1 Reborn as a... What?!

Am I really dead?

My whole life leads up to this moment…

And it all ends during my first time outside in ages…

Getting hit by a car…

I still have stuff I want to do…

Dreams I want to achieve…

If I get a second chance…

I want to do it right…

My life was dedicated to that game…

Just like everyone else…

Yet I never got the chance to realize my dreams…

And be the strongest…

The best of the best…

Hopefully in my next life…

I can change that…

____________________

'Ugh, my head…'

Avery slowly open his eyes and try to get up. His head slowly clears up and he realizes that he doesn't know where he is.

'Where am I? Did I somehow live through that car accident?' Avery thought while looking around. The room looked like it was an apartment room belonging to a university student. There are books stacked on a desk next to a laptop and the air smells terrible. He's currently laying down on a bed.

Slowly, Avery fought his fatigue and stood up. Coughing, he opened the window. The air smelt terrible and he couldn't stand another second of it. Even in his room where he pretty much stayed in 24/7, he at least had an opened window and make sure his living conditions are decent. Yet this room was littered with scrap papers and garbage everywhere. The small kitchen had a stack of instant noodle containers stacked in the sink that weren't clean, the desk was covered with papers, even the bed that he was laying on before was dirty. How could anyone survive here?

As he looked around, Avery felt that something was off. He didn't feel pain, but his body felt strange, he smelt a sweet fragrance and he felt that he was missing something.

Puzzled, he looked around for a mirror. 'Great!' he thought, as he saw a bathroom next to the door. 'There's a personal bathroom in this room, so there's got to be a mirror in there'.

He shuffled over to the mirror, still trying to cope with his headache. But when Avery looked into the mirror, what he saw almost gave him a heart attack.

Looking back at him through the mirror was a 19 year old girl with short brown hair and blue eyes. She has pale skin that has definitely seen better days. She's wearing some pyjamas that loosely fit her. Altogether, she looks pretty depressing.

That's all Avery noticed before he realized that he was that girl. 'WHAT THE HELL?!' he screamed inside his head. 'WHEN WAS I EVER A GIRL?!'.

At that point Avery's headache got worse and his brain was flooded with memories. Apparently, he was reborn in a parallel world. Not much is different though. The only big difference is that the prices of VR helmets are extremely cheap, so pretty much anyone can buy one. VR helmets in Avery's previous world were priced in the thousands, but here they were around ten bucks. Of course, those were the normal ones, the best were still in the hundred thousands. Either way, not much of a difference.

His headache worsened. More memories flooded into his brain. The memories of the girl. They both had the same name, Avery. Her family was well off. She had a good childhood and some good friends up until high school. She got bullied for not having the latest and most expensive clothes and make-up. Her friends became bullies and started to pick on her. Her parents tried to comfort her and told her situation to the principal. The bullies got in trouble and everything was good for a while.

Then, the bullies spread around rumours about her. Everyone started to talk about her behind her back. There were hatful messages on her locker and her desk. In the end, she got depressed. Her parents told the principal again, but the principal couldn't do anything because no one knew who wrote the messages.

It went downhill once she went into university. The rumours got spread around campus and she became the school freak. She had no friends and was always picked on. She stopped talking to her parents and became an introvert. Her parents bought her an apartment room close to the university so she didn't have roommates that could bully her. Didn't help her too much though, because she skipped classes, cried in her room and do nothing for hours before she ended up suffocating because she didn't open the windows, thus making the air condition terrible.

After getting those memories, Avery was shocked. 'Damn, this girl had it bad' he thought. He never knew being a girl could be that bad just because you weren't rich. It's most likely that she was just unlucky, but still.

Looking at the date, Avery realizes that it's one day before the release of the first Dreamscape VR game, 'Realm of the Elements'. The girl didn't buy a VR helmet, so Avery decided to go out and buy one himself. In a year, pretty much everyone will be playing this game, so he need a head start. Playing on the first day means that I can finally be an expert. People shall admire me and respect me! Even if I have to be a girl, it's still worth it.

In the game, you can become rich, famous, powerful, anything. You can convert the in-game currency into money to become rich, get multiple achievements or get on the leaderboards to become famous and level up to become more powerful. Well, only in the game, but still.

Avery decided to take a shower first and clean up before he go outside. He needed to clean himself up before going outside to get a VR helmet, unless he wanted to go outside looking like a freak. Looking through her memories, he found out that girl hasn't showered in a week, gross! She never cleaned up and was broke after spending all her parents money and never asking for more. She has 12 bucks, which is barely enough for a VR helmet. If the VR helmets were the same prices the ones in his original world, than he would have to say goodbye to getting the VR helmet and get a job.

Avery stripped down and got into the shower. That's when he remembered that he was a girl, and that meant down there…

After showering and having a nosebleed, Avery looked at himself in the mirror again. 'Damn, this chick is absolutely beautiful' he thought. He realized he was getting horny by looking in the mirror! The girl's face looks beautiful! No makeup needed. If the girl had gone through puberty before getting bullied, she would've been the school goddess.

After looking in the mirror, Avery walked over to the dresser and see what clothes the girl had. All the clothes aren't that expensive, but not cheap either. Her parents wanted to get her good looking clothes before she left, and they did a great job! The clothes suited her well and looked very nice. Sadly, the clothes were untouched. Looking back through her memories, the only things she wore were the loose pyjamas and her school uniform, which she never cleaned. 'Wow, she must've been quite depressed' Avery thought.l

Either way, he didn't dwell on those bad memories. He swore that if he ever saw those bullies again, he'll give them a piece of my mind for her! He knew judo, so yeah! Even though it's been awhile since practiced, he still managed to get a black belt before he quit!

Anyways, what to wear. Avery didnt want to wear something to good or else guys will try to flirt with him. Hmmm… Oh! This is perfect!

He pulled out some jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie. Perfect! Avery used to wear that style. Also, it was the most casual outfit. Sure, someone might end up flirting with him, but he didn't stand out as much. It'll lower his chances of people noticing him, and that's just what he wanted. He also took out a pair of underwear and a bra and put it on while trying not to get another nosebleed

After putting on some clothes, Avery grabbed the girl's wallet. 'Wait' he thought. 'Is it my wallet now, or is it still the girl's wallet? Eh, I guess it's my wallet now, because I'm her now. Then, would everything else she had be considered mine as well? Probably. Ugh, my brain is killing me. This is so confusing'.

Putting on a pair of sneakers, which is the only pair of shoes she had, Avery headed out and started her new life as a girl.

Walking outside, Avery look through the girls memories for the nearest game store. After realizing that she hardly goes outside and didn't know, Avery decided to go back inside and search up the closest game store on her laptop.

Okay, round 2. Walking outside, Avery started to head towards the closest game store. It's called Elly's Electronics and sells games, electronics and consoles, including the VR helmet.

The VR helmet was a giant leap in VR technology. Developed by the company Dreamscape, it lets you play the game in your sleep. It monitors your heart and brain, so you don't get a heart-attack or something like that. If something life-threatening happens to you, it immediately calls 9-1-1 so an ambulance can come and help you. The technology is ground-breaking and no other company has come close to developing something similar to it yet.

The first game that came out for it was 'Realm of the Elements', which is a VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) game, and the only game available on the VR helmet for years. The company Dreamscape announced that once players got bored of 'Realm of the Elements', they would drop another game. Of course, that wouldn't happen for a long time, because players were constantly playing and exploring.

VR helmet were sold at any game store for a cheap price. Dreamscape manage to mass produce them for 10 bucks each. In her world, they sold for around 1000 bucks, so each one would make the company money. But, in this world, they wouldn't get any money from selling them. Dreamscape relied entirely on their in-game currency conversion, so that rich players could pay a lot of money for the in-game currency.

Anyways, After a short 5-minute walk, Avery arrived at the game store. The giant sign saying 'Elly's Electronics' kinda gives it away. As she walks in, she sees a few people looking at the games trying to decide which one to pick. There's a guy behind the counter. Avery assumed he one of the workers at this store.

She headed over to the VR helmet section and look at the options. The only ones there are 10 bucks. The VR helmets all come with 'Realm of the Elements' Preinstalled for the first month, so Avery didn't have to worry about buying the game separately. She picked up one of the VR helmets and head over to the counter.

Avery put the VR helmet on the counter. The guy's on his phone ignoring her. "Excuse me, can I buy this VR helmet?" Avery asks. 'Wow, I never knew how sweet my voice sounds. It's enchanting' Avery thought. And apparently the guy thought so too, because he immediately turns his head and his jaw drops. Avery didn't blame him. You wouldn't see that many pretty girls when you work at a game store.

"U-Uh, sure! I'll scan that right away!" He said. He looks extremely nervous and fumbles with the scanner. Once he finally manages to scan the VR helmet he says "$11.50 after tax". His face is flushed red. It's getting a bit too weird for her, so she quickly take out her wallet and bought the VR helmet. Just as she turned around to leave, the guy suddenly says "Wait!". 'Crap' Avery thought. 'I swear if he asks me out I'll be pissed'.

Avery turned to him. "What is it?" She asked, hoping that he won't ask her out. "Are you buying that for yourself or for a friend?" he asks. "I'm buying it for myself" she replies. She doesn't know why he asked her that. Unless… "Uh, if you're buying it for yourself, do you… um, do you want to play together?" He says. Avery wanted to leave. It was getting too cringy for her. 'Why do you have to ask me out...' she thought. 'Even if you just ask me to play with you, it's practically the same thing. Not really, but still! Maybe I can bluff him…'

"Sure!" Avery said. "But, I don't know how to send you a friend request". 'Hah!' she thought to herself. 'There we go. Do you know how to send friend requests out of the game? I think not!'.

"Just tell me the number on the back of your VR helmet and I can send you a friend request"

Avery wanted to leave as fast as she could. She doesn't want to give him her number. And by number she means her VR helmet number. Or phone number. Sadly, there's no way out of this, unless she became rude. But she doesn't really wanna because that's mean. Plus, karma's a bitch, so she don't want bad luck to bite back.

In the end, Avery told the guy the number on the back of her VR helmet and left. It didn't go as she wanted, but at least he didn't directly ask her out on a date. That's a positive.

I head back to my room. The room is actually part of a apartment building because the girl didn't want to share a room with others in fear of getting bullied, so she rents a room in a fairly inexpensive apartment building. Her parents pays rent, so I don't have to worry about that now. Is it actually my parents? Ugh, this is so confusing!

She enter her room and was immediately bombed by the sight, smell and, uh, another sense of the dirty room. She couldn't stand the sight of it! If you want to be an introvert, at least don't be such a slob and clean up! Looking at the time, she saw that it was 4:00 pm. The servers go on at 8:00 pm, so she decide to clean up her room. After 2 hours, the room was tidyed up and clean. For the last 2 hours, she made some dinner and showered. By made some dinner, she meant that she ate some instant noodles that were in the fridge because that's all that was there. Avery's a good cook, but she can't make a feast out of thin air. Showering was quite difficult though. It took some massive restraint not to get horny over her own body, but she managed.

Finally, everything was done. There was 2 minutes until the servers go online, so she quickly put on the VR helmet, turned it on and waited.

[Enter your gamertag]

"Avrix"

["Avrix" set as gamertag]

Avrix was her previous gamertag, so she decided to use it again. Plus, she's not that creative with gamertags. It took her a solid hour to come up with that username before.

[10]

Ok, the game's finally starting.

[9]

[8]

This countdown is really suspenseful...

[7]

[6]

[5]

Hurry up already!

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Welcome to Realms of the Elements]