From Garbage To Glory

Chapter 3

3

Jeremy's interest was both piqued and shaken by a small house that sat in the middle of the big clean work site. A lamplight was illuminating behind the house as though it was attached to the rear of the house. It looked like your typical two-story cute-looking house with slanted roofs and a chimney that had steam coming out of it.

"Should I run or should I complete my order?" Jeremy asked himself as he tucked his first two fingers in the collar of the t-shirt and blew air within.

He was stinking wet with sweat. His skin was heating. Even with no sun in the sky, the atmosphere was hot like he was sitting in a switched off oven. It was mad hot, so how could anyone have fire crackling within their house?

Something in Jeremy incited him to take steps towards the house. There was a small golden bell nailed into the wall beside the door. Jeremy rang the bell and the door suddenly sprang open, revealing a weird looking guy.

"Sir, your order!" Jeremy said, his voice fading out as he observed the guy.

He was young. Probably Jeremy's age, short like five foot three, he had a big flat nose that covered most of his face. He had small eyes, what color they were Jeremy couldn't see because the light wasn't adequate. He was wearing loose pajamas and there was a huge grin on his face.

"You're just in time. Give it to me." The man snatched the box of pizza from Jeremy and rushed back inside the house to get money.

During this time Jeremy peeked a look inside the house. It was messy with clothes, food packets, soda cans lying here and there. However, one particular wall of the house was made of computers. The screens were glitching with some kind of data counting points, a very long list of names with ranks beside them. Some screens were glitching, some had contracts opened on them.

In curiosity, Jeremy walked inside the house absentmindedly to see a certain glitching screen suddenly starting to work. It was showing the points of a player who had a crown across his name.

"Here is your money. Keep the change." The guy returned with a hundred dollar bill.

Jeremy stared in bewilderment, not being able to believe his ears.

"S-sir, you ordered a chicken cheese burst pepperoni pizza, ten inch size. It just costs $25.78. Do you really mean that I keep the remaining balance?"

"Yes, that's what I mean." He smiled.

"So you really think that I can—"

"Yess, yess, you can keep it. I'm glad you brought the order all the way here to me and I'm very hungry. This is my token of gratitude for you."

"Thank... Thank you so much. Thank you so much, sir." Jeremy's eyes twinkled.

This tip meant that he was another step closer to buying the necklace for his wife.

"Btw what is this?" Jeremy pointed at the list of names and the points.

"Oh, these are the players of the game I developed." The guy replied with a proud smile.

"You're a game developer? That is amazing. Well," Jeremy's eyes lowered. "I wanted to do something like this in my life. Learn developing or any other computer software course but.... Life wasn't favorable to me and I ended up like this… Doing several jobs a day to make ends meet.”

A long sigh of pain burst over Jeremy's lips.

The guy touched his shoulder, "I can understand. I was struggling like you before I decided to make this game and now I don't regret it. You know, I earn billions monthly. Another good thing is that my users earn more than me!"

"Millions? You've got to be kidding me?" Jeremy chuckled in disbelief.

“Billions, not millions.”

“Billions? You're a billionaire? You've truly got to be kidding me now.” Jeremy's voice was laced with bewilderment. He stared at the guy from head to toe, not believing his ears.

It was shocking to see a billionaire looking like that and wearing clothes like that.

From what Jeremy grew up seeing— The rich community liked to show off their wealth and brag about the stuff of expensive brands they owned. The bought beauty with their money.

But this guy here… He looked like an unsuccessful and an ugly looking person like himself.

"I'm not, sir. In fact, you can also earn in millions."

Jeremy's jaw hung as he stared at the developer guy. Being called sir by someone was a first time for him. And the amount of respect he felt for the developer guy was unimaginable.

Jeremy's been shunned and insulted all his life by people including his wife and her family. He truly thought that he was good for nothing. But being called sir made his eyes twinkle with stinging tears that Jeremy never let fall.

For a man, he cried a lot and his wife said that it's a loser's habit to cry. Real men don't. Hence, Jeremy tried not to let his tears fall as much as he could.

"I truly feel that you're pulling my leg, sir. How can you earn millions by playing a game." Jeremy replied to the man as his eyes swept back to the screen.

"I'm not lying to you, sir. This is real. The names you see here on this screen... They are some of those who are playing this game. They adopt new systems at each level to win and whatever points they earn, they either get to cash it out or buy abilities in exchange for themselves. Look here," The developer guy pointed at the points of the player ranked number one.

"This player here is our ace player. The points beside his name show his success rate and his earnings. He's never lost a game and he knows his way around the systems easily. Since I got him to join my game, no one has taken the crown and first position from him. Look at his earnings." The guy touched his points and soon it turned into crazy numbers with twenty zeros.

Jereny was in awe. He couldn't believe his eyes.

"Jesus! This is crazy. Can you really earn that amount just by playing games?"

"Yes, you can. Why don't you give it a try, sir? It's very simple. You have to complete the targets given to you at each level using a certain system and if you win, you get points which you can later cash out. Mind you, sir, 10 points is equivalent to $100."

"T-that's... That's insane. There's no way you'd give"$100 for 10 points. I mean—"

"See for yourself, sir. You won't believe me unless you earn it yourself. So, tell me, which system would you like to choose."

"System? What is a system?"

Tbc...