Jiroh never thought of himself as special.
Each day dragged on like the last—routine, uneventful, painfully ordinary. He was already 27, but it felt like his life hadn't even begun. Every morning, he clocked in as a marketing associate at a well-known retail store, just a short walk from his cramped, rented apartment. He didn't have a girlfriend. His salary was barely enough for bills and basic needs.
In the real world, he was just another face in the crowd.
But at night… that's when he truly lived.
The moment he stepped inside his room, still dressed from work, he made a beeline for his prized VR console—something he had painstakingly saved up for over two years.
"At last… I can go back," Jiroh whispered with a grin, brushing his fingers across the sleek headset. "Back to the place where I truly belong."
He hadn't even bothered to eat dinner. With practiced motion, he strapped on the device and launched his favorite VRMMORPG: Dominion Reals Online.
It wasn't like the usual fantasy games filled with elves and dragons. DRO was different—high-tech, cerebral, built around science, research, and progress. Think Civilization, but in immersive VR form. A digital world where players building different nations, pushing the boundaries of technology, and changed the fate of an entire civilization.
Jiroh's chosen faction? The Neo-Industrialists and His nation? "Helios" a rising techno-superpower forged in steel, his free time and lastly his ambition.
[Loading Complete. Launching: The Great Severance Event!]
"Oh nice, the new patch is working! Good thing I downloaded it before work," Jiroh chuckled to himself, fingers flying as he typed in his credentials.
The next second, his avatar materialized—seated on a blackened alloy throne inside a towering citadel.
[Welcome back to Aeterna City, King Jiroh.]
"Ah, right. I logged out at the capital," he mumbled, rising from the throne and walking toward the panoramic glass wall behind him.
What greeted him was a breathtaking view.
The city of Aeterna stretched beyond the horizon—a gleaming metropolis shaped in the image of 2200 Tokyo. Maglev trains zipped between skybridges. Neon signs flickered atop megatowers. Steel-and-glass structures pierced the clouds like silver spears.
A sense of pride welled up in his chest.
In the real world, he was a nobody.
But here... he was king.
He wasn't just managing sales and answering emails—he was overseeing orbital elevator construction, fusion reactor upgrades, and industrial-scale terraforming projects. Everything from hydrofarms to uranium refinement was under his control.
Every command he gave, the NPCs obeyed.
Every vision he had, the city built.
It was his world—his empire.
But then, just as he was about to check on the drone fleet upgrades—
RUMBLE.
The entire chamber shook violently.
The city outside wavered.
"What the hell?!" Jiroh panicked, eyes darting around as the interface began glitching. The sleek UI flickered like a dying screen. Static buzzed. Text warped.
Then—
Darkness.
Cold.
Wind.
…Real wind.
"What…?" His eyes flew open. His breath caught in his throat.
The shaking had stopped.
He staggered back, his hand grabbing the edge of a steel table nearby—and for the first time, he felt it. Not through haptic feedback. Not as a simulation.
He felt the cold, smooth texture of real steel.
"This… this isn't VR," he whispered, voice trembling.
He ran his palm along the surface again, slower this time. It was far too real. Too solid. Too alive.
Panicking, he swiped his fingers to summon the interface. A familiar window appeared—his system UI.
"Okay, okay... it's still working," he muttered, trying to calm himself. "Maybe this is part of the event?"
But when his eyes scanned the panel, his heart dropped.
The log-out button… was gone.