"What the fuck!?"
I jolted upright, heart racing, screaming in panic as I found myself in an unfamiliar room.
Foreign and overwhelming memories crashed into me like a tidal wave, rendering me frozen in place. My body trembled as cold sweat drenched my skin, every muscle locked in place.
My brain felt like it was short-circuiting, overloading with visions that weren't mine yet somehow were.
What I saw wasn't just the past.
It was the future, the grim, inevitable future of the body I now occupied.
A future soaked in misfortune.
Five years from now, this body dies.
I couldn't say whether that death was physical, spiritual, or something in between. But the memories I received were so vivid and raw that my entire body went cold.
Among the flood of information, Interlink stood out like a blaring siren.
Interlink will be released three months from now. It is a viral virtual reality game that will change the world. Set in a stunningly immersive magic-fantasy world with open-world exploration and complete MMORPG mechanics, it became an instant sensation. Everyone who had even a passing interest in games jumped in without hesitation.
Within months, billions of people owned accounts.
Anyone over the age of fourteen could play. For those with money, it was like gaining access to a second life, a better one, a world where you could be powerful, important, and free.
But no one expected what came next.
Two years after the game's release, Interlink became reality, not metaphorically, but literally. The boundaries between the virtual and the real were shattered. NPCs, monsters, the world itself… they bled into our reality.
And the consequences were catastrophic.
Monsters from the game invaded cities. Governments collapsed. A new world order rose from the ashes.
Now wielding real powers far beyond human limits, some players became saviors or threats.
And the original owner of this body?
He died in that new world. Brutally. Tortured to death in a petty dispute with someone far stronger.
"Cold…"
I muttered as I sat up, wrapped in a thin blanket that did little against the dawn chill. My apartment wasn't heating, just another reminder of how rough things were.
In a few hours, I'd have to drag myself to work.
The memories from my predecessor were still fresh. Regret clung to him like a second skin. One of his biggest? I joined Interlink a full year after its launch. In a game like that, a year meant everything: gear, skills, and status. If he had joined initially, he could've been a top-tier player, maybe even a pro.
But poverty held him back. He simply couldn't afford the gear or time.
That wouldn't be my fate.
I'd need money if I wanted to survive and change the future. Fast.
The good news? I had insider knowledge. Interlink Corporation started slow, but its stock value skyrocketed more than a few thousand times when the game dropped. I wasn't an investment expert, but didn't need to be.
I just needed to get in early before the world knew what was coming.
The stock was sitting at $0.63.
I dumped in five grand, leaving me with just two hundred bucks to scrape by. I'd be getting a paycheck soon enough to toss in a bit more when the price inevitably ticked up in the next few days.
~
"…Why am I here?"
That thought ran through my head as I sat on a wobbly stool inside a convenience store, staring at a woman who looked ready to combust.
Her shrill voice cut through the silence. "Get me your manager!"
She was furious, claiming one of the snacks she bought had expired, and now, apparently, she had food poisoning. Naturally, she expected me, a minimum-wage clerk, to pay her medical bills.
I stared at her, deadpan.
I wanted to tell her to go fuck herself. Really, I did. But instead, I forced a tight smile and slid a sticky note across the counter.
"Here. My manager's number."
Let him deal with the circus.
"Good riddance…" I muttered under my breath, watching her storm out.
She was the kind of person who'd be eliminated when the merge happened. Loud, entitled, and useless in a crisis.
"Another tough customer?" A voice chimed in lazily.
I glanced over at the girl lounging near the back of the store. She hadn't lifted a finger since her shift started, not that she had to.
I hadn't expected this anomaly. When the manager showed up earlier, they clarified that she could do whatever she wanted.
The way they spoke to her made it obvious she had to be related, maybe a niece or something.
What made this strange was that none of this had happened in my inherited memories.
Maybe it wasn't significant enough for my predecessor to remember—but somehow, I doubted that. She didn't seem like someone you could easily forget. Her presence left an impression.
Which meant one thing: the memories I received might not be entirely reliable.
That thought unsettled me.
Did that mean the future I saw, my gruesome death, the collapse of society, and the rise of Interlink, was just a fantasy? Some twisted dream stitched together from broken recollections?
Or was I in a parallel version of that world, where events would unfold differently?
Either way, the uncertainty gnawed at me. Just standing here, doing this soul-draining job, was already testing my sanity. Thinking about all of this on top of it made my head pound.
"The third one today," I repeated with a tired sigh.
"How pitiful," she said casually, sucking on a lollipop.
Telling me that made me feel worse.
"How nice of you to say that," I replied, voice flat.
"No need to thank me."
"Right."
And with that, the conversation ended. Blessed silence.
The rest of my shift dragged on like molasses. After my full 9-to-5 grind, it was finally time to clock out.
Just as I was reaching for my bag, she spoke up.
"Hey, what's your name?"
I turned to look at her. She'd been watching me all day, quietly, without blinking. She never introduced herself or offered a reason for loitering in the store. Just… watched.
It was unnerving. She clearly had some kind of agenda. Based on her attitude and how the manager treated her, she was important, making it even more bizarre that she wasn't in my predecessor's memories.
If she had been around before, she would've stood out.
"You don't know my name?" she asked, almost offended. For the first time, her usual detached calm wavered.
"Should I?" I raised an eyebrow. "You never introduced yourself. And the manager didn't say a word about you either."
"Since you're so curious," she said, tucking the lollipop to the side of her cheek, "I'm Melissa, an employee of Interlink Corporation."
My eyes widened.
Interlink. Of all the names she could've dropped, that was the one I least expected to hear.
They'd already noticed me?
And they didn't just notice. They sent someone to watch me, sit across from me, and act like this was all some casual visit.
Interlink Corporation was still shrouded in mystery to the public. Their VR tech, sudden rise, and silence, none of it made sense. A company that created a fantasy world so real it eventually became real… it shouldn't exist. Not yet.
And now they were here with me.
They already knew where I worked, and based on the timing, they must have known about my investment, too.
I kept my voice calm. "What does Interlink Corporation want from me?"
Melissa smiled like she'd been waiting for that question.
"For someone barely scraping by, you sure had the guts to throw five grand into a company with no revenue model."
"Out of curiosity," she continued, "why did you invest in us? Interlink doesn't sell anything yet. There is no product. There are no profits. There is nothing for us to show for anyone to show interest in us."
She tilted her head.
"Aren't you scared you'll lose everything?"
Five thousand was a lot for someone in my position. But with her showing up like this, I was more confident than ever that the stock would skyrocket.
"I trust my instincts," I said flatly. "If I lose the money, I can earn it back in a few months. But with you here... it just proves Interlink Corporation isn't ordinary."
Melissa stared for a moment, then gave a thoughtful hum. "I see…"
She looked amused. Maybe even impressed.
Then she asked, "Are you tired of your job?"
I blinked. "What?"
A grin tugged at the corner of her lips. "Are you planning to keep working here? Or… are you open to other opportunities?"
My brow lifted slightly. "What, are you planning on hiring me?"
"Your shift just ended," she said, standing up and brushing off her skirt like this had all been planned. "If you're willing to take an hour-long ride with me to Interlink's headquarters, I'll give you a tour and a rundown of what the job would actually look like."
She paused, looking me over with that same unreadable expression.
"From what I've seen, you're not exactly thrilled with your current job. This might be the perfect time to try something new."