Chapter 1: I am Levin Ganther.
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It all started out one day.
I am Levin Ganther.
An ordinary middle-aged person whose facial features are mainstream, black hair and eyes, average height and almost skinny stature. I am your usual ordinary middle-aged person whose liability isn't all about businesses, being strategic and aiming for my future generation's lives, and being wise. But a sole life responsibility. A responsibility that includes a low-class kind of job and that is to hand out promotional flyers of our company's services to bypassers around the street since I didn't get accepted to any jobs other than someone who hands out a flyer due to my bad grades and history.
... I used to be a rat in the past. Skipping classes just for fun, believed Freedom is a good thing and so on... Until I become that 'somebody' who jumps into somebody's houses for their luxurious expensive garments or every people I pass by until I got caught by the police and redeemed my habits inside the jail for almost eternity.
Blah, like it matters today. Let me tell you how I wounded up in this situation at the present time... A situation, not even the greatest scientists would dare to answer with theories and mathematics alone.
I was transported to another world... Though not the green and vibrant world of life you're anticipating for in your whole life.
It's dry and hot. I feel like my strength is being shaved off my skin every second pass by.
How did this happen?
Earlier this afternoon.
I was about to go home with a measly 60 dollar weekly payout when I passed by my usual stress-relief center and saw a new machine being opened in the midst of crowded game consoles.
It looked futuristic and seemingly fun. Though no one seems to be interested in trying it out, it was isolated unlike in other machines which are being flocked and lined about by several people. It looked lonely yet expensive to the eyes.
Of course, due to my curiosity that sparked deep within my heart. I fished my wallet out of my dear pockets and went towards the said machine, the letterings embedded onto it were enough to send shivers down my spine as it reminds me of my wildest dreams back then.
"VR machine" is what written all over its body.
And through by examining its body, I found out the reason why people are avoiding this machine that much. My grip on my wallet was no doubt, loosened to the extent I looked like someone whose soul got sucked out of my body. My expression went stiff and pale the moment I saw that one certain tag hanging out of a coin catcher. I was right about it being looking expensive and all.
60. Damn. Dollars. Written in proud bold font. It costs 16 tokens to play, ONCE, and one token cost about 3.75 dollars.
... Though... I didn't walk away.
Instead of walking away, I subconsciously acted on my own. I slowly slid the three 20 dollar bills out of my wallet with great guilt. I gulped long and hard before I managed to grant myself some courage to walk towards the token exchange desk and exchange my weekly pay into some... Tokens. A form of currency that would no doubt, won't feed me a single strand of hair worth of food into my stomach for a week unless someone is kind enough to buy it for me at the same price or even slightly higher. The chances of it happening are little to none though, quite depressing, actually.
"Next Sunday is not far ahead." I thought to myself to shrug off the surging anxiety inside my mind and before handing out the three twenty bills towards the desk girl while my forehead rapidly releasing bullets of sweats. The desk girl looked at me with confusion but did not heed onto it and made out of her job without flinching out of her curiosity. With the tokens in hand, I went towards the VR machine and laid into it before I dropped all damned 16 tokens down the drain.
Honestly, seeing these tokens being dropped, I felt my world would've ended.
I mean. I was depending on today's payout to gift myself a food. But as it seems, I'll be depending on my neighbor's generosity this week.
If... They are going to be generous today.
I mean, I remember next week has the Black Friday sale. Everyone would probably save up money to buy better appliances or much more convenient gadgets that would help them out of their misery. I guess I made the wrong decision at a bad time.
Damn, there's no going back now.
[[VR MACHINE STARTING]].
[[BE ADVISED THAT THIS MACHINE WILL NOT INCLUDE TOUCH, SMELL, AND SENSE OF TEMPERATURE.]]
Alright. That's clear to me.
The screen flashed a sentence in which broke the anxiety swelling deep within me, and rapidly switch colors between blue and white before it dropped a helmet into my head and activated its operation.
And before I could even act...
The dive has started.
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My surroundings were filled with vibrant prismatic colors that are enough to hypnotize someone, my body being transferred to the virtual world with ease and transmigrated each of my senses except for taste and feel. I experimented for a while and enjoyed the feeling of free falling, and before I knew it, the console switched the deep dive to a scene of an array of game lists. With that said, there aren't much of many games other than three with each of their corresponding genres. Fantasy RPG, Modern FPS, and Family Building game.
... I am more of an FPS guy when it comes to games, even though the Fantasy RPG's cover art slowly luring me in, I still managed to control myself and chose the Modern FPS game.
I would never choose other genres from Modern FPS, alright? I love guns, even though I can't distinguish their names and types from a glance nor even with a thorough examination. I love them. The sounds they make every time you pull the trigger just gives you the feeling of pure aesthetic invulnerability and coolness.
And not to mention in this game center. My In-game name in FPS machines inside this game center still dominates the first place in the rankings.
The game has started, it didn't even take a minute to load and brought up the character creation menu.
"You may change the appearance of your character anytime." A notification popped out of nowhere and told me of its functions.
Oh well. The character creation seems to be versatile and allows creativity to form since every inch of your virtual character's body could be customized, dragged/edited with hand or anything. Hell, I could even enlarge my character's biceps into Popeye's with just a flick of my finger. Since I could change my appearance every time, and I love the sight of women wearing heavy tactical suits, waving their hair around while shooting guns larger than their arms. I guess I'll do this playthrough with a girl's form?
... I wish the picture I am seeing right now isn't transmitted to the external screen. Hell, if it is. I'll be labeled as a pervert by the staff or the random bystanders right after my playthrough here is done.
Oh yeah, there was a time limit of two hours. I guess that's enough for me to goof around this machine.
Though it is quite a rip-off for sixty dollar worth of tokens... Two hours? Pfft, you could play four hours worth of arcade games inside this game center with 16 tokens... But don't play straight or else these 16 coins of yours would be going down the drain. Maybe include ten minutes breaks in between?
Just playing this VR machine every day must mean you have enough money to feed an entire clan of your family three times a day, and since I don't have that kind of payout, it is definitely a rip-off.
But who am I to judge? Since I am already a fool who gave away his money for this shitty ass rip-off machine.
With my artistic mind coming into action, I finally made out of my dream soldier girl. White hair, blue eyes, slim limbs and waist, tender lower body, and chests... And took half an hour out of my two hours chunk. It was funny at first to see my girl wielding large caliber guns while running at inhuman speeds, still, it's still satisfying to see your hair waving about in natural motion- including the melons before me... I immediately went into practice and some basic shootings before recalibrating the controls and engaging into a tutorial level match where I was randomly dropped off by the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, which stands as the carrier for the players into the battlefield, into some vast wilderness of dirt and dust.
It was supposed to be a forest type of battlefield. But I guess this is some random event flagged by me due to my outstanding results during the tutorial?
... Maybe that, since I concur the Wyverns back in some Beast Hunter Fantasy RPG in PC would randomly drop you off and sometimes in front of a green spiky tyrannosaurus pickle. That's the only RPG I played and nothing else more since it features a heavy machine gun crossbow that I love hearing of.
The scenery was kind of off. I mean, it's too brutal for a beginner level like me in a stranger machine. Orange hills rolled all over the scene and dust came swirling about, tsunamis of sand flooded in the distance as I... Felt heat and texture of each grain of sands that are coming through my full-suit Russian armor similar to that of Tachanka from Rainbow horse Siege Six: Bullets are magic. This is the beginner level armor though, I got the gist of the shop's content and there was futuristic armor included so I guess it's pretty normal for a beginner to receive a modern tactical suit.
I remember, Deserts were used to be the hardest stage since it lacked the lush that provided perfect for guerilla warfare, covers for battles of attrition, and most of all, vehicles tend to function the least under the state of rolling hills since tracks work the funny way in the smooth grains of sands. Not to mention the vastness in which grants snipers a great view of a sight and also a disadvantageous position in every area and angle, just one wrong peek of an eye, you would wound up dead.
The odd thing about the feeling of the heat was- It wasn't supposed to exist in VR. I felt the experience of shooting, walking, and leaping in the tutorial before this match and I could definitely assure you that none of these senses are felt during those rounds.
Damn what happened to the system?
Hm? The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III fell down in the distance after hitting some sort of barrier..?
What happened!?
I didn't see anything except for the flowers of fire that burst out of its right wing and fell into a sweeping alarming pace of descent in a foreign place. A towering fiery smoke blasted off in the distance, rendering these vast wastelands into a more post-apocalyptic setting than modern warfare.
Before I knew it.
I am no longer inside the damned VR machine.
Everything I feel right now was almost the reality- No. It was the reality itself.
I thought about it becoming a dream, but, no.
"Maybe the VR machine updated and adjusted to my senses?"
No. It clearly said in the system updates that It would not include 'the Touch, Smell, and Temperature senses'. Therefore, the thought of feeling the heat before your body is enough to send chills over your body.
Damn, maybe I fell asleep back in the VR machine?
... That cannot be.
I have at least eight hours of sleep every day since my work only includes me handing out flyers for four hours straight in the afternoon, so it cannot be.
I felt my heart sank the moment I pondered about every reasoning out there that might've caused the existence of senses into VR. Everything was invalid.
Ah, god- Feeling the helplessness surging forth, I unconsciously fell down to my knees and caressed the sands before me. The touch is definitely there, every each of grains passed through my hands and back into the ground, the searing heat is also included and nearly burnt my hands if it weren't for the thick padding of the gloves.
At that moment, I saw a blue window unfold in front of me.
My body shivered and mouth widely gaped upon the sight.
[[Welcome to the World of Edenarium, otherworlder.]]
... I knew it!
I am no longer in the same Modern FPS game!
I am right now, in a different type of game- No. A different type of world.
This reminds me of a certain isekai novel that my co-worker lend me last time.
A person who was just randomly playing a skirmish mission inside the VR machine suddenly transported to another world and had to save out a miserable another world guild girl out of the goblins' nest. This literally reminds me of that scenario except there are no guild girls nor goblins around, and instead of me saving another person's lives upon arrival. I have to save my own life!
I am the guild girl that requires a hero from THIS world to be saved!
Literally!