James ran home as fast as he could, his lips curled up as a grin seemed stuck on his face. He was excited, why wouldn't he be? James had just cashed in a $100 million dollar lottery ticket. When he found out he'd won he was in the middle of a lecture, but that didn't stop him from whooping in joy as he bolted out the large classroom. His fellow students and teacher spared him but a glace for the disturbance and then put the incident to the back of their minds, after all, university was a ruthless place.
The people at the lottery company were shocked when they saw James walk in with the ticket. They weren't exactly sure what to expect but they certainly did not expect a young man in very less than average clothing, even his shoes were tattered. The fact was however, that James did have nice clothes to wear, but he had simply stopped caring a while ago and even ended up going to uni in his pyjamas today. His shoes however, are a different story. It wasn't that he had nice shoes or anything, but rather he couldn't be bothered to, or couldn't afford to replace them. To James, if it fits, and if I can walk without hurting my feet, then they're as good as new
James had rushed home as fast as he could after receiving the money, quite a few reporters had tried to get him for an interview as a multi-million dollar lottery winner but James had refused such requests. He didn't want the world to know he had money, he just wanted to live life freely without worry of care for anything. James had worked out a life plan of how he'd get through university and find an awesome job, work hard and earn a lot of money so he could relax, even find a girlfriend sometime maybe. But never did he expect how high of a debt he would accumulate while trying to study.
Falling into depression, James had felt that nothing would be able to excite him anymore, as he'd have to work for the rest of his life just to afford his university fees, let alone earn enough to sit back and relax. He didn't even dare dream that he would somehow randomly strike it rich, in fact, it was his good for nothing friends that peer pressured him into buying a ticket.
"Come on bro, it's like $2 for a ticket, who knows, the lottery is like a hundred million, you could win. You can buy me one while you're at it! Thanks, I knew you were the best!!!"
James did not want to tell anyone that he'd actually won, after all he knew that his friends would just pester him into paying for their every needs and even get angry and upset at him if he didn't, even though it wasn't even their money. His parents were the same as James was never the favorite child, it was always his younger sister, even before she was born!! If his parents had found out that their son had received such a large sum of money they would definitely take a large chunk out of it and give it to their little princess.
By the time James arrived at his apartment the sun was still high in the afternoon sky. His grin was still plastered to his face while he rushed up to turn on his computer, there was only one thing on his mind as he logged into his universities site. Thinking about how high his debt is, and what would become of it, James navigated through the site and dropped all his classes. Following that, he hastily went to his universities student funding page and requested to pay off his current debt. He was still feeling ecstatic, unsure of whether or not he was dreaming when the application came back successful. Not many people can pay off their debt early but it isn't unheard of, sometimes students or their parents just save up before paying it off in larger amounts or similarly to James, sometimes students come across a small fortune and pay off what they'd accumulated so far, only James' fortune wasn't small. James hastily entered his details and clicked 'submit'. After what seemed like hours, a small notification popped up on his screen. James heaved a sigh of relief as he slumped back into his chair.
"It's really not a dream"
After years of stress piling up as his debt had accumulated, James had finally, truly, felt free.
Mulling about what to do next, James decides that the best thing right now is go take a nice long nap, who doesn't love afternoon naps. It had only been an hour since James had returned home, he had already showered and jumped into bed, still in his pyjamas. James thought that his bed had never felt this good before, even vowing to spend more time sleeping now that he days were freer than he could imagine. But little did he know, that he would in fact, spend less time in his bed in the coming weeks.
James awoke after a few hours and hopped back onto his computer. The sun was still in the sky but much lower as it had already begun its descent into the horizon. James spent another hour browsing through dank memes and funny cat videos on the internet when an interesting advertisement had caught his eye. It was an ad for an MMORPG game that had announced the opening of new servers in his region. The ad for the game had caught his attention because of a time before university when he was in high school. James had much closer friends back then and his small tight group had played an RPG game together. He reminisced about those times when his little band of friends had adventured in a fantasy world, taking down tough bosses and obtaining extremely rare artifacts. James had even topped the PvP leader boards for his region for a while. But he hadn't seen or spoken to his friends since he moved out from old city to study.
'I wonder what the Bois are doing now'
Deciding to check it out, James went to the games website and his screen went dark as a trailer for the game filled up his screen. Golden words appeared in the darkness.
DISCOVER A NEW WORLD
The words disappeared and a large continent separated in two by a large sea appeared. The two pieces of land contained mountains, rivers, lakes, bays, deserts, forests and even open plains. The view then blurred as it zoomed in and new text appeared on the screen.
ACTION PACKED CONTENT
The next scene depicted a man dressed in a starry blue robe with a pointed hat, he was waving a staff as a large ball of fire descended upon a group of orcs, disintegrating them instantly. The scene then changed to show a woman, wearing as little clothing as possible, yet holding a large shield and defending against the attacks of a large ogre three times her size. Suddenly, another woman jumps out, this time aptly dressed, twirling swords in her arms slashing at the ogre as she danced around it. James' blood was boiling with excitement as the scene changed yet again, his eyes glued to the screen
PLAY HOW YOU WANT
New words filled the screen and an overhead pan of a medieval city came into view. There were people everywhere in the city performing various tasks from drying fish to chopping logs, some were cooking in the open while others were walking into and out of weapon and armour smiths. There was even a little girl pick pocketing an overly large man in a quiet corner of the city that not many would have noticed. The music then intensified as the scene neared its end, James trembled in anticipation, knowing that the most developed part of the game would be showcased next.
AMAZING LARGE SCALE OPEN WORLD GUILD VS GUILD WARS
The scene that appeared was that of a battlefield, or multiple battlefields to be exact. A collage of various terrains of mountains, forest and ruins of cities were shown. The music had reached peak intensity, as the scenes changed in accordance to the music in perfect harmony. In each scene, countless players of all classes were throwing out everything in their arsenal in a battle for dominance. In a forest scene, the view suddenly zoomed into an assassin and follows behind as it zipped through the battlefield arriving at the back-line of its enemies preparing to unleash a devastating attack. The music suddenly stopped as one of the mages in the back line had turned around, their hands in the air and a large meteorite formed and filled the screen as it darkened again.
DRAGONS RIVER ONLINE
Golden letters appeared on screen and then faded out.
James had almost fallen out of his chair at this point. The graphics and the style of the game had shocked him, almost as much as the lottery. Once again, James' fingers moved quickly, hastily purchasing the game and starting the download, but this was not enough. The adrenaline in his body hadn't stopped, he decided that if he was going to play a new game, he may as well play it at its best and not on his potato computer. In fact, James just realised that he hadn't even checked the specs and requirements of the game before purchasing it.
'It doesn't matter, I'll get a new one, I'll get a beast of a new one!!'
He thought as he remembered that he just obtained a large sum of money. He patted his pockets to check if he'd forgotten anything before heading out to the nearest computer store.
"Keys, wallet and phone, check, check and check. The store should be open for another few hours, lets GOOO"