The screen came to life with a flicker.
A chilly voice reverberated through the quiet. "In a world that is very different from ours, survival is not instinctual. It's expertise."
The trailer opened with a neon-lit city that appeared to be glitching like corrupted data and floating above ruins.
Slicing through the clouds, a lone figure fell from a pod. "You don't spawn in."
"You fall." The figure slid into cover as it struck the ground hard. The weapons flashed. Across broken buildings, plasma rounds screamed.
"You scrounge what you can." explosions. Snipers.
In midair, gravity fields twist. Mechs blazed the heavens. The tempo quickened.
"You fight for the right to stay after that." Red light pulsed as the metallic letters of the logo, GROUNDZERO VR, slammed across the screen.
"Just one drop. Just one shot. Just one survivor." The screen turned black.
The fans went crazy. Prominent creators referred to it as "a real VR revolution."
Pre-launch testing was offered by a few streamers.
Since their hasty imitations fell short of Leo's system's depth, rivals remained silent.
#GroundZeroVR was trending in 38 countries by the end of the week. Release day was now all that was left.
And Leo stood at the edge of his studio balcony once more, quiet and exhausted but with a fire burning inside.
Just then, he heard the system voice in his head.
"Ding."
"Hidden achievement unlocked."
"First step into the VR world completed."
"Congratulations, Host. You have received the reward: Creation's Mastery."
–Creation's Mastery–
Any game created by the Host will fall under their complete mastery. No human players or professional gamers will be able to defeat you in your own games. You will possess the peak skills a human could possibly achieve—within the limits of human capability.
Immediately after, he felt a shift within himself.
His thoughts became sharper, his senses more refined.
He was suddenly flooded with knowledge and skills related to the games he had created so far.
It felt as if he could now easily outperform even the top players in those titles.
While most of the games he made didn't require top-tier skill, Minecraft and Roblox had their own differences in gameplay and player skill. Moreover, he had also mastered PUBG—it's just that he hadn't played the VR version of PUBG yet, so the changes were not noticeable.
But once he entered the game, he would quickly adapt, and no player would be able to beat him.
He was already excited to try out his latest creation, and he was just about to do that.
But after receiving the reward, his anticipation for the game grew even stronger.
There was silence in the studio. After the trailer launch, everyone else had left for their homes.
Melina left hours ago after finishing the NPC voice banks, and Tina had fallen asleep on the couch with her laptop still open.
Leo stood by himself, gazing at the MindForge Node in the middle of the room. He was going in, not merely testing the game.
He strapped on the neural link, activated the full-immersion dive, and let the world go dark.
Immediately after, he absorbed a vast amount of information about the game and its skills, and he quickly became a master.
His reward came into play.
….
The sky was blue and wide when Leo opened his eyes once more.
As he fell through the clouds with a parachute pack on his back and the ground rushing up to meet him, the wind roared past his ears. It was this. Ground Zero VR.
It also seemed genuine. The air resistance caused his weight to shift. Without clumsy controls or guessing at buttons, his body moved precisely as it should. Just instinct-driven, pure action.
Leo whispered, "Let's land hot."
He tilted toward Pochinki, the iconic war zone town in the middle of the map.
It stretched out like a memory, with rusted cars, broken walls, and rooftops, but now he was inside.
Running to the ground, he fell behind a half-wall and felt the grit of broken stone under his hands at once. Leo smiled. "Excellent."
He ran to the nearest structure. It felt natural to loot. Just a tap of thought and movement, no awkward inventory wheels.
He was able to reload, swap scopes, and grab guns in real time because his gloves were in sync with the VR engine. He grabbed an M416, inserted a magazine, and checked the recoil. Easy. Adaptable.
Fair but realistic. "Peak and fire" functioned similarly to real movement. Leo leaned aside, peered around the door, and caught a bot descending the stairs.
He then discovered a Kar98 sniper equipped with an 8x scope. "We should try some range."
After scaling the roof, he spotted a bot 300 meters away from a red house, made the necessary distance adjustments, and fired.
Boom.
headshot.
The bot fell immediately. The rich echo reverberated in his chest and reverberated deep in his ears.
Because the Haptic Core Suit was in sync with the system, even the sniper's kick caused his arms to tremble a little.
A red flare shot into the sky nearby, indicating an airdrop.
Leo grinned. "Obviously."
Dodging two other bots' gunfire, he dashed toward it, dove behind cover, and threw a smoke grenade.
Smoke billowed thickly. He ran in and took items from the crate, including Adrenaline Shot, Level 3 armor, and Groza.
The bots pushed hard. One attempted to flank from behind, the other from the right. Leo used the smoke for cover, spun, dropped one with a burst, and used a frag grenade to bait the final one into a trap.
Boom.
The scene was rocked by the explosion.