Well, the day didn't start too badly for dear Roberto Maggi, a common twenty-three year old freshly fired. To be more precise, his contract had not been renewed, but that didn't matter much, considering the fact that he hadn't even bothered to apply for the very sweet unemployment benefit. In any case, as just said, that February morning could have been much worse than this.

If it had been a normal day, he would have probably still been under the covers, not having much else to do, but not being a day like any other, he had made the enormous effort to get up early. Also because, without even really knowing how, among other things, he had managed to earn a date!

The girl certainly didn't make him salivate, but she wasn't ugly either, so that was fine. Let's face it, there are times in life when anything that the nets pull out of the sea is good. Plus, he had only recently met her and had only spoken to her by text, so he had almost nothing invested in the relationship.

Anyway, because of this rare occurrence, before leaving the apartment, he cooked himself a hearty breakfast that he barely managed to finish and then enjoyed a peaceful hot shower. He didn't even have to worry about the time, as he had woken up quite early. Not wanting to take any chances, he left the house a good twenty minutes earlier than necessary, opting for a walk instead of taking a bus.

To tell the truth, at first he regretted that brilliant idea, cursing the cold weather that was freezing him despite the jacket. Weighing just over seventy kilos though, even that was a normal thing, not that he had ever managed to put on weight or muscle by the way.

"Maybe I should stop and get some hot coffee, I need to warm up." he took to complaining after a few feet as he walked dragging one foot in front of the other, slowly approaching his destination. With no one to talk to and no headphones to listen to a little music and turn off his brain, he found himself forced to think in silence.

The question that was on his mind the most at the moment was: "What would be the best way to chase away the cold?" and, since the road was still long, slowly some intelligent ideas began to come to his mind. For example, the previously mentioned coffee was one of the first ones, while later on he even came up with the idea of a nice new sweater.However, the only thing he had at hand were his cigarettes, a convenient source of nicotine, which could have helped him a little.

He took the white and blue packet out of his pocket, his favorite brand had increased its prices above five euros lately so he had fallen back on these as a sign of protest, he opened it with a sharp blow from below and grabbed the cigarette raised by the blow with his teeth. A little circus trick he had developed at work since usually at least one of his hands always had to stay still on the steering wheel of the forklift due to safety issues.

For just a moment, his brain went back into that infernal warehouse, making him forget about the icy wind. Nothing ever worked in that hellhole. At least the products were in the right place... Ah, what a job. He thought between puffs of smoke, enjoying the softer taste of the new tobacco. He also seemed to feel a hint of bitterness on the tip of his tongue, but that probably had nothing to do with the cancer lovingly packaged by the machinery.

"That was quick, too bad." He commented aloud after realizing that he had already reached the mall. Now that he thought about it, that was also the first time he'd been there since they'd remodeled it and added the second floor. "Not bad." He muttered, looking at the outside and raising his head, noticing that the old faded green facade had been covered (and fortunately I would say) by slanted black and white stripes.

Arriving in front of the sliding glass doors, he took a deep breath and away he went, finally inside. The temperature wasn't messing around in there either, but just being indoors could be considered a blessing. "Hours?" he asked himself, looking up in the direction of the clock hanging in front of the entrance, discovering that it wasn't even half past nine in the morning.

Still ahead of the agreed-upon time, Roberto treated himself to that famous coffee at the bar that lined the entrance. Overpriced coffee, but that was to be expected. He didn't sit at the table, ordering directly at the counter to be quicker. The girl who prepared the coffee seemed nice, a little old maybe, but still decent. Not that it had any importance, since he didn't even think about asking her number.

Maybe it had become a conditioned reflex, but now he always threw in the towel with others. The effort he would be forced to put into every little discussion and argument made his balls drop off, just to use an expression that was part of his vocabulary. Rather, he appreciated those superficial relationships that started and ended without too much effort, at least then there would always be less problems.

Even the date had not been of his own making. It had been the girl, Anna, if he remembered the name correctly, who had proposed him to go out and he had simply accepted. He couldn't say if he had been pleased or not, but, having nothing to do anyway, at least he felt he had been given an excuse to get out of the house.

After the bad coffee and the moment of spiritual contemplation, Roberto had for a moment the intention to get up from the high stool and get the fuck out without paying the euro and eighty, so much he liked the drink. In the end, however, more out of scruples than anything else, he took out a two euro coin from his wallet and gave it to the cashier.

The whore, as Roberto saw her, smiled at him without giving him the twenty cents he was entitled to. Roberto felt a little taken for an idiot and stayed in his spot in the same way, ignoring the complaints of the people in line behind him. The whore, I'll avoid repeating myself, didn't know how to react in that situation, quickly putting herself on the defensive and looking for the help of her colleagues with her eyes.

That long, at least for the two of them, moment of silence and glances came to its end when a male colleague of the bartender reached Roberto from the side, telling him in an extremely cordial way: "Sir, we don't give change here if it's not more than two euros. I'm sorry, but this is company policy.Didn't you see the sign next to the cash register?" all the while rubbing his hands together for some reason that the boy, still without his change, had no interest in learning.

Sign? He thought then moving his head towards the newcomer, then bringing his attention to the vicinity of the cash register. Ah, imagine that... Actually, it did say something about the change. Apparently, the excuse they had decided to write was that it would speed up the queues and that they had been forced to make that choice because of the large number of customers who went there every day.

What a bunch of thieves. Having taken the hint, and avoiding saying what he was thinking out loud, he gave a last dull look to the waiter and left the place, accompanied by a chorus of insults muttered by the other customers waiting to pay.

Ignoring even that detail and once again in a bad mood, he put the hands in his pockets and leaned his body forward towards the crowd, getting deeper and deeper into the building, which was too big for him to handle.

The shop windows were a good pastime to be able to keep on walking without getting bored more than he had to, considering that every step seemed to him a troublesome task in itself considering how many fucking people had already invaded that place. His tolerance for that kind of inconvenience had become so low over the years that after just fifteen minutes he was forced to sit on one of the benches located on the central lane of the gallery.

As soon as he put his ass on the wood, all his irritation came out of his body through a long and tired sigh made with his head down. That position didn't seem too bad to him and, after deciding to stay like that for a while, he just straightened his forehead and lost himself in observing the crowd that, like a well-trained herd, was only proceeding in one direction.

Already largely exhausted, he found some comfort in this monotonous vision. In fact, he even felt a little nostalgia. Nothing too positive to be honest, but a relief nonetheless.

Watching them move like that makes me want to criticize them, but when I was the one walking around with the fucking PDA looking for the next package wasn't I worse? At least these people are moved by the sparkle of something hanging in the window or the music coming out of a store. Me and the other well-paid slaves on the other hand had to move according to the desires of a piece of plastic and metal from the nineties if not eighties. Ah... I should stop thinking for today....

Well... Here... Momentary depression aside, his pause helped him forget about not getting his change. His brain had changed topics to mull over, so we can say that something good came out of it.

However, time began to pass more and more quickly, until those many minutes early with which he had left turned into a good quarter of an hour late.

The agreement was that they should meet not far from the bench that Roberto had declared his own, in front of the entrance to the electronics store in the mall. From his position, the boy had a perfect view of the place and had yet to see anyone who looked like his beauty.

Nothing to worry about, none of his exes had ever arrived on time. Let's wait a bit. He said to himself without caring too much, resting his head on his right hand that had his elbow laid on the leg on the same side. From the outside it wasn't exactly a nice view, but he didn't even worry about it, remaining to observe with a bored look the same spot.

Unfortunately, however, it was not a matter of a few minutes. The actual time, just checked with the watch, was ten minutes to eleven. Time had passed, and yet there was not even a trace of the girl.

Bored to the point of annoyance, he straightened his back and took out his cell phone to reactivate the data connection. Immediately, an endless stream of useless notifications from streaming apps filled his screen; however, hidden in the background, he also found a message from the famous Anna's profile.

He yawned disinterestedly as he read it. "I thought so." Apparently, and he'd had the doubt for a while now, that 'girl' was nothing more than a prank by his former colleagues, a decent indecent bunch of special kids with nothing to do, if three clues made a proof.

Well, even me ending up here doesn't have much to do though. He chuckled, putting the phone back in his pocket and lifting his head upwards, looking for no real reason at the white lights shining on the ceiling. The boredom at the moment was killing him.

[As a representative of the System of the Ancients, I congratulate you humans!]

"Ah?What is it now?" Said Roberto bewildered, in response to the robotic voice that had reached his ears. Confused by that sudden sound, he also turned his head left and right looking for the idiot with the megaphone who must have been advertising some bullshit, but couldn't find anyone who matched that description.

[Those lucky enough to hear this message will now be transported to the Chessboard. Try to survive and reach the end of the game unharmed. As a gift from the administration, you will not have to worry about the dangers of the Game for the first two days. Remember, The System of the Ancients is not meant to be fair, so expect to find injustices].

"Oh God... I have a bad feeling about this." Roberto sighed as that strange metallic voice boomed in his head, then closed his eyes as he felt the ground shake beneath his feet. Shortly after, that brief tremor faded on its own and a feeling of nausea began to shake the boy until he was forced to open his eyes again.

"Why did I expect that?" He said then wiping the remaining vomit on his lips with the back of his hand without even making a big deal out of it.

Given the free time he always had at his disposal, Roberto had enjoyed books, comics, movies and anime of all kinds since he was a child, so his psyche, in some way, managed to accept what was happening to him without falling into hysteria.

In fact, from one moment to the next, all the people clogging the mall's gallery seemed to have vanished into thin air and even the state of the building changed from day to night, making it now look much more like a concrete jungle corroded by the passage of time. Even the massive load-bearing columns of the structure seemed to be covered with webs of interconnected cracks, a detail that made the boy thank the wonderful human invention of the steel bars used for reinforcement. Without it, at least judging by the naked eye, the entire mall would have collapsed under its own weight.

Finally, while still looking around for anything that might help him or answer any questions, the System's metallic voice said one more time: [Welcome Players.]

"I would have preferred a tutorial," the boy replied out of a matter of pride, wanting to have the last word even though he was talking to himself.