"It's time to eat." Dojin said as he almost drooled at the smell that assaulted his nose.
Lucio started eating and the others followed. It didn't take long for them to finish their meal. Emiliano ate like his life depended on it, his stomach was bloated with the amount of combined food that Lucio and Dojin had consumed.
Soon the bill arrived
Casual Dining ||
1) Rice + Kimchi + Fire Mushroom (4) --- 32,000 won
2) Steak (2) --- 14,000 won
3) chicken chops (2) --- 14,000 won
4) 1 bowl of ramen --- 800 won
Total costs --- 60,800 won.
Lucio gave the owner 65,000 and left. Dojin went home and Lucio took a cab to the nearest mall in Seongnam. Lucio opened an app to check his bank balance and it showed the digits 230,765,000. 'Should be enough for the day…' He thought as he opened his system interface. The notifications were cleared by him long ago , so he checked the contents calmly.
[ADMINISTRATOR SYSTEM]
NAME : Lucio Tiano
SPECIES: Homosapien
OCCUPATION : Jobless
(Shop) --- (Staff) --- (Oscuro)
Lucio opened the shop to find it relatively empty, except for some things called (Knowledge Packs) and most of them had a tag [FREE] attached to them. Then he checked the staff option which was completely empty. The Oscuro tab was quite interesting as every single place on earth was connected to its corresponding alternative on Oscuro, which was quite fascinating as he didn't know how it was possible.
8 hours on earth was equivalent to 160 hours on Oscuro, which was about 6 days and 16 hours. And Oscuro had 4 moons, each moon taking a month to complete a revolution around Oscuro and every moon blocked the straight path between the two planet taking turns, every 7th night for 8 hours, changing the time flow between the planets, reducing the time flow from 8:160 to 16:8.
Lucio didn't know how time could be changed due to moons but he accepted it nonetheless as he did not have the capability to check out the phenomenon.
The cab soon reached the destination and they got down, paying the fare. Lucio bought Emiliano some toys which were technically some movable action figures. His problems started when Emilia pulled him to the girls clothing section. Spending nearly 8 hours, only to select a few hoodies and comfy pants for the small girl turned out to be a nightmare. The only thing keeping him sane was the smile that Emilia sprouted whenever she found something she liked.
Emiliano played on Lucio's phone until the phone died and it was evening when they reached home. Emiliano just chose the shirts which had cool pictures on them , so Lucio was greatful.
Lucio celebrated their birthday by cutting a huge cake which was still left over. He placed it in the fridge and was about to sleep when he noticed another problem, he had no place to sleep. His siblings slept on his bed while he stood there helpless. He placed a mat on the floor and lied down, sighing. He opened the (Oscuro) tab in his system and decided "Guess I'll have to move after all…"
Senzo received a text at night saying that Lucio wanted passports and VISA as he was going to migrate to the states. Senzo felt a headache as he saw the text. "This guy…. It isn't that easy to migrate… at least I won't have to see his face so often if he goes there."
It wasn't a hard thing for Senzo to do as he sent a few texts to some specific people.
"Well, that's done."
Lucio didn't like to mess up his sleep schedule and since he wanted to start his life directly in the Empire of Axyte and to do that, he had to play the game from 10am in the morning which he didn't prefer doing. He selected USA as it was the one of the best places that matched well with the empire of Axyte.
He opened the (Shop) and bought the few Knowledge packs that were available, soon a series of notifications appeared in front of his eyes.
[Knowledge Pack: Consciousness transfer]
[Knowledge Pack: NPC System]
[Knowledge Pack: Headset Blueprint version 1]
[Knowledge Pack: Headset Blueprint version 2]
[Knowledge Pack: Headset Blueprint version premium]
[Knowledge Pack: Gaming pod version 1]
[Knowledge Pack: Gaming pod version 2]
[Knowledge Pack: Gaming pod version Premium]
Unfortunately, the only thing Lucio could see was darkness.
He had fainted due to the sudden influx of information.
*****
A week passed and Lucio had not gone to school since then and was cooped up in the garage. He only came out to eat with his siblings. The two kids watched some series and anime on Jetflix, which Lucio had subscribed for them.
Lucio looked at the small chip that was placed on the table. It looked very ordinary but Lucio treated it like gold as he inserted it into a small socket of a 3D printed helmet which had a few electrical components inside it.
Lucio turned it on and wore it. Pitch black darkness greeted his for a few seconds and then, he heard a robotic voice.
"Welcome to Oscuro. Please select the place you would like to spawn in."
There were a few places whose names were huge compared to others with the words (recommended for your location) beside them. Lucio quietly scrolled down and clicked on Empire of Axyte.
The screen showed an error, saying
[Amount of players in sufficient. Minimum registered players needed are 100]
Lucio sighed as he took off the helmet "Looks like there is a lot more to do….."
He went over to some famous freelance sites and hired a team to make an advertisement for him, for which they asked a few details and he answered, giving them many details to work on. Lucio was satisfied when they promised to complete the work in a week.
The next thing he did was call Dojin and the call was picked after a few seconds. "Hello my friend! Do you need my clothes this time?"
"No. I called you because you play games a lot." Lucio replied in a flat tone.
"Hmm…. Don't tell me you need my help to rank up or something cuz I'm not going to help." An arrogant, narcissistic tone was heard from his smartphone.
"No. I called to offer you a revolutionary game's beta testing rights."
"Alright, tell me more about it."
"I'd recommend playing it instead of hearing about it. The game is that good."
"Okay then… where can I find it?"
To which Lucio dint have an answer "Uh… it'll be released soon. Probably in a week. I'll try to send you the link earlier if possible."
Dojin just answered "Okay." And hung up .
Lucio sighed "Now I have to hire people to make me a website too…."
He decided against hiring free lancers and chose to start a Gaming company. This was the best way to make people work and take a part of the money for himself.
Setting up a company in 2025 was a piece of cake. The only problem was not going bankrupt as many new companies prospered and fell constantly. He completed the paperwork online and it took only a few minutes. He then went on some Job finder sites and put on a hiring notice that said the company needed web developers, video editors and HR manager.
When all was done, he went to his bedroom and slept. Emilia and Emiliano were busy watching their stuff in the main hall.
When Lucio woke up, he was greeted with a huge number of mails flooding his screen. He then slowly went over them to see that they were all resume's of different people. "Haa… unemployment is a huge problem even now…."
It took him almost 4 hours to go through all the mails and noting down the details of people who seemed to pass all his requirements. In total he had about 22 web developers, 17 video editors and 6 HR managers. From which he would trim down the numbers after the interview.
Lucio decided to buy himself a suit for the interview. He owned the company after all.
******
Gloria Sanders, an English woman sat in front of her laptop, applying for jobs everywhere she could find. She was jobless when the company she worked for went bankrupt. Her savings were running dry and she felt helpless as she was not used to living so frugally. Living in Seoul was a dream which was turning into a nightmare.
Hope was ignited for her when she received a mail, asking her to come to an interview. The address was given right below. She thanked the heavens before going out to get a good treatment. She had to be presentable the interview after all.
A few who received the email were nonchalant and the others thanked the gods for bestowing them the opportunity.
A young lady was playing a casual game when she recieved a notification to attend the interview. She was happy but she didnt really care as all the people said that she was too young to join their company and most of them wanted koreans. She shook her head and continued playing. "It's better not to have expectations."