It was already raining heavily by the time Liu Yichen left his workplace. 

The time was 9pm in the evening, so the streetlights that lined his usual path to the train station had long lit up along with the various signages hanging upon the neighboring establishments and storefronts. 

The multi-colored luminescence all melted into each other and reflected onto a wide puddle on the ground, giving off the feeling that Liu Yichen was peeking into a distant future or a parallel reality where technology was way more advanced.

Today was truly a day filled with tears and suffering for Liu Yichen. 

He had been working for 20 hours straight with only 3 hours of sleep in between because their team lacked people and now, he even had to endure the commute home while a storm was brewing. There weren’t many people on the streets, perhaps he was the only person crazy enough to still be out at this moment. The local news had warned the public that this storm would be stronger than anything the city has ever seen in the previous years and had strongly advised everyone to stay home. Liu Yichen suspected that if any of the older people saw him walking about in the streets right now, they would surely shake their heads in disapproval and click their tongues while saying that this youngster must surely be trying to die.

But Liu Yichen would argue that he had little choice in the matter. 

He worked in a small start-up company that paid an average salary to a small team of people. His team leader was close to running away due to the pressure from the upper management, and the company was still too small and too dependent on the clients’ money to risk any contract termination as a result of failed service level objectives. 

Even if the root cause was force majeure.

So, in order to show their sincerity, commitment and resilience, Liu Yichen who was the youngest and had only been working in the company for around a year was chosen as the very unwilling sacrifice. 

In fact, Liu Yichen was someone determined to live for a long, long time. 

If he had any say in the matter, he would’ve been hiding away in his small fourth-floor apartment 5 stations away already snuggled safely under his fluffy blanket. He was too afraid that he’d get struck by lightning on the way home or be decapitated by a flying roof or signboard. He had zero physical strength so if a tree fell on him, he would just lay there and wait to die, and if he got stranded due to a flash flood, he wouldn’t be able to survive because he didn’t know how to swim. 

For someone as fragile as him, would it make sense to run around outside in the middle of a storm? 

Of course not! 

Yes, yes, anyone could say whatever they wanted, but it was true that Liu Yichen was the biggest coward of all time.

It must’ve been a mistake working for a company whose mission and vision were founded on sincerity, commitment, and resilience because Liu Yichen wasn’t sincere at all. 

His days were always filled with fake smiles and every single day he fought against the urge to run away and cry in a bathroom stall, but money makes the world go round, and he too was a slave for capitalism. Liu Yichen both hated and loved money. 

Sometimes, he wished that money just didn’t exist and he could just say “Hey landlord, want to trade your monthly rent for a month’s worth of lettuces and pumpkins I grew in your backyard?”

Speaking of rent…

His rent was due in three days. This was a problem as just around a week ago, he had watched an empowering documentary that encouraged their viewers to take control of their own lives and to not let trivial things get in the way of achieving their happiness. 

At that time, Liu Yichen truly felt empowered, so as an act of defiance, he had purchased a new smartphone to replace his old one whose screen had shattered long ago after it had fallen on the floor inside the train during the morning rush and kissed the soles of multiple unknowing people’s feet. When the bills came in a few days ago, Liu Yichen immediately regretted his decision and knelt to apologize to the money god, even though he didn’t worship any in the first place. 

But what’s done was done and he had paid valuable rent money for a valuable life lesson – that is to never proceed with any major decision while emotionally unstable. 

On the brighter side, his new phone’s screen was shiny and spotless, so he could now read the billing statements with ease.

Liu Yichen’s yellow umbrella looked like a bright full moon gliding along a dark starless sky as he walked through the gloomy monochromatic streets. He had intentionally chosen to bring the yellow umbrella to remind himself of the happier days during these gloomy times. It worked for a while until he remembered that his colleague who was supposed to be at work with him today was also wearing a yellow shirt when he suddenly disappeared on him in the middle of the system maintenance preparation. He claimed that his wife had suddenly gone into labor and ran off. 

Liu Yichen almost pointed out that it was the third time his wife was giving birth this year, and that the children in the womb seemed to have a preference for coming out on important days like when a heavy system maintenance activity was due. 

But since the man was the son of a higher up, Liu Yichen bit his tongue and wished his poor wife a safe delivery.

Of course he would. 

He was not only a coward, but he was also a little bit of a pushover. 

This colleague was vengeful and shameless enough to hold grudges and Liu Yichen wasn’t really interested in becoming anyone’s moving target board. He’d rather run away like a dog with his tail between his legs than to get caught up in bothersome things like struggles for power. If he had to choose between two p’s – pride or peace – he would choose P-E-A-C-E in capital letters any time. Liu Yichen squeezed on a cute and palm-sized stuffed yellow star keychain to relieve some of his stress as he raced through the rain. 

Once he was home, he’d be sure to take a big sniff from the big jar of menthol aromatherapy a friend brought back from a trip overseas.

The wind started to pick up just around the time Liu Yichen passed by an old local appliance store. After almost rising up in the air like Mary Poppins, he finally decided to stop momentarily and take shelter under the building’s protruding roof. Behind him, rows of televisions of different brands and sizes were showcased behind a glass window. In the morning, these would usually be showing a black screen, but today, each one was turned on and switched to a different channel and soft murmurs of sound blended into each other with the pouring rain.

[…typhoon has made its landfall north of the country and has approached the city at 6pm in the evening. The local government is once again reminding everyone that all train stations will cease their operations at 12am midnight in anticipation of the….]

[...and the local authorities have joined hands amidst the mysterious disappearances all over the world…]

[…SA has once again launched another project in an effort to discover the possibility of life existing outside Earth…]

[…of Finance described the alarming rate of inflation in the country as well as its steady increase…]

[…I’m your fiancé! Don’t you remember me? She’s lying to you...]

Liu Yichen frowned. 

The small television at the bottom was showing a drama from five years ago and the scenario followed the amnesiac-male-lead trope. The actors were good, but the storyline was poorly written. 

Liu Yichen had only been watching for ten minutes, but his expression didn’t look good. 

The male lead was supposed to be the son and heir of a rich company who was being torn between two women who both claimed to be his fiancé. 

Liu Yichen clearly remembered that just two minutes ago, the scene showed that he was staying in a VIP hospital room eating a bundle of grapes so big and shiny that it looked like the wine god grew it himself. Surely, he could afford to look into the truth with all his money and connections, but disappointingly, all he did was stand by on the sidelines and watch the first and second female lead fight over him. Liu Yichen wanted to go inside the screen, shake the male lead back and forth, and remind him that he was an amnesiac and not a brain-dead patient. 

This narcissistic jerk! 

The star-shaped stuffed keychain was deformed in his hands. At this point, let the two female leads end up together! Times are changing after all, and they both also had enough fighting spirit to show for it.

Liu Yichen sighed and turned his back away from the screen. Perhaps today was such a tension-filled day that even something like this was enough to pull at his strings. Deep breaths, Liu Yichen – he reminded himself – before he finally decided to move again.

[shh…tchh…remember…zzz…me…ksk…ha…tsss…Liu Yichen!]

He had only walked a few steps when Liu Yichen stopped again. His head turned instinctively when he heard his name.

“…That surprised me.”

It turns out that the male lead he hated on with a passion was also called Liu Yichen. Liu Yichen turned around just in time to see the character Liu Yichen getting slapped. Then, with impeccable timing as if everything was orchestrated, lightning and thunder roared in the distance, and all the screens simultaneously turned black before turning into static. The audio became distorted as if someone was changing the channels quickly and the display couldn’t keep up. Liu Yichen jumped at the explosive sound of thunder, and the static sound from the appliance store did nothing but give him a weird feeling while he stood alone in front of a seemingly empty store in the middle of an empty street.

“I…won’t buy from this store in the future.”, he declared. Right now, the shop looked haunted. If he ever did, he worried that whatever appliance he bought might just come with an unwelcome bonus.

Liu Yichen started walking again, but this time, with a little more speed in his steps. It was only when he arrived at his station platform that he started seeing some semblance of life. Another tall young man who seemed less distraught about the weather than Liu Yichen stood at the opposite platform lightly bobbing his head to the music from his headphones from time to time. His red varsity jacket was wet and the edges of his loose pants were soggy and dirty as if he had waded through murky waters. 

Liu Yichen couldn’t see his expression under the white cap, but he could see him popping a pink bubble out of his mouth while chewing gum. Liu Yichen checked the time from the big rectangular LED clock hanging above the young man’s head before he took his own phone and wired headset out. He had just chosen a song in Findify when a notification from Vapor appeared at the top of his screen.

[The World Is My Playground has finished downloading.]

“Huh, did I install this?” Liu Yichen stared at the notification apprehensively. 

Lately, simply clicking on game advertisements automatically triggered a download, so he would often find applications in his phone that he didn’t remember installing. Some applications also seemed quite shady so most of the time, he went straight to App Management and deleted them right away without taking a look. But this particular game had an interesting icon and title so he opened Vapor to check it out.

The World is My Playground

Publisher: Cosmos LLC

Game Description: Tired of the everyday mundane life? Want to add some thrill and excitement to your boring days? Play The World Is My Playground now! Transcend all limits and create an ideal world where all your dreams and desires can be made possible! An entire universe awaits!

Tags: Highly immersive, High-definition graphics, Open-world, Exploration, Based on a True Story, Adaptation, RPG

Player Entry requirements:

1 ) A certain level of awareness to multiple “realities” or feeling out of place in your own world.

2 ) A certain desire to escape your own reality.

Player Exit requirements:

1 ) There is none.

Liu Yichen raised an eyebrow at the tags. 

The game description seemed generic, and the entry and exit requirements which he assumed to be the installation and uninstallation requirements on theme seemed a bit cheesy, but the combination of the tags “Based on a True Story”, “Adaptation”, and “RPG” intrigued him. He felt that the description wasn’t quite enough to describe what the game actually was about except for the fact that it was an open-world role playing game. 

So, just like that, he let himself fall for the game’s obvious marketing ploy and clicked on the “Open” button.

Out of nowhere, he heard a strange robotic sound in his ear as his vision slowly faded into black.

[…as such, your achievements…, but your…will be…in your official account via…to maximize user experience of the official version.]

[Entry requirements have been satisfied. Account creation is being triggered. Initiating connection to Server Earth 2…]

[Connection to Server Earth 2 has been established.]

BXX: Please don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe if you enjoyed this chapter! It would mean a lot to me! ( ﾟヮﾟ)