2023-11-07 16:31:16With the grace of a shadow, Draven moved through the alleys, sprinting through the darkness as fast as he could. His breath fast as beads of sweat formed on his forehead.
“Oh God! Just help me this time! I swear I won’t steal anything ever again.” He said as he gazed at the sky above.
It had been two days since Draven had eaten anything. He was left with no choice but to steal. The fact that he was a human in an area ruled by aliens prevented him from getting a job.
Wherever he went he was ridiculed and thrown out like all the other humans living in the area, though there weren’t many left. Most of them were wiped out by aliens including Draven’s family.
“Stop! You won’t be able to get away from here!” One of the men chasing him shouted, “How dare you steal from Lord Malachi! You are courting death.”
Clutching the bag near his chest, he sped up and turned around the corner. Luckily, he found a narrow gap between the two buildings and went inside before the men could turn around the corner and find him.
Their footsteps grew closer before they stopped in front of the alley where he was hiding for about a minute before moving on.
“Thank God!” Draven heaved a sigh before turning around and sprinting out of the alley.
Once out of there he looked around making sure no one was following him and ran towards his place.
He was staying on top of an abandoned building. When he was sixteen years old his parents died in the hands of an alien lord because according to them his parents didn’t respect him.
He was left with nothing so he started stealing from the rich in order to survive.
He could still remember the stories his mother used to tell him about an era when humans weren’t ruled by aliens. Everyone was free to live however they wanted. But once aliens came to rule this place everything changed.
Draven couldn’t help but think about how cool it would be if somehow all the aliens got wiped out from the country.
His pace was now slow as he knew no one was coming behind him. He walked on the side of the road looking around, but there wasn't a soul in sight.
The roadside was lined with ornate mansions with ivy-covered facades and balcony adornments.
From gleaming fountains adorning traffic circles to golden details on street lights, every detail exuded luxury.
Draven gazed with envy and admiration upon this lavish world, his humble origins coming into sharp relief against this lavish setting.
Reaching in front of the building he gazed at it once with a disgusting look before moving inside. The door of the building was already open. Each step made loud sounds in the empty building as he climbed up the stairs and soon reached the top of the building.
His eyes went towards the city lights which he could see from the building before he went towards his little sleeping area.
Using steel sheets he made that little area, two sheets on either side with one placed on top of them keeping his little house in place. Inside a torn pillow and sheet was kept which he found near the garbage can.
He went inside and sitting on the sheet he opened up the small bag hoping to see some food or maybe some precious things inside which he can sell and buy something for himself.
But as soon as he opened the bag all his excitement vanished.
“What the hell? Did I go through all that difficulty to find some shit papers?” He groaned as he threw the book away from himself.
But as he did that a paper from the bag came out and fell in front of him. His eyes went towards it. Picking it up from the ground he read the word “FortuneCraft” written on it and his mind immediately went towards the online RPG game which came out some days ago.
He always wanted to play that game since it can help a person acquire immense wealth and be whatever they want in life but the ticket was only given to young rich heirs which ordinary humans like him couldn’t afford. Only the rich people could play the game.
“The life of the rich is something to be admired.” Draven sighed, still holding the ticket in his hand.
Coming out of the daze he again looked at the paper in his hand and now he started reading the contents written on it.
[ Ticket Number #789891 ]
[ Entry Ticket to the online VRMMORPG online game, FortuneCraft, which can help you acquire immense wealth and help you see your true potential. ]
[ Submit this ticket at the gate at Elysium to enter the game. ]
For a minute Draven couldn’t even believe what he just read. His eyes went wide with shock.
“Oh My God! This is the ticket to FortuneCraft!” He shouted as loud as he could, still not believing the fact that he was holding a ticket of that game in his hand.
He continued reading, feeling like he was still in some kind of dream.
[ Game Entry Code: Eva-4377-ladn20 ]
[ Date of Entry: 10 / 05 / 2223 ]
[ Time: 6:00 am ]
[ Location: Elysium Mall, Block #5 ]
[ Game developers hold the right to change and modify the game rules and and gameplay. ]
“Wait 10? That’s like tomorrow. So the game will start tomorrow and I.. I can join it.” His lips twitched up before he said to himself with determination in his eyes, “I would go and play this game no matter what!”
Draven felt excitement building up inside of him. He felt like destiny was giving him a chance to get out of this miserable life and try to live a better life.
But would that life be better than this one or would he just get himself in more trouble?
“What’s the harm in trying? It’s not like I can survive here any longer.” He replied to his own thoughts before lying down on the sheet still holding onto the ticket like his life was now depending on it.
The excitement made him forget about the fact that he was angry and hadn’t eaten all day.
His stomach growled.
“Oh shut up. Can’t get you anything now. We are going to sleep now so we can have energy to play that game tomorrow.” He told his body before turning around and laying on one side.
Taking a last glance at the starry sky, his eyes closed and he fell asleep.
In the morning, his eyes opened when the rays of light fell piercing through the holes between the gaps in his little makeshift fell on him. As soon as he got up he felt excited thinking about the ticket he had in his pocket.
“Hope I get to enter this game. I can’t miss such an opportunity.” He said to himself as he got out of his makeshift.
After checking that the ticket was still in his pocket, he kept it once again in his pocket. Soon he walked out of the building and made his way to the Elysium Mall. On his way he saw the time outside a shop and realized he still had 30 minutes left before he would reach there.
“It’s just 5 minutes away from here. I will reach there in no time.” With excitement building up inside him once again he ran towards the Mall.
“Damnnnn.” The word left his mouth once he saw the scene in front of him.
Outside the venue he could see a long line of participants waiting outside. Some were busy ranting about the long line while some were using their phones not caring about the world.
The line made him worried and surprised at the same time.
“Would I be able to reach inside on time?” He sighed knowing he couldn’t do anything but wait for his turn.
Standing at the end of the line he started waiting for his turn.
“Noo. Only 10 minutes are left. Hurry up people.” He said no one in particular even though he badly wanted to say it to the people standing in front of him.
Time seemed to be crawling for him and after it felt like an eternity it was finally his turn.
He went near the receptionist girl who was standing in front of the desk with a boring look on her face.
“Ticket, please.” Her words got Draven out of his thoughts and he immediately started finding the ticket in his pocket.
Grabbing it he pushed it in front of her and looked at her with a curious expression, expecting her answer soon.
He wasn’t sure if he would be allowed inside or not, since humans couldn’t go inside.
The girl looked up from the ticket once and gazed at him from top to bottom before putting a stamp on the ticket and pushing it in front of him again.
“Welcome to FortuneCraft. Your journey begins here.”
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The End
Draven couldn’t believe it was over. Three months later he was still thinking if he was making the right decision. Assistant David sat in his living room with a bunch of documents in front of him. He paced up and down, not sure what he would do.“You can just sign here,” the man said for the umpteeth time. “It’s not really that hard. You sign that you’ve taken ownership of the game and you decide what you want to do with it.”“But I don’t want ownership of the game,” Draven said again. He had repeated this exact words countless times but the guy didn’t seem to be hearing him.“You should have known what you were getting yourself into when you challenged late game owner Timothy—” David paused and looked to the heavens. “May his soul not rest in peace. You should have known that killing him would automatically make you the owner of the game. Those were his rules.”Draven rolled his eyes. He was sure that Timothy had made that rule because he didn’t believe anyone would be able to defeat
Darkness
Timothy laughed. His laughter was vivacious and full of life. This was what he wanted, after all. The very end of judgement day where he would punish all those who failed him; those who went against him and those who was party to his torture.Here was Draven, the strongest man to ever grace his game. Timothy knew he was going to be a lot of trouble in the future and so he had specifically looked into him. Now that Draven has waged war with his full chest over a woman, he was ecstatic. This was historic, and he was living a historic time in the present. How many men brought knives to fight for their loves, anyways?Smiling, he snapped his fingers. A single door opened and his assistant ran to him carrying a box.“You’re about to experience an historic moment with me,” He said to Draven. “Diane will be our goddess Diana, and we will be the lowly men who are fighting for her love.”Diane scoffed. “You don’t have to do it, Draven. The guy is nuts. Let’s just get out of here.”“But darling
Sword
Draven panicked for a minute. He thought for sure that the darkness and pressure meant he was losing his consciousness, but that wasn’t the case. One minutes there was stark darkness and the next minute they fell into an extremely white room with hard cardboard. They fell through the sky, hitting directly on the wood and groaning in pain. The stark white color of the room blinded them. It was brighter than a sky or white paint. It was so bright that Draven closed his eyes and tried to regain his or he r senses. He knew there was a betrayal in the group—which wasn’t surprising as their group was made of weird, diverse people, but he needed to see who exactly did it.He won’t even be surprised if to was Lara. She was the one who had led them to the cage, after all. She was the one who offered to test the waters and make sure the portal was okay. Who in their right senses tests water and portal to make a point of the portal not working? Unless he or she was working with Timothy and knew
Statement
No one said anything after Diane’s statement. They were so tired and hungry and unsure of what to do next. Draven’s goods felt heavy to him. His sword even felt heavier than normal. He didn’t believe he came back to this game to be ridiculed and placed in a very unstable condition because of a silly fight that was going on between two lovers. When he looked at Diane, he wondered if she was toying with them again. Was she afraid to meet Timothy or what? He knew that the portal might likely take them to Timothy as the owner can easily manipulate events, but at least he was ready for that stage. He could exactly tell what Diane was thinking when she was looking her nose down on the portal.“We cannot just stay here,” Lara said. “Do you want us to keep waiting for him to keep finding opportunities to kill us? We’re certainly going to die of hunger if we keep waiting!”“She’s right,” Draven concurred. “We can’t keep lying about in wait like lambs to a slaughter. We must make the first move
Awkward
Everyone was super awkward after the kiss. Leo avoided for the rest of the morning. He didn’t want to talk about it but it was too late; Draven had seen them and announced to the whole pack in the morning that the kiss was probably the most hottest he’d seen.“Whoa,” Diane said excitedly. “You two kissed? That’s great. Are you like a couple now or something?”“It’s nothing like that, okay? It was just a kiss, and a mistake at that,” Leo piped up.Even though he didn’t want to talk about the kiss or look at Lara’s face, he was glad that Draven brought it up. At least he’d air his opioid publicly about it so he won’t have to be in an awkward space with Lara.“Ouch, Leo, you’re a player!” Diane said, laughing. “You can’t say those kind of things to someone when you’ve kissed them!”“I didn’t kiss her, okay? She’s the one who kissed me,” Leo defended hotly.“It’s still hurtful that you say it that way. Have some feelings, pal,” Diane said, her laugh increasing.It sounded mocking and cont
Thoughts
Leo could not sleep. Draven had been out for close to an hour, yet he wasn’t back yet. Lots of thoughts assaulted his brain, but the one that stayed the most was Diane.Diane. Diane. Diane.He bet she was here to true their life again, and that bet was true. If Leo was the one to handle this, he’d definitely not want to help her out the way Draven was. It was as if the guy didn’t want to learn any lessons about why it’s dangerous to just not help anyone for too long. Draven was lenient when it came to Diane and he didn’t like it one but.He turned his head to the side and saw her sleeping peacefully.“Yeah, like you didn’t just send someone to their death,” he murmured to himself.He wondered if Draven was still talking to the game creator or if he’s been killed. If he was truly killed, Leo won’t honestly know how to handle that. He tried not to think about it because it was depressing enough. He sat up now, still watching Diane. If she had been careful, they won’t be in this shit hol