3 Chapter 3 Returning back

Asian union, Southern provision, Riversage orphanage.

In one of the cramped room of the orphanage Derek stood in front of the mirror stared foolishly at his reflection.

In the mirror, he saw that a young and naive seventeen year old Derek with lush black hair, who lived in the orphanage, standing in front of the mirror,instead of the bald century year old ghost.

Derek couldn't think straight from the moment he woke up, it wasn't much different from a usual day. The him right now in the mirror looked just like how he looked when he was in his teen, his surrounding where that of his orphanage and the date on the calendar was more than a century than he remembered.

'This doesn't make sense no matter which way I look at it. Did I really travel back in time'.

Derek didn't think it was a dream, everything was real despite him constantly looking around. No one would imagine being able to restart they life again even thought they really wished so.

Derek tried his best to calm down and grasp this situation. After he woke up, he could not accept the situation for hours. But he had to calm down and accept it.

After experiencing the up and down of life for decades, he calm down and started understanding the situation.

'all I know for sure is I have travel back in time instead of dying because of that powerful entity after making a transaction of some sort with him'.

As for the black stone and how he got it, he had no idea about it. But he was clear that his was his second chance.

'Anyway the important thing point is if I don't do anything I might have to live the way I already

Seen in my past, if it is so i must consider myself lucky to have been given this chance.'

'what was he to able to save me from a certain death and return me in to the past, if so then what was the black stone he called "infinity ruins" and what more level was the man to even belittle the gods.'

As he though back to his encounter with the sliver haired man, he felt a chill run down his spine if that powerful entity was hostile toward him, forget about gaining benefits he could have had his soul burnt to dust.

It was impossible to understand this phenomenon with his knowledge. So he forced himself to accept the situation.

"it not like I can change anything might as well try and enjoy this chance."

He looked at the mirror and self hypnotize himself. He had come up with this motto when he was facing the most difficult time of his life.

It took a few days for Derek to accept his situation, but after days with out any trace of mana and dungeons he was sure that he had gone to the past through it.

Honestly it wasn't easy for him to admit this implausible situation, he could organize his thoughts

faster only because he was a century old ghost inside an 17 year body. He started looking around after admitting everything. He already knew that it was in 2024, so, he was 17 years old -2st grade in high school. It was 17th of July in 2024, summer.

'the moment which is going to change my life will happen during the mid winters of January of next year, during the end of his 2nd grade in high school'.

The moment which made him despair will happen after almost five months and Derek had to live a full of hardship and misery for the rest of his life. It was due to this event that he was forced to form a slave contract.

It felt weird to think about what is going to happen in the future, as it was as if his future was already deceived when seeing from an outside perspective who already knew the future.

Derek didn't really want to repeat the same mistake.

'if I want to live this second chance without any regrets…I will have to make changes in many things'.

The most pressing matter was the preparation for the 'Great Summoning'. the GS would happen in the mid springs of April, an event that force full summons the people from earth to various planets in order to prepare them for 'World awakening' and the event after that. Though it may sound noble for the inhabitant of another planet to guide other, but if one was not care full they might get buried in another planet.

But nobody can deny the fact that being summon to another planet is a great opportunity, it gives a chance for people to break free from they current status and become someone important or some greater

So, in order to gain as much as possible from this summoning Derek needed to prepare many things. Some required him to make changes in his lifestyle like exercising and improving his knowledge so that his stats calculation after summoning could improve unlike his past life pathetic stats.

Other requires him to funds in order to buy thing that could prove to be significant and valuable, the formal may be hard and the resulted change in stats could be very little yet at least it was doable, but the latter was simply very hard for Derek although the funds required by was not much but it could not be considered less either. For anybody in Derek position any talk involving money was unpleasant.

'Relying on resettlement funds is foolish, that greedy director would sell us if it was possible let aside providing settlement and I can be in the orphanage till 19, so there is no hurry about leaving. As for funds I absolutely have to find a way to earn them by myself'.

As the orphanage rule people had to leave if they cannot get into college after 19 year old. Derek could on paper live in the orphanage until may of 2026 exactly.

Derek was confident that he could get to college, of course that was if GS did not happen, so Derek had no choice but to come with an alternative and consequently, he was forced to make a quick decision.

Because Derek had comeback from absolute depth of despair, he felt that this time, it wasn't such a big deal. Especially, the most important fact at this moment Derek had the most if not all the information related to the event of the future.

The mistake which he made due to the incident that happened in half a year, had not happened yet. Derek will not let the same happen again and he was confident with everything as long as he avoid this mishap.

Indeed, Derek had overcome these situation in the past though he agonized a lot, never the less he overcame them. That's why he nodded his head with confidence face.

Nothing was uncomfortable for Derek despite not remembering many things. Because he already had a quite and easy going personality combined with the fact that he had wits of an old veteran which teenagers could never compare to, he mingle easily without any doubt.

Derek adjusted to the situation in days and started making plans seriously for he future. The information of the future, wasn't completely clear of, was almost the same between the current of the present and the future as a result of living for the last few days.

In this situation, it was too silly if he didn't use the information he had already known.

'the first thing I need…. of course it is money, isn't it?'.

Money was really important to for both his plans for GS and live alone after that.

'Then, how can he make money?'

Realistically speaking, it was really limited for Derek who was just 1st grade in high school and an orphan to earn money. All the money he could make was from the part time job which was not sufficient for his plans.

'Working part-lime never make as much money as I want, if so.. the answer to make quick money in just almost six month is either workshops or loan from loan shark or Shylock?'

Working at a workshop, he had practical experience from slaving away like a machine in the workshop for many years in his past life. It was a tiring, ungenerous and the pay was meager in comparison of the work hours and conditions.

Derek had nothing to say 'that is mine' where could he have asserts to put them as collateral and request a loan from the bank, thus he could only turn to illegal money lenders full aware for they extremely high interest rates, and cruel term of collection upon failure. Even though Derek was completely confident in his abilities to repay his loan even with its high interest, he could rather choose an another option if they was an opportunity.

It has been days since Derek was struggling on which one to choose. While Derek was in a dilemma for which method to chose in order to earn the money he made sure to perform his daily training. During the days after his return to the past he had devised a training plan for himself for both his physical and mental stats. Working out two times a day in order to increase his physical stats with strength, agility and stamina training, as for mental stats he practise various exercise to improve his memory like testing recall, doing passive memory training and such, these were the standard exercise every warrior in the future had in there regular training.