The moment Veyne saw the notification, the two days of nonstop gaming came crashing down.
He felt a massive drop in his strength, and fatigue hit him like a wave. Still, he knew he had to force himself to keep going for a bit longer.
He placed the parchment in his inventory and started moving back to the city, this time extra careful not to mess with others or drop the parchment.
It took him a bit longer, but he safely made it back to the city. By this time, he was barely able to open his eyes.
Not wasting any more time, he went into an empty alley and said, "Log out."
[You want to log out. (Yes/No)]
He pressed Yes on the confirmation message, and the next second, he found himself back in the black void.
It took a couple of seconds before he could sense himself lying in the gaming pod. Besides the exhaustion, he also felt his stomach growling—playing for four in-game days, or about two real-world days, was extreme even for his past self.
He barely pulled himself out of the pod, and the first thing he did was check his phone, especially the guild chat.
Interestingly, the number of members had increased again. He opened the chat and saw that it was a battlefield in there. Everyone in the guild had already noticed the empty vault, and they were busy blaming each other.
Well, two days were sufficient for them to narrow down their suspicions to a few people.
Veyne saw that a few were already starting to question him. The good thing was, his past selfless behavior was working in his favor. Most members were more suspicious of a few other top members instead. But he knew it was only a matter of time before they realized he was behind it.
Veyne closed his phone. After seeing all those messages, he realized staying here would be akin to playing with fire. It was better to go back to his dorm—at least no one could target him there.
He just picked up his wallet and phone and moved out of the office. Just like him, others had keys to the office, and he didn't want to take any risks in the current situation.
As he stepped outside, his legs wobbled, and for a moment, the entire street blurred. He gritted his teeth and kept walking.
Not now. Just a little more.
It was already nighttime outside. His phone kept buzzing from time to time, but he ignored it all, grabbed something to eat from a nearby stall, and then started heading back to his college.
The chilly night wind helped him stay awake. The good thing was, he had chosen the guild office to be just a few minutes' walking distance from his college.
It took him ten minutes to drag himself to the college doors. Thankfully, he had his college ID inside his wallet, which helped him enter through the main gate with no problems.
But a big problem came after that—he didn't remember where the dorms were for second-year students.
Even in his last life, he had rarely lived in his assigned dorm room, spending most of his time holed up in that office instead.
It took him some time and a few strange looks—since it was already the middle of the year, and here he was asking for directions like it was his first day.
But once he finally found the dorm building, a sense of familiarity kicked in, and from then on, it didn't take long to navigate to his room.
He used his ID to unlock the door, and the moment he opened it, loud music blasted from the inside.
Grabbing his head, he shouted, "Fck, turn that shit off!"
The three guys sitting on the sofa watching some video all turned to look at him.
One of them lowered the volume and smirked, "Look who finally decided to show his face."
Veyne stared at them. He forgot their names, but he recognized the one who had spoken—they were on the same course. The other two? He wasn't so sure.
He just looked at them with red, tired eyes and said, "Guys, do me a favor. Please, just turn it off for today. I'm dying to sleep."
One of them was about to complain, but the one sitting at the end of the sofa said, "No problem, man. We'll lower the volume."
Veyne nodded, "Thanks, guys," and started moving toward his room.
Their dorm was built in a complex structure where four rooms were connected to a shared living room, which then connected to the outside corridor.
He opened his door, only to see a thin layer of dust covering the floor, like the room had been closed for a long time.
The only good thing was the plastic cover still on the bed. He threw the cover off and jumped onto the bed. Even after that, some dust still flew up, but he had been through worse.
The moment he lay down, he blacked out—but his return had already snapped sleep from few eyes.
…
In the forest's darkness, a small creature ran desperately.
"Catch him! He's over there!" a loud voice screamed through the night.
That single shout led to hundreds of players, all carrying fire torches, rushing in that direction.
"We have to kill that thing this time."
"We can't let this opportunity go to waste."
The small creature heard them and pushed himself to run even faster in desperation. But to his bad luck, he got tangled in some roots and plopped down onto the ground.
As it scrambled to get up, it heard a loud voice.
"Haha! You're mine!"
The next moment, someone swung a sword at it.
The little creature rolled to the side and slashed at the attacker. But the player didn't care about the injury—he just lunged at the creature's feet.
The small creature used all its strength to smash the player's hand.
The player screamed in pain but then grinned, shouting, "Haha, it's over, you little shit!"
The next moment, hundreds of torches surrounded the creature from all sides.
The creature tried to run past them, but they ruthlessly launched long-range attacks.
A single barrage of fire arrows, and it was already down to half its health.
It screamed in pain and desperation, its eyes full of fear and tears, silently begging them to let him go.
But none of the players cared about its misery—they were in a frenzy, fighting over who would land the last hit.
Multiple warriors rushed in from different directions and stabbed their swords straight through the little creature's chest.
The little creature screamed, but no one cared. As the blades pierced its body, Veyne felt the phantom pain in his own chest—like he was being torn apart all over again.
The creature disintegrated with its last wail. "Ahhhh."
…
Veyne snapped open his eyes at that moment, only to find himself back on his bed, covered in sweat.
He just lay there mumbling to himself while shaking his head. "This nightmare again... It will be different this time."
It took a moment for him to calm down. When he looked at the dust-covered room, a smile formed on his face.
All of that was real. He was back in time.
Everything he had done before passing out flashed through his mind. He picked up his phone—there were hundreds of new notifications, most of them from missed calls.
Just as he was about to put the phone down, a message from one of the remaining officers popped up: [Veyne. We need to talk.]
Veyne just smiled. Looked like they were closing in on him.
He placed the phone down and got up from his bed.
He stopped thinking about them and just looked around. Yesterday, he hadn't seen things clearly, but now that he did, this room needed a lot of cleaning.
He spotted a big mirror next to the right wall and walked in front of it.
He wiped the dust from the mirror, staring at the young man in front of him.
For a second, he didn't recognize his own face. No bruises. No hollow eyes. Just… a past version of himself he barely remembered.
Looking at his young face gave him a surreal feeling. His short black hair, dark eyes, and wheat-colored skin—with no bruises on it.
He felt surreal at this moment.
Right now, his physical condition was decent—a stark difference from the skeleton of his past life. But it wasn't the best.
If he remembered correctly, he was much more fit at the start of college. But once he got into the game, he became skinnier and skinnier. Right now, he was on the lean-average side.
After making sure there was nothing wrong with his body, he walked out of the room.
It was too quiet right now. He looked at the wall clock; it was already 10 in the morning, so the others were likely on campus attending classes.
Well, that was good for him. He could use the common bathroom without any disturbances.
Veyne spent the next two hours cleaning his room, taking a bath, and ordering some food from the canteen.
By the time he finished stuffing himself with the takeout food, it was already noon.
Now, with ample rest and a full stomach, he picked up his phone.
During the two-day grind, he had already settled all the important stuff, but that was just the first phase for him.
With that covered, he started searching for Apex Ascension—the game that changed the world—to refresh his memory on what was going on in the world and in the game at this moment.
From years of experience, he knew better than anyone that Apex Ascension was not just a game but an alternative reality.
Just two years in, and there were already more than a couple hundred million active players in the game. And he knew this number was only going to get higher with government involvement—so much so that many countries even started training players to grind in the game professionally.
Even now, he saw multiple articles on how a single game was destroying all sorts of entertainment industries, from movies to sports.
People had already started to prefer watching game wars over movies and sports. To the point that now, top players in the game were treated as national treasures and heroes of their countries.
Even the current big events in the game already started pulling more than half a dozen billion views worldwide, and he knew this was just the start.
What was even more mysterious was that, despite all the craze, no one knew who had built this game.
There were all sorts of companies that built VR sets and game pods, but they only produced hardware that worked for the game. Even they didn't know the creator of Apex Ascension.
There were many speculations, but even in his past life, no one was able to uncover that mystery. All they knew was that multiple powerful AIs managed the entire game.
Even though the game provided a tremendous opportunity to change anyone's life, Veyne knew the competition was equally ruthless.
Those who had already established themselves in the game controlled the entry of new players, and the big guilds and mid-level guilds constantly fought among themselves for that control.
The reason his current guild failed was also because of pressure from those big guilds. It was either you joined them or you fought them.
Too bad, in the past, he had fought them, not even realizing that he wasn't even a pawn in their game.
This time, things would be different. He won't fall for that false glamor no, his aim was much higher.
But first, it was time to unlock the parchment's power—and claim what was his.