Kaden hurriedly went to the nearest gaming store and without any hesitation spent his entire savings and then some more on Apocalypse Online's gaming helmet. He was completely broke now and pretty much maxed out his credit card but that did not matter. This had to be done. He had already missed his chance once and he was not about to do it again.

In truth, Kaden had ended up playing the popular game in his last life as well but unfortunately, he had started a bit late. Worried about the cost of the gaming helmet, the electricity bill, and the chance that he could become addicted to the game, he hesitated a lot and ended up only playing a little over four months later. This would have also been fine, except that even then he focused on earning money using the game and spent most of his time doing odd jobs and grinding tasks such as mining or farming. Thanks to the popularity of the game, he had also earned quite a bit and this motivated him to go more into the business side of the game, rather than the combat and exploration side. If only he had known back then how much this was going to cost him, Kaden would have never done such a thing. However, now everything was going to be different.

Kaden rushed back to his small studio apartment immediately after buying the helmet. Boston evening traffic was tough to navigate but he used his bike to fly through the crowded streets. The freezing cold December wind hit his face hard making him shiver, but this was only refreshing for Kaden. After being stuck in the comatose body for so long, he loved the cold and the pain. At least it made him feel something.

Kaden enjoyed the rest of the bike ride and soon arrived at his apartment complex which was located smack dab in the center of the city along with other congested student apartments. He shoved his bike and rushed up to his place as the first of the tasks he had set out for himself was now complete. The next task was to secure some food which was quite easy. He rummaged through his small apartment and just like he expected, he found some ramen packets. There were about twenty or so packets stacked. This was enough for ten days? Kaden did not care. He hadn't tasted actual food for years so he was pretty sure that anything at this point would taste good. Sure, he would love to go outside and have a nice meal but that can wait. First, he needed to achieve some things in the game. This had to be given the first priority no matter what!

Kaden rearranged some of his stuff, changed into comfortable clothes, and then sat down in front of his laptop. Now that the gaming helmet was secured, food was secured, the next was his classes. He was currently a sophomore at Boston University and he was studying computer science. Normally, professors wouldn't care if students attended classes or not but he had a problematic professor who tended to demand in-person meetings when attendance dipped lower. Kaden did not want to deal with this troublesome situation so he started the official process of deferring his classes for a year. This process took about half an hour but it was time well spent.

With these three things taken care of, he was now free to focus on the next and the final task which was the most important one of them all, to make a list of all the cheats that he could remember! "This is going to be difficult." Kaden chewed his pen. He sat down with a pen and paper and tried his best to write down everything that he could remember especially all the key points. The good thing was he had entered a coma pretty much a month or two after the game ended so it was not like he had many other memories that confused him.

But the bad thing was that he had spent a lot of time in his ghost state and those memories were not as crisp as he wanted them to be. Stuck for an eternity in the middle of four white walls takes a toll on anyone. Kaden tried to squeeze things out of his brain as much as he could. After a while, he nodded and closed the notebook. For now, he had a solid plan. With that, he hit the shower and spent a good hour taking a nice long hot water bath, made himself some eggs and ramen with the leftover groceries in his fridge, and devoured the meal. He then finished the whole event with a nice piping hot cup of coffee. It was almost eleven in the night and it was snowing outside. Kaden silently sat down near the window and enjoyed the scene while slowly savoring his coffee. In one more hour, everything was going to change!

'Apocalypse Online', the game that was boasted to be the highlight of the technical advancement of the century, was about to be launched. The popular video game company Tornado announced this mysterious game all of a sudden out of nowhere as if they pulled it out of their asses. Even for the employees working in the company, this came as a surprise. There were absolutely no promotions done for it. No news about the game development. Just three months back, the game magically sprang into existence and ever since then, it has been the talk of the town.

Of course, the talk was both positive and negative as no one believed that this kind of technology could possibly exist. This was because Apocalypse Online was advertised to have 100% reality. 'The game and real life would be indistinguishable' was the tagline! No other video game had ever achieved something like this. To make things more interesting, the company also somehow managed to acquire rights for currency exchange. The in-game currency could be exchanged for dollars! These two points were more than enough to grab the attention of the world and the game became the most-awaited game of the decade!

The hype was so big that this year instead of celebrating New Year in bars and restaurants, many people, particularly those who enjoyed playing video games, remained inside their houses, waiting right next to their gear. Naturally, Kaden was also one among these early birds. When it was 11.58 in the night, he promptly placed the gaming helmet on his head and lay on the bed. The helmet was quite comfortable and lightweight and there was no difference between going to sleep with and without wearing it. The instructions to use were also quite simple. All Kaden had to do was push a button on the side.

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A beep sound rang in his ears and the equipment immediately whirred alive. The next second, he experienced the familiar sensation of complete darkness. Some people might find this kind of setting extremely claustrophobic. To Kaden, of course, it was different. He welcomed the darkness with a big smile because this represented the beginning of everything.

Soon, the darkness cleared, and Kaden found himself floating in the air, the wind whipping about on his face. He was currently in a plain white shirt and matching trousers, the starting uniform for all the players, leaving him vulnerable to the biting cold. The 100% realistic feeling was not for nothing. The fresh air instantly filled his lungs and breathed new life into his tired body. Even though this was not his first time entering the game, he couldn't help but enjoy this sensation. After all, it's been a while since he had enjoyed small and simple things like this, that too the air inside the game was pure and pristine, unlike the polluted air of the outside world.

Kaden wondered if this had ever changed in the future. With mana everywhere on Earth, did the outside world's air also become pure like this? Being a comatose ghost, he could only look outside the window, he had never personally experienced the new world. He had also missed out on so many things in his life. He had never traveled anywhere interesting, never had a good feast in a nice restaurant, heck, he never even had a girlfriend and, in the end, became a virgin coma patient.

Kaden sighed as he thought back to the past or rather his future that was about to happen. There were really too many things that he wanted to do. As his mind wandered to places that other people had no idea about, a slightly annoyed voice loudly cleared her throat. "Greetings, earthling!" Kaden broke out of his thoughts and finally looked at the beautiful woman in front of him who had already greeted him a few dozen times, only to be ignored by him. "Right." He flatly replied, making her pretty face twitch.

This woman was none other than the A.I. interface of the game who appeared every time a user asked for help, not that she was of any real help. The game was very stingy about sharing any extra information or helpful tips. However, it was always a fun pastime to interact with the A.I. because the woman was very seductive and alluring to look at with a mage robe that clung close to her figure, showing off all the curves. To make things more interesting, she was also very reactive, like a real-life person, and made numerous expressions that included blushing and flirting. Some people in his last life even ended up wasting most of their time trying to get the attention of this woman.

Kaden was pretty sure at least this part of the history was definitely going to repeat. But he couldn't care less about this woman as he had a lot on his mind that he needed to accomplish. He first pulled up his status screen.

[Ding!]

Player Name: Kaden Wright

Level: 0

Class: None

Race: Human

Attributes:

Strength: 10

Agility: 10

Intelligence: 10

Stamina: 10

Skills: None

Equipment: None

Inventory: None

Quests: None

"Hmmm..." Kaden frowned. "Of course, it is going to be the same pathetic status screen. Why would this time be any different?" In 'Apocalypse Online,' when a player started, their stats were typically distributed based on their current condition. This meant that trained athletes and fit people had better stats than most in general. Kaden had mostly neglected this part of his life and never gave much time to working out or building his body and such. So his stats were squarely in the average, neither too impressive nor too bad. It sucked that several people received an advantage over him right in this very first stage, but there was nothing he could do about that. So he quickly closed the status screen.

As for the character creation, name selection, and appearance settings, everything was mirrored to reality, and no one had control over these things. One's avatar in the game was a ditto copy of the person in the real world. He had also heard this welcome speech and the introduction about the game several times, so he quickly interrupted the woman before she could start. "Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip" The A.I.'s face once again twitched. Nevertheless, she continued to keep a smile on her face and replied, "As you wish, earthling."

The next second, Kaden experienced a sudden pull on his body, and he started plummeting down to the ground at an insane speed, the world around him twisting and turning. Once again, the feeling only lasted for a second before he found himself standing on solid ground inside what looked like a cave.

"Finally!" Kaden sucked in a breath of air and took a look around. He already knew that this was not the true beginning of the game. In 'Apocalypse Online,' after entering the game, one was first exposed to a beginner's challenge, which was an instance dungeon. This was essentially to get all the users accustomed to the realistic nature of the game and experience moving one's hands and legs and so on and so forth.

At least, this was what everyone thought at the beginning. Many people ignored the beginner's challenge and coasted their way through it, impatient to experience the actual game and find out the secrets of the game. However, some hardcore gaming experts even cleared this beginner dungeon seriously, and to everyone's surprise, these people received special rewards. The only drawback was that these rewards were on a first-come, first-serve basis, and they were limited.

In his last life, Kaden couldn't even dream about getting something like this as the rewards were exhausted within the first couple of days, but now he didn't want to let this nice opportunity slip by. It was time to conquer this game by starting with this instance dungeon right here!

Kaden took a step forward, and immediately a prompt screen flashed in front of him.

After the message, a familiar bright blue-colored portal also appeared in front of Kaden. However, he did not hastily enter the portal. "Hmmm?" He stared at it for a moment, and then a wicked smile appeared on his face. In his last life, he had picked the easy mode and still hadn't been able to clear it properly but now he was different. He had more experience and he also knew what he was going to face beforehand. There was no way he was going to pick easy again. This was his second chance. He did not want everything to turn out the same way all over again. He wanted to push himself to do better, to be better.

"Change the mode to Horror."