VRMMORPG: EDEN

I looked at my reflection in that small dirty bowl.

Just water, that was the only thing I was given to sustain myself in the mines.

I could only thank god that the slavers weren't strict enough to ban anything if you got your daily quota in.

But now, I was at my wit's end.

I had read through all of the books after finishing my quotas early every single day.

I had listened through all of the audiobooks whilst swinging away with a pickaxe at the hard rock.

I had read all of the articles on Eden's history.

There was now nothing left that I could access for free using the system interface.

There was now nothing left to stimulate my mind.

There was now nothing left for me to do in this world.

All my relatives and friends had abandoned me.

I had nothing left in this world to live for.

I could just die, and nobody would know.

So that was exactly what happened, as I slowly closed my eyes, relaxed my weary muscles, and let my creaky bones crumble into dust.

I was officially dead, both in game, and in real life.

…

EDEN

The last frontier of mankind.

A VRMMORPG so realistic that it caused many to quit their jobs just so that they could play the game.

You see, the game basically became a second world for the people of this planet, a world where anything was possible if you put your mind to it.

Then, there came the 4th update of the game after the second year.

At this point, many of the top players had just passed level 100, and had started entering the harder areas of the maps.

But, the update changed everything.

Somehow, anything that a person earned was able to be transferred back to the real world.

Whether it be skills, body structure, or magic, almost everything could be brought back to the real world.

The only exceptions were items and the world of EDEN itself.

You could even bring people from inside EDEN back to the real world, of course, this was only if you could earn an extremely high amount of trust with them.

They were no longer NPC's, but actual people.

Finally, EDEN was classified as another dimension, one that the AI that controlled the game had created, after it was revealed 4 years after the game was released that it was on the day of the 4th update that The Garden Corp had lost control of its AI.

This changed our entire view of the universe, as we suddenly had a second world that we could conquer.

So, the powerful started toppling governments, and the top guilds became the new heads of countries as they dominated with their mighty power.

And, I was unlucky enough to be living in a country where the top guild was classified as a red guild, one that didn't care about morals and ethics.

As I was one of the weak, having earned nothing by myself in the game, I was soon turned into a slave, forced to fight in the colosseum for money.

You see, I was able to survive pretty well there, as my bought skills and equipment were still useful inside the game, and I had stuck there, fighting in life and death battles everyday for 15 straight years.

Finally, as I grew old, they retired me and sent me straight to the mines.

And that was how I had gotten to the point that I was at today.

Feeling the embrace of the darkness, I embraced it as I let go of everything.

Of course, there was always that nagging, high pitched voice of my regret in the back of my mind, but after so many years, the voice had already dulled to the point that it was barely perceptible by now.

Still, just that one regret, if only I had taken advantage of my position as a beta tester, if only I had worked to acquire my items and skills, if only I had loved my sister, if only…

…

My eyes opened to a ceiling that I never thought I would see again.

Sitting up incredibly fast, I looked around at my surroundings in shock.

Touching my body, then pinching it to see if what I was observing was real, I couldn't help but gape in disbelief.

I was back in my old room as the trash young master of one of the 4 great families of this country!

Staring at my smooth hands, not yet marred by scars and callouses, I just couldn't believe my reality.

'Have I regressed?'

This was the only phenomenon that could explain my situation.

"But how?" I whispered out loud.

As I sat there in my stupor, the door to my room burst open and my older sister walked in.

It was almost like looking in a mirror as I stared at her long, white hair which I also had, her jade-like, cute face, which was the exact same as mine, and her slim, almost starving figure, basically also the same as mine at this age.

You see, the only difference in our looks was that she had a slightly defined chest and I had some small pecs, which looked the same at first glance, but where easy to distinguish if you looked closely.

Of course, it was weird for other people to be staring at another person's chest to check their gender, so we could only help people differentiate between us by wearing different styles of clothes.

And, although we looked the same, our ages and personalities were extremely different.

Whilst she was already 25 and studying for her PhD, I was still only 23 and a junior in college.

Whilst she had a quiet, hardworking demeanor whilst being mostly kind and polite to other people, I had a loud, delinquent demeanor whilst being mostly rash and rude to other people at this point in time, the exact opposite of her personality.

This had caused a lot of friction between us, and we were only friends at best now, at least from my point of view.

Anyways, back to the present, I listened to her quietly as she asked in a cold, harsh voice,

"Winter, Breakfast is ready, are you coming down to eat?"

Hearing her voice, something finally clicked into place.

Holding back my tears, and trying not to change my facial expression, I turned around and looked out the window.

"I'll be down in a second..." The tone of my voice couldn't help but tremble at the end.

Hearing this, she stayed there, standing still for a few seconds, before leaving my room, casting me in silence, staring at the snow covering the world outside.

"I... I really have come back..."

"I was given a second chance..."

These were the only two thoughts that I kept turning over again and again in my mind.

I never noticed the tears that had spilt out.