A sharp knock snapped Shang Zhen out of his thoughts.
"Hey! Delivery!"
He blinked, stood up, and opened the door. A courier stood there with a heavy box in his arms, scanning him from head to toe.
"Are you… uh… 'Fresh Cow Dung'?" the courier asked, trying—and failing—not to react to the ridiculous name.
Shang Zhen froze for a second. Right. That was his old online handle. Back then, he thought it sounded funny. Now it just sounded like a bad decision made under sleep deprivation.
Being called that out loud… yeah, it stung a bit.
There was a long, embarrassing pause before he finally sighed. "Yeah. That's me."
"Package for you. Please sign."
Shang Zhen scribbled his signature, took the box, and quickly shut the door before the man could judge him any further.
He knew what it was the moment he touched the weight of it.
The Arcana World Online game helmet.
It had cost him a thousand yuan—five years ago, he'd spent half a day thinking about it, pacing back and forth until he gritted his teeth and clicked "Buy." It was the best investment of his life… and also the beginning of everything that went wrong.
But now? This time it wouldn't go wrong.
He set the box on the table and tore it open. Inside lay the helmet—smooth, metallic, beautiful. A golden dragon was wrapped around a glowing blue planet as if guarding it. The carvings were so precise that even running a finger across the surface sent a light chill up his arm.
It didn't feel like a gaming device.
It felt like a crafted relic.
Arcana World Online really was something else.
A game made jointly by countries all over the world. The media had blasted advertisements nonstop for a month straight. You couldn't open a website or walk down a street without seeing posters or hearing jingles about it. Everyone—from corporations to kids—knew the name.
On launch day, fifty million players logged in at once. By the end of the week, the number hit two hundred million. Every major company entered the game world. Every top pro player and guild flocked to it.
A crazy game.
A world-shaking one.
And beneath all its glow and hype… there was a secret only the world's leaders knew.
A truth big enough to shake nations.
Shang Zhen had learned that secret in his last life—right before he was betrayed.
But not this time.
*
The clock ticked loudly on the wall.
5:27 p.m.
He had eaten lunch earlier but barely tasted any of it, too distracted by everything swirling in his mind. He set an alarm for 11:30 p.m.—just enough time to rest before the servers opened at midnight.
He was about to lie down when his phone buzzed again.
"Lin Xue."
The name pulled a small smile from him. High school classmate. The school flower. His colleague in this life. A girl with a cool face but a warm heart. Shang Zhen didn't even need to guess—he knew exactly why she was calling.
He answered. "Hello?"
"Shang Zhen? What happened to you? Why did you resign all of a sudden?" Her voice came fast and worried, the kind of concern he hadn't heard in years.
Shang Zhen leaned back in his chair, unable to hide a soft smile. "The world is big, you know. I feel like… going out to see it."
"Where exactly are you planning to go?" she asked seriously, as if ready to take notes.
"I'm going to play Arcana World Online." He didn't sugarcoat it. "I think I might be able to carve out a different future there."
"Arcana World Online?" she repeated. He could almost hear her blinking. Then, slowly, her thoughts caught up. "The new full virtual-reality game? 3D immersion? They say it feels ninety-nine percent real. And the internal testers gave it over ninety-five percent satisfaction. It's been everywhere on the news lately… second only to 'Natural Disaster.'"
So she had also been paying attention.
She continued, her voice warming with excitement. "Your gaming skills are already high. And livestreaming is blowing up recently. If you start streaming your gameplay, you could support yourself easily. Actually, you might even go further than that…"
Once she started, she didn't stop. She analyzed his opportunities, the current market, the future potential—talking for three whole minutes without breathing. Shang Zhen just listened quietly, smiling. She always looked cold at first glance, but in reality, she cared way too much about people.
Finally, when she paused for breath, Shang Zhen laughed lightly. "Then… why don't you resign too? Come with me."
He didn't know why he said it. It just slipped out.
He expected her to laugh it off or scold him.
But Lin Xue didn't hesitate even for a heartbeat.
"Okay."
Shang Zhen sat straight. "Really?"
"Really," she said, sounding oddly relieved. "I'll resign later today."
A grin broke out on his face. "Good. After Arcana World Online launches, the world changes. No one knows it yet, but it's going to reshape everything. You should order your helmet tonight. If delivery's fast, you'll get it tomorrow. Then I'll take you into the game."
"Okay~," she replied softly.
They talked a little more—small, random things, the kind that made him forget the chaos of his past life—before they finally hung up.
Shang Zhen set the phone down, leaned back, and exhaled deeply.
Tomorrow, the real story would begin.
*
Shang Zhen lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His body felt restless, almost buzzing with a strange excitement he hadn't felt in years. He turned, shifted, closed his eyes, opened them again—nothing worked. Sleep refused to come.
After thirty minutes of useless rolling around, he exhaled sharply and sat up.
"Forget it. Might as well get ready."
He moved to his desk, pulled out a stack of blank paper, and started scribbling.
His hand moved fast, almost automatically, as memories from his previous life flowed back into his mind—routes, tricks, early-game loopholes, hidden quests, monster spawn patterns.
For two straight hours, his pen scratched across the pages without pause.
By the time he stopped, three sheets were filled from corner to corner.
He clipped them into a notebook and leaned back with a long stretch. The room had grown quiet except for the soft ticking of the clock. When he checked the time, the hands pointed to eleven.
Shang Zhen rested his forehead on the desk for a moment, letting the silence settle. He breathed in slowly, let it out, then stood up.
At 11:56 p.m., he placed the Arcana World Online helmet on his head. His heartbeat sped up, a mix of nerves and anticipation tightening in his chest.
Four minutes left before the world changed.
He closed his eyes.
The countdown echoed in his mind.
240 seconds… 180… 120… 60… 10… 3… 2… 1…
The world snapped into darkness.
*
A swirling black vortex opened before him like a doorway to another dimension. The moment Shang Zhen stepped into it, the darkness shattered.
A bright, endless sky stretched above him. Soft white clouds drifted lazily across the blue. The feeling of weightlessness made him sway for a second before he found his balance.
Then a gentle voice flowed from nowhere.
"Welcome to Arcana World Online. Beginning identity verification. Fingerprint scanning… DNA verification…"
Shang Zhen listened quietly, every step of the process familiar as breathing.
Arcana World Online helmets were tied directly to a player's ID card—one card per device. And ID cards in this era weren't simple pieces of plastic. They carried fingerprints, retinal patterns, DNA signatures, and half a dozen other identifiers. The United Nations Game Department, the group that created Arcana World Online, had access to every nation's citizen database. No identity could be faked here.
Finally, the soft voice chimed again.
"Verification complete. Identity confirmed."
Shang Zhen let out a silent breath, the tension loosening from his shoulders.
He was officially in.
"Please choose a profession."
Dozens of glowing icons floated before him—warrior, assassin, shooter, swordsman, warlock, hunter, and many more, each drifting like small constellations.
Last time, he had chosen assassin. It had brought him glory… and disaster.
Not again.
Shang Zhen lifted his hand without hesitation and tapped Hunter.
Hunters were flexible, adaptable, and deadly when built properly. They had the movement of assassins, the burst damage of swordsmen, the tactical options of warlocks, and, most importantly, two pet slots. With his knowledge, he would make this class shine.
"Profession set."
"Please name your character."