Felix stared at his computer screen with a dull gaze, his heart crying as the crumbling buildings rumbled in his ears.

“Haaa,” he leaned back on his chair, taking off his headphones and staring at the [Game Over] text occupying the computer screen.

“Nineteen out of twenty,” he mumbled, burying his face on his sweaty palms. It hurts. Losing sucks.

“I lost all nineteen games,” Alex chuckled, his voice strained, “Is that a world record?”

Shaking his head, he grabbed his phone and watched the ongoing livestream. It was the livestream of “Domination’s” official channel, and it currently had over seven hundred million viewers.

Domination had more than three billion active players, and one third of those players played the game “professionally,” earning a decent salary each month. Among the professional players, the top one thousand was dubbed “God Players,” and Alex was among the top god players.

His in-game name, “Sapphire,” was renowned and feared by many, but also admired by nearly all players of Domination.

However, for a whole month, he hadn't won any rounds. Even during the current yearly tournament, he had yet to win a single round!

Of course, it wasn't his skills that suddenly regressed to zero. No, compared to other players, he was still a god-like player.

‘Those guys are so lucky,’ Felix thinly smiled, putting his phone down. All the comments were calling him a “fake god.” He even suspected that his fans had left him.

Grabbing the mouse, he exited the current game and pressed the [Ready] button for the next round. Soon, the button changed to [Awaiting Players (26/1000)].

With nothing else to do, he glanced at the card in the middle of his screen. It was his “unique card,” a card that belongs only to him as long as he doesn't drop out of the top 1000.

[Ocean Monster (A-)]

“Bluey, if only you were S ranked,” Felix nearly cried. He made the Ocean Monster card infamous throughout the game, until the new “Legendary Cards” were released. Armed with the most advanced artificial intelligence and “growth potential,” the god players with legendary cards quickly dominated the game.

‘Apart from S ranked cards, nothing can match those legendaries,’ he clicked his tongue. Getting a legendary card required luck, but even after a month since the “Legendary Cards Update,” he hadn't seen any legendary cards.

[Awaiting Players (881/100)]

Bored, Felix twirled with his hair when his phone vibrated. Raising an eyebrow, he grabbed his phone and read the “Super Chat” with a golden font.

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[Super Chat: God Sapphire, don't lose! We believe in you!]

Felix froze at the text. His eyes blurred, but before he could turn on his mic to respond, his computer flashed a bright light.

[Yearly Tournament, Season 7, Round 20.]

[Sapphire, Domination Begins!]

[Random Card Selection…]

Felix quickly buried the super chat aside, his heart pounding with apprehension and hope. ‘Please be gold, please be gold!’

With wide eyes, he watched as the black card in the middle of the screen flashed a myriad of colors. Green, blue, violet, black, white, red… and finally, gold!

“Legendary!” Felix jumped from his chair!

[Legendary Card “Gray Clay King (F-)”]

“Legendary… F minus?” Felix furrowed his brows. ‘Are you kidding me?! What kind of legendary is ranked F minus?!’ Felix hung his jaw, looking at the legendary card and his current unique card.

At the start of each tournament game, god players can randomly draw a card. If they liked it, they could use it as their unique card and no one else can get the same card in any game, whether it’d be a casual or a tournament game. On the other hand, if they give up their unique card, they'll lose their monopoly over that card, and only luck can decide if they'll get it back.

‘An F minus card versus an A minus card, what's there to think about?!’ Felix cursed, moving the cursor to the [x] button when he stopped.

[Awaiting Players, 118 seconds remaining…]

Felix gulped, watching as the countdown ticked down. The super chat flashed in his mind, as well as his continuous losing streak to god players with legendary cards.

‘No, what am I thinking about? Even if it's a legendary card, it's a trash card!’ Felix gritted his teeth, but his finger wouldn't budge.

‘My unique card is more reliable, maybe I'll win this round!’ He breathed sharply, cold sweat pooling on his forehead.

[Awaiting Players, 28 seconds remaining…]

‘But… With Bluey, can I really win?’ Felix looked at the legendary “trash” card. ‘But even then, what can a trash card do?!’

[Awaiting Players, 9 seconds remaining…]

“...” Felix wiped his sweat.

[Awaiting Players, 4 seconds remaining…]

“FUCK IT!” Felix cursed, clicking the legendary card icon and dragging it to his unique card slot. A prompt asked him if he was certain, but with barely three seconds on the clock, he didn't even read the whole thing and pressed [Confirm].

[Congratulations on gaining your unique card!]

Felix couldn't be bothered with the text that reeked with sarcasm. All he could hear was his pounding heart and his rapid breaths.

“Shit,” he chuckled and clicked on the legendary card.

[Gray Clay King (F-)]

[Abilities: Clay Soldier Authority (F-)]

“Did I screw up?”

Meanwhile, the livestream viewers were busy exploding on the screen.

+

Eve growled, trying to break free from the ethereal white chains binding his arms and legs. In front of him was a vast, barren plains, and apart from him, no one was around.

‘Where am I?!’

He waited for two minutes before the chains suddenly disappeared, and his body faded into nothing. His consciousness remained intact, but he couldn't see anything aside from pure darkness.

‘What’s this? What's happening?’ Eve tried moving, but it felt like his body was trapped underground. Looking around was pointless.

Eve seethed. ‘Did a god kidnap me?!’

He wasn't unfamiliar with gods kidnapping mortals and toying with them. After all, he was once their “toy.”

His mind was brewing up countless theories, but then he was suddenly blinded by a golden light. Before he could react, he was already falling from the sky.

The strange thing was that upon landing, he didn't turn into a splash of clay. Instead, he landed perfectly straight on both feet.

‘I was transported again,’ Eve took a deep breath, even though he didn't need air. This time, he was inside a forest.

‘Did they transport me to an advanced world?’ Eve's heart sank, watching the insects buzzing around. When he saw a jumping spider crawling up a plant, he became certain. His previous world only had clay men, which was a million times safer than this world.

‘This is bad,’ Eve hurriedly scanned the area with his eyes. He didn't dare move. What if there was a frog nearby that mistook him for food?

‘I just found a way to get stronger!’

When he saw a large pebble nearby, his legs were about to move when all the nearby critters scrambled away. Then, right in front of him, a humanoid, ethereal blue figure manifested out of thin air.

[Is this the Gray Clay King?]

Eve's heart dropped. ‘An avatar? Sure enough, it's a god's doing…’

Eve crossed his arms, standing tall and showing no fear. “Avatar, who are you?”

[Oh, I'm Felix… no, call me Sapphire.]

“Sapphire,” Eve frowned. ‘It’s not a god I know of.’

“Avatar Sapphire, why am I here?”

[Cool… The A.I. is ... yes, I called you here to fight for me.]

“Fight for you?” Eve scoffed. Him? A person who disdained gods? Never in a million years!

“Why should I?” Eve spat, crouching down before sitting leisurely on the ground. Then, he closed his eyes, preparing to be annihilated.

‘My second life lasted for a month,’ Eve sighed. “Damned gods. I'll burn you all in the afterlife.”

[Gods? You hate gods? Me too! Let's burn those damned pay to win gods!]

Eve fell on his back.