“I don’t get it…

  “I just don’t get it…

  “It’s been 10 days sihey released the update…

  “How is it still trending?”

  Rain looked at him from the other side of the table, staring in disbelief. “Really?” said Rain, squinched. “You really ’t tell why?”

  “What?”

  “Dude, that update pletely exploded the game. I mean, just look at the patotes. There’s so much there that scrolling through it would take ages. This new update is like the modern-day equivalent of the Renaissa’s called the ‘Revolution Update’ for a reason.”

  “Sure, man…”

  His excessive excitement was something Hallowell couldn’t uand. He had read all of the articles talking about the new update and whatnot, with quite the majority talking about how the game was making people rich from nothing. But still, was just another VR game. There was no reason for it to trend so much as to obsess every news outlet and gaming media all over the world.

  Although in a way, the “making people rich” thing, among other features said update had supposedly added, already made it stand out in the VR market. With news of poor people being rid rich people being richer, why would anyone choose to work a real job if they have fun and still make a buck pying a game?

  “You’re ied in it, aren’t you?” Rain said, popping Hallowell’s bubble of thought.

  “No.”

  “Are you sure? Just look around you, man. Everybody here’s got a headset. It’s not your fault that you’d want one. And it’s not even that expensive anyway. Like, 4 weeks’ worth of allowance max.”

  Waste a month’s worth of allowances on a VR headset? He thought. What a ughable idea.

  Surely that much money could buy more than just one single headset fames. Why would anyone waste that much money on a siem instead of buying multiple actually useful things? Like food, for example.

  “You really think it’s that cheap? Buy it for me, then,” Hallowell jokingly demanded.

  “Alright,” Rain stood. “Let’s go then.”

  “Huh? Wait, wait, what?”

  “I’ll literally buy you one, my guy. It’s that cheap.”

  “Wait, that was a joke! You’re joking, right? I ’t just take free things from you that casually!”

  “Of course, you ! And if you’re that worried about it, I’ll split it with the rest of css. So, it’ll be from all of us.” He tugged Hallowell’s shirt. “Let’s go.”

  “No!” He resisted. “There’s no way you’ll skip css to buy me a headset with your money. And obviously, they won’t even give you the money if it’s to buy me a headset anyway.”

  “First off, I could absolutely skip css if that’s what I want to do. And two, your friends are kind enough to do that for you. So, rest assured. —RIGHT GUYS?!” Rain yelled.

  Everyone: “Yeah!”

  “See? It’ll be more fun if y together anyway. So, let’s go!” He tugged harder.

  “No! You’ll all be wasting your money!” Holding his seat.

  “Just think of it as an early birthday present, dude.”

  “No! I don’t want it! And I’m never gonna . I won’t even sider ever getting it! So don’t even talk about it anymore!”

  Rain sat back down after hearing his outburst, still disappointed by Hallowell’s obvious denial of wanting the headset. “Pussy,” he sighed. “And here I am wanting to give you a free headset. The new money system could definitely fix your problems, just saying.” Shrugging.

  Hallowell turhe versation around to a different topic. All of this game talk tempted his gamer heart. If only he had the money, he would’ve had a headset way more powerful than the market average by now. But those were only wishful thoughts, wishful thoughts that are irrelevant to his current situation.

  In any case, whatever game this could be, it sounded more like a scam than anything. A game that gees free money out of nothing os in fairy tales. Likely just one big lie in a big pile of hoaxes manufactured by the i unity purely for the sake of getting clicks. He’d rather talk about some ame that doesn’t sound as sus.

  Raiantly obliged, urning back to the VR game after seeing how offended Hallowell looked after his st ent.

  The m bell rang, ending their early m versation. Hallowell stared at the clock as he thought about where he had to go . He k was time to go, but his butt was pletely stu his seat. There was still a sense ness whenever he had to leave that css, to leave his friends behind as he rose to the floor above. But school rules are absolute. Unless he wao get kicked out and expelled, he had to go immediately.

  After pulling his ass off the chair, he helped Raihe pce up, then slowly bagged up and stepped out of his css. “See ya, guys.” He waved, and they waved back.

  If only I didn’t skip a grade, he thought.

  He was too smart for his own sake. Every question oest he did was always answered perfectly. Aces came to him as frequently as his friends praised him for it. Then one day, the teachers realized that he didn’t belong in his level, and they gave him the grade skip he never wanted, pg him in with the hellish people of 10-B.

  Teically, he did bee an uppercssman to his friends, but he wouldn’t dare give himself such a shameful bel.

  The students in his new css are rotten, vile, uncivilized, inpetent, and an all-out ass to be around. They were Satan to him, as the css was the pit of hell in his eyes.

  Back when he first ehe , the very first day of the school year, he was bullied relentlessly by every boy and girl in css merely for his unwele existe got to the point of finishing every day with bruises on his faearly bleeding from all of the kicks aings they gave him. Of course, now wasn’t as bad as then, sihat daily tradition had finally ceased. Of course, even without the violehey still shunned him every day, a lesser variant of bullying that he handle physically aally.

  As if there needed any more reason to hate that css, the stink and the deafeningly loud screams at any given time really made everything unbearable. Not a siep into the room, and you could already sehe vibe is all off in that css. Eveudents from the csses door tend to run past 10-B, possibly to avoid the disruptive chaos of the and to avoid getting caught by the css for “trespassing”, which would be a whole other story altogether.

  But even in such a css, there was still one single saving grace, the brief respite that made life tolerable iween all of the hellish creatures.

  It was the css president, Phoebe Star.

  While everyone else in css was shouting and running around with scissors trying to snip out their victim’s hair, she was the only one who calmly sat down on her chair waiting for school to start. It was her patiend kihat led her to bee 10-B’s de facto leader. Whether someone lost a pencil or actally made a gash on their forehead, she would always be the first person to run in and help out. And to Hallowell, she was his protector, the only one who kept his bullies away from him.

  And there she sat today, in the back er of the room, furthest from the door, ready with ay seat just for him. She even taped a handwritten piece of paper on it that read “Lu ‘Lucy’ Hallowell”, how kind of her!

  “Lucy! Over here!” she called, loud enough to be heard iween all of the css’s shouting. He quickly walked down the alley and cimed his seat. A cold seat, the best seat she could’ve given him. With a wall behind him and a wall to his side, exactly right below the AC’s fresh cold air, furthest from everyone else in css, and away from the middle of all of the chaos going down, no other table could beat the luxury.

  “Hello, table. Hello AC…

  “Quite the cold today, eh?” He muttered.

  “How’s the seat?” Star asked smugly.

  “Cold and fy, very nice.” He said. “We should sit here every day.”

  She smiled. “Maybe. If I wake up earlier every day.”

  They prepared themselves for the day as the teacher slowly walked his way into css.

  The day had finally started, with time passing along swiftly. And with every passing sed, css became rowdier and rowdier as the end of the day got closer. It wasn’t until 3 hours in that the bell rang the “brunch tune”, as colloquially known, when all of the ruckus finally died down.

  The devils burst out of the css as soon as it rang, and they went to make trouble all around the school just like every other day.

  All they left behind was silence, along with echoes of loud screams that could be heard through the thinner parts of the walls. But betweewo of them, there was nothing more silent than the sound of ay 10-B. Being aloogether was all they wanted for the remaining 40 minutes of break time.

  Eating hours have always beeime to talk, a special hour just for their stories and pints for the day. Anything ranging from games to TV shows or even to Star’s book colle be their topic. But today, it wasn’t any of that. She’s got other, more important things to say to him.

  “So…” she said, taking out a piece of string cheese, “how’s that el doing?”

  “It’s fine. 700 views st month, 2400 in total.” Hallowell shrugged, crag open a of beans.

  “Ah.”

  “Yeah. I don’t know what I expected really,” he slurped. “No’ bahd, honeshy. shi`hering I’m barelhy 2 monsh in.”

  Star took a nervous bite, hearing the failure of his hopeful attempt. “Are… you sure you make it work?”

  “Ifph homelesh pephle livhe fhor tha’ long,” gulped, “I’m sure I make it work.”

  He told her his pns, what he’s going to do with the rest of his money.

  Assuming he won’t get sid won’t be tempted by snacks and other such things, “31 days,” he ted. The electricity bill, the water bill, the i bill, 4 weeks’ worth of rid beans, already pensated by his weekly sleepover at her house, no soap, no shampoo, no clothes washed (except undies), and finally, toothpaste for every other day. 31 days until all of his money runs out. After that, he’ll o find a way to either make more money or sell his items out for cash, preferably the former. “But that’s just the theory,” he said. “Iy that could be aimation, so…” Saying with muism in his eyes.

  Star wondered why he could still look happy in such a desperate situation. It was his tone, his gesture, his eyes; they looked like the eyes of a person who’s tent with his life; he couldn’t possibly be so optimisti his situation. But that wasn’t why she started the versation. She didn’t just want to see him weep about his issues; she knew just the solution to his problem. There just wasn’t a way to vince him to take it.

  “Well… Lucy, you’ve heard of the game… You know? The ohat make you rich?”

  “Not this again,” he whispered under his breath.

  “I was just thinking, I could lend you a headset… and… we’ll see how it goes?”

  He gulped down the final spoonful of bean juid jokingly said to her, “And use a girl’s headset? Yeah, right.”

  “Well! Well then I’ll buy you o’ll be yours that way, right?”

  “No.”

  “It’s cheap! It’s only 50! I’ll give you the headset and—!”

  “I ’t just take your donations for no reason. Especially a sus A.F. game such as that. I’ll get around all of this myself. Don’t even bring it up anymore; you privileged people have too much moo spare. So, for now, it’s good enough that you still let me e over to your house every on a while. Okay?”

  “…” Appalled, she could only nod at his response. “I guess there’s no other way of ving you, is there?”

  “Hm. Anyway!” he said. “About that Flower you were about to give me st night,” referring to the trade she had offered him in their st co-op session. He tinued on talking about the trade to her, ving her that the trade was just a bit too tight for his iory.

  Star followed the versation through with him, even if in the back of her mind, she still wondered why he wouldn’t just accept her solution.

  The rest of the versatio smoothly for them. They settled on a trade as Star finished her final piece of string cheese, giving Hallowell a stack of Flower for three full stacks of Scrap, a done deal.

  The rest of the day went on as usual. Some more hours passed quite quickly, with the day ending on a bright and shiny afternoon. Star and Hallowell waited for all the others to get out before them. They liked to look at the silent sery of the before they left.

  Together, they walked back to each of their homes. Hallowell made a stop at Star’s house, as it was his turn today. They liked to switch every day.

  After a quick goodbye, Hallowell walked bae, alone, uhe burning skies. It’s a isception that a day too hot feels harsh on the skin. But for him, hot days always had the best kind of sky. As long as there were no clouds c the sun, and the blue background was visible, it was the perfect kind of sky. His eyes fixated on the clear skies. Beautiful skies.

  A sudden thud from underh took his eyes away from the view. He slowly looked down to find out that his feet had actally kicked down a box to its side. When he looked around, he realized that he had entered his front yard. The beautiful view made him fet how quick the trip would be from Star’s home. Surrounding his yard was a wall of t that covered everything but the entrance, which had a metal fence guarding his home.

  But the box was on his front door, way beyond the metal gate that most delivery people would leave his things at. How did they get the box ihis far in? Did the delivery guy throw the box in? Since when have delivery guys been allowed to throw things over the fence like that? “I guess kig it wasn’t a problem then,” he cluded. “Hello, box.”

  He picked the box up and pced it right side up on the ground, in case it was orientatioive. But when he did, the weight of it was surprisingly heavy. It almost felt unnatural to hold, and its deceptive mass baffled him. “Did I ever order you?” he muttered. “I don’t remember you. What are you? Rice? Water? I’ve never ordered food o least I don’t remember it. Seriously, why are you so heavy?”

  He looked around to find the box’s bels to see if it was actally sent to his home. But there was none. All six sides were pin cardboard with no tapes or bels, not eveicky bits that would be there if someone had ripped the bels off. The cardboard was sealed all the way around, strangely not a single seam was visible on it.

  Out of curiosity, he quickly brought the elusive box inside his home, took a box cutter, and ripped the box open to find out what it was. He ripped open the package, quickly realizing what item was inside.

  “Well… Speak of the heg devil.”