"Damn it!"
Axton angrily kicked a can of juice out of his way as he walked down the street.
It was a cold morning here and everybody was going about their businesses already, giving a sense of liveliness to their city.
For a moment, Axton succeeded in gaining the attention of passersby following his act of kicking a random can on the road.
He was not happy this morning at all.
He put his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and exhaled in frustration.
"So you can't get anything anymore if you don't have connections, or some rich family backing you," he complained bitterly to himself. "What a joke of a world."
This was the third time this week that he was getting a rejection response from the jobs he applied for, and for some reason this particular one pained him more than the rest.
He had done well during the interview and even felt more confident when a staff of the said company confirmed that he did well, only to hear that the job was given to another person—someone whose family was contacted to the board.
Axton was tired of the back and forth. He was not even certain if he had the energy to keep applying for jobs anymore.
It's been 2 years since he graduated from the university and it has been one story after another.
All he wanted was a simple life. Get a job, find a beautiful wife and start a family with whatever they could manage.
That was not too much to ask.
Axton might not have been the top student in his class but his academic works were certainly above average, and yet he was facing such difficulties.
He did not come from a well connected family nor was his family rich.
All he had inherited from his father was the place he was currently living, the bracelet that was wrapped around his wrist and his final words of encouragement.
Tempted many times to sell off the bracelet, Axton could not bring himself too.
It was made of some rare gemstones that even he did not know of, and his father had warned him to always keep it with him.
Axton never understood why.
All he remembered was the old man telling him that he would understand it with time.
For how long was he going to be patient?
Years have come and gone, yet nothing changed.
As Axton passed a certain electronic store, he heard something that drew his attention instantly.
"You can exchange your item in the game for real money. Heck, you can even become rich when you sell them," a random person explained to another as they stared at a box of gaming helmet.
Axton slowed down his walk, hoping to hear everything.
Hearing the words "sell" and "rich" was more than enough to gain his attention.
He eventually stopped and turned in their direction, looking into the shop and seeing a familiar advert playing on the large screen inside.
[New Eden!]
[Do you want an opportunity to change your life and turn it around for the better?]
[Delve into the world of New Eden, where all possibilities exist. Money, fame, power. You can have it but to achieve this, you must raise to the top]
[Exchange your items for money and gathered aliens to conquer worlds in New Eden]
[Grab your gaming headgear for just $8499.99 now]
New Eden.
Axton had heard about it.
Everyone knew about it.
It has been the topic of discussion for weeks now in the media.
Many digital and manual manners showed the new game.
Adverts on television forced the information down everyone's throat whether you were interested or not.
The publicity for the virtual reality game was crazy, even the story behind it got people excited.
New Eden has been said to connect to an alternate world where all sorts of possibilities exist. Discovered many decades ago by researchers of then as a strange glowing rock like nothing they had ever seen.
Decades of endless studies and funding from different nations of the world was what birthed what they knew today as New Eden.
It was simply more than a game.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, dude. I read that it can be linked to your bank or card, whichever you prefer and you can make a buck just by doing nothing much, and even more if you are really active in the game."
"You should get one soon, man."
"It's launching by 9am this morning anyway."
"9am? That's an hour and some minutes from now. If I get it later, does it change anything?"
The other person shrugged. "I don't know though."
Axton's attention was totally gotten now as he stared at the several helmet packs inside the store.
People were lined up at the store this early just to purchase one.
"What the hell are you doing?" Axton snapped himself out of his daze.
He laughed at himself and shook his head. "Even if I believed this and wanted to buy it, I have no money on me."
He stayed a few more seconds before turning away and heading back home.
While he couldn't be blamed for being broke to afford the game helmets, Axton had not understood that the first set of helmets that was on sale were limited edition helmets.
Only about 50,000 of those were in existence and after the sales, the second edition of these helmets would be released.
This first limited set were runic helmets said to have been discovered and modified in the past.
They offered more advantage since the least talent they could grant was a C rank talent and the highest was an S rank.
The synthetic helmets that were made and would be released after the first edition set granted between F rank talents and A rank.
There was no hope of an S rank talent.
This information was made public and that was why everyone was rushing to get the helmet before the game launched in barely an hour.
Who wouldn't want to have a shot at an S rank talent?