1 Chapter 1

"Vincent!" a voice called causing him to glance behind. One of his classmates Peter was running across the schoolyard towards him but Vincent just continued walking even after seeing him.

"Hey Hey, she was only joking, there's no need to run away man" Peter stopped beside him short of breath but Vincent continued with an amused smile on his lips.

"Jeez man, come on. A girl confesses to you and you run away?" Peter grumbled and continued to hurry after Vincent.

Peter and Vincent were not friends but they lived close together an hour's trek from the school. Every day they walked together from school and it eventually became a habit that they'd wait for each other.

As they walked out of the school gate, Peter stopped causing Vincent to pause and turn to him in confusion.

"What happened?" Peter beat Vincent to the question.

"Where is everyone?" he asked again, looking around.

Vincent noticed what was causing Peter's surprise so he took a quick look around and his eyes widened.

"Peter, what's the time?" Vincent asked and Peter checked his watch.

"2:25 PM, why?"

Vincent was already running before Peter checked his watch, "CHAOS is live by 3" Vincent shouted his reply without stopping or turning around, and soon Peter began to run after him.

*****

'Five minutes' Vincent exclaimed victoriously in his head after opening the front door. He carelessly threw his bag to the ground and ran up the stairs to his bedroom forgetting to lock the door.

"V? Is that you?" a middle-aged woman walked out of the dining room adjacent to the living room and looked from the open door to the stairs.

"Vincent, get back down here and pick up your bag!" she shouted as soon as she noticed the school bag on the ground.

'Stupid game' she muttered to herself as she returned to the kitchen.

Unfortunately, Vincent did not hear his mother as he was already lying in the game pod.

As it closed, he experienced the familiar drowsiness as sleep overwhelmed him. The pod he was using was a general server pod for Virtual Gaming, his family could not afford the CHAOS gaming pod but this worked well. It could be used to play any other VR games too.

***

A bright light flashed and Vincent opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was... not quite what he was expecting. Instead of an NPC guide, he found himself in an unfamiliar bedroom, nothing like the fantasy games he had played before, it was like he had gone to sleep and suddenly woken up in someone else's bedroom.

'What is this?'

'Where am I?' he wondered as he got up from the bed and looked around him in confusion. His memory was very well intact and there was no wincing pain in his head so he quickly cast away the idea that he had reincarnated or transmigrated like in fantasy novels. Still, that did nothing to help his current predicament as he still had no answer about what had happened.

'Well it is not like I can find an answer sitting here' he thought and finally got up from the edge of the bed. Walking to the window, he opened the blinds. Squinting for a moment at the sudden brightness, he looked away and once his eyes had adjusted to the light, back out the window.

"Where the hell is this?" he wondered. He realized how high up he was due to the view. Outside his window was a bustling city that looked every bit normal save for a few glaring discrepancies from the world he knew. For one thing, there were even fewer people than he saw outside the school gate earlier, the skies were clear and everything sounded so... peaceful and quiet.

"Is there such a place on Earth? Is this still Earth?" he couldn't help but ask aloud. What happened to the dusty skies, the angry hurrying people in the streets, and the annoying hum in the distance of countless people talking all at the same time? The speeding cars with no regard for human life... where the hell was he?

As if on cue, something in his field of vision appeared, a text box. As he started to read, a female AI voice read everything for him and it all clicked!

[Welcome to CHAOS: Life Online. Please register your player account]

"Wha-" Vincent was stumped.

"This is it? Where are the endless possibilities? They just copied real life, didn't they?" flooded with disappointment, his expression quickly fell.

A moment later though, he looked up again and shrugged. He was already here, although it wasn't a unique fantasy game as he had hoped, maybe this was just what he needed.

There was a form in front of him to fill out. He just needed to think to input answers, his player's first and second name, age, and citizen ID. All this served to reinforce what he already knew. This was just a virtual world. There was nothing unique about it.

[Player registration complete, please enjoy your time in CHAOS World, where the only limit is your imagination]

The system message would confuse most but Vincent was more attentive than most and he picked up on the last phrase wondering what it meant.

Soon, a new system message appeared on the screen.

[Welcome to GS city. With the world in its infancy, construction is one of the most needed fields. Head to the Developer's Guild to create a construction company

NOTE: This is not a quest but a hint prompt]

"Oh... that's interesting." Although confused by everything Vincent felt like he was starting to understand what this game was.

Looking around, he observed the room for the first time. There was only his bed and bedside table on this side of it. On the other side, just beside the window was a reading table with a laptop on it. There were two doors in the room and he could quickly guess which one led out of the room. He wasn't ready to go out though so he walked to the reading table and turned on the laptop.

[Error!! Please accept the starter package]

A frown appeared on Vincent's face when he saw the error message. Looking quickly around the room he noticed there was something else on the bed. A small blue gift box. He quickly returned to the bed and picked it up. Staring intently at it, a system message popped out.

[Random Gift Box: Starter Package]

'Everyone gets this? I guess that would make sense' he thought to himself and started to open the box.

[You have opened the Starter Package and received the following items]

[Smartphone x1]

[Car keys x6]

[$100,000]

[Citizen ID x1]

For a moment Vincent was confused at the gifts. Picking up the Citizen ID first, he observed it curiously. It was a small platinum card displaying his player name, age, city of origin; which was registered as GS City, and his Player ID.

Next was the cash, but as soon as he touched it, it disappeared causing him to panic for a second. But recalling how other games usually worked, he was sure he had an inventory space or something similar.

Focusing on the car keys... nothing happened. He decided to put them away since he didn't know what to do with them yet. But when he willed to store them...again, nothing happened.

'What's going on now?' he wondered and willed to see his player status.

[Player Name: Vincent Orez]

[Reputation: 0]

[Wanted: -]

[Occupation: -]

[Money: $100,000]

[Gems: -]

\STATUS/

-HP: 100/100

-Fed: 100/100

-Rested: 100/100

-Body: Athletic

\ATTRIBUTES/

-Strength: 9

-Stamina: 6

-IQ: 186

-Reflex: 5

-Dexterity: 5

-Endurance: 10

-Focus: 20

-Willpower: 15

Now he could see where his money went. There were a few things he could not understand though, like reputation and wanted stats. Also among his attributes, he couldn't understand what IQ meant, could it be Intelligence Quotient like in the real world? Or intelligence like in games that controlled mana. Was there even mana in this world?

Since there was no official forum for this game, he would have to figure things out himself or just wait for some player to figure it out and create a player-run forum. He trusted someone would fill those shoes for the CHAOS Company.

The last thing from the Starter Package was the Smartphone. Picking it up, he wondered what exactly it could be for.

When he switched it on, he was surprised to see that it worked like a real phone with almost no difference.

Aside from utility apps like a compass, calculator, etc, other pre-installed apps caught his interest. Like the Bank app for example and a social media app called GS city. Opening it, he saw that it worked just like a local chat in other games. Unsurprisingly, he saw many complaints about the game. It was understandable as everyone was expecting something different from the CHAOS Company, then when they came up with a game, they expected it to be something grander than what they were used to but then all they saw was... a replica of reality.

Game God: "What's this? We have enough of real life."

Darker: "Took the CHAOS Company over a hundred years for this? My grandma can do this in ten days"

Annoying Gamer: "I'm a software engineering student, please ask your grandma to help me with my homework, I'll give you some brains for rewards"

Darker: "F your jelly brain"

Webber: "Good to know there are still clowns to watch here"

Only Riches: "What did you all get from the Starter Package? I just got $100mil, that's a lot right?"

The chat was silent for a little while after that.

Newborn: "What starter package?"

Noobie: "Noobs complaining about the game when they have not even left their house yet"

As he read the comments on the GS city chat, he realized that not everyone had gotten a phone from the Starter Package which made him confused for a moment. If they hadn't opened it, then how were they chatting? The laptop wouldn't work without opening the package. Could it be that the game was different for everyone?

The people in the chat group started to reduce as he watched, it seemed like they all realized there was something different and unique about this game.

Thinking about the laptop he was about to open, he walked to it and turned it on. It was a Chromebook not even a laptop and it opened to the homepage of a browser. Seeing a lot of web pages, he clicked on the one that interested him, which was the Developers Guild.

[Developers Guild GS City]

He remembered the prompt about the world being in its infancy and how someone had gotten a hundred million. Right now he could only think that he needed more money despite not knowing what was outside his door so he quickly clicked on the link to register a company.

What he didn't expect was the countless options of companies to choose from. It was stunning, seeing so many options he began to hesitate to choose the construction and decided to just go through the list. At the bottom was the option to create a new custom company but since he had nothing in mind for now, he ignored that one.

Eventually, after fighting his intrusive thoughts, he decided to be more rational and go for what was relevant at this point of the game and would remain so throughout.

There was one thought that struck him when he saw the 'GS City Branch' on the homepage of the website. What if there were other cities? After all, the game was supposed to host billions of people, wasn't it?

Selecting the construction company from the list, he registered it with his second name in reverse, Zero Construction Company. He had to pay $100 for the registration which wasn't much at all but then a prompt that he had partly expected came through.

[Please visit the Developer's Guild in your city with your Citizen ID to complete registration]

Getting up from the chair, it was finally time to leave the room. He picked up one of the car keys from the bed and for the first time walked to the exit door but he paused and looked towards the second one. Hesitating only for a second he walked towards it instead and opened it.

The door opened to a wardrobe and further ahead was a door. Through the sides of the curtain covering the door, he could tell it was the bathroom. That was when he noticed, he was sweating from the sleep just now. There was air-conditioning and a ceiling fan in the room but neither of them was working so he thought it was just for display.

'I guess if this is really a copy of reality then in time I will start to smell?' He was impressed by the game mechanics because he could actually perceive smells.

Deciding to shower, he took his time washing like he would in reality and then changed from his school clothing (copied by the game pod) into a grey t-shirt and white pants he found in the wardrobe. They fit him just right, which he guessed was controlled by the system.

Finally, it was time to see the world out there. He guessed by now he was already behind others because he knew that not everyone would stay in patiently to understand the situation when the door was just right there.

Heart beating with anticipation, he put on his shoes, walked towards the door, and opened it.