Chapter 1: Employed as a Dark Gamer

They said that everyone equaled in everything, but that was just one of their stupid comments to raise a lie and spread it like an insecticide. Equal their asses, if everyone were equal, then no one would be complaining about their miserable lives.

Thanks to the Government officials that had nothing but good to do, the majority of population of Republic of Philippines had been living in prosperity. A lot of Filipinos received high paying job and the economy rose faster than the speed of light, voiced by Patrick Magdalena in a sarcastic tone.

Hell as if they could do that.

All they had done to the community was to take their money and use it for themselves. Instead of taxes going back to the people, those who sit on the Government benefited from it. As the result of their endless greed, the country couldn’t even lift its head up.

Patrick couldn’t help but curse them. Each time he became comfortable with his job, one of the government officials would buy the property of his workplace and demolish the premises for their projects. It sounded ridiculous but it’s true.

“Damn luck… Damn luck…” He caressed his temple and switched on the T.V. He watched the news. Crimes had increased and a lot of people suffered from repetitive storm strikes and floods.

“I hope I can get a job tomorrow…” Patrick didn’t have any time to worry about others. He needed to find a way so he won’t become like the people in the T.V., that they started to fall because of calamities and ended up doing things that weren’t right. That’s the most thing he didn’t want to happen.

“I’m not going back to that life.”

Patrick was a child of the slum. It was a horrible life he’d been through. The money he earned from selling goods, helping in the market, and begging to strangers, it all went to the addiction of his horrible parents. He would steal too if they need more.

The child was the one taking good care of his parents instead of the opposite.

When he became a bit older, he escaped from them and DSWD took him. That was the day his life changed.

Compare to his life with them, he could enjoy his youth and learned many things in the orphanage. He could also save money because they endlessly give him, each time he helped them with chores.

But it wasn’t forever. The child became an adult as the time went.

As a 25 year old adult, he should take care of himself. He should budget his money to live through the despicable world of society. If he ever slack, his life would turn 180.

“Never going to let that happen…”

+++

Seven Realms was an outstanding game. People around the world rated it the best VRMMO game of all time. With it’s awe inspiring quest lines, NPC interactions, and endless adventures, they couldn’t help but play the game.

Moreover, the excitement of playing the game wasn’t just because of the features it showed and excitement the players experienced, the one who could conquer all the continents of the seven dimensions would be rewarded with 40% stock share of WarZieg--the company that have occupied 65% of sales in the market.

Thanks to their announcement, people around the world dedicated themselves to win the marathon.

Of course, the big companies that wanted to have the share started making their move to conquer the continents and some of them used the opportunity to turn it into a business.

Selling items and informations. Everyone wouldn’t think twice to buy. If they used these resources properly, conquering the worlds of Seven Realms wouldn’t be a dream anymore.

“Mr. Smith, should we expand our business to another country?”

“Hmm. That’s a good idea, Larry. But where should we do that?”

“How about in Japan, Korea or China, Mr. Smith? I am sure we can find great players in those countries.”

“We can’t, Sir Halls. We have a lot of competitors in those countries. We should expand it to another place, a country where we can benefit the most.”

HRF corporation, one of the large information brokers of Seven Realms. They hired players that can provide information for them such as high reward quests, good hunting grounds, and--the most exclusive and expensive info of the game--hidden professions.

“Let’s do it in Indonesia?”

“We can, but I am thinking we should do it in Malaysia.”

Various arguments kept going on and on. They couldn’t think of a place where they should do it, but they ended up properly deciding the country they could use.

“In Philippines. There are amazing players in that country so that’s the best place we should go to.”

Everyone nodded.

They had read about the players in the Philippines in game forums. They were consist of elite players that could compete with the players in China, Korea, and Japan, but they also knew how bad their behaviors are; they consisted of bunch of trash-talkers and would bad-mouth even their team mates.

Even so, they were as useful in every aspect they had expected to them as investing to a company with tyrannic boss using his employees until they ran out of breathe.

+++

Patrick stood still in the line. He wore a polo shirt and his hair combed and gelled nicely. His shoes polished elegantly that you could already see ones reflection. They said that appearance is important to job interview so he went all out.

However, because of the heat and long line, he started to sweat and ruin his intensive preparation.

‘I wish this won’t affect my interview.’ When it was his turn, he saw the interviewer wore a scary face. He looked strict and unnegotiable. Patrick felt afraid that he might not need any evaluation at all!

But his interview went well, in his perspective. He answered the manager professionally and took the chance to add his other skills even it wasn’t related to the work, and also how hardworker he was. He sweet talked whenever he can!

“Thank you. I will call you in another day if you are qualified.”

Patrick went out of the room. A cat got his tongue. He knew the meaning when they said, “they will call him in another day,” that they didn’t need to call him because he wasn’t accepted to the job. He couldn’t help but feel dejected and sigh in sorrow.

There wasn’t he could do. At the first place, he wasn’t a college graduate. He didn’t even finish any vocational course. Despite the fact that he had the skills and experiences, if he didn’t have a degree or certification, then no one would want to hire him.

The harsh reality of society.

Your achievements are more important than experience. Well that protocol only exist in Philippines, where people think you were just blabbing about things that weren’t true or you couldn’t show any evidence that you’d done a lot of things in that field.

“I can’t give up. If a person wants it, one can get a job or two in a day!”

He ate his words when the sun went down. At the end, Patrick didn’t get any position. Even the position of a janitor wasn’t open because there was a lot of people who applied!

“Dammit! Tomorrow, I’ll get a job! That’s for sure!”

Another day went by, and the result was the same as flipping a coin with heads on both sides. It was all the same for two weeks until one week and a half left before he have to pay for the apartment.

“At this rate, I’ll become a homeless…” He couldn’t think of anything but the worst case scenario. All of his nightmares when he was a child would come back again and pull him to the depths of hell.

He started to think that he should just commit a crime and get caught. At least in that case, he wouldn’t need to worry about finding a way to work for meal and shelter. The taste was terrible though, but it was better than to die in hunger!

“I shouldn’t think like that. I’m still rational, well if I eat something… Maybe I can just return to the orphanage and beg for them to give me a work there.”

That was his last solution. He remembered the words of the caretakers that he could return if something bad happen to him. They would surely welcome him.

“Right now, I should search again. If I can’t find any job, then I’ll just return.”

God of misfortune was cursing him. Another week had passed and the poor guy was still jobless. He wanted to cry but he kept it to his body. He began to think if he lose another water from his body, he would get dehydrated!

As the time went on, he also started hallucinating about an oasis filled with beautiful sexy babes in revealing bikinis, sunbathing on the raging heat and cheering him to go with them! The heaven was near!

“Oh! OOOH!”

When Patrick ate his lunch, he finally prevented the angels that had come to take him.

“I’m getting crazy from hunger… This is really bad…”

He turned his laptop that he received from a lottery for free. It wasn’t impressive, he could only use it on browsing the web. Sometimes he would wish he won a high-end instead because he also liked to play games just like other people do. It was still fresh in his hands, eyes and mind when his classmate let him play his game character for a short while. The feeling of focusing on fighting with another player and pawning them in the end, though he managed to massacre a lot of players because of his classmate’s legendary items.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Well that’s that. I am not even born from elite family so that can’t apply to me.”

While Patrick was browsing the web for jobs, he stumbled on something he never expected to appear. He just thought about how fun his past game experience and how he also had to earn money to live.

Hiring Players in PhilippinesWe are recruiting players ready for adventures in the Continents of Ageia of popular VRMMO online game: Seven Realms.

If you don’t have any character yet in Seven Realms, you are also welcome to come to us.

We will provide the basic necessities like food and shelter, and you don’t have to worry about the game capsule and the payment for the monthly subscription.

The pay is 2,000 php every month. It will increase depends on your contributions to our company.

For those who are interested, just call us or come visit our office in Cavite City.

It was an unbelievable ad but Patrick didn’t care if it was a phishing site or online scam. Nothing would be lost even he redirected to those scammers, he didn’t have any cents in his bank nor using any credit cards after all!

“Let’s try it. If it’s fake then I’ll just give up and work to the orphanage.”

He also didn’t care if it’s a joke from a troll! If it’s real, then the luck wasn’t messing around with him.

+++

“Looks like we have a lot of promising guys.” Yoshida Yamamoto, a born Japanese-American, said with a loud respectful voice. All of their recruits were progressing well in the game. There were also those who were already level 30+ who have uncharted informations in their sleeves. Yoshida reported about the recruitments to Mr. Halls, and he was happy to hear about it.

“Keep up the good work.”

“Yes sir! I’ll do my best.”

“And Yoshida, you don’t need to recruit just players or people who have background in playing games.”

“Why sir? Aren’t we supposed to hire veterans?”

“We are talking about Virtual Reality here. Everything in Seven Realms are close to reality. We need people who have experience in different things in their life. It would be good if someone who have a background or talent in martial arts can join our ranks.”

It was common sense that a veteran in playing games would be closer to their criteria but HRF wasn’t just a company that sell informations. They could also accept jobs like helping someone in a difficult quest to sieging a castle. If they wanted to achieve both, they needed people with communication skills to interact with the NPCs to collect informations and outstanding talents in winning endless battles.

“I understand sir.” Yoshida hung up and sighed and noted the words he received to his notebook. He wasn’t sure what was his superiors were thinking but orders were orders. Even he had a lot of disagreements with the idea, he still had to do it.

He browsed the lists in his table and shouted: “Next person!”

As he called out, a person wearing a polo shirt went in with a folder in his hands. His hair was combed and gelled nicely and the shoes he’s wearing were reflecting the light. The person who entered, named Patrick Magdalena, sat down full of pride.

“Patrick Magdalena, right?” Yoshida confirmed and Patrick nodded.

“So, can I see your resume?” Patrick took a paper from his folder and gave it to him with his sweating hands. Their eyes met and Patrick shined with a smile. Yoshida twitched as he found it uncomfortable.

“A-alright. Do you ever played games before?”

“Yes. When I was in high school.”

“What’s the game called?”

“Uhmm…It’s…” Patrick tried to remember the game he played with his classmate, but he was having a hard time because it was a long time ago. He imagined the room and then the things inside. And then when he remembered the appearance of a game box, the name finally appeared in his head. “Aerial Castle.”

“Oh! It’s one of those desktop games. What level you were?”

“Sorry but I played my friend’s character, not mine.”

“It’s okay. So any other games?”

“That’s it, nothing more.”

“.........”

Yoshida couldn’t believe that Patrick only played one game in his life-time! If his superior didn’t tell him about the new recruitment conditions, Patrick would had been out of the office!

“O-okay… Say, did you involve yourself to some sports?”

“You meant when I was in high school? Sorry, I didn’t.”

“........”

He wasn’t in the main criterias! Why would a person apply if he didn’t have any good points in the job he was applying to?! Yoshida wanted to scold Patrick, but he felt that it was useless. Instead of finding a way to push away the man, Yoshida looked at his resume. He reconsidered because of Patrick’s records.

“So you went to different fields. Why did you seek us anyway?”

“My previous boss sold his business, that’s why all of his employees including me lost their job. Right now, I am desperate, especially I saw the conditions of your ad. That’s why I decided to come here and apply.”

“I see.”

Yoshida took a paper from his desk and handed it to Patrick.

“Please answer this questionnaire for me.”

Patrick obediently did what he was asked to. The questions weren’t hard to answer because he already knew them through his past job interviews he’d been to. They were pretty similar.

After a few minutes, he gave the paper to Yoshida.

“Great.” Just as Patrick heard that word, he already guessed that he wasn’t accepted to the job. It was always the word he heard from the interviewers after they received the questionnaire. However he was wrong about it.

“Can you start next week, Patrick Magdalena?”

“I-I’m hired?”

“Yes,” Patrick was about to jump from joy however--, “but we are going to monitor you if you can do the job properly. If you can’t do it, you’ll be fired right away. We need good results not failures, so that’s why if there’s some incompetent people in our group, they will be cut off.” Yoshida coldly said. His voice was as cold as the north pole, that no one couldn’t stand! His appearance was like a demon cursing Patrick with an endless raging snowstorm following everywhere he go!

Despite the scary appearance Yoshida showed, Patrick was calm.

“No problem sir, I won’t disappoint you. As one of the HRF agents, I will do my very best.”

“I am expecting that.”

Yoshida went off from his chair and opened a drawer. He browsed the contents and took a folder.

“These are the basic informations of the game. I will give it to you so you can start smoothly. The maps, races, skills that you can get from the NPC instructors, and normal professions are all in here. However this is the old one so I don’t think it will help you much. And for your job, just report anything you discover, from every actions you do to the quests you received. It’s important that we know everything you do in the game, especially if you find something odd.”

“I understand.”

“Well then, do you have any questions?”

“About the apartment--”

“The address is in the folder. Just move whenever you can. You have two weeks to give us good results so take your time, but also you aren’t allowed to slack around.”

“Thank you sir. Best regards.”

Patrick went out of the office happily.

+++

One week had passed after the interview, Patrick completely moved to the building of the company and finished unpacking and organizing his things. It was unbelievably amazing. Even the capsule was as big as a table for six people, there were still spaces for big furnitures. There were kitchen and bedroom too! He had never dream of living in an extravaganza.

“I can’t believe this is my room.” He almost cried from joy.

Comparing his apartment to his new home, it was like heaven and earth! The leaking roof, closets filled with cockroaches, and a really thin walls that Patrick could hear his neighbors doing their deed in bed which is bad for a single, all of that he endured because he had nowhere to go back then!

“I need to do my best if I want to stay here.”

Patrick went to the game capsule as he tossed the folder in his hands on a desk, and bedded himself inside, connecting a helmet and putting his hands in two holes at the sides.

A message popped out from out of nowhere in the glass screen.

Do you want to Connect in Seven Realms?

Yes/No

“Yes!” Without any second thoughts, he connected himself to his new workplace.

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