"Where am I?"
Alex blinked up at the ceiling, his mind foggy, like someone had dropped him into a half-finished dream.
The room smelled faintly of old wood and laundry detergent. The curtains were the same dull gray ones he remembered hating. The ceiling light had a tiny crack running across the edge, something he knew too well.
A strange mix of familiarity and disbelief crawled up his spine. He pushed himself up on the bed and slowly scanned the room.
Same desk.
Same old fan.
Same creaky wardrobe.
And then, his gaze landed on the wall calendar.
He froze.
April 1st, 2010
His breath hitched. "No… that's impossible. It should be 2015."
For a moment, the world felt distant, as if it were holding its breath with him. Alex stared at the date until his eyes stung. He dragged a hand through his hair, trying to force a logical explanation into his spinning head, but nothing made sense.
The TV across the room was on, the volume low but clear enough. The nation's biggest channel was hosting an interview, one he had seen before. Too many times, back in the day.
Tonight at 12 o'clock, Arcana World Online opens its servers…
The host's excited voice filled the room. Sitting on the opposite sofa was Keiran (ign: Floating Robe), the superstar player, smiling calmly at the cameras.
Alex watched them talk, every word digging deeper into his nerves. The lines… the reactions… even the background crowd noise… it was exactly the same broadcast from five years ago. The same interview that had hyped up Arcana World Online before launch.
Then the camera switched to the helmet sales points—long queues, people laughing, some holding the simple silver helmets like treasure.
It wasn't déjà vu.
It wasn't a coincidence.
He'd already lived this.
Alex swallowed, touched his arm, then pinched it hard.
"Ow!"
It hurt. A sharp, clean pain.
So… he wasn't dreaming. He was back.
Back before everything happened.
Just then, his phone exploded with a cheerful ring, snapping him out of the whirlpool inside his head. He reached for it on reflex... then paused.
It was his old phone. The one he used to drop all the time. Even the tiny crack at the corner was still there.
A name flashed on the screen.
Sophie
A name that made his eyebrows twitch.
Sophie, his old superior. A petty tyrant who always picked on him, always acting like she was doing him a favor. Alex remembered her all too well.
He took a breath and answered. "Hello? Soap..."
A beat of silence… then a furious roar. "Alex! What did you just call me?!"
He almost laughed out loud. He had almost forgotten how sharp her voice could be. "Why're you calling so early in the morning?"
"You... You bastard! Don't bother coming tomorrow! You're fired!"
Alex leaned back on the pillow, his grin spreading. The anger in her voice felt like a gentle breeze now. "Great. Then I won't go. Oh, and remember to pay me what you owe. Thank you."
He hung up before she could explode again, blocked the number, and let out a long, loud laugh, one that came from deep inside, from the relief of getting a second chance.
But as the laughter faded, something colder settled behind his eyes.
If he was truly reborn…
If fate had really pulled him back to the beginning…
Then he wouldn't waste this life.
"Since I'm back," Alex whispered, "none of those regrets will happen again."
He could still see it clearly, five years later, him standing as guild president, forced to dissolve one of the strongest forces in Arcana World Online.
The Alliance of the Shadows. A group of only a few hundred assassin-type players, but each is a top-tier demon on the battlefield. Their clean records, their perfect missions, their ruthless precision… everyone in the game knew their name, feared it, respected it.
They had followed him.
They had believed in him.
And in the end, the Alliance had been torn apart overnight.
A traitor had exposed their real identities, every elite member, every officer.
Too many powerful factions that had been offended seized the chance to retaliate.
Social media exploded.
The whole network pointed fingers.
Hunting parties formed in every major city of the game.
Thousands were chased down.
Nearly a hundred elites had their accounts forced back to level zero.
And Alex… the "King of Shadows," the player whose name made enemies tremble… He had to step out, take all the blame, dissolve the Alliance, and declare that he would leave Arcana World Online forever.
He remembered walking through the in-game square during the livestream, the entire world watching, some pitying him, some celebrating his fall.
That weight.
That humiliation.
That helplessness.
His fists slowly tightened on the bedsheet.
Not this time.
Never again.
This time, he would protect his people.
This time, the Alliance would stand unbroken.
This time… the world of Arcana World Online would be his.
A sharp knock snapped Alex out of his thoughts.
"Hey! Delivery!"
He blinked, stood up, and opened the door. A courier stood there with a heavy box in his arms, scanning him from head to toe.
"Are you… uh… 'Fresh Basket'?" the courier asked, trying his best not to react to the ridiculous name.
Alex froze for a second. Right. That was his old online handle. Back then, he thought it sounded funny. Now it just sounded like a bad decision made under sleep deprivation.
Being called that out loud… yeah, it stung a bit.
There was a long, embarrassing pause before he finally sighed. "Yeah. That's me."
"Package for you. Please sign."
Alex scribbled his signature, took the box, and quickly shut the door before the man could judge him any further.
He knew what it was the moment he touched the weight of it.
The Arcana World Online game helmet.
It had cost him a thousand dollars. In his past life, he had spent half a day thinking about it, pacing back and forth until he gritted his teeth and clicked "Buy." It was the best investment of his life… and also the beginning of everything that went wrong.
But now? This time it wouldn't go wrong.
He set the box on the table and tore it open. Inside lay the helmet. On it, there were the carvings of an eastern golden dragon wrapped around a glowing blue planet as if guarding it. The carvings were so precise that even running a finger across the surface sent a light chill up his arm.
It didn't feel like a gaming device.
It felt like a crafted relic.
"Man… Arcana World Online really was something else."
A game made jointly by countries all over the world. The media had blasted advertisements nonstop for a month straight. You couldn't open a website or walk down a street without seeing posters or hearing jingles about it. Everyone, from corporations to kids, knew the name.
On launch day, fifty million players logged in at once. By the end of the week, the number hit a staggering amount of two hundred million. Every major company entered the game world. Every top pro player and guild flocked to it.
A crazy game.
A world-shaking one.
And beneath all its glow and hype… There was a secret only the world's leaders knew.
A truth big enough to shake nations.
Alex had learned that secret in his last life, right before he was betrayed.
But not this time.
*
The clock ticked loudly on the wall.
5:27 p.m.
He had eaten lunch earlier but barely tasted any of it, too distracted by everything swirling in his mind. He set an alarm for 11:30 p.m., just enough time to rest before the servers opened at midnight.
He was about to lie down when his phone buzzed again.
"Lin Xue."
The name pulled a small smile from him. High school classmate from the Eastern Continent. She was also considered a school belle. His colleague at the moment. A girl with a cool face but a warm heart. Alex didn't even need to guess; he knew exactly why she was calling.
He answered. "Hello?"
"Alex? What happened to you? Why did you resign all of a sudden?" Her voice came fast and worried, the kind of concern he hadn't heard in years.
Alex leaned back in his chair, unable to hide a soft smile. "The world is big, you know. I feel like… going out to see it."
"Where exactly are you planning to go?" she asked seriously, as if ready to take notes.
"I'm going to play Arcana World Online." He didn't sugarcoat it. "I think I might be able to carve out a different future there."
"Arcana World Online?" she repeated. He could almost hear her blinking. Then, slowly, her thoughts caught up. "The new full virtual-reality game? 3D immersion? They say it feels ninety-nine percent real. And the internal testers gave it over ninety-five percent satisfaction. It's been everywhere on the news lately… second only to 'Natural Disaster.'"
So she had also been paying attention. He didn't know back then...
She continued, her voice warming with excitement. "Your gaming skills are already high. And livestreaming is blowing up recently. If you start streaming your gameplay, you could support yourself easily. Actually, you might even go further than that…"
Once she started, she didn't stop. She analyzed his opportunities, the current market, and the future potential, talking for three whole minutes without breathing. Alex just listened quietly, smiling. She always looked cold at first glance, but in reality, she cared way too much about people.
Finally, when she paused for breath, Alex laughed lightly. "Then… why don't you resign too? Come with me."
He didn't know why he said it. It just slipped out.
He expected her to laugh it off or scold him.
But Lin Xue didn't hesitate even for a heartbeat.
"Okay."
Alex sat straight. "Really?"
"Really," she said, sounding oddly relieved. "I'll resign later today."
A grin broke out on his face. "Good. After Arcana World Online launches, the world changes. No one knows it yet, but it's going to reshape everything. You should order your helmet tonight. If delivery's fast, you'll get it tomorrow. Then I'll take you into the game."
"Okay~," she replied softly.
They talked a little more, small, random things, before they finally hung up.
Alex set the phone down, leaned back, and exhaled deeply.
Tomorrow, the real story would begin.
*
Alex lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His body felt restless, almost buzzing with a strange excitement he hadn't felt in years. He turned, shifted, closed his eyes, opened them again... nothing worked. Sleep refused to come.
After thirty minutes of useless rolling around, he exhaled sharply and sat up.
"Forget it. Might as well get ready."
He moved to his desk, pulled out a stack of blank paper, and started scribbling.
His hand moved fast, almost automatically, as memories from his previous life flowed back into his mind: routes, tricks, early-game loopholes, hidden quests, and even monster spawn patterns.
For two straight hours, his pen scratched across the pages without pause.
By the time he stopped, three sheets were filled from corner to corner.
He clipped them into a notebook and leaned back with a long stretch. The room had grown quiet except for the soft ticking of the clock. When he checked the time, the hands pointed to eleven.
Alex rested his forehead on the desk for a moment, letting the silence settle. He breathed in slowly, let it out, then stood up.
At 11:56 p.m., he placed the Arcana World Online helmet on his head. His heartbeat sped up, a mix of nerves and anticipation tightening in his chest.
Four minutes left before the world changed.
He closed his eyes.
The countdown echoed in his mind.
240 seconds… 180… 120… 60… 10… 3… 2… 1…
The world snapped into darkness.
*
A swirling black vortex opened before him like a doorway to another dimension. The moment Alex stepped into it, the darkness shattered.
A bright, endless sky stretched above him. Soft white clouds drifted lazily across the blue. The feeling of weightlessness made him sway for a second before he found his balance.
Then a gentle voice flowed from nowhere.
"Welcome to Arcana World Online. Beginning identity verification. DNA verification…"
Alex listened quietly, every step of the process familiar as breathing.
Arcana World Online helmets were tied directly to a player's ID card, one card per device. And ID cards in this era weren't simple pieces of plastic. They carried fingerprints, retinal patterns, DNA signatures, and half a dozen other identifiers. The United Nations Gaming Department, the group that created Arcana World Online, had access to every nation's citizen database. No identity could be faked here.
Finally, the soft voice chimed again.
"Verification complete. Identity confirmed."
Alex let out a silent breath, the tension loosening from his shoulders.
He was officially in.
"Please choose a profession."
Dozens of glowing icons floated before him: warrior, assassin, shooter, swordsman, warlock, hunter, and many more, each drifting like stars.
Last time, he had chosen an assassin. It had brought him glory, but then the disaster.
Not again.
Alex lifted his hand without hesitation and tapped Hunter.
Hunters were flexible, adaptable, and deadly when built properly. They had the movement of assassins, the burst damage of swordsmen, the tactical options of warlocks, and, most importantly, two pet slots. With his knowledge, he would make this class shine.
"Profession set."
"Please name your character."