Arthur Huxson, a regular guy with a golden ticket?

"Huh?"

​Arthur Huxson stopped in the middle of his track.

Something peculiar had just caught on his shoe through the small gust of freezing wind.

Arthur was a regular guy in his mid-twenties—which meant he was struggling to keep his footing in the harsh, uncaring world.

The fact that there was a mega-corporation that had a strong grip on the entire society, or the fact that every fictional character was buyable, meant little in his life.

The most he had ever benefited from this was that he could jerk off when some rich guy went on a stroll with his "character" naked on a leash from time to time.

He could never afford to buy a character when he was barely managing to live alone.

Or at least, that was what he thought... until he picked up a small piece of paper caught under his shoe.

"What the..."

Arthur reached down and picked up the small golden ticket.

The ticket was slim like a paper, yet it felt solid and cold like a slab of metal.

But what caught Arthur's attention the most was the short phrase written on the ticket.

"[Free Character of your choice]...?"

Arthur's heart pounded with excitment.

Was this ticket meaning what he thought he meant?

Fingers slightly trembling, Arthur flipped the ticket over to check on the back side.

On the back, the ticket read as follows.

[Once you bring the ticket to any store affiliated with RealDreams, you can show this ticket to gain a character of your choice for free!

For any further questions, you may call the following number to contact our customer service.]

Arthur gulped.

His hand was halfway on to getting his phone, when a thought crossed his mind.

It was very clear that this ticket was not meant for him; it was most likely that some celebrity dropped it during their stroll.

Calling the customer service would be the moraly right choice, of course.

But by doing so, he would also be sending away the literal golden ticket that came into his hand.

Aruther stood there, a ticket in one hand and a phone over the other.