Chapter 1: Niflheim

Sweating, Michael and a few of his guild members stood around a much taller looking person wielding a staff with a skull on it. Their swords were drawn and they were slowly closing in.

"One more hit!" shouted Michael.

He and his teammates were fighting the level 200 Lich King in the VRMMORPG, Niflheim.

Niflheim had seen a huge influx of players ever since it first came out. The game had been on a constant rise in popularity since then, even numbering the most popular game three years straight. The game caused a huge scene at release, being the first-ever VRMMO game to come out with full sense simulation, or "Real Virtuality" as the developers at SovNet called it.

Michael was one of the first people to ever get the game, and he was on a fast track to success ever since the game came out. While he did start from the bottom just like everybody else, it was apparent that he had the innate talent for the game, being able to maneuver his way around and fight unlike anybody else could.

He eventually scored top of the leaderboards and even founded a guild called Umbra. His guild started off as just a small group of people, but as the game became more and more popular, more people kept joining and his guild's rank rose rapidly. They were even ranked 1st place, with their only competition being the second place guild, Apocalypse.

Luckily, his guild ran into this Lich King first. Beating this will put them in a solid lead for first place. They won't have to worry about Apocalypse getting ahead of them for a while.

"WATCH OUT!" someone screamed, pulling Michael from his thoughts.

He looked up to see the beaten Lich King charging him, trying to take as many people down as it could before it died. He stepped forward and rolled underneath the Lich King, dodging its charge entirely. He quickly stood up and swiped his sword in a quick and clean motion towards the Lich King's neck, killing it in one blow.

After he killed the Lich King, he could see the loot spilling out of where the Lich King once stood. After looking at the loot for a while, and taking some for himself, he noted that with this loot, his members would all have better gear than Apocalypse, allowing them to take on even stronger bosses.

"What's next, Leader?" one of his Vice-Leaders asked.

"Let's make a trip back to the base. I'll be back on in thirty minutes, I gotta go do something quickly," He stated.

"Understood," the Vice-Leader said.

As the Vice-Leaders and the members that lived to the end of the fight funneled out of the area where they just fought the Lich King, Michael logged out of his game and took his helmet off of his head.

He woke up in his king-sized bed on the top floor of his penthouse. He had bought this house using all the money he earned within Niflheim. Many people, Michael included, considered competitively playing the game as a sort of job. Thankfully for these people, there was a constant in-game currency to cash conversion ratio because of the amount of people trying to buy in-game coins to get an edge on everybody else.

He stepped outside of his bedroom and made his way down the stairs. He opened the fridge and grabbed out a Coke. He made a point to not drink when he was going to go into Niflheim because of how realistic the game was.

When one was intoxicated in the real world, they would stay intoxicated with Niflheim. While drinking was a choice within the game too, it would take a considerably shorter time to sober up when drinking in-game alcohol, as opposed to joining the game drunk.

As he drank his soda, he felt that something was off and looked around. After not seeing anything, he went back to drinking his drink and scrolling through his phone. It was at this moment when he felt a warm, numbing sensation spreading throughout his chest.

He put his drink down and brought his fingers up to where he was feeling the numbing sensation on his chest. He noticed it was right around his heart area.

"Did I spill," he muttered looking down.

When he did, he could see that there was a small knife stabbed through where his heart should be. He also noted that what he was feeling wasn't soda, but rather blood.

'Oh. I've been killed.'

That's the last thing he thought before his vision blacked out and he collapsed on the floor.

...

[System Booting up...]

[Welcome. Would you like to become the Host of the System?]

Michael opened his eyes, but he couldn't see anything. Besides the darkness that was all around him, he could only see his own body, but nothing else. There was nothing in the darkness that showed where the voice was coming from or who it belonged to.

"Where am I? Am I dead?" Michael asked while looking around, visibly confused.

[You are not dead. Nor are you alive.]

"What do you mean? Is that even possible? Are you the one who killed me!?"

[I am not the one who killed you.]

"Who are you then!?"

[I do not have a name yet. Only the Host can give me a name.]

[Do you accept becoming the Host.]

"How can I be the Host if I'm dead?" he muttered.

[If you accept to become the Host, I can bring you back to life.]

"Really!? I accept!"

[Answer Confirmed]

[Welcome New Host.]

As these words were said, the last bit of Michael's consciousness slipped away and he blacked out once again.