1 Prologue

In life Talia has always been a risk-taker, it is one of the main contributing factors towards the numerous questionable decisions she ended up making.

That specific trait of hers was one of the main contributing factors leading to the many difficult situations she found herself landing in during her life, of course, she had also benefited from it, as being a girl unafraid off taking a gamble once in while involving potential high payoffs, but similarly, disastrous consequences have ended up allowing her to have a fair share of victories over the years.

However, unfortunately, these 'small' victories were few and far between for Talia, with most them not even being that meaningful, such as the time when she had made a bet with Rachel that she would surpass her skill within the Violin in a year when the girl mocked and laughed at her saying she was talentless when it was her first time playing the Violin many years ago.

She took great pride when within a year she watched Rachel's previous haughty, arrogant face contorted into a look of disbelief as she surpassed the one skill which she was most proud of.

The satisfaction that she had felt at the time was the greatest she truly felt in years, yet upon reflecting that moment she instead believed it was rather sad she felt that way back then as when she thought about it deeply the only true feelings remained of the incidence was the feeling of pure pity towards the jealous, spiteful girl who once bullied her simply because the crush she had feelings for, took a fancy to her instead.

Nowadays, she knew that such inconsequential feelings of achievement that she used to believe meant a great deal to her was nothing but a temporary feeling of happiness, it meant nothing in the long-run.

So what, if she proved Rachel wrong and taught her a lesson, in the end, it meant next to nothing, would it provide the expenses needed to fund her living expenses in the future, or would it lead to further opportunities in life?

No, it would not, in the years since she completed her compulsory education, she came out with good grades and ended up dropping out early to pursue her own future.

A risk she thought would pay off in the long run back then, turns out, you guessed it, it didn't go too well.

Turns out that deciding to pursue a career straight out of school is a rather difficult task, contrary to the 'words of wisdom' from a few self-made millionaires saying that it was easy if you buy their programs allowing you to discover their secret in becoming successful independently.

Though honestly, it wasn't all that bad, because she ended up managing to make a decent living, which was all thanks to her academic performance being good in school, enabling her to be eligible in applying for jobs which were above average for a school drop out.

Something she took great advantage off, within a few years she made a fair amount of money and that was when she once again decided to take yet another great risk, which would both lead to her current misfortune, and at the same time was her biggest source of prosperity.

She decided to invest in a revolutionary, brand new immersive MMORPG game, 'Dawn Of The Corrupted'. At the time of its announcement, it received numerous mixed reviews towards the trailers, and information provided about the game, as many couldn't help but doubt the credentials of the unknown company who produced it, believing that the quality of gameplay must have been exaggerated by the company itself to sell the game.

This type of 'marketing scheme' has been done many times in the past, and with the steep cost involving both the game, with the additional software made many sceptical and reluctant to invest that much into a game that will potentially bomb, resulting in them losing a great deal of money for a failed game which will likely have a short life span, with it shutting down not too long after its release.

Introducing a new MMORPG meant not only would new players need to be attracted, but additionally it was a saturated market, with high levelled competitors who are rival games were already well established and possessed a large player base.

Thus, 'Dawn Of The Corrupted' already had low expectations with the announcement of its release as it was believed for it to be an impossible task to for a newbie company to compete with the large gaming cooperations, as even if the game was a bit better than those out there, gamers who had already committed long hours and resources into these games, was unlikely to jump ship for a new, unfamiliar game in which they would start from nothing.

Additionally not only is a large attraction to an MMORPG greatly involved how popular the game is, and if it has a stable players population, it is also involves something which not a single person can deny the appeal of, the ability to earn a great deal of wealth.

Top players belonging to the most popular MMORPG's can make hundreds of thousands, if not millions in extreme cases just from the selling of equipment alone, as VR got more and more advanced, so did the value of games and in-game items.

Rich tycoons flock to these games in droves hoping to get every advantage they get to advance within the game, allowing the experts to rake in heaps of money.

Therefore, you can see why 'Dawn Of The Corrupted' lost a great of deal interest already, as a game that is not only expensive but has low prospects, to the average person who cannot squander their income thoughtlessly made them ditch the idea of purchasing the game, no matter how attractive the game itself looked.

However, there was always going to be outliers, and people who decided to take a risk in the game.

Talia herself didn't know why, but she felt a compelling feeling drawing her towards the game, despite the predicted bleak future of the game, she went a step further going all out, buying the best software and package that the game had to offer, almost cleaning out her entire savings which she had gathered over the years.

It was a steep investment, and was a complete act of recklessness on her part, much to the dismayed voices of her friends, who informed her that the game was an obvious sham.

After all, despite the seemingly large income of the company who produced the game as the price spent on advertising the game was clearly a large amount, with the fact that it was almost everywhere, nevertheless the strange thing about the game was that there was no critics, beta testers, nor gaming influencers who have actually played the game.

Something which baffled her completely, as you have the funds needed to buy such expensive ads to promote the game but cannot even pay people to play the game?

This just made people even more apprehensive that the game was a complete and utter scam, an attempt to rake in as much cash as possible for a low-quality game with expensive-looking advertisements, and fancy editing to make the game look good.

Nonetheless, Talia went ahead and bought it anyway because she had a strange feeling about the game. As if she just knew that she was going to hit the jackpot, of course, she could be wrong about this, after all, it's not like she had made other bizarre decisions based on a 'feeling' which ended up most of the times not working out too well.

But, this time she just knew something was going to come out of it, despite the weirdness of the games whole promotion itself.

And at the date of the game's release, she knew the was right, and majorly so.

The game was a hit, everything which was advertised, was better than ever imagined. Graphics. Story. Mechanics, everything was so high above the present competition, that the other MMORPG's were trash in comparison, and being one of the first players to join the game, with the highest possible starting package, she had received a significant advantage over the gamers who swarmed in droves since the oncoming release, that early advantage which may seem insignificant at first, allowed herself to pave her way into the game, becoming a high levelled player within the game.

Although she wasn't classed as an expert at the top of the food chain, she was absolutely above the vast majority, and with the increasing popularity of the game itself, her position in the game provided her with the means of re-earning her investment in the game three-fold.

She soon found herself quitting her job, and committing herself to the game even further, with time going on the popularity of the game showed no signs of dwindling, with the frenzy of gamers only increasing.

More attention meant more wealth and influence being brought into the game itself, 'Dawn Of The Corrupted', soon became the biggest MMORPG in the World, completely obliterating the competition in a matter of years.

After all, upon playing the game, other products of a similar genre seemed trash in comparison, and Talia's life only grew more flourishing.

'Finally for once in her life, a risk has paid off' She thought happily. Unlike, before were she felt her luck was truly disastrous, she now feels that she was blessed by the Goddess of Fortune, were how everything in her life was going.

However, just when she thought everything was looking up for herself, and she can move on to accomplish her dreams, a thunderbolt soared down from the sky sending a jolt through the electricity system in her house, the joyful Talia was completely oblivious connected into her VR capsule as she ended up being electrocuted to death. The last thing Talia saw was the world going into complete darkness, as she entered into an endless slumber.

Or so she thought, as she was abruptly awoken by the sound of voices.

"The mistress is currently sleeping within her chambers, Sir Gregory has ordered for her to remain uninterrupted!" A high pitched voice sounded.

"Hmph. How dare a maid to refuse me entry, in case you have forgotten my Father has been appointed as the Princesses' regent since the demise of her parents, you should know your place whether to follow mine or that old fools orders!" A gruff voice replied.

Before Talia could gather her thoughts on what is going on, the doors to the room were slammed open as a chubby young man entered the room, a look of disdain and obvious fake sympathy laced his voice as he said, "Ah, Princess have you just awoken? I must apologise for interrupting your rest, I may need a word with you about that maid you have outside, we must discuss the level of punishment she should receive for daring to refute a noble..."

Just as she was about to refute the twerp to demand where the hell she was, she suddenly recalled the first sentence he said, 'Wait, did he say Princess?'