A boy sat on the driver's seat of his beat-up sedan, parked just outside the local gaming store lit up with buzzing neon signs and discount posters.
Who? Markus. A boy who finally got his chance to achieve a dream. Why? He had saved up alot of cash by working at the delivery shifts and eating cheap dinners. Markus can finally touch the endless expanse of stars, virtually that is.
"I guess working shifts at the delivery company was worth it, 200 bucks from months of saving up for the VR rig and game license I'm dreaming ever since Dave told me about winning big on SS Online." Markus murmured.
SS Online. The game everyone in the planet knew. This MMORPG set both in space and ground, was hyped for a decade for its very promising and real-world connections that benefits anyone who plays it, if they knew what strings to pull that is.
The game was officially launched a year ago for its very first yearly major patch update that brought most of what expected during its alpha and beta testing: fully working and adapting worlds and planets filled with dynamic and persistent NPCs.
These NPCs is the first of all games to truly integrate and fully flesh out the controversial mystery regarding NPC behavior with AI sentience.
But for now, Markus would rather think on how he can enjoy the game and apply what he learned from watching most tutorials and gameplays of the game so far than to sit with the drama of the anticipation of many.
The mentioned anticipation is the release of patch 2.0 called "Landfall." An update that is rumored to add new mysterious npcs both land and space-wise, which brings more variety of weapons, ships, gears, and more.
As he made his mind up, he got out of his car and entered the store, he darted around the physical copy section and saw that theres only a few copies left off SSO to be sold this week. He was relieved it was the case considering it sold out fast within the day and leaving nothing on the evening.
"And now….your mine from now on." Markus said to the fairly expensive emblem integrated to a thick pack as he picked it with grace, he also picked up the seperate bronze starting pack costing 20$, making him internally cry as its already cutting off a large cut of his budget to buy upgrades to his pc and a VR to run the game.
Markus waited on the short queue up ahead the register for awhile until it was his turn to buy the game.
"Here you go sir, enjoy the game. As a bonus for buying the last copies this week, heres a coupon code containing extra benefits when you start. Fly high fellow commander!" The avid cashier told Markus with a hint of tiredness as Markus is getting the cash from his wallet.
Markus gleamed with additional excitement whatever this mystery bonus gift may be. Reports from player forums say that it gives ridiculously good weapon or gears that adjust to the player's strength, completely annihilating any fair competition against these lucky people.
Markus then got back to his car and drove off back at his apartment few blocks away and slept nicely before he experience the massive event the game is about to offer tomorrow, and a talk with his friend Dave about it.