1 Chapter 1: The Beginning

Jeffrey Zhang sat behind a Mac Desktop. A cup of coffee sitting next to him. The side of his head was placed on the table and his eyes staring far into the distance. He was busy thinking.

"Where did it all go wrong?"

It's final's week in college and winter break is just around the corner. Jeffrey Zhang found himself sitting in the cozy and warm library ignoring assignments.

All around him were other students busy on their computers, typing essays, finishing math problems, and studying for exams.

Soon his eyes started to droop, the lack of sleep and poor appetite of a college undergraduate was taking its toll. However it was in this tired and lucid state a thought came to mind.

Setting aside his work, he opened notepad and started typing on a .txt document.

Another story to write came to him as did the various titles and previous works flashed in his mind. "The Adventures of NoWeh, Ancient Academy, Dream Book #5, the Merchant of the Underworld"

Eventually he settled upon a title, "The Young Dragon Slayer".

Jeffrey smiled to himself, "Hic sunt Dracones".

So began the story of a young dragon slayer fighting evil dragons and demons. Jeffrey started earnestly hacking away at the keyboard completely lost in literary creation.

____

Returning to 2001

A young Preston Liu was talking to his friend.

"Did you read Mike Jung's book Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities?"

His friend stared back at him with an insulted look

"Frank Cottrell Boyce, Gordon Korman, Eoin Colfer, Andrew Clements, Dan Gutman.", his friend responded.

"You know my nickname..." he started to say before Preston cut him off.

Preston rolled his eyes, "Yeah we all know the weird kid that checks out library books during recess and lunch."

His friend flashed him a smile, a pile of books in hand. An array of multicolored books stacked up, all of varying thickness and color. Geronimo Stilton Takes the Cake, No Such Thing as Free Lunch, The Magic Treehouse, The Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown.

Preston commented on his hopeless friend, "You're a weird kid, you know that?"

He pointed at the playground, "After lunch most of us play soccer or tether ball, maybe a little 4 square, handball or Gaga. But you're here reading the books you borrowed from the library."

"What's so interesting in these books your reading?"

The weird kid adjusted his round framed glasses and flipped another page, his eyes moving back and forth over the words.

"Guess?", he asked back.

Preston thought for a moment before responding, "Stories?"

*flwick* ... *thwong*

A lopsided green playground ball flew through the air.

Preston's friend looked slightly upwards from his book and seeing as it wasn't coming towards him kept walking. He started walking away from the playground with Preston following him.

They headed to the backpack area to grab supplies for the next class.

An announcement sounded over the school PA system, *BZZZT*

"Class is starting in 5 minutes"

They went inside the classroom, the desks all neatly lined up. It was just the two of them in an empty, well lit classroom.

Walking to the front of the room, Preston watched his friend sit down at a desk and pull out a name tag from inside. He wrote his name on the paper before creasing and folding it neatly.

The name tag in neatly written block letters read, "Jeffrey Zhang"

The final lunch bell rang and the other classmates started to head to their classrooms.

Jeffrey gave Preston an answer to his previous question.

"Inside books contain knowledge"