"It is now the year 2247. It has been six years since the creation of the spacecraft 'Arklight 73' and five years since we made contact with the Pathos, our first contact with alien life. After the ongoing talks that lasted for three years, the World Government signed a trade agreement allowing us to purchase common non-military technology that can improve our daily lives.
The most exciting and talked about technology that they have allowed us to purchase is, as I'm sure you all know, the 'Neural Interface Capsule', NIC for short, also known to many people as the 'VR Capsule'. From the reports that we have received from the WG, the Pathos and all other races use Credits as their currency. What's more is you can earn Credits by playing the game, Universe, at a 1:4 ratio of real to ingame Credits! From what the WG has release, all countries will be slowly transitioning to Credits as their main form of currency as all other races only accept payment in the form of Credits.
You might be wondering how on earth will we be purchasing technology from them if they only accept Credits. Well, that's a good question. According to the trade agreement, the Pathos will allow the WG to purchase on credit for two years before they..."
Sophia turned and walked away from the store that was playing the news on the radio. Although the news was important to the human race as a whole, to Sophia, whom was from a poor family, it didn't really matter as the technology from the Pathos would most likely take years or even decades before it would reach them. And to be honest, Sophia didn't have time to be worrying about such things as she needed to worry more about how support her family as she has been for the past four years.
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When Sophia was 8, Sophia's father found a job in the United States with a decent pay and moved over from China with his wife and two children. A couple of years later, Sophia's father lost his job and he disappeared the very same night. Left alone, her mother had to work multiple part time jobs in order to support Sophia and her little brother, Anthony.
When Sophia turned 15, her mother came down with an illness, that if not treated, could be fatal. With her mother sick and unable to work, Sophia had to withdraw from school and work multiple part time jobs in order to support her brother and mother.
Sophia worked in almost every trade that would accept her, even some that were not exactly legal for her age. Her jobs went from dishwashing to chef to even working as a mechanic for a short period of time.
When Sophia was 17, she managed to land a job at a modeling agency that paid very well. With this new job, she was able to support her family and pay for the medical bills. It even put more money in her savings than when she worked multiple jobs.
Now, Sophia was 20 and she managed to save up almost forty thousand from all the jobs she worked. Unfortunately, Sophia's job at the modeling agency came to an abrupt end when after a photo shoot, her manager approched her while talking indecently and started touching her even when she told him to stop. Eventually, she kneed him in the balls and left. Once the agency found out about the incident, they let her manager go. As for Sophia, they decided to let her work for the last couple months of her contract and not renew.
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After working the final day at the modeling agency, Sophia walked home thinking about which jobs she could take in order to make up for the income from the agency. According to the news just now, Credits will be the main form of currency in the upcoming years and from what she remembers the exchange rate from dollars to Credits was about 3:1. Thinking about it more, as the US fazes out of the dollar bill, the exchange rate for Credits will grow because dollars will be outdated and useless.
Even though Sophia dropped out of school, she was by no means stupid. And with her job experience working for a stock broker in the past, it was obvious that earning Credits early on reaps more rewards. Thinking along these lines, exchanging for Credits might be the way to go and with more people exchanging with each passing day, the exchange rate will definitely increase exponentially.
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The only problem is that in order to earn Credits, she will have to play the game, Universe. Will she be willing to risk everything in order to make Credits? If Sophia doesn't do well in the game then she would only have a little left over to support her family. So far most businesses in the US are still using the dollar, thus Sophia won't be able to earn credits without playing the game.
Sophia shook her head thinking no matter what she had to exchange all her money to Credits as the dollar will be outdated. Once she exchanges it then she can slowly think about earning Credits through the game.
With her thoughts made up, she rushed home and created a Credit account and exchanged all her savings into Credits. Looking at her account, she currently has 12,807 C. Praying she made the right choice, she logged out of her account.
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Sophia walked to her mother's room.
"What were you doing just now? I heard you rushing to your room."
Her mother spoke in Mandarin as she walked in. She was laying sitting up in bed reading a book.
"Mom! You're suppose to be resting!"
"Oh come now. I can sleep all day, no matter how hard I try."
Sophia sighed and looked around.
"Where is Anthony?"
"He's still at school of couse. Why are you home so early today?"
With another sigh, Sophia finally told her mother what happened three months ago and her thoughts about her future plans playing the game.
Her mother cursed Sophia's manager for about five minutes before Sophia was able to calm her down.
"Sophia. You are a smart girl. I let you suffer over the past years and I wish I could have let you enjoy your school life with your friends. Even though you had to work hard and long hours, you never complained and did what was needed. If you think that these Credits are the future and the game you talked about is the way to make money, then I trust your judgement. Everything we have is due to your hard work. Even if you lose everything, I have no right to complain. Just make sure to take care of your brother."
Sophia's mother smiled and held her hand. After talking a while longer, Sophia let her mother rest and went to pick up her brother from school.
After returning home and cooking food for her mother and brother, she decided to play the game. So she went to the public library and did some research on Universe.
She found that the game was based on the real universe and was constantly being expanded as more races joined the game. Actually according to one article, the game is basically real life except you can't die, resources respawned, it had game menu and elements, and time moved four times as quickly as it did in real life. Everything else in the game must adhere to the laws of real life. Finding another article, she learned that the game was basically a sci-fi game where you use guns to kill monsters.
If the articles are correct, then Sophia need to begin training as the game was a simulation of real life. Sophia contact several people that she met that was in the military to see if she could join in on just the training and not the actual military.
Eventually, one person she knew from her part time job at a restaurant managed to get her permission to join the training of the Marines. Feeling surprised that she actually got to join, she stopped looking for gyms.
After researching a bit more, she went and purchased the cheapest NIC available at the cost of 10,000 C. After comfirming her purchase would be delivered in around four months, she went home and slept.
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Sophia spent a couple of days making preparations for her family. Afterwards, she left for boot camp.
After three months of Marine basic training. Sophia was able to run several miles without losing her breath. She also learned how to clean, maintain, and fire different types of weapons. The Marine instructors were impressed with her training and asked if she wanted to join at the end. She politely declined and thanked them for allowing her to join. She then flew back home.
When she arrived back home, she happily met her family. Sophia began taking care of her family matters and made sure everything would be ok even if she was in the game for months at a time.
After close to another month of training by herself, her NIC finally arrived and was installed in her house. Opening the NIC, she saw silvery goo like substance on the inside. According to her research, those were the nanites that connected her to the game, prevents muscle atrophy, disposes waste, and provided sustenance if she wanted to stay in the game for long periods of time.
Taking a deep breath, Sophia steeled her nerves. She had to do this. This would be a great opportunity and if she does well she would be able to make enough money to finally pay for the surgery her mother needed. Sophia's eyes flashed with determination as she entered the capsule.