Casper is a normal teenager who loves games. He had a normal life until he got a email from a person called cosmo.

Harry, a 14th yrs old young boy who loves to play games and lives far away from reality. He hates his elder brother, George due to some misunderstanding. Suddenly both dragged into an unknown world. Would harry be able to find his elder brother???

This novel is about a young man who plays virtual reality games to find excitement in his dull life

Life is hard. Life is full of challenges, inequity, grief, sadness, and a cruel hierarchy where the rich is the top of the pyramid. Poverty, world hunger,  overpopulation, pollution, alcohol, and drugs. These are all the bad things in life. Some people are born rich, while others are born dirt poor, hard-working people are being ignored while chosen ones are always at the top. So what? These things are what make us human either physically or spiritually. The things that made us mature as we grow so that we can move forward in life. Then what if there is another reality? Another chance to escape your unfortunate fate? Then there's no need for more introductions. Ambition, a worldwide popular virtual game.
A virtual game? Aren't there already virtual games? There are already many virtual games, however, Ambition took virtual games to virtual reality, making it extremely popular worldwide. With company branches in all continents and nations. Ambition, another reality


Present time...
A black-haired man could be seen reading a book in his room.
It was already 10 years since the event that made him enjoy his freedom.
His name is Gilbert Augustus, 22 years old, 2nd son of the Augustus main family, one of the Ten Great Noble Clans of the Dragon Empire.
And he has a secret that only he knows.
He used to be someone named Gilbert Cross.
He is a reincarnated individual.
His current world is somewhat different from his previous world.
In this world, modern technology has surpassed his past world.
Much that he had even thought at first that he was on his past world's future, but he was wrong.
Unlike his past world, the current world has a different map and a completely different history.
There are three ruling Superpowers in the current world known as the 3 Great Empires: the Dragon, Serpent, and Phoenix Empires which had the world divided into 3 parts equally.
A result of a Great World War that happened about a century ago from the current world's history.
The Augustus Clan was a military clan that made many contributions from the Great World War.
Coming from a great military clan, after being defeated from the duel 10 years ago by a teenage girl, Gilbert had lost the favor of the current family head which was his father.
He had even undergone a month of suffering as punishment.
Still, because of it, he has been freed from the responsibilities and could do whatever he wants, so it was worth it.
10/10 would get beat up by the girl again.
Gilbert Cross
His past life
Who was he?
He was nothing special.
In his previous life, he was someone who spent his entire life without as much a purpose besides trying to be happy and satisfying his curiosities.
Games, Books, etc. He would just spend most of his time outside work trying to enjoy life far away from the presence of other people.
Overall, he was just an introverted curious man who only wants to be at peace satisfying his curiosities and thirst for temporary happiness.
After dying in an unfortunate accident, he was then reincarnated in this world.
At first, he was a little excited.
He thought that he was like a protagonist since he had just reincarnated, he thought of a possibility that the world would revolve around him and wanted to know what the world has to offer him.
But it didn't take him long to learn that he wasn't a chosen one.
In this world, there was a thing that didn't exist in his past that immediately grabbed his attention.
Internal martial arts.
Cultivating such a thing, your body would be enhanced and achieved great levels beyond that of a normal person.
During the Great War, people on the higher levels in effect could even resist guns and in turn, made a lot of contributions.
However, right now since modern technology had advanced far, such people would even be vulnerable to the common mass-produced firearms of the modern military.
Still, internal martial arts managed to remain significant.
Right now, it was acting as a sort of special trait that enhances someone's status.
Generally speaking, the higher the status of the person, the higher their cultivation is.
Gilbert learned the family's martial arts, and unknown to anyone, had reached a high level of cultivation beyond someone his age.
But for him to reach a glimpse of the apex, he would have needed to spend the majority of his entire life practicing the family's martial art tirelessly.
It was nothing unexpected.
It was for sure the norm that to master something, such amount of hard work and talent is needed.
And for him who wasn't a genius, he knew that he would have needed to sacrifice a great amount of blood and sweat in the future.
He was nothing special, the world doesn't revolve around him, he was not a protagonist.
He had attributed his fast growth at first to his adult mentality, and if a gifted individual would have the same discipline and put the same amount of hard work, they would surpass him easily, leaving him behind in the dust.
The royal families of the three empires are a good example. It was a bloodline of geniuses.
Compared to them, his progress was nothing.
And as Gilbert grew learning about the family and the current world, he had then realized that there are many dangers if he wanted to reach such height.
Weighing the pros and cons, he realized that it wasn't worth it.
Just displaying a level of talent had already made some problems appear.
For Gilbert, death wasn't something he is afraid of since he had already reincarnated once and had already experienced it.
If he dies, chances are, he could get reincarnated again.
Nothing he could do about such thought process, experiencing such a thing called death and reincarnation twisted his mind so much that he couldn't even take death seriously as much as before.
Even if he saw a stranger die right in front of him.
They could've been reincarnated as kings or queens on their next life.
Even if in the end it only chanced, but it did already happen once with his own life as the witness, so there was always a good chance it could happen once again to him or even to anyone.
Right now, what Gilbert was afraid of was not about death but about dying without satisfying his curiosity about this new world and the happiness he still couldn't experience.
His greatest curiosity was the question about his reincarnation.
Who/What reincarnated him and for what purpose?
However, he had zero clues on how to find the answer so he could only ignore it for the time being.
Since his family was rich, Gilbert had done his best and managed to become a successful leech.
Someone who only learned an acceptable level of martial arts and had then decided to spend his time lazing all day after suffering the trauma of being defeated by his fiance on a duel.
That would be what anyone would say if they were to describe who Gilbert Augustus is.
He was sort of a black sheep in the family but at least he wasn't going around outside and making problems for the family like the black sheep of other great families.
The other noble families' black sheep are so problematic, to the point that it had lessened the shame his current status is showing, enabling him to enjoy his life freely with the support of riches.
He was enjoying such an easy life.
A perk of being a rich 2nd son.
In this world, games also exist, and unlike his disappointing past life, the virtual technology had already improved greatly, it was one of the few things that this world had achieved with great success.
For example, there are many virtual games with the same or greater playability as the old world's massive open-world RPGs, with high-end graphics unmatched even if compared to his previous world's most costly pc games.
The virtual technology is so popular, so much that it was even used to train soldiers, and even used in academies for learning.
And through such technology, anyone could learn many things faster than learning in real life.
With a maximum of 3 times, the time in the virtual world would flow faster than in real-time helping many industries.
However, unlike other things, cultivating internal martial arts couldn't be done on virtual, for he needed a real body for it to work. Making Gilbert somewhat disappointed.
Still, Gilbert had just spent most of his time enjoying himself on such virtual creations in the past 10 years.
Virtual games, virtual movies, virtual concerts from virtual idols, and even r18 virtual entertainments.
For a curious person, learning is something he took seriously.
And Gilbert's seriousness didn't disappoint, he had learned many things.
There are virtual teachers that could teach him a variety of skills.
And whatever made Gilbert curious, he would learn it.
Because of reincarnation, knowledge became even more valuable to Gilbert.
For a curious person like him, it was already valuable before, but right now it was even more so.
For if he dies again, he won't be able to bring all his money and things belonging to him, but he would still have the knowledge he had learned in his memory.
So he had been learning and learning.
He learned so much, but with a few exceptions, he would always back away when it comes to time to mastering such skills to the maximum.
He only had so much time in comparison to what he wanted.
He was like an anime or movie addict who was suddenly transported forward centuries in time and realized there is so much to watch, but not enough time.
Still, mastery is far from easy, and he could at most achieved something at the level of an average pro.
And that was only on the skills he was most interested in.
Some skills he would only be an expert and sometimes even on average level.
Jack of all trades, master of none.
Including his past life skills, he could certainly be called that way.
Of course, if he really wanted to even learn the same expertise he had in all trades literally, a lifetime won't be enough.
So, he could only choose what caught his interest, and learn on a level he was satisfied with.
Because of the built-in life support system in a virtual cabin, Gilbert could even spend a total of 21 days in the virtual world which was equivalent to 7 days in the real world without being interrupted.
Most of the time he would be in the virtual world, however, today is somewhat different, he was not on the virtual world learning a skill, but on his bedroom in the real world.
Right now, Gilbert is currently holding a book that took most of his recent interest.
It was a book delivered by his cousin.
It caught his interest since his cousin was acting unlike usual.
Most of the time, his cousin would only call him or visit him from time to time, in a bid to make him come outside his house and become less lazy.
And suddenly out of nowhere, such cousin gave him a manual about a virtual game, saying that she had already pre-ordered a specialized game cabin for him, expecting him to play it.
'I will also play the game', saying such words, she gave the manual of the game to him personally, yesterday afternoon after sending a message via his virtual ID.
What a weird combination.
For Gilbert, games and her was a combination so unfit, it would beat the combo of ice cream and soy sauce.
Sending a game manual...
It was not even an E-book but a hard copy... What a hardcore.
Still, the unusualness of the event made him curious about the game manual, so he had read it fully. And he had just finished reading it just a few moments ago.
And what he had read surprised him so much, it made him doubt if her cousin is playing tricks on him, making him expect something great, only to have his expectations crushed by reality tomorrow.
No one could blame him for thinking so, what the manual told him was just so out of this world, it sounded like a scam.
An RPG game simulating another world.
Unique NPCs that 100% simulate real people.
100% realism that simulates the senses without a margin of error.
7:1 game to real-time conversion.
An age-restricted game.
"Open World VRMMORPG Utopia..." 
Even for the current world's technology, such a level of simulation would be abnormal.
How could they do it?
He had tried several virtual games in this world, and even then the jump in technology is too high.
It was like leaping generations.
How could such technology suddenly come out of nowhere without any waves?
"..."
Well, now that he thought of it, he had heard of some rumors of an upcoming revolutionary VRMMO game in the past days, it was just that he was currently busy learning in regards to virtual idols, so it must have slipped his mind.
"Still, how did she know that I didn't order such a game?"
Then Gilbert thought of a possibility...
Of his cousin having a way to track his online transactions.
Didn't that mean that she knew all of his questionable purchases?
"..."
Well, nothing he can do about it.
He was already a black sheep, so adding another bad trait won't change his status much.
It was already as low as it could be.
Gilbert skimmed the game manual as he once again thought about the game.
'Utopia...'
If what's written is true, then he could only describe it as a 'Miracle'.
And thinking about such word, there was only one experience he had that could be said to be considered as such.
His reincarnation.
"A miracle huh... Interesting..."
...

...

VRMMO Utopia!

A game that simulates a fantasy world.
A game with NPCs that could 100% simulate the unique thoughts of a human being.
A game that could simulate all of your senses 100% without a margin of error.
A game that has limitless possibilities!

...

Such an interesting world!
NPCs and Players!
Who are the enemies and who are the allies?
What is good and what is evil?
What is real and what is fake?
When the game and reality isn't so different, how would people act?

... 

Join the reincarnated otherworlder; Gilbert, together with his partner in the game; a soul weapon named Ava, as they explore the world of VRMMO Utopia, trying to satisfy their curiosities, and clash against many.

...

--------------------------------
Warning
1.) Some dark elements would be present.
2.) MC is not heroic.

Chapter 1. Returner (1)

2010 was the era of smartphones. They changed the lives of millions of people.

But technology continued advancing, and in the year 2030, the smartphone era came to an end.

It was now the new era of virtual reality!!

Pegasus Corporation's virtual reality connection device, Neuro gear or the Arkane capsule, gave way to the beginning of this era.

For just 10,000 Yuan, any household could dive into the world of virtual reality.

The smartphone era was nothing in comparison to the VR era. Virtual reality did not just absorb the technologies of the real world, as new content developed just for the virtual world.

Among them, virtual reality games were the most popular.

Game companies didn't hesitate to invest millions or even billions of dollars into developing this new technology.

As a result, they could release higher quality content than any other business in the world.

At the same time, it was the start of a war.

Due to their investments and preparedness, their games had similar quality, and none stood out as the best.

It was the beginning of a warring era.

Game companies experimented with new methods of raising their market shares, and many went bankrupt as a result.

The one that put an end to this warring era was the same company that has started it- Pegasus corporation.

It released the game that changed the whole virtual reality scene, the game that was initiated with the help of an A.I. program called 'Origin'.

The A.I. program named Origin created the virtual reality game called Ark.

Ark!!

With a typical fantasy setting, the game was not too different from the other games in the market. In fact, it was much tamer compared to games where the players battled with lightsabers or flew in the air with wings.

It was the scale of its world and its stability that made it unsurpassable by others.

Ark's secret lied behind the artificial intelligence program called Origin. Without it, Ark was just a normal virtual reality game.

Simply put, the game wasn't controlled by the company but an artificial intelligence program. Its initial development cost was huge, but the management cost was ground-breakingly small.

At a time when the price of VR game programmers was soaring to the sky, the method proved to be especially efficient.

A.I.s didn't need a salary.

Plus, it was easy to copy and mass-produce an A.I. Hiring a thousand professional programmers took at least six months, but obtaining a thousand copies of an A.I. took only about a month.

Countless A.I.s worked to control and manage the server with Origin at its center and as a result, Ark became a game that surpassed any other game in existence.

Of course, some top programmers were looking over the game and ensuring that the A.I.s are working properly. They work as game masters or GMs.

November 26, 2033, a year after the game made its debut, the player base was well over a hundred million. By its 2nd anniversary, the number rose to over a billion, worthy of the game's title as the greatest game to ever exist.

One billion was definitely not a small number.

To play Ark, one would have to buy a neuro gear or the arkane capsule. Pegasus corporation controlled 95% of the virtual reality devices.

The cheapest neuro gear was of 1500 dollars and creating a character in Ark needed 1000 dollars. The game was free for the first three months but the monthly fee was 700 dollars per month after that.

In Chinese currency, the cheapest neuro gear was 10,000 Yuan and creating a character cost nearly 7000 Yuan, with 5000 Yuan in monthly fees.

They were not the numbers that an ordinary working man can accumulate. It would take a month's salary just to buy the game.

But was it worth it? Yes, it was definitely worth it!!

If you calculate the average income of an Ark player, it would be about 10 thousand dollars.

A game with over 1 billion players and an average income of 10 thousand dollars. That's enough purchasing power to match a country's.

Businesses smelled the money just as easily.

Numerous companies and corporations became sponsors of Ark players that had fame and influence.

Famous rankers, especially the official top 100 rankers, were walking advertisements, and their bodies were worth at least hundreds of millions of Yuan.

Most importantly, Ark was fun.

Players with superhuman powers killing monsters with different skills and magic were more exciting than any movie, and the fact that a player could die at any time made the game more thrilling than any sports in the world.

The proliferation of virtual reality games had the biggest impact on sports and movie industries.

No matter how thrilling a sport is, no sportsman puts their life on the line, but in the game world, everyone fights with their life on the line. No matter how well-made a movie is, at the end of the day, a movie is a movie.

It has a set scenario, while gamers create their scenario. A game character is one's second life, and in this world, a movie can never beat real life.

In this era, one could gain the wealth and prestige of a professional soccer player or a Hollywood level celebrity just by gaming.

As a result, countless people sought to become this era's protagonist.

However. Becoming a famous gamer?

Only one out of every million can do that. Right now in Ark, there are only about 10,000 people who make over 10 million dollars.

Considering Ark's player base, that's less than the top 0.0001 percent. Only a very small minority of players could enjoy the life of wealth and fame.

Not to mention, VR games are completely different than PC games. You can't get better by just leveling up. It's about talent.

Even though it's an RPG game, you can't become a ranker with just levels and items. If you start playing with that mindset, you'll end up quitting within a month.

You just have to enjoy it!!

Ark is the world's most unfair game. If you compare yourself to others, you won't win over your inferiority complex.

Right, virtual reality games were more unfair than any other game.

Even in PC games, there are good players and bad players. In a VR world, where everyone has superhuman powers, the difference was even clearer.

That's not all.

In Ark, the best way to earn money was through live broadcasts.

There were broadcasting stations that will only focus on Ark related activities. These stations are licensed by the countries and Pegasus corporations to broadcast the content.

These broadcasting stations give money to famous rankers to show the footage of them conquering a famous dungeon or fighting a boss.

It was indomitable that this was the era of Ark and no one can stop it!!

"Lu Fei, do you play Ark?"

Lu Fei turned his head from the TV screen when he heard that. He saw a customer standing there.

"No, I'm not interested in VR games."

"Ah, I thought everyone was interested in it, especially teenagers like you."

"Well, I am not one of them."

"Is there a specific reason behind it?"

Lu Fei scratched his head when he heard that. It was not like he was totally uninterested in Ark.

He still had some sort of interest in it but it was only on the level of watching, he never thought of playing it as he never had the money to play it.

Lu Fei was from a poor household with both of his parents dead. His parents didn't leave him with anything but an enormous amount of debt.

He also had a sister to take care of. He just didn't have the leeway to play a VR game. He can barely meet ends with his part time job in the Forest cafe.

"What's your order?"

"It's an iced coffee."

Lu Fei swiftly changed the topic and wrote down the order on his memo.

"Anyway, if you ever started it, tell me, I'm quite the high level. I will help you as the game is hard for beginners."

The customer left after that.

Lu Fei was a 18 year old teenager who was in his third year of high school. His tall, slender and handsome face made him quite famous in the Forest cafe.

Quite a few high school girls and even college girls will come to the cafe just to see him. Forest cafe has a calm atmosphere, meaning that it has quite a few regulars who will come often.

Lu Fei was acquainted with most of them.

It was currently January 2035, it's been 27 months since Ark has opened its server to the world and its been the rage all around the world.

Countless high school and college students have dropped from their schools, just to play Ark and make a living out of it.

It was another matter that only a small majority of them can even earn. Ark was a relatively hard game that takes both talent and experience to succeed.

This 'experience' was not only in the game world but in the real world too. It is said that real life experience can affect one's in game performance.

There's also a rumour that all the famous rankers have learned martial arts or acrobatics.

"It's not made for me…"

Lu Fei let out a sigh and continued to work, letting all the thoughts regarding Ark out of his brain.

* * *

"Here's your payment for this month."

"Thank you."

Lu Fei received the payment from the middle aged lady in front of him. The middle aged lady was wearing a long sleeved black top that was sticking to her skin and was revealing all her curves. 

In addition to that, she was wearing a red skirt that was showing her jade like long and slender legs.

Lu Fei was trying very hard to not look at her humongous breasts that seems to be sticking out of her black top.

"How's your personal life going?"

"It's going as usual. We are somehow living after paying the interest each month."

"I don't think the earnings from my cafe and other part time jobs are enough to pay back your debt."

'It's not.'

Lu Fei wanted to say that out loud but he refrained from doing it. The middle aged lady has already helped him a lot. 

He can't ask for anymore help from her.

"It's enough for now."

"We both know that you won't be able to pay back your debts by only working part time jobs."

"I know that but I don't have any other choice but to do part time jobs."

Lu Fei really wanted to drop out of high school and work more jobs to pay back the debt, but his mother's last wish was for him to complete his high school education.

He had no choice but to attend high school.

"How about playing Ark?"

The middle aged lady suddenly said.

"I don't think I would be able to earn money from playing a game."

"It's not a simple game. I have heard people becoming millionaires from playing that game. Maybe, it can change your life around."

"I don't have money to buy a neuro gear."

"I can lend you money to buy one. Just return it when you have money."

Lu Fei didn't have an excuse left when he heard that. He actually didn't want to play Ark.

It was not about interest. There was a entirely different reason behind it. Lu Fei was actually someone who had lived in a fantasy world for 10 years.

He was a returner.

He has lived in the fantasy world for 10 years, experiencing life and death battles, and even the death of his comrades. 

The world of Ark made him think about the fantasy world and the death of his comrades. He just couldn't cheer while seeing a sword slicing someone's neck.

That's why, he just left the Forest cafe by giving out an excuse.

"This kid…"

The middle aged lady sighed sitting alone in her office.

Lu Fei, a debt ridden orphan who struggles through his daily life. His only wish is to provide a good life to his sister.

With the threats of the loan sharks knocking on his door, he sets out to try his luck in the VR game called 'Ark'.

With a dark past as a returner and Ian has his alias, he fights in Ark for a better future for his sister.

Will he be able to reach the top?

What will happen when he suddenly got a mysterious class and he can hear the voices of spirits?

* * *

This novel is inspired by novels like LMS, OG, EOSP, Praise the orc etc.

Join the discord: https://discord.gg/F9xfJWv

Another Life
Prologue


Year 2025
"The launch of the first VRMMORPG games 'World of Legends' and 'Conviction' have transcended the law of nature as we know it.
Virtual Reality is now the next reality."


Year 2027
"The games 'World of Legends' and 'Conviction' are already the hottest topic worldwide. Many nations have started investing massive amounts of money into it. In the near future, we might be able to live the lives that we've all been only dreaming before. We might be able to use magic that we only imagined, within the boundary of a virtual life. This signifies the moving of the computer era to the era of virtual reality. Our country must also prepare in this shift of eras. The new world has already opened."


Year 2030
"John Smith, who hacked into the American VR Database, was captured by the FBI yesterday."
"The fact that you don't have an Yphone Ring is a fact that you don't have current access to your VR Avatar anytime and anywhere."


Year 2033
"The newest gaming tool "Game Station Active" will soon be release for home and personal use.  Samshong will start releasing this new product this upcoming December. By creating the most advance VR gaming tool, Korea has now become the leading figure in Virtual Reality development."


Year 2035
Ten years after the launch of the first VRMMORPG games, IT'S NOW THE ERA OF VIRTUAL REALITY.


~~~~~~~~

It's 25th century where all world digitalized and new type of virtual reality games introduced to the world and today is the 31st  march and today is the day the world most advanced virtual reality game is going to launch and it is Action pack, Adventures, Real life experience game.
I am Arthur Alexander & I am16 year old, a High school boy who works part time in car garage to earn daily living expenses, my dream was to become a "Test Gaming Player" in world best virtual reality gaming company 'Ivon Virtual tech'.
When I first heard 8 months ago that 'Ivon Virtual Tech' is going to launch a real life experience game called "Arthia" , I got to much excited and immediately pre booked gaming capsule worth 50,000 dollars. The money that, I was saving by working part time jobs for 6 years gone in split second.
Now, I have my goal set on how to earn money that, I spend on the gaming capsule in less than year for my future college fee. By setting goal Arthur started making working and training schedule for future preference and pinned the schedule on the wall.
By using his current month half salary he registered to Martial arts hall to learn Swordsman ship, Kickboxing, Taekwondo, and Muay thai. He placed himself on a rigorous schedule traversing to as many as 6 places a day. As his body broke down at the various gyms, he mastered martial arts.
The instructors there called him HungryWolf. Building his stamina, he swung his sword all day long enough for blood to flow from his hands.
Virtual reality game!
A place where a person moves their body means you can act like in real life. Then learning martial arts and studying about the game system a little more, would it not be helpful?
Of course, those that learned martial arts would not be completely advantageous. But to be stronger even at level 1, it was better to learn martial arts.
Imagine being at least 10% stronger throughout the game, the tremendous effects it would bring. Because of that, Arthur in the morning and daytime learned martial arts, and in the evening studied about virtual reality games. Which game had the most users, and how the game system worked was thoroughly analyzed.
For every profession, city and skills Arthur made analysis table and read every article of "Arthia"and every single article about virtual reality games and made complete analysis about the profession and skills.
For 8 months, Arthur learned martial arts, and build good body physics of martial artists. The time of 8 month wasn't just for preparation but also for the future steps to achieve the dream of becoming "Test Gaming Player" .
Today 31st march, And today in the morning people from the "Ivon Virtual Tech' Came home to setup the gaming capsule for game.
After setting up the capsule people from the company left, And without wasting single moment Arthur enter the capsule and launch the game.
When Arthur launched the game and connected to "Arthia" , the first sound he heard was the feminine sweet voice.
Would you like to connect to "Arthia".
Yes / No
When the massage came in front of Arthur eyes without hesitation he spoke…
'Yes!' .


2010 was the era of smartphones. They changed the lives of millions of people.
But technology continued advancing, and in year 2030, the smartphone era came to an end. It was now the new era of virtual reality. Peach Corporation's virtual reality connection device, V-Gear, gave way to the beginning of this era. For just 20,000 dollars, any household could dive into the world of virtual reality.
The smartphone era was nothing in comparison to the VR era. Virtual reality did not just absorb the technologies of the real world, as new content developed just for the virtual world.
Among them, virtual reality games were the most popular.
Game companies didn't hesitate to invest millions or even billions of dollars into developing this new technology. As a result, they could release higher quality content than any other business in the world.
At the same time, it was the start of a war.
Due to their investments and preparedness, their games had similar quality, and none stood out as the best.
It was the beginning of a warring era.
Game companies experimented with new methods of raising their market shares, and many went bankrupt as a result. The one that put an end to this warring era was not a game company, but an AI developing company called Tobot Soft. It was with their AI program that Warlord was created.
Warlord.
With a typical fantasy setting, the game was not too different from the other games in the market. In fact, it was much tamer compared to games where the players battled in space or flew in the air with wings.
It was the scale of its world and its stability that made it unsurpassable by others.
Tobot Soft's secret lied behind a management artificial intelligence program called M.I.
Simply put, the game wasn't controlled by the company but an artificial intelligence program. Its initial development cost was huge, but the management cost was ground-breakingly small. At a time when the price of VR game programmers was soaring to the sky, the method proved to be especially efficient. A.I.s didn't need a salary.
Plus, it was easy to copy and mass produce an A.I. Hiring a thousand professional programmers took at least six months, but obtaining a thousand copy of an A.I. took only about a month.
Countless A.I.s worked to control and manage the server, and as a result, Warlord became a game that surpassed any other game in existence.
March 11th, 2035, a year after the game made its debut, the player base was well over one million. By its 4th anniversary, the number rose to over ten million, worthy of the game's title as the greatest game to ever exist.
Ten million was not a small number.
To play a VR game, one needed a VR device. Peach Corporation controlled 70 percent of the VR device market and its cheapest VR device, the Level 1 V-Gear, cost 20 thousand dollars.
In addition, one needed 2,599 dollars just to create a Warlord character. Upon creation, one could play the game free for 3 months, but afterwards, there was a monthly fee of 799 dollars.
In Korean standards, it cost 20 million won to buy the gaming device, another 3 million to make a character, and 800 thousand more every month.
There were ten million people who could meet such requirements.
An economist once said,
"If you calculate the average income of a Warlord player, it would be about 80 thousand dollars. A game with over 10 million players and an average income of 80 thousand. That's enough purchasing power to match a country's."
Businesses smelled the money just as easily.
Numerous companies and corporations became sponsors of Warlord players that had fame and influence. Famous rankers, especially the official top 100 rankers, were walking advertisements, and their bodies were worth at least a billion won.
Most importantly, Warlord was fun.
Players with superhuman powers killing monsters with different skills and magic was more exciting than any movie, and the fact that a player could die at any time made the game more thrilling than any sports in the world.
Someone once said,
"The proliferation of virtual reality games had the biggest impact on sports and movie industries. No matter how thrilling a sports is, no sportman puts their life on line, but in the game world, everyone fights with their life on the line. No matter how well-made a movie is, at the end of the day, a movie is a movie. It has a set scenario, while gamers create their own scenario. A game character is one's second life, and in this world, a movie can never beat a real life."
In this era, one could gain the wealth and prestige of a professional soccer player or a major league star just by gaming. As a result, countless people sought to become this era's protagonist.
However.
"Becoming a famous gamer? Only one out of every thousand can do that. Right now in Warlord, there's only about 3,000 people who make over a 100 million won. Considering Warlord's player base, that's less than the top 0.01 percent. Plus, imagine the amount of money you have to spend to maintain your ranking that high. Take any one of these 3,000 people, they probably spent just as much on Warlord as they earned."
Only a very small minority of players could enjoy the life of wealth and fame.
"Not to mention, VR games are completely different than PC games. You can't get better by just leveling up. It's about talent. Even though it's an RPG game, you can't become a ranker with just levels and items. If you start playing with that mindset, you'll end up quiting within a month. You just have to enjoy it. Warlord is the world's most unfair game. If you compare yourself to others, you won't win over your inferiority complex."
Right, virtual reality games were more unfair than any other games.
Even in PC games, there are good players and bad players. In a VR world, where everyone has superhuman powers, the difference was even clearer.
That's not all.
In Warlord, the best way to earn money was through live broadcasts.
However, only 30 channels were given permission to broadcast Warlord-related content. In the past, when problems began to arise from gambling and swearing in private broadcasts, most countries began to require licenses for broadcasting certain content. In the case of Warlord, only 30 channels were given licenses.
That was how the Top 30 Guilds were created. Guilds that obtained broadcasting channels received no small benefits.
Furthermore, these guilds used the money and influence gained through live broadcasts and live tickets to prevent other guilds from challenging their authority. Although everyone aimed to become one of the Top 30 Guilds in the beginning, the gap between a Top 30 Guild and a non-Top 30 Guild only grew wider over time.
They were in a league of their own.
By the time Warlord entered its 4th year of service, no one could threaten to close this gap.
Except one.
The Hahoe Mask Guild.
Its members all fought wearing hahoe masks. Despite a majority of them having started a year after existing rankers, they showed incredible skills and results. In time, they even started to threaten the positions of the Top 30 Guilds.
And in the middle of this storm was Hyrkan.
His nickname, the Hero Slaughterer.
The nickname was given to him because he effortlessly slaughtered the rankers that represented Warlord.
He was a monster that defied logic.
"Hyrkan? He's a real monster, the kind that disrupts an ecosystem. He throws a 150 km fastball, then throws a 250 km fastball right afterwards. Plus, he games harder than anyone else. That's what VR games are all about. No matter how much time you invest, someone without talent can't beat someone with talent. Even if someone with talent achieves something by investing time, it becomes nothing in front of greater talent. I assure you, Hyrkan is at the top in both talent and effort. If he started just a year earlier, no one would be his match."
A monster that disrupts an ecosystem.
It was an apt description.
It was also the reason why Hyrkan was ostracized.
"Why Hahoe Mask Guild betrayed Hyrkan? It's simple. They would've been ostracized by the Top 30 Guilds otherwise. At first, they all fought to recruit Hyrkan, but they soon realized it wasn't going to happen. Hyrkan isn't the type to bow his head in front of others. A tiger can grow up drinking a dog's milk, but a tiger is a tiger, a dog is a dog."
The Top 30 Guilds were already making enormous profit in their own ecosystem.
There was no way they would stand still and watch a monster like Hyrkan ruin it. Even so, they suffered more harm than good trying to take him out.
Hyrkan. Although he was nicknamed the Hero Slaughterer, he never actively sought out to kill others. It was always three or four rankers that attacked him first, and he only retaliated. Hyrkan never wanted to become a "slaughterer."
So when Stormhunter Guild absorbed Hahoe Mask Guild and declared war on Hyrkan, the rest of the Top 30 Guilds promised their tacit support. It wasn't anything unexpected.
"Hahoe Mask Guild is probably thankful to Hyrkan, but their inferiority complex must have been equally big. Betraying Hyrkan and joining the Stormhunter Guild or fighting against the entire Top 30 Guilds. The choice was obvious."
No matter how amazing Hyrkan was, he wasn't capable fight against the Top 30 Guilds by himself.
"In the end, Hyrkan was too amazing for his own good. That's why he was betrayed from Warlord."
Shunned by the whole world, Hyrkan was left with no choice but to quit Warlord.
Of course, all this…
"I can't believe this is happening to me."
Hasn't happened as of now.
"I returned to the past…"
An Jaehyun, he returned to 2036.
With all his memories intact!

Year 2035. The Virtual reality game, Warlord, changed the world. An Jaehyun was one of the many who wished to change his life through the game. After dedicating his life to the game, he was met with a betrayal. A betrayal by his comrades. As a result, he lost everything. But a chance was given to him. A chance to redo everything again! "I won't play with others again. Whatever the outcome, I'll show that I can do it alone." Others rolled a dice to split the spoils of victory. An Jaehyun ate it all by himself. It was the start of An Jaehyun's solo game life.

2010 was the era of smartphones. They changed the lives of millions of people.

But technology continued advancing, and in year 2030, the smartphone era came to an end. It was now the new era of virtual reality. Peach Corporation's virtual reality connection device, V-Gear, gave way to the beginning of this era. For just 20,000 dollars, any household could dive into the world of virtual reality.

The smartphone era was nothing in comparison to the VR era. Virtual reality did not just absorb the technologies of the real world, as new content developed just for the virtual world.

Among them, virtual reality games were the most popular.

Game companies didn't hesitate to invest millions or even billions of dollars into developing this new technology. As a result, they could release higher quality content than any other business in the world.

At the same time, it was the start of a war.

Due to their investments and preparedness, their games had similar quality, and none stood out as the best.

It was the beginning of a warring era.

Game companies experimented with new methods of raising their market shares, and many went bankrupt as a result. The one that put an end to this warring era was not a game company, but an AI developing company called Tobot Soft. It was with their AI program that Warlord was created.

Warlord.

With a typical fantasy setting, the game was not too different from the other games in the market. In fact, it was much tamer compared to games where the players battled in space or flew in the air with wings.

It was the scale of its world and its stability that made it unsurpassable by others.

Tobot Soft's secret lied behind a management artificial intelligence program called M.I.

Simply put, the game wasn't controlled by the company but an artificial intelligence program. Its initial development cost was huge, but the management cost was ground-breakingly small. At a time when the price of VR game programmers was soaring to the sky, the method proved to be especially efficient. A.I.s didn't need a salary.

Plus, it was easy to copy and mass produce an A.I. Hiring a thousand professional programmers took at least six months, but obtaining a thousand copy of an A.I. took only about a month.

Countless A.I.s worked to control and manage the server, and as a result, Warlord became a game that surpassed any other game in existence.

March 11th, 2035, a year after the game made its debut, the player base was well over one million. By its 4th anniversary, the number rose to over ten million, worthy of the game's title as the greatest game to ever exist.

Ten million was not a small number.

To play a VR game, one needed a VR device. Peach Corporation controlled 70 percent of the VR device market and its cheapest VR device, the Level 1 V-Gear, cost 20 thousand dollars.


 
In addition, one needed 2,599 dollars just to create a Warlord character. Upon creation, one could play the game free for 3 months, but afterwards, there was a monthly fee of 799 dollars.

In Korean standards, it cost 20 million won to buy the gaming device, another 3 million to make a character, and 800 thousand more every month.

There were ten million people who could meet such requirements.

An economist once said,

"If you calculate the average income of a Warlord player, it would be about 80 thousand dollars. A game with over 10 million players and an average income of 80 thousand. That's enough purchasing power to match a country's."

Businesses smelled the money just as easily.

Numerous companies and corporations became sponsors of Warlord players that had fame and influence. Famous rankers, especially the official top 100 rankers, were walking advertisements, and their bodies were worth at least a billion won.

Most importantly, Warlord was fun.

Players with superhuman powers killing monsters with different skills and magic was more exciting than any movie, and the fact that a player could die at any time made the game more thrilling than any sports in the world.

Someone once said,

"The proliferation of virtual reality games had the biggest impact on sports and movie industries. No matter how thrilling a sports is, no sportman puts their life on line, but in the game world, everyone fights with their life on the line. No matter how well-made a movie is, at the end of the day, a movie is a movie. It has a set scenario, while gamers create their own scenario. A game character is one's second life, and in this world, a movie can never beat a real life."

In this era, one could gain the wealth and prestige of a professional soccer player or a major league star just by gaming. As a result, countless people sought to become this era's protagonist.

However.

"Becoming a famous gamer? Only one out of every thousand can do that. Right now in Warlord, there's only about 3,000 people who make over a 100 million won. Considering Warlord's player base, that's less than the top 0.01 percent. Plus, imagine the amount of money you have to spend to maintain your ranking that high. Take any one of these 3,000 people, they probably spent just as much on Warlord as they earned."

Only a very small minority of players could enjoy the life of wealth and fame.

"Not to mention, VR games are completely different than PC games. You can't get better by just leveling up. It's about talent. Even though it's an RPG game, you can't become a ranker with just levels and items. If you start playing with that mindset, you'll end up quiting within a month. You just have to enjoy it. Warlord is the world's most unfair game. If you compare yourself to others, you won't win over your inferiority complex."


 
Right, virtual reality games were more unfair than any other games.

Even in PC games, there are good players and bad players. In a VR world, where everyone has superhuman powers, the difference was even clearer.

That's not all.

In Warlord, the best way to earn money was through live broadcasts.

However, only 30 channels were given permission to broadcast Warlord-related content. In the past, when problems began to arise from gambling and swearing in private broadcasts, most countries began to require licenses for broadcasting certain content. In the case of Warlord, only 30 channels were given licenses.

That was how the Top 30 Guilds were created. Guilds that obtained broadcasting channels received no small benefits.

Furthermore, these guilds used the money and influence gained through live broadcasts and live tickets to prevent other guilds from challenging their authority. Although everyone aimed to become one of the Top 30 Guilds in the beginning, the gap between a Top 30 Guild and a non-Top 30 Guild only grew wider over time.

They were in a league of their own.

By the time Warlord entered its 4th year of service, no one could threaten to close this gap.

Except one.

The Hahoe Mask Guild.

Its members all fought wearing hahoe masks. Despite a majority of them having started a year after existing rankers, they showed incredible skills and results. In time, they even started to threaten the positions of the Top 30 Guilds.

And in the middle of this storm was Hyrkan.

His nickname, the Hero Slaughterer.

The nickname was given to him because he effortlessly slaughtered the rankers that represented Warlord.

He was a monster that defied logic.

"Hyrkan? He's a real monster, the kind that disrupts an ecosystem. He throws a 150 km fastball, then throws a 250 km fastball right afterwards. Plus, he games harder than anyone else. That's what VR games are all about. No matter how much time you invest, someone without talent can't beat someone with talent. Even if someone with talent achieves something by investing time, it becomes nothing in front of greater talent. I assure you, Hyrkan is at the top in both talent and effort. If he started just a year earlier, no one would be his match."

A monster that disrupts an ecosystem.

It was an apt description.

It was also the reason why Hyrkan was ostracized.

"Why Hahoe Mask Guild betrayed Hyrkan? It's simple. They would've been ostracized by the Top 30 Guilds otherwise. At first, they all fought to recruit Hyrkan, but they soon realized it wasn't going to happen. Hyrkan isn't the type to bow his head in front of others. A tiger can grow up drinking a dog's milk, but a tiger is a tiger, a dog is a dog."

The Top 30 Guilds were already making enormous profit in their own ecosystem.


 
There was no way they would stand still and watch a monster like Hyrkan ruin it. Even so, they suffered more harm than good trying to take him out.

Hyrkan. Although he was nicknamed the Hero Slaughterer, he never actively sought out to kill others. It was always three or four rankers that attacked him first, and he only retaliated. Hyrkan never wanted to become a "slaughterer."

So when Stormhunter Guild absorbed Hahoe Mask Guild and declared war on Hyrkan, the rest of the Top 30 Guilds promised their tacit support. It wasn't anything unexpected.

"Hahoe Mask Guild is probably thankful to Hyrkan, but their inferiority complex must have been equally big. Betraying Hyrkan and joining the Stormhunter Guild or fighting against the entire Top 30 Guilds. The choice was obvious."

No matter how amazing Hyrkan was, he wasn't capable fight against the Top 30 Guilds by himself.

"In the end, Hyrkan was too amazing for his own good. That's why he was betrayed from Warlord."

Shunned by the whole world, Hyrkan was left with no choice but to quit Warlord.

Of course, all this…

"I can't believe this is happening to me."

Hasn't happened as of now.

"I returned to the past…"

An Jaehyun, he returned to 2036.

With all his memories intact!

Year 2035. The virtual reality game, Warlord, changed the world. An Jaehyun was one of the many who wished to change his life through the game. After dedicating his life to the game, he was met with a betrayal. A betrayal by his comrades. As a result, he lost everything. But a chance was given to him. A chance to redo everything again! “I won’t play with others ever again. Whatever the outcome, I’ll show that I can do it alone.” Others rolled a dice to split the spoils of victory. An Jaehyun ate it all by himself. It was the start of An Jaehyun’s solo game life.

virtual life games novel

Nexus : the alternate virtual land.

VIRTUAL GAME

Path of the Demons

Status [Failure]

VRMMO Dark God

VRMMO: The Returnee

Re: Another Life

FEROCIOUS MARTIAL ARTS MASTER

Emperor of Solo Play

Emperor of Solo Play!

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