"Welcome to Divine Realm Century—where reality and virtuality become one."
A deep, synthetic voice echoed as a translucent blue interface hovered before Jiang Ci.
He stood motionless, staring at the login screen, his eyes filled with something far sharper than excitement—cold, calculating clarity.
I'm back.
Three years ago, Jiang Ci had been just another college student. But everything changed when Divine Realm Century, a hyper-immersive VRMMO, dropped out of nowhere and swept the world. Against all odds, he'd risen through the ranks and become the game's strongest warrior.
And then—everything crashed.
A system failure wiped his account clean. His achievements, gear, stats—gone overnight. And somehow, the fallout didn't stop at the game. His real-life fortunes, too, began to unravel.
The worst part? That was when he learned the game's cruelest secret:
In-game currency could be exchanged for real-world cash.
And he'd been too late to capitalize on it.
While he was grinding dungeons and risking virtual death slaying epic bosses, others—the so-called "merchant players"—were buying low, selling high, monopolizing markets, and making a fortune. Some were driving luxury cars. Some were buying real estate. A few even bought controlling shares in actual companies—all funded by pixelated gold.
They never lifted a sword.
But they won.
And now, I've returned to Day One. The very moment the servers first went live.
This time, Jiang Ci wasn't going to waste a single minute swinging swords or farming for loot drops.
No warrior. No mage. No hunter.
This time, he chose the class everyone mocked… the one nobody respected…
Merchant.
And he was going to make the entire world pay for underestimating him.