1 Mysterious Gift

"Was it all worth it Guild Master?"

A lone slender figure sat perched over a lone balcony overlooking the vast steel city. Staying silent for a while as she looked over the cold and lifeless cityscape, she looked towards the night sky and thought back to the times before all the struggles and schemes. Before she had become the ruthless and coldblooded leader of the strongest clan in the world.

The assistant looking man pressed on. "It will be hard to pull out all their roots Guild Master…"

"I don't care, get it done, or I can replace you with someone that can."

Sighing ruefully, the figure left the room quietly as they began to make some calls.

Not moving at all, the slender beauty kept looking into the sky as if looking for answers from the heavens.

"I miss you so much…what would you have done differently? I'm so tired…so worn down by the bullshit of this cold world and the bastards that took you away from me."

Clenching her fists tightly, the beauty continued. But worry not, I have almost finished what I set out to do and rid the world of those who would dare to take you away from me. Just wait a bit longer, I will join you soon and hopefully, things can change for the better."

Taking one last look over the silent sky, the lone beauty walks back into the building.

~Sometime in the past~

"Wake Up…wake up or you're gonna be late for work."

Groaning, the lump of blankets and pillows shuffles around slightly and then stills.

"Ugh! So annoying!" Walking up to the bed, a slender girl grabbed ahold of a chunk of the blanket and pulled with all her might. Despite the small stature of the girl, the lump of blankets quickly fell onto the ground and groaned as the shock rattled its body.

Rushing to stand up, the lump reveals itself to actually be a slim figured guy still tangled up in sheets. The sweet soon to be the embrace of a beautiful girl of his dream turned out to be his well-appreciated body pillow that is still clutched in his hands.

"Alex, you really should throw that thing away. It's creepy that you keep hugging it that way."

Squinting in the brightly lit room, Alex saw the disdainful gaze of his younger sister Melody looking down at him.

"For your information, she is my faithful companion and I cherish her every night. Don't I A2? Yes, I do! I love you with all my heart!"

Heavily rolling her eyes and clearly having heard his excuses for the billionth time, Melody started to walk towards the door. As her brother finally got up from his sleep and groggily made his way towards the kitchen to make breakfast, Melody went to check the mail.

Coming back inside, Melody quickly threw away the junk mail that still seemed to plague people even now. One package that caught her attention when she saw it though were two pristinely packaged boxes, one small one that looked like it would hold a necklace or other type of jewelry and a second long rectangular one.

Confused as to why they had gotten these packages that were clearly addressed for her but with no identifying marks that she recognized besides a logo that looked like a half sun rising over a horizon line.

Opening the small box first, she took out a Neural Shard with a note tucked within the box.

'Hello Melody, this present may come as a surprise. But your future self will win my favor and in return, this shard represents your wish to save the one who you cherish most of all and a chance at a new beginning.'

Extremely confused as to why she had been sent this gift, there was no doubt that it was addressed for her and no one would be stupid enough to prank her with a Neural Shard which was still incredibly expensive at this point in time.

While Melody was hesitant to plug in the mysterious shard, the ominousness of the message pushed her towards slotting in the shard in her Neural Port which was located right behind her right ear.

Initially, nothing had happened. While Melody was wondering what was going on, a sudden overwhelming rush of information swarmed through her mind. Bringing Melody to her knees as her brain felt as if it was overheating with the amount of memories, emotions, and knowledge that her future self had accumulated over the years.

Having heard Melody's breakdown, Alex rushed to her side and held her close to check her forehead's temperature. Her forehead seemed perfectly fine but Melody was still not responding at all to any of his questions or concerns. However, Melody was able to finally open her eyes after a few moments, and while her mind was still extremely fuzzy as she was still sorting through the memories of her future self begin to merge with her current mind.

Thinking to herself, Melody exclaimed. 'She actually succeeded?! I didn't think it was even remotely possible to return to the past.

Melody puzzled at her ownquestion and then after reorganizing the thoughts rushing through her head. "What day is it today?"

Not knowing for himself even, Alex checks his phone. "It's 8:07 AM June 1st, OH SHIT! I gotta go, I'm already late for work!" Rushing to grab his work outfit and throw it on despite how slightly wrinkled it was.

Pondering the date for half a second, Melody's head rose in shock as she realized what the date had in store. Today was the day her brother had a terrible run-in with the local top gang and ended up getting horribly injured. Despite him being rushed to the hospital he had ended up dying that night. It was the night when her whole world had crumbled and sent her on a terrible future, she would rather have it all been a horrible dream.

Hearing the revving of a car, she realized that she had to stop her brother from getting into the same situation yet again. Melody rushed towards the front door at top speed and looked in the garage hoping to see her car only to realize that this wasn't the future where she would be able to afford the one.

Cursing loudly, she begrudgingly started to run towards her brother's work, thankful that it wasn't that far away.

After coming in almost 30 minutes late and getting an earful from his manager, Alex began to hurriedly take orders from the people waiting at the counter for their morning meal. It wasn't long till a large group of people barged into the shop, making a large amount of noise and commotion as they shoved aside other customers and crowded the counter.

Moving to the front of the group was a snobbishly dressed teen that all the other guys of the rowdy bunch made way for. "Hey there busboy, this joint got anything good to drink?"

Sighing deeply in his head for having to deal with this kind of crowd with how crappy his morning had started. Clearly not the first time he had to deal with rude customers who thought they were the king of the world.

"We have coffee and some juices if you would like any of those." Offering the leader of the group a menu, the teen looked at the map then stared at Alex like he was the dumbest ant in the world.

Just as the group was preparing to brawl the moment the teen gave the word, the door to the café opened to show a gasping and sweaty Melody practically run through. Seeing the fight that was about to break out, Melody rushed to her brother's side despite her exhaustion. Cursing inside about how her past self was so out of shape, she glared at the main culprit that caused her arduous path before.

Stunned at the appearance of such a beauty, the group of ruffians all looked in silence as Melody walked over.

Ignoring all the looking eyes, Melody tugged at her Alex's sleeve. "Alex, can you please take the day off? I wanted to go look at the new VRMMO game that is coming out today."

Not able to stand being ignored, the teen smoothed out his outfit slightly as he walked up to Melody. "Are you talking about Reign of the Aspects? My father's company is one of the large investors for the game, I would be happy to take you to get some of the gear before it comes out for sale to the public. Oh, and by the way, my name is Richard"

A sharp and cold glare appeared on her face as soon as the teen spoke. "Sorry, I have to take my brother here and have him treat me to some stuff instead." Tugging her brother away from the mob of people.

Alex helplessly went along with his sister's insistence, somewhat helped by the fact he didn't want to deal with the crowd of people that were currently staring daggers into my kidneys and face and heart and any other way to kill me. "Sorry boss! My sister's making me go out for something or another, see you Monday!"

Just as the group was about to chase after the sibling duo, a burly wall of a man walked out from the back and just cracked his knuckles loudly. "So, what would you snot-nosed kids like to order?"

"Fuck off gramps, come on guys lets go let the beauty there know who's boss around these parts and let her know what's best for her brother's wellbeing."

A huge and oddly not rough hand grasped Richard's shoulder. "Did your parents not teach you any manners? Also, I advise you not to mess with those two if you know what's best for your wellbeing."

Trying but failing to escape the iron grip of the old man, Richard grit his teeth. "Do you not know who I am? I'm Richard Green, my father is the Co-Founder of NuGen Tech. What are you guys doing, trash this piece of shit and get him off me!"

Sighing, the old owner shrugged his shoulders and stretched slightly. "I haven't had my workout today, I guess it's going to be a bit more cardio and leg day."

~A short while later~

"Hey there Markus. Yeah, it's me. Your kid here is making a mess of my shop. Make sure he doesn't mess with my employee or his sister because it's hard to find good help these days. Yeah yeah, don't make me come over there myself, you still owe me a couple more times don't forget that. Alright bye."

Looking around the room and seeing a couple of broken chairs and blood-smeared in a couple of places, the owner sighed. Damn kid is going to work so much overtime, I'm too old for this shit.