Marcus couldn't believe it. This had to be his lucky day, it was even cheaper than most by almost three times. Now he just had to figure out how to come up with the money.
Thinking hard, he exited the shop and pulled out his Pocket Device to call his best friend and see if he could get a loan when he noticed the spam, going through all the emails and messages asking him the same question.
Irritated, he was in the middle of typing an angry response telling them to not-so-politely f*** off, and deleting everything before calling Aiden "Hey, what you up to?" … "Wanna meet up for a drink?" … "Yeah, I'll meet you there."
Marcus grabbed his bike and rode across town heading to this small relatively unknown dive bar that was close to the University they attended together. Sitting down at a table, he waited a few minutes before Aiden came in and sat down across from him.
Aiden wasn't much taller than Marcus, he was simply better defined as he was the once track star of the university, while working on his master's degree in engineering. He had completely lost the younger immaturity in his face and hid it behind a small growing beard.
As they began to catch up, a waitress came over and as she attempted to list off the specials, Aiden interrupted "we'll have our usual, a pitcher and a pizza." The waitress glared at his rude interjection and turned around and yelled "one pizza" to the kitchen and began pouring a pitcher of domestic brew and carried over two ice chilled mugs with it.
"Pizza will be out in 5 minutes." She coldly said as she spun on her back heel and departed.
"What's up man?" Aiden asked as he took a gulp of the beer.
"I need a favor, I logged in last night and there was an announcement that the game was shutting down this month and to make matters worse, the visor is being discontinued." Marcus took a large swig himself as he stared at him.
Aiden sighed and rubbed the back of his neck "Yeah I heard on the news that CryoCorp is stopping all functionality of the visors as they have this new product coming out. Crazy thing is the product was supposedly a military contract and they were able to modify it for civilian use. The UN is really abuzz and their stocks are skyrocketing."
Marcus sighed, not only was he already using an outdated device, if he wanted to upgrade it would almost immediately become obsolete. "I can't believe that Game Inc. is shutting down their servers, I just maxed out right before graduation…"
Aiden choked on his beer as took another drink "Wait, you hit level 999? I heard it was like a trillion xp (Experience Points) to reach max!"
Marcus smirked "Try 3.2."
Aiden shook his head "I can't believe you maxed out, are you the first one to have done that?"
Marcus sighed and downed the last of his first glass "F*** no man, nowhere near it, I think like a dozen people did it before me, unlucky #13." He exclaimed as the waitress placed down the cheese pizza. "I need your help getting 100 Grand… I need to get a Dive Pod before they announce what their next game is. I've applied to over 200 jobs and out of the 30 interviews I'm still unemployed."
Aiden was taken aback. "100k bro? Who are you robbing to get that? Brand new they're almost 500!"
"I know somebody, think you can help me out?" Marcus asked as he grabbed a slice of pizza and poured another glass.
"I mean, it's no issue for me, but how are you gonna pay me back? Where are you even going to put it? You just said you don't have no job…" Aiden asked doing the same.
"I mean I can get rid of my bed and desk and fit the pod in there… Also it isn't like I won't eventually get a job, but with the huge quality improvements from the visor to the pod and being able to dive longer, I'll start streaming and all donations I get will go to you." Marcus replied.
Aiden rubbed his beard in an annoying way as he stared intently at Marcus "You said they're gonna release a new game? What's it called?"
Marcus shrugged "They didn't explicitly say they were releasing a new game, but they hinted at it heavily. We'll find out after the 10 year anniversary event and the servers are shut down."
Aiden smiled and downed his second glass "Fine, come around tomorrow, I'll have a check for you then, but you owe me big time!"
Marcus couldn't contain his excitement "I promise! My first born child will be named after you!"
Aiden laughed harder than he probably should have "As if you'd ever get a girlfriend, let alone have a child!"
They stayed for a few hours catching up before going their separate ways. As Marcus continued to cross the street, he failed to notice the Do Not Cross sign as the ever popular delivery truck was speeding towards the crosswalk…
The next he knew, he was laying on the ground, he couldn't feel anything and despite wanting to live… his consciousness faded to black…
As if blinking, he found himself sitting in a dark room in a simple steel chair in front of him was a simple steel desk and beyond that was a figure he could not make out sitting in a lavish gold-trimmed chair.
The dark figure grinned wide revealing large white teeth and simply asked "Are you tired of your boring everyday life?"
Marcus tried to ask a question but nothing would come out, he grabbed his mouth and looked at this mysterious figure even more confused before they snapped their fingers.
Marcus jerked up in his bed sitting in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. He looked around at his large room that was lightly dimmed by the moon outside. Sighing heavily he collapsed back into his bed trying to calm his breathing as he told himself over and over "It was just a dream."