The early morning sunlight bled softly through the curtains. Dust motes drifted in the air lazily. A man was sprawled on the bed loudly snoring. He was so out of it as if this was the first time in years he was sleeping so well.

But someone did not understand that. Bang bang bang. There was a loud knock at the door.

Damon flinched awake, and groggily sat up. Another knock followed, louder this time, almost furious. The door shook like it was about to be kicked it off its hinges. 

Damon stumbled to his feet. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and cursed under his breath, dragging himself to the accursed door. "If this is another delivery I didn't order..."

He swung it open, ready to tear a new one apart. Instead, he froze.

Staring at him was a goddess. A woman who looked like she had just stepped out of a modeling catalog.

She was stunning in every way. Her long blonde hair fell in lazy waves over a crimson jacket that clung to her body. Her legs were long and sculpted, and her figure was effortlessly perfect. It should be criminal for someone to have curves like this and walk among normal people. 

Everything about her was hot, but her blue eyes… Her eyes were cold and indifferent. They lacked even an ounce of emotion, making anyone looked at her feel very uncomfortable.

Damon's mouth hung open. Not that he did not know her. He knew her very well but he was still shocked to his core. How was she here? Why was she here? He stood like a statue and gawked at her, his brain completely short-circuiting.

A look of disgust flashed past the beautiful face as she looked at Damon especially his lower half which was clearly pitching a tent but Damon did not care. He was not staring because she was beautiful. He was staring because this woman should not be here right now!

"Your mail." The ice-cold beauty extended her hand.

When Damon did not respond, she shoved a small envelope into his hands and turned away to walk to the apartment in front of his. She opened the door, went inside, and shut the door on his face.

Yup, this was none other than his ridiculously hot girl next door. When he first moved into the apartment, he was over the moon for having hit such a jackpot situation but that was a long time ago. A lot had happened after that.

Damon stood there for a long time completely dumbfounded before he scrambled back into his studio apartment. He crashed onto the bed, his chest heaving up and down. He was having a panic attack.

Why was she here? What was happening? He knew her a long time ago, so why was she here now?

He frantically looked around when he noticed that his entire apartment looked different. It looked like she was in the right place and he was in the wrong place.

This was the old apartment he had moved into straight from his parent's house. He should no longer be here. He had already moved out a while ago.

How could he still be here? He closed his eyes as pain and frustration overwhelmed him. This place had seen both the best of him and the worst of him.

"No," he whispered. "No, no, no… it can't be possible." How could he be here? Was he going crazy? Was he hallucinating?

He rushed to the closet and yanked it open. His old hoodie was there. He turned to the desk and flipped open the laptop. His old login wallpaper flashed across the screen, a half-naked Nicole Kidman. Damn it, he was definitely going crazy!

Damon took a deep breath. His trembling fingers then opened the calendar widget on the right bottom corner of his laptop. An impossible date stared back at him.

March 3rd, 2042.

Damon staggered backward, dropping into his chair like his knees had given out. That was three years ago. The exact day Earth Online launched.

The blood drained from his face. Somehow, some way, he was back. Before the betrayal. Before the fall. Before Aiden stabbed him in the back and stole everything.

Damon clutched his head, cradling it in between his palms. How did this happen? The last thing he remembered was standing in the resurrection lake to reset his character and begin all over again. He was going to create a new character and claw his way back one more time.

This was not something other players would choose to do because when a character was reset, there was a penalty associated with it.

They inherently would only be able to receive less stats every level and needed more experience points to level up. There were also a couple more penalties here and there which would basically make the character a dud at best.

However, Damon was already at rock bottom. Thanks to his guild mate and his so-called best friend, everything he had worked for had been crushed and laid waste in a single day.

Bloodreign.

The legendary artifact he was first in line to claim. The item that would've cemented his name across the leaderboards. He had done everything right. He had worked tirelessly for days on end for the hidden quest.

But none of it mattered. Aiden had shown his true colors just before the final phase and stabbed him through the back right when the boss was about to drop dead. He snatched the fucking legendary item right from under him!

Without the drop, he failed the quest and the backlash was simply too high. Not only did he lose the legendary item but the quest failure also gave a heavy penalty.

Damon was left paralyzed inside the game. His character was trashed beyond recovery. He was essentially crippled with no way out. His guild which he had helped build from scratch disowned him.

All his friends pretended as if he did not exist. Everyone he knew laughed at him and turned their backs on him. Not one person supported him. Instead only painful messages popped up.

"It's just a video game. Don't make a big deal out of it."

"You were stupid to let that shit happen to you."

"You are shit at playing this game. It's just a dumb game. Why don't you quit and go to an actual job like the rest of us?"

Damon's chest tightened as the memories flooded back to him. He had poured everything into Earth Online, every sleepless night, every ounce of hope, every scrap of determination, only to have it all torn away from him at the very last moment.

Without this game, he had nothing. He had no degree. Heck, he did not want to do any other job. He had worked day and night to become good at this game and he was just on the verge of making it big when everything came crumbling down.

Damon slowly exhaled. The truth was, even after all of this, even knowing the reset would basically make him a dud, he never planned to give up.

He returned to Earth Online last night despite everything. He wanted to bury what was left of himself and start over as a new low-level player. He stripped everything, deleted his gear, walked into the Resurrection Lake and confirmed the irreversible reset.

Right. That was when he kind of lost his consciousness and when he woke up again... He was here. Back in his old apartment, back in his old body, and somehow, against all logic, back in time.

Three years ago on the same morning it all began.

...

When 2042 rolled in, the entire gaming world had its eyes on one name, Earth Online. It wasn't just the next big release, it was a revolution. Tornado Games had promised something no one had done before, a fully immersive VR experience so real, so responsive, it would make you question where the game ended and your life began.

Damon had been hooked from the start.

He had spent weeks reading every leak, every interview, every conspiracy theory on shady forums. Against his parents' wishes, he dropped most of his savings on the gaming gear the moment pre-orders went live. He just knew this wasn't going to be an ordinary game.

And it wasn't.

It turned out to be meta-breaking and game changing!

Now, standing in his old apartment, the same one he had moved into right out of his parent's house, he found himself staring at the past as it had never left. His eyes drifted to the shelf, where the VR helmet rested exactly where he used to keep it.

He walked over, slowly, and picked it up. Questions flooded his mind. Was he hallucinating? Dreaming? How the hell could he be back here? His brain scrambled for logic, but none of it made sense. The date, the room, even the woman from earlier, it all screamed impossible.

But deep down, he felt it. This was real.

Somehow, some way, he was back in time.

And honestly? He didn't care why. Not right now. If this was real, if this was truly happening, then he wasn't going to waste a second. Not this time. He had been cheated once. He wasn't going to let it happen again.

He looked down at the helmet in his hands and took a slow, steady breath.

"Let's do it right this time," he muttered.

He placed the helmet back down on the shelf and took a step back. First, he needed a moment. A reset.

Damon made his way to the bathroom, letting the familiar hiss of the shower fill the space. The water was hot but he didn't care. He stood under the hot water, letting it wash off everything. All the confusion, the fear, and the grief that still lingered somewhere deep inside.

Today was the first day he didn't feel like a failure. The first time in months he hadn't woken up already exhausted. There was still fear, sure and doubt. But underneath all of that was something stronger. A madness to take back what was his and then some more. 

He stared at his reflection in the fogged-up mirror. His face looked younger. Less tired. Like the world hadn't beaten him down yet.

Depression was no joke. It crept up on you, wore you down slowly, like rust on metal and Damon had spent months corroding. There were days when simply getting out of bed felt unbearable. He couldn't face his parents. He couldn't face his friends or even walk outside without getting ridiculed.

He did not want to let it all get to him but eventually, it did.

But this time, everything was going to be different. This time he knew exactly what was coming.

Damon got dressed in fresh clothes, cleaner than he remembered. No more stains. No more weeks-old pizza boxes stacked in the corner. Everything about this apartment looked like it had been reset right alongside him. Had he really been this clean once?

He let out a sigh and ordered some food. Good food from his favorite Indian restaurant. He added extra naan and a mango lassi, just because he could. When it arrived, he devoured the meal like a hungry raccoon.

After he finished eating, he cleared the table, actually cleared it, and wiped it down. Then he took another look around the apartment and pinched himself in the hand. He half-expected everything to go back to the way it was but nope. He was still here and still breathing.

Damon shook off the nervousness and the unsettling feeling. He needed to make plans now. He could not afford to waste time and think about what was real and what was not. This was happening and he was going to go along with it.

He did not know how or why but he did not care. He was handed a second chance and he was going to grab it by the tits. That was that.

He calmed himself and took a notepad and pen. He sat down at the table and then began writing. So many things had happened and it was so difficult to remember everything. But he jogged his mind back to the very first day and slowly one by one everything came back to him.

He tried to note down as much as he could. He had four hours left before the game launch officially began. Only four hours. It felt like both too much time and not nearly enough.

Damon tapped the pen nervously against the notepad, flipping through scraps of memory. Dates. Events. Hidden triggers. Patch exploits that hadn't been discovered yet. Where the secret vendors spawned. What time the first major world event would crash the servers.

He wrote everything he could remember with his messy and chaotic handwriting.

So many players would waste their first few hours experimenting, gawking at the graphics, or wandering around aimlessly. But not him. Not this time. He had a plan.

He kept writing. Exploit stacking methods. Dialogue trees with NPCs that unlocked secret affinity levels. Early-game bosses with loot tables no one would expect. It felt surreal, remembering things that technically hadn't even happened yet.

He paused for a moment, tapping the pen lightly against the page.

Aiden.

The name alone felt like a knife. His former best friend. The one person he trusted most. And the one who stabbed him in the back at the most crucial moment.

Damon clenched his jaw, the pen nearly snapping in his fingers. He took a deep breath and forced himself to keep writing. He didn't have time for revenge fantasies. Not yet.

First, power.

Then, everything else.

By the time he finished, two pages were filled with scribbled notes and a crude roadmap of the next 48 hours. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than anything he'd ever had before. He folded the paper neatly and tucked it under the keyboard. Just in case.

He glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes left.

Damon stood, stretched, and walked back to the shelf.

He picked up the helmet again and held it in both hands. The surface shimmered faintly under the light. He was ready. He sat down on his bed and lowered the helmet onto his head before lying down in a relaxed pose.

The screen lit up.

[EARTH ONLINE SYSTEM BOOTING…]

Damon closed his eyes as the world around him faded into nothingness.

...

Five, Four, Three, Two, One

Ding!

Damon opened his eyes and the darkness around him dissipated, replaced with a bright and sunny world. He was standing in front of a solemn monolithe.

A beautiful angel flew towards him and flashed a cute smile. She had a halo floating gently above her head, and soft, feathery wings that shimmered in the light like spun silver. Her golden hair danced with the breeze, and her eyes sparkled with kindness and innocence.

"Welcome to Earth Online!" she chirped, voice light and musical. "By the grace of the Skyfather and the blessings of the Seven Realms, you have been chosen to walk the path of destiny!"

Damon blinked against the sudden brightness. His senses were still adjusting. 

"I am your guiding angel, Moonshine. I will be introducing you to the world and show you all the-"

The introduction was an hour long one and Damon had no plans of wasting his time on something like this. "Skip." He interrupted the angel.

She did not seem offended in the least and instead extended a hand to him. "Would you like to begin the tutorial?"

Damon would have preferred to skip this one as well but he knew a little secret about this tutorial and had no plans on missing out on that title this time around.

Damon took her hand. "Ya. Let's begin."

The moment their hands touched, the scenery shimmered. The bright fields and gentle breeze melted away, replaced by the tutorial zone, a small cave.

The cave was cozy and there was moss everywhere. A second after he arrived, the first rabbit spawned. Then two more popped up. They were round, fluffy things with big glossy eyes and twitching noses. White, brown, a few black-spotted ones. Their ears flopped as they hopped around cutely.

They were completely harmless. They didn't drop loot. Didn't grant experience. Barely nibbled for one point of damage. They existed solely for one reason: to let new players learn the basics of movement and timing without fear of death. Most people spent five minutes here, tops, before moving on to the "real" part of the game.

But not Damon. He reached down, grabbed a medium-sized rock and then, without hesitation, he slammed the rock down onto the first rabbit.

Thud. The rock came down hard, and the rabbit didn't even have time to squeak. Its body crumpled beneath the blow, soft fur torn apart, bones shattered. Blood pooled under it, seeping into the cracks of the cave floor.

Damon stared down at the mess for a second. The game prided itself on realism and that included the way a rabbit's skull caved in under a rock. He was already used to things like this. This was not his first time after all.

He quickly moved on to the next one and soon the corpses started piling up. But he was only in the dozens and he needed hundreds. He sucked in a big breath and got to work. He kept his movements simple and his actions small. A couple of hours quickly passed and his stamina was close to bottoming out. Finally, the notification chimed in.

[Ding! You have completed the tutorial]

[Ding! Title Unlocked: Rabbit killer - I hate cute little bunnies]

Damon's figure disappeared from the small cave and appeared in the middle of the newbie small town. He was wearing a simple linen cloth shirt and pants. 

He was back in the Gryphon town, a small town on the outskirts of the Nieta Falls city. This was his starting town in his last life and he had arrived at the same place this time as well.

Damon let out a breath of relief. The starting point was usually random and he did not want a big portion of his plan to get messed up because of this randomness. But it turns out even randomness cannot escape fate. He spawned in the same place as before.

All around him, players continued to materialize out of thin air. Gasps and shocked shrieks could be heard everywhere as the crowd experienced the realistic aspect of the game.

"Wow, I cannot believe this. How is this real man? Where was this technology all my life?"

"Oh my god. I can walk. Run. Jump."

"Hey, hey. Do you think we can do that inside the game? Should be realistic right? Fuck it. Where are the brothels at? Today is the day this big daddy is finally going to lose his virginity!"

"You perverted piece of shit! By the way, where are the brothers? Asking for a friend..."

"What the fuck? What is this fat-ass character profile? Shit! I cannot change my image?"

"Yes, bitch. If you are ugly in the real world, your ass will be ugly here too."

"Wait, we can't even change the gender? What sort of a stupid game makes catfishing impossible?"

The entire atmosphere was extremely lively and people were still trying to make sense of the game and enjoying the simple experience of living in a different world. A couple of women turned towards Damon to look at him.

"What the fuck? Rabbit killer? Did he kill a lot of those rabbits?"

"What a freak?! Who would kill those little things?"

"Ah, fuck. If I knew there was a title associated with it, I would have spent more time in the damned tutorial!"

Some gave him a stink eye and some looked jealous but Damon did not care. He walked away, quietly pulling up his status screen and tampering with it. The first thing he did was turn off his title display. He then adjusted the rest of his character profile.

Actually, there wasn't much to adjust. The in-game character was pretty much a copy of the real-life physical body. One's in-game name was also locked to the government-registered name. The only thing anyone could change was their nickname. Everything else was fixed.

Damon flinched a little as he typed in his nickname. Unfortunately, he had to pick a nickname that he absolutely hated. The same cringe nickname he had in his previous life because that was important and could potentially determine the rest of his path going forward.