A soft silence settled over the room.
Faint light poured in through thin curtains, casting pale rectangles across the cluttered floor. The night outside was clear – navy sky, blinking stars, some distant hum of traffic. Inside, everything stood still, except for the flickering blue glow of a phone screen.
At the edge of the room, a bed.
On the bed, a man.
His name was Gabriel, age twenty-three, functionally unemployed, emotionally unbothered. He lay flat, scrolling doom through his feed with the same energy he used to microwave leftovers: none.
He did this every night.
He only worked when his wallet guilt-tripped him. Rent came. Food came. He came last.
But Kingdom Era–that came first.
An open-world MMO kingdom sim from 2017. Free to play, hard to master, impossible to quit. Gabriel downloaded it on launch day just because the ad had cool flags and dramatic music. He thought it'd be boring.
Eight years later, he still logged in daily.
Eight. Years.
His username?
stonesmasher69420.
A joke. A meme. Something he typed half-drunk at 3AM thinking it'd be temporary. Then he became famous. And now he was too deep to change it.
"God, I should've gone with DarkWolfz99 or something. Anything less humiliating."
He used to be rank 1. The richest kingdom in the game. Controlled entire regions solo. Players called him "the tax god." Someone once made a YouTube video calling him the Genghis Khan of the Western Biomes.
But now he was rank 3.
Top 2 had found an infinite money glitch. Abused it. Refused to share. Gabriel tried to expose them in the forums, but mods said it wasn't a "replicable bug." They kept their riches.
He kept grinding.
"I hope their gold crashes the server."
He said that every week.
Still logged in the next day.
Kingdom Era was deep. Every player spawned with a different race in a different biome—desert elves, swamp ogres, volcano dwarves. Everyone started with a tent and a broken wall. You upgraded your Town Hall, unlocked features like storage, summons, taxation, espionage, trade networks. You built a real kingdom—or got eaten by one.
Gabriel's city?
He started in a Mountain. Black stone, Mountain cliffs, obsidian towers. Everything cost extra, but he made it work. Dominated early PvP zones. Got banned once. Got reinstated. Became a legend.
Then got out-glitched.
He couldn't sleep tonight.
So he got dressed. Hoodie. Slides. Walked a few blocks to the convenience store and bought the cheapest alcohol they had in a can. The cashier didn't even ask for ID. Gabriel looked like a man who wasn't enjoying life—who was gonna argue?
Back in his apartment, he cracked the can open and sat down at his desk. The glowing logo of Kingdom Era pulsed gently on the screen like it missed him.
He logged in.
His kingdom looked exactly the same—grand and empty. Like a trophy room for a sport no one watched anymore.
"Too much trash," he muttered.
He meant the energy drinks and ramen cups, but maybe not.
He picked up two bags, then dropped them again. No point. He'd clean in the morning. Probably.
Later, he stepped outside to toss one bag.
That's when it happened.
His foot slipped.
Not dramatically. Not like a movie. Just a wet step. One bad tilt.
He didn't scream. There wasn't time. Just a thunk as the back of his head kissed the concrete.
Darkness.
Warm.
Weightless
I don't remember going to sleep.
Gabriel's brain floated between thoughts like they were bubbles. Something was wrong.
He opened his eyes slowly.
Palm trees swayed overhead. Blue skies stretched forever. Wind rustled gently through the leaves. Somewhere, waves hit a beach.
He sat up.
His hands sank into sand. Real, coarse, warm.
He blinked at the brightness. Smelled salt and fruit. A volcano loomed in the far distance, spitting smoke gently into the clouds like it was just stretching.
"...Am I dreaming?"
He grabbed a handful of sand and squeezed. It bit his skin. Fell in clumps.
Felt real.
Way too real.
Then the memory hit—his foot, the stair, the crack.
"Wait. No. No no no—did I seriously die?"
A long silence.
And then:
[System: Yes, you died from the stairs.]
"What?!"
[System: Yes.]
He stood up too fast. The world didn't blur. His body felt fine. Better than fine. Stronger, even. No hangover. No headache. No emptiness in his chest.
"Okay. Wait. This has to be a hallucination. Or maybe I hit my head so hard I'm comatose. This is a dream. This is brain problem."
[System: We are in the world of Kingdom Era: Pyhwon. Welcome, stonesmasher69420.]
His stomach dropped.
No.
No, no, no.
Not that username.
"You've gotta be kidding me."
He looked around. Jungle. Beaches. Wild birds chirping. Even a giant beetle trundled past, ignoring him like he was part of the landscape.
Gabriel clutched his face.
"I died… as a joke. And got reincarnated under the dumbest name I ever made. Great."
He looked up at the sky.
"This better not be a tutorial zone."
[System: You're right this is not tutorial zone.]
"....."