The afternoon sun bathed the city in brilliant light.
Traffic flowed in orderly streams beneath towering skyscrapers. Sleek magnetic levitation vehicles glided silently along elevated rails, while holographic advertisements shimmered across glass facades in dazzling waves of color. Crowds filled the sidewalks, their attention fixed on floating displays projected from personal terminals, each person absorbed in their own digital world.
It was a city at the height of its prosperity. Peaceful, orderly and alive.
Yet in Aiden’s eyes, another scene overlapped with reality.
The maglev rails would soon lie twisted and broken, like the carcasses of colossal serpents.
Towering buildings would burn beneath crimson skies.
The holographic billboards that now advertised luxury brands and entertainment would flicker amid smoke and ash, illuminating only bloodstained ruins.
The streets, now teeming with life, would become hunting grounds.
His expression remained unchanged. Only a quiet urgency lingered behind his calm gaze.
His personal terminal vibrated repeatedly. Communication requests flooded the screen.
Most were from classmates inviting him to log into Eclipse Online together once the servers opened.
Some talked excitedly about choosing classes.
Others argued over guild names and future rankings.
Aiden glanced at the messages before silently dismissing every one of them.
In his previous life, he had been no different, full of excitement, full of anticipation, ready to dive into what everyone believed was the world’s greatest virtual reality game.
None of them knew... That the moment the servers opened, the game would cease to be virtual.
His destination never changed. The Eclipse Online Pod Shop. He had been planning this moment ever since he regressed.
The streets were crowded with people, most of them heading in the same direction. The entire city seemed to be caught in Eclipse Online fever.
It was understandable. Eclipse Online had been advertised as the most revolutionary virtual reality game ever created. Its immersion was supposed to be unlike anything the world had seen before.
But that was only the surface.
He knew the truth; Eclipse Online was never a game, at least, not in the conventional sense.
At noon tomorrow, the server would open. And at that exact moment, the world would change.
The virtual world and reality would overlap, merging until there was no meaningful distinction between the two.
Monsters would appear, dungeons would emerge, people would awaken abilities, and cities would become hunting grounds.
And the rules of the game would become the rules of reality. The first time around, he had been completely unprepared.
Like everyone else, he had believed the advertisements. He had thought Eclipse Online was nothing more than entertainment.
By the time humanity realized what was happening, it was already too late.
But this time was different. He knew what was coming.
And more importantly... He knew the rules. People who created their Eclipse Online accounts before the apocalypse had an enormous advantage over those who waited until after the merge.
Early accounts received hidden benefits. Higher initial attributes, faster leveling. Better compatibility with certain classes. People didn’t know this untill later deep into the apocalypse...
Also, depending on the choices made during character creation, even unique opportunities that could never be obtained again.
Unfortunately, his memories of his first life had taught him one painful lesson.
Knowing the future was useless if he didn’t have the strength to take advantage of it.
That was why he had come here.
The Eclipse Online Pod Shop stood at the end of the street, its enormous holographic logo glowing above the entrance.
Hundreds of people were gathered outside. Some were already waiting in line. Others were arguing over which pod they should buy.
The most expensive models cost more than an ordinary car, yet people were buying them without hesitation.
Everyone wanted to be among the first players.
Everyone wanted to gain an advantage. He couldn’t help but smile. They had no idea how useless those pods would become tomorrow, after all what are the need for pods when the game merges with reality on its launch time?
Aiden moved through the crowded streets at an unhurried pace.
His destination was only a few blocks away now; The Eclipse Online Pod Shop.
He had already mapped out the fastest route in his head. There was no reason to rush. He still had plenty of time before the afternoon opportunity appeared.
Besides, after everything he had experienced in his previous life, ordinary traffic and crowded sidewalks hardly registered as obstacles.
He had crossed cities while being hunted by monsters. He had marched through ruined streets where every shadow could conceal something capable of tearing a human apart.
He had once spent three days trapped inside a collapsed underground facility with no food, no clean water, and an army of mutated beasts hunting him from the darkness.
Compared to that... This was peaceful, almost nostalgic.
Aiden’s gaze drifted across the street.
Students laughed as they walked together. Couples held hands beneath the shade of trees. Delivery drones moved between buildings, carrying packages to apartments hundreds of meters above the ground.
Nobody knew, nobody could possibly know. Tomorrow, this entire world would change.
Aiden continued walking. Then he noticed the people standing ahead.
Five men occupied most of the sidewalk.
They weren’t particularly impressive. Cheap leather jackets, metal chains, piercings, tattoos running across their arms and disappearing beneath their clothes.
One had a scar running from his eyebrow down toward his cheek.
Another had shaved the sides of his head, leaving a messy strip of black hair running down the center.
The largest of them stood in the middle. He was broad-shouldered, muscular, and probably around twenty-five. A black fang tattoo covered the left side of his neck.
Aiden’s footsteps slowed slightly. He recognized the symbol. ’Oh it’s the Black Fang Gang.’
He hadn’t thought about them in years. At least not until now.
The group noticed him approaching. One of the men pushed himself away from the wall.
"Hey, kid."
Aiden ignored the dude and continued walking.
The gangster stepped directly into his path, "You look like you’re in a hurry."
Aiden stopped. His eyes moved briefly toward the man before returning to the road ahead.
"I’m not."
The gangster blinked. Perhaps he hadn’t expected an answer.
Another member lounging against the wall chuckled.
"That’s because he’s heading toward the pod shop. Everyone’s rushing there today."
The first man grinned, "Right."
His eyes traveled over Aiden’s clothes, studying him carefully. Aiden was somewhat disappointing. He wore nothing expensive and carried nothing particularly remarkable about him.
Then his gaze stopped on the personal terminal attached to Aiden’s wrist.
"Buying yourself a pod?"
Aiden didn’t answer. He had no intention of buying one; it was a waste of money. He could afford to pay to use one when necessary, but he saw no reason to explain himself to these dumbasses.
Ignoring Aiden’s silence, the gangster stepped closer.
"Those things aren’t cheap."
A second man laughed and added; "Maybe he saved up all year."
"Or maybe his parents are paying."
The group laughed, there was this thrill to bullying people and demonstrating some power over others that they loved so much...
Anyways, Aiden simply stared at them.
He wasn’t offended, he even wasn’t frightened. Instead he was assessing them.
’Five people... Huh.’ Aiden thought casually as he assessed them...
The leader stood directly in front of him. His weight was distributed heavily toward his right leg. His shoulders were tense, but his hands remained visible.
The man to his left kept his right hand inside his jacket pocket.
Aiden’s eyes lingered there for half a second, then he adjusted his stance slightly. He knew these people didn’t have guns, he was 95% sure of that because of what he knew of them...
So, whatever the man had in his jacket pocket wasn’t a firearm. It was probably a knife or something similar.
The others were similarly equipped with cheap metal knuckles, daggers, a collapsible baton, and perhaps another knife.
They were not particularly threatening, so Aiden’s mind automatically calculated the distance between them, the width of the sidewalk, the nearest alley, the number of pedestrians nearby, and the possible escape routes.
The habit had been carved into him during the apocalypse.
Survival had taught him to assess every threat before deciding whether it was worth his attention.
With his calculations complete, his gaze returned to the leader.
He was confident in his ability to handle them. These men were nothing more than university-level street thugs.
Firearms had been heavily restricted even before the apocalypse, so ordinary gangs like the Black Fangs simply did not have access to military-grade weapons.