1 Back In The Past?

Michael opened his eyes. They slowly opened to a small messy room colored a nasty shade of drab grey. He was lying on a ratty old musty couch.

"Where am I? I could have sworn I died in that dungeon." Michael muttered to himself. He slowly turned his head as a cockroach skittered across the floor.

"Ring ring ring"

Before Michael could find out what was happening, his phone started ringing.

He got up and groggily rubbed his eyes as he reached for his phone on the bedside table. His head hurt so hard it was like a hammer banging his forehead.

"Uhm… Hello?" Michael said, the lack of sleep evident in his voice as he rubbed the small rocks out of his eyes.

"HEY MICHAEL! Are you awake? Are you feeling better?" An extremely energetic and high-pitched voice screeched through the phone.

"Huh? Who is this?" Michael asked, the confusion evident in his voice as he tried to get the hang of what happened to him.

"It's me! You know, your best friend?" The voice somehow said at an even higher pitch.

'Who is this person? Where am I?' Michael thought. The only thing he knew was the high-pitched voice was not doing his head any favors. Michael had a lingering suspicion of where he was but needed to confirm it.

"Hey, what day is it today?" He asked the voice.

"You dummy! Today is November 1st, 2035! Also, did you forget today was the day when the first new VRMMO game came out after what happened in 2022?" The voice said in a slightly lower tone. It seemed he could hear the pain in Michael's voice.

'Wait… today is the day when DESTINY Online comes out? But how can that be? Did I go back in time 10 years?' Michael thought as he looked down at his wrist to confirm. The watch there was old and beat up instead of the fancy magic run watch he owned when he had died.

Michael started looking around in detail but all that met his eyes was a run-down couch and some piles of clothes on the floor. 'It's true! It really is ten years ago!' He walked over to a filthy clouded over mirror and wiped it off before looking at himself, and it was as he thought, he looked like himself but 18 years old.

'It's true… I really have come back to the past' Michael thought to himself as his brain worked in overdrive making a plan for himself before the apocalypse he knew was coming.

"HEY MICHAEL!" The high-pitched voice screamed through the phone "Are you still there?"

Michael quickly stopped planning and responded "Yes!" to the person he now recognized as his best friend Jack. "Hey, Jack! Do you think this VRMMO is safe to play? I mean… after what happened in the last one…" Michael said, quickly changing the subject.

"I bet." Said Jack, "They probably have agents at VR Corp. You know, just in case anything goes wrong."

"Hey, Jack! Do you want to go get the new VR headset and game with me today?" Michael suggested suddenly.

"Well, DUH! Of course I want to! Alright, we can go at one." Jack said as if he was talking to a child.

BEEP

The phone buzzed as the call was disconnected. Michael rubbed his eyes again as he reflected on what seemed to be a dream. 'Did I really come back to the past? Or was that all a dream? I think it was the former because some of those memories are just too vivid to be fake.' He thought as he reflected on the past.

'I was a core member of a big guild after the apocalypse happened and I was on a raid when the boss wiped us. I wonder what happened to the rest of my friends…' Michael was sad for a moment before he thought 'Well, it happened, no use crying over it. Anyway, in this life, I will strive to be better than the last life. I vow to be at the top.' And with that, Michael decided not to be ordinary and take the life of the elite.