At midnight...
In the empty hospital corridor, two men in white coats pushed a medical gurney towards the morgue.
The flickering lights reflected on the white cloth covering the corpse, making it appear even paler.
The corridor was exceptionally quiet at midnight; the only sounds echoing through the air were the footsteps of the two men and the squeaking of the hospital bed's wheels.
The atmosphere seemed rather depressing!
"What? Are you scared?" The older-looking man among the two asked the nervous young man beside him with a teasing expression.
The young man had just started working a few days ago, and this was his first time helping to deliver a body to the morgue. Combined with it being just after midnight, he felt somewhat frightened.
"A little!" the young man whispered.
"You're a grown man, why are you so timid?" the older man laughed.
"Weren't you afraid the first time you delivered a body?" the young man asked.
The older man scoffed. "Afraid? What's there to be afraid of? I'm not even afraid of ghosts, so why would I be afraid of... shit!"
As he was speaking, the corpse covered with the white cloth suddenly sat up.
The older man screamed and nearly fell to the ground. Then he shouted "Ghost!" and turned around and ran away.
Only the confused young man remained, staring in horror at the handsome young face revealed after the white cloth slipped off.
"Hiss - my head hurts!" Alex rubbed his temples and looked at the young doctor in the white coat with some confusion. He couldn't help but sigh. He really drank too much this time and ended up in the hospital!
"You, you—you're alive!" After the initial shock, the young man said in surprise.
"What...?"
…
It took Alex two days to finally accept the fact that he had traveled through time and space...
He remembered having a graduation party with his college roommates, but he drank too much and blacked out.
Unexpectedly, he had drunk himself into another world, and it had gone back four years into the past!
It turns out that drinking really is harmful to your health!
At first, Alex thought that he was still drunk, but the extra memories in his mind told him that he had truly traveled through time, and it was his soul that had crossed over!
The original owner of this body looked exactly like him, had the same name, and even had the same parents.
But the two people's backgrounds and past experiences were completely different.
In his previous life, he was just an ordinary college student!
His mother died of illness very early, and his father was stationed abroad for a long time due to work, unable to even return when his mother died. He had been living in school dormitories since middle school, and many times he felt that he was no different from an orphan.
However, the owner of this body had a complete and happy family. He was a genuine rich second generation—well, to be precise, a rich third generation. His grandfather's generation had already been successful entrepreneurs in the country, and his father was currently one of the top ten super-wealthy people in the nation.
His mother was not only in good health, but also an excellent business executive.
He also had a sister who loved him very much. In fact, he should have had a sister in his previous life as well, but she died young due to various circumstances.
The huge difference between them made Alex feel that life really was about changing one's destiny through different choices and circumstances...
Based on the memories of the original owner of this body, Alex also confirmed that this was a parallel world similar to Earth, but with a distorted technology tree.
Technology in many areas of this world was developing in leaps and bounds, and even the development trajectories were vastly different.
For example, before personal computers became popular in this world, top scientific researchers had already developed supercomputers that could perform quadrillion calculations per second.
Computer technology development was only halfway complete.
VR technology, mobile battery technology, mobile Internet technology, and others had made tremendous breakthroughs one after another, completely distorting the trajectory of scientific and technological development.
Currently, the world's mobile network technology had already achieved 6G transmission technology, which was a hundred times faster than 5G.
The advancement of VR technology also meant that smartphones had almost never appeared in this world, having been replaced by smart devices such as portable VR glasses, smartwatches, and Bluetooth headsets.
Especially portable VR glasses, which included almost all the functions of previous smartphones. When paired with a smart bracelet, you could even realize simple VR gaming pod functionality anytime and anywhere, allowing you to play large-scale online games.
In addition, there were also differences in film and television entertainment. For example, many TV dramas, novels, and comics that were familiar to everyone in his previous life were not available in this world.
The development trajectory of games was also very different. Due to the leapfrog development of technology, PC games had not yet developed properly, but had directly entered the VR gaming era.
Various design concepts that emphasized sensory expression had become mainstream, but in terms of game mechanics and story settings, this world was far behind his previous Earth.
However, driven by many factors, a fictional game world similar to his previous life's "Ready Player One" was born in this world - "Infinite Realms".
"Infinite Realms" was an immersive holographic game. It was also the first VR online game born in this world and the most popular game at present.
Its servers were spread all over the world, and it occupied approximately 80% of the global online gaming market.
According to official statistics, the total number of game users worldwide was as high as 2 billion.
This was a height that no game on Earth in his previous life could have reached!
The reason why this game was so popular was that the company possessed multiple monopolistic leading technologies in VR technology.
The main reason was the bold vision of its founder - to open a powerful editor and allow everyone to participate in the creation of the game.
According to the game's founder, Ernst Klein, if a game wanted to survive longer, it must be open to everyone and allow everyone to contribute. What he wanted to create was an open gaming platform, a world with strong inclusiveness, and a great work that could integrate all games.
Based on this concept, all players and all game companies could apply to join and participate in the design of the game, especially the design of dungeon worlds in the multiverse.
With the joint efforts of countless players, studios, and game companies, many rich dungeon worlds, various interesting game characters and items had been created for "Infinite Realms", making this game world live up to its name with infinite realms, infinite possibilities, and strong vitality and appeal.
Of course, everyone who contributed to this game received their due rewards.
Some people made fortunes by developing dungeons, jumping from unknown small studios to world-famous game companies, and even giving birth to the world's youngest billionaires.
Alex was very familiar with this game, as the original owner of this body had been an "Infinite Realms" player, and a massive spender at that. Over the years, he had spent tens of millions of dollars on the game, throwing money around recklessly. In a single night, he had spent millions of dollars on the game during a battle with their rival guild, the Shadow Lords.
In order to play games, he had almost abandoned his studies and spent all his money. He overdrew tens of millions from his credit cards and mortgaged a house worth more than 20 million dollars that his father had given him as a coming-of-age gift. He even deceived relatives in his father's name and raised another 30 to 40 million dollars.
All of this was eventually exposed. Seeing that Alex was addicted to games and couldn't break free, and had even resorted to fraud for money, his father Marcus was furious. In a fit of rage, he cut off all funding sources and forbade him from touching anything related to games. To prevent future troubles, he forcibly sold his game account at a low price, completely crushing his gaming dreams.
But what no one expected was that the account would end up in the hands of his mortal enemy in the game - the boss of the rival guild, Shadow Lords.
That person used his account to commit all kinds of evil deeds, making their guild notorious and nearly causing it to disband. He even left his game character hanging in the arena, letting everyone come and kill him without ever fighting back.
You should know that his game character had won first place multiple times in PVP competitions of the same class, and his winning rate in the arena had always been ranked in the top three of the server.
But now his game character had become a humanoid monster in the arena, dedicated to giving everyone experience points and honor.
Later, the character was forced offline after being mass-reported by his former guild brothers.
This series of events caused Alex in this world to suffer tremendous humiliation and an unprecedented mental blow. Finally, he suffered sudden cardiac death during an argument with his father and died despite emergency medical efforts.
And Alex from another world had traveled through time and space into his body, replacing him.
"Alright, so I'm starting with the 'prodigal son' character template. This transmigration setup is really damn standard!" Alex complained. Obviously, although he had become a rich second generation, his situation was far from ideal.
To be honest, because of this incident, he now had very little money to spend, and even owed substantial debts to banks and relatives. In the eyes of his family, he had lost all credibility and was a wastrel that everyone avoided.
Alex didn't like this kind of reputation. Although he wasn't a rich second generation in his previous life, he was a very proud person at heart. He hated being gossiped about and looked down upon the most. He absolutely had to get rid of this "wastrel" label.
Moreover, because he had nearly died, his parents were also very frightened, so their "care" for him was somewhat excessive. His mother stayed at home with him almost all day long, watching over him and fearing that something might happen to him again. This made him nearly lose his freedom.
Even the sweetest burden of excessive care was still a burden!
"I must do something!" Alex said to himself.
Fortunately, the many differences between the two worlds also brought numerous business opportunities. Alex believed that although he didn't have much business acumen, as long as he worked hard, he would definitely be able to make a name for himself and build a career.
After all, no matter which world you're in, only when you achieve financial independence and become a capitalist can you gain more freedom, earn others' respect, and do what you want to do...
Just as Alex was lost in thought, an emotionless voice rang out:
Host detected, initiating host binding...
Successfully bound to host Alex!
Game binding in progress...
Successfully bound to the game "Infinite Realms"!
System startup...
System initialization complete.
300 Powerstones for extra chapter.