When I was a kid I dreamed of having one of the best VR machines money could buy, but as a poor boy, my wish never came true as my parents broke their backs just to put food on the table.

While growing up technology advanced at lightning speeds and at the same time so did video games. As such, proper consoles where needed to truly experience life-like graphics and mechanics.

I still remember the first real kind of VR to appear. They were called the oculus r*ft and they were sleek and neat, nothing like the ones they invented in the late nineties, but they still caused nausea and even dizziness.

By the year 2034 everyone had an immersive capsule at home to dabble in VR and experience multiple life's.

Now, on 2061, after so many years filled with endless struggles, I am able to not only have the latest generation VR capsule, but I own one of the biggest companies in the world that deal in fully immersive dives.

And so, as I die slowly in this highly advanced hospital made by my company in the very bed I designed, I reminisce about my past wishes to revolutionize the industry.

How the wish of the little boy that loved to create games and dabble in what he could scrap from the newest kind of technologies lead to him in the future, as a middle-aged man, to discover true reincarnation.

Anyone that had died got a second chance, my invention did not discriminate between the old or young, black or white, what mattered was that as long you were willing, you would never die as your consciousness was uploaded to the ‘NET-Realm’.

That is why even though my end is near I can still smile and go forward.

“Are you ready Mr. Mathew?”

Looking towards the skinny doctor to my left I slowly nod in acknowledgment.

“Is there anything you need before I turn the consciousness dematerialized and use the solution?”

“…”

Smiling, I once again nod silently in consent towards the white-robed doctor. He approaches with his bony hands towards my IV drop and injects a nano-technology solution developed by my own company, making my head feel heavy and sleepy.

I accommodate myself as the cables connected all around my body bother me in the slightest of ways and I wait for the end, my last breath as a living being.

Consciousness fading I hear my only daughter’s last words.

“D-Daddy, please be safe and have a good last dive, I-I love you...”

“Y-yes...” I reply through ragged breaths, pained to realize my little girl sobbing next to me. "I-I'm sorry for not being there as much as I would h-have liked to be."

Just as I am struggling to hear any other sounds, my consciousness fades and I immerse myself in darkness, for a moment forgetting who I am or what I was doing.

But then, like a tidal wave it all comes back to me, my youth, my accomplishments, my company and most important of all, my family. Having realized the true importance of family to late.

Years of research and hard-fought developments in the field, millions invested to make it all work and lastly, an almost Godly power to change fate as one does not go to heaven nor hell, but to a new and completely innovative realm, the ‘Net-realm’, where everyone becomes immortal.

Then, in the darkness I hear it, my true last hope to remain alive even if made out of zeroes and ones.

“Wellcome Mathew...” My eyes widen in surprise, as I do not recognize the androgynous voice. “...to the Cultivation Realm.”

My brain freezes and I can only think of one thing to say.

“What the fuck!?”