Somewhere that wasn't the place nor the world our story was taking place, a young man in his twenties was seen sitting in his room which wasn't short for a mess with a headgear covering his ears and eyes, as a different kind of high tech mask was covering his nostrils and mouth while his legs and hands were covered in thin pitch-black gloves.
While he seemed like a tech freak adorned in those armaments, it wasn't that weird in that world.
It was weird if one didn't have such armaments on them.
His hair was dull blonde, while his eye colour wasn't seen thanks to the gears he was adorned in. Today he was once again going to access the game he had devoted half of his life for!
"Ulric! Are you on that damn game again!!!?" A hoarse woman's voice roared from behind the door that lead to his room.
"Can't you shut it!? I already pissed off from the stress! I'm at work for a 18 hours per day! I come home so that I could rest for a bit, but no!! You want to fucking yell at every goddamn thing!!!" A hoarse man's voice roared this time, in response to the woman's roar.
"What am I supposed to do!!? You are the one that took debts from every goddamn neighbour!! Did I ask to create debts?!! No!! Why the hell are you yelling at me! You created those debts so you take responsibility and clear them!!!"
"That's what I am doing you fucking bitch!! So give me some damn time!! Aren't I working on it so that people don't come to our house every goddamn day!?"
"How dare you curse at me!! You're a man whore!! I can't believe I married somebody like you!! If not for Ulric, I would have left you a long ago!!"
"That's what I want to say!! I can't believe I loved a bitch like you!!"
...
…..
As Ulric's parents started to yell at each other again, neither really making any sense, making Ulric wonder how they come to be together, and if they were going to be like this, why did they have to have him?
"Should have used a fucking condom!!" Ulric yelled on top of his lungs as he bit his lips. He felt suffocated, but unfortunately he couldn't do anything, even while he was doing everything he could to earn money from online platforms as he was banned from leaving home for too long, while he was also banned from staying inside for too long, hence he came to lock himself in his room all day.
He knew he was going to get yelled at for saying the said words, hence without waiting for a second longer, he clenched and unclenched his right palm.
DING-!
With a ding, his consciousness waned.
[Welcome back, [Light's_Sovereignty]]
"Log in to [Last Life]" He muttered under his mask. This was the game he had dedicated half of his life to! It was a virtual reality game that made him feel things at least artificially, or else
'I might have become a cold blooded antisocial monster…..'
[Logging in...]
[[Light's_Sovereignty]: [The Conqueror] signing in…..]
He was the first player to conquer the world within the [Last Life], and he was proud of it! With the conditions in the house of his parents, he might not, no, wouldn't be able to eat even a single meal per day if he didn't live that day according to their wishes, hence to earn himself food, he played this game and earned enough to get himself two meals a day.
He was the highest and most accomplished player in the game, but he was one of the many pitiful existence struggling to survive everyday while thinking "What about tomorrow?" in his reality.
It was the game that gave him a sense of achievement that he never felt in real-life no matter what he did, thanks to that, the game ate 10 years of his small life. Though the game existed even before his birth, it took him a few years to learn about the outside world before learning he could earn money by playing the [Last Life] game.
He dared and asked his parents for the game but was beaten up and brutally denied hence he had asked money to buy an used bike to earn money, for reasons he couldn't understand, he somehow got the bike.
He earned money through which he was able to purchase the virtual headgear and the game with his 3 years of savings of doing odd jobs, and within the game he earned enough to get himself two meals per day while staying in his parents home.
[Thank you for playing the game till date]
"Huh?"
[A reboot update has been initialized…..]
[Time till completion: 00H: 00M: 36S]
[Please wait till the reboot and enjoy the game]
BEEP-!
"Beep?" Ulric muttered as his dull blue eyes gazed through the headgear at the ceiling as the headgear was turned off as there existed no other game other than [Last Life].
He bit his lower lip as he jolted awake from his recliner chair, jumped onto his feet, grabbed the headgear and glared at it, "Fuckin beep once more!!!" He yelled at the headgear.
"I said beep again!!!" He yelled and swung down his headgear held hand at the ground, but stopped himself.
"Huuu…." He exhaled out his frustration and removed every piece of armament on him and gently placed it aside, before he rushed towards the other side of the messy room.
He saw the room's wall getting close, but he didn't halt his steps and continued to rush at it, and
BAM-!
"AAAAAAAARRRRGGGH!!" He screamed in agony as he slammed his head against the wall, since it wasn't the first time he harmed himself, his actions weren't strange to him until,
His head felt cold.
Blood began to trickle down from his forehead as he had unknowingly snapped his neck when he bashed his head against the wall.
His eyes began to turn blurry as his body began to feel cold.
He was used to the cold too,
But,
Somehow it felt strange this time, and he understood something.
'Am I going to die this pathetically?' Ulric thought.
'Fuck, I don't want to die!! …..' He exclaimed inwardly and tears streamed out his eyes.
DING-!
A deafening chime sounded in his consciousness as a blue screen that was similar to what he had seen for the past 10 years in-game appeared in front of with words he didn't care to read.
'Fuck, even when I'm dying, it is the game's status window instead of my parents that's flashing in front of me….. what kind of life have I lived? Ah, fuck my life...'
That was his last thought before his consciousness slipped and his body turned cold.
[[Last Life] reboot update has been completed]
[User [Light's_Sovereignty] has been given the [Conqueror's Perk]]
[[Conqueror's Perk: Last Life] has been activated!]
[[Last Life] has been integrated into the [Tower Of Sin]]
[Please enjoy the reality version of [Last Life]]
[[Assimilation] will begin]
●●●
[Volume 1: [Last Life]] has ended with this chapter.