1 A Night Out and a 'Head Splitting' Hangover

Year: 2029. England, London, South Bank of the River Thames. 2 streets away from the OXO Tower. 10:32 pm.

Chester, in a chipper mood, walks towards where his car was waiting while accompanied by his friends who he had just eaten a meal with. He was a tall man of 5ft 11", with long swept back dark hair and neatly trimmed short stubble which framed his satisfied smile. His shirt fit snugly around his sturdy frame, hinting at some of his underlying muscles. They were walking in the brightly lit streets of the south bank of the river Thames which was still abuzz with the thrum of Friday evening festivities and the sounds of the traffic still moving about the streets.

Chester had been out for dinner to celebrate his best friend Ben's success in finally reaching lv100 in Caelus online. The game had previously been launched 2 years prior and quickly become the most played full dive VRMMO in the fantasy genre due to the incredible features of the game such as its graphics that were indistinguishable from reality, fully sentient NPC's, fast paced and diverse combat, and many other things that were ground-breaking for a VR game.

While the game was revolutionary, its popularity soared 3 months after launch due to an unforeseen change as those who played Caelus online started to gain their in-game abilities in the outside world. This drastic development led to the event which became known as the Great Upheaval, impacting the world to the core as regular civilians began to gain power and the structure of society started to distort.

During the Great Upheaval, Chester had struggled more than most players due to his unfortunate family circumstances. His parents passed away while he was finishing his last year of university, putting pressure on him to take over the family business as soon as he had graduated. By the time the game came out half a year later, he was only able to spend some of his time playing, making him an average player in terms of progression and average in terms of abilities in the real world.

However, it was an even worse situation for Ben, who had absolutely no interest in fantasy style MMO's, preferring to play post-apocalyptic single player games and first-person shooters. It had taken Chester and Ben a while, but after a lot of effort they had raised his level and helped push him into the lower end of the average players and were now out celebrating.

"Hey, Chester, thanks for taking us out tonight!" Ben calls out, his deep voice catching everyone's attention.

He is a slightly taller, well-built young man the same age as Chester. His short black hair is left a bit messy, and his well-defined face is framed by his long-trimmed stubble. Paired with his shirt whose top buttons are now undone, it gives him quite the roguish appearance.

"Haha, no worries, Ben, it was nothing after the last years' worth of grinding!" Chester replies cheerfully, clearly slightly tipsy from drinking.

Dismissively waving his hand to show it was no trouble, Chester turns his attention to the other 2 members of the group who are currently supporting each other to prevent themselves from falling over.

"Ali, Russel, ill drop you guys off on the way back if you want? Or you could stay over?"

Ali was a tall man of similar height to Ben, however he was slightly more slender in build with long, red hair swept back in a similar style to Chester. Unlike the other two, he was well shaven, and his smart clothes were neat.

Russel however was the smallest of the group standing a whole head shorter than Ali, with an undercut hairstyle with his hair in a ponytail. Unfortunately, due to his Asian heritage he was unable to grow facial hair during the great covid lockdown, a cause of great disappointment for him. He was the most casually dressed of the group wearing ripped jeans and a black hoodie, typical clothing that when paired with his accent clearly showed his London upbringing.

"Eh? Oh… uhhhh…. we will stay the night *hic* if you don't mind?"

Turning around, Ben lets out a laugh while exaggeratedly raising his hand to his forehead.

"God, you're such a lightweight Russel!"

"It's my *hic* Asian constitution. Your western *hic* piss hits me hard!" Russel exclaims, causing the group to laugh.

As the group makes its way toward the street corner, a black car drives past the group, stopping a few metres in front of them.

As its window rolls down, Chester notices out of the corner of his eye that a spear charged with lightning had been thrown towards his head. Unable to dodge in time, Chester curses.

"What the fuc-"

Year: 2027. Cranford Estate, northeast of London.

"Uggghhhh…"

Chester groans as the light from the slim gap in the bedroom's curtains shines onto his face. Rolling over, he starts to regain consciousness as he opens his eyes.

"God, I drank way too much last night… I'm never drinking again…"

Feeling a massive headache, Chester sits up, looking for the glass of water on his bedside table. Gulping the refreshing liquid down, he once again lays back down to sleep off his hangover.

'Wait, I don't remember getting back home...? Wait, what about that spear…? Uuggghhhh… this is too much thinking. Head hurts. I'm going back to sleep.'

With that thought, Chester buries his head under his pillow again, easily drifting back to sleep.

*****

A short time later a knock on the door echoes through the large room.

"Your grace, it is 10 already, and Ben is already downstairs having breakfast."

Letting out a groggy sigh, Chester rolls over to respond.

"Alright Harold, I'll be down in 5." Chester's groggy voice called back.

Dragging himself out of bed, Chester felt much heavier than usual and decides it is likely the hangover. He would ask Ben what happened last night when he was downstairs. Looking around, Chester finds the regular sight of his large bedroom, finely decorated in white and gold as you might expect of an affluent family.

Making his way through his room Chester enters into a large walk-in wardrobe and puts on a comfortable pair of jeans and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Sluggishly moving towards the bathroom to wash his face from the gold-plated tap, Chester eventually makes his way downstairs.

Leisurely walking through the long halls of his Manor House, he eventually arrives at the dining room to see Ben from behind sitting next to the head of the table with a particularly youthful looking Regina tending to him.

Regina had been a maid who had faithfully served the family for 5 years. While she was quite reserved, she had always been diligent in her work so to see her so youthful slightly threw Chester off.

Sitting down at the head of the table while still feeling rough from the previous night, Chester gives his morning greetings to Ben.

"Morning Ben, god last night ended weirdly, what happened?"

Finally getting a look at Bens face, Chester notices that he also looks somewhat more youthful, but that might have been because Ben had shaved off his beard and so thought nothing of it.

"What happened last night? Well, other than Tom getting slugged in the face for trying to make out with some guy's girlfriend, not much. I guess we did have to carry you to your room because you drank so much." He replied chucking.

With confusion with on his face, Chester asked. "Hang on a second, Tom? That arse was not out with us? It was just you, Russel, Ali and myself? And I certainly didn't drink that much!"

Ben starts laughing as Regina walked in carrying Chester's breakfast, shaking her head at the conversation.

"Haha, you must have been drunk if you can't remember who we were out with."

Frowning, Chester holds his head while recalling everything from the previous night.

"Look Ben, some weird stuff happened last night before I blacked out…"

Chester proceeds to explain everything he could remember from last night's events.

*****

"Now I'm confused, that certainly didn't happen. Are you sure your drink was not spiked with something? Caelus Online is not even out yet, it's still a few weeks away. Let alone getting me to play it. And people throwing around spears clad in magic lightning? That's just a bit too much…"

Seeing that Ben was heavily scrutinizing him, Chester furrows his brows.

"Ugh, this really is confusing. It sounds like I have traveled back in time by 2 years…? Is that even possible? … wait, was it even logical for people to cast magic in the first place? Hang on a second"

Seeing Chester's seriousness on this weird subject, Ben's expression also turns serious while waiting for Chester to sort through his thoughts.

Holding out his hand, Chester focuses on trying to feel the flow of mana and create a small flame. After a few minutes of trying, Chester gives up unable to feel anything. Talking to himself while deep in thought, Chester looks down at the fried egg sitting in the middle of his plate.

"Strange… given how crazy everything became after the game released, it's not outside of possibility that time travel is a thing…"

Getting Chester's attention, Ben raises his voice.

"Chester, be real with me. I know you are a serious person and have never pulled some weird stuff like this before. Give it to me straight, are you playing around? Did you seriously get skewered by a spear? Is all this stuff you mentioned for real? You are not still drunk from last night?"

Looking up at Ben, Chester pauses, full of surprise at how accepting Ben is of what he had just said.

"I'm dead serious. Unless you can gain 2 years' worth of memories and experiences from getting spiked with LSD, I am beyond certain. Let me think, how can I prove it to you…? Oh! The simple way is to tell you something that will happen in the near future."

Seeing Ben nod, Chester pulls out his phone and checks the date.

"Saturday 10th of April, 27… hmmm. This was just before the game was released… ah! I remember you have some shares in that Canadian hydroponics company?"

"Yeah, I do, about 1300 of them, why?"

With a serious look on his face, Chester continues.

"Well, I remember you complaining about losing a lot of money on them because of an electrical overload at one of their factories. It fried all their equipment causing them millions in damage and halting their production for a few months while everything was replaced. I believe it will happen at some point next week, I can't remember the exact day however, I mean you spent most of your time around here back then and it has been 2 years for me."