Chef in the Apocalypse - Chapter 19: Rubick’s Hammer

The MMORPG ’EVR’ was released unexpectedly one day, along with its advanced equipment that allowed players to fully immerse themselves in the game, even though prior VR technology wasn’t nearly as realistic. To prevent people from replacing their real lives with the game, the servers were shut down during the day and on weekends. I was the best at the game, but since I had no friends or family, I could only watch and bet on sports while waiting for the servers to reopen—until the day I died and regressed to a week before the game was released. I know everything that will happen in the game. I know the game is not just realistic; it’s real. And for some reason, I don’t need to log out!

The world’s top level hacker, Shi Lei; due to him hacking the world’s top military powers during a joint exercise and attempting to steal information from them, ultimately leads him to get sold out by his own organization. This act eventually caused his own death by a missile bombardment.

God was playing a joke on him and allowed him to return back to six years ago, the autumn season of when he was still at his university. Being given another chance, plus the fact that he retained his ability as one of the best in hacking technology, Shi Lei decided to change his life! During his previous life, he was only an assassin in the dark. Although such an existence made people afraid of him, he would have to always hide within the shadows. In his new life, not only does he want to be an assassin in the dark, he also wants to stand openly in the middle of the world stage. Creating a world-class super enterprise, he will single handy change the whole world!

- Description from Novelupdates

Alex, a special operative on Earth who died during a mission, finds himself transmigrated with the identity of an investigative journalist as an agent of a mysterious entity with a simple mission.With the promise that he would be reunited with his family once he was done, Alex accepts the offer and becomes an agent of darkness in a new world teeming with steam-powered machinery and something more... The supernatural.In this new world, he will have to navigate his way through crazy witches, bloodthirsty monsters, religious fanatics, and fallen angels while slowly making his way toward his end goal... Returning to the family he left behind.A journalist by day and a hunter by night, this is the story of the Hunter of Evernight.

A 29 year old civil employment exam student wakes up in a blank white room and meets a baby angel. This baby angel informs him that he died in his sleep due to heart disease like his father and grandfather. Remembering his mom and their last conversation he says that he will take on a series of life and death tests that the baby angel offers him. From this point on he must put his life on the line and fight in the stage called ‘Arena’. And Every time he clears a test he will gain abilities and weapons to increase his strength. All to clear the tests and get his life back. This is his story of his fights in the ‘Arena’.