Starting Out As The God of Beasts

[Congratulations Player ’Supreme Masturbator’]

The blue glow of the monitor finally died, leaving the messy bedroom in a sudden, heavy darkness.

On the screen, a massive gold crest read:

[Game: ARKAN UNLIMITED]

[RANK 0 PLAYER: ’Supreme Masturbator’]

[PLAYER LEVEL: 100]

[FINAL ARC: ARKMAN DOMINATOR CLEARED]

This was the top one most popular video game currently trending in the country. One that cost him countless sleepless nights, wasting his credit card money on powerful elixirs and treasures sold within the game.

A kingdom building video game where one can build up an army, create a mortal cultivator avatar, and adventure across the ten continents. Ranking up and evolving into the higher realms capable of challenging even the gods:

He spent a lot of time building his avatar’s cultivation from the lowest rank Martial Warrior to the highest cultivation rank. A Martial Supreme, powerful enough to challenge the gods of the game.

Roy slumped back in his creaking desk chair, his chest hollowed out from a three-day marathon of instant noodles and energy drinks.

He let out a ragged breath, rubbing his bloodshot eyes. He’d done it. The final boss, a cosmic deity that had wiped out entire top-tier guilds, lay dead at hands.

For a few seconds, looking at his username glittering at the top of the global leaderboard, he felt like a god.

Then, reality smashed through his bedroom door.

”Roy! Are you still glued to that damn screen?!”

His mother stood at the threshold, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. She didn’t look at the leaderboard.

She looked at the graveyard of empty aluminum cans, the discarded wrapper piles, and the textbook on Advanced Calculus acting as a makeshift mousepad.

”Look at this room! It smells like a locker room, Roy! You’re nineteen years old, your midterm grades came back today and you are failing three classes, but here you are, wasting your life on nonsense!”

She was right. Roy Vance, a nineteen year old high-schooler was a failure in his academics but a veteran in video games.

A dullard who had no friends, too isolated to socialize and a thorn in his family’s side.

But....

Roy didn’t have the energy to argue. The adrenaline from the game was evaporating, leaving behind a crushing, bone-deep exhaustion. ”Mom, please, I just finished—”

”I don’t care what you finished!” she snapped, her face flushed with a mix of anger and genuine worry. ”Your cousin is already interning at a firm, and you can’t even clean up after yourself. If you don’t pass the makeup exams next week, the university is going to suspend your financial aid. Do you even care about your future?”

The words stung, mostly because they were true.

The contrast between being a legendary conqueror online and a total disappointment in real life was suffocating.

”I’m going to take a shower,” Roy muttered, pushing past her without looking her in the eye.

He just needed to wash off the grime of the last seventy-two hours, clear his head, and figure out how to salvage his life.

”Don’t you walk away from me when I’m speaking to you!” she called out after him, her voice echoing down the hall. ”We are having this conversation the minute you get out!”

Roy shut the bathroom door, cutting off the rest of the lecture.

He leaned against the sink, staring at his reflection in the foggy mirror. He looked terrible—dark circles under his eyes, pale skin, hair a bird’s nest. He sighed, turning around to step into the shower.

’Why did i become this useless?’ Under the drizzling water that came from the shower, Roy wasn’t able to control his tears.

This was the only time he had to mourn his sad life. ’I-If I could just be like my siblings, would mother be this troubled” he sobbed.

He didn’t notice the puddle of water that had leaked from the faulty base of the toilet.

His bare heel hit the slick tile.

In a fraction of a second, the world tilted violently. There was no time to catch his balance, no epic quick-time event to save him.

His feet flew out from under him, and his head connected with the hard, unforgiving porcelain edge of the bathtub with a sickening, heavy thud.

”Huh...what the??”

A sharp, white-hot flash of pain exploded behind his eyes, followed instantly by a cold, numbing weight.

Through the haze, he could hear his mother’s faint, muffled voice still complaining through the door. ”And another thing, Roy...”

He tried to breathe, tried to call out, but his limbs felt like lead. The darkness came fast, bleeding inward from the edges of his vision.

What a joke, his final, fading thought drifted. I just conquered a universe... and I’m dying in a dirty bathroom.

The world went completely silent.

[You have been chosen by the Cycle of Reincarnation]