Very Wrong Reincarnation: Isekai with Game Nation

Vol. 2 Chapter 25

40 Years Ago—

A cloud of dreams... 

Nostalgia for Lisa. 

She vividly remembered everything from her days as a normal student on Earth. 

Normal friends. 

Peaceful school days.

And a dysfunctional family. 

Despite her serene and attentive demeanor at school, her home life was anything but. 

In a family of four, her mother and father argued incessantly. Her father was a drunkard, scraping by on a meager wage that barely kept the family fed. Her mother, far from the ideal maternal figure, was cold and unfaithful. 

Every Sunday, her mother brought home a different man while her father was away working in another city—a parade of strangers that became a constant, painful reminder of the life Lisa never wanted. 

And so, Lisa took it upon herself to be the caretaker. The protector of her younger brother. Every afternoon, she'd lead him to the park, following her mother’s order to "get out," as her mother entertained her "guests" behind closed doors. The park became their only sanctuary, the one place that felt almost normal—free from the suffocating atmosphere of their apartment. 

Lisa worked part-time jobs to feed her brother, scraping together whatever she could to buy him meals. 

But desperation pushed her further. 

She began to pick-up her mother’s habits. 

Paid dates.

A quiet, dirty secret she buried deep within herself. 

"This is enough," she told herself one evening as she returned home, clutching a box of donuts and a family meal for her brother. For herself, she had only instant ramen, diluted with extra water to make it seem like more. It was never enough to fill her stomach, but she forced herself to endure. 

But the hunger she felt wasn’t just physical. 

It was emptiness. 

And even in her dreams now, decades later, she still felt its sting—the unsatisfied hunger, the weight of her past, and the crushing responsibility of holding everything together while it all crumbled around her. 

Until that summer.

She went to one of her usual paid dates and happened upon her classmates enjoying a carefree day in the park. She stayed hidden, envious of their laughter and lightheartedness. 

Then, in the distance, she spotted someone familiar—her friend, the one who had introduced her to paid dating, being dragged into a secluded corner of the park by an older man. Her friend looked frightened, her body language screaming resistance. 

Are they crazy?! Lisa thought, her hands trembling as she reached for her phone to call the police. But then, before she could dial, a boy appeared near them. 

It was Oliver.

Lisa watched in disbelief as Oliver raised his phone toward the man and smiled, as if threatening him with massive confidence disarming the situation. Though Lisa couldn’t hear their conversation, the man eventually left, visibly disgruntled, and her friend broke down into tears. 

As the man disappeared, Lisa hurried to her friend. 

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, trying to console her as she helped her into a taxi. 

Her mind lingered on Oliver. She found him a little later, playing cards with his friends in the park, laughing, betting, and smacking each other’s shoulders in camaraderie. She stared at them in a daze, their joy almost otherworldly to her.