It was another tireless night for James working the night shift at the small gas station convenience store. Nothing exciting, as usual, except for the occasional druggy, gangster, prostitute, mentally insane, or other non-categorized deviant of society, showing up to buy their daily necessities. He'd been through the same routine and interacted with the same crowd for the past 5 years so at this point he was used to the environment.
Even though the night was nothing special James was still a little excited as he stared at the clock watching the hour hand inch closer to 3am.
At approximately 3am James would officially turn 27 years old. He couldn't help but break into a small smile as he watched the minutes go by. Although he didn't have much to celebrate considering his poor lifestyle, he still couldn't help being excited for his own birthday since that meant he could finally reach into his saved-up funds and buy himself a gift.
He'd been frugal throughout the year and hadn't spent any money except on food, the occasional bandage after a store robbery, and new pair of underwear as needed.
James was disciplined in this was. Unfortunately, it didn't translate to all aspects of his life otherwise he wouldn't have dropped out of college. Regardless he watched the seconds tik away as he hummed a happy tune with the buzzing of the lights in the store accompanying him.
As the hour hand finally struck 3, James immediately opened up his half-broken phone that was barely hanging onto dear life and navigated to his shopping cart on an online store he'd scoped out. This store generally sold secondhand goods for a relatively cheap price and James had his eye on a particular phone. This model had been out for 7 years now and was relatively old, but it was the cheapest thing he could afford for now.
Without a second thought James clicked on the purchase option and set the delivery location as the store. Despite the store having been robbed numerous times it was still safer than the drug house of an apartment complex he lived in.
James was so excited he even paid extra to get it delivered same day.
After logging out of the app James stared past the store windows with a goofy smile on his face looking satisfied.
A few minutes later James was distracted from his thoughts when a notification came from his phone.
[Kat: Happy Biiiirthdaaaayyy!!! Congratulations you're an old man now!!]
James couldn't help but feel both joy and a slight guilt at the moment.
[James: Thanks! Don't worry your turn is just around the corner]
[Kat: Nooooo! I'm going to be young and beautiful forever!]
[James: Not if you keep avoiding your beauty sleep. Why are you even up? Don't you have school tommorrow?]
[Kat: Hehe, I'm going I'm going. You don't have to be such an old man about it]
[Kat: By the way when are you coming home? We all miss you.]
James sat there for a second staring at the last message. He wasn't really sure how to reply. Looking at the past 9 years of his life he could certainly say he hadn't amounted to much.
No, his life took quite the turn leading him to do things he never though he was capable of which led him to distance himself from his family. He wasn't proud of who he had become but luckily, he found his way back. He was certainly happy with who he was at the moment even though he was certainly as his most desperate.
'Maybe it's time to go home,' as soon as that thought came into his mind tears that had been built up for years poured out of his eyes.
James felt a number of emotions as years' worth of memories passed by bringing back to surface his joys, fears, prideful moments, and traumas that lead him to become such a broken man. The physical and mental abuse manifested on his aged body as he more resembled a 40-year-old rather than the youth that he was.
After a few moments of tear-filled reminiscence James found himself filled a calm serenity. He had found peace for himself.
[James: Okay. I'll come home]
[Kat: Really!?!?!? I'll let everyone know!! Mom and dad are going to be so happy!!]
[James: Wait don't wake them up, they still need to sleep. Just tell them in the morning]
[Kat: Ugghh, Fine. When are you coming back by the way?]
[James: Should be by the end of the year. I just need to finish up some things.]
[Kat: Yaayy!! I'll let Bell know too she'll definitely be excited!!!]
[James: Bell?? Wait you mean Isabella? When did you two get so friendly? Also, why would she get excited?]
James was suddenly reminded of his high school crush who he'd madly pursued at the time but was never able to claim due to her father's disapproval. She was one of the reasons he went to college after all. With enough money and job security he could guarantee a bright future for her while gaining her father's approval.
[Kat: Of course she'd be excited! That girl has been worried about you ever since you stopped talking to her after you went to college. She's always asking about you]
The message left a bittersweet taste in James's mouth. He couldn't help but lament at his current appearance, If it had been a few years back he might have still considered pursuing her again but now he thought better. Although he didn't feel that Bell would reject him he knew for certain that her family would, especially as he was now. And if his past was ever to be known to them they would certainly keep her miles away from him for good reasons.
[James: Let her know I said hello]
[Kat: Okay, I will]
[James: Oh, by the way, I'm getting a new phone. I'll add you and send a message once I get it]
[Kat: Alright, Goodnight!]
With that last message James put away his phone and went back to starring at the clock with a now peaceful smile on his face.
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BOOOOOMMM!!!
"ALRIGHT PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!!!!"
A man in a ski mask barged in and pointed a gun at James.
James first looked at the clock before once again looking at the main and replying, "You're late Charles, also you can't be going around giving people contradictory messages."
"DO YOU WANT TO DIE!!!"
"No, but I know you can't afford bullets so by all means go ahead."
"SHUT YOU"RE MOUTH AND GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY"
"Your grammar is a bit off their but that's off topic--You know I don't have access to the safe and there hasn't been any customers all night."
"JUST SHUT UP! MONEY, NOW OR DIE!"
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This back and forth went on for a few minutes before "Charles" ran off after grabbing a few snacks.
His name wasn't Charles but he'd robbed this place so many times with the same gun that James gave him a name just so he could differentiate him from the other robbers.
"Finally, some peace"
After a few more quiet hours James's replacement came. After a quick exchange James went home, took a quick shower, and had one of the best sleeps he'd had in a while.
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Later that evening James went to the store early to pick up his package. His shift didn't start for another 4 hours but he was too excited to wait. After picking it up he went into the backroom of the store that was reserved for the employees and started setting up his new phone. Even though he'd bought this phone for cheap James couldn't help but marvel at it.
The screen was pristine and the system interface was immaculate. James' boss had one of the latest phones in the market so James certainly knew the functional ability of the current phone generation, but his phone seemed better for some reason.
It wasn't just that it's sleek cover that gave it an ethereal sense, as if though galaxies were being held on its back cover, it also gave a warm and gentle feel on his hand.
He transferred all his information from his previous phone to new phone in seconds and downloaded a few must have apps in the same time period as well.
While doing all of that, he started to feel a weird connection with the phone. A strange connection that didn't make him panic but instead filled him with a strange intimacy and excitement.
Before he could delve more into the strange emotions welling up inside of him a notification popped up on his phone.
[Thank you for purchasing the Nebula 1.0]
[As the first user of this device we hope you enjoy the many amenities and capabilities the Nebula 1.0 has to offer. If there are any issues or suggestions feel free to contact our help desk through the settings menu.]
[Additionally we've attached an app along with the phone to hopefully bring you much entertainment.]
"Damn, this thing doesn't seem cheap at all how'd I even get it!"
James went to the website he bough it from and looked at the information for the phone. Unfortunately he didn't find the buyers info for the phone, additional his purchase history for the phone was missing from his account on the website. If it wasn't for the fact his account was mysteriously missing half the amount of money that'd should have been there, he'd certainly have started doubting himself.
After a few more seconds of thinking James gave up and just pushed everything to the back of his mind. It didn't matter to him much since he still got a really good phone for a really good price.
James then went to his home screen and looked at the newly added app on his phone. It was called [Realms Clicker]. From the name alone it sounded like one of those clicker games he used to play a lot back in college. Without giving it to much though he clicked on the icon that seemed to depict a universe.
James' phone went dark.
After a few seconds, a tiny spark glimmered at the center of his phone before rapidly expanding into a rainbow of colors. James watched the beautiful scene as he was captivated by the visual that depicted the birth of a universe.
After a minute the universe solidify before giving birth to starts, those stars then coming together to form galaxies, those galaxies each then giving birth to solar systems filled with a myriad of planetary bodies. All of this happened within the span of 3 minutes and James was captivated the whole time.
The screen showed the entirety of the newly born universe in all it's majesty. James stared at the screen for a few minutes before it dawned on him that he might have to interact with it.
He tapped a random location on the universe and the next thing he knew the screen was rapidly zooming in on the selected location.
The screen finally stopped when it came across a blue burning star. James was stunned by the beauty of it but managed to shake himself out of the daze and noticed a confirmation button below the star along with an arrow selection key right next to it.
After tapping the arrow key a few times James knew what this was, It was a selection for a star.
He didn't understand the purpose of it but there was a variety of options from a small red dwarf to giant solar system size stars. There were a variety of colors too, some which he had never seen in his life. There didn't seem to be a selection criterion, and James didn't feel anything special from the hundreds of stars he'd seen so far, which could only lead him to assume this was an initial aesthetic decision.
Not giving it much further thought James kept cycling through the options until he landed on a medium sized star that was a strange variant between gold, silver, and sapphire. The colors seemed to be in a constant battle with each other and yet had a strange equilibrium to them. Every now and then one of them would come out victorious causing the star to fluctuate in that color before once again going back to equilibrium. There wasn't any pattern to it and it just fluctuated from color to color randomly.
After staring at the screen for far too long James finally pressed the Confirm bottom below the star.
[Confirm selection?]
[Yes]/[No]
James decisively selected yes.
The screen then slowly zoomed into the interior of the start leaving James to admire the view as he headed closer to the center of the star. After reaching the center of the star James saw something that completely surprised him. At the center of the star was a miniature version of himself dressed up in torn up old rags sitting in a lotus position. Dispute the rags and his haggard appearance the whole scene was filled with a strange majestic essence.
After seeing that nothing was else was going to happen James finally tapped on the screen.
[+1 EN]
'Oh looks like the games finally started. But where's the progress bar?' There was no change on the screen besides the simple notification that floated up from the location his finger tapped before disappearing.
James didn't think much about it and just continued tapping.
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
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[+1 EN]
[+1 EN]
[Ding! Congratulations on completing first 100 taps.]
[Ding! Received System update.]