Neon rain dripped along the narrow alleys of Arkan City. Holographic lights flickered in the air, corporate ads screaming about the newest virtual world: VR-verse 3.0 – Reality Without Limits.
For most of the poor, the virtual world was the only place they could be somebody. And for Yuji Sato, a 19-year-old underground gamer, VR-verse was more than just a game. It was his life.
"If I lose tonight, I won't be able to pay for my capsule next month."Yuji exhaled, fingers tightening around his battered VR helmet, cracked along the side.
In the real world, he was nobody—just an orphan working part-time at a junk shop. But in VR, he was known as "Yuto'o", a street hunter feared in Death Circuit, an illegal combat mode played only on dark servers.
Tonight, the stakes were higher than ever. The winner would walk away with credits enough to live for a year. The loser… would leave with nothing.
Virtual World: Death Circuit
Neon light engulfed Yuji's vision as his consciousness plunged into the virtual realm. The roar of fans, digital cheers, and the hum of energy blades filled his ears. The Death Circuit arena stretched wide—a floating steel bridge suspended in the sky, with a star-like void glimmering beneath.
"Yuto'o! Yuto'o! Yuto'o!" The crowd of avatars chanted.
Yuji smirked faintly. Here, he wasn't a poor kid. Here, he was a legend.
His opponent that night was T
Tesfier , the undefeated corporate-backed champion. The avatar's body towered, muscular, eyes glowing mechanical red, dual plasma blades gripped in both hands.
"Street rat," Tesfier sneered, his voice distorted by machine modulation.
"Prepare to be deleted."
The fight began.
Yuji leapt sideways, his holographic blade igniting blue. He moved nimbly, dodging Tesfier's lethal strikes. His breathing was steady, each step honed from thousands of street battles.
A slash! Sparks scattered. Yuji had landed a strike. The crowd roared.
But Tesfier laughed, his body suddenly glowing crimson. His power spiked—clear proof of unfair corporate augments.
Yuji gritted his teeth."No problem… I've fought dirtier than this."
He countered, steel against plasma, neon clashing with fire. His digital body tore with wounds, but he endured.
At last, with a blazing strike, Yuji sliced through Tesfier's abdomen—the champion collapsed to his knees.
The arena erupted in cheers. Yuto'o's name once again climbed the rankings.
Glitch
But before the victory was announced, something happened.
The arena shook. Neon panels flickered. The supposedly stable system erupted in errors:
[WARNING: FATAL GLITCH DETECTED] [CONNECTION: IRREVERSIBLE ERROR]
Yuji's body felt yanked out of the world. Neon threads screamed in his ears.
"What—what the hell?!" He tried to rip off the helmet, but his hands wouldn't move.
Then the pain hit. Not virtual pain. Real pain. His chest burned, lungs crushed. He coughed, but no air came.
In reality, his body convulsed inside the capsule. His eyes rolled, blood spilling from his nose.
"Arghhh!!"
And everything went dark.
Awakening
Yuji opened his eyes.
He was standing… but not in the arena. The world around him was void—an endless black chamber. Shattered neon shards floated like broken glass in the air.
"I… died?" he whispered.
His voice echoed—not from his mouth, but straight from the code.
He looked at his hands—not flesh, but translucent fragments of glowing data, glitching as though trying to form a human shape.
[Entity Detected: Unauthorized Presence] [Classification: GHOST FILE]
System warnings flashed before his eyes, but it wasn't a normal UI. It was raw, as if the system itself was trying to delete him.
"Ghost file? That means… I'm a ghost?"
Then, a voice echoed—layered, whispering from every direction.
"Welcome to the other side, Yuto'o."
Yuji turned. From the darkness, another figure emerged—an avatar,a female, almost NPC-like, but its eyes burned with a strange violet light.
"I've been waiting for you," the figure said."Only those who die in VR can become… a Circuit Ghost."
Yuji stood frozen, his data-body trembling. He realized now—he was no longer human. He was trapped in the virtual world, with no way back.
The corporations would try to erase him. The world would hunt him.
But for the first time in his life, he felt free.
"If I've already died once…" Yuji clenched his glitching fist, a blade of raw data igniting.
"…then nothing can scare me anymore."