1. Trying a New Game

“Clyde! Are you inside?”

The energetic voice of a female was heard from outside, along with the loud, impatient knocks on the door. Following that, a man who was still in his pajamas lazily rose up from the bed, sitting on it for a good while, contemplating whether to greet his visitor or not.

“CLYDE! I know you’re inside! Answer me!”

That voice, sounding more like an ultimatum, forced him to leave his bed behind. Not bothering even to wash his face, he dragged himself to the front door. A little bit of hesitation made him paused for a bit, before finally he opened the door.

“There you go! Don’t you know that it’s considered very rude to keep a beautiful being like me waiting?”

“It’s too early for your narcissistic joke, Bonnie,” responded that man while rubbing his eyes. He was barely standing straight because he was still recovering his wandering soul from the slumber he enjoyed a moment before.

“Early? What time is it, Clyde?” retorted Bonnie with an expression of disbelief. Without waiting for his response, she reached out her right hand and showed him the watch on her wrist. “It’s way past noon! Even slackers will have something done by this time!”

Clyde turned his face away from his guest, looking past her as if issinuating that she was not welcome there if all she did was only to yell at her. But he felt the need to spell it out for his female colleagues.

“Bonnie, surely you’re not coming all the way here just to lecture me the first thing I woke up, I assume?” interrogated Clyde, taking a step backward to hint Bonnie to come in. He was never a big fan of public attention, and he wouldn’t change that stance now.

“Well, of course not! That would be a big waste of my time and energy!” shouted Bonnie while stepping inside Clyde’s apartment. “Holy smokes, this place is a total mess! Haven’t you been cleaning up?”

Clyde didn’t answer. He wouldn’t want to let Bonnie know that he had been in the dumps for months now. He had been neglecting his work thanks to his depressive period, or it’s more like the other way around, he had been laid off due to declining performance.

“Anyway, I’m done commenting on your lifestyle. It’s time for me to take what’s rightfully mine!” ended Bonnie. “The money you owed me, spit it out!”

“Great timing, then. Why don’t you help us and take something from my stuffs around here?” offered Clyde. “I will even throw in some freebies.”

“That’s so funny I forgot to laugh, Clyde. But unlike you, I’m not kidding, so show me the money!”

“I’m not joking, either. I’ve been penniless for a while. One look is all it took for you to notice, right?”

Indeed, beside her cold and indifferent approach towards him, she actually hid a frozen empathy that was quite hard to see, even for her childhood friend, Clyde. They spent their adolescence period in the same orphanage, and it was only two of them who didn’t manage to get adopted until they reach legal age, leaving a psychological scar in their heart, though one was better at concealing it than the other.

“Clyde, did you quit your job again?” guessed Bonnie.

“Yeah,” answered Clyde shortly. “It doesn’t take a genius to find out, huh?”

“Are you for real? You’ve been doing this for numerous times now!” scolded Bonnie. “Ever since we got out of the orphanage, you’ve been changing jobs more than you changed your outfits!”

This was the reason why Clyde wasn’t too enthusiastic to see Bonnie. Even the person who knew him the longest time still couldn’t understand him very well.

“Bonnie, you should see how they treat me! Those toxic environments, barely liveable wage, insane amount of work hours, oh and have I mentioned the commuting experience?” moaned Clyde while taking a seat on the couch full of dirty laundries. “I’m not a masochist!”

“You need to be grateful that you had a job and a roof over your head! Don’t you know there are millions out there willing to kill to get a piece of what you have now?” cornered Bonnie, joining Clyde on the couch.

“How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6.30 am by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, force-feed, defecate and urinate, brush teeth and hair, and eventually fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?” Clyde suddenly rose up and spilled over all of his pent-up frustration. The visitor was quite astonished to see this sudden development, but a while later she let out a deep sigh.

“You’ve been reading too much of Bukowski, haven’t you?” predicted Bonnie. “I like him too, but let’s just be realistic. Adult world is harsh like that, and we need to suck it up because they have something that we don’t, money!”

Bonnie’s attempt to calm Clyde down showed a hint of result, as Clyde faintly mumbled.

“I want to abolish this system and create a new one..”

That whisper gave a new idea for Bonnie to distract Clyde from his slump.

“Clyde, all you need is just a little break. Youngsters these days may call it healing,” persuaded Bonnie while taking out her phone from her bag. “Look, if it’s the system you want to change, why don’t you try this simulation game? It’s been a craze lately!”

Clyde turned his glance to the phone that Bonnie showed. Revlogia Online was the title of that supposedly online game. Indeed, Clyde enjoyed game but recently his passion to do what he liked had diminished drastically, a major sign of depression. Bonnie realized that as well, so she immediately took another action to back up her suggestion.

“I know at this difficult time, it will be hard for you to enjoy what you used to be your hobby. But trust me, this one is different! I played it too, a great source of relief and occasional income!” promoted Bonnie.

“Income? You mean, like selling your legendary and rare items?” hypothesized Clyde. “That’s the same with the previous online games. Some even allow you to sell your account.”

“Welcome to the future, old man! I’m talking about a more advanced feature!” chuckled Bonnie who silently thanked God that Clyde started to take an interest, no matter how small it was. “It will be easier if we walk through it. So why don’t you d******d it first, and-”

“Done. Next step is the account registration, right?” interrupted Clyde whose mood bounced back higher than before.

“That was fast for someone who’s not interested!” said Bonnie amazed. Now she didn’t have to worry about Clyde anymore.

“I never said I wasn’t interested. Anyway, I’m in the Class Selection screen. What’s yours, Bonnie?” asked Clyde. “Just for your information, I don’t play the generic ones.”

“Nah, I won’t tell you just yet. Let’s just focus on yours instead!” advised Bonnie while navigating Clyde through the system. “Let’s see, we have your average Knight, Mage, Berserker...”

“That’s so boring! And here I thought I had something to look forward to,” grumbled Clyde in dissatisfaction, about to turn away when Bonnie held him back.

“Alright, Mr. Hipster! How about a Gambler for your preference?” offered Bonnie in a desperate attempt to win him over. “Challenging enough for you?”