When I woke up, the headache was mostly gone. Though I must have hit my shoulder on something, because it freaking hurt. Looking at the Vidscreen I saw the date again. Confirming that I had somehow ended up six years in the past after being killed on the order of my future boss and friend, Aragoth.

Slowly getting up off the floor, I explored my old apartment. Well, I guess it was my current apartment. Being sent back in time was confusing. The search of the apartment confirmed my suspicion. It was six years in the past. It was my apartment, and the day after I had lost my job.

More importantly, it was the 27th of December and in just five days the Habitat and Welfare for All Initiative would start putting poor people in the Coffins. Well, they would not get that nickname until a month or more had passed. Corporate Congress had passed the Initiative, which would start one minute after midnight on January 1st. It would basically put anyone who could not pay the Minimum Welfare Tax of 3000 credits per month in a medically induced coma.

They would then be put in a MedicalBox, a box that would keep their vitals stable, make sure their muscles did not atrophy and keep them alive through their coma. The box looked more like a coffin, hence the nickname, and the fact that barely anyone left them. There were simply too many people, and too few jobs.

However, another important thing was that Carn Online would launch at midnight on New Years Eve. It would be widely popular, since it boasted never before seen Immersive Virtual Reality features. Instead of mentally commanding a character to perform skills and move around, it would feel like you were there.

Having played the new IVR Games that would be released by Perennial in the coming years, I knew it was unlike anything else on the market. Nevertheless, the popularity of the games’ first three months was nothing compared to what it would become.

In three months time, Ken Masters, the CEO and sole owner of Perennial Industries would announce the Challenges. The Challenges was his Last Will so to speak. There were 3 Great Challenges, and a lot of Minor Challenges.

The First and Second Great Challenge would each earn the winner 15% of Perennial’s shares, while the Third would give the winner 25%. The First Challenge was killing the Endboss of Carn Online, or be the guild with the most reputation after three years. While the Second Challenge was to build the biggest country in three years in the game Nuclear Wasteland: Online. NWO would be released when Carn Online had been out for three years.

The Third Challenge, I knew nothing about. All I knew it would be set in a sci-fi game called Fate of Mankind. The game duration would be slightly under four years. That was all I had learned, since I had been killed before the game was released. All prizes were deferred until the winner of Fate of Mankind had been decided.

However, it was not just the promise of wealth that created the world’s obsession with Masters’ Challenges. It was the promise of power. Perennial Industries was the largest company in the world, meaning that it controlled the largest amount of votes in the Corporate Congress. A total of 35.3% to be exact. It had not enough to prevent the Initiative from being passed, but it was enough to put a timer on it. In ten years it would be up for another vote.

And while 35.3% sounded like a lot, it would be nothing compared to the massive growth Perennial would experience in the next six years. By the time I died and was sent back, Perennial had grown so big that it controlled 43.8%. A growth largely funded by all the other companies’ greed to win the Challenges, and grab Perennial for themselves. The amount of money they poured into the games were insane.

Sitting down at my kitchen table, I started making notes on everything I could remember. Despite having played the games, and lived and breathed them for six years. It was still six years worth of memories, and most of the details I had forgotten. I had been focused on gathering information about the upcoming game in the last months of my life, not on old games or events that was behind me. And while I had a good memory, I did not have an eidetic memory.

When Carn Online came out, I did not immediately start to play. It was not until the Challenges had been announced that I had started. Not because I thought I could win, but because I was hired by a guild called Index.

Index was a special sort of guild, it did not concern itself with being the best or biggest guild, but on gathering and selling information in all Massive Multiplayer Games. When the importance of Carn Online became apparent, I was one amongst their mass hiring frenzy. Unfortunately, most of the lucrative spots in game was handed out by seniority and I was assigned to a backwater city called Blackport.

In the world of Carn Online there were two massive continents. The old and the new. The old continent contained the Nine Divine Empires, and was the area most players started and had the highest number of quests. At least for the first six months until the demon invasion when the continent was evacuated.

The new continent was in the game’s timeline recently settled. It was a place where players could build safe havens for themselves, and pitch themselves against nature. Blackport on the other hand was on neither of those continents. In between the two continents were a large number of islands, and Blackport was a city on the northern most island.

All the islands were low-level areas with small player populations until the invasion. When the Imperial and Royal households fled to the new continent, the old continent was sealed off from magical means of travel. You could only get there by sailing or flying. And it was a two week long journey by ship, so the islands became hugely popular as a layover. Nevertheless, because of its out of the way location, the least popular island was Blackport.

I had spent the rest of the day scribbling down notes on everything I could remember. It was only interrupted by going to the FoodReplicator in the hallway. which I shared with the rest of the floor.

Knowing that every credit and Meal Cube would be important, I chose a NutriShake. The NutriShake was a revolting slimy tasteless sludge that contained all the nutritional needs. It sated and hydrated at the same time, and it was cheap; only two Meal Cubes. You also had to pay a one Cube deposit for the glass it was delivered in. As long as you returned the glass to be broken down by the FoodReplicator, you got your deposit back.

It was however, the worst. And it cost five Meal Cubes extra if you wanted a bit of flavour Which could make it even more revolting. I once tried one with banana flavour. It was so bad, the flavour so obviously synthetic. It was better to just bear the horror of the tasteless NutriShake.

Back in my apartment with the disgusting shake in front of me, I saw that the rudimentary AI in my wrist device had finished sorting my scribblings into categories. The wrist device was actually something the school had forgotten to ask for when they fired me. It was their property, but had not included it in what I had to deliver when I left the premise.

I knew it was a shaky legal standpoint, so I would send it back to them, as soon as I acquired one on my own. In my past life I had kept it, and I had never heard anything about it. However, if I somehow managed to fight back against Silvertech and Aragoth, I had to ensure that I did nothing illegal or questionable.

A lot of plans had been going through my head. I knew a lot of the weaknesses of the end game content of Carn Online. The last year of the game I had worked for Dawnguard. The guild had a massive database of information, and I was hired to comb through it and write suggestions on good spots to level, how to raid dungeons and so on.

And while I could remember some details, or in some cases a lot of details, it would not help me a lot as a single player. Especially not when being as bad at the game as I was. Well bad might be an exaggeration. I was a solid player, but I would never be able to raid the end game areas. I just did not have the talent for it. My talent was in analyzing information and management. Not in fighting monsters. Even towards the end I was using the assisted mode, which was a sure sign of low-tier players. I was the only one in Dawnguard who used that mode; if not for my unique position, it would have gotten me kicked out.

So becoming a one-man rebellion would not work. I thought about forgetting all about the Great Challenges and focus on the Minor Challenges. Each year Perennial would release a hundred minor games, which would be anything from idle games to fight simulators. Out of those hundred games, four to five of them would involve a secret goal. The first to complete the goal would gain 1% of Perennial’s share.

I knew the name of maybe two of Minor Challenges the first year, and more the following years. However, I did not know what the win condition was. No one but the winner and Perennial did. To gain the prize they had to sign a strict NDA, and if they revealed how they won, the prize would be retracted.

One idiot was out celebrating and got so drunk he announced to the entire bar exactly what he had done to win the Minor Challenge. The next day it was announced that he had lost the prize, and another game from that year would now be the Minor Challenge.

So after all my rumination, it became clear to me that unless I wanted to roll over and let Aragoth deceive the world, I would have to win some of the Great Challenges. And tarnish his reputation.

The last part would be easy. The agreement was signed shortly after Dawnguard won the First Challenge. Before that it had only been talks and hammering out the deal. To ruin his reputation, there had to be a signed deal. If I could hire a couple of hackers, and supply them with his password, they could easily receive the documents.

That meant I could not mess too much with the first three years of the new timeline. Otherwise Silvertech might just find someone else to back as the opposition. And I would have no way of stopping them.

However, if I could keep the ripples small enough, I should be able to earn a lot of money during that time, and build a guild from the ground up. I would need strict employment contracts and NDAs.

I found a list of names that I had written. All the top players that had been poached from other guilds by Dawnguard. If I could get them, I would have a very strong guild going into Nuclear Wasteland. However, even now they were all either well-known players or athletes. I would need a lot of money to hire them. Which I did not have.

Checking my account I saw that I had a bit less than fifty thousand. Barely enough to let me live in this place for four months. And that was if I only ate NutriShakes, as supplied by the Universal Welfare System. UWS gave each citizen 181 Meal Cubes a month, enough for three NutriShakes a day for the month, plus an extra Cube for the deposit. UWS would also provide you with a place to live if you didn’t have one.

Of course those were small apartments the size of a closet. The facilities were shared between all residents, and the only thing in the apartment was a lamp and a VertiBed. A vertical standing bed you strapped into to sleep. I had once tried one for just five minutes. Very uncomfortable. That was available to everyone, even those that did not pay their taxes. At least for another few days.

I glanced at the clock and saw it was past midnight. Frustrated with my lack of options and a proper plan on how to win the Great Challenges, I went to bed, after returning the cup

When I woke up, I glanced at my wrist device and saw it was blinking. Indicating a message of some kind. Either on one of the social networks or a message on my phone. Trying to recall what message it had been, I was drawing a blank.

Turning on the holographic display, I saw that it was a mass message sent by one of my former students. She lamented the fact that her parents would be sent to the Coffins, and she would end up in an orphanage. I felt for her, I did. However, there was nothing I could do.

Nevertheless, the message got me thinking. I started looking through the groups of my old students. Students that had turned eighteen years ago. It turned out that a lot of them was heading towards the Coffin, either immediately or in the coming months. Jobs were few and far between.

I spent hours reading about my unlucky former students, and wrote them all a short message, sending them my best and trying to get their hopes up a little. At first I did it just because it felt like the right thing to do. Sure they were not my students any longer, but that did not mean that I did not feel responsible for them in some way.

However, then an idea started to form. And instead of just going from one profile to another, I started thinking about specific students that had left a lasting impression. Many of them, in fact most of those I readily remembered, had jobs and were secure from going into the Coffins. That did not mean all of them were.

In fact, I ended up with a list with over thirty possible candidates. Students that had left a good impression on me, but was heading for the Coffins for one reason or another. After looking through their social media, the list got cut down further, to just a dozen. These students all exhibited skills and proclivity for gaming or normal athletics.

One thing that was discovered fairly quickly by the large guilds, was that the manual combat system was far superior to the assisted. For one you needed fewer skills with manual, and you did not have to rely on the system for aiming, blocking, parrying and dodging. Which was the reason my list contained athletes as well as gamers.

After checking a few things online, I started making some calls.

The sound of my doorbell broke me out of my reverie. I quickly moved to open the door. Outside I found two of my guests. Masuro and his big sister Kira. Both of them a mix of Japanese and caucasian. Masuro was almost as tall as me, just a handspan or so under two meters. Big and muscular. He had been a linebacker during his highschool years.

His sister on the other hand was short, only about a hundred and sixty centimeter tall, thin and wiry. Her height was difficult to ascertain, since she was in a wheelchair. Nevertheless her arms were taut and I knew from social media that she was an accomplished martial artist. Or she had been, before she lost her legs.

I put on a big smile, “Hey Masuro, it’s been too long since you graced my classroom, please come in.”

After shaking his hand, I turned to his sister, “Hey, I’m Damian and you must be Kira.”

“Hello Mister Pryce,” she said and grabbed my hand. She had a strong grip. Years of martial arts training would do that. I stepped aside to let them in. Masuro waited for his sister to roll her wheelchair into my apartment.

“We met once,” she said as she spun around to look at me, after I had closed the door, “I never thanked you for coming to our parents funeral and bringing Masuro’s classmates with you. I was a bit high on pain medication at the time.”

“I remember, I just didn’t want to bring up bad memories,” I cleared my throat, feeling a bit embarrassed. I remembered the funeral clearly. Their parents and Kira had been involved in a hovercar accident. The parents died, and Kira lost both her legs, so she had been heavily dosed during the funeral.

Masuro voice boomed in my small apartment, “Don’t worry about it Mister P, it was four years ago. We still miss them.”

“Stop being formal, I’m Damian,” I insisted and was about to offer them something to drink when the doorbell rang again. Opening it I found Edward, “Hey Edward, please come in.”

I did not try to shake his hand, because I remembered he was quite the germaphobe. Some of my favourite memories about him, though they were a bit cruel, was when the other kids would place a bit of dirt on his table or chair. His reactions were hilarious to watch, though I always managed to keep a straight face, and appropriately scold the rest of the class.

However, deep inside I understood them. There was just something funny about a young adult male, who was well over two meters tall, and weighed at least a hundred and fifty kilos, scream like a little girl. The class however, was very protective of him. Whenever some bigot tried to pick on him because of him being black.

He mumbled his greeting and went past me with his head bowed. Still shy. In fact the only change in him during the six months since I had last seen him, was that he was now bald. Which together with his size made him look very imposing. If he would just stand up straight and not avoid eye contact.

I was just about to close the door, when someone called out, “Mister P, don’t close the door, I’m coming!”

Looking down the hall, I saw a small redheaded person running towards me. I could not help but laugh, “Mister O’Brian, late for class again?”

“Ehm,” he skidded to a stop and looked at me confused for a moment, before laughing, “Ha, good one Mister P!”

Liam was in the same class as Edward, and he was as big a gamer as Edward, but that was where the similarities ended. Liam was short, only one hundred and forty nine centimeters tall, and weighed maybe forty five kilos. The kid was pasty white, and not a shy bone in his body. And you could be certain about two things with him: He would always be in trouble with the girls, and he was always late for class.

“No need to be formal, it’s Damian,” I smiled and shook his hand before ushering him into my apartment.

As soon as he saw Edward, who was in the corner as far away from the others as possible, he made a beeline to the big guy and gave him a hug, “Eddie!”

Edward looked absolutely horrified at the physical contact. That did not stop Liam though, “It’s been weeks, I haven’t seen you online. What happened?”

Before Edward could formulate an answer, Liam whipped around and headed towards the siblings, “Hey, I’m Liam. Pleasure to meet you. Especially you Miss. What’s a beautiful lady like you doing here?”

I did not hear the reply because of the door bell, but Masuro looked a bit mad at Liam. Opening the door, I found my last guest; Ainsley. She was of average height with her hair dyed blue. A stark contrast from the mousy brown hair she had six years ago when she was my student.

“Mister Pryce,” she curtsied.

“Miss Everett,” I replied surprised, and gave a short bow, “Please come in, and no need to stand on formalities. It’s an informal gathering.”

“Very well,” she smiled and headed in. Where she was immediately waylaid by Liam who was talking a mile a minute. The formality should not have been surprised. Ainsley had grown up in a conservative wealthy Neo-catholic family. She had won many trophies in equestrian disciplines and archery. However, when she announced she was gay she had been disowned. It also got her kicked out of the school, because the public schools was owned and run by the Neo-catholic church.

Turning back to the room, I asked, “What do you guys want to drink?”

After taking their orders, I went to the FoodReplicator. I spent a minute or two longer than needed to get the five bottles; two bottles of water, one orange soda, one milk and one beer. It was better to give them a few minutes to get acquainted before springing my offer on them. Not that it was a good one, but it was better than heading to the Coffins. Or at least, I hoped they would see it like that.

Getting back to the apartment, I found Liam in the middle of telling a racy joke. Masuro was grinning, Edward was still hiding in the corner and if the two girls’ stares could kill; Liam would have died a hundred times already. I was not surprised by this.

After handing out the drinks, everyone’s, even Liam’s, attention was on me. Making me feel like a teacher again. Though it had only been a couple of days since I had been fired in this timeline, for me it had been over six years.

Clearing my throat, I launched into my sales pitch, “I asked all of you here because I got an offer for you. All of you are in the same boat, none of you can pay your MWT. I myself just lost my job, and though I got some money saved up, it won’t last me forever. The thought of being put in a medically induced coma scares me. I’m sure it scares you as well.”

I saw somber looks on each of them. Liam nodded solemnly. Clearing my throat again, I wished I had gotten something to drink for myself, “So I came up with an idea. I got a friend who beta tested Carn Online. I know Liam and Edward have heard about it.”

The two gamers nodded, while the other three just looked confused, so I quickly explained, “I’m planning to open a Workshop and operate a guild in the game. I will pay your MWT and the rent for the pod, which includes a room at Perennial Industries’ Pod-Hotel. The goal is to earn money inside the game, and sell it for credits.”

“Excuse me Mister Pryce,” Ainsley interrupted, “But what does that have to do with us? And how can you be sure to earn credits?”

“Let me start with the easy question. Every silver coin in the game can be sold to the system for one credit. There are also other options that might earn us a higher exchange rate, but we can talk about that at a later time.

“And to the question about what it got to do with you? Simple. Liam and Edward are gamers and know the terminology. They’ll also easily understand many of the underlying mechanics. However, Carn Online differs from earlier games, where everything was determined by numbers and your character’s avatar. While your avatar’s characteristics such as Strength and Agility will determine how strong or fast you are, you control the movements of the avatar.”

“You do that in all games now a days,” Masuro pointed out.

“Sure, by telling it what to do with your mind. But in Carn Online you’ll feel it. You’ll be there. You can smell the grass, feel sand running through your fingers. It’ll not be controlling a digital avatar, it’ll be like controlling your own body.”

“You mean,” Kira gulped, “I could walk?”

“Yes. It’ll be like you’ve legs again. But more importantly as to why I choose three athletes are that there are a manual and an assisted combat mode. When using assisted you’re limited by skills, and you sometimes get moved around automatically by the system. However, in manual mode it all depends on your own skills, not your characters.

“Which is why you, Kira, are very important for this to succeed,” I explained and looked at the girl.

“What?” she sputtered.

“You’re an accomplished martial artist, you can teach the others how to fight. You might not know how to fight with a sword and shield, or throw magic around. But you know the fundamentals of fighting, which are useful for all of them. Ainsley is an excellent archer, and every team needs someone who knows how to take a hit,” I explained and pointed on Masuro for the last part.

“That sounds all well and good, but what about my girlfriend?” Ainsley asked.

“Unfortunately my funds are limited, and I can only afford to pay the first month for six people. However, I’ll write into the contract that I’ll give the same offer to your family members or loved ones as soon as the guild can afford it,” I offered. There was silence for a long time as they thought over what I had said. Even Liam was quiet, though he was squirming around.

Finally he could not take it any longer, and blurted out, “Are you going to lead us on raids?”

“No. First of all, parties are limited to five people in the beginning, and secondly I’m ill suited for combat in this game. My reactions are too slow, however, I’ll be playing a support role. I’ll be crafting and provide you with as much equipment and information as possible.”

“Who’s going to be our party leader? Me? I’m terrible, I easily get distracted.”

“I was thinking Edward.”

“Edward?” Liam almost choked on the word, “No offense Eddie, but a leader need to be vocal, and Eddie is anything but.”

“Uhm, I think Liam’s right,” Masuro sent an apologetic smile in Edward’s direction. Edward did not seem to mind. I knew somewhere deep down that he did mind, but would not show it, because it would be a sign of weakness.

“Edward, please explain how to raid the Tomb of Nersaris. And remember three of them never played Aeon Quest Fourteen,” I asked him to explain how to raid the hardest dungeon in the MMORPG he had posted about playing. I knew something like this would come up, so I had done a little research about the game, and watched some of the videos he had posted.

Edward looked up with interest, for the first time he stopped feigning indifference. He had always had a tell, a specific way of tilting his head when he was interested in something; even if he tried to hide it.

Taking a deep breath, it was like he was transformed when he stepped into the middle of the room. Gone was the big shy guy. Instead a confident young man stood in his place. With a lot of detail, and with easy to understand explanations, he went through the entire strategy for raiding the dungeon. At no point did he lose the others, not even the non-gamers. When he was done, it was like watching a balloon let out air, the confidence just left him. He hurried back to the corner.

“That’s why I think he’ll make an excellent party leader. Now we got a lot of details to go over, and we need to decide on builds and everything else,” I said, and the negotiations started in earnest. Mostly between me and Ainsley. Liam and Edward just wanted to be able to play games, Kira was enchanted by the idea of walking again and Masuro would do anything for his sister.