It was already four o'clock in the morning when he realized that it was already long past bedtime, his eyes seemed mesmerized by the brightness of the screen dilating his pupils but none of that seemed to matter at that moment. As she randomly clicked through the eight open tabs on her browser, she noticed a wandering trending on Twitter called #JoinHystory.
If he felt at the bottom of the well at that moment for staying awake so long and having to wake up early the next day, then it would not cost him anything to drink some water and waste a few more minutes looking for what it was all about. He typed that title on Google and found an advertisement for a major technology company that was running a contest to find the best story of all, and the winner would have any wish fulfilled as a prize.
The announcement also spoke about the somewhat peculiar form of how the competition would be, instead of a traditional writing contest, a unique technology of the company would be used that would make its history take on fantastic properties, allowing them to act according to the will of its author. to battle other stories in a more "direct" way.
Oliver's first reaction was to enter into a deep laugh after reading all that, he was out of breath for a moment and when he caught some air again he thought who would be the nut that would take such a stupid joke so seriously, shared the page with his friends. colleagues and was amazed when they answered that in fact the contest was real, including one of his friends said he would participate to try to win the prize. Finally the truth fell on his body and he was accepting the idea of such a surreal writing contest.
I mean, he didn't like the idea of having to write a story and battle it or anything, even involving this bizarre idea of "struggling with his story", but the prize seemed tempting. The company in question that was organizing everything, WepMovel, was recognized worldwide and had as much influence as financial power to achieve someone's wish. Then, as the day went on, the idea took root and gradually grew inside his head, who knows, maybe he could participate in the end.
I wasn't sure how I was going to do this, the few times I wrote texts in my life was when I crashed my car in a police vehicle and had to write a letter of apology to the police officer, who didn't even receive it very well and gave him a great deal. fine as a response. So now imagine a complete story with a beginning, middle and end, and even better than stories of other people better than him in the subject that they would also be disputing.
Discouraged by his prospect, he made a coffee and wondered how to get around the situation. Maybe I could study a little bit about literature ... but it would take a long time, when I finally understood how to make a decent story the contest would be over, maybe I could pay someone to write in his place, but it would be risky and if I ended up being caught I would lose the little of the dignity he still had and would be remembered as a cheater.
So he went for his last alternative: writing a story.
"Well, it costs nothing to try, maybe even have a consolation prize for the last place" he thought, but unfortunately there was no prize for the last place. In fact, the only thing he would win is to be a joke or worse, to fall into deep oblivion.
He picked up a pencil and the paper, stared at it for a few minutes while searching the back of his head for any ideas he could put out, until, after two hours, he finally decided, he was about to start getting up and .. ... prepare another cup of coffee ... but first took a look to see how the progress was going.
On the sheet was a large blank space with just two shy words hidden at the top: "it all started ..."
"It's more difficult than I thought ..." he wailed as he put the third spoon of sugar in the cup. He returned the sheet of paper and looked at his watch, it was six in the afternoon when it started and now it was almost ten at night, he started to feel tired in his body but he knew he had to write something before going to sleep, after all, tomorrow was the first day of the contest and you should at least have something written to be able to enter the competition.
Driven by a sense of urgency, he started to write the first things that came to his mind, through his mind there were superhero comics that he read when he was a child, some RPGs that he played in his old video game, stories that were told in the classroom ... and in the middle of the sea of images and memories he built the bridge that finally connected him to his history. He was happy with the result, having managed to write something already meant a victory, so imagine a whole story, when he finally realized it was already one o'clock in the morning and he needed to lay his head on the pillow, early in the morning he would go to the WepMovel building to register for the contest.
He arrived in front of the building, looked up and almost fell on his back trying to find the top floor, it was not for nothing that they said that WepMovel was one of the largest companies in the world and that it influenced a lot under the hood ... He entered the building and went to the reception, a very beautiful and smiling woman attended him, as expected from any luxurious building like that, she informed him that the registration process related to the company event would be carried out in the third floor ballroom and then o indicated the direction of the elevator. When he got to the elevator, he got scared right away, only the space he had inside would give him almost the size of the rented room where he lived, he pressed the button on the third floor and waited a few seconds until he reached his destination.
When he spotted the hall after walking a few corridors he felt a sudden chill in his belly, there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people standing around the huge open space in front of him and at the end of the stage a stage that seemed to be ready for some announcement or presentation . He went to some tables that were arranged on the sides of the room to ask for information and found that it was there that the registration was done, after filling out all the papers his task now was just to wait for the opening announcement that would be held soon.
Many people looked forward to the moment when the contest would start, some of them stamped their confident faces while others were unable to hide their anxiety. And out of everyone Oliver was sitting leaning against the wall eating a sandwich he had prepared for breakfast and almost choked with fright when he heard a loud voice speaking into the microphone, got up quickly and looked at the stage while everyone there salon did the same, looking at the sudden and imposing figure that appeared above all, and that figure in question was the famous Frederick, CEO of WepMovel, who started speaking in a serious and serious tone:
"Greetings to all the participants present, I believe that the majority here must have seen my face somewhere, but for those who do not know yet, I will introduce myself quickly: I am Frederick Themp, one of the main people involved in the entire management and maintenance of the company. WepNovel and as part of this company I share one of its ideals, of which stories are capable of moving the world! "
Pausing for a moment while looking at the entire audience, Oliver had the impression that for a moment Frederick looked towards him and then turned to hear the voice on the microphone.
"Stories can serve as a portrait of a culture, they say a lot about how certain civilizations at certain times thought, stories of overcoming help to inspire people all over the world, they also convey feelings as a form of communication that crosses any barrier, they serve to teach important lessons for those who write them, great stories even manage to survive generations and influence decisions until today, so we believe in the importance that stories have for the whole human race, that said, we are promoting this contest to find the next story that it will be like the light for all humanity, and among all those gathered here we will have chosen him as the author of this story, so without further ado, that the dispute starts ".
A light came on in the hall, the light that symbolized the beginning of a new historical period, but only a few people were aware of this information and even one of them was coming down a stage with a smile on his face, took a paper from his pocket and started to cross out some names ...