Over the next few days, Mahn Li spent all his time trying to recall all the major and minor events in the next ten years of his life. Ditching class, he stayed at home all day and rattled off every event he could remember into a cheap dictating application.

His parents' death (which he will hopefully prevent this time), some major companies going under, like Orange and Boogler. China almost winning the World Cup in 2038.

To his dismay, Mahn Li realized he did not remember much of the real world's events.

Most of his knowledge revolved around EoL. It was like he had expelled most memories to make room for the knowledge about this game.

The classes, subclasses, skills, builds. His main account was a Void Assassin, but he had no less than a dozen alternates to experiment with different classes and builds.

The updates and patches, nerfs and buffs.

The maps, the bosses, strategies, and tactics.

The large and medium guilds. How they operated, their features.

The locations and methods of acquiring rare and powerful equipment.

As the day for depositing the money and getting the VR rig drew near, Mahn Li looked at the document he has compiled, which had exceeded a thousand pages. He began to tremble with excitement.

He had an incredible edge!

He would have an extremely good head start!

He would become the most powerful player!

He would get his revenge!

Now… what was the first major event in the game?

Christmas Eve. Two and a half months after the pilot launch. A tournament event.

His good mood deflated like a popped balloon.

Three months would be enough for him to get to level 60 and acquire quite decent gears that would put him on the top 1% of player base. However, his gear would still be nothing compared to those who had attended the Beta Test.

When the game went live, people who had joined the game since Beta would each receive a unique piece of equipment with simple but borderline game-breaking effects: continuous invisibility, group teleport, revive, etc.

Later, when the player base grew and similar equipment are acquired, the original 'Beta Gears' would fall into obscurity. However, in the first six months, they gave players a significant head start, one that even Mahn Li dared not say he could beat.

With that lead, the 'Beta Gears' owners could tackle difficult dungeons, hunt rare monsters and get awesome loot, leaving the rest of the players even further behind.

Of course, not all Beta Testers could take advantage of that headstart. Only about 200 to 500 players really stood out from the thousand players that received Beta Gears. The rest either lost or sold their equipment after a few months.

In the first 2 years, most of the tournaments were dominated by former 'Beta Gears' owners, or those rich enough to fork out money for those pieces of equipment.

The rewards for winning the tournaments were quite substantial. Aside from a cash reward, there were more equipment that would make the strong even stronger.

There was no way he could beat them within the first year by playing it safe. In fact, it took him 4 years before he could catch up with former Beta Gears owners. The initial difference in strength was extremely difficult to compensate.

He needed a breakthrough, something drastic for a chance to win.

But what?

Mahn Li scanned over the list of classes again.

He had decided against playing another Void Assassin. Their power set was too focused on 1 vs 1 combat. It would give him an edge in PvP but was nearly useless in open combat.

He needed a class with much more destructive powers. That was essentials if he intended to lead a large guild. A guild leader couldn't just wade in the thick of combat all the time. Instead, he would need to have an overview of the battlefield and wield power from afar to alter the outcome.

He needed a class with long-range Area of Effect attacks.

He went through several more criteria and eventually settled on Crimson Mage.

This class had the best potential mana regeneration and access to all offensive spells, along with a respectable number of recovery and support spells.

Their problem was the low health pool and poor defense. Mahn Li knew of plenty of equipment, traits, perks, and skills to solve that. At around level 100, his Crimson Mage would be able to stand toe to toe and trade blows with Berserkers if he wanted to.

But…

"Stupid! I can't wait until level 100!" Mahn Li berated himself.

His goal was to participate and win a prize in the tournament 3 months from now. At that point, he will be level 60 at most. Taking more efficient leveling routes can boost him to 65 or 70, but he will miss better quests and rewards.

"What should I do?"

For two days, Mahn Li anxiously paced around in his room. He wracked his brains, trying to come up with a solution.

He built up a dozen spreadsheets, searching for the most viable build that would both win the tournament and dominate large scale fights.

However, he came up short.

Mahn Li relived the memory during his first year.

He entered the tournament, thinking he had a pretty good shot at a prize.

Reality slapped him in the face. No, to be more precise. It whacked him with a baseball bat, sent him sprawling, then kicked him into submission.

He was utterly devastated and humiliated.

'Will the only way to avoid humiliation is to walk away altogether? Grind for a few years? Call in favors? Join obnoxious parties and groups and guilds and slave away for many years until he can claim the top spot?'

"No! This cannot be!" Mahn Li said out loud.

At a food stall, he was absent-mindedly picking at his food when a television nearby played some classic action-adventure movie.

At one point, the hero was faced with a random henchman carrying a big scimitar. The guy did some fancy movements with the weapon. Everything was set up for a climactic fight scene. Then the hero drew his gun and shot the swordsman.

"Yes!" Mahn Li shouted, slamming on the table.

Several people sitting on the tables nearby were startled. They turned and stared at him.

"Keep it down, will you?" One of them said. Sure it was a funny scene, but that reaction was too exaggerated.

"Sorry!" Mahn Li hastily said. He shoved food into his mouth as quick as he can. There's a way he could win this!

At home, Mahn Li opened his document and browsed through the pages.

He had completely forgotten about this: a unique artifact, created by the developers as a joke.

Two players managed to acquire this item together. They had quite a run with it, raising hell whenever they went. They were quite famous because of it. Eventually, the artifact was lost. No one knew what happened to it. Even the (former) owners themselves were tight-lipped. However, they did reveal how they acquired it. The thing was hidden very thoroughly and was only acquirable by completing a ridiculous set of requirements.

Mahn Li used to be obsessed with this artifact. He had spent countless time digging through the screenshots and videos, trying to learn more about it.

It was a long shot, but it was the best chance he has at beating the tournament and setting himself up as a heavyweight within the first year. The artifact happened to perfectly suit his chosen Mage class. And it was something of an oddity, slightly out of place in the game's fantasy setting.

A gun.