2021, first day of August.
India. Capital.
A small society in a quiet corner of the capital.
Inside a building on the top floor.
A young man paced the small room, eyes glued to his phone screen, refreshing again and again.
He was waiting for an update. The game name had changed—Eternal Ascendancy. He didn't know why the developers renamed it, but he had to admit: the new name felt better. Stronger. More fitting.
He had watched the official video on the game's page earlier that morning. The developers spoke with unusual seriousness. They gave warnings—clear, repeated warnings. The game was revolutionary. It would change everything. They explained how it would operate now: players would enter a new kind of experience. They assured everyone—parents, family, anyone nearby—not to worry if the player suddenly lost consciousness. It was normal. Safe. Protected.
The man didn't want to worry his family. He didn't want to explain anything yet. So he had locked his room door, turned off the lights, and sat on the bed, phone in hand, waiting.
The app size had shrunk dramatically—just 10 MB now. He didn't understand why. But he didn't worry too much.
He tapped the icon.
The moment the game opened, a window flashed across the screen.
"Please lie down. Tap Ready."
He remembered the video. Without hesitation, he lay back on the bed, heart beating faster. Then he tapped Ready.
His vision went blank.
Darkness swallowed him completely.
For a moment, there was nothing—no sound, no sensation, no weight.
Then his vision returned.
But the world had changed.
He was surrounded by pure white. Endless, flawless white. No walls. No floor. No ceiling. No light source. Just… white. Infinite and empty.
He didn't know what to call his current form. He felt like he had no body—yet at the same time he felt like he did have one, but it wasn't quite surreal. Weightless. Floating. Aware, but untethered.
Then a screen appeared in front of him—floating, translucent, glowing faintly.
His player ID.
Name: OG Yash.
Guild/Sect: Initials.
He stared at it, confused.
He swiped, scrolled, searched.
And then he shouted—voice breaking in the endless white.
"Why? Why? Why?"
"Where is my level? Where are my collections? My clothes? My gun skins? Where is everything? Where did it go?"
He checked his friends list frantically.
Nothing.
No levels. No ranks. No cosmetics. No progress bars. Nothing.
Even Returner—his friend, the no. 1 player, level 99—was reset. No level section at all. Just… gone.
He muttered, calmer now but hollow.
"Looks like from now on, there will be no levels in the game. But where did all my precious collection go? I invested so much money…"
Just then, a notification appeared in the player window.
He tapped it.
The message read:
"Forgive us for the deletion of your collection. Here is your compensation: 30,000 points. These points are equivalent to real money. You can use them in-game or in the real world. This is in exchange for your loss."
Reading this message, he was shocked and happy at the same time. Happy because it meant he had gotten something in return for his loss. Shocked because the points could be used in the real world!
But there was also a line beneath the message:
"The real world exchange will happen soon but not now!"
It meant he couldn't cash out immediately. Still… it was good. Very good.
He moved to the character section in the player window.
He had been expecting something familiar—daoist robes, Buddha-like figures, classic charactes, or even the old characters he had spent so much on. But there was nothing. Only a single line glowed in the empty space:
"Customize your character"
And below it, a small sub-text:
"1 use is free. The next use will cost 5000 points."
Seeing the number, he became dumbfounded. He didn't yet know the exact exchange rate between points and real-world money, but he could guess—5000 points would be enough to buy a decent car, maybe more.
He had to customize his character perfectly the first time. Otherwise, he'd need to spend 5000 points just to try again.
There were instructions: he could customize using his thoughts, or scroll through pre-made templates.
He chose thoughts. It felt more personal. More his.
He closed his eyes—or whatever passed for eyes in this white void—and began picturing himself. Taller. Stronger. Sharper features. The kind of body he had always imagined in his daydreams—muscular but lean, confident, powerful.
After some time, a strange sensation spread through him.
His previous feeling of having no body dissolved. A new feeling emerged—this body was real, solid, but… not quite his. He was inside someone else's form. A stranger's skin. A stranger's limbs.
He could move and walk just like in real life—flex his fingers, shift his weight, turn his head—but there was a subtle difference. A faint disconnect. Like wearing perfectly fitted armor that still wasn't his own skin.