The ride home from the factory was a slow immersion into a world Xavier Guan had long since buried.
Arthur's Isuzu Crosswind rattled as it navigated the uneven road.
In 2007, the roads were chaotic. Brightly painted jeepneys with silver-plated horses on their hoods, tricycles with over-revved engines weaving through gaps, and the humid air that carried the scent of diesel.
Xavier sat in the backseat. His small face pressed against the glass. Outside, the world was bathed in the bruised purple of a tropical sunset. He watched the familiar landmarks pass by, feeling the strange, crushing weight of nostalgia. He saw a sari-sari store, the kind where the owner knew everyone's name. He knew that in five years, it would be replaced by a large supermarket. He saw a cluster of rice paddies, the greenery fading in the twilight, and he remembered how they would eventually be paved over for a sprawling "Mediterranean-style" subdivision.
"You're very quiet, Xavi" Clara, said from the passenger seat. She turned around, her eyes soft with the lingering worry from his earlier breakdown. "Are you still feeling sick? We can stop by the pharmacy and get some paracetamol."
"I'm okay, Ma," Xavier said, his voice sounding thin and high-pitched. It was a stranger's voice, yet it was his.
"I'm just... looking at how things look right now."
Arthur chuckled, his hands steady on the steering wheel. "Since when did you care about the scenery? Usually, you're asking me when we can go to the arcade at Robinsons so you can play"
Xavier forced a small, shy smile. "I just want to remember it"
Inside, his mind was already mapping the terrain. He wasn't just looking at the scenery; he was identifying the "Gold Zones"
He knew which of these dusty lots would become prime commercial real estate. He knew which intersections would become the hubs of the 2010s infrastructure boom.
He reached into his pocket and felt the smooth surface of his 2031 phone.
"Abyss" he thought, a silent command directed at the device.
"Scan local real estate records from the 2007-2010 snapshot. Identify the parcels in General Trias with the highest appreciation rate before the 2012 infrastructure boom"
The phone didn't vibrate, but a subtle pulse of light flickered in his mind. A direct neural-link simulation he'd programmed into the Abyss's interface years ago.
"SEARCHING ARCHIVES... TOP 5 PARCELS IDENTIFIED"
"PARCEL 092-A: CURRENT STATUS: AGRICULTURAL. PROJECTED VALUE INCREASE: 1,200% BY 2014."
Xavier's heart did a heavy roll. A thousand percent. He just needed the capital. But more importantly, he needed his father to not throw away their current wealth on a dying market.
---------------
The Guan residence was a two-story concrete house in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood. The gate squeaked as Arthur manually opened it, the metal complaining screeched with a high-pitched wail. The smell of damp earth and blooming flowers greeted them as they stepped inside.
"Mei-Mei! We're home!" Clara called out.
A blur of pink fabric and pigtails came hurtling down the stairs. Mei, Xavier's four-year-old sister, was a whirlwind of energy. In Xavier's first life, Mei had grown up to be a cynical nurse in London, her relationship with Xavier strained by his own cold pursuit of wealth.
But here, she was just a child. She smelled like baby powder and orange juice.
"Kuya! Look! I drew a dragon!" she shouted, thrusting a piece of construction paper into Xavier's face.
Xavier looked at the crayon scribbles. A green blob with jagged wings. He felt a lump form in his throat. This was the sister he had barely spoken to for a decade. He knelt down, his small knees hitting the tiled floor, and took the drawing.
"It's a strong dragon, Mei" Xavier whispered, patting her head.
"The kind that protects the house"
Mei blinked, her eyes wide with surprise. Usually, Xavier would have told her dragons weren't real or pushed her away to go play his GameBoy. She giggled, grabbed the paper back, and ran toward the kitchen.
Dinner was a quiet. Adobong manok, stir-fried kangkong, and a clear soup.
But the conversation was heavy. Arthur talked about the rising cost of steel coils from China, his face lined with the stress of a man trying to outrun a storm he couldn't see.
"The price is nearing its peak" Arthur said, rubbing his temples. "The other factory owners are panic buying. They're saying if we don't secure a year's worth of inventory now, we'll be priced out of the market by Christmas"
Xavier chewed his rice slowly, his mind processing the historical data Abyss provided. Steel wasn't just rising; it was forming a bubble that was months away from a catastrophic burst.
"Pa," Xavier said, his voice cutting through Arthur's lament. "In my science book, it says that when something grows too fast, it usually falls down. Like a rubber band stretching too far"
Arthur looked at his son, amused but tired. "It's not that simple, Xavi. This is the global market."
"But if everyone is panic buying, isn't that when it's most expensive?" Xavier asked, tilting his head with a forced innocence. "Maybe we should just finish the work we have and keep the money in the bank. If the price falls later, we can be the ones to buy the cheap steel when everyone else has no money left"
Arthur paused, his fork halfway to his mouth. He looked at Clara, then back at Xavier. "Keep the money in the bank? And let the competitors take the big contracts because they have the inventory?"
"If they buy expensive steel and the price crashes, they'll be the ones in trouble, right?" Xavier pressed. "We should be the ones with the cash when they start crying."
Arthur laughed, ruffling Xavier's hair. "Look at you. Where did you learn these? Don't worry about the factory, A-Ba. You just worry about your school"
Xavier went back to his food, his heart sinking. He hadn't expected to convince his father in one night.
Arthur was a traditionalist; he believed in "tangible assets." He believed that a warehouse full of steel was safer than a bank account full of numbers.
*I'll have to let the market prove me right* Xavier thought. *But I need to make sure we have a safety net for when the crash happens. I need my own capital.*
---------------
At 9:00 PM, the house settled into a heavy silence. The hum of the neighborhood, distant barking of dogs and the rhythmic *clack-clack* of a tricycle passing by.
Xavier sat in his bedroom. It was a room he hadn't stepped in for twenty years. The walls were covered in posters of Ben 10 and Power Rangers. A shelf held a collection of plastic robots and half-finished LEGO sets. And in the centerpiece of the room was the computer desk.
It was a monstrosity. A Pentium 4 PC with 512MB of RAM and a 17-inch CRT monitor that hummed with buzz.
It was a relic of the "stone age," yet to Xavier, it was the gateway to the world. He sat on his swivel chair, his feet barely reaching the floor. He reached into his drawer and pulled out a small USB drive.
It was a 512MB Kingston, a gift from his uncle last Christmas. In 2007, this was a high-tech luxury. He plugged it into the front USB port of the PC, the plastic case groaning as it clicked into place.
He pulled out the 2031 phone and set it on the desk.
"ABYSS: OUTLINE FOR 'THE BLOOD GOD'S SYSTEM' COMPLETED"
"GENRE: URBAN FANTASY / LITRPG / VAMPIRE"
"Alright" Xavier whispered.
"Display the first three chapters. Maximum font size."
The phone's screen lit up. Brilliant high-density display that made the monitor look like a muddy window. Xavier reached for the keyboard. It was a stiff keyboard with long-travel keys. Xavier placed his hands on the home row. He closed his eyes for a moment, recalling the muscle memory of a thirty-one-year-old who could type 120 words per minute.
*A... S... D... F...*
His fingers felt like sausages. His reach was too short. He couldn't even hit the 'Enter' key without shifting his whole hand. But the real enemy wasn't his hands, it was his brain. His seven-year-old body was designed to be asleep by 8:30 PM.
Now, at 10:30 PM, a heavy, warm fog was settling over Xavier's mind. His eyelids felt like they were made of lead. His vision would occasionally drift, the text on the Abyss's screen blurring into a white haze.
"Focus" he hissed, biting his lip.
*Chapter 1: The Awakening.*
He began to type.
*Clack. Clack-clack. Clack.*
Each keypress required a deliberate effort. Xavier had to lift his whole hand to reach the numbers row. He had to stretch his pinky until it ached just to hit the 'Shift' key for capitalization. He was retyping the Abyss's output word for word. The story was a masterpiece of "future tropes"—elements of progression fantasy and system-building that wouldn't become mainstream for another decade. To the readers of 2007, it would be revolutionary.
An hour passed.
Xavier's forehead was beaded with sweat. His neck was stiff from looking back and forth between the phone and the monitor. He had finished the first chapter. Two thousand words of engaging content. In his past life, he could have done that in no time. Here, it had taken him over an hour.
"Abyss" he gasped, his fingers trembling as he rested them on the keys. "How much would I earn if I published this on a freelance platform or a private blog with AdSense?"
"PROJECTION: BASED ON 2007 TRAFFIC PATTERNS AND AD REVENUE MODELS: $150 - $400 PER MONTH FOR THE FIRST QUARTER"
Two hundred dollars. In 2007, that was nearly ten thousand pesos. For a seven-year-old, it was a king's ransom. For a man trying to save an industrial empire, it was a grain of sand.
"Not enough," Xavier whispered.
"I need more. Abyss, generate a list of high-paying SEO keywords for the US legal and medical sectors. I'll write articles for the 'content mills' on oDesk. We need dollars before the peso devalues."
"WARNING: PHYSICAL STRAIN DETECTED. COGNITIVE FATIGUE LEVEL: 85%. RECOMMENDED: IMMEDIATE SLEEP"
"No" Xavier snapped, though his voice was barely a squeak.
"I can still continue for a bit"
He began to type again.
*Click. Click. Clack*
By 1:30 AM, Xavier's mind was a battlefield. He found himself typing gibberish, his fingers moving while his brain was halfway into a dream. He would jerk awake, delete the last three lines, and start again. It was a grueling, agonizing war against his own biology. But he pushed through.
By 2:00 AM, he had completed two chapters of the novel and three high-quality articles on Mesothelioma Lawsuits. These were the content seeds that would attract high-value American clicks.
Xavier saved the files to the drive. Tomorrow, he would take this to an internet cafe near his school. He stood up, his legs stiff. He walked to the window and looked out at the quiet street. In the old timeline, this was the sanctuary they had lost. He remembered the cold, cramped rental apartment they were forced into in 2015.
The place where the walls were thin and the air smelled of stale grease. He remembered his father, Arthur, slumped on a second-hand sofa in that rental, his face half-paralyzed by a stroke brought on by the stress of losing everything.
Xavier Guan gripped the windowsill, his small fingers digging into the wood.
"Not this time"
He climbed into bed, his hands still twitching from the stress. He was exhausted, his body was screaming for the twelve hours of sleep.
But as he closed his eyes, he saw the Abyss flickering in the dark.
"PROGRESS: 0.001% OF EMPIRE GOALS ACHIEVED"
Xavier whispered "It is a start"