Reading in Park
Gus arrived in a small park from his city, and there, he goes to the closest and free bench. He sits on the bench, he takes out his phone and he starts reading "God of Immortals", right on the part he was last time, and that was at the part where the girl and her father are mastering a fighting art. Gus considered this part is good, and he also thinks this web novel can be a good recommendation to his Chinese friend, Ho Lee Shi, who is a game tester in VR Chinese and Filipino regions. And this guy can sometimes visit other parts of the world in the game, but he is doing that sometimes when he got the free time.
In that VR game, there are a few people who are designed or got the job to test some adjustment or exp monsters (the ones who help new players to gain experience who needs to gain a level and become better at mastering their weapons). And Gus is designed to test a region, he is just a normal gamer tester who is testing the whole world and weapon tester. To be a weapon tester in the game, you need to know the basics of a game weapons mechanics and also got a good health condition because some weapons need a gamer with great strength, agility, accuracy, and also endurance, and our Gus, doesn't have those qualities, he just tests the general types of weapons.
After he finished the third chapter, he was about to start the fourth one, but then, he got a message from the company. And this made Gus excited because these types of messages get him a new contract on work, and this is one of those. He opens the tab where he got the message, and the developers send him the message to tests a new weapon, a shotgun that can shot bear traps. Gus feels like this is an idiot type of weapon, but when he saw the stats of the weapons and ability, now he understands that this weapon is completely overpowered. I mean, shooting a bear trap at even ten meters and a bear trap who is following an enemy until he catches at a 30 meters diameter? "This is extremely overpowered and he really needs a big nerf, especially that ability." thought Gus to himself.
And when he replied to the staff that he will do it, and he also told me he will do it when the capsule will be completely ready. But then, he also saw he got a message from the app special designed for that VR game, WoWoF Chat. he opens the app and he saw there a vocal message.
"Gus! We need help immediately in Texas!"
And the worse thing is that the message was ten minutes ago, and he saw it just now. Gus replied he cannot do it because of the charging capsule and George has replied immediately, also on voice-type message.
"And now you reply to this?!"
"I'm sorry." he replied George in a voice-type message.
He closes the app, then the phones and he puts it in his pants pocket. He then looks at the beautiful blue sky and he is wondering about something, what he would prepare for dinner because he got some instant ramen at his home, but an omelet with steak also sounds good and much more protein for his body. He is thinking for a while until he saw somebody familiar walking in a Park, and that person was an ex-colleague from his high school.
The guy who is walking like a zombie and dressed like a homeless person is Brandon, a classmate who hasn't finished high school since his parents have died when he was in eleven grade, and at that time he gave up on school and starts taking painkillers by using the money from his inherence the parents have left to him before they died. After he took the painkillers, he jumped to drugs, such as cannabis, cocaine, and injection with substances that are making him feel numb and making him walking around like a zombie. They were not very closed at the high school, but they were classmates at least.
Brandon saw Gus, and he decides to take a plastic cup from the ground and comes to him, to ask for a change, like quarters or any kind of money to help him buy drugs. Brandon comes closer to his ex-classmate, and he did not notice that the one who is approaching was the one they used to talk to one time in class about their crushes, who are now married to millionaires and live a luxurious life.
"Can you give a change, man?" asks Brandon in a type of voice are homeless people using when they approach somebody.
"Brandon? Is that you?" asks Gus who is looking closely at his ex-classmate.
Brandon was shocked to hear that somebody has known his name, knowing the fact that in this city there are almost 700 000 people. Gus is getting up from his bench and he hugs Brandon without hesitation, which makes Brandon feel weird and he starts searching his pockets, but Gus stops him, and he looks in his eyes, feeling guilty because he couldn't help him at that time.
"I am sorry."
Gus goes a few steps back, and he takes out from his wallet, a one hundred dollars bill, a value which would've bought him almost one hundred and fifty instant ramens cups. Brandon quickly takes the bill like it was a gift from their grandparents. He is thinking to use that money to buy drugs, but he looks closely at Gus and he asks him.
"Why are you giving me this much? Are you rich? And how do you know my name?"
"I am Gus." replied Gus. "Gus Antonucci. We were classmates at High school, and one time, we discuss Chloe and Maggie, the two girls we had crushes in ten grade, but then we realized those two were out of our league."
"Gus?... You are really him?" he asks Brandon not believing that one of his old classmates is in front of him. "W-What are you doing?"
"I am taking break from my job."
"You are taking a break?" asks Brandon feeling curious about his job. "What are you working on?"
"I am a game tester." he says to Gus and not saying the name of the company or the game because this is a secret government project, and the CIA or FBI could torture him even if he says the name of a player in public.
"Cool." he replied Brandon. "Do you get much?"
"It doesn't matter. What matters is what happened to you. Are you okay?"
"I-I am not." he responds the homeless sitting on the bench and he is looking down.
Gus sits next to him and he is listening to his narration.
"Everything has changed since the day my parents have died. I started to go out with a bad gang, make a child by mistake, and being forced to do an abortion on the lady I put the mistake in it. I was close to suicide, but a cop showed up and stopped me. He told me to not give up on life and he will help me find a home. Quite ironic, because that cops ha committed suicide three months ago because his boss has fired him."
"..."
"And now look at me, I have sold my house, my inheritance, and even a dog just for what, drugs." says Brandon looking at the one hundred bills he got from his friend, and he gave back to him. "The God is punishing me, ain't it Gus?"
"No." says Gus who is putting his right arm on the friend's shoulder. "It would not punish you anymore."
"How?"
"Because I will help you become a better person."
"How?"
"... Have you ever played video games?" says Gus who is thinking to add Brandon to the game he is working on.
---
In the game, you can get money, if you work as a game tester, developer, or even player. As a developer, you get approximately 100 to even 5000 $ but now depends on the position you got. As a game tester, you can get an amount to 1000$, or more if you are doing more shifts, but that is impossible if you have a second capsule stored somewhere. And if you join as a player, or what some people say, player tester, you can get the possibility to convert your amount of money from the game in real life, but the amount it is not that big, and I mean one hundred dollars in the game, means one dollar in real life. Of course, you can change your currency by preference, like George, who is living in Romania, and he changed the dollar currency to RON or Lei because, in Romania, people are often using Ron instead of Euros.
And Gus has the idea to hire Brandon in the company but it will not be an easy job because he needs three things to make him hired, finish high school, got a good gamer performance, a house good enough to store a capsule, a good technique to not tell anybody, a guy who is not using social media every day (that is why this game has 2000 males gamers and just 9 female gamers) and be a normal human being with good health, hygiene, and social life.
But these things cannot fulfill the criteria to Brandon, but Gus can at least do one thing for him, buy a house because in the game he is a billionaire and he can convert one million dollars from his account and give it to Brandon to buy an apartment.