Muraya awoke to a loud buzzing sound. Her alarm was letting her know it was time to get up, shower and drag herself to work. She competed her daily routine of showering, dressing and eating before heading out. When she arrived at her office John was waiting for her with his usual smug face.
"Muraya, you left yesterday without finishing everyone's timesheet," John said in an annoyed tone.
"But that's Ariel' job," she replied.
"I didn't ask you who is supposed to be doing what. If Ariel is out sick, you need to make sure her work gets done as well as yours. If they are not done today no one gets paid," John retorted.
Muraya simply nodded her head and walked to her desk. "Really hate that guy," Yanet said as Muraya plopped into her chair. "At least, it's Friday and we have a fabulous weekend in front of us. We will go get a new game and play together till our brains melt!" They laughed and started their usual tasks for the day.
Muraya and Yanet stepped out together for lunch today. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather, so they decided to eat their lunch on the roof if the 30 story building.
"What a beautiful day," Muraya commented to Yanet. "I don't know much about the new game you want to play but I'm excited to start with you. "
"Oh you're going to love it. Just trust me. It's like the other one's we've played before. The map is gigantic and the monsters are insane. You're going to have to fight monsters but, I'll be there to help you," Yanet promised. "They have all of your favorite jobs so you can still build your house and craft gear but this game is the first game that uses the players previous games as a base for starting. So any skills and experience you have from old games will be calculated and added to your character's stats."
Muraya sighed as she thought about how everyone else will have a huge advantage over her. "I don't know how useful that will be for me since I avoid fights and have only killed low level creatures for starter materials."
"Like I said, don't worry. I don't play as much as I did before I had Abi, but I'm sure I'll be strong enough to protect us both. I've only played on the Cerebral so all of my old characters will be uploaded and should still give me some great stats." Yanet reminded Muraya how she had played almost every game and focused on fighting like everyone else. Muraya had to be the only person on the planet who played games to only craft and live in a peaceful quiet home. Everyone else wanted to feel the thrill of war and watch their stats continue to increase as they slayed monsters and completed dungeons in teams.
"I'm just excited that we get to start a brand new game together. I'll make the best gear for you and build you your own house with stable for all your mounts." Muraya chuckled at the thought of sneaking her focus back to crafting un a game that only rewarded war.
The alarm on Muraya's phone buzzed letting them know it was time to go back to work. "Did you finish the timesheets yet?" Yanet asked as they walked down the stairs.
"Oh crap, I totally forgot. I have so many contracts to reviews and deals to close before the end of the month that I just don't have the time, but I guess I'll do them later. I don't know why he even has an office administrator if she doesn't do anything. That old hag is supposed to be doing them and instead they have Ariel working double just to get them done. She could easily finish the timesheets instead of sitting on social media all day!" Muraya complained the whole way back down the stairs.
"You know he only has the administrator there because they are secretly dating. Everyone can see it from a mile away. No one else on Earth would touch him so John keeps her around for fun," Yanet whispered as they walked back into the office.
They arrived at their desks and buried their heads in their work before John could see they were a few minutes late.
Several hours later, it was time to go home. 'Finally! My day is done and I get to go home to play a new game with Yanet,' Muraya thought to herself. She started to say her goodbyes as John's door creaked open.
"MURAYA!" John shouted from across the room. "WHERE ARE THE TIMESHEETS?! You didn't plan on leaving before turning it in did you? Do you want everyone here to lose a paycheck? I don't care if no one gets paid this week, it will save me some money. HA!"
"I was swamped with financials today and didn't have time. Can you have the office administrator do it? I need to leave to go get..."
"Are you trying to tell me what to do?" John interrupted her. "Poca has her own jobs to do, and I asked YOU to get it done. So, you either get it done or you can explain to everyone here why they had to work all week with no pay!" John knew Muraya was kind and a pushover so he took advantage of her whenever he could.
Muraya looked around the office and everyone stared back at her with pity. They knew Muraya was not responsible for this but could do little to help her. Once John made up his mind, he would not listen to reason.
Dejected, Muraya replied, "Of course not sir, I'll stay late and finish them today."
John smirked and replied, "that's a much better attitude. If you had done them when you were supposed to, you wouldn't have to stay late while the rest of us can leave on time to enjoy our weekends." He waltzed out of the office followed by the administrator as he called out "and don't even think about overtime since you were supposed to do this during the regular work hours. You need to do a better job managing your time here in the office."
As soon as the door closed, everyone flocked to Muraya and flooded her with pity. "We are so sorry Muraya, but you know how he is. He will never ask his mistress to actually work. He's the worst kind of person. If we split up all the employees, we can help you finish faster and get it all done," they told her.
"It's okay. I can get it done in about 2 hours. It won't be too bad. Go home and enjoy your weekend with your families." Muraya knew they all had families waiting for them at home and appreciated their help, but she didn't want to have them also suffer alongside her. She had no one waiting for her except Yanet and she could always buy the game later or tomorrow.
"Are you sure?" they asked her.
"Yes, I'm sure. Don't worry, I'll submit everything into the system today. Thanks everyone and I'll see you all Monday back in this hell. HA!"
They chuckled and left the building after expressing their remorse one more time.
Yanet stayed behind and ask Muraya how she can help. Muraya told her it was okay and not to worry. "I will do them on my own and rush out of here to get the game before they close. Go home and get started in the game without me so you can learn more details and tell me about it later. We can always play tomorrow."
"If say so," Yanet replied. "Here, at least take my leftover lunch so you can have something to eat."
"Thanks," said Muraya. "I'll call you as soon as I get out of here." She waved to Yanet as she walked out of the office.
'Ill finish this quickly and run to the store' Muraya thought. 'I needed a new game already and was getting tired of my old ones so this new adventure with Yanet is the only thing I have to look forward to right now.'
Two and a half hours passed and Muraya was almost done with her unpaid overtime work. Exhausted and starving, she decided to go up on the roof for 5-minute break to eat the other half of Yanet's sandwich. She pulled out her phone to search for information about the game as she ate. She realized she never asked Yanet for the name of the game and had no clue what the game was since she never really researched games that required fighting to level up. She searched for 'full dive Cerebral games released today.' She gasped and choked on her meal as she read the search results.
- "Most popular game ever! 'Accrued Online' was released today and already sold out everywhere!"
- "Record sales for the new Cerebral game! Sold out in stores within the first hour! Servers overloaded. No new copies will be released."
-"'Accrued Online' being auctioned at $50,000 for people who didn't get a chance to obtain a copy."
"No this doesn't even make sense." Muraya said out loud. " How can you release more copies than the company can handle? That's ridiculous!" She clicked a link and read the story.
"Cerebral CEO discusses issues with 'Accrued Online' servers. 'It's not that we were unprepared for a certain number of players to join, and we released enough copies according to what we knew we could handle. We did, however, underestimate the speed at which people would purchase the game. This has never happened in Cerebral history and the numbers are astounding. For now this is the maximum number of players that Cerebral can support with no issues. Because 'Accrued Online' loads all previous data and stats from previous Cerebral games, it requires a lot of processing power. We are diligently working on expanding and making sure everyone can play the game but those of you who already have a copy, rest assured, you can play with no issues. Until we can support more players, we will not be releasing more copies of the game anytime soon' When pressed for information about the exact wait time for new copies to be released, the CEO declined to answer."
Muraya sat there silently, dazed by what she read. "Why?" she said to herself. "Why is everything I treasure always taken from me? Why does the Universe think I deserve this? What did I do in a past life that caused everything in my life to be taken from me?" She stood up and paced around the roof of the building. "Why is this game taken from me? Why was my scholarship taken from me? Why was my fiancé taken from me? Why was my family taken from me!?" Tears formed in her eyes as she thought about everything she had lost in her life. The stress of working in a terrible place just to pay her debts while living alone in a horrible environment finally poured out of her. It was only a game but it was enough to remind her of everything she had lost over the years and she felt like she just didn't want to live this life anymore. She was kind, hardworking and forgiving, so maybe her next life will be better?
She walked up to the edge of the roof and looked over the edge. "It is finally time for me to join you all. I can finally be with my fiancé, mother, father, brother and sister again. The car accident that took you all from me was not supposed to happen that way. I was not supposed to be the only left alive."
Her phone buzzed but she ignored it.
"The universe was wrong, we should have all left this world together."
Her phone buzzed again.
"Let's all be reunited."
She stood up on the ledge and her phone buzzed again. She looked at her phone in her hand before taking the final step. She opened her text messages to say goodbye to Yanet who was the only person she truly appreciated. She opened her messages and caught a glimpse of Yanet's messages to her.
-"Hey! I hope you are almost done over there! The lines to buy the game were crazy long. Glad I got there on time. haha"
- "Haven't started playing it yet. I'm waiting for you so we can both share the surprise so hurry up!"
- "They were selling out fast so I bought you one too just in case. Pay me back later. Looking forward to a new adventure with you!"
Muraya froze.
Yanet...
Her hero...
Her savior...
She had no idea that she just saved Muraya's life. Her excitement to share in such a simple joy was enough to snap Muraya out of her crisis.
She stepped back off the ledge with shaky legs as tears continued to pour down her face. She sat down in the floor and replied to Yanet.
"Thank you for your friendship, it means more to me than you'll ever know."
She sat and cried for several minutes until she ran out of tears. After a few more minutes, she collected herself and walked back downstairs. She thought to herself and hoped her family could hear her thoughts, 'please forgive me. I know you would never want me to join you all in such a gruesome manner. I just miss you all so much that sometimes it is unbearable. I promise to you that I will do my best to never have another breakdown like this and I will be sure to chase the happiness you all wanted for me. Please forgive my moment of weakness, but you must understand that I feel so alone and hopeless without you all here.'