Shopping!

Even though it was getting late, the city was bustling as the nightlife began to stir. James strutted down the main street, walking past many different stores. He would occasionally peek in and think about buying something if it caught his fancy. But after looking around for a bit, he'd only bought one item so far. As his current shoes were wearing out, he had ended up spending a few hundred dollars on the newest line of comfort sport shoes from Nike.

James continued to walk towards his destination while wearing his new shoes. After finally buying new shoes, James realised that he liked the feeling of new shoes, although there was a slight itch behind his ankles.

'Eh, new shoes feels' he shrugged

James had in fact already thrown his old ones out with the receipt of his new Nikes. Admiring his Shoes, James arrived at a large white, shed-like building with a distorted skull painted on the front along with the words 'Skull Technologies Incorporated Warehouse Outlet'.

Skull Tech is the company that is the most technologically advanced when it came to computers, and the warehouse in front of James was his destination. This outlet was one of the major branches for Skull Tech and it dealt with selling everything about computers. In fact, it even sold everything around computers as well, including things like tables and chairs. Walking in through the clear sliding doors, James took a deep breath in.

"Ahhhh. Now this, this is air one could die for"

Whatever he smelt or tasted in the air, one could only guess. Nevertheless, James headed straight to the counter to order parts for his new computer.

****

Eletha is a poor student at a prestigious university in the same city as James, unlike James, she had received a scholarship and as such, didn't need to pay a cent for her studies. However she did have to pay for her rent. To make ends meet, Jasmine had been working a multitude of part time jobs, currently, she was working at a Skull Tech Factory Outlet when a young man dressed in his pyjamas rocked up wearing stolen shoes!! How did she know they were stolen, because they still had the tags on, as if someone just plucked it from the shelf, put them on and walked off.

"Hi, how may I help you?"

She smiled and said, after all, it was her job.

"Yes, I need a new computer for myself and I'd like these parts"

Eletha's eyes widened in shock as the young man proceeded to list a few parts.

'A 9th generation Skull Tech CPU?? A Gryffin 2080 Ti GPU??'

All the items on the list would easily cost a couple hundred dollars, a few of them even costing a few thousand.

'Why the hell does anyone even need a 32GB Royal Gold Ram on a personal computer?? And is a 7th gen Skull Tech Hydraulic Liquid cooler necessary?? What does he want next, a gaming chair? How can he just throw away money like that, I bet he'll probably use this computer to play minesweeper!!! I'll never understand rich people'

Eletha suddenly found herself re-evaluating the man before her, even going as far as dismissing her earlier thought of him stealing the shoes, believing that it's some kind of new fashion that rich kids are into these days. But it didn't stop there.

"Ah!! I also need two of them new 32 inch, G-sync, 144 Hz curved monitors, thanks"

"I thought you said you only needed to a computer, not a whole freaking room"

Eletha mumbled, but unfortunately the young man heard her under her breath.

"Oh, you're right!! How could I forget, I going to need a keyboard, a mouse, headphones and a mic, and… yes!! A gaming chair!!"

Eletha almost fainted. She somehow managed to hang on and decided to just put the order through and not care about this eccentric young man.

'I think I might quit this job, I don't want to deal with rich people'

***

James had finished with his payment when the cute girl at the counter went through another door behind the counter to sort out the drop off location and the time for his order when he noticed why he had an annoying itch at his ankles. He had accidentally left the tags on his shoes, how embarrassing. James quickly ripped it off and threw it in a nearby bin before anyone noticed.

On his way home, James dipped into a restaurant for dinner. Ordering his favourite, dumplings, he chose to get them as takeaway rather than sit alone at a restaurant. By the time he got back to his apartment the dumplings were still nice and warm, James opened his door and went inside, feeling excited for tomorrow. He couldn't wait to build his computer so he could start playing Dragons River Online.

On his computer, the game had only downloaded 10% and still had an estimated completion time of 10 hours. James ate while sitting at his computer watching the time tick by, second by second. After about half a minute, he realised that he was wasting his time when he could have been researching about the game and figuring out how to play it. Punching in the name of the game into his search bar, a few websites popped up, James went and clicked on an article titled:

DRAGONS RIVER ONLINE: A NOOBS GUIDE TO GETTING GOOD

The article went into depth about all the do's and don'ts of the game, as well as what to and what not to expect. It explained how the cash shop works and what items in it are actually useful. James read on diligently taking in everything he read, realising that the game had very few elements of pay to win, but even if it did, it wouldn't have mattered to him. The article continued into getting the first means of transport within the game and how to get equipment. He read about what equipment he should be getting for early game progression and how many materials he should invest in it to upgrade it efficiently. With every word he read, James fell more in love with the game. His excitement kept him up late, almost staying up through the night but the constant adrenaline rush had burnt out all his energy, even after he had taken a nap earlier in the afternoon. James decided to hop into bed as his eyes were getting harder and harder to open and his head kept drooping, attempting to doze off.

****

James awoke to the sound of his doorbell, he had slept late last night and ended up sleeping in, almost missing the delivery of his computer. But he had forgotten everything about that, believing that it was just a dream he grumbled while looking at the time.

"Uggh, im late for class again, and just who the hell is at my door at this time"

He trudged over to his door while fighting his exhaustion, completely unaware that he had forgotten to put on pants as he opened the door. Standing there was the cute girl from the warehouse last night, a disgusted and confused look on her face. She had arrived with his computer already built, he had just needed to plug it in and set it up with his monitor and other peripherals. James immediately realised that yesterday's events were not just an odd dream and suddenly felt a little chilly, especially his legs. If there was a hole nearby, he would jump in without a second of thought.

After signing the delivery confirmation sheet, Eletha had started walking off and James heard a quite mumble from under her breath, 'Pervert'. His face, completely red with embarrassment as he hastily brought the boxes inside. As the download had finished for Dragons River Online, James opened up his old computer and taken out the old hard drives and solid state drives he had and he would transfer them to his new computer.

Setting up the monitors and the new computer didn't take long for him as he had opted for the computer to be pre-built in the warehouse before being shipped, this ensured the parts were installed seamlessly and the cables to be neatly and cleanly managed into a compartment in the backside of his computer. The front side had a large window, through which he could see the insides and the lights from all the various parts he had bought. James opened up the computer to install the storage drives before fully plugging it in and turning it on.

Remembering the article from last night, James navigated through the internet to arrive at the cash shop of Dragons River Online. Looking down the list, he went and purchased an upgrade to the standard account that he had bought the previous night which allowed him various privileges within the game. After this, he moved on the outfits and cosmetics part of the cash shop. He already knew exactly which class he wanted to play so he browsed through the outfits that the game offered.

He saw a wide variety of outfits including the starry robe from the trailer as well as a few fully armoured knight outfit. Browsing through a few outfits had caught his eye, but in the end there was one real outfit he really liked. After purchasing it, James finally went to his desktop and saw a little icon of a dragon that had bent into the shape of a D. His lips curled up as he sat into his new sky blue colored gaming chair, with rolly wheels.

Dragons River Online.

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