Dying In Real Life Is Another Way To Play

After the sudden outburst of Lan Ranyan, Lan Jing looked at her incredulously and then after being silent for a while, smiled as she shakily touched her cheek.

"My dear Ran-ran... I'm sorry that mother didn't know how pained you were after that incident... Don't worry, tomorrow we'll see a doctor to find out how we can resolve your depression..."

Her father also spoke after hearing this and said.

"Ran, I'm sorry too... I didn't know that you used the game that I always get angry from, to actually cope up with the stress..."

"B-but... he-" before she finished her sentence, Lan Ranyan realized how incredibly weird and crazy her words came out earlier.

She stopped speaking and instead focused on eating as she felt awkward with her parents who kept looking at her in pity. After she finished, she silently took the package and went up to her room.

"This is your fault for always trying to force her from doing what you think is right!" Lan Jing shouted at her husband as an empty plate flew towards the poor man.

*Whiz* *Crrraaaassshhh*

Lan Ruan ducked quickly and evaded the plate as it crashed behind him and into the wall.

"Jing-jing, I know it was my fault, I never knew that forcing her to accept the marriage before would cause a hidden scar" Lan Ruan apologized and went forward to comfort her now, crying wife.

"Ruan, what do we do... What if we can't help her, What if the doctor says she will be like that for the rest of her life, chasing after a dead boy?" Lan Jing asked

"Don't worry... It's not too late, she only found out now that the Zhang's boy died. We just need to be there to support her." Lan Ruan said as he hugged her wife.

Upstairs, Lan Ranyan listened as she had yet to enter her room.

"Damn you Zhang Shan... I'm gonna find you and bring you back!.... Now my parents think I'm crazy and head-over-heels for you!" she cursed inwardly as she went into her room.

Inside, she was still fuming with rage, but as she checked the clock, she still had an hour before she was expected to be back. She used this time to open the package and see what was inside.

After initial inspection, she noticed that there was no return address, when she unwrapped it, she saw that it had the logo of HIVE NEURAL TECH. After opening it carefully, she found a weird looking processor, a chip with G.A.I.A initials and a USB storage device, the letter inside the package indicated that before she gets back into the capsule, she needs to upload the program From the USB and then install the processor and chip, the letter stated that this is an upgrade complements of the Company complete with instructions on how to install the parts and replace the chip.

When she removed the G.A.I.A. Chip from its casing, she noticed a small paper fall off and took it, when she read it she was surprised.

It read "Zhang Shan used a similar chip, he's alive and in-game"

She was extremly surprised that she dropped the letter and the chip, good thing her room is designed with a carpet that it didn't bounce off or break.

When she picked it back up, she looked at it and started contemplating before doing anything.

Next she picked up her smart phone and dialed a number. It took some time before someone picked up and then a sweet voice answered.

"Ye Qian here! What's up Ran?"

"Did you receive a package too?" Lan Ranyan asked

"Which package?" Ye Qian answered

"The one from HIVE NEURAL..."

"Wait... let me ask my brother..." she said

"Hey... wait... he's still-" Lan Ranyan said

"Hey, Ran? Still there? sorry... he's still in the game... Let me check down stairs..." Ye Qian said

Lan Ranyan :"...."

Lan Ranyan heard Ye Qian going down stairs

"Aunt Shi... Aunt Shi... Have you seen a package for me or my elder brother?"

"Miss Qian, yes I did, its in the living room" Aunt Shi's voice can be heard

"Hey, Ran, still there? it's in the living room , I'm gonna check..." Ye Qian said and then she was heard putting the phone away from her head.

Lan Ranyan thought "I can hear you loud and clear you know"

"Oh ,there's two packages all right... Hey Ran-"

"Put me in speaker..." Lan Ranyan said

"Right, wait... speaker... there..."

"You hear me all right Ran?" she asked

"Yes..." a cold annoyed voice sounded from Lan Ranyan

"All right, yes, I opened one, it's from HIVE... The other one is too..." Ye Qian's voice trailed off

"It seems to be add-ons for the game, Wow! wait... I'm gonna install it!" Ye Qian's voice said as she was heard running away from the phone.

"Hey Qian-er!...Qian-er!... don't just install it yet! QIAN-ERRRRRRR!!!!!" Lan Ranyan's Voice echoed but no one answered.

"Damn, that girl sure is dull and slow... Next time, I'm gonna ask Ye Qing instead..." Lan Ranyan thought to herself.

Lan Ranyan disconnected from the phone and instead of installing the add-on hardware, she immediately went online.

"...."

"Hey Ran, you're back early..." Ye Qing said

"It's because of your stupid sister... Is she back online?" Lan Ranyan asked.

Ye Qian was surprised with her response and then instead of answering her back, pointed at the sleeping Ye Qian.

When she saw the still sleeping Ye Qian, she explained to Ye Qing about the package she received and her talk with Ye Qian confirming that they too, received the package.

Ye Qing was silent for a while and said that as soon as Ye Qian gets online, he'll go offline and check on her capsule and status.

A while later, Ye Qian woke up and was surprised that Lan Ranyan was already in the game. When Lan Ranyan saw her she immediately asked if she installed the devices, she scolded Ye Qian very harshly after finding out that she did install the add-on and jumped straight into the game without bothering to call her back.

After this, Ye Qing logged off and the two waited for quite a while before he came back and verified that everything seems to be fine and that he checked the capsule interface and it indicated that all status are normal, even the oxygen level was okay.

The two then asked Ye Qian if there were any changes in her interface.

She checked and verified that there was none but this time, she saw something different after she checked the friends list. The previous unknown location of Zhang Shan showed up as being 28 miles northwest in the Village of Vinkarra.

When the two heard this, they checked their friends list as well but it still showed up as Unknown location, at the same time, Ye Qian's location also changed into that of the Unknown status.

Identifying this peculiarity, Lan Ranyan asked Ye Qian to try and log-off and log back on afterwards. Ye Qian did as she was told and did a reset.

As this was happening, Leito has now logged back on and was surprised that the two were waiting for Ye Qian to log back on. He asked them but he didn't receive any answer. He chose to ignore this and wait as well.

On Ye Qian's side

...

....fetching user data... 100% Complete

...locating user... 100% Complete

....life form reconstruction... 100% complete!

....racial selection option... 100%!

...initiating GAIA protocol...

...Human Race selected....

*Ding*

System: Welcome back to Alternate Realm Chronicles...

Our data indicates that your physical life force still exists on Earth. As part of the prototype program on selected individuals GAIA transmigration program has been initiated. The next time you die, you will have an option to select your race as you transfer to Gaea. The current races available are:

Human

Demi-Human

Demon

Alkorian

Carandon

Gallen

Rastran

Drakan

Royal Demon

(View Description)

Please be reminded that once selection has been completed, you can no longer ressurect and return to Earth until further notice. Your respawn point will be your last known location.

Good luck and keep alive.

"....."

Seeing the interface change, and the information being updated. Ye Qian was mortified.

She checked the Races options

(View? Yes)

Human - Gaean Born, this humanoid race has genes that can evolve. As human genes are not available in Gaea, their genes have been duplicated by reverse engineering and downgrading genes from the Demi-human Gaeans. Your feature is human like but can change accordingly to the genes you devour.

Demi-Human - Gaean Born, this humanoid race have strong inclination with Gaea, has longer lifespans and strong affinity with Mana Particles, they too can devour genes. Your feature would be locked as human-like

Demon - Gaean Born, these humanoid lowly slaves have different levels, it can be improved by devouring genes. Highest tier currently identified is Royal Demon. Your feature would appear human-like with a different skin color depending on your tier.

Alkorian - Gaean Born, this humanoid race have been located from the genes in an old ruin, their race has the ability of flight due to their inborn wings made from feather, they have short life span but high intelligence, they can devour genes. Your feature would appear angelic and locked as is

Carandon - Gaean Born, this beastial race have found roaming Gaea, they have high vitality and are attuned with nature and wood magic, they have long life spans and can devour genes with certain limitations in accordance to their nature and breed. Your feature would appear of the furry kind.

Gallen - Gaean Born, this elven-like race are anomalous, only a few are found through out the Elkadi empire, they have twice the life span of other races and although they cant devour genes, they can absorb genes via touch though absoprtion is limited, your features are locked with an elven-like trait.

Rastran - Gaean Born, this monster race populates the different biomes of Gaea, this race have different breeds and types, they can devour genes but could only have a specific type of gene at a time. Your features depends on your gene evolution.

Drakan - Gaean Born, this ancient race has been thought to be extinct, they have a high regeneration rate and can devour limited genes. The downside though is that you will be be an eight legged creature.

"...."

Ye Qian read and re-read it again and again before completing the log-in process.

"Good heavens, thank you for waking up! You've been gone for quite a while, even Ye Qian had to log-out and check back on you at your capsule to check and see if you're alright." Lan Ranyan said.

"Qian-er, you did gave us quite a worry there, If I didn't see you breathing and okay, I would've sworn to rip open the capsule wake you up!" Ye Qing followed up.

Ye Qian:"....."

The two noticed that she was crestfallen and didn't speak. Lan Ranyan approached her and held her shoulder to shake her up a bit and said.

"Ye Qian, hey! are you okay?"

"I'm fine... It's just that... If I die one more time in-game, I might never get back..." Ye Qian replied in a sad tone.

This time, even Leito heard her and was surprised.

"Eh? What do you mean?" the three asked in unison.

Ye Qian explained what happened after she logged back in and told them about the selection option for the different races. the three nodded in return and they also filled in Leito on what was happening, the truth about the game and what has transpired so far with regards to Zhang Shan's predicament and their suspicions with HIVE.

Leito was overwhelmed with the revelation and just listened before speaking.

"Everything you guys told me is straight out of fiction, it's not that I don't believe you guys, I hope that it is real as well... However this changes a lot of things... Could you wait for me a bit, I'll inform our division about this and then we can go towards God Zhang."

The three nodded as they waited for him. Lan Ranyan and Ye Qing discussed with Ye Qian on what would be the best race to select in case the worst would happen.

They asked Ye Qian again if the log-out option is available and she said it was, she tried logging out and she recieved the same prompt upon re-logging in.

Leito was out for almost an hour before waking up again.

"Thank's for waiting up. Our Division head has learned of it now and will inform the higher ups. On the other hand, he told me to continue with accompanying you to Zhang Shan..." he said

"If you could wait for a few minutes, I need to write down some stuff to present him later on once we meet." Leito finished.

"Sure thing. What are you writing about?" Ye Qian tried to cheer herself up as she looked over Leito

"Nothing much, just a few stuff with regards to financial reports on our end and then the current trade status of the Kingdoms."

"What for?" Ye Qing asked this time

"Beats me, only God Zhang knows what it means... I asked the Division head about it as well earlier and he said it's always like this when they communicate with him..." Leito answered.

"Is it like a coded message?" Ye Qian asked.

"Nope, that's too difficult, they just told me earlier to write down the current trade routes and statuses of goods being traded" he answered

"These stuff are fairly easy to remember since I did manage our in-game shop before. Everyone is required to man the shop at least a week or until they familiarize themselves with the buy and sell process." Leito explained

"Wow, that's awesome and boring at the same time..." Ye Qian commented.

Leito continued to work on some scrolls and started writing. after he was done. The four of them planned on how to maximize their remaining two "signal throwers".

Afterwards, they geared up and Ye Qing asked.

"Everyone ready?"

"Yes!" the three replied in unison.

"Ye Qian can you check and see if he's still in the same place?"

"Uhn!" Ye Qian nodded and checked as she closed her eyes.

As they waited, Ye Qian spoke with her eyes closed.

"Something's wrong... he's moving...."

"Really? where to?" Ye Qing asked.

They waited for a response from Ye Qian when she suddenly opened her eyes and said.

"He's heading here... "