I'll take a quarter of Ethereum, a dime of cytoplasm, and an inch of electrums in change for this Byronstian token.
Are you sure you want only a dime of cytoplasm? With how the market is swinging, you might want to hedge your bets and place your capital on a stable token with a few months of history, rather than the newly minted coins.
Nah, the future is always right. I hedge my bets on moving forward, not stepping back. The moment you stop and analyze, is the same moment you're left holding a token that no longer carries any value.
The man behind the class began pressing on his keys in a manner that sounded unconvinced. There was no line in the crypto exchange booth, surprisingly, but then again, the creator of the hottest new video game, World of Eternity had implemented a new feature in which crypto could be mined and sold in game, making it so people could make a living off the game. Not just those with the skill and personality in front of the webcam, with the smiles and looks that garnered a following that allowed them to play video games for fun, now the layman could sit at home and work while he plays. Engulfing the society in a vortex of players, of grinders, of self made video game millionaires. Within the very opening week companies began hiring people to mine for them. They set up office buildings in which regular people would clock in at 7 and leave at 5, spending their day mining or farming whatever materials they wished to have an in-game monopoly over. The 21st century, with its advent of alternative energies, had done away with the profession of miners; the tail end of the very same century had brought it back. But not in damp shafts hundreds of feet beneath the earth, but in cubicles shared with other geeks that clicked on a screen for hours on end. Mining resources, traveling to town and depositing into the company bank, in which the next string of workers would craft the materials into whatever sold best on the market. Right now that means crafting armor for pvp. The rise of warfare and online highwayman that watched nodes and popular farming spots was sending the games population into a stat frenzy. Players wanted tankier armor and more dps for the inevitable ganker that rested at the edge of the wilds and the safety of town.
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A light green indicator flashes three times and my digital wallet is spat back out. I took it and smiled a grin that wasn't reciprocated. The man who was too busy multiboxing a character on his other screen. If he knew what I knew, he would drop the game now, before it was too late. But, then again, the whole world was wrapped up in the next thing. And I couldn't blame them.
What I had told the man was true, hedging on the future is the only way to survive in an age where bullshit and real shit are indistinguishable from one another.
Apartment buildings stacked in odd jenga-like patterns lay scattered across a city that was burning neon the second the sun set. These buildings were mundane, but more importantly they were efficient. A person with a job that they could do from their desk, which was now almost half of the cities population (most of the lower-end civilians were glorified add watchers and survey takers now, the government had figured out that financial aid was a pejorative and instead erected ad agencies to “employ” the less inclined), would never have to step foot outside of their complex if they so desired. Within their unit were eight different fast food chains and a small compartment store for household needs that couldn’t be ordered online and picked up at their depot slot.
The whole thing reeked of a dystopia if sniffed by the nostrils of someone who liked beauty or taste. But, if seen through the eyes of a capitalist, which is the reason why we are here- it was a wet dream that shot all over the sheets, which left a stain so uncleanable, that they had to order new ones off their website, which was only ever a click away.
It was safe to say that I hated it here.
Having to consciously keep up with the trends of online, or else you would lose all sense of state, having to learn which new words are now deemed unacceptable, which if not learned could lead to an internet faux pas that would mean your dreams of ever tapping into the online market flew out the figurative air vent….it was a nightmare living and it was made even worse when dying was literally not an option.
To be continued…