MTL - My British Empire - Chapter 26 lively racecourse

Several hundred thousand players are trapped in a gritty zombie apocalypse survival game just after game launch. There are hints that deaths in the game might be serving some other terrible purpose in the background of reality…

Wang Bo was fed up with his job being a programmer, especially because of all of the nights he was working overtime without pay. His boss had given him a mysterious game to beta test in his free time, which had granted him possession of unclaimed territory in New Zealand with which to improve to his desires. After a certain event in his company, he ended up quitting his job. His lack of goals and curiosity eventually led him to buy a ticket to New Zealand, in order to see if the unclaimed territory given to him in the game was actually real. Watch, as he develops this beautiful, fertile stretch of land into prosperity, by building villages, farms, schools, hospitals and more.

- Description from Novelupdates

Sakimori Kagami plays a VRMMORPG called Arch Earth Online. He is a veteran player with the name and appearance similar to an elderly bearded wizard from a certain book about a ring.

One day he purchases an appearance change item as a last resort to spend expiring currency and gets the idea of choosing what he would want to look like if his character was ever a girl.

Falling asleep should have suspended the game, but Kagami wakes up still online and feels the game has has gotten a bit more realistic. Did Arch Earth Online finally get a long-awaited update?