REBIRTH

Somewhere in space, a lone spaceship was navigating through asteroids.

It was a small spaceship, likes of which can only accommodate 15-20 people at max, small and comfortable. But this one was on the verge of its death. It was already collapsing.

Instead of panicking, people inside were strangely relieved as if they had survived certain death. They almost started celebrating, but in that second, all of them understood their ordeal still wasn't over.

"Fuc*ing Monarchs... they are getting more and more unruly." Lizardman Cursed. He was truly infuriated with Monarchs.

"How many star systems have they already destroyed? Isn't it enough? If they continue I fear nothing will be left." Female, humanoid crab replied.

"Enough, you two. Now is not the time to discuss such things. Let's first find a planet to settle down and repair the ship." Said the human man with a stern look.

"Yes, captain." They both said hastily and shut up.

Captain nodded and returned to the work himself. Quickly They managed to stabilize the spaceship before it could fall apart. Suddenly, As he was managing the whole crew, two people came up to him.

"Cap, we request permission to scout the nearby planets." One of the two-man said directly. He looked like to be in his mid-twenties, eager to prove himself, ready to risk his life to obtain glory for himself. On the other hand, the second person looked hesitant and unwilling, as if he knew what was going to happen.

And that person was Ryu. Ryu knew his friend, George, all too well to follow him somewhere unknown. He always wanted to prove himself to others, so if he saw an opportunity, he would jump into it headfirst.

But the problem was that he always found himself in dangerous situations. The current situation with Monarchs was because of him in the first place, but Ryu wouldn't tell anyone unless he wanted to see his friend eaten by that Lizardman.

Ryu felt that this was one of the situations where George would be seeking his death again, so He felt complicated to whether follow and try to save his friend or stay away from him as far as he could.

But in the end, George was still his friend, so he just sighed and prepared for another near-death experience.

Captain looked at them intently, thinking for himself. ' So they are the ones of the 'Losts'. I heard that their mother planet was blown up by the Monarchs. Poor people, I pity them. To lose everything before you even started...'

Ryu and George were fairly new in the crew and whole mercenary business so the captain rarely saw them and even more rarely talked with them. Their Mercenary group was fairly big so he couldn't have seen them much.

"Granted, take the Pod for two and scan for life signals and energy sources" In the end, he decided to let them take on the task.

Hearing captain, George was overjoyed. And dashed to the Pod instantly, dragging Ryu with him.

Ryu couldn't help but smile wryly at the turn of events. He was already used to his friend's childish behavior.

Although the Pod was for two people, it was still fairly big.

Soon, they left and were heading to the nearest planet. It was a large planet, three times larger than their mother planet but its whole surface was covered with molten rock.

It was too damn hot!

"No life signals but there is an energy source!" Said George with excitement. He could already see newfound respect in the eyes of the crew members.

"Don't be too happy, check if the energy is compatible with our elemental energy refiner and engine." Ryu reminded, crushing George's hopes and dreams.

Feeling nervous George proceeded with the compatibility check and almost cried when he saw that energy wasn't compatible. (btw they checked everything from the pod)

"Let's go check the other planets." Said Ryu and George quickly nodded.

They proceeded to check other planets but came out with no results until they reached their 8th planet.

"This got to be the one!" Shouted George still not giving up on hope. He said this five times already.

Ryu merely nodded and closed in on the planet. It was a deserted planet, it was fully covered with strangely glowing golden sand.

Suddenly, when they got closer, alarms started ringing. The whole Pod was in chaos.

"Warning; Violent pure elemental energy waves detected. Estimated time till collision-0.00---"

Midway through warning was cut off, the whole Pod was shut down. It started getting closer and closer to the deserted planet.

Seeing this, both Ryu and George tensed up, but They didn't start panicking. They knew that it was the last thing they should do. They calmed down and began to think with a clear head.

"Quickly, switch to the reserved energy and start the emergency protocol! I'll do the manual driving." Ryu instructed while trying to take control of the ship.

George quickly did as he was told to. He switched the energy sources and started the emergency protocol but it was to no avail as it changed nothing. Ryu was in the same situation, whatever he tried to do didn't work. As more he struggled more desperate he became. He knew that nothing could help them now, they were certainly dead. The pod would crush in minutes.

'George, you motherfuc*er I knew you were going to kill us one day.' He was feeling like it was already over and wanted to give up the struggle, he had already suffered enough in this life. But at this moment he could not help but remember his whole life.

His childhood days were most beautiful, everyone was praising him for how talented he was, how he would achieve to be a successful man, how he would reach the top. Maybe they were just the words to motivate him, he thought. Maybe they were serious But he didn't know.

His school days were boring, only sports and friends could relive his boredom. But that doesn't mean he didn't study the school subjects, he still got 8 in everything without trying too much.

After graduating, he enlisted in a decent university near his home and started working part-time. Everything was going on well until that game became popular.

It was a game called 'Rebirth'. The game came as a surprise to everyone because it was automatically downloaded on the VR capsules' data chip without anyone's consent.

At first most of the people found it suspicious, thinking that it was some kind of virus so not many started playing the game. But as time passed, it became popular and, eventually, took the number one spot on the game rankings.

It started to have many players and supporters from all over the world. Many created guidelines for the game, and many started sharing their progress on the forums. It even birthed a history book of its own where everyone connected events that took place in the game.

Overall the game was a huge success...

Until someone said. "Breathing techniques of the Rebirth are real!".

These words started the Domino effect. Everyone started using breathing techniques of Rebirth, and with everyone changing, the world was also undergoing its own change.

After that, all kinds of weird things started happening. Animals started transforming, seas started to shake, Earthquakes became more and more frequent, volcanoes erupted periodically, tornadoes started to appear more frequently.

The whole world was in chaos...