- Am I expelled from the university? I asked the interrogating investigator when such an important person had time for such a loser.

– What do you think? - A middle-aged, mustachioed officer with a captain's shoulder straps answered me with a question, quickly flipping through a pile of papers on the table and signing some of them. - Well, if you and your friends just played computer games instead of studying at the best university in the country - I don’t approve, but at least I can understand. But you've thought of organizing a sweepstake! So there are no options at all. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation article 171.2 paragraph 2. Up to four years in prison. So you got in trouble specifically, Cyril.

I shuddered, then nodded dumbly - in fact, I already knew this information, since last year I looked at what threatens us with such illegal activities. Four years in prison... I groaned and shook myself, trying to collect my scattered thoughts. The head from fatigue and excitement thought with great difficulty. Before that, I spent three not the most pleasant hours on a bench in the "monkey" of the local police station, trying to move as far as possible from the unbearably stinking and, moreover, pissing homeless people, and trying not to fall asleep. And then, when I did doze off, a police sergeant pushed me aside and led me down the corridor to the office of this officer. I was told that this is an investigator, although he has not yet asked any questions, except for confirming his first and last name and the brief biography indicated in my personal file.

I readily answered the questions asked. Yes, I am Kirill Viktorovich Komarov, twenty years old. A native of the small town of Suzdal in the Vladimir region. There are no siblings. I don’t remember my mother – I was not even four years old when she died. My father died relatively recently, even three years have not passed. He worked as a geologist, their group somewhere in Eastern Siberia stumbled upon illegal gold miners, and those witnesses of the criminal industry were not needed. For some time he lived with his aunt in Suzdal, then he graduated from high school and entered the geological faculty of Moscow State University.

The investigator listened to me attentively, scribbling something in his papers, then seemed to forget about my existence, turned on the computer and looked for something there for a long time, scrolling through the screens of text.

“Where are my roommates?” I asked my next question, just to break the long silence.

The officer finally took his eyes off the screen, put his ballpoint pen on the stack of papers, and stared at me intently.

– Those two expelled students-losers? They are still kept in a cell in complete ignorance of their future fate. The usual trick is that they are psychologically processed in this way so that they get more nervous and wind themselves up with all sorts of horror stories. And tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, when they are already fully morally mature, we will offer them a simple choice: either on trial for organizing illegal gambling sweepstakes or volunteering for the army. The military department of your accomplices is not finished, so they will go to serve as privates in the engineering troops - it seems that the expelled students from your faculty of geology are distributed there. They will serve for the good of our Motherland, gain life experience and at the same time get a good lesson for the future not to violate generally accepted laws.

I thought it was very difficult to think in my sleepy state. On the one hand, it is good that there was an alternative way, except to prison. On the other hand, it was completely incomprehensible to me why the officer was telling me this, and why I was being kept apart from my classmates. Former classmates, to be more precise.

Why are they keeping me apart from my friends? - I finally asked the question that interests me, since the unknown has become too burdensome.

- Because you, Kirill, are not a simple participant, but the organizer of all this illegal business. The case is quite loud, and someone must answer before the law. Although you are still undecided, you need to first confirm some details of your activities. Maybe we will transfer you to friends, after which you will set off with the whole friendly company of pontoons and build bridges in the Far North or somewhere else. Although, perhaps, the choice of options for your future fate will turn out to be richer for you than for your roommates.

The officer fell silent and again delved into the study of documents. I, on the other hand, sat on a bench and tried to understand what exactly my interlocutor had in mind, and what “details of my activity” could interest him. The silence dragged on again, I began to feel sleepy. When suddenly the phone on the investigator's desk rang sharply, I almost jumped in surprise. The officer picked up the phone, silently listened to some message, and then hung up.

“So we finished deciphering all your accounting, and also restored the lists of winners of all previous tournaments and bonuses paid to them,” he shared information with me. - Now all the participants in the tournaments will be thoroughly scolded. Some will be expelled, who already had problems with academic performance. The rest will be given "magic pendles" in order to give a proper incentive to study in the future. As for you ... - my interlocutor stopped abruptly in mid-sentence, put several pieces of paper in front of him, whistled in surprise and underlined something in them with a pen, then looked up at me. – Judging by the financial reports, Kirill, you participated in fifty-three online tournaments. Moreover, in twenty-seven of them, he won, in the rest, he was among the winners. So?

However, judging by the noticeably changed behavior of my interlocutor, for some reason my results were important to him. The investigator carefully put all the printouts from the table into a plastic folder, closed it and leaned toward me:

- No matter how strange it may seem, it really does matter. Just yesterday, "from above" we were given a very unusual order - to identify avid "gamblers" among the students of Moscow universities and provide these lists to the authorities. Actually, on your game server, we just found all the information we needed for this request.

- Who could possibly need lists of gamers among students?

The mustachioed officer shrugged and leaned back in his chair.

– I know only what is written in the official paper sent. Some institutes near Moscow engaged in the development of something there in the field of virtual reality, it took several experienced "gamers" to test programs. I don’t know how many vacancies they have, and I don’t know the specific conditions, but for you, this is a real alternative to prison or trampling boots in the army. So think, Cyril. Such a chance to avoid responsibility, and instead of punishment to get an interesting job, falls infrequently. Just think fast while this loophole is still open for you.

I thought frantically. Work for a while at an institute near Moscow until all this hype with commercial online tournament subsidies? Why not a great option for me? Even if the salary at such a job is modest, now it doesn’t matter at all. In addition, apparently, the money earned in gaming tournaments was not withdrawn from me, since all my bank cards were still in my wallet. So, I had some accumulated amount for life.

– What is there to think? I was very interested in this offer! I loudly announced my decision. - What do you need to sign?