Jheevral (A Fantasy Adventure)

THREE

Heath Vyridian was the wealthiest man in all of Jheevral. With the ability to bring the entire city to its knees with one simple phone call.

Heath was in the oil industry. More accurately, he was the oil industry. Heath held a monopoly over all of the oil in the country. And like any other multi-billionaire, he wasn't known for being ethical, conservative, or nice. Vyridian was known for being a ruthless capitalist, who would stop at nothing to amass as much wealth as he possibly could. 

Wanting to expand his reach over the people of Jheevral, he started a tech company. This company then developed an app that would take short-form content to a whole new level. 

Klatter was introduced in X567 as a way for commoners to gain access out of the poorest city in the country, and move them to the richest, where his power would be even greater. Uriah law had one clause that Klatter could exploit. The celebrity clause was the easiest route for Vyridian to take, and the hardest to actually obtain as a citizen. 

Uriah was the poorest city in the country, and they were also the most secure, having only three ways to get out. The first way to leave was to become a Farmer. The soil inside the walls of the city was barren and did not foster cash-crops. But the soil outside of the walls did, being green and dotted with flowers, trees, bees and farm animals. The application process was easy as well. If a citizen wished to become a Farmer, all they had to do was fill out a form at the city center. Nobody went for this option, however, because becoming a Farmer was a one-way ticket. The citizens of the city were poor, but they built strong family connections. Connections that are only possible inside the city walls. Once a person left, they would be cut off entirely from the people they loved so dearly. So that option was out.

Another way that people were allowed to leave the city is if they are in the One Percent. Defined as being in the top 1% of citizens with the highest income average in the city, this option was harder for most citizens to achieve. Most of the available job openings in Uriah were companies owned by Heath Vyridian, and of those, only half actually made a livable wage. Heath was powerful, but not that powerful. Not only that, but he realized that if everyone tried to become part of the One Percent, the bar would be raised even higher, and Uriah would no longer be the poorest city. He kept that clause under wraps for protection. 

The last, and hardest to achieve, was the Celebrity clause. The Celebrity clause is what Klatter chose to exploit, and Vyridian wanted to make the already daunting challenge even harder. 

The basic wording of the Celebrity clause was that if a citizen were to gain 1 million followers on any social media platform, they were allowed to leave the city as long as they kept their following. Seems simple at face value. But being the massive influence that he is, Vyridian bribed the city council to change a few words. 

After Vyridian made the changes, the new Celebrity clause read that anyone who amassed a following on Klatter of over 1 million followers were allowed to leave the city, as long as they kept the number over 1 million. As soon as the following dropped to the 990's, the privilege was revoked, and they were promptly deported back to Uriah. This is why most Celebrities waited until they had gained 1.2 million before leaving the city. 

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Annalise sat at her desk, pondering over how she could gain more followers. Today's video already had 238,000 views, and had brought in 700 new followers. The video was hot, and if it kept its steam, it would bring in 4900 followers in a week. But she noticed that Klatter, the platform that she needed to work with, wasn't working with her. Tris had pointed out that by the end of day 3, nearly all of the videos traction fizzled out. The part that was posted 3 days ago only gained 1200 views on day 3. and only 7 new follows. The platform was actively working against them, and there was nothing they could do. Nothing else to do except to play the game. 

Annalise had remembered what one of her favorite Celebrities had done. &havengrace had released a single on Klatter, and it had skyrocketed her following up to 6.5 million followers in one week. That kind of growth hadn't been seen since, but Annalise wanted to try. 

She was going to write a song. And the best inspiration for a song was a terrible family, of course.