Prologue

You trash! Stay down like the insect you are!" A bulky man kicked a skinny person's gut, making him wince in pain on the ground.

"He keeps getting beaten up by Max; why does he get up every time?

"He's dumb; his father died in millions of debt, leaving everything on his shoulders, truly pitiable."

Everyone knew about the sad life of Wayne Kimmons. Months ago, he was like many average high-school students living everyday life. His father, the founder of Kimmons Industries, had taken numerous debts from huge companies and soon fell into a vicious circle of a debt trap.

Not able to cope with the various death threats and stress, he died from a silent heart attack. Leaving all the debt to Wayne, his mother, and his little sister. Wayne's inheritance was in minus due to all the zeroes of the debt.

Wayne Kimmons was a 16 years old boy. His features could be observed as average, a frail build, 5'8 height, and black hair. His pupils were brown with a thin face. Dark circles and pale skin were evident on his face.

"Sorry for being late...." Wayne said, looking at his manager while holding one ear as an apology. The manager smiled mildly, knowing the situation well, looking at his bruised body.

"Kid, why don't you tell the police? Bullying is not a mild thing. You could screw their lives with this." The manager said. She was Cassandra Owel, the manager of a typical convenience store. A busty blonde woman in her 20s. Wayne always went into a trance by looking at her pretty face. Cassandra's skin was pearl white, with no dark circles or flaws.

"I have told you many times that Max's father is one of the people who gave my father a loan. His father is giving me time to repay it, but if I say something about his son, I will be dead."

Cassandra's eyes became sad; she hugged Wayne like usual, showing her concern to his delight. After that, he went on with his work as usual. Helping keep the shelves filled, taking the garbage out, and doing delivery for the store. The shift ended in 6 hours; it was past eight at night; Wayne waved goodbye to his colleagues and Cassandra and went back.

He first lived in a massive mansion due to the dire situation. They had to sell it to pay some dangerous loan sharks at first. After that, he lived in a two-bedroom apartment with his mother and little sister. He entered the old stained door with a spare key finding his little sister sitting at the lobby's table doing her homework. Her face bloomed with happiness after looking at Wayne; she went running to him, giving him a loving hug.

"You are back! Hm....big bro! you are hurt again!?" She exclaimed, looking at the bruised arm. Wayne patted her head in satisfaction; seeing his sister healthy made him feel relieved.

Her name was Mable Kimmons, a 13-year-old small girl. She had brown hair like her mother with big cute eyes. Wayne worked many nights and days to ensure his sister went to a good school and lived a healthy life.

"I am okay, Mable. Mom's not back yet?" Wayne tried to change the topic. But alas, Mable was not that dumb, looking at him with a pout. She maturely did not talk about it, further answering his question.

"She has gone to do work, big bro. She has kept food for you in the kitchen like usual."

Wayne chuckled sadly; he did not want to see his mother work but had no choice. After Eating all the spiced rice, he took a shower and slept. Near his bed, one could see a huge white pod with a seat inside it. It took up half of the room's space and was the reason for taking a two-bedroom apartment.

It was a VR pod, the next-generation virtual reality system that came two years ago. After selling the house, Wayne sold most of his stuff to get instant money for survival. He also wanted to sell the VR pod, but his mother stopped him. Wayne liked playing games from a young age. His mother knew about it and insisted he keep it, Wayne rebuked, but no one could say no to the saddened, teary face of their mother, right?

He hadn't used it since then, only focusing on his work and school. Morning came fast; he got ready soon and left. The school building was not that far, with only a 20-minute walk. Entering the class, he sighed in relief after not finding Max there.

"Yo, Waine!" He heard a voice from behind; looking back, he found his one and only friend in the school.

"Hey Glen, I haven't seen you talk to me for a while."

"Ya, Max is not here today, so it's okay; hey, listen!.....have you seen the new game?"

"No, I told you I don't have time for it."

"And I remember you saying that, but this game's just launched, and what's good is you can earn real money from it!"

Wayne's ears perked up from the word money; he looked at him as if saying to continue.

"Its name's Reality online; the graphics are insane, but most important is that you can convert the money earned into your bank in real life!"

Wayne couldn't believe what he had heard—earning money by playing? Before he could talk more, the teacher came to the classroom. Wayne was surprised to see the school time go by peacefully without Max. Max had taken sick leave; it was not unusual, as he always bunked, enjoying in his father's lounge.

He completed his shift like usual and went back home. He opened his laptop and saw the game; it had just launched five days ago. The world government had weirdly approved the currency of Reality online, but all this only made Wayne more excited.

'Ultra-realistic game, no less than a second world....whatever, wow, you can earn money in it.' Wayne thought

He saw the price and grimaced. It was only 400 bucks.

"It fucking sounds like a scam," Wayne said but still ordered it. The VR games were usually expensive, up to a couple of thousand dollars. But the more expensive shit was the VR pod; Wayne had the most expensive one of whopping hundred thousand bucks. He slept like a log that night, dreaming of catching Pokemon.

-----

"Wayne~ Wake up; you have a parcel." He heard his mother's voice after a long time. He went dashing out of his room and saw his mother. She was Isabelle; even after being in her end 30s, she looked like a young maiden in her 20s. Her face was full of motherly affection while looking at him.

Wayne went and hugged her; she had become very slender due to all the work she had to do. But unfortunately, he didn't realize that the courier guy was still waiting for Wayne's sign.

"Good morning~ Now, first sign there; the poor guy has been waiting for you all this while."

Wayne frowned and looked at the door; the courier guy gave him a nod while holding his laugh. Wayne went there and signed with his face beet red from embarrassment.

He closed the door and saw the small package in Isabelle's hand.

"It looks like you will start playing again."

Wayne wanted to say something but soon got held in a tight embrace.

"I am so glad~ I was really worried for you all this while; you finally started doing something like a teenager again.

"Yeah, I was just going to try it." He said. They talked for a while before Wayne went back to his room. He opened the package; there was just a tiny chip and a manual inside it. Wayne threw the manual on the bed and directly went to the VR Pod. After clicking a button, the chip section opened, and without delay, he inserted it. It was 2040; even these tiny chips could handle a couple of terabytes of data.

After deciding to skip school and take one sick day at work, he went inside the VR pod. The lid closed after he settled down, and he soon fell unconscious.

[Welcome to Reality Online!]

[Configuring user's body stats.....Successful!]

[Please choose a name for yourself!]

'Wayne, ' H thought. The name got selected without any problems. He was lucky enough as Wayne was a common name.

He soon started feeling his body; looking down, he saw the same frail frame aside from the fact that he was naked.

"Hm?"

Looking straight, he saw a blue screen with the 'choose class' as the heading. Looking at the various classes, he found some popular ones, including Knight, assassin, and Marksman. Like usual, he selected the Marksman as his class.

[You have chosen the class 'marksman']

[Providing the basic pack of the Marksman class]

[....]

[Teleporting to the starting village!]

[All the best for your adventures!]

Wayne's eyes opened again, seeing himself inside a small village. Looking everywhere, he visited various players and NPCs roaming around. The players were looking around excitedly, just like him.