1 Chapter 1 - Opportunity

Chapter 1 - Opportunity

25th Winter, Month 3, the Year 2300

"Welcome!" An 18 years old boy shouted cheerily from behind the counter. The boy had short brown hair, and he wore a spectacle. He had an average face and looked like a nerd.

"May I have your order?" the boy asked the customer while smiling.

The boy was Berry. He graduated from high school two months ago and was currently working part-time at a fast-food restaurant.

Berry was a hardworking boy. He looked like a nerd because he studied a lot and unconsciously looked like that. Even so, he was not a nerd.

Berry studied a lot but academically, he was only a bit smarter than an average student. He was not a genius but one of the smartest students at school. Even so, his ranking was in the top 30 students at his school.

In every examination and test, Berry would rank somewhere in the 20s at school. He did try his best to rank higher, but Berry was not the only hardworking student at school. If he could work hard, others could too.

Berry may have studied a lot, and that was apparent to others' eyes too but he did not do that all the time. Berry had a secret hobby. He secretly practicing martial arts. It was a secret to his schoolmates, but his family knew it because they were the ones paying for the lesson.

Berry started practicing martial arts for self-defense but ended up making it his hobby. Berry spent most of his time sitting in front of his table studying. He knew that he needed to move around and decided to make martial arts a hobby.

Thanks to him practicing martial arts, his body was fit. Thus, Berry was not a nerd who was usually good at studying but not in physical work, he was a nerd who was good at studying and also physical work.

Even so, he did not publicize himself as one who knew martial arts. He kept it a secret and acted like other nerds at school. Berry was not a fan of standing out in public. He preferred to stay low-key and humble.

After Berry graduated from high school, he had been taking a lot of entrance exams for many universities. He was interested in Science Courses and had been applying in that direction.

Since he had a lot of time after graduation, he did not want to stay idle and found a part-time job near his home.

"Thank you, please come again," Berry thanked the customer with a smile and handed out the order to the customer.

"Nervous?" a man in his early 20s spoke. He was Endo, Berry's coworker. Similar to Berry, he worked part-time at the fast-food restaurant too. Endo was a university student, and it was the semester break. He worked part-time to get some pocket money.

"??? For what?" Berry asked, confused.

"The results come out today. Aren't you nervous? You work hard for the exam and hope to enroll at the best University. It will be nerve-racking waiting for the result," Endo smiled.

"…" Berry was silent. "Yeah, I am nervous," Berry spoke, but his face looked distanced.

Sensing that something was wrong with Berry, Endo asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Hmm? Nothing," Berry smiled.

*Dring* *Dring*

A customer entered the restaurant.

"Welcome!" Berry greeted cheerily.

A few hours later, the sky outside the restaurant was dark. It was night, and the restaurant was closing. Berry was at his locker changing his clothes to go home.

Berry wore a black fleece jacket with a hoodie, jeans, and glove. He walked out of the restaurant through the backdoor, and the cold wind hit his face.

"Fuu~" Berry breathed out. He looked around for a bit and left the restaurant. While walking back home, his mind wandered around. There were a lot of things on his mind.

After a few minutes of walking, Berry arrived at a high-rise building. It was an apartment building, and Berry lived there. At the front of the building was the signboard 'Cloud Surfer Apartment, Block C'.

Berry entered the building and stood in front of the elevator. He took out his house key which was a thin transparent card and scanned it on the elevator. The card reader response to the key and the elevator's door opened.

[Which floor?] the AI for the elevator asked.

"25th," Berry answered. A small screen at the side of the elevator showed the 25th floor, and the elevator moved to the designated location. Berry arrived on the 25th floor a few seconds later and went straight to the door with No. 25-6.

Berry scanned the card key at the scanner, and the door opened. Berry got in and spoke, "I am home," but no one was home. The light on the door automatically switched on but the light in the living room was switched off.

Berry walked to the living room, and the light at door switched off while the living room's light was switched on. Berry looked at the coffee table in the living room, and there was a note on it.

Berry looked at the hallway leading to his room and saw one of the doors there had a light on below the door. That door led to Berry's younger brother's room Bestie. It looked like he was home.

Berry went to the coffee table and read the note.

'I am going to the hospital with your sister. We will sleep there tonight. If you haven't had your dinner yet, there is some food in the fridge. Just heat them. I prepared your breakfast too and heat it for Bestie too,' the note wrote. At the end of the note was the word 'Mom'.

Berry took the note and went to his room. Before entering his room, he stopped at Bestie's room and knocked on the door but no one was answering. Berry opened the door, and Bestie was not on his bed nor he was on his desk.

At one corner of the room was a machine. It was a big oval white capsule machine. The machine was the Full Immersion Virtual Reality Machine or FIVR machine.

A hundred years ago, the FIVR machine was invented. A normal VR only lets the user felt their view similar to the game or software they used.

However, FIVR lets the user feel like they were inside the game or software they used. Thanks to this, the experience in gaming especially went to a new height.

Since then, the FIVR game became immensely popular, and E-Sports became the most popular sports in the world rivaling physical sports such as football, baseball, basketball, and many more.

Berry saw that Bestie was playing the game and decided to let him be. He closed the door and went to his room. Berry walked to his table and put the note there and he lied on the bed while staring at the ceiling.

Berry reached out his phone from his pocket. It was a small, light rectangular transparent plate. Berry stamped his thumb on the transparent plate, and the plate scanned his fingerprint. Immediately after that, a word appeared on the screen.

[Password] Berry type in the password, and he unlocked the phone. Berry clicked on the mail app to checked the email for his entrance exam results.

Berry took about 15 entrance exams for fifteen Universities and in his inbox, there were 99+ unread emails. Many of them were spam emails or notification from his social media. He scrolled them calmly and found a few emails about his results.

Berry clicked on one of them and found out that he passed the exam. However, Berry did not get the course he wanted. Moving on, he read another mail and this one was from a prestigious University in the country. Even so, he failed.

Berry continued reading and after a few minutes, out of the 15 exams, he passed 10 of them. Three were from prestigious Universities while the other seven were from good Universities.

Out of the three from the prestigious Universities, one of them was the course he wanted but Berry was not happy when he saw this.

"It is not like I can enroll in them," Berry smiled bitterly. Berry would not be able to enroll in any of them because of his family's financial situation.

Berry's father was a doctor and his mom was a housewife. The family was not rich but they were not poor either. Berry's family was a normal, average family.

Berry had four siblings. Two older and one younger sibling. The oldest was his sister, Belinda, and after Belinda was Berry's brother, Bendy. Berry was the third child and Bestie was the youngest.

Belinda landed a job as a manager for a popular celebrity while Bendy was following their father's footsteps to become a doctor. Bendy was currently studying to become a doctor at a prestigious University. Compared to Berry, Bendy was a genius. Bendy had a bright future if he became a doctor.

Berry's family was doing well until a week ago when two incidents hit the family. First, Belinda made a mistake at her job when she caused a piece of expensive jewelry to go missing. Due to this, she was accused as a thief but further investigation proved that she did not steal the jewelry.

Even so, it was her mistake that the jewelry was missing and she was held accountable. She was fired from her job and needed to pay for the missing jewelry. As such, the family helped her by being her guarantor and now, the family was in massive debt.

After Belinda's incident, something else happened too. Bendy was in an accident and his condition was critical. He needed treatment and the treatment would need a lot of money. The family was in a debt and now, they needed more money for Bendy's treatment.

Luckily, Berry's father's hospital was nice enough and let his father pay back the treatment fee slowly. Due to the two incidents, Berry knew he would not be able to further his study.

Berry could apply for a loan but his family was in massive debt and the loan would fail. He could try for a scholarship but he knew there were hundreds of geniuses applying too. His chance was nil.

Berry would love to try and if he was lucky, he might get the scholarship. However, he felt like it was better to give up early and find other alternatives, and that alternative was entering the workforce.

"High school graduate…" Berry mumbled. "The best job is trying to get full-time at a fast-food restaurant. Is it better to try working at a factory? Dishwashing job?" Berry thought of his choice.

Berry got out of his email's app and browsed online to search for a job opportunity. Then, an ad caught his eye.