Lucas was bored in school. Very bored. 'Lectures, lecture, your big project is due tomorrow. Oh, here's an A on your test. Keep making me proud.' He had enough friends in 8th grade. He wasn't sad, or depressed. Just bored. He wanted a challenge, something more than just a homework assignment or essay. But he did those anyway. It kept his parents happy. Kept them beaming in pride when they saw his A on his Geometry test.

His father worked on architecture designs. His mother was a surgeon. He knew he was probably rich. But his parents never showed it. Though as the school day ended, and he walked home in the cool breeze of February, he smiled. Soon he could get on TDA. The Digital Arena.

When it first came out, a couple reviewers looked at the cover and immediately disregarded it. Simple stick figures. How could a game like that be as expensive as one with a 50-hour play time, free DLC, and quality graphics that made everything look real. Lucas thought of this too. He had seen play through online. The only objective was to create a character. Though that took so long that it wasn't fully shown on most videos. After that, you just battled other people online in HUGE arenas.

Yet somehow it got good reviews. Amazing reviews. And after a couple months, one of his close friends, Marco, had bought it. He wouldn't stop raving about how cool and complex it was. More kids bought it and all conversation was absorbed into this game.

“OMG Rose, your character is so cute. Have you seen mine?”

“Did you see my tutorial video?”

“Why didn't you guard the base?”

“That was sick when you stole the boss kill.”

Soon Christmas had rolled around, and it was at the top of Victor's Christmas list. And as he opened his gifts, the game case seemed to glow. After all his other gifts were opened, he quickly set it up on his TV. And it was unlike any other game he played. Because it was the Digital Arena.