[At Dream Palace Restaurant in Gujarat, India]
"Sir, what orders would you like to make?" a lady of age 27 asked a couple eating at the table. She had a fair complexion with dyed brown hair and wore a waitress's dress. A bright smile was on her face, but if one tried to look deep into her eyes, they could see the sadness and frustration within.
The couple placed their order, and then she moved inside the kitchen and spoke, "A butter chicken and full naan, for table number three." Just like this, the entire night passed with taking orders and delivering them.
After a while, she took a small break and came out of the restaurant's back door into a dark and silent alleyway. She opened up a cigarette pack and took one. While smoking, she looked at the sky. Her name was Priya, a game designer dropout. She couldn't finish her studies due to the sudden death of her parents in a car accident.
From then on, she was unable to finish her studies as she missed the last exam. Even after giving her reason, she was not allowed to attend. They even told her to repeat the year, which for obvious reasons, she couldn't do.
After that, she started looking for small part-time jobs and began living a life like that. "Well, let's see what post he made today."
She then took out her phone. The thing is, in her free time, she comments on and even gives suggestions to the user who posts their gaming ideas on blogs. She had stumbled upon his blog a few years back, and from then on, she read all of his ideas. Though she found some mistakes here and there, everything else was good.
The gaming bug inside her made her comment and point out those mistakes, which the owner of that post didn't like, but this all became their daily activity. To this date, she didn't know who the person was, as he always posted with the username "Anonymous."
One time, she tried to personally message him and have a discussion on those ideas, but he refused. Then she learned about the rude characteristic of this user. After taking her phone out, she opened it and went to the site, but to her surprise, there was no blog post today.
"What? He didn't post today? Why? It's quite unusual... now how will I pass my time?" She was about to put the phone away, but suddenly, the phone rang, and a notification sound came. "Who could have messaged me at this time? Must be from those asshole advertising companies."
She threw the cigarette and then looked at the message. This time, she saw her name on the email with a video attached to it. "An email and a video." After saying that, she checked it, and then a bright smile appeared on her face.
"So, God has finally decided to have mercy on me, huh?" She then once again looked at the sky, and this time, a genuine smile appeared on her face. "Well, Mr. Karna, you've got my attention."
[At a House in Tamil Nadu, India]
"Dammit, what kind of shitty control is this? Argh, fuck!" A young man of age 25 threw the gaming headset and controller sticks on the bed as he then looked at the game-over screen showing on the large PC screen.
The young man had a fit and slim body. He had long black hair, which was tied in a ponytail, and dark brown skin. He then opened up his next computer and typed the reviews of the game which he had recently played.
"The game is just good, not so great and not so bad. The realism is okay, and the characters' interactions are bad; they feel like programmed artificial mannequins which kill the immersive-ness of the game. But the worst part of this game is its controls. Like, did they smoke weed while making the controls? There is no freedom given to the players to play, no weapon choice, no smooth hand movements can be done here, late reflexes sensing. I could go on with this rant. For me, this game deserves 2 stars, that's it."
After reading it one more time, he posted the review and then closed the PC screen as he then started to remember the good old days where PC gaming was famous. There he could show his skills with the keyboard and mouse.
"All this mobile gaming and VR shit has destroyed this holy gaming environment." He then got up from his chair and went to the washroom to relieve himself.
After that, he opened up his phone and started scrolling. He looked at the news related to new VR gaming and stuff like that. This young man's name was Ramcharan, or "Ram" for short. He was a famous game critic and an expert in making game control designs.
"Hmm, wow, didn't he post anything today? Has that person run out of ideas?" He giggled in a light tone as he followed the blogs of this anonymous person, and he just liked the ideas as well as the funny conversation between a girl and this anonymous person.
As he was thinking about it, an email appeared on his phone. Ram was a sociable person, but he too had a line. He had told everyone not to send any messages or calls after 11:00 at night. If they had an emergency, then only they could call him, because at night he did his job as a reviewer, playing games and posting reviews about them.
He opened the email to see who had broken that rule so that he could give him an earful, but then he saw an email from Maya's company. He didn't know a company by this name, so he just clicked on it out of curiosity. "Oh, a video!" He then clicked on it, and the video played.
Just like the previous two, a small smile appeared on his face. He then looked at the sky full of stars and said, "Well, looks like it's going to be fun. Wait, Mumbai, here I come!"
[Donegal Studio, Kashmir, India]
An old man could be seen painting something on the canvas in a small room. He had a huge white beard, long white hair, and completely fair skin. With his long white robes, one could easily misunderstand him as some old saint and not some character designer.
As he was painting it, a man entered the room. The sudden entrance made the old man angry, and he shouted, "For God's sake, how many times have I told you to knock and ask for permission before entering my room? What is so hard about this sentence that isn't going into your dumb brain?"
Ignoring the rant of the old man, the man in the suit said, "Sir Kashyap, your character does not match the theme of the game, and it's been rejected by the board. So they told you to make another design with the given preference and not to use your brains."
Listening to the harsh words and foul criticism of his work, the old man became furious as he threw the colors and canvas on the man, who easily dodged it. Seeing this made the old man even more furious. "How can those dumb bags reject such a great design? It's perfectly suited to the theme. Hell, it's the best character out of all those trash designs by others in that game! You fucking people don't understand the art! You want me to draw something so trash!"
"Sir, you are paid to do the job which we gave to you and not to run your brain. If you want to use that head of yours, then you are free to open up your own studio and can sell those designs at your private place. Please bear that in mind: your job is to do what you are told to do, and also the damages price will be deducted from your salary. Bye till we meet next time." After saying that, the man threw the file in one corner of the room and then closed the door before leaving.
Seeing that, the old man became red with anger. They knew that he had been kicked out of his home by his children and had nowhere to go and no one else to rely on except for the skills he had. So now, he worked for this studio as one of the members of the character designing team. "You all people, dammit!" Cooling down his anger, he went into the corner where that man had thrown the file.
He picked it up and opened it to find a huge complaint letter along with guidance on what they wanted and how they wanted him to do the things. He then crushed the complaint letter and threw it aside. Calming his mind down, he sat on his chair. After installing the new canvas and cleaning the mess, he thought, "Just when will this time change?"
He then opened his mobile phone and posted the photo of his drawn character and put a caption of "Yet, another rejection, haha." But this time, he suddenly received an email. Not having anything else to do, he opened the email to see a video and a short message.
After seeing and reading the email, he then thought for a while, and after that, he packed his bags and wrote a letter and left it on the canvas. The letter was simple, with two words written on it: "Fuck you." After that, he smiled and left the house.
[In Mumbai]
Karna, who was seated on a chair, said with a smile on his face to Arjun, who was seated in front of him, "They all have accepted the invites, and they all will be here in three days. So let's prepare for the gift which I had promised to them."
Author's Note: Guys, please review and donate your power stones. It will help me in the competition, and also it will motivate me to write.
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