Truth

Arin fell down. His eyes rolled up, and there was a slight burnt smell of rubber in the air. He was only wearing a towel, and water vapor was coming out of his body. After a few hours, his consciousness returned, and he rubbed his forehead before slowly getting up from the floor. He felt like his head was spinning.

"What happened? Did I get electrocuted? Yes, I did get electrocuted," he said to himself, looking at his phone. The phone charger was completely burnt.

"Please... Please don't let anything happen to my phone," he prayed as he picked up the phone. His hands started shaking as he pressed the power button. "WELCOME" flashed on the screen, and Arin breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God, nothing happened to my phone."

After the phone turned on, there was a flickering on the display for a split second, but Arin didn't notice it. He checked the phone's missed call section and called his mom.

ring... ring... ring... ring... ring... ring

Mother: Hello, Arin?

Arin: Hello, Mom.

Mother: Arin, why didn't you answer the phone when I called you? After that, your phone was switched off.

Arin: Mom, my phone ran out of battery. And today, I got a new phone too.

Mother: What happened to your old phone?

Arin: That phone couldn't be repaired anymore; that's what the employee in the Mobile Shop said to me.

Mother: Is that so, Arin? Did you eat anything?

Arin: No, Mom.

Mother: Why didn't you eat anything? Are you short on money? If that's the case, I'll send you some money.

Arin: No, Mom, you don't have to send me money. I have money in my account.

Mother: Then why are you waiting? Go and eat something. You don't eat anything; that's why you are so skinny.

Arin: Okay... okay, I'm going.

Arin hung up and looked around his room, which was piled with junk food boxes and soft drink bottles. He decided to clean up and grabbed a mop to start cleaning. However, after a while, he got lazy and said to himself, "I'll clean the rest of it tomorrow." He then took his wallet and checked for money. There were 150 zerx in it, and he closed the wallet before checking the fridge. There was an egg, a few slices of bread, and some milk. He decided to make something with those ingredients.

He cracked the egg with a knife and poured it into a bowl, adding milk and sugar. After whipping the mixture, he dipped the bread slices in it, heated a pan, and poured some oil. Then he placed the bread slices on the pan and started to grill them. A few minutes later, he made a snack and ate it before going back to bed.

The next day, at 7:34 am, he slowly opened his eyes and checked the time. After that, he picked up his toothbrush and towel and headed towards the bathroom. At 8:03, he changed his clothes, took his bag, and left for college. When he arrived in front of the college gate at 8:20, he looked at the college's name, "VERTYRE UNIVERSITY."

He slowly made his way to his class when suddenly someone slapped him on the back. He turned around to see his one and only close friend, Sean, who noticed Arin's new phone.

Sean: "Arin, finally you bought a new phone. Now we can play the new game Dessert Era."

(Dessert Era is a new open-world multiplayer game with unique cosmetics and story. The game didn't support Arin's old phone.)

Arin: "Sean, I don't even know if that game will support on my phone."

Sean: "We can try it out now."

After saying that, Sean asked Arin to check Dessert Era in the system store. To his surprise, the game was available on Arin's phone.

Arin: "Sean, it seems like Dessert Era game will support on my phone."

Sean: "Finally, we can both play that together. Arin, in Dessert Era we can use voice chat."

Arin: "Wow, I will d******d it when I get back to my room."

After that, they both entered the classroom. When Arin sat down on his seat, some kid from the back shouted, "It smells like poverty in here!" After saying that, he threw some rolled-up papers at Arin's head.

Sean stood up for Arin and got mad at that bully. Arin stopped Sean and said, "Forget it, Sean. It's just a routine to me at this point."

When Arin said that, Sean got mad at Arin and yelled at him. Then he left the classroom.

At 2:33, Sean called Arin and said sorry for yelling at him.

Arin: "Don't stress out, Sean. I am not mad at you." After talking with Sean a few more minutes, he then left for his house.

He arrived at his apartment, but the elevator was under maintenance, so he used the stairs. He slowly started to climb the stairs. His apartment was on the third floor (the apartment he is staying in was owned by a friend of his father).

While climbing the second floor, he felt like someone was watching him. He looked back, but there was nothing there except a medium-sized indoor plant. He looked at that indoor plant for some time, then headed towards his apartment.

He was now in front of his apartment's door. He opened that door, and it made a small creaking sound. He looked at the door's hinge and spotted some rust on it. He then headed towards the kitchen and grabbed some oil, which he rubbed on the hinge. After that, he headed towards his room and put away his bag and changed his clothes.

"Well, now I need to install the game that Sean wanted to play." He opened the system store and searched for the game Dessert Era and started downloading it. The game was 1.9 GB. It installed pretty quickly despite the speed of the internet. He opened the game and allowed the permission that the game wanted. After that, he created an account using a fake name.

He checked the game's lobby. When he randomly started clicking the buttons, he noticed something. "What is that?" He looked at the game's in-game currency, which was called Rubies. The thing is, he had about 168,975 in-game rubies. He was surprised by that and thought, "It must be a bug. I will restart the game." After that, he closed the tabs and opened the game again, but the rubies were still there.

Arin was surprised to see the red jewel-like thing on his game lobby. He touched it, and it showed its name: "Rubies." "Rubies? Is it some kind of in-game special reward for a new player?" He asked himself and then called his best friend Sean.

Ring... Ring... Ring... Ring

Sean - Hello Arin, did you install the game?

Arin - Yes, I downloaded it, but I have some questions.

Sean - What is it, Arin?

Arin - Sean, what are these rubies that are shown on top of the lobby?

Sean - Rubies are an in-game currency that can be used to buy cosmetics.

Arin - Can we get free rubies in this game?

Sean - Hahaha, Arin, what are you saying? Obviously, there is nothing like that.

Arin - Then what about a modded version of this game? In that way, we can get free rubies, right?

Sean started laughing again.

Sean - Hahaha, Arin, you do have an active imagination. They will find any cheaters within five minutes and ban them permanently. So there is no way that such a thing exists.

Arin - Is that so? Then okay, Sean, I will call you later.

After cutting the call, Arin started to check the in-game store.

"Mighty swordsman outfit - 3499 rubies"

"Raging warrior outfit - 2499 rubies"

There are many more outfits in the game shop. He checked all of them and after checking for some time, he found something amusing in it.

The lucky spin is a wheel full of random items. There are some really great rewards, and obtaining those rewards is extremely difficult. Arin liked one particular reward: the moonlight emperor set.

The rewards in this lucky spin are quite different. Only one person can obtain the great reward. After obtaining one reward, it will disappear from the reward system and be replaced by some low-grade item. Also, other players can see and chat while someone is playing the lucky spin.

(Only one person can get unique items.)

The thing is, only the first five attempts cost 10 to 80 rubies. After that, it jumps straight to 100 rubies. So ordinary people can't play more than two or three rounds.

The highest spin someone ever got was on the 10th spin.

The amount of rubies required for each round is:

10 < 20 < 40 < 60 < 80 < 100 < 300 < 500 < 700 < 900 < 1000 < 2000, etc.

The moonlight emperor set that Arin likes is one of the most unique items in the entire game.

After scratching his head, he decided to play the lucky spin.

"Well, these rubies are not mine exactly, so I will spend some of them."

He then decided to spin the lucky wheel.

The game's live chat is watching him spin it.

Player one - Everyone, there is someone trying to spin the wheel.

Player two - How many times will he spin?

Player three - His account is new, so two or three spins.

Player two - How about a bet?

Player four - I'm on it. And my bet is three spins.

Player two - One spin.

Player three - Four spins.

Player one - Two spins.

They are waiting for him to spin.

After a short pause, he started to spin the wheel.

There is slight cheerful music playing in the background.

When the wheel stopped spinning, he didn't get any good items. He only got some copper coins.

On his second try, he got one coupon. The same thing happened on the third and fourth tries.

The players are active on the live chat.

Player four - Hahaha, he didn't get anything.

They started laughing at him.

Player two - Hahaha, even I got something on my third try.

"They are all still laughing at him, but the truth is he didn't see any of their messages.

He kept trying to spin the wheel, and after some time, on his 16th spin, after spending about ten thousand rubies, he finally got an amazing item.

There is a whole rampage going on in the game's live chat.

Players: "W..wh..who is this guy? He just casually spent a million on the game."

(The game's rubies are worth a lot; 10 rubies are almost 1000 zerx.)

Players: "And not just that, he got one of the most amazing sets in the entire game, the Moonlight Emperor set."

Player Two: "Big brother, please adopt this pitiful little brother."

Player Three: "Can you please give me some of your rubies as well?"

But he didn't notice any of that. His face became red with excitement.

This is his first time spending game currency on a game and obtaining a limited edition one-player-only item.

After exiting from the game's shop, he then tried out that Moonlight Emperor set.

Arin: "Wow, not gonna lie, this item looks pretty amazing. There are no in-game advantages, but the emotes are good."

Only then did he check the rubies.

"What...what is this?"

He can't believe his eyes; there are still 168975 rubies left.

Arin started panicking. "Why is this happening? There are still this many rubies left; it's exactly the same amount when I started to spin the wheel."

At that moment, he got an email from the developers of the game, Dessert Era.

"Dear player, thank you for spending your valuable time and money on our game. At first, we thought you were using a modded version, but the security system didn't find anything strange. As a reward for spending that amount on our game, we would like to invite you to a dinner party on the 19th June at 7 pm at Hotel Serten."

He is surprised by this sudden invitation from the developers.

Arin: "Why are they making a scene from those rubies?"

After thinking for a few seconds, he decided to check the price for Rubies.

He started to search.

『Dessert Era rubies price?

10 Dessert Era rubies cost 1000 zerx』

Arin: "What? That measly rubies cost that much."

Then he started to count the rubies. After counting the rubies, he exclaimed, "I...I...I spent 33710 rubies. How much is that worth?"

He then started to calculate the amount and found the answer.

Arin: "Did...Did I spend 33,710,000 zerx on a game? But how did I get this much rubies? Do I even have that much money in my account? No...no...no, I only have about 200 zerx in my account."

He tried to calm down, but he couldn't control his thoughts. He decided to check his account.

But the phone already had a banking app.

『Name - Arin.

Account no - 23××××××××××09

Balance - 1,000,000,000,000,000.』

Arin fell backward by seeing the huge number.

After he sits straight.

"What is this? How can a number like this exist? That is a 16-digit number. What is that number called?"

He started to think about that, but he didn't remember and then searched it and found out that the number is called quadrillion.

He couldn't believe any of the things that had happened that day, and his hands started shaking with fear. After a short moment, his eyes turned white and he lost consciousness.

The crescent moon was hidden behind the clouds and the wolves began to howl. The bats flapped their wings and disappeared into the darkness.

At that moment, a light breeze passed through his room and a shadow appeared at his window.

.