Chapter 1: Prologue.

User confirmed.

[Logging in to Realm Quest]

Please endeavor to play responsibly.

"I'm Lucas. Lucas Wayne."

30 years old, single and a shut-in gamer. I won't really say I'm ugly but can't really call myself handsome either.

I've noticed that in life, things don't exactly go as planned. When I was 6, I used to have a dream of being a pro-gamer but life had other plans for me I guess.

By the age of 10, both of my parents got caught up in a road accident and lost their lives.

I used to have a younger sister but she was taken in by one of our relatives when she was still an infant. I'm sure right now she doesn't even know that she has an elder brother as I've been unable to see her ever since.

I've been bouncing in and out of different orphanages till I turned 18 and had to move out on my own.

I decided to try out gaming as it was once my passion and invested both time and money into my gaming career.

7 years ago a new game got released, 'Realm Quest'.

This game utilized advanced technology that allowed the user to fully immerse into a game reality.

This technology took gaming to the next level both in-game and in the real world. Money gained in-game could be converted into real currency which made it have a lot of users.

In the first year of its release, 'Realm Quest' had amassed over 2 billion users worldwide as it was the pioneer of the FDVRRPGs. [1]

I too saw it as a chance to start something for myself but things didn't go as planned.

Realm Quest had a fantasy set up with like different races to design your characters from. Quests, side quests, classes, monsters and so on were also incorporated into the game.

There are six classes to choose from.

Holy Mages

Sword Masters

Magic Swordsman

Archer

Wizards

Necromancer

I started off with a necromancer because I thought it would look cool to be able to summon monsters that I killed but that choice was the beginning of my downfall.

Turns out that to level up your necromancer character, you would need to spend a considerable amount of money before you could get any result and as I didn't have much, I resorted to borrowing.

I continued playing like that for the last 7 years and now I have creditors after me for the all the money I've borrowed.

Present Day.

June 30th, 2060.

"Well since today might be my last day, I should probably just take on some quests or something."

"If only I had another chance...I wouldn't end up like this again."

I sat inside my capsule and was preparing to log in but was interrupted by loud bang on my door.

"I know I'm owing but damn that was fast."

"Well that is not my concern anymore I've already given up on paying back."

I covered up the capsule and was waiting for the log in process to finish but was interrupted buy an on-screen message.

[UNKNOWN ENTRY...UNKNOWN ENTRY

SYSTEM AUTOMATIC REBOOT IN PROGRESS]

"Huh?"

"What the hell is going on?"

"Did those bastards outside touch my capsule or what?"

I looked through the glass and saw that no one was in my room.

"Listening closely, did they leave because I can't hear anyone banging on my door no more."

I attempted to open my capsule but noticed that it was stuck or more like it didn't even budge.

[ALERT ALERT ALERT

SYSTEM AUTOMATIC REBOOT COMPROMISED

SYSTEM WILL AUTOMATICALLY RESET

RESET 10%

...35%

...60%]

I immediately remembered an article that when a capsule is reseting, no user should be inside.

I attempted to open the capsule once more but sadly it still wasn't budging. I immediately reached for the turn of switch but that was also for naught because it seemed to have no effect.

[RESET 97%

...98%

...99%

...100%

SYSTEM REBOOT COMPLETED]

As soon as it was done, I suddenly felt an uncontrollable urge to sleep. As my consciousness was slowly fading away I saw a finally on-screen message different from how the past messages were.

"What does this me..."

...

I woke up feeling really refreshed. It also felt like nothing had changed.

I attempted to open the capsule and this time around, it was pretty easy to do. I got out of the capsule but that was when I noticed something strange.

"Why does it feel like I've gotten shorter?"

I brushed over the self thought and went into my bathroom to go take a leak. Later while washing my hands I looked up into the mirror and noticed what really went wrong.

"Aaaah!! What is going on?"

Touching my face in disbelief, I noticed my uncanny resemblance with my younger self.

"Wait did I get younger or what?"

"Wait does this have anything to do with that bizarre message I saw before I slept off?"

"Uhm... Something about having a second chance and seeing how well I would perform."

I rushed outside to check my phone but I soon after noticed that literally every gadget I had from my time except from the capsule had reverted to how it was 7 years ago.

I guess you could say that I had traveled back in time.

May 29th, 2053.

I looked up the date on my phone and noticed that I had gone 7 years back in time.

"Wait I guess that makes me 23 now right?"

"Never mind my age, I came to the week before the launch of Realm Quest."

"If I use my future knowledge correctly, I could end up as the top ranker this time around."

All sorts of thoughts came popping into my head on different ways to use my future knowledge but I brushed them off and decided to step out for a walk.

"If I can make my life right this time around would my relatives allow me to take in my sister or at least see her?"

"Well, that's not a question I can answer myself. First things first, let's try to live better this time."

While walking on the street, I noticed one of the men from the loan sharks who I borrowed money from previously in the future.

I unconsciously hid but soon later remembered that during this period, I hadn't started borrowing from them.

"At least now I can live peacefully", I thought to myself as I continued my walk down the street.

After some time passed I came back home, and ate the ramen noodles I had bought from a convenience store near my apartment.

...

June 5th, 2053

A week passed over as I was adjusting to the past and Realm Quest will finally be released today.

Kinda felt nostalgic as I had already witnessed this type of anticipation before even still I couldn't help but be anxious.

Game cafes were full to the brim, capsules were sold out and literally every person interested in games was waiting on the countdown.

I too sat in my capsule waiting for the countdown.

Thoughts began rushing in and I didn't even notice when the countdown had began.

[COUNTDOWN PROCESS TO BEGIN LOGGING IN

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

Ding...Ding

Lucas Wayne

User Confirmed

Logging into Realm Quest

Please endeavor to play responsibly]

...

[1]. FDVRRPGs: Full Dive Virtual Reality Role Playing Games