Let's play.

The sun beating down on the grey asphalt, it's a seemingly normal day in the city. A fairly average-sized male exits a convenience store, appearing to be getting off work. He looks to be in his late 20s maybe even early 30s with a deadpan expression on his face that doesn't seem to help his appearance. The man then reaches into his pockets and takes out a phone that would have been cutting-edge technology if it were to be 5 years ago.

"Finally off work and I can enjoy my weekend..."

The man proceeds to scroll through his phone, seemingly reading various different things, as he makes his way home from work.

"Michael, did you bring any food?" Finally arriving home Michael slowly brings his attention away from his phone as he realizes he's already arrived home and a young girl has met him outside.

"I don't seem to be holding anything but my phone in my hands right? Just order something instead" Michael answers as he brings his attention back to his phone and walks past the girl and into the house, opposed to Michael the girl seems to actually take care of her appearance as she looks much younger and presentable.

The girl has long black hair that matches the texture of silk and an oval face that would bring jealousy to many. It'd be shocking to think that they are actually related. Michael also has black hair, although it isn't as lustrous, sporting a fairly common haircut that doesn't quite stand out and eyes that seem to not get enough sleep overall giving him a kind of gloomy look.

"Michael I'm going to go spend the summer with Mom and Dad so I'm leaving tomorrow, can you help me pack at least?"

"I just got off work... I'll help later," Michael says heading into his room and shutting the door.

"Whatever, hey did you hear about the new game coming out? My friends have been talking about it."

"Hey, Emily can you bring me some water?" Michael shouts out from his room.

"You didn't even answer my question, I'm not helping since you don't want to help me pack! Anyways Mom and Dad said you should also come visit soon"

Michael opened the door to his room and entered the kitchen which is connected to the living room and also where the front door is, being quite the small apartment. Grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge he then replies -

"We just moved out at the end of fall, it's only been a few months; anyways, it was their idea for me to move to the city with you and find a job here," Michael replied with a bit of a cold tone in his voice.

"I would've been just fine living on the University campus, don't ask me why they wanted you to come" Emily quickly retorted.

"Ah, maybe they don't think you're ready to live alone yet..." Michael said with a smirk creeping up on his face shutting the fridge and making his way back to his room.

"Shut up, are you really not going to help me pack?" Stomping on the floor Emily shoots back.

"What do you even need help with?" Michael asks turning around to look at Emily's pouting expression.

Emily then stares at Miachel with what seems to be an attempt at appearing menacing and turns to go to her own room. Emily and Michael moved to the city mainly because Emily was accepted into one of the best Universities in the world and with this opportunity, his parents also thought Michael could move out with Emily and start getting his own life together by being a bit more independent.

Michael graduated with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science 8 years ago, in 2022, and since then has mainly been playing video games instead of job-seeking, to advance his career. His family was middle class and didn't have much financial issues and having a good relationship with his parents there wasn't an issue of him continuing to live with them; resulting in Michael not really needing a job to pay any bills.

After moving out, Michael started searching for jobs related to programming but found it to be quite difficult as many questioned him about his motivation for having a gap of 8 years where there wasn't any related work experience, hence why he is currently working at a convenience store as Michael simply felt too lazy to continue with such awkward job interviews and also didn't need the extra cash the job would give as his parents were paying for his and Emily's rent so all Michael really needed was money for food and other daily expenses.

Although Michael really hates working a 9 to 5 during the week as it burns into the time he could have been using to grind his stats in an MMO he's been playing for over a decade; in fact, it's his 4th account that he's trying to max as he already achieved max stats and achievement on his other accounts and just wants to do it again for the 4th time.

As Micheal enters his room and powers on his PC while dusting off his desk and keyboard, he starts getting a call from his computer. Micheal then proceeds to put on his headset and answers the call with a sigh.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Dude, did you hear about the new game that's coming out?" An excited male voice comes from the headset.

"Yeah, I've seen a bit of news about it for the past week, I even saw they released something this morning when I was walking home from work; even my sister mentioned it, seems like the game is getting a lot of attention when it's not even out yet"

"This is exactly what the MMO genre needs right now, we have to grind this game when it comes out"

"This really is bad timing, since I have work and all... I won't have time to grind, honestly, I hope it isn't good so I don't miss out" Michael says as he leans back into his chair and sighs

"Anyways I don't even have a VR headset and I don't know if it's worth the money to buy one if I don't even like the kind of VR games that are out right now" Michael adds as he looks up at the low ceiling of the apartment.

"There's no way you can miss this opportunity, just think about it... the game already has so much hype and we have experience in this genre, we could become famous like those streamers. Just think about the last time a good MMO came out. IT WAS LIKE 10 YEARS AGO" Derek practically yelling now as he frantically wants to convince Michael to play.

Derek and Michael actually have quite a long history. Meeting in 2017 when Michael was 17 and Derek was 11. During the time, there was an event at a game convention where the two were randomly placed in a group and easily won first place and became quite notorious at the time for their young age, especially for Derek as he was even offered deals from professional gaming organizations to join their roster.

Derek made friends and even admired Micahel a lot since Michael was also 6 years older than him. Derek ended up signing for a mid but still fairly known organization and even competing in some competitions since their "debut" in 2017, but Michael was already starting school for his degree so even if he did try a bit harder to be recognized didn't have much of an interest there."

"Ok fine, hold on I'll call my boss and ask if I could take a vacation to go visit my parents since it's summer."

Michael quickly called his boss even though it was already 6 pm and wondered if he would even pick up the phone; much to his surprise his boss picked up.

"Michael, what a surprise, you don't call me much, but hey I wanted to get in touch with you soon."

"Oh? Yeah, I was just calling to see if I could request a vacation for this summer, is there something you needed to talk to me about?"

"What a coincidence, I was just thinking that maybe this type of work isn't really cut out for you. I was actually thinking, since you want a vacation, how about since you did indeed work enough to receive a vacation I'll let you get your paid time off but after the month is over I'll have to let you off."

"...."

"...."

"Hello? Michael you still on the phone?"

"Yeah... sorry that's fine I appreciate you letting me know ahead of time"

The call promptly finished and Michael was in a bit of a daze for a minute. Still wondering why he'd be fired all of a sudden. Now regretting why he didn't just ask the reason why he was being laid off.

"Ahhh, what the hell did I do wrong..." Michael seemingly collapses onto his bed while ruffling his hair and tumbling about; Michael's room is quite small so just standing in front of his desk he doesn't even really need to take any steps to land on his bed.

"This was a mistake, I could have just tried to make money through games; so embarrassing, what the hell am I supposed to tell everyone? That I got fired from a convenience store?? unbelievable"

"It seems I might have time to play the new game after all..." Michael thinks to himself as he brings out his phone while laying on the bed. Checking his bank balance, Michael has a whopping total of 2 thousand dollars saved up. The newest VR console is about a thousand dollars and with Michael's personality, he always just buys whatever is best at the time.

"This game better be good or I'll really be pissed off..." Michael says to himself as he orders the device to his parent's house. Thankfully the game was announced to be free of charge so all he needed to pay was for the VR headset itself.

Michael then sent a message to Emily saying he would also be coming back home with her.