Victor awaited happily for his chance to play Wish once more. Unlike mere Beta Testers, Victor had had played Wish for over five years in his previous life. He had achieved well over level 400, and probably knew more about the game than even the developers at MalCore. In his old life, Victor had slowly amassed fame, fortune, and clout through his own merit. In Wish, Victor had practically been invincible. In real life, however, Victor had been constantly harassed by those who he humiliated.
Victor had been killed while he had been gaming in his past life! A average and boring day of grinding was suddenly interrupted when his vision became blurry and he was forcefully ejected from his pod. Immense pain shot through his abdomen and rivers of blood poured through his stomach. His body became cold and his life flashed before his eyes. He only felt regret looking back at it.
Victor was still a virgin and didn't really use any of the money her got from trading in game gold and items into real world money! The reputation Victor had established for himself and the clout he made in game came back to bite him in butt. He was barely 24, there was so much more life Victor was supposed to have lived!
In his old life, Victor had put all of his focus in one thing and one thing only, making his in game character stronger so he could become number one in Wish. It was a bad habit of Victor's to focus on one thing single mindedly and do the bare minimum of all else until he accomplished his task. Victor never reached number one in the in game rankings no matter how hard he tried. Victor was probably a millionaire, but he was still living in the same dingy old apartment that he had since the launch of Wish. He only used his money on simple food and ramen, never tried to impress or chase girls, and Wish had never been fun for him since he focused solely on grinding.
As Victor took his last breath, he hoped for a do-over! Sadly, there was no such thing as a reset button or time machine. Victor's consciousness faded and when it returned there was only darkness?
*********
Victor's mind slowly settled down. Instead of being in a upright inclined position, that of the pod, Victor was lying flat on a soft surface. Victor could not tell whether this was Limbo, heaven, hell, or some other nothingness. All Victor could feel that his body was no longer cold, instead he felt serene laying down on what seemed to be a soft cushion.
'Was this heaven?'
Victor's eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. He was in a small dark blue colored room, a fan lightly blowing in the background could be heard. A large old brown desk took up most of the space here. The walls were bare aside from two large cyan blackout curtains hanging on the two windows around Victor, preventing any light from entering. Victor was on a Twin sized bed with Turquoise sheets. He felt very nostalgic. This was Victor's room at his parent's house, no?
After examining himself, Victor found no blood and it seemed he lost about two inches in height? Looking in the mirror, Victor saw the pimples of his youth etched into his face. Looking at the calendar on the wall, Victor quickly realized he was 14 again?!? Victor dance a little jig and shouted at the top of his lung.
"YEAAAH!"
'Since I only got to live less than a fourth of my natural life, are the gods giving me a second chance?'
After a short dance, and a few shouts from his room, Victor's parents came to check up on him. There was no reason Victor should suddenly be shouting and making noise after coming home from school and resting alone. They had also been resting after a long day of work, but kids will be kids. Victor's parents went to check on him just in case he hurt himself. After confirming Victor was ok, they went back to reading and relaxing.
Victor calmed himself down once again. Wish came out when Victor was nineteen, he didn't get to play Wish till he was 20 since he did pre order a headset and had to wait to buy it when it was more readily available. Victor knew all the in and out of Wish. If he started playing when everyone else was new he could easily be number one, Victor thought. Victor knew himself well enough though. If Victor set his goal as number one again, he would probably fall into the same trap in his first life. Even if Victor became number one, his competitive and one sided nature wouldn't let him stop. Victor would have to keep number one forever and he wouldn't have any fun again.
'With age comes wisdom I guess!'
After pondering on things for a bit, Victor set a new goal for himself. In this life he would keep a low profile, instead of building up clout or fame! Victor didn't need either of the two all he needed was wealth to enjoy life more. Victor could become rich and powerful from the game without anybody knowing who he really was or even who his character was if he played his cards right. Victor didn't have to be the best but he could still secretly chase the top without showing his rankings this time around. Thus his new goal was decided!
Victor's new goal would be to become rich from the game and marry the daughter of the game maker and distributor MalCore! Being rich and marrying a rich person would mean his life would be carefree and he could enjoy his carnal desires with a soft spoken and gentle beauty. In Victor's previous life, a character name Arrogant Heiress appeared when the Level Leaderboards first came out at level 50. Arrogant Heiress held the top spot for the first few months, and probably would have kept it if she had not been harassed by so many male players.
When players first saw the name and picture of Arrogant Heiress, they were stunned. Arrogant Heiress was a stunning beauty, that would be hard to create even from the character creation machine's millions of paid options! Arrogant Heiress seemed to have been created from scanning the user! Meaning the character most likely matched the person in real life! Such a beautiful person being the best was such a shock to everyone. People scoured the internet for any matching pictures of such a woman and finally found a match in an article about the Waltons. Arrogant Heiress seemed to be piloted by an actual heiress, and not just any heiress, the heiress of the biggest fortune in the world.
A shit show ensued, and many people complained about Malcore cheating for Arrogant Heiress. MalCore denied such claims but women and gaming always caused an uproar from jealous men, even now. Many began to scrutinize Arrogant Heiress and started stalking her. Some confessed their love to Arrogant Heiress, day after day, to try and marry into her wealth. Others tried to PK her and even more scrutinized her methods to determine if she was cheating. All in all the consensus was that Arrogant Heiress was cheating somehow since her level speed seemed much faster than others even though she killed less monsters and barely farmed, mainly doing quest. Arrogant Heiress was always nice to the people who stalked and harassed her, so even throughout the whole ordeal people thought she at least had a cute personality.
Victor was just starting out, so he too was studying experts. Victor also believed Arrogant Heiress was cheating somehow, but at the end of the day his concern was always about improving himself. Arrogant Heiress and the man people dubbed her bodyguard/gigolo also stayed number one and two even though Arrogant Heiress' companion was a priest and did not get the last hit. People started to group PK the two until they stopped playing for a while. When they two returned, Arrogant Heiress seemingly only allowed women to be in her party, aside from bodyguard.
From what Victor had heard, Arrogant Heiress should be his ideal type of girl. Gentle, loving, kind, beautiful and loaded with money. If Victor could befriend the two at the start, before they became conspicuous, he could slowly seduce Arrogant Heiress. Not only would Victor find Arrogant Heiress' leveling secret, but he would find the perfect a E-GIrl as his girlfriend? Victor could still keep his old goal after he finished the first. Although Victor was an incel, he was confident in seducing a single woman if he put all his effort into it.
'Maybe one day, I can create a harem of women. Why should I be satisfied with one beauty when I have been given a second life!'
Victor thought to himself. He knew plenty of beautiful women who were also hard working grinders like him in the past. However such thoughts could wait till later, Victor had his one goal in mind and he would have to work for it. Victor was fourteen again in this second life, so he needed to prepare for the road ahead. Victor knew how to pilot his character like a god, knew many of the secrets of the world, but if he did not get a hold of the headset with a copy of Wish, then his chances of partying with Arrogant Heiress would be slim. Arrogant Heiress would be way too over leveled to even consider partying with him.
The best way to obtain a headset would be to become a streamer on one of the few big streaming sites. Streamers got preferential treatment, obtaining headsets for free, sent to them by MalCore. As a Korean, Victor had been a League player since he was five! Even when he mainly played Wish, he would still play league to relax. As League never ended up dying like people thought it would. Victor had only ever reached high grand master. With this level of skill he could never become a 10-15k Andy but he could maybe become a 150-300 viewer streamer if he streamed in the evening when most NA streamers got off, for the late night NA viewers. He could maybe even pick up better English, than what he learned in school!
Victor's family wasn't poor but they didn't just like to throw away money. Streaming required a home PC, which Victor didn't have. Victor had played at PC bangs until he moved out on his own and bought a PC. At fourteen he would need to convince his family to not only buy him a PC, but also a good quality mic, keyboard, and mouse. He had a long road ahead of him....