chapter 2, prolouge

These words immediately took away Alex's drowsiness, and soon he remembered that he was at his house with his friends. He also saw Rose who was holding the collar of his shirt while looking at him with an annoyed look.

Alex narrowed his eyes. He is most annoyed when he is called a nerd. errr...even though in reality he often reads books in the school library until he doesn't remember the time. And after 2 and a half years of school at SMA 15 Bekasi, he had probably read almost half of the total books in the library there.

but still... that doesn't mean he's a bookworm. Of course not. Alex said while defending himself in his heart.

"Can you not call me that anymore, Rose? Besides, why did you add the word "damn" after that? Have you forgotten how many times I helped you with your homework while you were playing DOA?" Alex said while twitching his lips.

"hmmph!" Rose put her hands on her hips "Don't forget that it's a symbiotic mutualism! One QUEST for one homework! You won't be able to complete all those QUESTs without me protecting your bratty ass. hee hee"

Alex could only sigh while holding back his irritation. After all, Rose was right, for a couple years they had had a 'special transaction'. Alex will do Rose's homework and he will help Alex as a 'nuker' if Alex finds a QUEST BOSS that he cannot beat alone. In fact, he wanted to tease back 'I didn't think a stone head like you could understand such a complicated term as symbiosis mutualism' but he held the sentence deep in his throat.

There's nothing good you can get from arguing with this bar bar girl.

"Never mind about her Lex, don't waste your time with her. You know how stubborn she is." Said someone while waving his hand from inside the half-opened black Nerve Capsule. The capsule has several digital monitors on it, one of which clearly says 'Ghost'. Two other people who were also in two different capsules of the same type also shook their heads in silence.

Alex just sighed as he closed his capsule, leaving Rose standing beside him with her hands on her hips. But now she directed her eyes towards Ghost. Realizing that he was being stared at by Rose, the man quickly closed the capsule because he felt a scary aura starting to grow slowly. Ghost chuckled lightly while preparing to log in. However, he immediately broke into a cold sweat because Rose was now looking at him closely while squinting her eyes from behind the glass. Rose's face looked annoyed.

An elegant, robotic female voice was heard from inside the capsule that Alex was using

"Good night. Please connect your neural connection to the system for further access."

Alex lay down in the capsule and closed his eyes. He allowed the system to initiate the necessary login procedures. Several electronic sensors near his head began to emit faint light that flashed slowly.

He couldn't help but remember what happened just now, before Rose woke him up. For some reason, when he entered his capsule, he suddenly fell asleep for a while. Just like dreams in general, he couldn't remember the entire dream he had just now, but he remembered the white-haired little girl. How could it not be?

he couldn't even remember how many times that girl had appeared in his dreams since he was little. Sometimes he chatted with the little girl but he couldn't remember what they talked about. Sometimes he saw the girl sinking into darkness while looking at him sadly.

but this was the first time he dreamed of fighting that girl.

'Heh, I seem to be watching too much anime' he said to himself with a faint smile.

it had been quite a while since he last dreamed about that girl. It seemed like his birthday today made him a little restless, making him dream of that girl again. How come? On his 18th birthday, he received a very surprising gift. It turned out that his father had entrusted the gift to him many years ago, and arranged for him to receive it when he was 18 years old.

"scanning complete, identity confirmed. Welcome back Mr Alex. Opens access to the main menu. Please protect planet Esomia, honorable warriors."

"Maybe I would be happier if father didn't entrust it to Aunt Wiwi." Alex opened his eyes and took out a card from his pocket. In his hand, he held a black and gold electronic card with a logo of two triangles crossing each other. He then accessed the main menu with his mind and opened the "access for external programs" option. After he chose that option, several electronic compartments in front of him opened a special slot intended for the card he was holding.

He looked at the card for a moment before inserting it into the slot.

"I'd better use this with my friends than using it with the party group that was arranged by her. Well after all, this is my birthday present."

Tiring..

There was a soft buzzing sound as he inserted the card. Alex casually created a group party with his friends. In front of him, a small hologram appeared showing his avatar along with the others

Party members

Alex Duvall – Soldier (level 78)

Ghost – Assassins (level 85)

Reaper – Sniper (level 99)

Rose – Blood Paladin (level 149)

Metal – Mechanic (level 99)

Alex saw his hologram avatar, a white-haired western man with elegant white futuristic-themed armor covering his entire body. The character looks very manly and macho, very different from his original self who was still a high school boy and wet behind the ears. But when compared with his friends, his character looks like a free player who is being carried by a high level party whaler... even his level doesn't seem to help at all.

Alex just chuckled softly, he didn't really care because he only played this game in his free time.

It can be seen that his friends can't wait to start the game and are already sending spam in the lobby chat.

Ghost: where do you want to meet before carrying out Alex's DLC mission?

Metal: lets RV at Iram, I logged out there last time.

Reaper: okkey dokkey!

Rose: K

"DLC package detected. Installed the mission and...zzzt zzztt zzzzzzzzt…?????????? Zzzzt??????..."

Suddenly the voice of the robotic girl that emerged from the interface became distorted like a broken record, then began to mumble in a foreign language that they had never heard before. They all started to panic When their Nerve Capsule started to be enveloped by an electrical storm. They tried to get out of the capsule in vain. Rose was seen trying to break open the glass cover of her capsule by kicking as hard as she could but to no avail.

"(zzzzttt…activate ????? system…rechecking identity ????….zzztt…priority user detected….)"

'(…..authority code received..???? authority is now activated.. activating ???? gate and ???? dimensional factory…..)"

"(change user race to 'player'..)"

"(sync starts…)"

They all screamed when they saw their bodies starting to be covered in electricity and glowing brightly... before finally the capsule they were in exploded and burned violently. The sensor in the room rang loudly before finally activating the emergency extinguisher embedded in the ceiling of the room. Slowly, the raging fire that enveloped the area began to die down. In the room which is now pitch black and full of smoke, only 5 Nerve capsules remain which are now charred up.

Without a single person in it.

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In the darkness, Alex heard a girl's voice calling his name with a sad voice.

(Alex...)

Who are you?

Why do I feel so much longing when I hear your voice calling my name?

(…..remember your promise…)

This voice…

(….see you..until we meet again…)

Then a dazzling light filled his vision.

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Alex began to wake up and felt pain all over his body, as if he had just been taken apart and then roughly put back together in an instant. He felt a strong gust of wind pushing against his body from below before opening his eyes.

'what happened? where am i?'

He felt confused because he could only see the bright, blue sky wherever he looked. somehow, he felt free like a bird in the air. That is until he looked down.

he saw ruins that stretched out for few kilometres. From its shape and size, he could guess that the ruins were once a magnificent building that he had never seen before. Right in the middle of the ruins, there was a large crater filled with dozens of blackened skyscraper-like pillars. The crater took up almost half of the ruins. but unfortunately he couldn't take the time to admire the ruins, because for some reason, he was free-falling from the sky right above the ruins.

'Is this a dream?' he spoke to himself before his memories of previous events returned like a tide.

"Alex!"

"Help! Hey, we falling down from the sky!!"

He looked to the side and saw 2 people flailing their arms and legs in panic.

"Reaper?.. Ghost?"

"Wait there, I'll find a way to help you!" said Alex while looking in all directions and at the same time racking his brain hard, hoping to find anything that could help them. Alex almost sank into despair until he heard the sound of a jet whizzing above them.

"hold my hand!" said Metal from behind his helmet. He wears exosuit armor that covers every corner of his body making him look like a robot. his back and legs have some kind of thrusters that make him able to fly and maneuver freely in the sky. He flew quickly towards Alex and Reaper then roughly grabbed them both before darting back towards Ghost. but the ghost kept pointing in one direction with a desperate face.

"Rose!! Just forget about me please Rose!! I can handle this, go quickly!" said Ghost while turning on his energy shield. Blue energy balloons appeared and surrounded his body in an instant. It seems that he intended to reduce the impact when he hit the ground using that.

They all looked in the direction Ghost was pointing. There, Rose was falling uncontrollably, apparently unconscious. Without wasting any time, Metal immediately changed direction and maneuvered between the black pillars around them to reach Rose. but it seemed like he couldn't move as freely and as fast as he could because Alex and the Reaper were hanging on to him.

"Rose!! wake up!" shouted Reaper trying to wake Rose by calling her as loud as she could.

Metal had almost reached Rose When something made them feel a chill on the back of their necks simultaneously. Suddenly dozens of bone spurs shot towards them like bullets. Metal could only dodge by moving randomly in all directions like a headless bird, forced to give up his only chance to reach Rose. The distance between Rose and the ground is now only a few tens of meters. Metal started to sweat when he saw that a pillars as big as skyscrapers behind them had become swiss cheese after being hit by the barrage of bone spurs just now.

"Throw me! Fast! "

Metal obediently used the thrusters on his body to spin quickly to gather as much kinetic energy as possible before throwing Alex with his left hand. Alex launched like a spear and managed to cut the distance between him and Rose in an instant while avoiding the bone spurs that for some reason seemed to be focused on him. He stretched out his arms, trying to reach Rose who was still falling uncontrollably under him. After a while, he managed to hold Rose's hand.

"got you!"

Alex grabbed Rose who was still unconscious and quickly pulled her into a hug while turning his body and positioning his back downwards, intending to use his armor to cushion the impact. The two fell to the ground and rolled several times.

"YAY ALEX!!" Reaper immediately celebrated by raising both hands happily, making Metal who was dodging a bone spur a little surprised. The bone spur rubbed against his helmet and made a few sparks before slamming through the pillar behind him, making a hole the size of a fist.

Metal looked a little displeased. "Hey! Don't move around like a moroon!" he said as he landed near Alex and Rose.

Alex just sighed as he remained lying on the ground, still hugging Rose. "Hey. What happened exactly?"

Reaper immediately took a position and took cover behind a large rock

"Dunno~ but... I can't log out" she said with a smile.