Earth 2210-

Progress seen in the twentieth and twenty-first century had come to a complete standstill with no new groundbreaking technologies developing to continue the advancement of mankind.

This halt in development was not only because of a lack of innovation or brilliant minds but was mainly attributed to the earth's dwindling resources, whose scarcity had already reached critical levels.

Seeing no hope for their planet the world could only look in one direction and that was up.

Intrest in interstellar travel had become all the rage for a while, especially when the M.E.T. exploration team had found a reliable method to venture to Mars, however further research into making the planet hospitable proved unsuccessful.

It appeared some unknown substance in the atmosphere made it impossible for oxygen to exist on the planet, so although it was possible for humanity to move to Mars they would not survive the stay, or at least until the oxygen ran out.

The world's leaders were at their wits end on what to do, the situation would not have been this grim if resources were the only issue the planet faced.

However….

The other reason people focused on space for their solutions was because of overpopulation.

The current human population 59 billion.

Overpopulation had became such a big concern it led to national parks and preservatives having to be converted into residential areas, even Antarctica was populated now.

Because of the massive influx of people, governments had to become clever with the housing crises, leading to architects coming up with a brilliant solution, officially called Mega residential complexes, most people simply referred to it as block's.

Which basically described the structure as it was just a ginormous apartment complex, resembling a giant square block.

About 10,000 people resided in each block, with each person having their own apartment within.

Since living space had become such a pressing matter outdoor events like theme parks and festivals were a thing from the past, although a few still existed only the rich and powerful were able to attend, but for the common people it was impossible.

Overpopulation also caused the unemployment rate to skyrocket, with there simply being too many people for too few jobs. In order to compensate, the government gave everyone a monthly income regardless of there working status, so they could buy what they needed to survive. Causing many people to just sit around monotonously at home.

The higher ups were not foolish, and to prevent riots and civil wars, the government had made security extremely strict with personal privacy being a thing of the past, so no one could challenge their regimes.

The government had also put heavy funding and research into virtual reality, another form of control to make sure the people were obedient, and funnily enough it was also the only thing they were successful in.

People were now able to project their consciousness into a game. At first people were a bit suspicious of the mechanism, but after continuous propaganda and promotion by the government it had become accepted by the populous, with many deciding to spend the rest of their lives in these virtual realities where they could do and be anything they wanted.

.....

It was night time in the Netherlands, all over the country you could see cities with lit up areas, showing there was still some night life, even in this new age.

On a narrow street between two humongous apartment complexes or block's, coming back from a bar stood a tall man at one meter ninety with messy brown hair , he was swaying as he walked back to his apartment, obviously drunk. Surprisingly bars were still one of the little commodities commoners could enjoy in real life.

The drunk 25 year old youth coming back from the bar was named Basilius. he had applied to becoming a criminal defence lawyer, but was rejected, this wasn't what he first hoped to become either, with his advanced studying eventually getting a masters in the field of law, Basilius had hoped to become a lawyer for a big firm but after continuous rejections even from smaller firms, he had given up and hoped to at least be able to practice law even if it was for the government, however the competition was to fierce, hence his current state, where he had totally given up.

Unlike current members in society Basilius never enjoyed the virtual world, which naturally led to the yearning of finding a job and doing something productive in society, so unlike others who had given up before they even tried and delved into virtual reality, Basilius was studying hard.

But on another thought Basilius was now starting to agree with them.

After hearing that he was rejected again Basilius, became depressed all his hard work had been for naught, he did not even enjoy the field of law particularly much, nor did he agree with most of it, he only thought it was slightly interesting, but finding no other subject even remotely peeking his curiosity he decided to dump all his efforts into it, so after being rejected again Basilius gave up and today was his third day visiting bars and going home drunk.

Basilius lived on the ground floor, with him being able to enter his apartment from the outside of the block so luckily he was quick to find and go to his apartment, once he opened the door through a facial recognition scanner, Basilius was in his apartment.

The apartment wasn't big with only one room, the room had a small counter which could barely be called a kitchen with a cupboard above and below it, on the counter stood one microwave which took up almost half of the counters space. Next to the counter stood a small fridge.

There was also a TV built in the wall directly in-front of the bed, while next to the bed stood a cabin comparable in size, which was used to project your consciousness into the virtual world, Basilius only used it for going to school and studying, as education after high school was now all virtual.

There was also a toilet and shower, the room Basilius had was the standard one issued by the EU government, you could request for one bigger when you decided to get married or when you had children.

Basilius slumped on his bed. With his last bit of clarity he decided to check his account balance on his wristwatch which projected a small holographic view, the watch was also issued by the government.

200 WVC

"AHH FUCK!"

Basilius realised he didn't have enough money to continue his lavish drinking anymore, he had spent the surplus money the government had given.

While he could choose to continue drinking, he then wouldn't be able to afford food and drinks.

Although the government wouldn't allow him to starve, as they had created measures for such situations, however Basilius wasn't planning on eating some strange porridge once a day and receiving two glasses of water so he would just barely not starve or dehydrate.

Basilius became annoyed but decided to just put it at the back of his mind, as his eyelids began to feel heavy making him fall asleep like a log.