Chapter 1: Back in time

He had lost.

Everything was gone and everyone was dead, he was the last survivor of the game that was designed by the outer gods to invade earth and take it over, in the end, the king of the outer gods was far too strong for the remaining players to defeat and now he too, would die.

"It was delightful to watch you puny humans struggle, while it is impressive that you took down a few lower-level gods and even a few outer gods it is nowhere enough to defeat me!" A booming voice thundered across a blood-soaked battlefield.

Noah chuckled, "I swear if I get the chance to kill you I will take it, no matter the cost, watch your days you filthy monster, I will come back and kill you!" Noah shouted with whatever strength remained in his body.

Alas, his words were nothing but words and he died... and got sent back in time.

Noah awoke with a gasp, he held his head painfully as a rush of memories assaulted him, his entire life played before him, from the days of his childhood to the nightmare that it had become.

He grunted with pain and sat up, "What the hell happened?" Noah asked himself.

He opened his eyes and looked around, he was shocked, to say the least, he was in his old room, a place that should have long been destroyed.

His eyes widened and he quickly rushed to a nearby calendar, 2022! he had gone back in time!

In 2030 the world had become integrated with the game and within 2 years all humans had died, he had gone back 10 years!

His eyes became dark, he had a chance to save everyone, he could save the world!

Currently, it was December 10th, the game would be released on December 17th so he had a week to prepare himself, he was currently only 18 years old and was in his last year of high school which would become irrelevant once the game was released since you could convert in-game money into real money.

The best plan would be to drop out so that he could focus all his time on the game and buy the game capsule which cost at the lowest level 1000 dollars, and the most expensive one, 10 thousand.

It was a lot smarter to get the most expensive one since it would make the game smoother and would actually provide a large benefit in the early stages of the game.

But first, he had to go to school, which would be quite a weird experience, since Noah had good looks and worked out a lot he was very popular, but he never made any friends other than 1 guy since most people only wanted to be friends with him to become popular in school.

Noah was actually an orphan and he had never met his parents but his parents had left him quite a bit of money behind, most of which was used to pay for his rent and for bills, food, etc.

He left the house and headed to the bus which would get him to his school, on the way he was greeted by a few other students, he simply nodded back at them and paid them no more attention.

He arrived at his school which was just your average American high school and walked to his class, where he saw that his 1 friend had already arrived.

He walked up to him and sat down next to him.

"Hey Matt." Noah greeted his friend, Matthew White, they had been friends for a long time and they even joined the same guild in Monster: Online, but Mathew was one of the first ones to fall, Noah would have actually died if it hadn't been for Mathew sacrificing himself to save him, he would definitely have to help him out.

Mat looked up and grinned at Noah, "Hey bro! I heard that there was a big gaming team coming to our school today to look for new members for Monster: Online, you wanna sign up later?" Matt asked Noah.

Noah thought for a second, his memory wasn't perfect so he didn't actually remember which team it was, but he decided to decline.

"Nah not really, I actually already have a plan to start my own guild in Monster: Online, and I'll have to tell you something later," Noah said.

Before Matt could respond a teacher came through the door and the lesson started, Noah had already graduated in the future so he still knew most of the stuff, he just had to re-read them.

A few hours later the lessons were over and they could head home, but Noah had a different destination, namely the principal's office.

Matt was following Noah and was confused about why they were going to the principal's office, "Hey Noah, why are we going to the principal's office?" Matt asked

Noah decided to explain his plans to Matt before they arrived at their destination, "I'm going to drop out of school."

Matt looked at Noah shocked, "Wait wait wait, why so suddenly? What are you gonna do if you drop out?" Matt asked concerned for Noah.

"Calm down dude, I have a secret that I wanted to keep as a surprise, you know how there were a thousand beta players?" Noah asked and Matt nodded.

"I was lucky enough to get selected to be a beta player, and it turns out that the money you earn in-game can be exchanged for real-life money," Noah said to Matt.

Matt's eyes widened in realization, "So you're gonna become a full-time gamer?" he asked.

Noah smiled, "Yeah I am, if you want you can even join me, I have various places to grind and I know the best ways to level up quickly." Noah told Matt.

Matt seemed to be in thought, "Noah, you know that I trust you but my parents wouldn't allow me to just drop out, but I can maybe convince them if you show them results, but either way, we only have 2 more months of school left and I don't have plans of going to college so I'll just join you then." Matt told Noah.

Since Matt didn't have anything else to do at school he decided to go back home.

Noah arrived at the principal's office and quickly filled in the paperwork that was required to drop out, he just had to provide valid reasons to drop out, he basically went with the route that he didn't have enough money to survive and had found a job and didn't have time for school.

With that done Noah only had one more place to go to, the bank.

His parents left him more than enough money so he still had around 35 thousand dollars left on his account, but he would have to use 20 thousand to buy himself and Matt the best game pod.

Your starting stats were decided by the game pod, it scanned your body and analyzed your physique by sending small electric shocks through your body, by stimulating your body it would gauge your strength, etc. this is why it was better to get the more expensive game pods first as they would provide better results and would provide a thing that was very important for the game.

Going to the bank took a lot longer since he was questioned as to why he needed 20 thousand, a bank official thought he was being extorted so he had to order the two game pods inside the bank to prove that he wasn't being extorted for money.

All that was left was waiting for the game to be officially released.