"Wellcome to Starborgs, how may I help you?" The young girl behind the counter greeted Uriel with a smile. He was so nervous he couldn't help but stutter.

"I- I would- I would like to work here please!" He bowed his head in despair. It was the last place in a long list of possible jobs. Worst part was, even if he got the job, he wasn't sure if he would make enough money to pay for the ticket for the incursion.

The girl behind the counter grimaced in reply, her smile turned upside down and her attitude became cold.

"We're not hiring at the moment, but feel free to take a form from the counter."

She too knew the pain of being an unemployed freshman struggling to get enough money for the ticket. Uriel's situation was far from being unique, or even rare, because he was just another victim of the government.

The government was in dire need to study the cryptids that appeared suddenly and caused mayhem in the whole world but it wasn't as simple as recording them or gathering samples, there were several obstacles that impeded them from doing so and their only chance was finding people capable enough to study them on site.

That was the main reason why they offered freshmen students the possibility of participating in the so called 'incursions'.

Participating in an incursion meant the possibility of acquiring a trait, which was some sort of mutation that gave humans different powers or abilities that allowed them to surpass humanity's wildest dreams, but that gave way to a problem on its own.

At first, the only ones allowed to participate in incursions were those who belonged to the army. It made sense since they were the only ones with enough training and equipment to face battle, but they were mostly incapable of studying the creatures that lurked in the wilderness.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the government soon found itself incapable of controlling so many army men with traits and they realized the only way of keeping the balance was if they allowed regular citizens to take part in some incursions too with the excuse of learning more about the cryptids.

And so, the solution was simple. Sending students in order to distribute enough traits among the regular citizens. They could have sent scholars and professors, but they were way too valuable in teaching to risk their lives like that.

Students, instead, were easy to manipulate and were highly motivated to put their lives at risk if that meant the possibility of getting money, recognition and most importantly, a trait. In order to get them to cooperate, all they had to do was to ask a big sum of money for them to participate.

Not an outrageous amount, just enough so they were forced to form ties with any big corporation keeping them from joining the army.

That caused a huge separation between the army and the government but thanks to the support of the big corporations the balance was kept.

Of course they didn't keep the balance out of the kindness of their hearts, those corporations were the ones who benefited the most from this arrangement.

By forcing young students into debt, they were ensuing the loyalty of young capable men and women who most likely will acquire a trait at some point. And even if they didn't, they could still become tomorrow's workforce.

Everyone was happy with this arrangement, everyone but a small portion of students who didn't have the means to pay for their tickets and didn't want to become corporate drones so early in their careers.

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Uriel's line of thought was something of the sorts. He knew his capabilities were high enough to put most of his classmates to shame, and even some professors too. But that didn't mean much when his skills were just not marketable.

The most desirable career paths were those related to the weapon industry, applied physics, anatomy, biology, xenobiology, anything but archaeology.

The arrival of the cryptids changed the world in so many ways, so fast, that technology had a hard time keeping up. Everyone was looking at the future, who would bother doing something so troublesome and useless like studying what happened in the past.

Kicking stones as he walked back to his dorm room, Uriel finally realized the seriousness of his situation.

No big corporation would take an interest in an aspirant archaeologist and even if he was hired at the Starborgs and worked his ass off without even sleeping the rest of the week he wouldn't be able to get enough money to pay for his incursion ticket.

It was just 500 credits, just 500 credits. But that was a lot more than what he had. He knew he was about to miss the opportunity of a lifetime just because he was too poor, but that didn't mean his world was over.

He could still study hard and become a respectable archaeologist, maybe he wouldn't be able to investigate ruins on site because of the dangers that posed, but at least he would still be able to teach and make a living, just like professor Pangiotis.

Finding some relief in this, he set up his old digital camera in front of his desk. The same he bought from a flea market for spare change when he was still in highschool.

"Hello friends, and welcome to my Vlog, this is Uriel Sage and I'll be talking today about the codex I'm currently working on. I know it doesn't sound too exciting and I've spent a month already with my head stuck in those old books, but last night I found something really interesting."

Uriel talked to the camera pretending to be talking to his suscribers, even though he knew there was no one listening to him. Since he didn't even have a smartphone and his digital camera was so old, the only way for him to make his vlog was to record himself and then upload the video using the college's computers.

He was dirt poor, but that didn't mean he couldn't do things he enjoyed, like keeping a vlog.

The sad truth, though, was that even if he had the possibility to upload the content directly to the internet, he would still be talking to himself. He only had a hundred suscribers and he was certain that most of them were bots and the rest were most likely people that followed him back.

"This old scribbles I found in the library made my head spin. Every ancient language is different and their origin can be traced up to six thousand b.c. or that's what they'll have you believe, actually, they all have a common origin and I'm really close to proving it. If you see here and here..."

Uriel pointed out to a section of a print out picture.

"You'll notice the resemblance between those two characters, and if you look there and there, it's exactly the same! Of course something like that would be impossible, not only because those two civilizations were in different countries, but also because... and here's the most interesting part..."

Uriel kept going for about five minutes, his eyes shined with emotion as he kept rambling about his many theories about the true origin of human language.

It wasn't uncommon for him to talk excitedly like that in front of the camera, he liked to think that some people in other parts of the world would find his theories interesting just as he did and time became irrelevant for him as he unraveled his wild theories that made sense only to him.

Taking advantage of the fact that he lived on campus, he immediately ran towards the tech room to upload his vlog.

Even though the computer he was using was high tech, it still took a long time to upload because the old digital camera only allowed the exchange of data using an old cable that was almost obsolete.

Updating his vlog always made him feel better about himself and about the hardships of life. Pretending to be a successful archaeologist filled him with joy and it was a harmless game he liked to play.

Unfortunately for him, going back to his dorm made all of his problems crawl back to his head. He was still penniless, there was less than a week left for the incursion and his girlfriend had broken up with him and he knew Mark was probably hitting on her right now.

"If only I had the money to... what am I saying, even if i had the money there's no certainty of getting a trait and with my luck, even if I got one it would be total crap."

He said with a wry smile as he stepped into the dorms.