They say communication is key.
That is depends, everything is always depends on whoever you are asking it for.
At a familiar city, on planet earth, at a normal apartment building, there is a footstep sound coming across the long hallway.
"Ugghh.. a couple more steps.."
That footstep belongs to a girl who had just came back from her job, her appearance doesn't really have anything out of the ordinary, her body is also average, if one thing had to be said, the only plus thing from her is probably her face, she have received compliments from other people about her face before, but it only happened twice, after that, the same compliment never happened again.
She walked on the hallway for a few seconds, carrying what seem to be a plastic bag full of fast foods and drinks that she bought from nearby place.
"Ahh.. fuck.. I need to stay awake, i can't miss the quest.."
Soon after, she arrived at one of the apartments door, it was her room, she grabbed the room key from her pocket and unlocks the door.
She walked inside, tired.
Before closing the door again, locking it so that no one could enter.
The inside of her apartment room is unexpectedly a mess, there are bag of trash everywhere on the floor, the dishwasher is filled with unwashed plate and glass cup, the smell that is coming from it is also not pleasant, but seems like this girl isn't being bothered by it at the slightest.
She didn't even took a glance at all of the trash that is accumulating infront of her, she carefully tread her way out of the scene and goes to the middle room where a bed and a tv monitor is present, and sure enough, the room is still filled with trash, but it is way cleaner than the other rooms.
Before sitting down, she first had to place down her food and drinks, she also took off her work attire and changed into more casual fit, after that she goes to the bathroom and took a quick wash on her face, its to get rid of her drowsiness.
"...I look horrible." She said while looking at her reflection at the mirror.
"Okay.. time to grind."
The girl sat down infront of her tv, with a fluffy pillow on her back and a game controller.
It turns out, this tv is not made for watching television, but instead it is a monitor for playing games, she boot up the machine that looks like a console and soon the monitor turned on.
There are a lot of games to choose from, but it didn't take a solid second for her to choose the game that she wants to play.
She immediately picked the first game on the list, it was an MMORPG, namely Serpent Journey, its a typical fantasy world rpg where you do quests and interact with players and npc, because of its gameplay and also stunning graphics, the game was shot up into the sky by content creators who gave out many amazing reviews.
After logging into the game, she claimed all of the daily quests first before starting her dungeon raid.
She goes by the name Sylias on the game.
Anyone could tell that she is not living like a real person, infact, Sylias is more like an animal.
She works as a cashier at the nearby market, although she is bad at socializing with other people, she is already used to her job, and knew what exactly to do as a cashier, thanks to her experience, being a cashier is the only time where she will be able to talk to other human.
Fortunately, the market that she works for usually didn't have many customers, even at normal days, although because of that her payment is also decreased, but it was not a problem for her, she didn't have any desire for luxurious things, she didn't use her money to buy make up or fancy clothes, instead, she saved it and only uses it for essential things like foods and rent.
Other than that, she also used her money to buy premium currencies on Serpent Journey.
Her addiction with the game can be said to have reached the dangerous level, so much so that Sylias managed to reached the top global rankings in terms of power and levels.
For a game that has 1 million daily active user, it is an insane feat to even achieve a top country ranking, and yet Sylias managed to reach global just because of her sheer determination, not just that, but also because of her extreme pay to win.
Serpent Journey won't let you buy equipment or buffs for money, its because they claim that their mission is to bring a fair MMORPG for everyone.
Although it is partially true, there is still some pay to win aspect in it, like for example the dungeon inside the game where loots is abundant, normal player are only able to enter a dungeon 3 times a day, but a premium membership can enter up to 4 times, if they have more money, they could even buy a cooldown reset, totalling up to 8 dungeons per day, the cooldown reset only purchasable one time per day thankfully, but it is still a massive advantage towards free players.
Sylias is one of those players who goes to the dungeon 8 times a day.
***
SLASH!
"Hnngg... Thats the dungeons for today, The loot i got wasn't that bad, but its a shame i didn't get any mythic item.." She said while stretching her hands.
After 2 hours of playtime, Sylias have now reached the limit for dungeon raids, she exits the dungeon and returned to the town that she was currently staying in the game.
Ding!
"Huh? What's this?"
Her phone made a sound, signaling a notification.
It was from Serpent Journey's forum.
"The Studio behind Serpent Journey has been bought by XXXX Entertainment!?"
"WHAT!?" She screams in horror, it was so loud that if her apartment walls didn't have a sound protection, her neighbor will surely complained and lectures her about noise control past midnight.
The studio that made the game that Sylias loved, has been bought by a mega corporate company, and usually, for a gamer like her and others, it is a bad sign.
"Seriously?—Ugh, i have a bad feeling about this.."
.
.
A year later.
Still inside Sylias's apartment, this time its even dirtier than before, the trash have accumulated in every corner.
Sylias who is still playing Serpent Journey after that news a year ago, can be seen losing her happiness on the game, her face didn't lit up like before, the smile that she always put while playing the game has now faded into frown.
Even though it is holiday, which is Sylias's favorite time, she didn't feel a thing and thought that this is only a normal day like any other.
"This game fell off.." She said.
After more than 5 years of playing, reaching the top of the leaderboards, being a top 1 player for a week, Sylias finally had enough.
She put down her controller and stood up before walking away from the screen while it is still displaying her game character.
After closer inspection, it is revealed that the Serpent Journey has changed dramastically, the game is now filled with pay to win package and gacha-like system, it has turned from a fun MMORPG to a gambling simulator for trash equipment, the only way to progress is through paying.
Almost 90% of the players already quit long ago, even most of the top leaderboards now have stagnated, they all abandoned the game that they put so much effort on, it must be heartbreaking to see their beloved game turns to shit.
Sylias made her way to the bathroom, planning to take a pee, however, when she was about to enter..
"AAGHH!!"
Her left leg slipped on the floor and she began to fall.
Inside of the bathroom where the space is cramped and have barely any room for a human to fall into, Sylias's brain had a moment of panic and lets out a signal of danger to her body, out of pure instinct she tried to grab to the shower's rope but to no avail, in the end Sylias fell and got hit right on her head against the hard toilet surface, the impact made a loud bang sound and she could feel her head spinning and hurting beyond what she could handle.
Soon, Sylias's vision began to fade and she fell unconscious, with a concussion on her brain.
A tragic death, for a loner and a failure, at the end of her life, there was no one, no family, no stranger, not even her game character, could hear or save her from her death.
***
At first, there is nothing, and then the next thing, there are a sensation of touch.
"UAAGHH!!"
Sylias opened her eyes with a sense of panic, she couldn't make sense of what her surrounding was, until she finally calmed down.
"H- huh.. huh.."
Infront of her, was a room made out of wood, like the inside of a bedroom in a wooden house, its quite dark, the window behind her is closed, blocking lights from coming inside.
She opened the window curtains, the view that Sylias saw after opening the curtains made her jaw drop and left her speechless.
It was, what could be described as, a town, a town with houses in medieval european style, with many pedestrians and adventurers like people walking on the street, carrying their belongings of fruit basket, magic staff, sword, or even a chicken.
"W- What– Happened.."
Sylias remembered her death, how she fell down on the bathroom and suddenly arriving here.
"Don't tell me this is..? A REINCARNATION!?" She screams.
!!!
While her feelings are overwhelmed with emotion, she suddenly felt a movement on her head, like she just moved a part of her body.