The early morning sunlight bled softly through the curtains. Dust motes drifted in the air lazily. A man was sprawled on the bed loudly snoring. He was so out of it as if this was the first time in years he was sleeping so well.
But someone did not understand that. Bang bang bang. There was a loud knock at the door.
Damon flinched awake, and groggily sat up. Another knock followed, louder this time, almost furious. The door shook like it was about to be kicked it off its hinges.
Damon stumbled to his feet. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and cursed under his breath, dragging himself to the accursed door. "If this is another delivery I didn't order..."
He swung it open, ready to tear a new one apart. Instead, he froze.
Staring at him was a goddess. A woman who looked like she had just stepped out of a modeling catalog.
She was stunning in every way. Her long blonde hair fell in lazy waves over a crimson jacket that clung to her body. Her legs were long and sculpted, and her figure was effortlessly perfect. It should be criminal for someone to have curves like this and walk among normal people.
Everything about her was hot, but her blue eyes… Her eyes were cold and indifferent. They lacked even an ounce of emotion, making anyone looked at her feel very uncomfortable.
Damon's mouth hung open. Not that he did not know her. He knew her very well but he was still shocked to his core. How was she here? Why was she here? He stood like a statue and gawked at her, his brain completely short-circuiting.
A look of disgust flashed past the beautiful face as she looked at Damon especially his lower half which was clearly pitching a tent but Damon did not care. He was not staring because she was beautiful. He was staring because this woman should not be here right now!
"Your mail." The ice-cold beauty extended her hand.
When Damon did not respond, she shoved a small envelope into his hands and turned away to walk to the apartment in front of his. She opened the door, went inside, and shut the door on his face.
Yup, this was none other than his ridiculously hot girl next door. When he first moved into the apartment, he was over the moon for having hit such a jackpot situation but that was a long time ago. A lot had happened after that.
Damon stood there for a long time completely dumbfounded before he scrambled back into his studio apartment. He crashed onto the bed, his chest heaving up and down. He was having a panic attack.
Why was she here? What was happening? He knew her a long time ago, so why was she here now?
He frantically looked around when he noticed that his entire apartment looked different. It looked like she was in the right place and he was in the wrong place.
This was the old apartment he had moved into straight from his parent's house. He should no longer be here. He had already moved out a while ago.
How could he still be here? He closed his eyes as pain and frustration overwhelmed him. This place had seen both the best of him and the worst of him.
"No," he whispered. "No, no, no… it can't be possible." How could he be here? Was he going crazy? Was he hallucinating?
He rushed to the closet and yanked it open. His old hoodie was there. He turned to the desk and flipped open the laptop. His old login wallpaper flashed across the screen, a half-naked Nicole Kidman. Damn it, he was definitely going crazy!
Damon took a deep breath. His trembling fingers then opened the calendar widget on the right bottom corner of his laptop. An impossible date stared back at him.
March 3rd, 2042.
Damon staggered backward, dropping into his chair like his knees had given out. That was three years ago. The exact day Earth Online launched.
The blood drained from his face. Somehow, some way, he was back. Before the betrayal. Before the fall. Before Aiden stabbed him in the back and stole everything.
Damon clutched his head, cradling it in between his palms. How did this happen? The last thing he remembered was standing in the resurrection lake to reset his character and begin all over again. He was going to create a new character and claw his way back one more time.
This was not something other players would choose to do because when a character was reset, there was a penalty associated with it.
They inherently would only be able to receive less stats every level and needed more experience points to level up. There were also a couple more penalties here and there which would basically make the character a dud at best.
However, Damon was already at rock bottom. Thanks to his guild mate and his so-called best friend, everything he had worked for had been crushed and laid waste in a single day.
Bloodreign.
The legendary artifact he was first in line to claim. The item that would've cemented his name across the leaderboards. He had done everything right. He had worked tirelessly for days on end for the hidden quest.
But none of it mattered. Aiden had shown his true colors just before the final phase and stabbed him through the back right when the boss was about to drop dead. He snatched the fucking legendary item right from under him!
Without the drop, he failed the quest and the backlash was simply too high. Not only did he lose the legendary item but the quest failure also gave a heavy penalty.
Damon was left paralyzed inside the game. His character was trashed beyond recovery. He was essentially crippled with no way out. His guild which he had helped build from scratch disowned him.
All his friends pretended as if he did not exist. Everyone he knew laughed at him and turned their backs on him. Not one person supported him. Instead only painful messages popped up.
"It's just a video game. Don't make a big deal out of it."
"You were stupid to let that shit happen to you."
"You are shit at playing this game. It's just a dumb game. Why don't you quit and go to an actual job like the rest of us?"
Damon's chest tightened as the memories flooded back to him. He had poured everything into Earth Online, every sleepless night, every ounce of hope, every scrap of determination, only to have it all torn away from him at the very last moment.
Without this game, he had nothing. He had no degree. Heck, he did not want to do any other job. He had worked day and night to become good at this game and he was just on the verge of making it big when everything came crumbling down.
Damon slowly exhaled. The truth was, even after all of this, even knowing the reset would basically make him a dud, he never planned to give up.
He returned to Earth Online last night despite everything. He wanted to bury what was left of himself and start over as a new low-level player. He stripped everything, deleted his gear, walked into the Resurrection Lake and confirmed the irreversible reset.
Right. That was when he kind of lost his consciousness and when he woke up again... He was here. Back in his old apartment, back in his old body, and somehow, against all logic, back in time.
Three years ago on the same morning it all began.