The Return

Adam touched his face, and the mirror mirrored his movements perfectly. He couldn't believe his eyes. 

The pale-skinned face that wasn't as weathered as his future self, the lack of maturity in his features, and the unblemished, clean-shaven appearance.

His future self, which was marred with scars of years gone by and battle-hardened muscles that were earned through blood and sweat, was all gone.

He then looked down at his torso, traced his hand across the chest, and felt the softness of his skin. The knife wounds were gone.

"What happened?" Adam wondered out loud and looked in the mirror. "Am I dreaming?"

Creak—at that moment, the door swung open, and a beautiful figure appeared in the doorway. A fair-skinned young woman, with pajamas draped over her, rubbed her sleepy eyes as if she had woken up just moments prior.

Adam's eyes trembled, and tears appeared in the corner of his eyes.

The fair-skinned young woman opened her eyes wide and saw a half-naked young man looking back at her. Her cheeks flushed pink as she realized she had accidentally walked in on him.

"A-Adam..." She shyly whispered as she quickly turned away. "I-I didn't know you were using the bathroom, I swear!"

"Alice..." Adam whispered, and his legs moved by themselves as he approached the young woman. Without thinking twice, he put his arms around her and pulled her close, holding her tightly.

"I missed you." He whispered with tears trickling down his cheeks. "So much..."

"O-oh..." She stuttered, her voice trembling as she looked up at him with flushed cheeks as she was held in such intimacy. "D-did I go somewhere?"

At that moment, a wrinkled woman with light brown hair walked into the bathroom, her eyes fixed on the two, hugging with one of them being nearly naked.

Her face turned red instantly, and she grabbed Adam by the ear and shouted loudly. 

"Adaaaaam! The hell are you doing to her?!"

"Ouch!" As Adam was dragged out of the bathroom by the angry-looking woman, he said in surprise. "S-Serah?"

"Go put clothes on!" She screamed and shoved him into his room. With her eyes trembling in anger, she slammed the door shut.

Alice peeked from the bathroom, watching her mother storm angrily downstairs.

As she looked towards the door of Adam's room, she touched her chest, feeling the racing heart.

"That was unexpected..." She thought with a shy smile and then closed the door, as she planned to take a shower before school.

Inside the room, Adam sat back on his bed and touched his hands. He was certain that he was holding her as if she were really there.

"This is not a memory..." He scanned the room and soon found his pants on the floor. He picked them up, searched the pockets, and soon found his phone.

It was a phone, an old phone which he barely remembered. It was clearly a decade old, at least. However, now it looked brand new.

After opening the phone, he saw the date and the current year.

"2150..." Adam dropped the phone on the bed and covered his mouth in shock.

"I was sent thirteen years into the past? It's also been two days since my birthday.

"I was still living with my government-appointed caretakers..."

The government-appointed caretakers were a system created after the Dark Plague swept across the whole world in 2130. It killed billions of people, and it only affected people who were over twenty years of age.

His parents also died from the Dark Plague, only a few days after his birth.

Because of the sudden increase in orphans, the government-appointed caretaker system was put in place. The orphans were put in the custody of a family that survived the Dark Plague.

Adam was sent to the Kindforth family when he was still very young and was raised by them.

"This is really happening." Adam took a deep breath and felt like his heart couldn't take so many surprises in one day.

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, contemplating things, he heard a knock on the door.

"Uh, come in." Adam looked towards the door and said.

The door slowly opened, and Alice walked in, drying her drenched hair with a towel.

"Uhm, can you put clothes on?" She asked shyly and looked away. She had expected him to put on clothes already.

"Oh." Adam stood up and grabbed his clothes from the floor. After slipping his legs into the trousers, he zipped them up and put on his shirt.

"By the way." Alice sat down on the chair after seeing that he had finished getting dressed and asked curiously. "You acted strangely in the bathroom. Is everything alright?"

Adam looked silently at the beautiful young woman and watched as her mouth moved as she spoke. He couldn't help but feel emotional.

"Uhm..." He shook his head and smiled. "Y-yeah, just a bad dream, I suppose."

Alice tilted her head in curiosity. She felt like he wasn't being completely truthful, but she didn't push the matter further.

"Anyway, my mother might be... little angry after that," she shyly smiled after remembering the scene in the bathroom and continued. "You should probably leave for the store first. Maybe she has calmed down by then."

"Store?" Adam frowned and then let out a long sigh. "Right..."

"Hehe, you forgot that you had work today?" Alice giggled and stood up. "Work hard; you can do it."

"Heh." Adam chuckled and looked fondly at the young woman, who was both beautiful and kind and had always been one of the few people who actually cared about him.

"I'll have to go to school." Alice said, and as she was about to walk out of the room, she looked at Adam, smiled, and left.

Adam laid on his back, grabbed his phone, and turned it on.

"Since it's 2150, even the first Great Guild War hasn't started. It is currently the so-called peace era, but it's still all about strength.

"Should I really start playing that game again?" Adam sighed. "It wasted ten years of my life; for what? Just to get betrayed and killed. I have a second chance; Alice is alive, and I can perhaps just make things right this time around."

However, a sour feeling came to his mind then.

"Without me, Calamity might really become the next king. It's not like he was a good guy and turned bad because of greed.

"Ever since I started playing in 2153, I have heard about him and his abuse of power. I have heard tons of disturbing things about him.

"Also, Yu is there..."

Remembering her face, Adam sighed deeply.

"In my previous life, I started playing in 2153, three years from now on. The game has now existed for about 11 years, and it's the biggest thing in the world, but it's an extremely competitive game, and only a handful of players can make a name for themselves in that world.

"However, I know about things the current players do not know of." Adam scratched his head and chuckled. 

"There're things they haven't discovered yet. I could go and snatch them for myself. It's not like I start from nothing again; I have memories of thirteen years of the future with me.

"Also..." His eyes turned cold. "Amelia, Lisa, Liam, and Nikholas. They might not know what they did to me, but if I let them be after betraying me like that… hah."

He then stood up from the bed and stretched his arms.

"If I only found out the person who killed me, well, at least I know that he was ordered by Calamity to kill me. I never expected him to go so far.

"But it's not like it hadn't happened before.

"Some players have sent 'Otherworld Killers' after their rivals in real life after not being able to defeat them in-game and getting them killed.

"It's a dangerous game, but whoever manages to reach the top will be rich, powerful, and influential, like the High King—Konrad."

At that moment, a shout came from downstairs.

"Adam, what is taking so long?!"

"Sigh..." Adam sighed and pinched his glabella. "Well, first I have to go to work. Then, I can check for the next registration times for the next group of players."