My name is Chen Hao, though in every game that mattered, people only knew me as BloodWarrior. Titles, rankings, kill streaks — those were the things I lived for.
But when I lay down in the pod that night and the screen flashed:
CONGRATULATIONS, PIONEER.
VOID NEXUS ONLINE — CLOSED ALPHA (50/50)
…for the first time in years, my hands trembled.
The pod hummed. Light bled away.
And then—
I opened my eyes to the touch of wind.
It wasn't like the fan in my apartment or some VR vibration motor buzzing against my skin. No — this breeze carried weight, whispering through my hair, slipping cool fingers down my neck. When I inhaled, the air filled my lungs thick and sharp with the scent of stone, grass, and something faintly metallic, like storm-clouds ready to break.
My palms pressed against the ground. It was soil, real soil — damp, gritty, sticking under my fingernails. When I clenched a fist, it left mud against my skin.
I stood slowly. Before me stretched a ruined courtyard under a bruised red sky. Shattered tiles, ivy curling over toppled pillars, broken statues with half their faces eroded away.
I laughed. It came out shaky, almost delirious.
"This… isn't a game. No VR rig feels like this."
Every detail screamed too vivid, too raw. My body felt heavier, not weightless like an avatar. When I pinched my arm, it hurt.
I whispered to no one, "Did I… reincarnate?"
The thought was ridiculous, the kind of fantasy I'd laughed at in novels. But right then — surrounded by ruin, wind, and silence — the line between fiction and reality blurred.
Then, in the corner of my vision, faint text pulsed:
[Void Nexus HUD Active]
Character: bloodwarrior
Status: Stable
Options: [Logout]
My breath hitched. A logout screen. Proof it was still a game. Proof this wasn't heaven, or the past, or some second life.
Yet as the breeze brushed my cheek again, I couldn't convince myself. The game was too real. The ground too solid. My heartbeat too loud in my ears.
I crouched, scooping a handful of dirt, letting it sift through my fingers. It crumbled just like the soil from my grandfather's garden when I was a child.
"Reincarnation, or simulation…" I muttered. "Either way, I'll make this world mine."
The ruins around me groaned in the wind, ancient and waiting. My first step echoed against broken stone, and for a moment, I felt like I was walking into history itself.
The game had begun.