Chapter 1

When Ryan opened his eyes, he discovered the erratic nature of his breath and the wild manner of his palpitations. He wiped the damp sweat on his brow before patting his chest a couple of times and then getting out of the bed. He rushed towards the mirror in the bathroom, still disbelieving of his own personal experience. There he was, behind the mirror, a man aged twenty one, with disheveled hair and a stubble for a beard, staring back into the reflection of his brown pupils, still stunned by the fact that he had reincarnated back into the past.

Feeling the buzzing of his smartphone, he quickly grabbed it and turned off the alarm before checking the date. It was still the 3rd of July 2021. A day before the closed beta release of the revolutionary new full dive game that would change the world forever. Ryan didn't waste any time as he stumbled his way back into the bathroom to freshen up and then rushing downstairs to the family's common area. The scene he came across instantly flooded him with a wave of nostalgia as tears welled up in his eyes. The common area was still empty as it always would remain.

As memories about the past welled up in his mind, Ryan remembered how his parents had been declared masterminds of a cryptocurrency ponzi scheme and had disappeared. Leaving behind Ryan to fend for himself, alone. He had hoped against hope that perhaps things might have changed with this reincarnation, but unfortunately, it didn't seem like anything had really changed with the exception of him somehow returning back into time.

Ryan checked the refrigerator to find anything he could grab for a meal. Finding some leftover sliced cheese and bread, he sat down on the solitary dining table and checked his bank account. His parents had disappeared leaving a huge debt on his shoulders as well as very little savings. The house he was living under was also scheduled to be seized by the tax authorities and Ryan barely had a few thousand dollars in his bank account.

After eating breakfast, Ryan walked over to the Horizon Systems store in Bright City. Tomorrow, Horizon would launch the beta servers for their new technology centered game, a Full Dive MMORPG known as Stellar Ambitions. However, Ryan knew better than anyone how this was all a facade. Even Horizon systems themselves were unaware of what they had introduced into the market. This "game" would go on to change the very nature of human civilization as we knew it and Ryan would have the advantage this time.

He walked into the store and was greeted by a customer service representative who began explaining the novelty of the full dive system. Unlike Virtual Realities or Augmented Reality technologies, the Full Dive system was basically a capsule in which the player would enter and then their consciousness would be transferred over to the game world. The experience, the customer service rep explained, would be like entering a whole new world.

Ryan nodded. Back when Horizon had launched this system, most people were skeptical of the wild claims being made. Horizon had not been a particularly large game developer and such a technology just seemed infeasible at the time. Yet Horizon had indeed managed to launch such a game. Ryan could see first hand now, that the buzz was very low, yet once the beta launched, the demands for these full dive capsules would absolutely skyrocket.

Ryan did not argue with the tense service rep like other curious visitors to the store were. He directly purchased a capsule and had it delivered to his home in the suburb. The capsule itself cost a whopping six grand, which was almost all of Ryan's savings, though he knew that even getting it for six grand was a steal. Having purchased the capsule, Ryan called his once good time friend, as nostalgia filled his mind.

"Ryan? I heard what happened buddy. Are you doing okay?" he voice at the other end of the call belonged to Ryan's middle eastern buddy Asif. Ryan had grown up good friends with the guy, but in the past couple of years the two had drifted apart by distance and also time. Asif had to return to his home country for some personal reasons and the two didn't connect as often. It was only years later that Ryan reconnected with the man in game and rekindled their friendship.

"It's been a while, Asif. How are you doing?" Ryan asked back. Once the two made up small talk, Ryan got to the point relatively quickly. "Have you heard about Stellar Ambitions?"

"I have." Asif replied with a serious voice. "But isn't that game supposed to be a scam? The claims the company is making is just unbelievable."

Ryan chuckled. "The game is legit. I purchased the capsule myself. I suggest you do the same. This game will redefine the landscape of the industry."

"You serious? How did you get the information?" Asif asked in puzzlement. "I have my sources man. When have I given you bad advice when it came to games, huh?" Ryan replied with a chuckle, before ending the call.

Back in the previous life, Asif hadn't managed to obtain a capsule until the closed beta ended nd lagged behind a lot. Asif had sowed a lot of good karma with Ryan in that life, both in game and out of it, and Ryan thought that repaying that good karma was only right. Before returning home, Ryan went to the gym near his house and took up a membership at the place.

In his past life, he had many regrets. This time, he would leave no stone unturned to make sure he succeeded in Stellar Ambitions. For success in the game held to key to success in reality. Walking into the gym, Ryan came across the chief trainer, a buff guy named Arnold.

"Oh, look who it is? Are you interested in training at our gym, laddie?" Arnold guffawed. Ryan had become infamous in the neighborhood because of the legacy of his parents and had learnt to ignore the jabs. A lot of the primary victims of the ponzi scheme were actually people in the neighborhood and Ryan didn't think that their disgust towards him was misplaced. He hated his own parents instead. Ryan looked at Arnold seriously and nodded in response.

"I need strength and endurance training of the strictest kind. You can do that for me?" Ryan asked, even though he knew that Arnold could give him exactly what he wanted. In his previous life, he only wished he discovered this monstrous trainer earlier. Arnold looked like a buff meathead who did nothing but lift weights all day, but he once used to be an Ironman Triathlon champion. Few could train one in the art of strength and endurance than this guy.