1 Beginning

Yun Shi sat at his computer - pressing buttons non-stop. The screen blinked a few more times and Yun Shi moved his fingers away from the keyboard. He took a deep breath and mumbled, "I won!"

His eyes closed and he thought, "To think that I would win this tournament!" His eyes opened and the corner of his mouth rose up, a smile formed on his lips.

"How lucky, now I can play the newest VRMMO now," Yun Shi mumbled then thought, "I need to go and claim my prize."

Yun Shi frowned and raised his armpit to smell himself. He thought, "I stink, I should take a bath before going out to the public."

The NEET stood up grabbed clean clothes, a clean towel and walked into the shower room. He took a shower, changed into his new clean clothes and left the apartment.

He only had one reason for leaving the apartment - he won a game tournament and the prize of that tournament was a free virtual reality (VR) headset and the newest VR video game - Alternate World Online. The game that for some reason was limited to only 1000 copies per Region and Yun Shi was one of those thousand lucky people that could try out the first VR game.

This game had only one server and all the people from this world play on this one server. The language barrier problem was fixed to a huge investment in real time translating technology and so everyone in the game could communicate like they were all speaking the same language.

When Yun Shi wanted to pre-order the game, it was sold out in moments and Yun Shi didn't manage to get a copy. But luckily for him, he entered a game tournament where he won the technology and now could experience the game knows as <AWO>.

Yun Shi very soon arrived in front of the large building that was at least 10 storeys high. Yun Shi smiled as he went inside.

Approaching the counter he was met with a smile by a cute girl she was in her mid-twenties.

"How can I help you?"

"I want to receive my copy of the game together with the tech," Even though Yun Shi was a NEET he was still a post-graduate student and he didn't lose his communication abilities.

"I am sorry, but the game is sold out, we will inform you when the next batch is available."

"You don't understand. I am the winner of the game tournament, So I technically get a free copy"

"Oh, you are the winner? Please use the computer and log in, so that we can confirm your identity."

Yun Shi nodded his head as he logged in, to his profile.

"Everything is in order, wait a minute. I will bring your copy of the game."

The girl left, and Yun Shi waited for a couple of minutes.

"Here you are, customer," The girl gave the young man a plastic bag with both the tech and the game.

Yun Shi thanked the gril and left the building.

The youth returned back to his apartment, opening the plastic bag he saw the game and the VR headset. Yun Shi opened the manual and began reading.

The first lines were the warnings about health and all that nonsense that you find on the packages of all tech. Further, in the text, he found out, how to game worked. How to open menu's and in the end, there were instructions on how to start the headset.

Yun Shi put on his headset as he laid on his bed, closed his eyes and spoke out loudly, "AWO START"

After saying these words, he could feel his eyelids getting heavier and at the next moment, he was completely sucked in.

Opening his eyes, he only saw white space around him, he was already in the game world. Or to be more accurate he was on character creation screen.

Several messages popped up immediately,

"Full realism are developers retarded?"Yun Shi thought.

An interface window popped up in front of his face. Clicking the button he entered, class selection.

<Mage>

A list of choices appeared before him.

"This is obvious," Yun Shi thought and tapped the class he wanted to play, he picked a Warrior.

Yun Shi started to type, <D-r-o>

The surroundings changed and he was in a new location immediately a system message popped out,

Looking around he already found players there

"Let's begin," Thought Dro to himself.

Dro walked a few meters and he already found a man above his head he saw a cursor the cursor was green, green cursor means that the target is a friendly NPC. While red meaning enemies and blue were players. It was easy to understand even for first-timers.

Dro came up to the man,

"Young adventurer, how good that you have come, I have an urgent task for you, please go to the capital. It is very important."

The quest got accepted without Dro's input, seeing this he frowned.

"Auto accepted the quest? Is this some kind of special tutorial?" Yun Shi thought.

Dro shrugged his shoulders and started walking towards the goal, he saw other players also doing the same. It seemed everyone received the same quest. Well, it was to be expected, after all. All the quests were shared, He moved through the fields and thought, "It really is the long walk."

Soon he entered the capital city, that quest designated and when he entered a system message popped out.

Moving inside he found his goal NPC. Dro approached him closer and the NPC started a conversation with him,

"Thank you for coming young adventurer, please wait in this location, and something will happen."

This time quest also got accepted automatically.

Dro frowned and thought, "But wait for another three hours?!"

Dro sighed and sat down, looking around he saw other players also waiting, while some just logged off he saw that there were no children here.

"So it seems they are really enforcing their rules. I wonder why this quest makes the players wait. It is really strange. I better walk around, while I still have some time," Dro thought.

Dro started exploring this city, he looked around the shops NPC vendors sold grey weapons and armour.

"What about mine equipment, looking at it he saw that his grey one-handed sword had 1-3 attack and nothing else and he had no skills," Dro shook his head in disappointment and thought, "Seriously no skills? Devs you really?"

He saw varying different of classes, walking around the city. The player base from the first look was surprisingly even, that surprised Dro.

After waiting for two hours it was nearly time so he returned to the location.

When the time came, the sky turned dark and some kind of big NPC appeared he started talking, "Hello everyone and welcome to Alternate World Online."

"This is the first VRMMO but it also it may be the last"

Players started whispering to each other, Dro was also surprised.

"The last? What is this about?" Dro frowned and thought.

"You may all be wondering, what do I mean by that sentence. This is simple really, you will all be spending your lives in this game. Logging out is impossible. And the time is accelerated in the game. It basically means that one day spent in here is only a few nanoseconds in the outside world. Furthermore dying in the game is also death in the real world. The only way for you to return safely is either beat the game or wait for 20 years after these years pass in the game. You will all be freed. Everyone happy playing, please enjoy AWO to the fullest."

"Is this a joke. I should test it out" Dro thought.

After calling the menu Dro found out that there was really no logout functionality

"Death game huh? Well to me IRL was really bad. So maybe this is not that bad. But wait how is it possible to die in real life if I die here?" Dro thought.

"Hello player" a voice sounded in his head

"I have come to answer your question, all players data was uploaded to the server. Well, to be precise it was moved from the brain to this virtual world. And when you die all the data will be wiped from the server"

"Your meaning?"

"Currently your brain is empty. Every person that is playing the game currently is in a vegetable state. When you beat the game or beat the timer, all living player data will be transferred to your real body."

Hearing this he frowned, and inquired, "Why not transfer dead player data back to the real life body?"

"I am not allowed to answer such a question."

"Do you have any more inquiries?" Asked the GM.

"Thank you, for the assistance."

"Then goodbye and happy playing."

The voice disappeared from his head,

"So that was like admin help? Let's see if I am unlucky in this world as well," Dro thought.

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