I never considered myself someone lucky, handsome, or intelligent. In fact, I even found those characteristics superficial.
Was someone lucky for being born rich?
Was someone handsome when compared to another?
Was someone intelligent for having good grades in school?
All nonsense.
Only reality could tell the truth.
A homeless person would call themselves lucky finding a place to sleep.
An ugly person would say they are handsome when compared to someone deformed.
An idiot could rule a country.
So who could measure reality and distinguish the best from the worst?
That is why I asked myself repeatedly:
How did I get here?
Despite not fitting into any of those characteristics, I reached the top!
My eyes turned forward.
I walked slowly down the red carpet. Some might say there was a majestic aura hovering above my head, and with every step taken, my enemies shuddered.
Too melancholic.
My destination was the seat a little further ahead. A throne made from the bones of one of the most powerful creatures to ever walk the earth and fly the skies: a dragon.
I sat slowly and carefully on the luxurious, yet not at all comfortable, throne.
I felt someone approach shortly after. It was someone I knew well. My personal servant.
My eyes fell upon her bright, vivid green skin. They then circled her statuesque body and descended to the pair of vines parading from both sides of her waist.
She commonly used them as additional auxiliary limbs to assist with her daily tasks.
One of those tasks was to be a treat for my eyes, but her true role was to deliver news and serve a bit of her special tea.
The tea she made had a special flavor, and I adored it. It was a mixture of sweet and salty.
Arriving at my side, she flashed a huge smile, showing all her teeth. She touched my shoulders with her soft hands and slid them down to my back, massaging slowly.
"Master," she said with a smooth voice, soft to the ears, which even made my heart race. "The attack is already underway. A few thousand have died, but our Floor Bosses are confident of victory. My congratulations."
A smile escaped me, though it wasn't a smile of satisfaction; it was more like an inevitable acceptance of what I had already foreseen. Nothing gratifying.
I made a gesture with my hand, beckoning her closer, and affectionately ran my hand over her beautiful face, sliding it near her lips.
I ended up feeling a bit unhappy in the process.
You know... her skin was soft. Touching it filled me with indescribable feelings—so real! But I knew. That feeling made me unhappy.
Perhaps it was my problem, I can't say; but this feeling never went away.
This majestic hall, this faithful servant; the gold, the silver, everything was fake.
They were just data inside a server. Various zeros and ones. Advanced programming; but, at the same time, robotic in its very essence.
She seemed real, but of course, I knew she wasn't; I created her. A digital existence. Made only to be attractive, made exclusively to love me, made this way because I wanted it this way.
She couldn't make choices, and I couldn't take from her what she didn't have.
I created her.
She smiled, pulling my hand back to her face and guiding it down to her chin. Her eyes shined, and she let lust slip through.
However, I pulled away, letting out a long sigh and returning to my thoughts.
Boredom...
Since when did I abandon my enthusiasm? My passions? I was such an enthusiastic person; so proactive and curious, a true adventurer. I braved so much... only to arrive at this point of uncertainty.
Nothing around me was like it was before. Even though it never really was. There was always that terrible feeling.
The wonderful world I was in was nothing more than a simulation. In short, a Virtual Reality, a VRMMORPG.
However, this wasn't simply a little game; it was the greatest of them all, the most played and accessed in the world!
And me? Well... not wanting to brag. I am the greatest player in the world, Kayn.
Among everyone who has ever played, I am the most qualified; whether in power, wealth, or numbers. Among everyone, I am the best.
Yet, I realized something too late. Although I once loved this world, it was by no means reality.
The real world tended to be boring in my eyes, but at least it was... real. Virtual Reality was wonderful, but fake.
"Master, the Floor Bosses succeeded!" shouted the servant, enthusiastic. She ended up catching my attention and pulling me from my thoughts.
I quickly extended my hand into the air. A blue sphere appeared in it, and from it, some images began to emerge, covering my entire field of vision with a blue screen.
Millions of monsters marched toward a gigantic tower. They carried with them the spoils of a hard battle.
I actually won.
The game I am in is called Vangloria. Unlike its competitors—if one could even call the others that—it had surreal realism and was created by a supercomputer that controlled this world's system.
Inside the game, it was possible to do almost anything. It was dozens of times larger than Earth; even years after its release, players only knew one continent of this vast world.
The computer also created the NPCs; these possessed a surreal Artificial Intelligence.
Soon this game dominated the entire world, as if it were a second life. People almost abandoned reality, and everything was based on the game. The economy turned to the game, culture, sports, everything!
The best players were celebrities. Kings were rich; emperors, millionaires. And, among all the thousands of people, I was the best.
The best in the world!
This, however, once again, made me think of that... again? That question I always asked myself upon waking: How did I get here? Do I deserve all this?
For now, I decided to keep taking things as they were. Using a common colloquialism: just going through the motions.
"Issue an order! Everyone must return to the Dungeon. The mission has been accomplished," I proclaimed to the servant at my side.
For a second, emotion ran through me, and I smiled from ear to ear.
The servant vanished into thin air; she went to fulfill my orders.
A few seconds passed, and soon a screen full of messages appeared before my eyes.
❂❂❂ Monsters returned to the dungeon. The conquest of the continent was successful. The spoils are being delivered. Congratulations to the user for being the first player to destroy a continent.
[Fire Emblem] Acquired [Death Emblem] Acquired [Elven Emblem] Acquired [Cauldron Usage] Acquired ❂❂❂
After a difficult start when I began playing, I obtained an extremely rare class that helped me greatly.
The game system had been created so that players could manage everything themselves—that is, cities, kingdoms, and empires could be administered by users.
Various players formed clans with the goal of subjugating the rest, but I, completely alone, was the only one to achieve this feat.
Everyone who faced me died in battle or fled to the other, newly discovered continent.
Just as I thought about this new continent—my new playground—the servant returned, and I observed her carefully.
She always had a smile on her face. It was very realistic, but the small details, almost imperceptible, made me realize that despite everything, she was not a living being.
"Master," she called.
"Speak," I said with disinterest.
"Some Bosses died. Our damages were immense, but with the spoils received, we will be able to rebuild everything in about three months, and in three more, our forces will triple!"
"I see..." Still bored, I began to plan my subsequent moves. My next goal was to dominate the rest of this fake world. "Servant, prepare my cauldron. I feel that today I will be able to advance in my experim..."
Suddenly, my vision began to blur. The ground started to shake, as if an earthquake were happening inside my head.
I realized it was only happening to me, for the servant remained standing calmly.
"Master! What happened?!" her voice rang through the huge hall.
I couldn't understand my situation. The whole world was trembling, but it was only for me. The servant remained standing as if nothing were occurring.
Immediately after, a destructive headache, like a thousand needles crashing against my skull and descending, struck my body down to my feet.
I quickly logged out of the game, seeing my servant's face for the last time.
Upon disconnecting, I opened my eyes slowly and saw the greatest of nightmares. The luxurious capsule, said to be a breakthrough in the field it was created for, the item I spent a massive fortune to obtain, was shaking entirely and had smoke coming out the sides.
With every tremor, it rocked from side to side, throwing my body along with it and spinning in all directions.
The worst part? I was inside it and locked in!
This type of capsule was coated in resistant glass. It brought the highest realism to the game, so the user's entire body stayed inside.
Without thinking straight, I began to pound like a madman. I hit and kicked, desperately trying to escape.
When the air circulation ceased and the smoke began to enter, I felt like my heart would come out of my mouth.
The armored glass allowed no escape.
My screams for help resonated through the house, but I knew no one would come. I lived alone.
Damn! Damn! DAMN!!!
The machine that allowed me to climb to the top of the world had become a death trap. I fell into it.
They said that when dying of carbon dioxide poisoning, you simply blacked out, but with me, it was different.
My eyes grew heavy, my hands slowed in their banging against the glass, which was already bloodied by this point, and my mind became confused.
Am I really going to die like this...?
It was too late for regrets.
At least...
I clung to that pride that, despite everything, I held onto until the end.
When my lungs filled with smoke and my eyes finally tired of trying to hold up the weight, I thought:
I am the Best in the World!
❂❂❂
A middle-aged man stood in a dark room. A few strands of hair fell onto the desk, and white ones were appearing—more than normal for his age.
He had a serious expression on his face.
"Was he eliminated?" he asked with a look of anger.
Target 03 successfully eliminated.
A mechanical voice sounded along with the green glow that blinked from the void.
"Excellent... Continue with the game expansion. I'll invent a story that his machine had issues. Save the data you obtained and store it so this never happens again."
There was a problem. All monster, item, skill, and statistic data related to Target 03 were completely deleted.
"What!? Review everything again!"
A green glow blinked, and half a second later, the voice sounded again.
They were not deleted...
The man sighed; he felt relieved, but only for a short period of time, for the voice soon concluded its statement.
Apparently, a part of my entire command matrix; a piece of me, was deleted along with the elimination of Target 03.
"That is impossible! Review everything! That bastard! Even dead, he manages to ruin the entire balance I built!"
Suddenly, the entire dark room lit up with thousands of green lights. That was the supercomputer that controlled Vangloria; the man was the creator of this machine and the world inside it.
An image descended from the ceiling, the photo of a player: Kayn. He had destroyed the game's balance and, consequently, destroyed everything the chief administrator had built. On the image was a number and a word.
"Target 03: Eliminated"
❂❂❂
This sensation of non-existence was very strange. I couldn't feel anything; my consciousness wandered in a void without thoughts, without touch. It wasn't a sad or lonely sensation, it was just... nothingness.
And then something changed. The space around opened up, and my consciousness returned to rationalizing. In front of me, a gigantic wall presented itself imposingly.
It was difficult to describe—since I couldn't actually see—but I knew it was there, filling the entire infinity of that singular existence.
A strange force told me not to approach that wall, yet an instinctive feeling made me want to go.
❂❂❂ [Searching for world with similarity] [World Found...] [Initiating rebirth process] ❂❂❂
That voice in the void, which resonated in my mind, reminded me of the first important message I received upon entering the game. The message that made me reach the top of Vangloria.
[Class: Dungeon Master] Acquired