...I admit, it's a lot of money, I guess, but I just don't really feel the same sense of, eh, urgency for it.
'NOOOOOO! I WAS BETRAYED IN AN MMMOOOOOOOOO!'
'Is it a Death Game?'
'No, just an MMO. Now I can't compete to win a lot of money as a video gamer!'
<Yet Another Protagonist Stuck In A VRMMO Death Game> Get out.
I mean, I guess it could be a death game, but if so, that seems the sort of thing you establish in the opening instead of 'we decided to have a giant super huge MMO tournament to decide who gets the super rich company.'
I mean, if the guy who KO'd him in game had arranged with someone to murder him offline (say, someone with a gun. Who brings death. He could call himself, say...MURDER FIREARM and wear an edgy mask online), I'd buy the rebirth time loop thing a bit better, but as is, it's just kind of not really grabbing me as a premise.