Chapter 2: Losing It All

Timber Wood Selective Services

Jack's eyes flew open as he stared at the phone in his hand. His heart skipped a beat.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he answered the phone.

"Hello, "

"Is this Hester Bunny?" A woman's voice with an Irish accent asked.

"Yes, that's me." Jack closed his eyes as he knew what was coming up next.

"Sarah here, representing the Selective Service, to notify you that your extension certificate for deferral of military service is nearing expiration."

"If you intend to reapply for an extension, kindly complete the form available on our website."

"Neglecting to resubmit the extension form will lead to automatic acceptance of your military service, commencing in three months."

"Failure to report to your nearest recruitment office within three months constitutes a criminal offense," Sarah, the Selective Service representative, stated calmly.

"Can you remind me what the requirements are to get an extension?" Jack asked.

Having already steeled himself for this moment, he needed to make sure that his preparations were enough.

"Certainly, there are four avenues for deferring your military service," Sarah elucidated with a hint of authority in her Irish accent.

"Firstly, you've been employing the method of financial contribution, paying $60,000 biannually. Secondly, you could undertake the development of a military-grade VR game capable of accommodating at least 50,000 users."

"Thirdly, securing an internship or receiving an endorsement from a reputable higher education institution such as a university would suffice. And fourthly, creating a simulation game meeting the requisite realism standards."

"Are you contemplating altering your method of application for an extension, Hester?" Sarah inquired professionally.

"No, I will continue with the financial contribution application." Jack answered.

"Farewell, and thank you kindly for your contribution to Timber Wood City," Sarah bid adieu in her dignified Irish tone.

Jack's mind quickly turned to his bank account. Recalling that, he had around 130,000 dollars, which was enough for him to put off his military service for another year.

Taking into account how much profit his current three games are bringing him. If he didn't spend any more money to make games, he would run out of money after a year and a half.

It would be best if he could get an internship or recommendation from one of the universities in the city so that he wouldn't have to bleed out money.

But considering that he had been out of the education system for more than two years, it was going to be a hard task.

As for creating a military grade or simulation grade, those were simply out of his skill set. Those could only be done by Grade B game developers.

If he took the game developer examination, Jack predicted he would only be able to become a grade C game developer at best.

"System, are you still there?"

"...."

"Forget it, at least I got to keep everything I gained from the system."

Just then, Jack felt his stomach churn as he had a bad feeling. He looked at the dozens of notifications he had gotten while unconscious and saw that one of them was from his bank.

Opening the email, his heart dropped.

Mysterious activities have been detected with your account! Your current balance is -2,000,000.

Call your bank representative if you have any issues.

"Shit!" Jack cursed.

Jack then tried to access all his accounts only to find that all of them had been deleted. Any account that had been created with the help of the system had been lost.

The only good news was that he still had access to Hester's bank account and Game Developer License and other accounts that weren't created by the system.

"It's all gone. Is the bank still going to ask me to pay up the millions of dollars?"

"I'm doomed. Doomed." Jack languished.

He felt as if he had been struck by a thousand lightning bolts.

"I need to calm down. I'm probably not going to have to pay the millions of dollars back. The System had tied all the accounts to the game studio it made me create."

"With the system gone, the studio is gone, along with the information tying it back to me."

"But with no access to any of those accounts, I have no money and no way of making any money. Paying for an extension is a joke." Jack cringed.

He had hoped that the system wouldn't get rid of those assets when it left, but it seemed that he was being too optimistic. Luckily, it couldn't take away everything.

He still had the attributes and skills that he had paid for.

Jack's eyes looked down to see that his brown skin was covered in sweat and dust from when he collapsed to the floor. After so many upgrades, he had transformed his initial skinny body into a lean muscular physique.

Similar to his previous life, he had curly black hair that he tied into a bun. However, different from his previous life, this life's body had sharp emerald green eyes that gave him a more sturdier feeling.

He had even grown two inches with his latest upgrade. Now standing around 5 feet and 11 inches.

Jack was quite a handsome man.

"I need to get some rest. My hasty upgrade is going to haunt me if I don't get some sleep. Once I clear my mind, I'll come up with a plan."

Not feeling well, Jack briefly looked through his notifications once more to make sure he didn't miss anything before going to sleep.

While Jack was disheartened by his terrible situation, the outside world was in upheaval with the sudden disappearance of several popular games.