Chapter 2: Awakened

There were many other similar chats and private messages, but he ignored them all.

For him, playing a game was like this: whale to the top, make other players envy him and then quit the game.

This way, he made his nickname, the WhaleGod, legendary.

At the same time, game companies both hated and loved him.

Every time Alex did this, they got flooded with complaints.

But none ever banned him; instead, he kept getting invitations to beta-test new games.

The income Alex provided alone was more than that of a hundred whales combined, not to mention the publicity they got, as some YouTubers made dedicated channels about him.

'Haha, what final boss? I didn't even see the credit card statement.' Alex laughed to himself, remembering some of the chat.

But his elation only lasted a moment as he remembered he needed to look for a job.

He started typing 'how to earn money online,' but the results were filled with ads.

"Get Rich or Die Scrolling: Learn to Earn $500 Daily with Our Fun Online Strategy!"

"Earn $1000 a day now from your home."

Seeing these ads made Alex frown.

He knew they were probably scams, but he wondered, 'Why the hell did they advertise such small amounts?'

'Who would even be baited by $1000 a day? Make it at least a million dollars a day!' Searᴄh the Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

If he had said this out loud in public, Alex would surely have been beaten up; most people's expenses were around $1000 a month, and he thought it was too small.

As he kept scrolling, Alex realized why he had even searched using 'money' as a keyword.

He just needed to do something so his mom would stop bothering him, preferably something that would make him go outside and socialize.

He then remembered he had many game-testing offers in his inbox, but as he scrolled through them, he realized most of them didn't pay; they just gave free in-game credits.

And none required him to go outside.

Finding nothing useful in the inbox, he checked his spam.

"Looking for new VR implant beta testers! Tired of needing a device to access the VR world? With our new implant, you just need to close your eyes, and you can enter the VR world."

Seeing this, Alex raised an eyebrow. He started checking the offer, then did some research on the company, feeling doubtful.

He had heard of this implant before, but it was still in the experimental stage, with only a small amount of information released to the public.

As he checked the address and the company, he found out everything was legitimate.

"The parent company specialized in researching Awakener's abilities. So it should not have been a scam.

The payment was small, but that didn't matter as long as I got out and did some work."

He then started registering his personal information.

In the world where Alex lived, there were people with superpowers called Awakeners.

They suddenly appeared fifty years ago after a huge earthquake shook the planet.

No one knew the real cause, but rumors said it happened because of a government experiment.

A week after the global earthquake, a strange phenomenon started appearing.

People began feeling odd in some areas, and as days passed, the phenomenon worsened.

Gravity started to act weirdly, becoming heavier or lighter; fire suddenly appeared in the air, cold water felt hot, and water suddenly started turning into ice cubes.

This spooked the people, making them start leaving the area.

After a week, the space would become distorted, creating a portal where a dungeon appeared.

The authorities then quickly sealed the area and sent out their own expeditions, but only a few barely survived.

They then started noticing a red aura appearing around the portal.

At first, only part of it was visible, but as time progressed, the red aura grew, starting to surround the portal.

When it made a full circle, a flood of monsters would come out from it. People called this a Dungeon Break.

Although modern weapons could harm them, the results were not too effective.

The government then started considering using a bomb to explode the area.

That was until the first Awakener suddenly appeared. With the Awakener, they succeeded in controlling the situation.

The dungeons then started being treated as strategic resources.

Awakeners would enter them to hunt monsters and obtain new exotic materials.

Some dungeons were even filled with other civilizations, allowing contact between them, but the details of this were not clear.

The public only knew they had obtained many new technologies from it.

One of these technologies was hyperrealism virtual reality, in which Alex played a lot.

In the Pandora Research Facility, the place that gave Alex the job offer, three scientists were busy experimenting.

Their appearance was haggard.

One of them, a silver-haired woman, held a vial filled with red, murky blood. "I don't get it. Why doesn't this give any reaction, no matter what we do?"

The murky blood was something that one of the Awakeners found inside a dungeon.

At first, many were interested in it, but after numerous experiments, they started feeling tired of the dead-end.

The blood seemed sentient.

When they tried to add some chemicals to it, it showed no reaction.

However, when they tried to separate the liquid, the blood rejected the separation, moving on its own like slime.

They even found someone to drink it, but the blood rejected this, too. It moved out by itself, exiting the person's body.

"Prof. Faerith, you should just give up already."

She was the only professor still interested in the blood.

She didn't know why, but she became obsessed with it.

Faerith was sure that she just needed to find the right person for it to show any reaction.

Hearing what her assistant said, she frowned and slumped into her chair.

"I just got another response for a new test subject. I guess I'll take a break if this one fails again."

"Prof, you've been saying that for seven months. In total, we've already experimented on the blood for a year."