5am, City One, 20XX. My holo-alarm wakes me up. It's the theme from Halo. I didn't choose the music; everyone has it. I hit snooze and instantly lose 10 Microbux. I don't care. I need the extra 15 minutes, because I was up all night—in the metaverse. I had to pull an extra late shift to cover for my buddy MasterKeith69. He's been sent to the Bureau of Good Thoughts because they caught him secretly playing a PlayStation. I told him it was a bad idea, but he wouldn't listen. He wanted to play Knack, and now he's strapped to a chair in a basement with his eyes propped open watching Microsoft E3 conferences on a loop.
I met an old timer in a Flooded District bar last week. A real bar, not a virtual one. Yes, they exist. We're not supposed to go out there—it's against company policy—but I like to unplug now and again. The X-Cops don't come out this far anyway. We got to talking and he told me about the good old days, before Administrator Spencer seized power. He said people used to play video games for fun. Can you imagine that? I asked him what the point of that was and he just looked at me in silence. I paid for his beer and rode my hoverbike back to the safety of the Upper Stratum with that word repeating in my mind: fun.
My apartment is located on the 394th floor of Gates Megaplex Sigma. It costs a lot of Microbux, but I've been doing well lately—and at 10 square metres it's one of the biggest in the building. I can afford it because I'm the top earner in my clan. We jack into the metaverse and play The Video Game. There used to be a lot of different video games, but now there's just one. Well, there are others—but they're forbidden, which MasterKeith69 found out the hard way. The Video Game is called Halo and it's the single biggest employer in the whole of City One. Everyone I know works there. It's my dream job.
The old guy told me Halo used to be a 'first-person shooter' and that Master Chief was the hero. He'd kill all the aliens, he said, and he wasn't afraid of anything. I have no idea what he was rambling about. The Video Game isn't about anything, it's… everything. I own property there. A nice hilltop mansion with a stunning view over the Red Ring Mountains. Sometimes I rent it out to other players and earn extra money. Honestly, I never feel happier than when I hear the sound of Microbux trickling into my digi-wallet. If I don't get a certain amount of mini endorphin hits in a day, I get headaches.
Anyway, I better get back to work. These Microbux ain't gonna earn themselves. But what's this: someone has slipped a square of paper under my door. I unfold it. It's from MasterKeith69. "My dear friend," it reads. "I may never see you again. If I do, I won't be myself. The Bureau will see to that. But I want you to experience what I have. It's called fun, and people used to have it all the time. It's when you do things for the enjoyment of it, rather than as a way to earn money and own things. If they haven't cleared out my apartment yet, look under the bed. I have something for you. Keep it a secret."
I walk down the hall towards his apartment looking nervously over my shoulder. Is it a trap? Is a squad of elite X-Cops waiting around the corner? My hands shaking, I step inside the apartment and pull a dusty old box out from underneath the bed. Inside is something called a 'PSP'. I've heard of these. They destroyed the last one decades ago. I power it up and a word appears on the screen: LUMINES. Coloured blocks fall and vanish satisfyingly. Music pulses from the speakers, rhythmic and strange. I'm hypnotised by it. My brain surges with excitement. I know this! It was buried deep, but this… this is fun!
Then a loud bang startles me. The door is kicked off its hinges and the room fills with armoured X-Cops pointing guns at me. A woman in a green suit pushes through the crowd and hands me a sheet of paper. "Bureau," she says, with no emotion in her voice. "5am sharp. You know what will happen if you don't show." Suddenly, the room is empty and I notice that one of the cops has destroyed the PSP. I can still hear music playing faintly from it, but the screen is beyond repair. That peculiar feeling I had, whatever it was, is gone. My head begins to pound. I need to earn some Microbux immediately.