

"Well I called to ask if you've heard about the new game that will be released next week?" Mark asked

"Yeah", so what about it?" Arthur asked uninterestedly.

"Common man, this new game is like an opportunity for you. Do you know you would be able to exchange your game coins for credits?". Mark asked excitedly.

"Ohh, is it true?"

"Yes, it's true.

"Well that's good, but I don't really have time for the game and I can't afford the cost of the gaming headset, it's too costly."

"Don't worry man, I knew you might not be able to afford it, so I got one for you. It would be delivered to you by the end of today. Don't worry about the repayment, I just want us to play together."

Mark told his friend offhandedly. Despite the gaming headset costing quite the number of credits.

"Ohhhh ..... thanks man." I was not really thinking of playing the game but since you've gotten the gaming headsets, I might as well play."

"No problem man, alright bye. My regards to Katie". Mark ended the call.

Arthur was not that surprised about his friend buying him the game headset, his best friend has always helped him out in hard times and he knew that his friend don't really want him to say too much thanks as he would always reply that 'what are friends for'.

Later in the evening, Arthur received the gaming headset.

Although he had played games in the past and was quite good at it this new game was in a different league of it's own.

The advertisement for the game has been going on for quite a while while now. Arthur really wished he could play, but due to the financial issues he felt he won't get to play it.

He had played some virtual games in the past and was really good at it, but he just couldn't play it professionally like some people.

He looked at the gaming headset in his hand and shook his head, then he went inside and kept it In a safe place, eagerly waiting for the announced launch date of the game.