Simon woke up with a start, when a shrill noise woke him up. He immediately slammed the source of the commotion with a sharp instinct that was honed by many instances of life and death.

Crack!

The sound of glass and metal cracking truly woke Simon up, as he turned to look at his crumpled phone with a crestfallen expression.

‘F*ck! This was the 9th in a month, damnit!’

Though his magic power had greatly weakened, it wasn’t nonexistent. As magic power also boosted one’s physical body, his full force smash was enough to crack thin pieces of metal and glass, such as phones.

This was also why he didn’t fear assassins all too much; his reactions, senses, and physique were well above a regular human being, making him less susceptible to getting ambushed.

Simon sighed as he gathered the remains of his phone and threw the crooked piece of metal into the trash.

‘Well, I shouldn’t worry about this too much!’ he thought with a forced grin.

He then pulled open a drawer next to his bed, which contained a neat stack of cheap phones, and took one out. He only needed to scan his eyes and fingerprints before regaining everything that was in his old phone...

Then, amidst the gentle rays of the sun which streaked through the windows, he got out of bed and tidied himself up.

...

A couple minutes later… The time of release for Island Ascension Online was steadily nearing.

‘Finally, I’m done!’

Simon rushed back to his bed. He had finally finished his morning routine and all that was left was entering VR and waiting for the release.

He hopped onto his bed and slotted the helmet onto his head without a moment of hesitation.

‘Activate Virtual World!’

[Loading Virtual World...]

He then found himself back in a familiar wooden cabin, with a refreshing woody scent meeting his nostrils.

The room that he was currently in contained a humbly decorated desk, a small bed, an oil lit lamp, and a shelf. They were fairly pleasant to the eye, but more importantly… were made with a carpentry style that originated from another world.

That’s right, this was a replica of Simon’s room during his childhood in his previous life!

Taking in the sights and smells around him, he was overtaken by nostalgia for a moment, but he quickly shook it off. Still, he could not hold back his appreciation for the Virtual Hub as he looked around with a bittersweet expression.

The virtual hub could even form physical objects completely from memories... If that wasn’t impressive, he didn’t know what was!

After appreciating the sensation of staying in the cabin for a moment longer, he once again closed his eyes.

‘Enter practice range!’

[Loading practice range…]

When he reopened his eyes, Simon found himself in a seemingly endlessly vast white room - the edges of the room could not even be seen. Moreover, it was filled to the brim with various courses, training devices, and other facilities of that nature.

Using this room came with a 250 F-Credit fee per hour of use, but was well worth the hefty price tag, as it had everything from shooting ranges to sports courses.

With a content smile, Simon began training himself.

...

A couple minutes later, Simon had spent this period of time familiarizing himself with his body in VR. Thankfully, it wasn’t too much of an issue for him and he had progressed far, as his body in Virtual Reality was almost indistinguishable from his body in reality.

If he could, he would have trained longer. However, he didn’t have time for such thoughts, as Island Ascension Online was about to be released!

After stretching his fingers and setting his physique level to the max, he began spamming the “Join Island Ascension Online” button at an inhuman speed, his fingers quickly turning into a blur.

Soon enough, he received a system notification as his vision darkened.

[Loading Island Ascension Online… Please wait]

When Simon’s vision returned, he found himself standing barefoot on a pleasant grassy island, surrounded by the familiar endless sky. This sky was all encompassing and unfathomably grand; the surreal and humbling scene once again blew him away.

Meanwhile, sun rays shone down onto the island as a gentle breeze flowed by, alleviating the sun’s heat. In this world, the weather was reminiscent of springtime, giving him a pleasant sense of freshness and vitalization.

‘Oh, this world seems... Interesting!’ he couldn’t help but think, upon entering this new world.

He noticed that Island Ascension Online distinctly felt different from the training range and VR hub, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on the exact reason.

Simon then looked down from the endless skies and onto the island.

He quickly found that the island ingame was extremely similar to the one in the trailer. There was lush vegetation, which included trees, bushes, grass, and a small pool of water off to the side. On top of that, the diameter of the island was roughly 25 meters as well.

Then, he looked towards his own body.

He was wearing rags that only covered half his body, which were somewhat dirty, reminding him of his days as a homeless beggar. However, he did not mind it in the slightest.

‘Haha! I’m finally in!’ Simon thought in excitement, feeling the novelty of being in a new world. He was understandably exhilarated and full of energy.

After all, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!

He then did something that he was itching to do…

Simon quickly walked towards the edge of the island. As he did this, the boundless sky filled more of his vision until all that he could see was the endless blue, with the occasional fluffy streaks of white that were clouds, and of course, the vast and illuminating sun which shone overhead.

He was still standing on the island, not far from the edge.

Then, he got down to his knees and crawled forwards until he had truly reached the edge of the island. As he peered below him, a fleck of dirt fell from the island and into the blue void below, quickly disappearing from sight.

Gazing at the scene, Simon couldn't help but to feel a tinge of fear, but it was quickly replaced with awe.

‘Damn…’

It was truly mind blowing to be so close to such an endlessly deep void. And suddenly, he had a compulsive thought.

‘If I were to fall, what would happen?’

He wasn't about to test it out though...

Suddenly, a series of system notifications sounded within his mind.

Ding!

[Welcome to Island Ascension Online!]

[There are two modes in Island Ascension Online: Expert mode, and Casual mode.]

[The former can only be run twice, and upon activating it, you will be given minimal help from the system. The latter can be run a total of 10 times, and you will be given quests and directions from the system with the cost of -10% xp gained and some content being restricted.]

[You can only choose one at a time and cannot change it throughout the run, but you can delete the profile at any time.]

[When you start out, there will be almost none of the game’s features unlocked. As you level up, more features of the games will be unlocked. It also has to be noted that upon dying, one’s profile will be automatically deleted.]

[Do you want to choose Expert mode or Casual mode? Casual mode is highly recommended for first time players.]

Hearing this series of system notifications, Simon fell into deep thought. He had known that he had to make this choice for a while due to his research, but it truly was a hard decision.

Eventually, he sighed and decided.

‘I choose Casual Mode!’

He would have loved to dive right into Expert mode, but inevitably, he was a novice when it came to games. Expert mode could only be run twice; he had to at least feel it out before risking it, as he could not afford to lose one of the two profiles.

[Selected Casual Mode]

[New Mission Received: [Check Yours Stats]]

Suddenly, a new icon appeared next to his system notification icon in the top right of his vision.

‘Ah, so this must be the mission icon.’ he thought with a nod.

‘Open Missions Page!’

Sure enough, the icon opened up to a list with a single mission.

-----

[Check Your Stats]: Check your stats!

Rewards: 5 XP

-----

‘Well, that's pretty simple; open stat page!’ he promptly thought.

Glowing white words then quickly materialized in front of his eyes.

-----

[Pro Farmer#69] (Human)

Island Level: 0 (0%)

Magic Level: 0 (27%)

Nature Lv. 0 (63%)

Hot Lv. 0 (36%)

Cold Lv. 0 (34%)

Dark Lv. 0 (29%)

Light Lv. 0 (30%)

Time Lv. 0 (29%)

Space Lv. 0 (27%)

HP: 2175

MP: 943

Strength: 592

Speed: 435

Resilience: 475

Endurance: 446

Intelligence: 943

Vitality: 415

Skills:

(No Skills)

You will unlock more of your stat page as you progress.

-----

[Mission [Open Your Stats] completed! Rewaring 5 xp]

[New Mission Received: [Punch Down the Tree!]]

Simon froze in shock upon seeing his stats, ignoring the new system notifications entirely.

‘YO what the F*CK?!?!’

He quickly tested his body’s strength by punching outwards and to his shock, he caused a substantial disturbance in the air! This was definitely not something that a normal fist could cause.

“...”

Upon seeing the results of his punch, Simon could no longer deny the truth. He was approximately as strong ingame as he was in real life. Which was to say, overpowered…

He quickly tried many other actions to test the capabilities of his body ingame.

But as Simon was busy inspecting his body’s condition, he gaped, as he suddenly came to a realization that made him feel faint.

“...”

“M-MY MANA IS RECOVERING?!?!” he finally exclaimed in shock, as his legs gave away under him, causing him to fall numbly to the ground.

Indeed, he almost fainted in shock when he realized that he was once again in the presence of the world’s essence, which was otherwise known as mana!

It felt exactly like the environment in his past life, where dense mana was present in the air; it truly was the real thing!

‘So that was the strange sensation that I felt in this world!’ he thought in wonder, hardly believing what he was feeling.

Of course, it was easy to imagine his shock upon feeling genuine magical strength from within a mere game… in a world where magic did not exist!

He then stood up from the ground and tentatively manipulated the energy that was slowly building inside of him and channeled it to his finger, pointing towards a blade of grass.

Woosh.

The blade of grass was cut in half by a blade of in an instant.

[Congratulations! You learned the skill [Matter Manipulation] Lv. 1]

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 2]

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 3]

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 4]

Thump!

Hearing these notifications, Simon’s eyes widened further as he once again fell to the ground, his butt landing in the grass ungracefully.

‘...’

‘Even the suppression is gone?!’

Simon almost started crying tears of joy as he realized that he could freely use magic again!

It has to be known that in the real world, his spells were suppressed; any spells that he cast were many times weaker than normal, and similarly, many times more draining to use. On top of that, his mana reserves and magical accumulations even weakened over time without him doing anything.

But in this world, there was no such suppression!

Simon then repeated the same action of asserting force on the blade of grass with his magic. But this time, he chose a more complex spell.

He first imagined strands of energy exiting his body from his pores, forming a web around the blade of grass. Then, he envisioned the effects that the energy would have on both the air and grass upon closing in on it.

Indeed, he was running a simulation in his mind, and preparing himself to instruct the energy accordingly.

The effect that mana had on various physical substances varied, and as such, one had to be knowledgeable of their interactions to use magic proficiently. This was one of the many requirements of a mage.

Soon enough, he activated the spell, commanding the threads of mana masterfully, with his decades of experience, and it seemed as if they were his own limbs.

At this moment, his commands were being sent out so fast that his mind’s processing speed couldn’t keep up. He could only rely on his previous calculations to continue executing his spell, completely unable to adjust the process mid way.

This was the nature of quickly cast spells. And to him, it was as natural as breathing!

After all, he was a great mage in his previous life; this did not even count as a warmup.

Under his command, the web of mana generated waves of air that slashed through the blade of grass in hundreds of spots with pinpoint accuracy, all at once.

Woooosh!

In an instant, the blade of grass turned into a fine green mist!

Simon laughed joyously upon seeing the results of his beautifully executed spell.

This seemingly simple spell demonstrated an extreme level of skill. After all, magic wasn’t something simple, requiring countless hours of practice and studying to gain even a shred of improvement.

Moreover, Simon hadn’t used magic in a while, and had countless times less mana than in his past life. But nonetheless, his finesse and skills remained - or rather, improved.

Ever since getting a grasp on modern science, many questions and uncertainties that lingered in Simon’s mind from his time in his previous world were cleared. Contrary to the beliefs of the people in this world, these two subjects went hand in hand, as magic relied heavily on real world knowledge - or science.

After all, the key to good magic was a vivid imagination, godlike calculation skills, and a deep understanding of the world. If one lacked proficiency in any of these points, they would never be able to become a truly great mage.

As for Simon himself, suffice it to say that his actions required an absurdly high level of precision and mastery. Normal mages would not reach his level, even if they were given several lifetimes to do so!

The system seemed to detect his mastery over magic as well, for a pile of system notifications deluged Simon’s head.

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 5]

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 6]

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 7]

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 8]

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 9]

[[Matter Manipulation] leveled up to Lv. 10]

[[Matter Manipulation] Lv. 10 evolved into [Matter Sovereign] Lv. 1]

Simon continued laughing after seeing his skill level rapidly rising.

He then proceeded to summon fireballs, ice shards, and used a variety of other spells while hurriedly absorbing more mana.

-----

A short while later, Simon was laying on the grass, practically void of energy. After all, after casting his whole arsenal of low level magic, he was undeniably exhausted.

At this moment, he was pondering over his new situation while recovering.

And as he thought about this situation, he suddenly frowned.

‘Surely the creators of this game will disallow me to be this OP! Why am I not banned by now? Also will I keep this mana when I come to real life? If I delete this profile and try Expert Mode, will I start with the same stats?’

Simon’s mind was racing and he had a million questions. After all, his situation was simply too strange; he was once again in uncharted territories...

He eventually sighed.

‘Well, I guess I’ll have to solve them one by one!’