Chapter II - The Beginning

"Welcome to the final days of The World!"

Marcus couldn't believe it… His jaw dropped, he was stunned beyond belief… he couldn't even bring himself to properly open the announcement.

He knew the game's popularity had been decreasing at a rapid pace, as with every game there were plenty of mass migrations in the player base, but it's age was slowly but surely failing to keep up with the times.

The wandering NPCs (Non-player Character) were ignoring him as programmed by the developers and the few players were making hushed jokes about the strange aghast expression on Marcus' face before they went on their way ignoring the strange player.

After standing there dumbstruck staring off into space for what felt like an eternity, Marcus finally snapped back and mustered up the courage to expand the notification.

"Dear Players,

We want to thank everyone for their continued support this last year! It is with a heavy heart and after much deliberation, The World is going to be undergoing it's final update tomorrow and the day after the Decennial Anniversary event, we will be shutting down our servers. With the Dive Visors being phased out and losing functionality, we will no longer be able to maintain the servers.

Stay tuned for future updates following the Decennial Anniversary event as new horizons are just around the corner."

"WHAAAATTTTT??!?!?"

Marcus was hit with another piece of devastating news that he was not prepared for, his Dive Visor was going to become useless soon. The Ten-Year Anniversary was less than a month away. There was no way he was going to be able to find a job and make enough money to upgrade to the Dive Pod in that time.

Feeling completely drained he decided to simply log off and go to bed. Laying there staring at the wall, his mind was racing trying to find out what was happening to his life.

Never coming to any conclusions of the mountain of answers piling up around him, he slowly lost consciousness and fell asleep. Unbeknownst to him, he received another email from the unknown sender with the same subject:

'Tired of Your Everyday Life?'

The following morning Marcus was woken up by his younger sister, Vanessa, pouncing on his bed and shaking him violently.

"Wake up sleepyhead, breakfast is already on the table" she said before prancing away. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Marcus went across the hall into the small half-bath and washed his face and joined everyone at the table.

"Any good news dear?" Patricia, Marcus' short and sweet mother asked while finishing her work from the kitchen.

Yawning and taking a sip of juice, Marcus shook his head in defeat. "They decided to go with another candidate and said they would keep my resume on file and reach out if any other positions opened up…"

Vanessa playfully jabbed him in his bicep, "That makes 20 rejections in a row right?" She asked teasing her brother.

"30" Stephen, his father retorted from behind the morning newspaper without coming out from behind his blind.

Marcus sighed "I applied to another dozen jobs last night. We'll see what comes from this batch." He said as he began eating his breakfast of eggs and toast.

"You'll find something sweetie." His mother encouraged as she sat down, placing her and Stephen's breakfast on the table.

Folding and putting the newspaper down next to his plate, his father shook his head as he took a sip of his coffee "Not with that attitude he won't. You need to go and get a job son, not go and look for one, do you understand what the difference is?"

"Yes sir." was all Marcus could respond with. It wasn't like he didn't want to find work, he had been grinding day in and day out applying to everything he could find, he just couldn't seem to land a single job. He felt as if had been cursed and blacklisted in his field before he had even started.

He couldn't even face his friends from high school or university as they had all gone on to land successful jobs and begin their lucrative careers. He felt like a failure to more than just his father.

Before his father could question him, a notification popped up on his Pocket Device from an unknown number that simply asked:

'Tired of Your Everyday Life?'

Marcus looked at the message and deleted it yet again without answering. "Who was that? You have a girlfriend?" Vanessa teased him once again, her favorite pastime.

"No woman wants to date a Post-Graduate unemployed bum darling" their father snorted as his mother lightly slapped his shoulder.

"Don't be rude Stephen!" His mother came to his rescue "Don't listen to your father sweetie, who was that, was it a job offer?" She asked

Shaking his head "Just some spam, I got an email from an unknown guy last night with the same question, I don't know what they want."

He got up and rinsed off his plate, went back to his room, and got dressed before leaving "I'll be back going to go get a job!" He yelled closing the door behind him.

As he was riding he had gotten another dozen emails and two more messages with the same subject:

'Tired of Your Everyday Life?'

Stopping at a secondhand store, he went to the clerk asking if any Dive Pods were available. The clerk replied "We just had someone leave us with one, it's in the back, come take a look."

The clerk lifted the countertop that allowed Marcus to step into the back storage room. "It's one of the first models, owner passed away so they got rid of it, what ya think?" The clerk asked as he pulled the sheet to reveal the Dive Pod.

Marcus could hardly contain his excitement, he walked around the pod and examined it from top to bottom, "It looks like it was well maintained, how much are ya asking?"

The clerk scratched his chin and pretended to think "$99,999.99, no lower!"