Year 2024.
It was already 2 years since the creation of Dragon Souls, a popular video-game with revolutionary graphics and immersive storyline.
Dragon Souls had a simple power system but it was perfection in simplicity.
With a unique setting of 7 major classes where players could become either of a mage, a warrior, a tank, an archer, a healer, an artisan, or a beast tamer, it was incredibly popular.
In its 2 years anniversary celebration just less than a month ago, the global membership of the game was recorded at an all-time high of 900 million players.
And to commemorate it's 2 years anniversary, Dragon Souls introduced an event with an accompanying reward system across a period of 3 months where players could earn real money in game through cryptocurrency.
Shortly after the re-election of President Trump in the seat of President over America, cryptocurrencies experienced a crazy surge.
With Dragon Souls being a major stakeholder with Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency app in the world, they made bitcoin their reward system for players who participated in the in-game event and won major achievements.
And since the surge, with bitcoin's value having exploded all the way to over $100,000 per bitcoin, the promotion campaign worked like magic.
Within less than a month after the event started, Dragon Souls' popularity exploded, surging to 1.3 billion worldwide players within just 2 weeks.
And now, not even up to a month yet, the number was at 1.8 billion.
Luckily for Greg, he was one of those few players with a maxed-out level 100 character having started Dragon Souls from it's very launch.
Greg's main account in-game character was a powerful level 100 beast tamer.
As soon as the event started, he organized a raid party of 7 players, all veteran players of the 7 major classes of the game and together, they took on the major events that started in the game after the event started.
In less than a month, Greg's raid party already managed to complete 2 major achievements, winning a total of 3.21 bitcoin.
3.21 bitcoin was over $300,000!
By now, even the government already recognized Dragon Souls as a major occupation, making its popularity explode even more.
And today, Greg and his raid party were facing the climax of another in-game event after grinding towards it for 3 straight days.
Inside a decorated and well-maintained gaming room filled with expensive gaming gear, Greg, a mature brown-haired boy with tired eyes focused on the monitor, his left hand typing on his keyboard furiously even as his right hand controlled his gaming mouse.
Greg was 35 this year, he started playing Dragon Souls at the ripe old age of 33. No one knew that the star beast tamer, Beast Lord was an oldie, not even his raid party members.
In the golden age of video games, most of the limelight were stolen by the young and energetic players. Greg was one of the few oldies, if not the only one to still be playing at such an elite level.
As his fingers typed on his keyboard, he felt old. 'If only I could reincarnate into a world where my age doesn't affect me anymore'. He sighed.
With how focused he was, it was clear how difficult his current game quest was but Greg did not break concentration once, typing away furiously.
He kept it at for a few minutes and finally, he got a notification on his monitor.
[You have defeated the Ancient Black Dragon and seized control of the Onyx Marshland!]
[Your raid party has been rewarded with 5 bitcoins!]
[5 bitcoins will be credited to your raid party's unified trading account in 30 minutes…, please wait…]
"Yes!" Greg finally left his computer space, pumping his fists excitedly.
5 bitcoins were the most money that any raid party has ever gotten from a single event raid. 'We'll definitely have our names announced on the announcement board, yes!'
After his initial excitement, Greg finally calmed down because he was exhausted. Rolling his gaming chair around, he picked a cigarette from his gaming table, lighting it up and sucking away. "Ah!" He took a whiff and sighed.
For the past 3 days, he only slept intermittently when his teammates covered for him. This was how they rotated to avoid failing the mission.
After defeating the Black Dragon finally, they were all exhausted.
Greg chatted with his teammates in their group chat, informing them that he was going to sleep to rest. They would talk about sharing the money later after they were fully rested.
Just as Greg climbed on top his bed though, he heard his monitor beep then he heard a notification from it.
[You have completed hidden mission: Unlock the Black Dragon's Backstory!]
[You will be transported to Dragon Souls Domain in 0:00:23]
[Reward will be awarded after, Goodluck]
Greg didn't react to that notification though, he was too tired, instead he looked at his game headset that was on the table. "The headset is still connected so how did it sound out? Was it a glitch?"
"Well, never mind, I'll fix it when I wake up".
He closed his eyes to sleep but he couldn't, his gaming console announced loudly.
[Time remaining: 0:00:09]
[Time remaining: 0:00:08]
"F*ck! Is this a joke?" Greg stood up from his bed, staggering slightly due to how tired he was as he moved towards the monitor.
But he never got to it though.
[Time remaining: 0:00:01]
[Time remaining: 0:00:00]
Immediately after the time hit 0, Greg shuddered as a feeling gripped him. He felt his body float, becoming weightless. The world around him blurred and twisted, colors blending into a whirlpool of light.
Greg was confused and alarmed. 'What is going on?!'
He tried to understand the situation but he could not before his consciousness fell asleep, becoming unconscious.
…
Blink!
Greg tried to open his eyes only to realize that his vision was blocked by fluid, red and slimy fluid.
He couldn't see much, only telling that he was in some kind of room.
Before him, he could see a mature woman dressed in clean midwife clothes holding him. He barely paid attention to her features when this woman grabbed his leg, rudely turning him upside down, and then she lightly spanked him on the bum.
Greg felt a sharp pang of pain assault him.
He tried to bear it but he could not, his pain tolerance was at an all-time low as the pain assaulted his brain at full force.
'W-w-what the heck!' Greg tried to say this but that was not he heard.
Instead…
"Waaah!"
…he heard the loud wailing of a baby.
Greg's eyes widened. 'What?!'
'I am a baby?!'
Almost at the same time that he thought this, floating texts appeared in front of his retina and a mechanical voice resounded in his head.
[Transportation complete!]
[Welcome to Dragon Souls' Domain!]
[Reward is being distributed…]