It was the crack of dawn in El Qitar.
The partying had slowed to a standstill. The streets were lined with all sorts of trash, and most of the people had retired to their homes to deal with their various hangovers.
As one would expect, the Night City was not that much active in the morning.
This would have been the perfect time for an undetected transmigration.
Suddenly, a dusty alleyway lit up with intense, blue light.
It shone for only a few seconds before it began to dissipate.
A young man stumbled out of the dying light, before it disappeared completely.
He fell face-flat to the ground, his head throbbing from the sudden impact.
Michael raised his head, taking in the strangeness of his surroundings.
The first thing he noticed was the floating blocks of cities and districts suspended in bubbles high in the sky.
Where the fuck am I?
Everything here was strange.
The buildings were oddly shaped, like mismatched cubes stacked unevenly on top of each other.
He saw a luxury Bugatti zoom past, it's neon-lined wheels replaced with some kind of technology that made the vehicle hover in the sky, flying toward one of the floating cities.
He heard a noise at the far end of the alley. He turned just in time to glimpse a ginger cat jump through a small opened grate in the ground. Was he hallucinating or did the cat have robotic limbs for legs?
Just as Michael was about to confirm that he was crazy, a screen lit up right in front of his eyes.
[Welcome to the Project Vegas VR mode! This is your spawn point. Reset here to claim resources acquired through the course of your gameplay!]
"Gameplay?" Michael said out loud.
To any onlooker, his irises appeared to be tinged with a blue light.
He took a moment to think.
This was definitely not a VR experience. At least not like anyone he had ever encountered.
He remembered the screen options he had selected on the arcade. In his sadness and desperation, he had gone along with the idea that he could somehow experience VR without a console, or even a headset.
He thought those were some kind of hallucinations, a mockery conjured up by the universe to remind him of his failure earlier.
There was a flash of blue, and somehow he ended up here. In the VR world of a game that had shattered his life.
Except this wasn't VR. He was sure of it.
Somehow, he had jumped into the game's world.
"This must be like in those novels I read." Michael thought to himself. "Holy shit! I actually transmigrated into the game."
He ran his fingers through his hair in amazement.
Except the hair didn't feel like his.
And now that he'd noticed, it was the same feeling with his body.
He looked at his palms, marked with strange scars.
There was a reflective window on the side of the building to his left. He rushed to take a look at his image.
What he saw in the mirror was remarkable.
He appeared to have lost his old weight, sporting a more lean, muscular build. His tousled hair was tinted a dark shade of violet, and his devilishly handsome eyes sparkled like stars in the night sky.
Compared to his former self, Michael was now something out of a dream. With a chiseled jawline and more prominent cheekbones, calling him 'handsome' would've been a mere understatement.
Although, all these were not what caught his attention.
His right arm was completely robotic, looking more advanced than anything he had seen in his own world.
A huge sword was slung across his back, except this was not like any sword he had ever seen.
There was only one large hilt, without a blade attached to it. A purple line of light glowed in the slot where the blade should've been.
Michael instantly recognised the character from the game. This completely confirmed his belief that this was a transmigration.
He had taken the character of Milo Ashgrim.
A skilled character with good aesthetics and gear. Except he had no idea exactly who the character was, or what his role was in the game's story.
"Which means that I must be some side character." He thought aloud.
His mind suddenly went to the details on the screen that was still displayed in front of his eyes.
"So this is my spawn point? The dump?" He gestured to the dumpster alleyway with all sorts of metallic waste and gunk.
[Yes Milo. This is the starting point of your character in the game. Would you also like to see your beginner status?]
"That's my new name now, Milo." Michael thought to himself. "Well, given how shitty my past life was I guess I could probably do with a change of name and identity."
Yes. The system picked up on his thought. The screen before him changed to a new screen showing him some details about his character.
[Lvl 1 Cyberpunk]
[Name: Milo Ashgrim]
[Backstory: A sick pile of shit borne from El Qitar's slum underground.]
[Motivation: Aims to rise to the corporate ranks of the cyborg military]
[Fate: Dies before he can begin his journey]
[Hidden Fate: ???]
[Cybernetic Skills: Short Circuit Hack {Lvl 1} ;
[Cybernetics: Finger Pistol {Lvl 1} ; Bionic Arm {Lvl 1}]
[Cheat Points: 0/100]
[Hidden Cheat: ???]
[Would you like to learn more about any specific stat?]
Milo's focus was on the fourth stat.
Dies before he can begin his journey…
"Just like that?" Milo yelled aloud. "Just kill me already." He waved his hands in the air with frustration.
He knew quite well that in story-driven games, while with a good reward system and enough room for free roam, characters like him were ultimately dependent on the direction of the story.
Which means that even though he farmed more than enough resources to become the strongest in this new world, he was doomed to die.
Talk about tough luck.
"Fuck!" Milo kicked a piece of metal. "From one shitty life to another."
He refocused on the stats. That was when he noticed it.
"Hidden Fate?"