Xi Zheng opened his eyes. The world was blurry for a second as his eyes adjusted to the unfamiliar brightness. A wooden ceiling entered his line of sight. There was something familiar, yet simultaneously alien about that ceiling. Xi Zheng remembered it somehow, but from where he didn't know.

He attempted to move forward but he felt something restraining the movement of his arms, legs, head and torso. As he regained the sense of touch, he felt that multiple wires were halting him from movement.

He also felt the cold bed sheet underneath him.

"Ah, you're awake. So what would you like to start as?"

As an unknown voice sounded out, Xi Zheng's sight was filled with something new.

<>

<>

Title:Beginner

Level: 10

[Stats:]

Life: 15

Skill: 20

Magic: 8

Speed: 14

Stamina: 11

[Equipment:]

(Common)

Level 0

Attack Damage: 10

Potential: C

(Common)

Level 0

Life Increase: 2

Status Bonuses: None

[Skills:]

(Common)

Level 0

Attack Duration: 3

Stamina Consumption: 5

Attack Power : 5

Potential: B

<>

Title: Beginner

Level: 11

[Stats:]

Life: 14

Skill: 17

Magic: 15

Speed: 18

Stamina: 13

[Equipment:]

(Common)

Level 0

Attack Damage: 10

Potential: C

(Common)

Level 0

Life Increase: 5

Status Bonuses:

[Passive Health Increase]

[Skills:]

Level 0

Attack Duration:10

Stamina Consumption: 11

Attack Power: 15

Potential: C

<>

Title: Beginner

Level: 9

[Stats:]

Life: 21

Skill: 17

Magic: 4

Speed: 7

Stamina: 16

[Equipment:]

(Common)

Level 0

Attack Damage: 15

Potential: B

< Great Knight Shirt>(Common)

Level 0

Life Increase: 1

Status Bonuses: None

[Skills:]

None

<>

Title: Beginner

Level: 10

[Stats:]

Life: 15

Skill: 6

Magic: 6

Speed: 25

Stamina: 20

[Equipment:]

(Common)

Level 0

Attack Damage: 5

Potential: A

(Common)

Level 0

Life Increase: 6

Status Bonuses: None

[Skills:]

Level 0

Attack Duration: 2

Stamina Consumption: 3

Attack Power: 10

Potential: D

<>

Title: Beginner

Level: 14

[Stats:]

Life: 20

Skill: 17

Magic: 3

Speed: 20

Stamina: 20

[Equipment:]

(Common)

Level 0

Attack Damage: 11

Potential: A

(Common)

Level 0

Life Increase: 5

Status Bonuses: None

[Skills:]

Level 0

Attack Duration: 3

Stamina Consumption: 5

——————————————

So, I'm back in the game then?

…

The game <> was originally released as a standard Virtual Reality game. After a short time, the game distinguished itself as the greatest game ever. The amount of money earned from the game allowed the developers to launch a huge project, to make <> a Full Dive game, the first of its kind.

They accomplished this and got 200 million testers to test the Full Dive. These 200 million testers enjoyed the Full Dive and there were no problems with it. So, the <> Full Dive was released and within the first hours of release, over 2 billion people played it. Those people have been stuck in the game ever since. Xi Zheng was one of these people.

...

In his previous time with the game, he had chosen to become a and that choice benefited him substantially.

The class was the most balanced, and overall the best class in the game.

The stats weren't too bad either and could be upgraded easily as with every level up, you get 5 investment points.

Based on his prior game knowledge and his 200 years in gameplay, he decided that the best class was the .

Xi Zheng was back in the room, facing the familiar ceiling. This was the starting cabin of the game, in the middle of Ju Xia City in the Southern Continent. The entirety of Ju Xia is around 3x the size of Earth and the Southern Continent is around 70x the size of Ju Xia. The entire <> world is around 10x the size of the Southern Continent. The open-world aspects of this game and the sheer scale of the world were unparalleled by any other game and were the main reason for its massive surge in popularity.

Now was a good time to check the Characteristics of his character.

Characteristics are randomised stats that can be changed through training. They were included to make the game more realistic and immersive for players.

<>

Physique: Low-Mid

Potential: F

Intelligence: High-Outstanding

Combat Intelligence: Outstanding-Low

Mindset: Mid-Mid

———————————————

Physique and Potential were all that mattered at the moment to Xi Zheng. Without a good physique, he would get beaten by stronger enemies.

As for Potential, this grade goes from A grade(highest) to F grade(lowest). With D grade Potential, he would be unable to level up higher than level 50. In his previous playthrough, he was an A grade.

To improve his physique, he needed a gym membership, however, a gym membership required money.

This also applies to Potential. The only way to increase one's potential was from pills that cost extremely high amounts of money.

The fastest way to make money in this game is from dungeon instances, killing mythical beasts and selling their flesh and blood. The problem was players would be in these dungeon instances and there are no rules down there, so they would have no reason to not murder him, especially considering the XP gained from killing a player as opposed to killing an NPC. The safest option was to work at a shop. And if he remembered correctly, there was a huge weaponry shop in the west part of Ju Xia.

Xi Zheng opened the map UI.

<>

After seeing the title, he instantly closed it. He was in the west, so he only had to travel around 200 miles to get to the main city.

In the real world, 200 miles was quite a bit. But in <>, the transport speed was exponentially faster. Walking in <> as a level 1 player had an equivalent speed to driving in the real world. With each level, the player's movement speed and attack power are multiplied by 10.

It would take him around 3 hours to walk to the main city.

This is where the second journey of the Sword Saint begins.