When the clock strikes 12

"Jaxton how are you dear?" Mrs. Sterlings said to Jax. Kyle snickered, which earned him a glare from his mom, while Jax replied, "I'm good Mrs. Sterlings, thank you for always taking care of Anna. I'm sure she loves your cooking more than our microwave meals."

"Oh such a flatterer! If only my husband would talk more to me like that instead of business all the time. Speak of the devil." She said as she watched her husband come into the kitchen area talking about business with Derek. She gave her husband the 'you're in trouble' look, yet he was too focused on business to see her as his back was to her.

Jax and the maid each took a step away from the husband and wife as Derek began to visibly sweat as he could see Mrs. Sterlings glaring at them now. Derek sheepishly told Mr. Sterlings that his wife was looking at him, and once the old man turned around he started sweating too.

He smiled wirily, "Yes dear?" She continued to glare at him for a few more seconds, making the atmosphere even more awkward before turning away with a "hmph!" and being all tsun tsun.

As the old man tried to reconcile with his wife by being lovey-dovey in front of everyone, they all scattered, the boys going up to Kyle's room, while the maid went who knows where. They reconvened for dinner where nothing special happened. They chatted about their days while the kids sat at a kiddy table eating and then drawing when they finished.

The adults eventually got onto the topic of Sentinel's Rising, as it was the hottest trend nowadays and Mr. and Mrs. Sterlings didn't know much about it so Jax ended up explaining as no one else wanted to. Plus he technically had the most knowledge if the game really was a carbon copy of his dad's game.

"The background of the game is basically just a world full of danger and war that was saved by these people called Sentinels, each represented by a Greek letter of the alphabet, who had inhuman powers that they used to bring peace and yada yada.

"Those Sentinels eventually had to leave the world but they left their legacies behind, in case another catastrophe happened so that is the main quest most likely for the game. They want all the players to search for and earn the legacy of these Sentinels to stop a future war from happening again.

The devs still haven't given much info on legacies or the main quest, as they want the players to find out for themselves. The majority of what players will do at the beginning of the game is just grinding levels by defeating monsters and choosing a class that they would like to play, like warrior or priest."

"Oh interesting," Mr. Sterlings commented, "I heard rumors that they will let players use real-world money to use inside the game, do you know how that will work?"

"Most likely it will just be a rate of exchange that will allow players to take money from the game, to the real world. I'm not sure about vice versa though, as that would make it a pay to win game since several big name esports teams and companies are sponsoring people. I don't think AX has said anything about letting real world money be exchanged for currency in-game, but I know they said you could take money out of the game into the real world."

"I see," Mrs. Sterling added. "Does this mean that Kyle can actually make his own money now, and not mooch off us?" She gave Kyle 'the look' as everyone laughed with Kyle covering his face with his hands.

After dinner, everyone went to do their own thing. The kids went to bed early while the 3 boys went to Kyle's room again to hang out before midnight when the game started.

"I'm going to wait until my mom gets back so you guys go on without me. I'll try to get on asap." Jax said as Derek was getting ready to leave. They at first wanted to get on at the same time and level up together, but then they each agreed to start solo, like they had done in the past.

"Sounds good, text me your guys' IDs when you make your character so I can add you. See ya." Derek said before leaving for his own home.

Kyle and Jax spent more time hanging out, with Kyle drinking again, as they surfed over the forums on any extra information.

"Oh shit! You can have sex in this game! That's Pog!" Kyle practically yelled and almost dropping his beer.

Jax turned to him and gave him a disappointed look, "1. That's cringe so shut up. 2. There are probably heavy restrictions on something like that, and until they come out with something like full-body VR, I doubt it would feel very good."

"Doesn't matter! Imma get all the coochie tonight!" Kyle started dancing around getting beer on the carpet. Jax sighed and moved away so he wasn't splashed.

"If you want to be sober before you start playing you better stop drinking." His words got Kyle to have a moment of clarity as he nodded and quietly sat down again. While Kyle loudly talked about everything he saw on the forums, Jax silently read as well, wanting to confirm what he thought.

'So far everything seems the same, just different names of Kingdoms, towns and famous NPCs. They didn't even bother to add originality to my dad's idea. Fucking assholes.' Jax thought while going over posts on the overview of the world.

He hated seeing his dad's creation being treated this way, but he could do nothing about it. He was done with thinking about trying to win some legal battle against them, it just wasn't worth it. All he wanted now was to earn enough money for his family, and maybe mess up their game if possible. If he could exploit some op mechanics before they found out, he could easily hog the number 1 spot on leaderboards.

Of course, something like that was a wish and a half. Something like that couldn't possibly happen to him. Right?

He didn't bother looking at classes or anything as he already had a playstyle he liked. He would just wing it after character creation and see where his journey took him. At around 12:30 am, Jax heard the front door open and went downstairs. Kyle had already entered the game with an empty beer bottle, not bothering to take Jax's advice.

When he got downstairs, he saw a woman dressed in the attire of a manager from WacDonald's who was silently taking over her shoes. She turned when she heard footsteps, to make eye contact with her son. She looked away with a downcast expression, hiding many emotions, but Jax could guess at least one or two.

Just like Sentinel's Rising was a carbon copy of his dad's game, he was a carbon copy of his dad. His mother always told him how much he resembled his dad, but it hurt her just as much to talk to her own son, unfortunately. She would become down in the dumps for a while after first seeing him every day. It was a difficult way to live, but his mother just couldn't forget his father.

The second reason might be that his mother is working too much. From early in the morning into the evening, she is a receptionist for the Sterlings main headquarters. She was lucky enough to be offered a job there as the Sterlings knew she needed work, but they couldn't use their head honcho powers to give her any managerial positions. She still had to work her way up. In the evening, she would be the closing manager at WacDonald's.

Working this much left her dead tired, and she would normally just go shower then straight to bed. this left her with little to no time to spend on her children, and Jax was sure she felt guilty about it.

While he was still in high school, and before the Sterlings started helping them, he had to take care of a young toddler while going to school. It was rough for someone just barely reaching adulthood to go to school full time so there were plenty of days when he ended up missing school.

After the whole principal talk with his mother and him, they eventually got help from the Sterlings, as Kyle had noticed how bad he was doing in school and wanted to help.

"I thought you were going to play your game?" She said in a soothing voice. She was around 5'6" in height, with blonde hair and blue eyes similar to his. Although she was just in her 40s, the built-up exhaustion made her look 10 years older.

"I was, but I wanted to talk to you first." Jax said with a serious expression. Figuring it was just another complaint from her son, she looked away again and said, "Let me shower first then we can talk for a bit."

Jax wanted to say more but got cut off, "Mama you're home." A little girl said sleepily.