Again I don't own S4 and all that jazz. I do "own" the character Maria though. Oh and RE: some people in this game are real characters or based on real characters.
Awake, Catherine sat up. She brushed her dark brown hair out of her face and looked around with green eyes. She was in the college social hub. Naturally, the college hub had a cafeteria, gym, arcade, hangout spots, tv, and, most importantly, Wi-Fi. In the corner where she hangs out, there were other people on their laptops, both figuratively and literally. That corner had the best wireless signal and, thus, picked up the most gamers. Catherine was one of those gamers. Her friend Jill, who was studying for a midterm at the moment, noticed her awake.
"Ah, you woke up? How was it?"
"Well, I didn't really play much, but I think the world is right. That game is worth its cost."
"Which is what? Zero dollars and some megabytes?"
"Haha. True. It's very interesting. MMO's generally don't last further than 5 years. Especially F2P ones."
"Well. It's a good thing it became government sponsored, right?"
Before I joined, I did background research. "If you mean the few dollars that the world government pitch in to keep it barely operable." Is half a million dollars a little? Oh well. "Most of its revenue comes from avid players who buy AP and ads for other companies."
"Most games take revenue from ads nowadays."
"Good point. Well, I gotta go to class. Bye."
They hugged. "Bye."
Careful not to wake anyone sleeping, Catherine left the Hub, then preceded to class, trying to ignore other guys staring at her. Being a gamer, Catherine was naturally food deprived, playing games instead of eating. This gave her a slim figure compared to most girls; in fact, she looked like a 15 year-old rather than an 18 year-old.
Entering a near brain-dead state in class, she thought of the growth of S4 league as a game. Starting out a modestly interesting game, its popularity has grown to be worldwide. People from all over the world is playing S4. This popularity further increased when the Korean Server joined the rest of the world. Catherine was one of those people who just learned about it recently; specifically, she heard about it from a friend named Andrew, known as A-Man ingame. She liked the gameplay style, the graphics, and the anime-like theme.
After class and homework and nightly activities before sleeping, Cathy brought out her laptop and her handy gaming device. The device in question is the Subconcious Neuro-Controller, which is recently released product that allowed people to operate their laptops while sleeping. Looking a lot like sunglasses with a small pillow to support the head, the SNC was responsible for all the sleeping college students who play computer games, including the students in the Hub Corner. Ideally, people could use it for studying and work; on the other hand, who would want to study or work while sleeping? People like to enjoy their sleep, so MMO's, computer games, and late night internet surfing ended up being the best use for it. The SNC almost directly hooks up the user to the PC or MAC and thus provides more control.
Thank god for playing games in my sleep. How in the world did people get by without this?
Cathy entered the dark depths of sleep, all cloaked in darkness. Gradually, her subconscious surroundings turned white. Mentally selecting S4 League, Maria_Leingod logged in.