Arthur’s eyes snapped open. He slapped both hands to his chest, checking for wounds.
No blood. Nothing. The stab wound that had just ended his life was gone, like it never happened.
’What the fuck?’
He grabbed his phone to check the date. April 10. One day after his family’s accident.
’Am I back in time?’
It was already late afternoon. He hadn’t returned to the beginning of the day, only to a moment after his earlier self had already visited the hospital.
Still, he went to the hospital anyway, just to be sure.
Arthur got up, laced his sneakers, and left his old apartment, cutting straight into central New York, toward the hospital where his family was.
Going back in time didn’t feel real. He needed to see them with his own eyes, to know they were safe.
On the crowded streets, Arthur stopped a passerby, a cute girl with headphones on. She pulled one out to hear him.
"Yes?" she said.
"Sorry to bother you, but can you tell me what day it is?"
Maybe whoever broke into his apartment had messed with his phone’s settings. He’d already checked, everything looked fine, but hackers always found ways to mess with things. He had to be sure.
"It’s April 10," she said, then laughed. "Did you wake up from a coma or something? Hello, Rick Grimes."
The joke landed wrong. The coma thing wasn’t funny to him, not even close. He laughed anyway and tried to act normal.
"Maybe. Anyway, thank you."
He asked a few more strangers along the way, just to be sure. Everyone gave him the same answer. His mind started catching up to what his body already knew: this was launch day. The real one.
At the hospital, Arthur went to the front desk to ask the secretary if he could see his family.
"I’m sorry, but you already visited them today," she said. "We need to follow a strict visitation schedule. Sorry."
Arthur sighed and walked off. The memory surfaced now, buried but there: he’d visited them earlier that same day. It all lined up.
’This really is launch day.’
The truth finally sank in. If it was real, then maybe, just maybe, he could change things this time. Find a way to save his family.
He’d earned his SSS Rank class before, but never got the chance to use it. This time, he knew exactly where to find it. No wasted time, no guesswork. He could reach heights he’d never touched in his first life.
Arthur rushed back to his apartment with that thought stuck in his mind. He’d already bought the game and the helmet. Everything was ready and waiting for him.
The streets of New York buzzed as always, LED billboards flashing ads for Chronos Online. The game that would change everything. The biggest launch in history.
But under all that noise, one thought kept circling back: who killed him? And why?
He wasn’t some legend the big guilds feared. Just an ordinary player, and not for lack of skill. The life of a solo player was just hard. When he’d tried joining guilds before, the real perks, the benefits that actually mattered, went straight to the high-ranking members. He’d never gotten that far. Never even come close.
’Should I worry about getting killed again? Will they come sooner this time?’
Arthur had no way of knowing. Only time would give him answers. But he’d be watching his back from now on. Dying twice might mean not coming back at all.
His apartment sat in one of the poorer blocks of the city. Money had never been something Arthur had plenty of. The only reason his family could stay in the hospital, getting the care they needed, was because a distant relative was footing the bill. If it had been on him, he wouldn’t have been able to afford it, and that thought alone ate at him. All he wanted was to give his family the comfort they deserved.
Once inside, Arthur locked the door behind him, just in case. The whole place was a disaster: clothes scattered everywhere, dishes piled unwashed in the sink, empty chip bags littering the floor. It wouldn’t have surprised him if a rat was living in there without his knowledge. The place was practically an invitation for them.
Arthur walked over to the fridge to check his stock of food.
’Plenty,’ he thought. ’Enough for me to focus on grinding through the first week.’
The game had systems built for players who couldn’t grind nonstop, EXP bonuses for those who rested at taverns, guild quarters, personal homes, or camps scattered across the world.
But playing still beat resting, obviously. Not just for the EXP itself, but for the quest rewards, the information gathered about the game world, all of it.
Arthur had extensive knowledge of the game, but most of it was tied to combat classes. He knew the best builds, the best early quests to get a head start, the timeline for every expansion to come. What he didn’t know was the profession system, and that was exactly what he needed to focus on this time. A different path. A way to actually make money.
Arthur dropped onto his run-down couch, stained and worn thin, flicked on the TV, and waited. Chronos Online would launch that night, but the servers would only be open from 9 pm to 11 pm.
More of a stress test than a real launch, a way to see if everything held up. If it did, the servers would open again at 1 pm the next day, and stay open for good.
There was still a ten-hour daily play limit, though. The only leash the company had on players who’d otherwise never sleep, never eat. They couldn’t exactly let people die playing their game.
Arthur died playing it anyway. Just not because of the game itself.
He sat there, listening to the clock tick on the wall, and it felt like time itself had frozen. The anticipation was eating him alive.
When it hit 8:55 pm, he got up from the couch and got ready.
The game was about to launch.