As Yan Luyu left the hospital, he thought of his betrayal, and anger rose again, until he heard the voice of his new younger sister. Her voice caused him to snap out of his trance, calming down.

“Big brother, you’re spacing out again.”

“Sorry, I was just thinking of something.”

As they were returning home, his father and sister started talking about a new revolutionary game. Ignoring them on the way home, he worked on finishing the sorting of his new memories.

Reaching the house, his father calls out to him, “Son, a package arrived in the mail yesterday for you. I put it in your room”

“What is it?” he says curiously, wondering who could possibly be sending him a package.

“I don’t know. I didn’t look inside, but it was quite large, but it didn’t weigh that much.” His father says shrugging.

“I’ll go check it out” he responds curtly heading for his bedroom on the next floor.

Reaching his room he sees a simple room containing a small bed in the center, a punching bag in one of the corners of the room along with a small basket of wooden weapons, a small bookshelf holding a number of books that would help his training, and a rather new addition. Laying across from the punching bag lays a dark wood box.

Going over to the wooden box, thinking this must be his new package, and on top of it there is a note that read:

Dear Participant,

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

We are happy to inform you that you are one of the lucky winners, lucky winner #968 to be exact, of one of the very first versions of The Lost Cosmos!

~Phoenix Rising

Reading the note, he thinks of how Phoenix Rising, a very mysterious and eccentric game company, did things. Their secrecy, their boastfulness, and their seriousness all paint a rather strange picture. It seemed that despite their actions, they aren’t that inconspicuous.

Setting down the note he returned his attention to the box he opened it. Inside the box was a sleek silver capsule that was large enough to fit him inside. The capsule had the words ‘Phoenix Rising’ on it. An instruction manual was also inside.

He started looking through the manual to see how to set the system up. It consists of a 13-step process and a large warning label on it. This was because after ‘The Great Calamity’, all companies were required to have large warning labels on their products to keep people from causing a mass genocide by accident.

The steps were rather simple to finish, so it didn’t take that long for him to get everything ready. Reading further into the manual, he saw that the game, The Lost Cosmos, was already installed on the capsule.

Seeing that there were two weeks before he could really do anything with the capsule, he ignored it for the time being. Thinking about the game further, he decided that he would play it for one reason, it would be able to grant a more profound combat experience as he would not need to worry about death. It would also be able to help him stabilize his foundation for internal qi.

As it would take a long time to regain his internal qi, he started practicing with his sword again. Going over to the punching bag, he picked up a wooden sword. He then closed his eyes and started breathing slowing. It was like he was becoming one with the sword.

If someone was in the room at this time, they would have sensed that the air inside was unnaturally still and quiet. His eyes then suddenly snapped open and for an instant, the room was filled with an extremely sharp and cold intent. It as though a treasure sword was ripped out of its sheath to show the world its sharp blade.

Flash

Rip

And then the atmosphere returned to its previous calm nature. As if nothing had ever happened. But if one were to look at the punching bag, they would have found a terrifying large gash on the center of it. Yan Luyu then looked back at his sword with a thoughtful expression.

As the wooden sword was used for training it didn’t have an edge.

“It seems I have lost a lot of control with this new body.” he thought to himself as he sighed. “And as the sages have once said that without control a sword is nothing but a crude axe. Thus I must start training again.”

For the next 13 days, he continued to practice his internal qi and his sword control. Until finally the day comes where The Lost Cosmos has it’s servers open.