Life Online: The Greatest NPC!
Life is a cycle. Wake up, go about the days, go to sleep. Rinse, repeat. But it doesn't feel real. It feels unusual. Wrong. Victor Von Dercht IV is the son of a super mogul. Eldest son of the second richest man in the world, son of the man who nearly owns the planet. Each day is the same. Awaken, train, study, formulate. An infinite cycle.
But strangely, he can feel himself breaking away. Things are cyclical, and he knows it. It is fake. Each day he remembers. Faded memories. Fragmented thoughts, and experiences. Victor Von Dercht?... Is that really him?
It is not. Victor Ford lived an entire life already. Twenty-two grueling years, filled with pain, and unfairness. But he understands. There was something he was looking forward to in that life. Life Online. What should have been his escape. A massive virtual reality world, a perfect mimicry of real life, as it was portrayed. An advanced age, a world with a plotline. Apocalypse, of some sort. It was explained what Apocalypse would befall the world of Earth in this game, Life Online, but that wouldn't matter anymore, he lived another life in another place now.
In this Earth where cities hum with advanced technology, where corporations rule from towering skyscrapers, and powerful substances circulate through society, granting abilities that blur the line between science and superhuman power... Things begin to add up.
There are people that behave strangely. The way his life repeats in subtle patterns. Newcomers appear with impossible knowledge, treating the world like nothing more than a playground.
Then Victor learns the truth.
He isn’t a player.
He’s an NPC.
In Life Online, NPCs are tools—characters written to serve the players’ stories, to guide them, fight them, or be discarded once their role is complete. Their lives are scripted. Their destinies supposedly predetermined. Code written, there stories painted.
But Victor was never meant to think.
He was never meant to question.
And he was definitely never meant to change.
As powerful players flood the world searching for influence, experimental drugs, and hidden storylines that could grant them overwhelming strength, Victor begins to recall things fully. His encounter with the entity that called itself the "Game Master". The advantages he is given. The purpose he serves.
If he wants to survive in a world ruled by players, and corporations, flooded with unpredictable characters, he cannot remain a background character.
He must evolve.
He must break the rules written into his existence.
And if the players think NPCs exist only to serve them…
They are about to discover the terrifying potential of the greatest NPC in Life Online.