"But before I do that, I think you have the right to know that you will be randomly reincarnated into the past. There are only three places where I can send you." The voice added as Zack slowly opened his eyes.
Heaven.
That was the first thing that entered his mind when he saw the place he was in. The sky was clear of any clouds and was shining bright blue in color.
Blush green grass covered the entire place and the white-haired man could feel the cold wind hitting his face. Wait, hitting his face?
"You have a body here. It took quite some amount of my power to pull you from the abyss." The voice said again but Zack couldn't see anyone in front of him.
"Hey, whoever you are, is this place heaven?"
"Pfft, this is not heaven, human. This place is my resting place or rather, my prison. As good as this place might look, you definitely wouldn't want to spend it in such a place." The voice sounded resentful before it did a fake cough. "Anyways, let me show you the three moments you can reincarnate into."
The ground beneath Zack's feet suddenly shifted and his vision turned dizzy for a few seconds. But when it returned to normal, he could see that he was sitting in an empty movie theater.
"Please pay attention to the movie screen." The voice said again as the screen in front of Zack started playing a movie.
But it wasn't a real movie. It was the accident in which he had lost his parents.
'We were going to the hospital when we had found out that sis had suddenly collapsed in the school. But dad had been driving too fast…' He watched everything happen again in front of him yet there was nothing that he could do.
A truck suddenly appeared in front of their car and his dad had hit the brakes. But unfortunately, the car had been at too high of a speed and had drifted off the road.
It had then hit a tree on the roadside. His mother and father sitting in the front of the car had been heavily injured. Zack who had been sitting in the back of the car had been protected by the airbags.
'But why didn't the airbags open for both of them?' He thought while clenching his fist as the screen went blank.
But he still remembered what had happened later on. The truck driver had called an ambulance and the ambulance had taken the family to the same hospital Zack's sister was in.
And that was the day that two 17-year-olds became orphans.
Zack then saw a second clip being played on the screen and he remembered that moment too. It was the day he had first started playing Hikari.
Due to all the popular VR anime and web novels, people were wary of the VR game released by the four biggest tech companies. So to make the people play the game, the four companies had introduced a big cash pool of 1 billion dollars.
The person on the number 1 global rankings will gain half of the prize meaning 500 million dollars. The second place would get 250 million dollars and the third would get 50 million dollars.
The remaining 200 million dollars were divided between the top 100 hundred on the global rankings.
Zack had immediately used what little money he had to buy the set for the game. Their family wasn't poor and his parents had left behind some savings but all of that had gone towards his sister's treatment.
He had been one of the first 50 people to create an in-game avatar and had also completed one of the early quests quickly. This had led to him being offered a special weapon but that's where he had chosen the wrong thing.
"And the third is jusy to go to the beginning when you were born. I hope that you don't get sent there since you will slowly start forgetting your memories to more you grow." The voice finished as the white-haired man appeared in the heaven-like place again.
Looking at the blue sky, he started wondering whether going back was a good idea. But most of all, he was wondering what price he would have to pay for it.
"Tell me what do you want in return."
"I can't tell you that now but when the time comes, I will tell you. For now, you can do whatever you want? So are you ready?"
"One last question. Why did you choose me?"
"It was because of that weapon. Go search Gugnir of Hikipidea and remember that the owner would be the fake owner." The voice replied and went silent.
Zack stood there for a few more minutes while wondering whether he should accept the offer. Since he was already dead, he had no idea what would happen next if he said no.
"Guess I will find about that some other time. Yes, I would like to go back in time." He then replied and closed his eyes.
Zack felt a warm glow surrounding his body and felt that he was slowly vanishing. But he didn't open his eyes.
Everything around him suddenly vanished as Zack felt himself falling. But he still didn't open his eyes. Moving like a comet about to crash on a planet, his body fell at the speed of light.
It was a wonder that he wasn't torn apart.
"You can open your eyes now little human. I will be watching over you." The voice said again as Zack felt solid ground under his feet.
Like waking up from a long sleep, he opened his eyes and nostalgia hit him hard.
The wooden floor and the brightly hit room made Zack clench his fists. He was back in his old room at the house his parents had bought.
Lying on his bed were a pair of black glasses and a small smartwatch. These were the equipment required to play Hikari but he knew that the game wouldn't be available until midnight.
So till then, he decided to visit his sister.
'It feels good and bad at the same time…' Zack thought while traveling through the hallway of his house.
Despite his sister's protests, he had sold the house a year later when her condition had started to worsen. The house had fetched him 35 million dollars and combined with the money his parents had left, he only had to gather 20 million dollars to treat his sister.
He had thought that playing the game would get him that money but he had never been more wrong. And because of that, his sister had died when he was only 20 years old.
He had continued to play the game since it was the only way he could live. And despite him wanting to die, he had decided to fulfill his promise to his sister that he would continue living.
But now that he was back, he would make sure that both of them would stay alive.
"It should be 3 pm right now. If things go as I think they would, I can save my sister before her cancer reaches the later stages." Zack muttered before he looked at his wrist.
Another smartwatch was tied there but this was not just a normal smartwatch. Phones had instead been replaced by these watches and almost everyone on earth had these.
This was because more than half of the world had been wiped out because of nuclear weapons during world war three. The current world population was at 2.1 billion humans spread across four continents.
The government was more attentive towards people in this way.
Zack then called a cab since he couldn't drive while being 17 years old and his family no longer had a car so this was the only option he had.
He then immediately traveled to the hospital and after talking to the lady at the reception, he went up to his sister's room.
"Mia?" He asked while knocking at her door.
"Come in." Her sweet voice entered his ears as Zack froze. He stood at the door for a few seconds before he slowly opened it.
Sitting on the bed was Mia, his 17 years old sister who was three months younger than him. She was smiling at him while her shiny black hair were being blown by the wind.
And seeing his sister, Zack stopped himself from tearing apart. The one who he had worked so hard to save was right in front of him now.
He would not let her go this time even if he had to bribe the game creators to do it. That was his goal.
That was his resolve.