It was around midnight. A young man, still in his early twenties, was scrolling through his super computer with his finger.
"Ah damn it, only two of my readers funded me. I barely have enough money for basic necessities with all of my money going towards the rent," the youth frustratingly sighed.
"How else am I supposed to make money? Almost every job is done by technology now a days and I just got laid off from my last job."
This young man is named Ivan Masaki, a young Japanese-American college student struggling to make a decent living for himself.
Right now, the young man was scrolling through WebUpdates Network in hopes of finding part-time job openings in order to scrape some cash.
Ding!
The super computer vibrated as his notifications box lit up, with a bright red dot appearing beside the box centering around a 1. Clicking on the notifications box, he realized he got a new message from the popular writing platform, WriteIt.
'Calling all authors! Looking for an extra way to scrape some cash? Take this quiz now and see if you have what it takes!'
Clicking on the link attached to the message, Ivan was redirected to an online quiz page.
Scanning through the questions, Ivan really wanted to curse out loud: You want to know my shoe size?! What are you going to do, have me test shoe wear?! You want to know my sleeping habit?! Are you inviting me to sleep in your bed huh?! You want to know my level of education?! You want to look down on me so bad?!
Closing out of the page out of frustration, Ivan heaved another deep and heavy sigh before logging out of WebUpdates Network.
"Damn sketchy people. Asking all of these stupid questions on the internet. Who would be dumb enough to take such a quiz seriously? It's probably just some scam," Ivan muttered to himself before collapsing onto his bed and slipping underneath the covers.
***
"Sir? Are you still alive?" a soothing voice questioned.
"Yes, I'll marry you Mr. Hamburger. Oh, you're so greasy. Mmm, at least you taste good," a sleepy voice resounded.
"Um...Sir?"
"Let me give you a big fat kiss Mr. Hamburger. You know I love you," Ivan grabbed a hold of the other person and pulled them in for a kiss.
The other person grabbed a hold of Ivan's nose and pinched it hard, causing a shriek to be let out.
"Oh my gosh! What was that?!" Ivan gasped in shock after waking up from his slumber.
"I'm System #20078. Although I don't have a proper name, you are free to give me a nick name Mr. Masaki," the young teenager stated.
"Does it look like I care who you are?! I just want to know where am I and how I ended up here!" Ivan shrieked.
"Oh my apologies Mr. Masaki. Right now, you're in what the higher ups call The Space. You're now here because you passed the requirements for the job."
"What job? I didn't apply for anything," Ivan scratched his head in confusion.
"According to the information the higher ups have passed onto me, you applied for the job from WriteIt and you successfully passed. Because you passed, you have now been accepted to work for us," the teenager calmly relayed the information.
"I still don't know what you're talking about. Although I know what quiz you're talking about, I never answered the quiz and submitted it. I just looked over it out of curiosity. That's why you have the wrong person. Of course, I'm willing to forget all of this if you send me back home and compensate me," Ivan shamelessly declared with a smirk.
"Well according to my information, it's true you never took the quiz and submitted it. But, one of the guidelines says that if you choose to click on the link to the quiz, that already means you want to apply for the job. You see, the quiz is just there to get to know a bit more about you. Other people applied for the job as well but out of everyone that applied, you got accepted because the higher ups said you are the most qualified. It should be an honor for you, considering you never took the quiz."
That quiz was just there to get to know a little bit about the people that applied?! What a lie! Asking for one's dating history is quite the stretch! It's all a scam!
Ivan truly felt bitter about his life decisions and greatly wanted to vomit out blood!