Life in the dumps

"Man! It's just my luck to come up on such a bad fortune as soon as my dad passed away!" I said to myself after walking down the hallway of the lawyers office. He had just come to this meeting about his fathers inheritance after getting off from a doctor's appointment. He was told that he did not have enough sperm count in his body to be able to have kids. After he had told his girlfriend the devastating news about his condition, she said that although she loved him, she couldn't bear the thought of not having children in the future and broke up with him in the same call!

He walked down towards the office and opened the door to the office, where he saw his lawyer and his entire family sitting there, seemingly waiting for him to show up. They all gave him dirt glares as the lawyer spoke up,"Ah! Young Harold is finally here! With him here, I can finally disclose the inheritance set out by the old master!"

He listened while everyone in his family received some sort of monetary bond, whether it was cash, stock or property, everyone seemingly got something. Then the lawyer came to him, and said," And finally we have Harold, who has shown me time and time again how clever and kind of a person he is, and so I will be leaving with him my prized emerald ring, and 1,000 dollars for him to use however he sees fit, though i do at least hope he and any of my other family members do some good with what has been given and donate it, for the people."

Everyone in the room had an evil glint on their faces or a scowl as they thought,"Why should I give up this money! I worked for years to butter up my position in your heart!"

I sat there, still trying to process where to take my life from here. I had just recently gotten fired because of layoffs due to the company being bought out, then my dad died, I lost my ability to have kids and to top it all off, someone I consider my soulmate left without a word. I really didn't know where to go or what to do.

I collected the ring that my father had left behind and the 1,000 dollars I got cash from a bank teller down the street. As I walked down the street I put the ring on my finger and realized that it was a perfect fit! I marveled at how exquisite the emerald inside of it sparkled in the sunlight. I sighed and thought to myself,"I don't know why dad decided to leave the ring with me of all people…"

As he walked he saw a homeless man sitting on the corner of the street with a sign that said,"Will work for money, please help, extremely hungry" and felt bad for the poor man. Even though he didn't live in this area, he knew this homeless man as he had seem him countless times over the past decade.

I walked over to the homeless man and sat down next to him, not really knowing what i was doing. The man didn't say anything at first and the very slowly said,"Do you need something son?"

I almost broke down in tears at the mention of the word "Son" but manage to keep myself together with a couple of sniffs and snorts and I reply,"No sir, not really. But I got lucky today in a horrible way, and the one man that I looked up to and could rely on is no longer there to tell me if the decisions I make are the right ones."

The old man didn't say anything and simply looked at the passing cars and the people milling about on the sidewalks. He replied after a while and simply said,"Is there anything you wish to do?"

I shook my head pitifully and said,"No. Everything I once held dear in my life is now gone, and I feel like I have no purpose. This is stupid kid stuff compared to what you have probably seen, and so I was curious, why do you keep fighting?"

The old man chuckled and simply replied,"Because I want to survive.."

I suddenly had a thought a took out the 1k I had in my pocket and touched the outside with a warm thought and slowly handed the envelope over to the old man. I slowly got up and said,"My dad told me to donate this, so to respect his final wishes, I giving it to you. I hope you have a better life in the future, thank you for the advice."

The old man, realizing the situation that was unfolding, quickly opened the envelope and saw the 1k and his hands shook as he counted the money in his hands. The old man got up, weeping tears of joy as he hugged me with his contagious smile.

I laughed without a care in the world as I thought about the future, and what I wanted to do. However that was suddenly screeched to a halt as a yellow slightly holographic box appeared in front of my vision.

The words in the box said,"Welcome, Host! You have passed the requirements to activate the Charity Rebate System!"

I looked at the words in the box and whispered in confusion,"Charity Rebate System?"

Another box popped up and said,"Host has completed the quest "Beginner Test 1! Give away 1,000. Charity Rebate x10 Activated! 10,000 dollars has been deposited into the hosts account!

I looked at the box and my eyes bulged at what the screen was telling me! 10,000 dollars for simply giving away a 1,000?!?!

The old man was still thanking me profusely but i managed to wriggle out of his hold and check my phone bank statement. Sure enough, when I log into my bank account, 10k is sitting inside! This is crazy!