[2087th year of the global calendar.]
Do you know what it feels like to be poor?
"No, we have nothing."
…
"Fuck off, bagger."
…
"Mama! Mana! What is that brother-"
"No, little one. Don't call him brother. Shuuu. Let's go."
To just walk by a commercial road in shabby clothes and be treated like a bagger in a world ruled by selfish capitalists?
…
"Hey, handsome~. Do you want money~? Something to eat~?"
…
Or be easy prey to the beast-like scammers and thieves wearing the masks of common people, looking for an opportunity to collect one more merchandise?
"You are late."
"No, I'm not, boss. See? The watch says I'm on time."
"Tsk. Keep that dumb old watch to yourself and get to work."
"Yes~."
Do you know what it is like to work day and night in a construction site just for the minimum wages that can only barely pay for one other life excluding your own?
"Another day of shit work, another day of earning a living."
To live in a world surrounded by high-rising skyscrapers all around you, under corrupt bosses that play tricks to legally become richer?
To work your ass off for the one person, one family you have to take care of?
To save most of what you earn, eat the cheapest food you can afford, to have the dignity of never taking from others even if it is their so-called fucked up goodwill?
"Huuuuu…"
Do you know what it is like to wear the same clothes until they are completely worn out? To wear sleepers that are already worn out? To work tirelessly with a growling stomach?
"Good work today."
"Good work everyone."
"See you later."
"Here."
"Thanks, boss~."
To smile at the bastard boss who sees you as nothing more than an animal, with clear disgust on his face when he has to give out money to us workers at the end of the day.
To the workers who are dead from the inside and possess the hollowest smile you can see in this growing world.
"Haaa…"
To hear the same curses, the same shitty things, the same stuff that you hear every morning, again when walking back to your house.
"His mother must be a slutty whore as well, beggar."
Does anyone know how it would feel when these same comments turn towards the one person you care about, the one and only human being who gave you everything you have today?
"Haaaa…"
To hold back the urge to smash their faces, break their jaws, pull out their eyes, and cut off the tongue that spoke those heinous words, just because your values do not allow you to do so?
-Knock. Knock.
"I am back, mom."
"Welcome back dear~. How's your day~."
'As shitty as always…'
Do you know what it feels like to live in a shabby cabin with two rooms, without a facility to properly call it a bathroom?
"It was the same as always, mum."
In a world where technology had advanced so much that they had sent out space missions, colonized the neighboring planet, and reached a point where things called the 'other worlds' or a fully immersive virtual reality of massively multiplayer games had become the greatest source of entertainment as well as something that was the core driving world's economy.
"Hehe, you silly. Go, wash up, and let's eat."
"I have told you many times, Mum. Don't wait for me. And don't do these straining things. You are unwell."
"It is nothing. Go, go. Do your thing~."
Can you imagine how it feels to have a loving, always ill mother whose medications you could not afford? A single mother who raised you in a vicious world like this, with every bit of affection and resources one would need for twenty-three years?
"Haaaa…"
Do you know how difficult it is to just survive in this world if you do not have the money to afford basic needs? To have just enough for your lives to be sustained?
'It is painful…'
To see the others and wish for what they have while knowing you cannot have all that they do.
To not be able to cure your mother's simple illness and see her suffer.
To just endure, endure, and endure the urge to escape this painful cycle of the same repetitive days…
'I know all of it just sounds like someone venting out their anger and resentment towards this unfair world, however, I know there is a simple solution to all this as well.'
Becoming like them.
And doing the things that they are doing.
'Stealing, cheating, conning others, lying, scamming, committing fraud… making the simple human mind do the things it is programmed to do, hurt others for selfish purposes and gains, earn money by various immoral acts, and elevate my lifestyle from what it is right now.'
Many do it.
Many have climbed to the higher levels of the society by doing these things. By selling out their morality.
However, it is against my nature.
"The food was delicious as always, Mum. Oh, I will be going out for a walk for a while. Do you want anything?"
"No darling. Just take care of yourself. And don't stay out for too long~."
"Of course, mum."
She was from a poor family, however, her father threw her away at a young age since after her mother's death, they could not bear her burden. And ever since then, she lived on her own, took care of herself, and grew up to have attractive looks. Which, obviously, were fancied by many.
However, she gave her heart to only 'that person' and even though they could not be together for long, she had me, and so, she raised me the best way she could with whatever was left to her.
'Time passed, she got old, I got older and with all the morality, values, and behaviors she had encoded in me since an early age, I started taking care of her.'
The life we had right now wasn't the best, obviously.
Not when there was so much to learn around me, so much to understand, see, and explore.
'It feels shitter today for some reason…'
I knew I could do much more than just some construction work.
I knew I was capable of much, much more than only the physical labor.
There were many things I already can do better than those who claimed to have graduated from prestigious universities. And I wanted to do all that…
"But if I start chasing after my own selfish dreams, I will have to lose my mum. And that, will not even be the last thing I want to do."
She was the reason I was walking freely like this in the first place.
She was the reason I was breathing right now.
And, she is the reason I am what I am.
"So, I am trapped in a paradox."
I need money, a lot of it, to do all the things that are on my mind. The things that I know I can do for certain.
And to earn that kind of money in a short time, I will need to do shady things, which, again, I cannot. So that's out of the option.
The only other option I have left, then, would be to get a full dive VR tech and earn the virtual currency from the 'other world'.
Doing that would be pretty doable as well, however, to even buy that kind of tech, I will need another shit ton of money.
'So, in the end, money is the problem in this world.'
And, even if earning it is easy for someone who, at the very least, has some kind of presentable clothing, for someone as broke as us… I don't see myself getting that tech anytime soon.
'Even after saving whatever money I can save from the work I do throughout the day and late night shifts, I barely have a third of what is needed to buy even the cheapest-
-Dhum!
"What the hell? Oy, filthy bastard. Watch where you are going!"
I was walking by the roadside and even though I was in deep thought, I was paying attention to where I was going.
This girl was the one who was in a hurry and was running with her head in her Cyberphone.
"You should watch where you are going, miss-"
"Fuck. Shut that filthy mouth of yours, beggar! Move! Get lost!"
She stood up with a disgusted expression, spat on the other side, and continued running with her phone in her hand.
'That's how poor-looking people are treated nowadays.'
Sometimes they beat us up without any reason as well and the police do nothing to them since as the ones wearing rags, we are practically animals in this society.
'Haaa… I wanna get rich. At least enough to have a Cyberphone like that.'
These things were called the state-of-the-art tech that was on the rise since a few months ago… wait, but, what's someone with that kind of thing doing in a place like this?
I was still in my shabby neighborhood so there were no tall buildings here or any skyscrapers.
There was just a main road beside the footpath I was walking on from where some people seldom travel to the central city area in their cars.
And from how much I know those high-class baboons, they wouldn't even open the door of their vehicles when passing through places like these.
So then, what was a 'young miss' like girl in expensive-looking clothes and a fucking expensive device doing here, walking on the footpath of us peasants?
"Hmmm?"
I had walked a few steps ahead so by the time this question had popped into my mind, the distance between the girl and me had increased quite a bit.
-Vroooooom!
And the very next moment I turned around, a car so attractive one would only see them in the holographic ads on the top billboards of this city, passed by me and stopped right beside the girl that was still rushing somewhere with her phone.
'What the hell, man?'
This was my first time seeing a car like that in a place like this.
It was very weird for something like that to be in a place like this as well.
'What's happening here?'
This was strange.
Perhaps a rich people drama thing, or something else entirely, but, this incident made me curious.
So I stayed there to see what kind of drama this was actually…
It should be much better than walking the same old streets anyway. And that girl called me a filthy beggar as well.
I should let her know that it was offensive.