A young man with black hair and eyes that went along well with his ordinary face walked out of his classroom and took a walk back to his apartment with a mixture of excitement, anticipation, and dread.
He absentmindedly walked the campus alone.
It was evening, and the sky had that hazy glow.
The campus was brimming with the vitality that comes with the end of the day, with young men and women going to various destinations.
Along the way, the young man could hear everyone chatting excitedly, matching his mood.
It seems everyone was also excited, he thought warily, already sure of what they were so excited about.
He walked behind a group of four young men talking animatedly about the source of everyone's excitement, including him.
"Have you heard? The new update is already up..."
"Of course, I've been up all night for the past month grinding the game just to afford it..."
"Jeez, no wonder you look so dead inside..."
"No, that's actually because of the burdens of student life. This is actually my excited face." The guy showed a face uglier than crying.
His friends comforted him belatedly, then continued to talk about the game.
"Don't worry, this time I'll definitely become the strongest ability user and build a base full of hot women..."
"Your dreams are still too small. This time, I'll be king of the world..."
"That's if you can survive the zombies inside first..."
"Those damn developers, what do you mean the zombies change with each update..."
"You don't expect them to use the same old gimmick every time, do you..."
"Why else do you think the game is so popular..." Another chimed to support
"I don't know, maybe the amazing graphics due to their specialized virtual reality equipment, or the lifelike NPCs and complex quests..."
"Although they never do change the background plot of the game, but that is probably another one of the developers' tricks..."
"Yet we fall for it every time, and who can blame us..."
"Apocalypse Online is just that good," another friend said, and they all agreed.
Coincidentally, the young man behind them also agreed.
Apocalypse Online is just that amazing.
It would be even more amazing if he could play the game normally, damn it.
The young man's face almost turned ferocious in broad daylight, but he quickly reined it in.
Unfortunately, it was already seen by a stranger close to him, who muttered "creep" and walked away, rolling his eyes.
The young man felt wronged but also thought that the reaction was better than in the beginning.
At the time, the police were involved, and he was almost arrested.
Just because he instinctively reacted to someone suddenly getting close to him and threw the person on the ground with an elbow to his neck.
The poor guy just tripped and bumped into him, but he was almost killed by me.
And it's all the fault of that damn game.
But would I decide to stop playing Apocalypse Online?
The young man pressed a button on his keychain, sat in the soft leather seat of his very expensive, sleek car, and resolutely shouted, "Hell no."
Only a fool would give it up.
But seriously, can't they take it easy on a poor orphan like himself?
The young man cursed all the way to his luxurious mansion and into his bedroom before sighing dejectedly.
He sat at the desk, with a computer placed neatly on a table in front of him and a weird-looking pair of goggles beside it.
The adjective "weird" was given because the goggles looked exceptionally high-tech—basically what one would imagine VR goggles would look like.
Coupled with the fact that they came with special gloves, with a metallic chip fashioned as long metallic lines which traced the bones found in the hand.
The young man switched on the computer with ease and saw the screen still loading.
He didn't have to guess what was loading, because the damn game was the only thing on the computer.
And the only thing that would ever be on it.
Although he has a new, better one, this computer had been with him for a very long time, which is evident from the cracks at the edge and the worn-down keys, which had a few missing.
It carries a lot of memories... of very hard times.
A life vastly different from his current one, which is also attributed to the game.
He thought of something and checked his phone for recent news.
As expected, all everyone was talking about was the fact that the new game had been updated since the early hours of the day.
The unemployed were ecstatic and eagerly went to play.
Most college students also decided to skip today to play.
While those who couldn't afford or even dared, decided it was better to wait until after school.
But what was common was the fact that they all had the update.
Everyone except for the young man with a dejected expression.
Yes, he was the sole exception from the beginning.
And it all started with the old computer in front of him and leftover soggy takeout he received from a sarcastic roommate.
The series of events were both full of coincidences, yet also completely reasonable for a loser like him.
The young man with the name Shinji Nakamura is an orphan.
He has never met his parents or even glimpsed a photo of them; instead, he grew up in an orphanage all his life.
His story wasn't glorious and was a typical one.
The orphanage was just an ordinary one with not-so-wealthy patrons.
The children inside were few, but everyone was friendly, at least.
They could afford to go to high school, but college had to be fought for with their own abilities.
Some kids from the orphanage dropped out and decided to learn a trade or become menial workers.
Few of us managed to get a scholarship to just another normal college.
Alas, living expenses still had to be obtained by oneself.
So Shinji Nakamura was either in class or working part-time from high school to college.
His life was meant to be just that; after graduating college, he would end up as another slave in the corporate market.
Albeit with his intelligence, he would land in a managerial position after some time, then get married and live the life of an ordinary human being.
Never in his dreams would he have thought he would become on the list of the country's richest men.
Shinji Nakamura is now in his last year of college, and his reality is vastly different from when he started.
All of this stems from the day he got the game Apocalypse Online.
At first, he didn't want to bother with playing games, as he truly had no time for leisure activities.
He had just entered college, and the cost of life became higher as he reached adulthood.
What changed his mind, though, was the fact that his roommate in the dorm, who was from an ordinary family, came back wearing a brand watch one day.
Shinji Nakamura was always the quiet one in the room. He rarely spoke but was still able to get along with his roommates.
After all, those years struggling as the orphan kid taught him how to get along with people just enough for them not to bully him.
But that day, Shinji Nakamura couldn't resist his curiosity and joined in the discussion.
The roommate with the expensive watch was even more satisfied with the fact that even the bookworm was curious.
He then eagerly began to talk about the popular new game.
Apocalypse Online.
As one could easily guess from the name, it was about the apocalypse.
Surviving in the zombie apocalypse, specifically.
What made the game unique was, first of all, the background plot of the game world.
The planet was also named Earth, and it was in a modern setting.
What was different was the fact that the planet had gone through various natural disasters until humanity was almost wiped out.
The remaining humanity banded together in the only habitable land left.
It wasn't all bad, since they were also able to discover a new mineral with inexhaustible energy.
Plus, humanity had a leap in intelligence, which propelled their technological advancement forward.
Society grew, and the humans were ruled based on hierarchy, with aristocratic families at the same level of power as the government.
These families were the first to discover and utilize this new mineral, successfully grabbing the public in their palms, and they were:
The Noi family, who were an ancient military family in Thailand that used the ore to develop weapons of mass destruction, holding a foothold in the world.
The Ming family, who were a family in South Korea that built their reputation in the entertainment industry. They used technology to develop hyper-realistic games and new forms of entertainment.
The Harris family, who were from a long line of medical practitioners in England before developing new drugs to combat the new diseases that sprang up after the natural disasters.
The Mori family, which was a Japanese family that worked in the jade industry, who were the first to discover the new ore while mining for gold.
They held exclusive rights to 80% of the mines that held the ores and had a cooperation with each family, becoming the neutral bridge to all of them.
Lastly, the Wei family, who were from a family of agriculturalists back in China, who were the first to develop special artificial soil enhancers which boosted crops and the development of new ones.
The three other factions that exist in the game world were:
The Mafia, which ruled the slums both before and after the natural disaster. They were the ones who handled the dirty business of the aristocrats and the government.
The second faction is the government. Naturally, the leaders that were still alive from each major country banded together to resist these aristocrats.
The third faction was the Kwame family of Africans, which represented the commerce sector of the new economy and were a neutral family.
Although the societal relationship was complex, that didn't stop the apocalypse from ravaging the budding humanity.
The zombie virus was both random and fierce, sparing no one.
To the NPCs, it was just another day in the world that turned into something horrifying.
The players were sent in to investigate the source of the zombie virus and save humanity.
It was basically just another typical zombie game plot.
Except for the background plot that people fully wanted to explore.
Another unique fact about the game was its incredibly realistic NPCs.
They acted exactly like real people, with some people almost unable to distinguish reality.
Heck, some people even got together with the NPCs, essentially gaining a mistress without effort.
Of course, all of this wouldn't be possible without the virtual reality goggles developed by the gaming company specifically for the game.
It caused an uproar, as the gaming company was the first to achieve virtual reality equipment.
The government tried to achieve a cooperation with them to develop technology in another direction, but the game company refused.
The game company itself was incredibly mysterious, as it truly appeared from nowhere.
Even if someone stalked the building day in and day out, no one had ever seen a single employee of the company.
The doors weren't even locked, and most people had already gone to take a look, finding nothing inside.
Yet the game ran smoothly and was released in all countries.
But that wasn't something Shinji Nakamura would concern himself with.
What he cared about was the fact that money could be gotten from the game.
If a person could manage to get an achievement, then the game would reward them money straight into their account.
Usually, an achievement of hunting 100,000 zombies would get a person 1,000 yen.
But the real money was in finding clues about the zombie apocalypse.
The more important the clue, the more money would be awarded, with the minimum being half a million.
People went crazy trying to find clues, but unfortunately, it is extremely hard.
There are no hints or directions to these clues.
In fact, there are no quests or missions; the player is simply dropped into the world and left to their own devices.
It was like traveling to a whole new world greatly satisfying those otake fetishes.
The game wasn't so irresponsible though as acts of harm due to malice towards other players or NPCs without a cause were prohibited.
But that was enough for players to let loose; after all, human imagination is wide and amazing.
If a person truly wants to bend the rules slightly, then it's possible.
Plus, the government started offering out a prize to anyone who found a clue or had any important information about the game.
They even tried to hire high-level players at a high price.
The government had an intuition that the game could be a key toward the dawn of a new era.
Feeling curious, Shinji Nakamura decided to try his luck.
The game wasn't cheap, and it cost him all his savings from all the years he had been working from junior high school to his college days.
But it also wasn't expensive for such a great game; the price was something even an ordinary family could afford after cutting down on expenses for a few months.
Shinji Nakamura also had to cut down on expenses, mainly his dinner, with only one takeout all through the day.
Which led his roommate with the fake watch, bought with the prize money of achieving a mega kill worth 10, 000 yen to generously give out his barely eaten takeout.
The roommate with the watch had planned to eat takeout as usual until his friends from the game invited him over for dinner.
Using the excuse that wasting isn't good, he handed it over to Shinji Nakamura after his stomach gurgled the second time.
Shinji Nakamura looked at the hypocritical smug expression on the roommate's face from doing a "good deed" and thanked him sincerely.
Shinji Nakamura ate the takeout without an ounce of embarrassment.
Joking—compared to hunger, what is shame or anger?
Is it edible?
Does it taste good?
Listen up, only a man with options truly has the ability to refuse.
Clearly, I do not. Besides, the food hadn't been touched except for one bite.
Hmm but Shinji Nakamura took one last glance at the fake watch on the roommate hand and sneered internally.
The roommate, seeing his good expression, patted his shoulder and walked away.
The other roommates rolled their eyes and muttered words about not taking it to heart.
Shinji Nakamura nodded but also rolled his eyes at them. Obviously, they had been bought over after the guy with the watch carried them for a day while in the game.
Shinji Nakamura, annoyed with the looks of pity, tossed the empty takeout, with some juice beside his computer.
Then he wore the goggles and gloves before activating the game.
Just then, the juice leaking from the takeout reached the cord connecting to the computer, and it sparked quite violently
Shinji Nakamura felt a massive jolt due to the current and collapsed into his desk completely unconscious.