Imagine a world where parents always took care of their kids, and never abandoned them, supported them, gave them supplies so that their kids could flourish in whatever career they wanted. This was not the world Sullivan lived in. Sullivan lived in a hard, uncompromising world where his parents ditched him and kicked him out, saying that since he couldn’t hold a job due to his propensity to play videogames, maybe some time without financial support would strip him of that. They gave him 300 dollars in cash, rented an apartment for 1 month for him, and told his landlord that if he couldn’t pay his rent after that month, to kick him out.

He sighed as he walked down the road. He turned the corner to the area behind his parent’s house, and rummaged through the trash for the parts of his VR capsule. A moldy banana hit the back of his head. “Dirty thief!”

Sullivan ignored the bratty child, who likely would never have to face a situation like this. He collected the parts of his capsule, and his other valuables, and left. When he arrived at his new apartment, he had firmed his resolve, to make money doing the thing his parents hated; playing video games. The doorkeeper asked his name. He told him it. He was then told to go to the landlord, and fill out a survey as a new tenant.

“I know about your situation,” Said the landlord, “and I don’t think it’s right. Parent’s should take care of their kids. So after this first day, given that you can prove that you have an income, I’m going to give you a week extra after the first month to pay your rent. Of course, this is a one time thing. Rent is 800 dollars a month.(US dollars, not canadian)

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Sullivan thanked the man, and went on his way. Once he arrived at his apartment, he began to assemble his capsule. His apartment was very tiny, with the few bare furnishings that were necessary, such as a mini stove, like one of those kitchenette ones, a bed against one wall, and a few outlets. The entire “apartment” was pretty much just a tiny room. And yes, maybe his perspective was slightly skewed, but they still could have gotten him an apartment with multiple rooms. Anyway, he decided that it was time to figure out what game he was going to play. On the way over, he had narrowed it down to two possibilities; The New World, and Evolution. The former was less realistic, not because it didn’t have magic, but because monsters dropped money and weapons, and the other game, Evolution, monsters dropped materials, but no money. In short, one was like the Borderlands franchise, and the other one was like Monster Hunter. Of course, since the whole reason he was playing games this time was to make money, and because production classes often made the most money, he wanted to play a game where he would be one of the sole options for weapons. Of course, since he was only getting this info from the trailers, some of it was bound to be wrong. He pre-ordered Evolution(The Monster Hunter one) and prepared to wait the 3 days or so it would be until release. In the meantime, with the remaining 175 dollars he had, went to the store and purchased the cheapest food he could find. The hotdogs were only a dollar per pack, and didn’t look too different from his normal food.

After buying a large 5 gallon jug of water, he went back home with his remaining money. Because if you want to do well at something, you have to put in an investment. So with his remaining money he tried to buy in-game money directly from the company. The company had disabled this option however, because it would cause the value of in-game money to depreciate way too quickly.

The three days went by quickly, with no noticeable events; he ate his hotdogs, and solemnly vowed to never buy cheap hotdogs again, the landlord stopped by to ask how he was doing, and he relaxed.