Her eyes flew open. A cold sweat flowed down her back. Her heart thumped against her chest as she gasped for air.

*Ugh…*

Jisha put a hand to her forehead. Her vision faltered - she’d sat up too fast.

After a few seconds, she glanced around the room. And when she recognized the contents within it, her shock was replaced by confusion.

*Where am I?*

It was not because the room was unfamiliar, but rather because it was *too* familiar.

This was her bedroom for the majority of her life.

*Perhaps this is the spirit realm.*

The events that had just transpired were fresh in her mind. It would be strange if one forgot the sight of three scorched family members while literally getting stabbed in the back. So, she was probably dead, and it wasn’t possible to go back in time to change history.

There was no other logical explanation - it had to be the spirit realm. Plenty of spirit realm accounts and testimonials had been recorded, and some had reported that you would occasionally be shown your past and sometimes even your happiest memories.

As Jisha rationalized her situation, her breathing calmed down. But she couldn’t help biting her lip.

As a spirit, there was almost nothing she could do to impact the physical world. She could witness it or communicate with mediums, but that was about it.

Though she was sad, there was nothing she could accomplish by sulking. Even though it was the spirit realm, there had to be something to do, right?

The first thing Jisha noticed was that her body was significantly weaker than what she was used to. Before wars raged across the world, she’d been a shut-in with little physical training. On top of this, her mental clarity was incredibly fuzzy.

The extra effort she had to spend to just move her arms and legs was extremely apparent. She wasn’t moving limbs, but rather slabs of lead…

*This is awful. I wonder if I can do anything about this soon.*

As she was looking down, the date her smartwatch displayed jumped out at her.

*23:48 3-7-50...?*

23 hours and 48 minutes on the third day of the seventh month of the 18050th calendar year on planet Etmos. In other words, this was...

*11 years before my death?*

Today wasn’t an ordinary day. It was a day she remembered like yesterday. This was the day she had stayed up until midnight in order to try the newest VRMMORPG that was released, Synergy.

Though full-dive VR games had existed in the past, Synergy’s technical feat was far superior to its counterparts.

For the first time ever, a virtual world would be nearly indistinguishable from real life.

No marketing was done for this game, so not many people knew of its existence yet. And of the few people that knew, most were skeptical. However, the hopefuls were adamant that this claim was genuine.

The only way to find out was to try it when it launched. And today was that day. For everyone except Jisha, it would be their first time truly experiencing another world.

On the side of her bed was one of the most primitive full-dive helmet models in existence.

Upon seeing this, paired with the fact that her body felt like a vegetable, she couldn’t help but want to jump straight into the game.

If she were in the spirit realm, she would be doing everything in her power to witness the aftermath of their family’s fall. Spirits were able to travel freely, yet Jisha was bound to her young body. Because of this, she couldn’t help but masochistically look forward to this game again.

*... This is what I used to use?*

Jisha fumbled with the antiquated tech, unsure of how to maneuver it.

The Vbian-02. Its quality was so poor that she would ordinarily glance over it as if it were a piece of trash on the ground. However, 11 years ago, it was a fairly decent model.

As she struggled with her helmet, she glanced at her watch again. There were less than ten minutes remaining before the world of Synergy opened to the public.

When she finally figured out what she was doing, she hesitated to boot it up.

*This is ironic, isn't it?*

Synergy was supposed to be a “game”.

Yet, this "game" brought many to ruin. This "game" toppled major powers of the world and gave rise to equally as many new ones. This “game” even extended one’s lifespan with its time dilation technology.

Rather than a “game”, the world acknowledged Synergy as a “second reality” - one that was as real as their own.

Jisha had a hunch. Was she really in the spirit world? She considered one possibility that should be impossible. And if it were true…

*There's no choice but to play.*

As she navigated through the Vbian’s old menus, she thanked her younger self for pre-installing all of the necessary files.

*Wow, even my old model is here.*

Synergy allowed 3D models of avatars to be imported. At age 13, Jisha created her very own in anticipation for this game’s release.

*Hm…*

She was a better artist now than she was at age 13, so she was immediately able to discern her younger self’s flaws.

*Some of these lines and shading are a bit off, but it’ll have to do for now.*

As much as she wanted to change some things, she only had time to make a couple of minor adjustments before finally launching the game.

*... this is so slow.*

As someone who was used to jumping into Synergy right after setting themselves up, the loading space of this old technology was mind-numbing.

The loading meter took its sweet time - only after several minutes did it crawl its way to full.

*Finally!*

She was just in time to witness the countdown until the game’s release.

*>10 seconds before the world of Synergy opens to the public!*

...

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

*>Welcome to Synergy!*

"Welcome to Synergy!"

As the countdown ended, the world turned white and these words appeared in the space in front of her. At the same time, Jisha heard a cute feminine voice emitted from the same place.

A small fairy with blue butterfly-like wings popped into existence. She simply looked like a miniature human and was approximately ten centimetron in height.

"I am Lemieux! You can call me Lemi for short. I will guide you as you begin your journey in this world. Think of me as a tutorial bot!"

At this, she proudly stood in the air with her hands on her hips. Her dignified tone highly contrasted with her cute voice and contents of the message. Hearing this, Jisha couldn't help but smile.

"Beyonder, what is your name?"

Jisha decided to use the Synergy username she had never changed.

"Fae Sol."

"Okay, Fae Sol! Please choose a class!"

A screen floated before her with two options:

*>Melee*

*>Ranged*

"You may notice something strange. There are only two classes! This is because the world of Synergy is more realistic than any other game so far. You must get used to your body before you can truly explore!"

*Get used to your body, huh? Tell me about it…*

Lemi was about to continue, but Jisha had no need to hear anything else. She only had one purpose in games, and that was to be a gunner. No matter what life she lived, this fact wouldn’t change. Without a doubt, she chose...

"Ranged."

Lemi's face lit up at the answer.

"You're quite decisive. Ranged it is! Now, choose your birthplace in this world! Once chosen, your soul will return to this location should your body die. Choose wisely! Select a Hamlet within the Starshine Shogunate."

Put simply, Jisha was ordered to select a spawn location. There were many tiers of locations, such as Hamlet, Village, Town, and more. Hamlet was the smallest of these, and they were the most plentiful. They were also of the poorest quality. And unfortunately, they were the only places new players could spawn.

But these limited spawn locations had their benefits as well.

Etmos was a somewhat large planet with a circumference of over 80,000 kilometron and a population of over thirty billion, so the concept of these location tiers were created in hopes of getting people from similar locations on the planet to spawn together in the game.

Though Etmos was large, Synergy was even bigger. In fact, it was likely infinite. These worlds were too big. All of these small starter places simply consolidated people together. What fun would the game be without others to play with, especially those close to you in real life?

Jisha glanced over the numerous marked locations on the large continental map in front of her.

*Where should I go?*

She could pick something that she was already familiar with, or she could go somewhere new.

*Hm...*

For a while now, something had been bothering her. It was just this hunch - a gut feeling.

*Is this even the spirit realm?*

It was common knowledge on Etmos that the spirit realm was somewhere one went after their physical body had passed. Spirits were not an uncommon phenomenon. In fact, they were everywhere. And there was one thing every one of them would say about the physical world.

"Advanced technology is not visible".

It didn't mean that VR helmets were invisible to spirits, but concepts such as Etherless, cyberspace, and virtual worlds appeared blurry and incomprehensible to them. This topic was still under research among spiritual scientists and was difficult to solve.

The most common hypothesis was that such technologies had extremely low spiritual affinity. However, the hypotheses only existed due to this indisputable fact. No matter how much one wanted to deny this fact, it was a law of the world, just how water was wet.

So right now, there were several possibilities.

1 - Jisha wasn't actually dead but in a deep sleep or coma. Though technology was also blurry in dreams, it was much more likely to view technology in a dream than in the spirit world.

2 - The other spirits, hence known laws of the world, were wrong. Or, Jisha was a special spirit.

3 - Jisha had reincarnated into her past self.

After observing her world in detail, she ruled out the first possibility.

If she were in a dream, various elements of the world would be unstable. Written text and the color of objects were two prolific examples. If these elements remained consistent after heavy scrutiny, the world in front of her was real.

So... now what?

As much as Jisha wanted to entertain the third possibility, what was more likely? For water to become not wet, or to transgress into your past self? It was a problem that stumped her. But once that thought entered her mind, she couldn't get rid of it.

Everyone has the fantasy of reincarnating into their past self and redoing their younger years. This was why reincarnation novels were popular. Jisha was no exception.

In fact, she desired this even more than most. After all, her entire family and residence had been burned down without forewarning.

The most alarming part was that everything until those last moments seemed completely fine. If only she had a second chance and was able to figure out what exactly happened…

*There's only one option.*

It didn’t take her much longer to decide. She pointed towards a place she was quite familiar with.

"Uval Hamlet."

There were a couple of reasons for choosing this location.

First and most importantly, Jisha had already decided to treat this situation as a second incarnation. Of course, this was still unlikely, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

She needed to take decisive steps to stand at the top. She couldn't just be content with being a top player - she had to overwhelmingly stand above all.

To prevent tragedy from occurring a second time, she would wield superior weapons. With enough power, everything would be simple.

In this world, there are only two that have ever existed. What are they?

Information and strength.

Currently, Jisha was lacking the latter.

*Well… comparatively, anyway.*

Starting in the Uval Hamlet would give her a massive advantage over other players who were just learning the game. After all, Jisha Slyker was Fae Sol the Gun Swap Goddess in her previous life. With 11 natural years of experience under her belt, her weapon of information was superhuman.

A secondary reason was that Synergy and Etmos were extremely vast, and the difference in power between certain entities was massive.

For example, guilds and organizations from previous VR games would join up to create alliances in this new game. The alliances of such orgs could easily bully smaller clans and individual players. And as the power dynamic in the late game became more and more chasmic, “super-guilds” and hegemonic powers could easily bully ordinary orgs.

If her memory served her correctly, Uval Hamlet was located in a relatively peaceful area. Of course, this didn't mean that it would be free of conflict. Nowhere in Synergy was truly peaceful. Jisha's goal was to rise quickly, and Uval Hamlet would allow her to do so with relatively little harassment from the aforementioned bullies.

No matter how much information one had, if the other side wielded a ludicrous amount of strength, it would all be useless.

The third and most unimportant reason was... she wanted to relive her first moments again. This was a harmless wish, so why couldn't she indulge in it?

"Are you sure?" Lemi asked.

"I'm sure. Please send me to the Uval Hamlet."

"Okay! You sure are decisive! Before you go, this is what you look and sound like. Would you like to make any changes?"

The 3D model she’d imported stood before her as it spoke preset voice lines.

Its body type was identical to her real one. She was an average height for a 13-year-old female Northeasterner standing at roughly 160 centimetron, and she had a petite build. However, the face of the model greatly differed from her real one.

Jisha Slyker had silky-flowing black hair. Fae Sol’s hair was wavy and maroon giving her an uncouth look.

Jisha had deep brown eyes that were almost black. Fae had bright blue-green eyes with irises stylized like crosshairs.

Jisha had gentle facial features, while Fae had a sharper look.

If someone saw Fae Sol, there was a zero percent chance of associating her with Jisha Slyker.

This was important - as the princess of a nation, she was basically a small-scale celebrity. If her progress in the game became known, Slyker would immediately fall under the crosshairs of the world.

As for the voice, Jisha didn't have much experience in sound design. Because of this, she imported a voice modulator she found online. She didn't fiddle with it too much, so she sounded somewhat similar to her original self, but it was different enough for people to be unable to tell.

If anything, it was a bit… fiercer.

"These are the changes I would like to make," Jisha said as she confirmed her avatar with the system.

"Very good! I, Lemi, would once again like to welcome you to the world of Synergy!"

With that, the fairy disappeared as a tunnel of darkness enveloped the world.