"Liam, wake up! Eternal Nexus launches at nine—you'll miss the headstart if you keep sleeping!"
Eternal Nexus? Launch day?
Liam Stormrider bolted upright, blinking at his surroundings. It was a place at once hauntingly familiar and impossibly distant.
"The Dreamchaser Guildhouse?!"
"Wait—" A chill ran down his spine. "Wasn't I stabbed in the back by that rat, Kael the Blade, during the 'Divine Relic' raid?"
He snatched his comm-unit. The screen glowed with a date that made his heart skip a beat: May 20, 2032.
"I'm reborn... back to the very day Eternal Nexus launched—ten years ago!!"
His roommate and best friend, Ben "Chubby" Stone, saw Liam's erratic behavior and tried to calm him down. "Take it easy, man. We're all pooling our credits. Willow's going to be okay."
Memories hit Liam like a tidal wave. He remembered this exact moment. His sister, Willow Stormrider, had just been critically injured by a hit-and-run hovercar. She had a cerebral hematoma and needed 300,000 credits for emergency surgery. With no surveillance footage in that sector, the culprit had vanished.
That debt had crushed him. Even with his friends' help and every loan they could secure, they only raised 260,000. He had begged on his knees at the Medical Center, but they refused to operate over a 40,000-credit deficit. He had held Willow as her breath stilled in his arms.
The image of her mischievous smile flashed in his mind, and Liam's knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists.
"Willow, I promise... this time, I will save you," Liam vowed, his eyes hardening into cold flint. "I've been given a second chance. I won't let fate repeat itself!"
He turned to Ben with a fierce, determined grin. "Chubby, let's log in. We're going to carve out our own destiny!"
Ben exhaled in relief. "That's the spirit, Liam."
They climbed into their pods. But Liam's mind was already miles away.
Eternal Nexus was marketed as a collaborative VR project by hundreds of galactic civilizations. But Liam knew the truth: it was a "Deification Protocol" orchestrated by the Galactic Overmind—an ancient AI using forgotten god-tech. Its real purpose? To prepare humanity for The Great Cataclysm—the invasion of the Aretian Armada five years from now.
In that brutal future, power in the Nexus was the only currency that mattered.
"In my last life, I never even awakened a Talent," Liam muttered as he entered the character creation suite. "Let's see what fate has in store for me this time."
An eight-hour cinematic began. In his past life, almost everyone skipped it to avoid falling behind. But Liam waited. He knew a secret: the first player to watch the full cinematic would receive a Divine Talent Awakener.
Talents were the core of the Nexus, ranked from Mundane to Elite, Epic, Legendary, Saintly, and the pinnacle—Divine.
Last life, Liam had attempted to use a Saintly-tier stone and failed. That meant his latent Talent was likely beyond Divine. It had to be Genesis-tier.
Eight hours crawled by.
Ding! [System Message: Congratulations! You are the first player to complete the Eternal Nexus cinematic. Reward: Divine Talent Awakener x1.]
"Just as I thought," Liam smiled grimly.
He stood in the character creation hall. "Class: Ranger. ID: Snow Emperor."
Ding! [Character created. Entering Starter Outpost #10086.]
He materialized in a corner of the bustling outpost. Ignoring the thousands of players rushing past, Liam pulled out the golden stone and whispered, "Awaken."
Ding! [Warning: Talent tier exceeds item capacity. Divine Awakener can only partially activate potential.] [You have awakened: Hand of Divine Retribution.]
Liam froze. Even a Divine stone couldn't fully unlock it?
Hand of Divine Retribution (Genesis-tier) Rank: 1-Star Effect 1: Every basic attack deals True Damage equal to 1% of your Maximum HP. Effect 2: Every basic attack permanently increases your Maximum HP by 1. Proficiency: 0/1,000 (Note: HP gain only triggers on living targets.)
Liam stood stunned. Genesis-tier? He had never even heard of this rank in ten years of his previous life. Permanent HP stacking? This was utterly broken.
He checked his stats:
HP: 100/100
Attack: 9
Attack Speed: 0.63
Skill: Rapid Shot (1-Star)
Gear: Beginner's Longbow
"Time to hunt," he muttered.
He stepped outside the outpost. The fields were dotted with Level 1 Red-Eyed Hares.
Twang!
Liam fired. -8. His Max HP ticked up by 1.
With every shot, he grew stronger. Because he had spent eight hours on the cinematic, the initial rush of players had moved on, leaving the fields to him.
Ding! [You have killed a Red-Eyed Hare. EXP +1.]
Liam didn't care about the low XP. He was after the hidden reward. He knew that if he turned in 10,000 "Red Eyes" instead of the required 100, he would unlock a hidden skill to increase his attack range.
For a Ranger with infinite HP scaling, range was everything.
Ding! [Your Talent: Hand of Divine Retribution has leveled up to 2-Star!]
Hand of Divine Retribution (Genesis-tier) Rank: 2-Star Effect 1: Deals 2% Max HP as True Damage. Effect 2: Permanently increases Max HP by 2 per hit.
Now, he was dropping hares in three shots. He hit Level 2 and dumped all his points into Attack Speed.
"I need gear, and I need more speed," Liam thought, his eyes locked on his next target. -30!