Ascension

Jiho came out of the bathroom after taking a quick bath. He headed towards the dining room first as his mother had already prepared the food.

His mother and father were already sitting at the dining table and food was arranged nicely.

"Looks good~" He pulled out a chair and sat on it, complimenting the tasty-looking food that his mother had prepared.

"Let's dig in!" He couldn't hold back his hunger and instantly ate all of it in a matter of mere minutes.

"Eat slowly jiho, the food won't run away." His dad spoke up with a chuckle.

"Eat well my dear jiho, you need a lot of strength for the next day." His mother also spoke up afterward, showing her deep care for her son, caressing his hair gently.

"Hehe~" Jiho let out a slight smile, only his family could make him smile even in times of crisis or when he was feeling depressed.

After filling his hungry stomach, he headed toward his bedroom.

"Creak-" the door creaked as he opened it, as it was too old and the iron was rusty.

His little sweet room had a strong, gentle, and smooth scent of flowers. Although he was not rich enough to afford expensive decorative items, it didn't mean that he couldn't decorate his room and make it nice.

He lay on the bed, picking up his phone in his hands. He unlocked the phone and opened an application with the name "Updates 24/7".

He was used to watching daily news and updates on his phone or the TV as it was his only source of enjoyment, he could watch sports news and more stuff like that which always made him happy.

He was also a bit interested in mobile and computer games but lack of money never let him play the games he desired to as a kid.

The front page of the application popped up as soon as he touched the app icon.

It had different sections for different types of news, like - politics, sports, games, entertainment, etc.

Following his daily routine, he was about to click on the sports news section but a certain headline caught his sight.

It read, "World's first fully immersive VRMMORPG game!". He didn't know much about this genre of games so he decided to check it out just for fun, as it wouldn't do any harm if he checked it out for a few minutes.

As he scrolled up, he found that VRMMORPG games are the new generation of games, players are required to buy a type of capsule or a headset to be eligible to play these games.

He was amazed by this generation of games but more amazed about the new fully immersive VRMMORPG game called "Ascension".

He looked at the price of both the headset and the gaming capsule for this game and was bewildered after looking at the prices.

The headset alone cost around 10 million Won which was a large amount for someone like him.

And talking about the capsule, its price was so high that he almost wanted to smash his head into the wall. "50 million!" He was amazed by this kind of price for a game.

"What is so good about this game? It costs so much, just what does it have that other games don't?" He wondered.

"Anyways, not like I can buy and play it." He felt disappointed but then suddenly remembered about live streams and gameplay videos on the Ystream app.

He quit the updates app and clicked on the Ystream app swiftly.

There were many videos featured on the front page, and he was not a bit amazed to see the game "Ascension" as the top featured game as he knew, just like him, every other person was wondering what was so special about the game.

He clicked on the live stream and the video started playing on his screen.

What came next was a surge of shock. "What!?", He was bewildered after seeing how the actual game was.

It was so realistic that it looked like it was alien tech and not human tech.

The environment was more beautiful and as realistic as the real world, there was every minor to major detail that was copied from the real world.

The live chat was also the same as him, they were spamming like hell and some rich guys were also giving money to the streamer.

"Lucky brother, he is getting money by playing games." He thought to himself but didn't write it in the live chat as he was afraid of the toxic people who would instantly reply with hate comments.

"I guess it's time to sleep~" after watching the whole stream, he finally decided to fall asleep as he had already spent 2 hours checking all the stuff about the game.

  ****************

(Morning - 8 am)

Jiho woke up as he heard the alarm clock rang. "I had a good sleep~" He got up from the bed and headed to the bathroom first.

After freshening up, he headed to the dining room. His mom and dad were already there at the dining table. 

He greeted his parents and sat on a chair.

After having his share of food, he got ready for college. "I am going out, mom." He told his mom and went out after making sure everything was ready.

On the way, he took his phone out of his pocket and checked if there was anything new happening in the world.

He then suddenly remembered about the game "Ascension" and opened the Ystream app to watch more videos related to it.

He sat on a bench at the bus stand and started watching the top stream of the day which was featuring the gameplay of Ascension.

"I wish I could play such a game. I could run again and enjoy my life inside that virtual world." He once again felt helpless.

"Well, I guess facilities are for the rich." He continued watching the stream with a severe sense of disappointment.

After a few minutes, a certain billboard on the roadside caught his attention.

It read "Ascension Headset giveaway! 100 Guaranteed winners!" He instantly felt like participating in the giveaway, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, if he won, he could get the headset worth 10 million won and enjoy the super realistic game.

He instantly opened Xbrowser on his phone and entered the web address mentioned on the billboard.

A popup came up as soon as he opened the website.

{Welcome to the largest gaming giveaway!}

{Please press the button below to participate in the giveaway!}

He clicked on the button and a verification message popped up which he easily completed, and at last, he had finally confirmed his entry for the giveaway.

"Well, I can only wait for the results now." He looked at the time remaining for the results to come out.

{3 days: 15 hours: 00 minutes}