Universe 182, this is the universe we live in.
I, however, am going to tell a story about a different universe. To be precise, Universe 247. In this universe everything went almost precisely the same as in ours. Everything, from art to history, except for some minor details, like: company names or what a company specializes in, is exactly the same.
There was however one major difference between the two universes, this was 'the change', and the system. But 'the change' had not yet happened on earth and neither had the system arrived to earth. So earth developed the same as in this universe.
Until 2003 that is. This is the date at which our protagonist was born.
This did not go the same as in our universe, because here, he was never born. His parents never even met each other.
Though, the strangeness of the situation does not end there. This baby had lived before.
Although he lived on a different planet in his last live, he did not remember this, immediately after he was born.
He was born on the 2nd of august, 2003. This is when the two earths drifted from timelines. As one had our protagonist and the other did not. But the boy did not start his life happy because both his parents died an untimely death, they had a traffic incident, this happened in 2007, while our protagonist Luke was only four.
After this event Luke was put into foster care. He never really got into any good families. He just survived them until he was 18 and could live by himself. When he turned 18, he instantly left his home and went to college with tuition money he had gotten because he was a smart kid, a straight A kid.
Only when he was 20 did he remember his past life. He was very confused and needed to take a week off from college, so he called in sick. After this, he remembered everything he had ever learned in his past life.
But not everything was as good as it seemed, because he also remembered 'the change' and, given the circumstances of the planet he was on, he estimated he had less than 2 years to prepare for it.
The problem was, he had not survived past the tutorial in his previous life. So he only knew the basic information the system gives to planets that go through 'the change'.
Luckily he had always been going to the gym, and was stronger and had more stamina than the average man. So he first dropped out of college, where nobody even missed him because he was a complete loner. And he started working to make money. He also started saving money.
He knew that guns were not going to get him far, they might take him past the tutorial, but they wouldn't take him further. So he started training his reflexes, and trained his close combat skills. He knew the system was only going to arrive when they entered the tutorial, but he would prepare as good as he could. He also bought a cabin in the middle of nowhere to store his supplies of canned food and weapons, such as swords or maces. So that he would be one of the people that was the best prepared for any situation. Then on New Year's eve, 00:00, 2024, everyone in the world got the following message.
[Greetings, people of earth. This is not a drill! 'the change' is going to happen on your planet in exactly one year from now. So you better prepare!]
Most people were not completely sure what this meant and just carried on with their lives, because most people were either asleep, drunk, or just thought they were crazy and did not talk to anyone about it. Only a handful of people actually believed this message and started preparing. Not knowing what was going to happen to them.