[h1]Tim Blackthorn[/h1]
Tim arrived at his home and flopped onto his bed. Dropping his bag wearily, he sighed contentedly into his bed sheet. Comforts were only good because of the hard work you do to earn them, and flopping onto your bed after a hard day of school was an experience hardly matched by anything. All good things had to come to an end, however, and Tim quickly got up.

[b]"Right, time for lunch!"[/b] Tim said.

Tim got the cooking utensils out and started the stove. Yes, he'd had lunch at school, but an extra lunch didn't hurt him much. He'd started having extra lunches last year, and he'd grown taller and stronger. Nutrients made him grow, after all. He grabbed some materials from the pantry and began cooking. It was just some generic meat and vegetables, but it would be tasty. After all, he'd made it. It would be good because he'd done it himself. If you worked hard for it, you'd enjoy it. It was probably how farmers were. You farm crops with machines nowadays, but the effort made it seem all the more fulfilling. Perhaps this was something lost due to current times.

Tim sat down at his table to eat his meat and vegetables, scarfing them down enthusiastically. In the back of his mind, Tim thought about Deep Ground. Even on the first days he'd played it, something seemed a little wrong with it. 

The people who played were teenagers, forced to kill each other in order to secure their futures. It was strange, considering that murder is a heavy crime. Sure, they were only killing virtual people, and it was uninstalled when you turned 18, but it seemed wrong for a society to tell you killing was wrong and then force you to kill your peers in order to build a future. And besides, there were few stops in Deep Ground to prevent players from enacting 'illegal' activities.

To Tim's mind, Deep Ground was very cut throat. Essentially, it would be easy to get a good living if one was cunning enough. Tim believed that if people worked hard enough, they'd be good in life, and if he thought about it, he would find that Deep Ground clashed with his beliefs. The fact of the matter was, though, he didn't think about it, and there was another point. 

Why was it that a video game dictated how one would live in society? Try as he might, Tim couldn't see how it would be for anyone's benefit in the end. It might train up their reflexes, but why would you need reflexes? There was hardly any reason to fight in today's society, so it seemed strange that the development of their children would center around fighting.

This was all in the back of Tim's head though, and it swiftly disappeared. Like all children, he'd been taught that it was a central part of life. He didn't consciously question it, and even now, his life revolved around it like many others.

Tim checked the clock and cocked his head, thinking for a few minutes.

[b]"Hm... Karate training's at 8:00 ish."[/b] He said. [b]"That means I got a few hours of Deep Ground, I suppose."[/b]

Tim washed up and lay back on his bed, activating the interface. The familiar countdown chimed and soon, he was lost in the digital world.

[hr][center][h1]Welcome, Silver Streaker[/h1][/center]
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