2 Back To The Pas (2/2)

Boom!

Mark felt as if someone slapped him until he became dazed. For a moment, he couldn't think of anything. His rational mind told him one thing but the facts stated otherwise. Just to make sure, he double checked on multiple websites, but the same date continued appearing: June 26th, 2140. This wasn't a prank, this was really happening, he really did time travel back to when he was young.

He sat down on his old bed, looking at the ceiling. He was desperately trying to make sense of what was happening. Yesterday, he had gone to sleep after an afternoon filled with anger and frustration. Then, next thing tomorrow, he woke up ten years in the past. There was nothing that foreshadowed this event, no scary guy at the end of the road, no AI with unimaginable power hacking his computer and talking to him, it… just happened.

The only thing that separated Mark from the regular average human being was the ten years he had spent on Ashes of Gods.

'Talking about Ashes of Gods…'

”Wait, if it's June 2140, then… that means — that means that AOG(short of Ashes of Gods) is still not out yet.”

From the earlier depression, Mark jumped right back with excitement filling his heart. He did read many of the novels talking about a player receiving a second chance, going back to the past and becoming a god at whatever game was popular in their world. However, to experience it himself, Mark was overjoyed.

Nevertheless, as with every emotion that he experienced, it didn't take long for that emotion to fade away, leaving him but an empty husk. Mark found himself now in front of a decision. A decision that would shape his life, for better or the worse. Ten years – ten years he had spent on Ashes of Gods that made him forget whether there was anything other to life than the game. At the peak of his esports career, there were many times when he thought of an alternative universe, one where he wasn't a popular game athlete but something else.

With this new chance at life, he could be something else. He could become a researcher and drive humanity forward. He could become a developer and make his own game, his own world. There were many times in his past life where he flirted with these types of ideas and ”what if” scenarios. Now, he could make them real, and the realization that he had this choice between his hands brought with its immense weight.

For a moment, he thought about how, or what other field did he have a passion for. He was good at school, he liked math, physics, and biology. Compared to everyone else in his class, he was smart, extremely so. But, did he have a passion for those subjects? While he could not deny that he very much liked working on them, his passion for these fields was but an ember to the raging inferno that was his love for games.

Since the day that his father bought him his first capsule when he was but 3 years old, he was mesmerized by virtual reality. He could remember it as if it was yesterday, the moment when he opened his eyes to a brand new world. The low, fragrant breeze tickling his nose, the slow molten sunlight, warming him from the cold. Things that he couldn't experience in his ice cold city were within an arm's reach in the virtual world. Then father gestured to him with his hand, signaling Mark to pay attention to what he was about to do. He raised his right arm close to his face and snapped his fingers. The world was set ablaze, as fire spurted from his fingers and danced on his hand.

From that day onward the virtual and reality switched places in Mark's heart. His thirst for discovering everything the virtual world had to offer couldn't be quenched. His parents supported him fully in this endeavor, as it didn't distract him from his other responsibilities; mainly studying. To Mark, it mattered little what he did as long as it was in the virtual world, so he was able to study hard even with his addiction. In fact, these circumstances helped him become a much better student, as the virtual world provided tools for learning that were hard to replicate in the real one.

Even now, 25 years later, that passion for virtual reality was still raging in his heart. His love for Ashes of Gods, this game that represented everything he liked about VR, was still as strong as ever.

Mark's eyes glinted for a second, his decision was now firm. He was going to play Ashes of Gods, and he was, for sure, going to become the best.