Vince sat on his bed, his focus entirely on a single, looping scene that had been replaying in his mind for the last hour.
It was the moment his life ended.
He had walked into the ABC Gaming Hub building expecting to meet his team, but instead, his manager, Jenna, handed him a termination letter. He could still hear her cold voice as if it were yesterday.
"Vince, we have decided to change our policies. According to those policies, you are not fit for the company anymore."
He had been a legend. A veteran gamer who, at just 29, had spent more than a decade dedicating his life to the gaming industry, taking a small company and helping it become one of the top-tier powerhouse but in one moment, it was all gone.
He remembered calling the CEO, hoping for some answers, but all he got was a cold reply. "It is as it is. You should have read the contract before signing, as it was already mentioned that the company could terminate your contract anytime they needed."
TUT… TUT… TUT…
The call had ended just like that. His world had crumbled. All of his loans, his projects, and his entire future had been tied to that single contract. Now, with nothing left, he returned home with a ruined mood.
He placed his keys on the table and reached for the doorknob. His world had already been turned upside down, but he had no idea what was waiting for him on the other side.
As he stepped his one foot inside his seemingly normal room, everything began to blur. The familiar walls, the simple bed, and the computer on his desk melted into a vortex of black and white light.
The light was too bright, forcing his eyes shut. When he opened them again, the shock was immediate.
Vince's clothes were replaced with luxurious robes, while the normal room had been transformed into a lavish chamber. The second surprise was his body, which had turned back into that of a teenager. He slumped back onto the bed, his face full of exhaustion.
"I thought this was all a dream, but... it seems I really have crossed over." He muttered, looking at the luxurious chandelier on the ceiling.
Last night, he had woken up in the middle of the night, seen the room, his changed body, and even the world outside his window. However, when he couldn't believe any of it, he returned to bed and slept, thinking it must be a dream. But it wasn't.
This morning, he woke up with foreign memories flooding his mind. "Sterling family, huh!"
He found out this world has a unique power system. Anyone who awakens after the age of 16 can enter the VR-game world called Heaven Paradise, where they can earn EXP to level up.
Those who enter Heaven Paradise are called Players, and whatever they earn inside the VR-game, they can keep those items or power and bring them back to the original world.
Since this world has a game-like setting, he decided to check his status. "Status," he called out, not in a loud voice, but loud enough for only him to hear.
…
[Status]
Age: 18
Level: 1
Title: None
Skill: Necromancer
Undead: [1]
Strength: 6 [10]
Agility: 4 [10]
Vitality: 5 [10]
Endurance: 5 [10]
Intelligence: 9 [10]
HP: 10 [10]
MP: 10 [10]
…
Being a past-life professional gamer, Vince was well aware of the necromancer skill. It was one of the most sought-after skills in the game world, but unluckily for him, even after awakening the skill, he could only summon a single undead.
"Why such a limit? When I thought I could live a better life, here I was again, played by fate," he sighed. But his thoughts were interrupted when the door opened with a loud noise and a man entered, yapping.
In front of him stood his middle-elder brother, Bron Sterling, with a stern look, his tone serious. He was not old, nor was he too young, likely in his mid-thirties.
Seeing no resistance or even a question from Vince, his brother Bron spoke. "The family has decided that you will move out of the Sterling estate three days from now."
Vince wasn't surprised. He personally thought that if there wasn't any limitation to the undead he could summon, his treatment in the family would have been different. Some would have even ready to lick his boots to earn favor from him, but here he was, with such a rare skill and an even rarer limitation.
Bron continued, seeing Vince's silence. "Since you are moving out, you are banished from using the Sterling name to earn benefits and favor from others."
"And the last thing is..." He looked at Vince with an amused expression.
Bron spoke with his stern tone, "Since you are no longer part of the Sterling family, you'll have to pay 100 million qin to the family for the expenses you have used until now."
Vince's eyes widened. "100 million qin? Brother, isn't this too much to ask?" he asked, his voice rising for the first time against the conditions. He was okay with all the other demands, as he himself preferred living differently from a family that felt foreign to him.
Bron looked back at Vince. "This was unanimously decided by the family; my work was just to deliver it to you. Remember, three days from now, you have to leave this place," then his voice turned cold, "and don't ever call me brother again."
SLAM!
Bron slammed the door behind him and left. Vince was the youngest of the Sterling family. With his mother gone after the divorce with his father, he was left alone with hardly anyone who cared about him.
After his awakening, the coldness between him and the other family members only increased, and now he was finally being thrown out of the family.
"Three days! 100 million qin? Where have I transmigrated?" He cursed, then finally calmed down after deciding to enter Heaven Paradise.
He didn't have to wear any headset, lie in a capsule, or enter any portal. Heaven Paradise was a different dimension, a world of its own. All he had to do was use his status screen to enter the world, and he would be simply transported to that world with his original body.
When he first learned about this, he was too stunned to even speak, but with so many surprises one after another, Vince soon became accustomed to it.
[System Initializing....]
[Detected the Otherworldly soul]
[Bounding with Roll 'n Win system]
He was ready to enter with the thought of learning more about the game-like world, but before he could do that, something flickered in front of his eyes.
"System?"
"Other-worldly soul?"
"Roll 'n Win system"
"Is this finally happening?" As a gamer, he was well aware of what a system was, but a new question arose in his head: "What is Roll 'n Win system?"
The system flickered with another message, explaining the details.
[Welcome to the 'Roll 'n Win' System. Your fate is in your hands.]
The skill is the virtual dice you could roll once a day. The number it landed on would decide your fate: a low roll might only give you a minor boost, but a high roll could grant a powerful, SSS-rank ability or anything similar to it.