It’s the year 2243. A year that not only the health and transportation was affected by technology. The unstoppable increase in human population forced humanity to look for new job opportunities and video games of old became much more than just pastime activities. Virtual reality games were the most popular amongst them. 'Second World Online’ became the monopoly in the market even when it was in demo stage. Introducing a medieval world with a fantasy twist, this game became a literal ‘second world’ for humanity with its never seen before system and reality.

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It was a rainy day. A young man was walking on a muddy road between the old houses. 1.80 meters high, his long and messy hair left on his shoulders while his shiny black eyes looked all around him. His clothes were filthy and his shoes were punctured everywhere. It was obvious that he did not live the good times.

His name was Xin Feng. Lost his father when he was young and his mother was bound to bed because of over working. There were people swimming in money and there were people starving, it was the truth about the world. No matter what age it was. Winners or losers, there were always these two kinds of people.

Xin Feng had to drop out of school because they lacked funds. And on top of that, because his mother is sick, looking after the family became his job. He wasn’t complaining no. He was thankful to his mother. He could never pay her back for looking after him until she became sick. He never lost the fire in his eyes. No matter what life pitted him against, he never gave up.

Sometimes, if he can’t find anything in the factory district, he would sneak into the district where the rich would live and dumpster dive there. Normally security was tight with iron fences and guards and no one who did not live there enter. But Xin Feng, who memorised the guard change hours, could enter through the opening in the fence that he concealed with foliage with the right timing. While looking through the things in a dumpster, a single piece caught Xin Feng's eye. Even though he couldn’t go to school and he lived in the lower district, he knew what this piece was. It was a so called ‘Diving Gear'. Not the one that actual divers use no, it was the gear for the brand new game that was coming out 3 days later ‘Second World Online’. With the command word, the user would enter the virtual world and play games all they wanted.

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Virtual reality games had a huge impact on the economy and it contained one of the biggest business sector.

Xin Feng started to daydream all of a sudden.

“If only I could earn income by simply playing games. Think about it, being number one in ‘Second World Online’, earning tons of money. Mom and I living the luxury lifestyle. That would be great.

He came back to himself suddenly and remembered the fact that he never had a hobby nor he ever played any game. Thus he kept on dumpster diving and throwing the gear into his sack.

When it became night, he left the rich district unseen and returned to his neighbourhood. He went to the scrap yard and began selling his findings there before going home as always.

While showcasing his findings, diving gear came to his hand and he hesitated whether to sell it or not. In the end he kept it. He only earned 20$ from his work whole day. This was not even close enough to feed a family for a day.

He sat down in his room after returning. There were hardly anything in the house. The government confiscated most of their stuff after his dad died because of his depts. After resting for a while, he got up and cooked a meal for his mother. Her mother was on the bed in the next room. Her hair began to whiten and she was malnourished. Her name was Xin Ruo.

“Mom, wake up. I brought food.”

Ah, Feng. Welcome back. You are muddy all over again. You are not overworking right?”

She opened her eyes. She was happy to see her son but her heart ached whenever she sees her son like this. If only she wasn’t I’ll and was still able to work, maybe then her son could go to school and their lives would be better. She became unable to look after her son and thought herself to be just a burden to him.

“It’s okay mom. You know I’m strong. Eat before your food becomes cold. Time for your medicine is near as well.”

“Okay. You eat too.”

“I ate on the way back.”

He did not. He only kept going with half a loaf of bread when he ate before going out in the morning. His income was only enough to pay for the bills and to buy his mother's medicines. If he ate every meal, they would be going through financial problems. He went to his room and lay down on his floor bed. He plugged in the VR headset he found that day to charge it. It didn’t have any visible problems.

The next day, Xin Feng went dumpster diving early and was lucky enough to fill his sack earlier than normal. He returned home early and prepared the food. There still a couple of hours until his mother’s medication time so he decided to give the headset a go. He already saw how to use it from the big advertisement screens in the upper district. He put on the headset and spoke the command word:

“Dive!”