Chapter 3: 003~A Stroke of Luck
Aya wakes, remembering her failed attempt to get into Moon Valley the night before, she sighs paying it no mind.
Taking a hot shower and preparing for work, she dons her uniform and hat while looking in the mirror with a forlorn smile.
"Cheer up Aya Brown, it's all gonna be worth it someday," she says to her reflection in the used mirror she got at a flea market.
Grabbing her backpack and heading out to catch the Seelim bus once more, she starts her day.
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"Have this delivered immediately, bosses say it's urgent." the mail room boss says, Aya nods, dutifully pushing her trolley into the elevator to begin her work day.
'What could be so important that I'd need to head up to the bosses floor so urgently?' she thinks. Then again it wasn't her business so the girl lets it slip from her mind. Her only concern now would be facing Viviana and her terrible attitude.
'I really hate that woman.' Aya thinks, shaking her head. If she could find a better job she would.
Reaching the top floor of Nue Corp, she heads to the assistant's desk to encounter Viviana. The woman is on the phone so Aya takes the chance to quickly drop the letters off before the blonde could say anything.
Viviana glares while Aya shoots her a smirk. Tipping her hat she heads back to the elevator to deliver the rest of the letters meant for the other floors.
Just as she's on her way down, she pushes her trolley unto the elevator with a little too much force accidentally bumping into someone.
"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry sir." Aya exclaims in panic. Looking the man up and down she could tell by his expensive suit that he was someone of great importance, an executive in the company perhaps and she had just given herself an opportunity to get fired.
The man laughs, and only then does Aya notice he's a bit young, not her age but slightly older at least. His face is handsome, with defined jaw lines and piercing green eyes he uses to stare at her.
"It's no problem accidents happen." he says brushing her off. Viviana on the other hand isn't as forgiving.
"You stupid girl!" she growls, incensed at the display she had just witnessed. She stops in front of Aya, practically barking at her.
"I should have you fired!" she spits with so much venom. Aya winces, fearing for her job when the man in the elevator reacts with a hiss and glare not aimed at her but at Viviana.
"Is this how you treat the rest of the workers when I'm not around, I clearly said it wasn't a problem." The man says. Viviana pauses stammering to reply the man who was obviously in much higher authority than her.
"B-But Mr. President, she can't be allowed to get away with such a thing."
"Get away with what Viviana? Making a mistake." He deadpans. Viviana's once raging anger burns out in an instant replaced with simpering over the man. He rolls his eyes, heading to his office and leaving Aya to roll her trolley on.
'Hope that never happens again.' she thinks to herself.
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Aya finishes up her day with no more problems, and soon it's time for her to once again leave the four walls of Nue Corp. Hopping on the Seelim bus, she gets off her stop and proceeds on her way.
'Hope that old hag doesn't thrust any unnecessary expenses on me again, I don't get paid until next week!' she thinks.
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Slipping into her pajamas, Aya decides to turn in for the night, it was only 10:00 pm and while others her age would be up studying or hanging with friends she was otherwise confined to this existence.
'Mom, Dad where did you go?' she asks no one, drifting off to sleep.
Aya wakes to the sound of something heavy tumbling down the stairs with a clang. She jolts flying off her bed as though the sky was falling, it very well might have been with how thin the walls were.
She sighs, running her hand through her dark brown hair as she looks up to see the dust had in fact been shifted out of place.
Getting out of bed in her pajamas she heads to the front door of her one room apartment to see what the commotion was.
"Oh, Mrs. Lutz! Are you alright?" Aya asks on seeing one of her neighbors with various items scattered around the floor. It appeared the old woman had dropped whatever it was she was carrying.
Mrs. Lutz was a widowed, old woman who lived one floor above her. Previously the old woman had lived with her grandson but after Daichi moved out, she had no one. Aya had a habit of checking on her from time to time.
Times like now.
The old woman adjusts her glass, looking over the huge box of items that had just spilled over.
"Oh dear, did I wake you? I was just carrying a box of Dai's old things down the stairs to leave at the goodwill."
Aya rubs the back of her head, heading over to help the woman gather her things.
"This is quite a lot of stuff, are you sure you want to get rid of Daichi's old things? What if he gets upset?"
"I don't think so dear and as it stands they just take up space, maybe you can look through it and see if anything is to your liking. I know you and Dai were around the same age so there might be some old tech you could sell for a little extra." Mrs. Lutz says beaming at Aya. "Besides now that Dai's got us a place in the next city I won't need it."
"You're moving out?" Aya asks a little disheartened, of all the neighbors she loved Mrs. Lutz the most. The old lady was just so kind and sweet, a grandmother she never had.
"I'm really happy for you." Aya says, even though she would miss the old woman who would want their grandmother living in a dump like this?!
Daichi was really a good guy to move her out of here.
"Gosh, I'm really grateful ma'am. I'll be sure to take good care of anything I choose." Aya says, picking up the box. It was actually quite heavy and she wonders how the old woman was able to get it down this far.
Oh well, if there really was some tech in here, Aya hoped she could troubleshoot them into working. There might even be some PacBook Scraps in there!
The young lady hefts the box up, bidding Mrs. Lutz good night, just in time for her aunt the landlady to storm through the doors with a furious expression. The old hag had no doubt heard the ruckus all the way from her apartment and was storming down to see the cause.
Aya doesn't wait a moment, slipping back into the apartment to view the items now in her care.
Closing the door with her foot, Aya deposits the collection on her desk right next to her old PacBook. She starts by taking the lid off the heavy box and blowing away some of the dust that arose. Placing it aside the girl begins rummaging through the items.
She pulls out an ancient looking PacBook that was still in better condition than hers.
Aya grins, quickly turning the device around to read the model. Roving her eyes over the model number she squeals, barely able to contain her excitement.
A 10th gen PacBook had just fallen into her grasp, the latest model would be the 13th or 14th gen but it was still nothing to sneeze at if this worked, she would be able to upgrade to a new computer and if it didn't she would harvest its parts for scraps that would fit into her laptop.
A dark look crosses Aya's cute face as she imagines the process of prying apart the old laptop for its valuable parts.
"Thank goodness I caught Mrs. Lutz in time, I can't believe I would have missed such a find if she didn't drop the box." Aya says, continuing to look through what she now considers a treasure box.
The next thing she pulls out makes her squeal even louder. There in her hands was an Icarus Gear VR headset. In all her years working she never thought she'd ever have the ability to own something as expensive as this.
Sure this one was outmoded now by the newer gears but in its heyday it would have cost a whopping 2000 Lue!
The girl couldn't have imagined spending that amount of money on something that wasn't home before.
"The rich sure are lucky." Though she knew Daichi must have worked incredibly hard to afford this set, Aya couldn't help but think about all the people who could afford to spend money as they pleased.
"One day that's going to be me." she says to herself.
Fishing out the rest of the set she could see it came with the headset, cords, and cables to connect to a PacBook and the charger for the headset.
"Thank you divine one for this incredible stroke of luck," she says, running into her tiny kitchen station to grab a rag so she could clean the set.
Now the moment of truth would be to see if any of her new pieces of tech came on.
Aya tries the laptop first, plugging it into an electrical socket to charge. She pushes the power button and is surprised to hear the beep and loading chime of the used PacBook.
The system was already formatted as t seemed Daichi intended to sell it but changed his mind. Despite the bare desktop Aya sees on video left on the screen.
Out of curiosity, she clicks on it.
The video starts with Daichi sitting on a chair, cheerfully. He's in the small room of the apartment he shared with his grandmother when he wasn't at school.
The redhead flashes a grin at the camera, making Aya giggle.
"Hello future owner of my PacBook, I'm sure by now granny tried to get rid of it cause I didn't have the heart to sell it. I hope my old PacBook serves you well, I just wanted to let you know who the previous owner was. This is Daichi Lutz."
Aya pauses the video knowing she had a bit left to watch., She nods at the short and simple introduction.
"That was really nice of him to leave this to someone. Let's see what else he has to say."
"Unfortunately my Icarus gear, if you have it, might not be in very good condition. You might need about 500 Lue to fix it."
"500 Lue!" Aya exclaims. As if hearing her shout Daichi rubs his head sheepishly on the screen.
"I know it sounds like a lot, but trust me, keeping it and fixing it up is so worth it and much cheaper than buying a brand new Icarus gear right?"
"True."
"So I'm trusting you to take care of my old equipment, I know it can lead you to places beyond your wildest dreams."
The video ends there.
Aya takes a moment to think about his words. Moon Valley's advert once again comes to her mind. If she could earn a little more cash with it.
Connecting to her wifi again she loads the Moon Valley home page.
[PacBook 10 recognized, initiating download.]
"Yes! Yes!" she squeals jumping for joy. Now she would be able to play. Picking up the Icarus gear, she examines it again. Plugging it into the wall, she sets it aside to let it charge. Maybe tomorrow she could figure out what was wrong with it.
Checking the time, she could see it was midnight and about to hit 1:00 am
"I've got work tomorrow." Aya says feeling her eyelids grow heavy. She rubs her eyes, crawling into her bed she lets the game download unto her new computer.
The day was great after all.
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