My name is Jason Gan. I’m a simple 16 year old, with just an average height of 168 cm.. Semi atheltic with spiky black hair going down towards my face. and I like to play VRMMORPGs. I’m one of the top swordsmen of one of the most popular VRMMORPGs in the world, known as Nova burst Online.

Yet, I still don’t feel good about myself, but that’s not because I’m just a Hong Kong born 2nd class Chinese citizen. Though we don’t have as much rights as the standard Chinese society, I still enjoy my life. Going to school like a normal kid, playing VRMMORPGs with friends and scoring high grades on my exams then bragging.

The bell rings, the end of the school day, end of the school term. As I walk towards the school gates, my friends greet me. Luke, my best friend who had flat, normal gelled brown hair and was about as tall as me asks me: “Hey buddy, you wanna go and play NBO today? The new event boss is out..”

I reluctantly answered him: “Why not, but I’ll be logging off immediately after that the death simulation drawing event starts.”

As my friends walked home with me, we chattered about the new NBO boss and it’s drops. I, being the strongest Katana wielder in the game NBO was being teased by my friends about it.

One of my friends which was slightly taller than me and had spiky, and slightly long black hair named Jingxi said: “All he wields is just a katana, come on.. Katana’s don’t have that long range, it’s only light.."

Being annoyed, I retorted: “Katana’s advantage is that they’re lightweight and are balanced in terms of power and range, plus you’re just a axe user.. That’s even more useless.”

Jingxi being clearly annoyed replied: “Firstly, it's a tomahawk... And secondly at least I can throw them can’t I?” The conversation went on like that until slowly our group split apart as we approach our homes.

Home, I was a person who lived with my father. My father always talked about going to a different country to live in so I didn’t have to fear the Death Simulation, and how he was scared every year that it would be me that was chosen to participate in it. However, he was never rich enough as China had placed specific laws in Hong Kong and Macau so we would live in fear. In order to move to a different country / leave hong kong if you’ve got a Hong Kong passport you would have to pay up a huge sum of money, 200,000,000 Renminbi.

The Death Simulation was the fate for the unlucky children in Hong Kong and Macau, parents may not volunteer to go for them if their child was picked.. As far as sister and brother bonds go, none would ever volunteer for the fate of the death simulation.

Only other children of their age can volunteer for them. But the children So far in the 10 years that the simulation programmes has started, none of the kids have been able to break out of the simulation.

The Death Simulation was a punishment handed out towards the former citizens of Duguo, Now renamed back to Hong Kong and Macau. The ultimate torture, the death of the rebellious generation’s children. Children, the most precious in the world being tortured in a MMORPG like death simulation. Truly a harsh punishment for even those not involved in the death game.

As I put on my Virtual Transforming Headgear on, I shout: “Activate link! Log in ID 2892456!” As I enter the virtual world, I see a computer and a chair, I go towards that computer and type in my username and password. “Ganticflash, Flash123”.

After I clicked enter, the white light removes and I’m bought to my last logout location, Hallengard. Hallengard, a beautiful place. A classy medieval styled town, with shops, player homes, restaurants and everything else you can think a town can have. As I walked away towards the portal, I spotted a group of nine of people who were waving at me.

I immediately noticed they were my friends, Luke shouted: “Hey! Looks who’s late again!” I replied loudly: “I’m sorry ok? It took longer than I expected to open the damn wifi and connect to the VTH.”

Everyone just stared at me for a second and laughed. All my friends in school. Jingxi, Luke and everyone else was here and we were more lively than ever. Sometimes I felt like, I didn’t belong in the real world. The virtual world was more of a home than the real one, because the virtual one was more free, a place where laws didn’t matter..

You could do what you want in the virtual world, whilst there were laws in the real one. As I was absorbed into my thoughts about this, Jingxi shouted at me: “WAKE UP DUMBASS, EVERYONES HERE”

I came back into reality and shouted back: “I noticed you piece of shit”. Everyone started laughing again after Jingxi shut his mouth, after the silence I said: “Today, we’re going to kill that boss and get the gear.

Anyone who stands in our way gets killed, AM I CLEAR?” The responses were very clear, with everyone shouting back: “Clear boss”. As we left the safe zone town for the dungeon, the ten of us marched there with high level gear killing every single mob in sight. Skillfully dispatching the mobs without taking much damage

. As we arrived towards to what looks like a castle with Orc archers, we charge in. Skillfully dispatching the Orc archers we head inside the dungeon. Inside the dungeon, we fight normal trooper orcs, large “knight” orcs and lord orcs. After the killing the last Lord Orc, we proceed to the boss room.

It appears to be a room filled with treasure. Gold, golden weapons, jewels and riches. Sadly, it was not movable. A sign appeared before us “Do you want to challenge this boss?”

Before I could click yes, another group of people appear before us. I recognized them, they were the Silver Dragons guild. One of the top guilds, and were known for PKing for event bosses. It was 10 on 30, with a 1 man wipe out 3 man ratio we charged the Silver Dragons head on.

As we fought, one by one the Silver Dragons fell. Despite being the top guilds, these were just footmen and one officer. When the officer was left, he challenged me onto a one on one duel.

He shouted: “Show me what you’ve got, self declared strongest katana user of NBO”. I retorted: “You’ll see first hand today why I’m not just self declared, but also universally declared the strongest katana user of NBO.” With that, he attacked me, he rushed towards me attempting to stab me with his rapier. I skillfully sidestepped him and slashed him in the back, and then used the skill “Energy slash” to finish him off.

They were never a match for us, the Silver Dragons should’ve bought better men to challenge us. Although most of us had our health drained to red, we managed to successfully defeat the Silver Dragon’s group.

As we drank our potions and prepared to advance to the boss, a message appeared: “Do you want to challenge Emperor of the Northern Hallengard Orcs, Kohler The 7th.” As I clicked the yes button, the boss appears out of his chamber. A huge, green orc holding a mace attacks us. As we switched, I gradually noticed the weakness.

Whenever people went towards his right eye, he would quickly block it with as much force possible. I thought to myself: If we could use a skillshot on that eye, wouldn’t the boss be at least easier to kill anyway? No harm in trying.. I shouted out: “Guys, hold him off, I think I see his weak spot, just hold the boss out for me”.

Although they didn’t respond with their mouths, their actions responded for them. As if in a flash, our tankers Jerrican and Vulpes quickly blocked the boss’s attack with their shields. And as the boss was distracted, I used the strongest combo move on the katana.

A unique skill: 14 continuous slash move named: “Infinity Slashes”. As I hit his right eye, the boss’s HP bar began to drain, the boss desperately takes out another weapon.

A Halberd, he charges towards us with it activating his own sword skills. As it looked like we were going to lose, Vulpes quickly used his shield to block the blow for me. As my skill timer was down, I activated my strongest move once more. As I slash the boss 14 times continuously, the boss finally comes down.

A mace and a halberd drops, 2 rare weapons. As I handed them out to my friends who had chosen the axe path for their skills, I realized it was 7:30pm and the drawings for the Death simulation was about to begin at 8:00pm. As me and my friends quickly head back to the safe zone and logout, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was wrong tonight.

As I open the TV for the livestream pickings for the death simulation, I start diving into my dinner. One by one the candidates were chosen.. And at the 17th one in the Sha Tin district, I heard “Luke Ho”, then I heard “JingXi Cheng” and I finally heard..

My name. “Jason Gan”

I was stunned, as when I heard my name on the livestream I was overcome with fear. A death in the death simulation with 2 other friends, was a event I never expected to happen in my life.

I was afraid, I was in fear. I was about to cry, knowing that the chances of me surviving the death simulation was close to zero. A minute later, several men armed with guns presumably from the military came to pick me up. They said: “No time for goodbyes, we’re leaving now to China, Beijing.”

As I headed onto the train that would take me and my fellow Hong Kongers to our grave, I recounted my life. It wasn’t so bad after all.. On the train there was a complimentary announcement that was unexpected. It said: “The train will arrive in Beijing by tomorrow morning 10:00am.

Once you’re there you’ll be briefed about the Death Simulation.” On the train there was nice delicacies, all food in the world here were prepared by top chefs. I guess, at least I would get to eat good before I died a torturous, horrible death. In the cafeteria, I spotted my friends Luke and Jingxi.

They both looked at me as they were about to cry. We were only 16, and yet we were on a train going towards our death. Luke said: “Well, since it’s a death game MMORPG, I guess at least we’d be good at it right?” I laughed back and replied: “Yeah, we should form a guild as soon as possible, why not name it the Crimson Vigilantes?.”

We all nodded in unison as if immediately approving of Luke’s suggestion In the other side of the cafeteria, I spotted a young girl. About a year younger than me, just alone and crying. She had long black hair, she was about as tall and as slim as me, her eyes were ice blue, and her lips were cherry red. She was the definition, of a princess.

When you looked at her, you just couldn’t think of anything more beautiful, or cuter than her. Even though she was crying, she was still beautiful, her ice blue eyes and black hair made her beauty shine brightly. Her beauty makes you wonder how cruel the Chinese government must be to choose a helpless young girl like her to go into the death simulation.

I sit beside her, and hand her a glass of juice. And I say: “My name's Jason Gan, what’s yours?” She replied while sobbing: “My.. name is.. Hailey Williams..”

I replied: “Oh ok, do you have any experience in MMORPGs?” She replied: “I don’t.. All I know is that I’m going to die here, and I don’t want to die.. I still have friends and family to go home to..”

I said: “Well, me and my friends over there do, so why don’t you come join us and we’ll teach you the basics in the Virtual Room over there. You could start playing NBO with us and gain experience before you go in anyway..”

She started to stop sobbing and said: “Really? Thanks a lot!” As me and her head off to the virtual room, my Luke nudges me and says: “Dang, don’t miss your chance there buddy.” I nodded.

As I taught her how to use the VTH, I quickly saw that she was a quick learner. In just a matter of 3 hours, she managed to master the concepts of sword skills and picked her class of swords which she liked to use. She picked a Rapier as her weapon, as she preferred stabbing instead of slashing.

As we went towards the level 1 boss room and she confronted it, she was doing fine until the boss suddenly switched patterns. She was flung to the air she screamed “HELP!!!!!!”, and I had to slash the boss and save her.

She landed in my arms, and then we accidentally kissed when she landed on me.. Her face was bright red after that.. After that, she turned off her VTH and left the room in a hurry towards her room. I decided that it would be best for myself to get sleep too, so I too decided to head back into my room and sleep.