Simon suddenly found himself standing on a vast green plain, with a comfortable breeze blowing by - carrying with it an earthy scent and a hint of sweetness. Around him was a beautiful and serene region that was rife with nature, making him feel like he was standing in a painting.

He looked around in surprise and bent down to touch the soft grass, taking in all of this new information.

His clothes gently undulated under the refreshing breeze, as his messy hair softly swayed. The playful chirps of birds and the gentle trickling of water could be heard, and upon looking around, he could see towering mountains and clear rivers in the distance.

He then turned his vision to the grass that he was touching. To his shock, he could even see his reflection in the droplets of dew on the grass!

‘Damn, this is impressive! Kenny didn’t lie when he said it’s almost like real life.’ he thought, astonished. He really couldn’t feel a difference between reality and the virtual world here.

As he looked around in wonder, a screen gradually materialized right in front of his eyes, and a pleasant sounding voice sounded inside his head.

[Welcome to the Virtual Hub! Your VR Account has automatically been created and is linked to your phone number, bank account, and birth date. Please note that you cannot delete your account, nor can you swap accounts. Actions that are against our TOS may also subject you to warnings, account suspensions, or even jail time.]

[Please choose your username and your tag. Remember: They can only be changed twice, and previous names are visible to everyone.]

On the screen, there was a series of listed information; this was his current VR profile. However, it was currently empty - save for his name, account age, birth date, age, phone number, and bank account.

At the top right of his vision, he could also suddenly see a bell icon with a red 1, which Kenny previously had told him was for system notifications, and on the bottom right, a cog icon which represented settings.

‘Oh wow, this is pretty cool!’ Simon thought while nodding. The interface and procedures were concise and efficient, which were exactly to his liking.

He then thought back to Kenny’s instructions.

‘Activate manual typing mode!’

Suddenly, a floating keyboard materialized in front of Simon, and he quickly typed in his name and tag.

After doing so, another line on his VR Account profile was suddenly filled in.

[Congratulations, you have named yourself “Pro Farmer” with the tag of #69!]

Following his name change, he quickly got to work, filling in the rest of his information and editing his settings…

...

In a blink of an eye, 15 minutes passed, and Simon had finally finalized editing his settings and information.

‘You can even do this?’ he thought, as he numbly stared at his new surroundings.

Instead of being in a grassy plain, he was now on the apex of a solitary mountain, standing next to a humble wooden cabin. Surrounding the base of the mountain were vast plains of farmland as far as the eye could see.

He clenched his fists emotionally as he took in his surroundings.

This very scene brought back an uncontrollable flood of memories from his previous life, which made him momentarily waver. He couldn’t help but to reminisce upon the past, remembering the colorful and cheerful place in his memories that this once was.

He reached out to a simply adorned cabin wall, feeling the familiar, yet alien texture of the wood. And at the same time, he could almost imagine what he felt when he was still young, where touching these very walls was a common occurrence.

With cloudy eyes, Simon watched the sun set in this beautiful region while reminiscing on his past.

Alas, his life was truly tragic...

Over the course of his forty or so years of life, he had lost his family, his inheritance, his master, and even his entire world… It was as if existence itself wished to take everything away from him!

Despite that, he was not overly bitter, choosing to make the best out of his life. That was his form of defiance to the world!

After all, he was a genius farmer in his past life, despite having lost his entire family and his inheritance at an early age. If he didn’t have a will of steel then he would have never made it so far!

Even so, for Simon, it was undoubtedly painful for him to think back.

After all, the atrocities that he witnessed mankind commit were too many to count, many of which were even directed towards himself. Such mental traumas were not easy to suppress, no matter how strong one’s will was.

Eventually, Simon regretfully shook his head and decided to stop lamenting on the past. He was not one who often lingered on the past after all; he had merely slipped up for a moment as he was caught off guard.

‘Enough screwing around, let’s see if the trailer is as good as Kenny says. Open home page!’

Suddenly, a screen materialized in front of him, which was filled with many articles, games and movies.

It just so happened that “Island Ascension Online Trailer” was taking the number one slot in the ‘Trending’ section of the home page.

‘How convenient!’ he thought upon seeing the trailer, and promptly selected it.

[Loading trailer…]

In the next moment, Simon suddenly found himself above a small island that was floating in a seemingly endless sky.

As far as one could see, there was only the blue sky and clouds, which seemed infinitely larger than what he had expected.

Witnessing this scene, Simon suddenly shivered.

It was truly a surreal sight; the sky surrounding him seemed to be like an infinite void, capable of engulfing anything and everything within its boundless depths. It was such a profound scene of nothingness, that it left a deep impression upon his heart.

‘Wow…’

Even with his accumulated experiences from two worlds, this easily took the cake when it came to grandness, and he couldn’t help but to pause for a moment to marvel at the sight.

He then turned his attention to the island that he was floating above.

The island had a diameter of roughly 25 meters, and in the middle of the land, there was a run down wooden hut. The surface of the island was covered with lush grass, bushes, flowers, trees, and a small pond, while the underside consisted entirely of gray stone, which formed an upside down cone shape.

It was refreshingly simple, and left one feeling closer to nature when viewing the scene.

Suddenly, a fierce looking man with arms as thick as Simon’s thighs stormed out of the wooden hut and up to a tree on the island, before sendings a flurry of punches towards the trunk!

Boom! Boom!

Crack!

Within moments, the tree was felled under the ruthless pummeling of his arms, and the man promptly picked it up whole. He then re-entered the hut with his newly acquired materials in tow.

‘Woah, ok hold on!’ Simon thought, upon watching this bizarre scene.

He floated down and made his way into the wooden hut. Strangely, it felt rather natural for him.

Indeed, for some reason, he could instinctually fly.

However, it made perfect sense to Simon; he reasoned that he was in a display of the game’s content and that he was invisible to the man. If that were the case, then flight was merely a perk that came with the trailer.

His conjecture seemed to be correct, for the buff man was busy constructing a wooden pickaxe without reacting to his presence in the slightest.

The man was extremely dextrous, as it only took a couple of seconds for a pickaxe to form under the influence of his masterful hands...

After crafting his wooden pickaxe, the man walked straight through Simon and proceeded to punch a hole in the dirt - with his bare fists!

Dirt went flying all over the place, as the man punched the ground like he was fighting for his life. However, it proved to be quite effective, for a hole rapidly formed under his fists.

Witnessing this situation, Simon couldn’t help but to laugh out loud. It was simply too peculiar of a sight! A man was actually punching dirt until it yielded.

‘What a funny guy!’ he thought with a grin, and he continued to watch the actions of the man with an inexplicable sense of curiosity.

Suddenly, time sped up as the man continuously harvested his island’s resources and progressed.

As he watched with wide eyes, the man started a farm, created buildings, expanded his island, and fought off pirates on airships. And soon, his burgeoning island began taking in citizens, paving the path for even greater heights.

Eventually, the man set out on an airship and docked on an island. Meanwhile, the scene on the island elicited a raised brow from Simon.

There were ruins as far as the eye can see residing on the island... These ruins were littered with treasure chests, wraiths, bandits, and hidden dangers all over the place! It felt truly dangerous and mystical, and was a scene that induced one’s curiosity.

Seeing this, the man fearlessly jumped off the island with a club and an axe in hand and proceeded to clobber the camps of enemies single handedly.

“Hahaha!”

Upon watching a sped up footage of a half naked buff guy going around smacking the sh*t out of his enemies and looting camps, Simon burst out in laughter again.

‘Man, this trailer is too funny… But I have to admit, this game also looks pretty good!’ he thought joyfully, as ideas started to take root in his mind.

This trailer awakened a sense of adventure that he thought was buried deep in his heart since his transmigration...

After the conquest of the ruins, the man gloriously returned to the island with his spoils of war. Then, the island underwent a period of quick progression...

But out of nowhere, Simon’s vision suddenly darkened.

‘Huh? What happe-?’

Just as suddenly, his vision came back, and he found himself in a completely different location.

As he looked around, he couldn’t help but to gape at the dramatic sight.

Surrounding him were dozens of islands with diameters of many kilometers. On each of the islands, there were sprawling cities in a myriad of styles. Some looked Eastern, some Fantasy like, some rustic, and some even looked modern.

But there was one thing in common with all of them: They were all impressive as f*ck!

Meanwhile, in the skies above the islands, there was an even more awe-inspiring sight.

Armies of airships, flying carriages towed by pegasi, levitating mages, and many other forces blotted out the sky. And... they were currently embroiled in an earth-shattering battle!

Projectiles were flying all over the place; bodies continuously fell from the sky. The din of battle could be heard throughout this battlefield, and it looked as if the end of the world was currently transpiring.

It was chaotic and brutal, but also a magnificent sight to behold, due to the sheer magnitude of it all. The flames of battle must have spanned several dozen kilometers, after all!

As Simon witnessed this dramatic scene, he could only feel more impressed with every passing moment.

‘Damn, even wars between kingdoms that I witnessed back in the day are just slightly more intense than this. Ha, it indeed seems pretty fun!’

To think that this was only part of the game… It could only be described as one word: Impressive!

Suddenly, his vision darkened once again.

This time, when his vision returned, he was once again met with a mind-boggling scene.

To his left... Sat an enormous fleet of thousands of airships!

To his right... Sat a group of a hundred floating islands!

Above the gigantic fleets of ships and islands, which must have spanned several hundred kilometers, were seas of crystalized destruction, in the form of various troops and devices.

Whether they were summoned creatures, mages, air cavalry, airships, and even futuristic planes, they all advanced in an organized manner, and each was capable of an untold amount of destruction!

The fleet of airships was headed by a behemoth of a flying ship, equipped with an awe inspiring cannon with the girth of several dozen, if not hundreds of meters...

In its entirety, the fleet wielded an overbearing offensive strength!

Meanwhile, on the side with the islands, the complex of buildings on each island were so grand that they could even be individually considered to be actual empires...

Together, they formed a near impenetrable sheet of military suppression!

‘What?!’

“...”

Simon was suddenly speechless. But how could he not be?

The aura of each side was extremely overbearing, and even at his peak in his previous life, he still might have been intimidated.

After all, it was going to be a legendary war between an immovable object and an unstoppable force... Without question, a devastating collision was bound to occur!

He held his breath as both sides gradually approached the other. Ferocious expressions could be clearly seen on the faces of both sides, and sparks seemed to form when their gazes met. The tension in the air was so thick that it seemed like a nuke was about to go off!

But once they were infinitely close to colliding... His vision suddenly darkened.

‘Wha…?’

Simon paused in disbelief for a moment.

Then, he was enraged!

‘F*ck this cheap *ss company it’s a godd*mn cliff-hanger! D*mnit, this is too f*cking cheap!’

To say the least, Simon was not happy to miss the results of this battle... Though, he could not be blamed at all.

After all, such a battle would be one that was legendary beyond words!

On cue, glowing words suddenly appeared in the darkness.

[Want to know what happens next? Then... Why don’t you experience it yourself!]

As the words faded away, Simon grimaced.

‘Wow, this really is the definition of cheap!’

After the words faded away, another set of characters took its place.

[November 13th, 2734, 1 pm UTC.]

Then, Simon once again found himself in his Virtual Hub.

He inhaled deeply and grinned.

Despite being annoyed, he was also highly anticipating the game’s release - at the end of the day, it had truly excited him.

‘It has been a while since something managed to intrigue me to this extent!” Simon thought, as he logged out with eyes that contained a hint of newfound life.