Birthday

John was not a reincarnator, nor did he have a unique system. All he had was a far-fetched dream. A dream of being undefeatable.

ATTENTION ALL VIEWERS! The brand new VRMMORPG, Eternal Online is being released in a week on the 1st June. Buy your capsules now for only £1000!

John looked at this ad. Yet another one advertising this bloody game. When would these ads end? He had played plenty of games before but all he wanted for now was to read novels online. He loved reading about characters that would be really lucky and be given mighty powers or characters that would be reincarnated and have a secret system that would make them become the best. Annoyed at having his immersion in a story disrupted, he turned off his phone and went to sleep.

The next day, at school, John went into his Form room for morning registration as usual but none of his classmates were there. His form teacher seemed to be missing too! Confused, he went to the school's reception to ask where everyone was.

"Umm, I'm not really sure how you don't know this," the lady at the desk said, "but since you finished your final exams yesterday, attendance is no-longer mandatory. Hence, the form teacher probably assumed, as did most people, that no-one would turn up."

"Oh, can I go then?" John nervously asked, feeling disappointed that he would not be able to follow his "friends" round and listen to their conversations anymore.

"Yes. You are free to go." The receptionist answered while pressing a button that made the main entrance's doors open electronically.

Dejected, John trudged out of his school. Looking back at it, he remembered all the good times he had had: the time when his crush once briefly held his had; the time when he won a computing competition between over 20 schools; the time when he got the top grade in the Maths exams 2 years early and the times he tried to join in with conversations.

When he got back home, he was surprised to see a large package with a note on it:

'Happy Birthday John,

I'm sorry that I can't be around for your birthday, I have an important business trip that I have to go on. I know you like technology and role-thingy games, so I got you this. It's supposed to be really good and it should give you something to do with your time now that you are off school.

Best wishes, Dad.'

Remembering the ad he saw earlier, John guessed what would be in the package. His dad loved him, but since his mum died 5 years ago, his dad had to spend much more time working because the household was reduced to one income instead of two. Despite being a bit short on money, John's dad would always get him a good present. It seemed that this year, for his 19th birthday, his dad had gone even further with his present.

Gratefully, John opened the package and got started with setting up the capsule.