The Protagonist System - 304 Establishing Boundaries

Mike’s life used to revolve around two things: his girlfriend and his work.It was a peaceful existence—no drama, just an ordinary but sweet life.But just when he thought it would last forever, everything changed in the blink of an eye. His world was thrown into chaos when he was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer, with doctors giving him only three months to live.His girlfriend of three years left him for another man after he refused to give her his savings from the past two years.Mike would rather spend that money on alcohol, temporarily numbing the pain of his impending death, than fund his ex-girlfriend’s new life with her lover.Then, one day, while accidentally eavesdropping on a conversation in a restroom, a spark of hope ignited in his dead heart.Without hesitation, he signed up as a beta tester for a groundbreaking game—one that allowed players to enter other worlds. In each world, his mission was simple: save the heroine, and she could return with him to the real world.The most incredible part? These heroines would continue their lives and even keep their pre-existing occupations!His first world? A realm where the heroine, clad in a white coat, awaited him like a knight in shining armor. She was the first doctor to ever develop a cure for cancer!From world to world, universe to universe, Mike was followed by a growing number of beauties—each one willing to leave everything behind to follow him into his world.

An obscure restaurant in an ordinary street? The cursed thing sealed in the steel city? Reverse the mysterious time-space history of confusion? …

From the moment he was able to see the “ID” and “Blood Bar”, Gu Mo thought that his way of opening was wrong. He was determined to return to the world of normal people and not be dragged down by his own imagination and hallucinations.

However, the painting style of the everyday world is still breaking down day by day, and the broken daily life is becoming more and more magnificent day by day, and he found that something was a little wrong.

- Description from novelbuddy

In the year 2090, technology has advanced to the point where Simulation Boxes, (Sim Box for short) are common place, allowing for the user to link up their brain's neural network to a full dive Simulation. While initially used for educational purposes, recently a large gaming company, Averon, released a fully fledged immersive MMORPG simulation where users can become anyone they desire, level up, choose their class, and become a hero or a villain. The name of this simulation is The Shattered World Online.

Eli Winters had no interest in playing it. His father, a jobless bum who spent his entire life playing games in the hope of becoming a famous player or streamer, was able to use the release of The Shattered World Online to gain wealth and fame, quickly becoming the number one player and a household name as the game took the world by storm. He immediately abandoned Eli and his mother in favor of being with someone from his guild, despite his mother having worked two jobs to support them and raise Eli by herself. Eli had nothing but spite for his father and the game.

When Eli's best friend convinces him to try out the game, his father's fame begins to interfere, culminating in him being singled out and shunned by his peers, and his father offering to pay for his university tuition in return for Eli hiding their relationship and quitting the game. Instead of complying with his father's wishes, Eli decides to prove to everyone how useless a guy his father is by challenging him that if Eli is able to surpass him in the game world he must delete his account and quit his streaming career. His father accepts the challenge believing his son to be useless at games - but Eli will soon show him just how ambitious a spiteful person can be.