Starting Over

Deep in the night, in the Qingzhu High-end Residential Area of Jinhai City.

Shi Feng sat quietly on a soft leather sofa, holding a stack of documents in his hand. He gazed out the floor-to-ceiling window at the swimming pool below, filled with a sense of loss and resentment.

As the leader of Shadow, one of the four major gaming studios in Jinhai City, he commanded a massive guild of tens of thousands and was a renowned expert in Jinhai City known as the Sword Magician. Yet, now, he could only sit at home, drinking to drown his sorrows.

Ten years of a gaming career.

Ten years of blood-soaked combat.

After enduring countless pains and hardships, he had finally led the Shadow guild to establish ten major city-states in God's Domain. Just as they were ready to compete with top-tier guilds and enjoy endless glory, a single document turned it all into smoke and mirrors, gone forever.

Shi Feng had never imagined that his ten years of hard work would be in vain. He had sacrificed so much for the game, only to end up making a wedding dress for others. All of this happened simply because he opposed Shadow merging into the super-guild Dominating the World. By the next day, the Lanhua Consortium had given him their answer: delete his level 200 Sword King account, which he had spent ten years of heart and soul cultivating, and go to the finance department to settle his wages.

All he received was five million credits and a luxury mansion. Compared to the ten major city-states he had built and the virtual kingdom that raked in money daily, it was less than a drop in the ocean.

Shi Feng thought about how much he had given to Shadow, helping the Lanhua Group grow into a major consortium, with much of the credit belonging to him. Yet, in the end, they had discarded him like trash. He would definitely take revenge for what the Lanhua Consortium had done.

"I will absolutely not let this go. At worst, I'll just start over from the beginning."

A flicker of confidence and determination shone in Shi Feng's eyes. He tore the termination agreement in his hand to shreds, then picked up a bottle of red wine from the table and took a fierce gulp.

Even without his Sword King account and the support of his team, the techniques and knowledge he possessed in the game would not betray him. As long as his skills remained, he could rise again in God's Domain and build another virtual kingdom of his own.

Early morning, the sun had just begun to rise.

Beep, beep, beep!

The phone rang incessantly.

Shi Feng was woken up in annoyance. He helplessly got up to grab the phone by the bedside; the hangover from last night still left him dizzy.

"Hello, what is it?"

"Brother Feng, it's Heizi. Why are you asking what it is? We agreed to become professional players, and today is the day the Shadow studio is recruiting at school. Haven't you always wanted to become a core member of Shadow?"

Shi Feng was a bit confused.

Having just been fired by the Lanhua Consortium, why would he go to a Shadow assessment?

"Brother Feng? Brother Feng? Are you listening? They start testing at ten o'clock. If you don't hurry over, you'll be too late!"

"Heizi, stop joking. I was just fired by Shadow."

"Fired? Brother Feng, how much did you drink yesterday? You still haven't woken up? Shadow hasn't even started recruiting yet, how could you be fired? Alright, hurry up and get here."

Before Shi Feng could react, Heizi hung up the phone.

With a heavy head, Shi Feng looked at the phone and realized that this dilapidated iPhone 6 was not his phone at all; his phone was the latest iPhone 12.

He immediately scanned his surroundings.

The small bedroom, less than fifteen square meters, was in a mess. Books about game strategies were everywhere, and the laptop on the desk in the corner was a very outdated model. Clothes were scattered in the large wardrobe by the wall, and in the wardrobe's dressing mirror, a familiar face appeared.

Shi Feng was shocked to see this incredibly familiar face.

"How did I become young again?" Shi Feng immediately stood up and walked to the dressing mirror, checking again and again, only then confirming that he had truly become young.

Yesterday he was sleeping in a spacious, luxurious bedroom, and now, upon waking, he was in this dump, and he had even become young again.

Shi Feng still had some memories of this place. It was ten years ago, a small room he had gritted his teeth to rent during his senior year of college to conquer God's Domain. He had lived there for over half a year before earning enough in God's Domain to rent a large apartment in the city.

Back then, life had been incredibly hard. His family's situation wasn't good, and they had incurred quite a bit of debt to put him through college. Even so, his parents still worked hard every month to send him enough living expenses, telling him to endure the hardship.

Shi Feng had been single-mindedly focused on making money to change his family's circumstances, but college graduates were everywhere, and finding a decent-paying job was harder than reaching the heavens. Thus, he thought of the most profitable virtual games. To improve his gaming skills, he had ruthlessly bought a virtual helmet, aiming to become a professional player and training his skills in the virtual world.

At that time, he ate steamed buns and instant noodles every day. To save money, he never attended any class gatherings or social events, becoming a "transparent" person in class. The boys looked down on him, and the girls kept their distance. Every time he went to the supermarket to buy instant noodles, he had less than ten credits in his wallet, not even daring to buy a one-credit ham sausage. The female clerk, seeing how pitiful Shi Feng looked, recommended a discounted ham. Shi Feng looked at the tempting ham, then touched his wallet, and gritted his teeth to refuse.

"Could someone be playing a joke on me?"

Shi Feng looked at the familiar scene and his younger self in the mirror, unable to help but shake his head, rejecting the thought.

Even the most advanced United States didn't have such rejuvenation technology. Who would play a joke on a down-and-out middle-aged man?

Shi Feng looked at the time on the phone again.

April 19, 2129.

"Could it be that I've been reborn?" Shi Feng revealed a bitter smile, joking to himself.

He remembered today was August 5, 2139; it couldn't possibly be April 2129, when he was still a senior in college.

Shi Feng shook his head, trying to clear his mind, yet he still held a glimmer of hope—the hope that he had been reborn, that he had truly returned to ten years ago. He walked to the computer desk and opened the laptop.

If the time on the phone could be faked, then the news on the internet couldn't be.

After browsing the web for a few minutes, Shi Feng was completely stunned. All the information he queried online indicated that today was indeed April 19, 2129. Even the official website for the globally popular God's Domain clearly stated the official launch time, with a countdown to April 25, six days later.

"I really have been reborn! Have I really returned to ten years ago?" Shi Feng stared fixedly at the news reports about God's Domain, tears of excitement streaming from the corners of his eyes.

At this moment, Shi Feng's feelings were indescribable—there was regret, sorrow, and joy.

It felt as if everything before him was a dream.

However, the sound of cicadas outside the window and the cold air blowing from the air conditioner reminded Shi Feng that all of this was real.

Looking at the family photo from his college days on his phone, Shi Feng had never noticed that his father had white hair, and there were wrinkles at the corners of his mother's eyes. They had truly grown old, no longer as full of vitality as they once were.

It was a year and a half after the launch of God's Domain that Shi Feng noticed his parents had grown old. Heavy debts, overwork, and immense stress had left them both critically ill and bedridden. To cure and restore them would require millions of credits, but at that time, Shi Feng was merely a small squad leader in Shadow, and the money he earned couldn't even begin to cover such exorbitant costs.

Shi Feng tried everything to scrape together the money, but it was never enough. Even with his desperate efforts to keep them going, his parents passed away a few months later.

In his previous life, he hadn't taken good care of his parents; who could know the depth of his pain and regret?

Even after Shi Feng eventually earned millions of credits, it remained an eternal ache in his heart.

He never expected fate to play such a joke on him, allowing him to start over from zero and return to the very beginning.

"Good, this is great, hahahaha. Since I have been reborn, I will change all of this. I will earn enough money to cure my parents' illnesses and ensure they no longer have to toil for a living." Shi Feng wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and swore to himself.

Just as Shi Feng was planning his future, Heizi called again, incessantly urging Shi Feng to go to the university for the assessment.

Shi Feng, however, remained unhurried. He dressed and tidied himself up before heading to Jinhai University.

He was all too familiar with Shadow.

He remembered that when he was in college, Lan Hailong, the eldest son of the Lanhua Group, had founded the Shadow studio. Providing massive funding, he organized the elite students of Jinhai University to conquer God's Domain. Shi Feng had gone to the assessment back then and became a core member, while Heizi became an outer member—a time he had been happy for a long while.

Three years later, under his leadership, the Shadow studio allowed the Lanhua Group to rake in massive profits in God's Domain, catapulting them into a major financial conglomerate. He never expected that, in the end, he would be personally fired by Lan Hailong.

Since he had been reborn and possessed an advantage in God's Domain that no one else could match, he naturally had no intention of joining Shadow again to become someone else's tool and earn money for them. He wanted to walk a different path, to strive for his own life, to stop needing his parents to send him living expenses, and to pay off all his debts. Therefore, he needed to start his own business, open his own studio, build his own company, create his own virtual empire, and live a good life.

When Shi Feng arrived in front of the No. 1 Teaching Building, he saw a tall, thin youth with dark skin pacing back and forth at the entrance, looking incredibly anxious. This was Heizi.

"Brother Feng, you're finally here! Thank goodness registration hasn't closed yet. Let's hurry inside and sign up," Heizi said anxiously upon seeing Shi Feng.

Shi Feng shook his head and said with great sincerity, "Heizi, I don't intend to join Shadow anymore. I want to start my own studio. Are you coming with me?"

He had met Heizi in a virtual game. His skills were quite good, and they had braved the world together; they were like brothers. During their time working together in Shadow, although Heizi lacked talent for the game itself, his management skills were formidable, keeping the guild's hundreds of thousands of members in perfect order. If he had Heizi's help, achieving his goal would be a step closer. However, he would respect Heizi's choice; after all, he currently had nothing, and Heizi's family background was poor, leading him to decide to become a professional gamer just to earn living expenses.

Heizi was stunned for a moment and couldn't help but lower his head in silence. Shi Feng's words were too sudden, and today's Shi Feng felt very different—exuding a sense of confidence and stability, unlike his usual impulsive self.

A full minute passed before Heizi looked up at Shi Feng.

"Brother Feng, stop talking nonsense. Do you know how much a virtual helmet costs? That's eight thousand credits! To open a studio, you need at least six people, plus a workspace, salaries, and so on. The startup capital alone would be seventy or eighty thousand, not to mention subsequent investments. That's a lot of money. Do you even have that much right now?" Heizi knew Shi Feng's situation well and understood his poor family background, so he tried to persuade him to abandon this crazy idea.

"You're right. Right now, I don't even have the money to buy a God's Domain virtual helmet," Shi Feng admitted with a silent nod. As Heizi said, even seventy or eighty thousand was an underestimate; he remembered that the hundred-person studio Lan Hailong recruited had cost over five million, and later, even more was spent to improve the studio's quality and strength.

"Since that's the case, why take the risk? Isn't it more stable to go to Shadow? At least Shadow can provide the virtual helmets. Otherwise, we won't even be able to play, let alone become professional gamers." Seeing that Shi Feng understood the crux of the problem, Heizi breathed a sigh of relief and pulled Shi Feng toward the teaching building.

Shi Feng shook off Heizi's hand and looked at him earnestly, his expression incredibly serious. "But I still intend to start my own studio. I don't want to be under anyone's control. Heizi, are you coming?"

Shi Feng wouldn't force Heizi. After all, he had no guarantees, and it was impossible to reveal the secret of his rebirth; he only hoped Heizi would trust him.

Seeing Shi Feng's serious expression, Heizi felt that today's Shi Feng was very strange and far too crazy. Everyone knew it was impossible to make money in the early stages of a virtual game. Did Shi Feng have some way to make money in God's Domain? Even if they could, it would be months away, and they didn't have that much time to waste.

Heizi hesitated for a long time, gritted his teeth, and finally agreed. "I get it. Since you're the big brother, I'll start a studio with you. But what about the virtual helmets? We can't play the game without them."

Shi Feng's furrowed brows relaxed instantly. He happily patted Heizi on the shoulder and laughed, "That's my good brother. Don't worry about the virtual helmets. I remember God's Domain has a trial discount for university students. Every university has a distribution point. As long as you have a student ID, you can get a virtual helmet for a free ten-day trial. Let's go take a look."

"Then what happens after ten days?" Heizi's dark complexion turned ashen. He felt as if his future was pitch black. Why did he trust Shi Feng? Was it because of that confidence and stability Shi Feng displayed? Was it really okay to start a business with him?

What could one do in God's Domain in ten days?

Once ten days passed, they would definitely miss the best time for major studios to recruit, and in the end, wouldn't they still have to buy a virtual helmet? But where would the money come from?

Trying to earn sixteen thousand credits in the first ten days of God's Domain's launch was impossible, even for a team of professional gamers!

"Leave the money problem to me."

Shi Feng patted Heizi's shoulder, revealing a confident smile.

Earning sixteen thousand credits in ten days was a pipe dream, but he possessed the spirit of a reborn soul. No matter what difficulties he faced, he would break through them one by one.

And the opening of God's Domain was the beginning of his rise.

Afterward, Shi Feng took Heizi to collect the trial helmets and spent all his money on instant noodles, placing two large boxes by the computer desk in his rented room—enough food for over ten days. After explaining a few things about God's Domain, he waited quietly for the game to launch.

At 9:00 PM on April 25th, a few faint lights flickered in the dark, quiet room.

Shi Feng lay quietly on his bed, closed his eyes, and gently pressed the start button on his helmet.

"God's Domain, I'm coming."