Hope you guys will enjoy my first try on an original fiction of mine.


    *Please Note that English is not my first language and there will be quite some grammar mistakes*


    Prologue:


    [Cheat], when you hear the word [Cheat] what do you think? What comes to your head? Is it cheating in a test? Cheating death? Cheating someone out of something they have? Maybe cheating on your partner?


    What I''m talking about when saying [Cheat], is cheating in a game.


    I have always loved to start up a RPG game, play a little and then after seeing that my character is too weak I''d just [Cheat].


    I''ll load up a ''trainer'' or even use a ''CheatAngine''. I prefer to avoid using in game cheats as they always come with a cost of not being able to save progress or gain achievements. Sometimes I would just mod the game data files with save editors.


    I hacked and slashed my enemies with ease, cast any spell I wanted on any tier and power without the cost of any mana! There was no cooldown on any skill or magic that I had.


    I''d just be the god of the game!


    Well as much as I love cheating I only did it when playing the game alone or so called ''Single Player'', I''d never cheat in online games though I wished some times that I had… Playing fair isn''t fun, well at least not for me.


    When I was around 23 years old, a new console came out. It contained a never seen before technology called [Reality Dive] and the console name was [Reality Dive Gear].


    "… Very original…"


    Sounds really stupid and the naming was not that original. This device was developed by a new up and rising gaming company which I can''t really remember it''s name… Any way, it allowed the user  to ''dive'' into another reality.


    "Awesome!!!"


    I yelled out in my room after watching the amazing graphics and mechanics it offered in the teaser that was leaked. It was breath taking! I have never seen graphics so as real as those before. It actually made me think that the video was fan made but after a day of media scavenging it turned out to be the real deal.


    In the teaser, it showed the game that would come out together with the console, a neat RPG game, to be exact a MMORPG. I was a bit disappointed as I wished it was a ''Single Player'' game so I could [Cheat] in it. But I was far too excited to dwell on that aspect.


    It would take another six months until they release the console and the game but as a game freak I knew they are going to commission a huge Close Alpha or Beta testing for this so I looked it up on the net.


    "Lucky! I found a way in."


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I found an assured way to get into the alpha. The company I was working for was a game publisher and it was one of the 2 main publishers for the [Reality Dive Gear] game, that I found out was called: [Second Reality].


    "Jeez the unoriginality just overflows from them"


    The reason I said that it was a sure way is because our company got 300 alpha tester tickets for the employees, and well, my boss just owed me big time for all the bug fixes I did in his code.


    You see, in my company I was known as ''Azura'', the legendary programmer, though technically my name is Rei. My colleagues changed my name after they found out that I had a female character called ''Azura'' in one of the games I owned. For some reason it stuck and everyone was calling me that.


    Last week I stayed up all night in the office fixing bugs in the code that my boss (the lead programmer of my team) made. Well it was easy enough for me as I was some kind of a genius when it comes to coding. I could learn a new programming language in a day and master it in a month.


    As I said, my boss owned me, and when I found out he received one of the tickets, I just claimed my debt. He was a bit disappointed to lose his ticket but not as much as lose his paycheck had I not helped him that night.


    On the ticket was written:


    "Congratulations on being one of the thousands few who will partake in the Alpha test of [Second Reality].


    The Alpha test will start on the 8th of November this year.


    For more details please visit on our site: www.second-reality-rd.com</a>"


    "Well better check that out."


    In the site I was requested to enter the serial number that was on the opposite side of the ticket, so I just entered it. The page was redirected showing me the usual mambo jumbo for registering an account, I filled it quickly and accepted.


    "Ah?... What the?!"


    On the next page it showed the following message:


    "Dear Alpha Tester,


    We congratulate you as you have been selected to be the first and only pre-alpha tester for our game [Second Reality].


    To make this valid please arrive at our main office on the 1st of November 9:00am PST.


    Best Regards,


    Head Designer Shiro Akimura, Reality Tech"


    "So it was Reality Tech…"


    "…"


    "…"


    "… WHAT?!?! I got invited to be a pre-alpha tester? And I''m the only one?! I can''t believe my luck!"


    I was so damn lucky, I was chosen out of a thousand people to play the game a week earlier then every other alpha tester. Little did I know that my [Cheat] RPG fantasy would come into existence by dying on the 1st of November.