Year 3,548
Playa Grande, Dominican Republic, Amanera Private Mansion
Nestled between the jungle and the Atlantic Ocean, Amanera enjoys a panoramic clifftop perch on the pristine north coast beaches of the Dominican Republic. Overlooking the celebrated golden sands of Playa Grande, the resort offers unparalleled access to water sports and back-to-nature experiences, infused with the vibrant culture of Dominican life.
Kamadeva Alexandre, a forty-two-year-old man with a modest build, stood at the mansion. Despite his wealth, he lacked the motivation to work out, relying on pills and drinks to maintain his fitness. His rich dark brown skin contrasted sharply with his thick, multi-colored hair (purple, pink, black, and white), styled into bundled locks on top of his head, with the sides buzzed short.
In his hand was a letter from his former coworkers inviting him to a pool party. Za Warudo had just become a 2nd rate Super Guild due to his actions during a raid and recruiting a nepo baby in the popular Full-Dive massively multiplayer online role-playing game (DMMORPG): Terra Blue Star. The very Korean or Asian sounding game changed the gaming world since it launches thirty something years ago.
Compared to other DMMORPGs of the time, Terra Blue Star offered players an incredible amount of freedom. The class system, a fundamental element of character customization, allowed for over two million combinations, including advanced, base, and hidden classes. As a result, no two characters were the same. Players could pick up to seven classes for one character, as long as they met the basic requirements.
Kamadeva, drinking a Code Red, was impressed by how long the unhealthy drink had lasted. The letter read:
"Former Vice Guild Leader, Kamadeva Alexandre, you are formally invited to the Za Warudo 5th anniversary party. The board of directors has terminated your account in accordance with the contract. Your compensation for all your years of hard work has been deposited into your bank account. A sum of 66 million dollars, with 12 million per month for eighty years. The 156 million dollar mansion is awarded for defeating the Golden Zombie raid boss. Thank you for your contribution to the Za Warudo Guild."
Kamadeva tipped the can back, chugging the rest of the soda as a grin spread wider across his face. He stretched, rolling his shoulders with lazy satisfaction. "Not bad," he muttered, voice carrying a mix of smugness and disbelief. Thanks to advanced Class-A nutrient infusions, the wonders of future pharmacology, and, in his own words, being Black, he carried the youthful looks and restless energy of a man two decades younger.
That, and a mild-to-moderate case of ADHD. You can't have stress if you don't pay attention towards it.
"I bet those bastards love how I twisted their precious contract over the years," he said aloud, his laughter echoing across the cavernous living room. "And mom—hell, both of them—always swore up and down that webtoons wouldn't teach me shit. HAH! Shows them."
Za Warudo's rise was carved directly from his obsession, his persistence, and his willingness to experiment. A reincarnated soul with knowledge from a past life, a tinkerer who understood game mechanics on a gut-deep level, Kamadeva had been the scaffolding the guild built itself on. Ironically, he had never even beaten a single Super Nintendo game as a kid, but the grind forged him anyway. Back then, without a memory card until late in the PS2 era, he had been forced to replay games over and over again until mastery was not optional but survival. Compared to the bosses of those old classics, most raid monsters were barely speed bumps.
Two decades poured into an account only to watch it ripped away was cruel, but in a twisted way it was also fair. At least he had walked away with money and a mansion. The letter's promise of 66 million dollars sounded generous, but in an economy still strangled by corporate greed and rampant inequality, it was "barely above the poverty line," as Kamadeva sarcastically told himself. Even in this world, capitalism was relentless, and he was still its chew toy.
He cracked open another can, eyes glittering with mischief. "Maybe I'll go for a mage build this time. Something flashy. I still got endorsement deals lined up. Hell, maybe I can sell my likeness."
Living with ADHD meant grudges slipped through his fingers like sand. Kamadeva had spent two lifetimes being that weird Black kid in the back row of public schools, the one who talked too much, dreamed too loud, and cared too little about fitting in. His number of fucks to give had shriveled to the point of near-extinction, and honestly, that was his greatest coping mechanism.
Tossing back the last of his Code Red, he tore into a plate of Haitian cuisine — a comfort meal from the homeland his family had fought to preserve. In this alternate timeline, his country hadn't been gutted by corruption and foreign meddling. The flavors anchored him, steadied him, reminded him of roots deeper than guilds or contracts. Once his hunger was sated, he drifted into bed, grinning at the thought of tomorrow. A new start, a new build, a new game. It would be like reliving Crash Bandicoot 2 all over again — frustrating, nostalgic, and addictive.
"Well," he murmured, staring at the ceiling, "maybe I should finally find a girlfriend this time. Never had one before… hopefully it's a girl. I think?" He scratched his head, frowning in mock confusion. The alphabet soup of orientations meant nothing to him. Not like he can remember the letters anyway.
Lesbians were always welcome, and he didn't care about asexual. No one remembered or cared. Bisexuals weren't really mentioned. With today's advanced tech and science, switching genders was a piece of cake but very expensive, heavily monitored, and permanent.
So, no criminal organizations were kidnapping dudes and turning them into chicks. In the year 3000, the population was on a major decline, and more people refused to have kids due to rising costs. There were also too many same-sex couples. Still, women outnumbered men by a large margin.
"I'm kind of glad my mom is dead. She would have a heart attack about my thoughts right now." Kamadeva laughed to himself. He loved his family but had issues with certain things. Than again his mother, bless her, both of them had never been the type to understand anime or hentai, so half his worldview was already alien to her.
....
The shrill Riiing! Riiing! of his alarm yanked him from sleep.
Hello?
Hello? Hey, is Cindy in? Heh!
No who is this
What do you mean who is this!? This is Jimmy Hart, the Mouth Of The South!
Where is she?
She's gone to the Rick Springfield concert!
RICK SPRINGFIELD!?
"Da fuck?" he groaned, fumbling at the nightstand. He thought he changed that song some years ago. After signing the contract he wasn't allowed to have custom songs as alarm anymore in the Guild dorms.
The prudes.
Half-awake, he let the song play for a few minutes, nodding along before finally slamming his palm on the clock to silence it. He stretched, ready to roll back into sleep, until his groggy mind caught something that made his stomach lurch.
This wasn't the mansion.
Blinking rapidly, Kamadeva sat upright. The walls around him were cracked and grimy. Clothes and trash littered the floor. Bugs scurried into corners as the sunlight hit. His chest tightened with a strange dread as he realized where he was: his old studio apartment.
A mess. A dump. A reminder of how low he had once lived.
"What the… what the hell?" he whispered. His eyes darted around, his pulse quickening. This room was burned into memory — he had won this apartment in a lottery payout after his parents' deaths, because the insurance had barely covered their funerals. Every corner of this place screamed with the weight of his past.
"I know this… I know this…" Panic clawed at him as he reached for his old phone. It was ancient, its charging port broken beyond repair, relying only on outdated wireless pads. And yet… it was here. His hands trembled as he checked the screen.
Instead of the latest model, the screen read: iPhone 304. Not 342. He swallowed hard. His breath hitched. He opened his notifications.
One message waited.
"Loser yer asre up right now! If ya make miss the checkout. Ima givin' ya a poudin' so hard ya mama would come back from the dead and beat my asre for the poundin' ima goin' to give ya!"
He froze. The grammar. The chaotic, half-incoherent rage. Only one person wrote like that.
"Rika…" he muttered.
Rika Moore. His childhood friend. Hot-headed, quick-tempered, and terrifyingly direct. She could intimidate half a room with a glare and batter the other half into submission if her temper spiked. Fair-skinned with striking bluish-purple eyes, she wore her long brown hair in a single braid down her back. Slender yet athletic, curved in all the right ways, and more than capable of knocking out men twice her size, she was a storm personified. Most people avoided fighting her. The only person to consistently beat her was him.
Back then, she had been his constant — until Terra Blue Star launched. After that, their friendship cracked, shattered, and drifted into silence. He had never known why. She had been too damn stubborn to explain.
"Yup, bitch. I know about today," he said, smirking as he typed a quick reply. He shut his notifications off before her inevitable hurricane of curses arrived.
Because today was August 20, 3518.
The day Terra Blue Star launched.
The day everything began.
"What kind of BS is this? Now I have to work at the bottom again." It was fine when he resources to back up in the future timeline but here as a broke YN with no connections it just going to be a chore.
But part of himself can't help be excited this time. This is the first year of God COG University. The number one school in gaming workshop and Esports. They also have good marital art program as well.
He should remember that day well it because when The World recruited him. It time before he'd convinced them to change the name.
At the gaming collages and universities, many workshops started recruiting students for the launch of Terra Blue Star.
Once that very Korean sounding game was released, everyone's focus would turn to Terra Blue Star.
Not even those big companies were able to resist the temptation of the Terra Blue Star. It was the first to have companies in invest the virtual world.
Summer War was on to something.
Before heading to school Kamadeva would need to buy something. The money from the lottery should be in his bank account and this time it would be going toward a gaming workshop application fee.
....
Walking toward the bustling shopping district, Kamadeva shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn-out jeans, his mind already calculating what he'd need to secure before the flood of Terra Blue Star swept across the world. Top of the list: a Virtual Cabin and Exliar Paste.
The Virtual Cabin wasn't just some fancy gamer accessory — it was the item, the crown jewel of immersive tech. Built by the Green Aid Corporation, each cabin came with a synchronization rate of 100%. That meant no lag between thought and action, no drift, no artificial buffer between the body and the game. Step inside, and you weren't just playing anymore. You were there.
Problem was, they were almost mythical in scarcity. Manufacturing them required materials so rare they might as well have been pulled from the bones of dead gods. The company released only limited batches, each one snatched up faster than free food at an anime convention. Those lucky or wealthy enough to get one found themselves not only in possession of the ultimate gaming machine but also of a device loaded with medical-grade tech. Built-in health monitoring systems scanned vitals in real time, ready to deploy alarms or emergency signals if anything went wrong. Nutrient Fluid slots were installed by default, feeding the player's body while their mind roamed virtual landscapes. And best of all, the cabin simulated muscle use, keeping atrophy at bay even after marathon gaming sessions.
Then there was the Exliar Paste. Not as glamorous, but equally necessary. Unlike the slick Nutrient Fluids, the Paste was the lowest-grade knockoff of a much more legendary formula: the Super Soldier Serum. Yes, that Super Soldier Serum — the one from Marvel comics in his first life. Some genius bastard made paste that improve the human body. The result wasn't anywhere close to the fictional version's godlike effects, but it still worked.
Normally he would never buy a cabin let alone two but he needs to buy them now before people realize just how important Cabins are in Terra Blue Star.
Also he bringing Rika with him. This time the sexy bitch is not leaving.