The stadium shook with the deafening roar of the crowd as Reo Li sprinted down the court, the ball a blur in his hands. His teammate, Josh, shouted from the sidelines, "Shoot the ball, Reo! It's all on you!"
Reo could feel the weight of the game on his shoulders as he dribbled past the defender, his heart pounding in his chest. The defender lunged for the ball, but Reo was too quick, pulling the ball back and pivoting to his left, leaving the defender in the dust.
With the three-point line in sight, Reo felt a surge of adrenaline course through his veins. He could hear the crowd chanting his name, the lights from the stadium blinding him as he took the shot.
The clock ticked down to the final seconds, and with a deep breath, Reo released the ball from his hands. Time seemed to slow as the ball arced toward the hoop, the crowd holding its collective breath. He felt the surge of victory, the thrill of being exactly where he belonged, everything he'd worked so hard for just a single shot away. But then, as he braced himself for the ball to hit the net, the roar of the crowd began to fade, the cheers softening until they became nothing more than echoes in his mind.
Reo's eyes fluttered open, the dim light of his cramped room replacing the blinding stadium lights, the stale silence of early morning overtaking the roaring crowd. He stared up at the ceiling, still caught between the adrenaline of the dream and the heavy, quiet reality around him. His heart was racing, his muscles tensed, as if he'd just been running down that court for real. With a sigh, he rubbed his eyes, trying to shake off the vividness of it. "Damn," he muttered to himself, "another dream."
He lay there for a moment, unwilling to leave the warmth of his bed, his mind lingering on the feeling of the ball in his hands, the thunder of the crowd. "I was good back then, wasn't I?" he whispered, the words barely audible in the stillness of the room. He sat up slowly, letting the memory of those days drift away like smoke, trying not to feel the hollow ache it left behind. It was just a dream, after all—just a glimpse of a life he'd lost, as fleeting as the final seconds of a game.
As Reo pulled himself out of bed, the faint ache in his back reminded him of how far he'd fallen from the life he'd once dreamed of. There was a deep, stubborn longing buried in him—a longing for the days when he was on the court, for the feel of polished wood beneath his sneakers, for the roar of a crowd shouting his name. Back then, he'd been unstoppable, colleges sending scouts to watch him play, offers on the table, a future bright and blinding just within reach.
But all that had slipped away, one rejection letter at a time, as coaches passed over his short frame and lean build for taller, bulkier players who could crash through defenses. Now, as he dressed in his worn, grease-streaked work clothes, Reo couldn't escape the cold truth. Working at the junkyard, day in and day out, felt like a punishment. He'd traded his dreams for a paycheck that barely covered his bills, for mornings spent trudging through mud and metal and nights spent alone, haunted by memories of who he'd been.
"Is this really it?" he wondered bitterly, looking at the reflection in the cracked mirror above his dresser. "All-Star" Reo Li, now just another worker scraping by, with nothing but old highlights and distant cheers echoing in his mind. He felt a dull ache in his chest as he headed out the door, as though he'd left a part of himself behind somewhere along the way—a part he wasn't sure he'd ever get back.
He got dressed in his dirty and muddy black uniform, ready for another day of working at the junkyard. As he headed out the door, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was missing in his life.
As he approached the gates of the junkyard, one of his coworkers, Joey, shouted from the crane operator booth, "How's it going there, All-Star?" Reo forced a smile and shouted back, "Barely alive, but I'm here."
The day passed by in a blur of breaking off car parts and gathering metal scraps. But lunch break was Reo's favorite part of the day, as he would eat his sandwiches and head to the homemade basketball court that he and some of his coworkers had put together to pass the time. He would stand there and dribble and shoot, practicing his lay-ups as if he was a D-1 college star.
Joey, who was a hockey guy, noticed Reo's talent, "Well what happened? Clearly you love that damn ball of yours, Ive never seen anyone move with that thing the way you do. Mind you I'm kind of a Hockey guy so this basketball stuff never really interested me...but I can see talent from garbage any day of the week." Reo's heart sunk as he remembered the reason why he couldn't pursue his passion, "Well damn, I guess it was my height, colleges were interested but didn't want to take a chance with me, being 5'7 and a hundred and thirty pounds soaking wet, didn't make me stand out much from the bunch."
As Reo walked back to his work station, he couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something more out there for him. He was digging through the many piles that were scattered across the junkyard, and as he was cleaning, he could have sworn he heard a voice whisper to him "Reo," the voice said, sounding so faintly like it was the sound of the wind. Reo walked closer to where he thought the whispers were coming from, but as he got closer, nothing was there. He dug and searched through the many piles like a maniac, the other workers were watching in awe.
"You okay there, bud?" One of the supervisors shouted.
"I'm alright, sir. Just thought I lost something," Reo replied, embarrassed by his actions.
As Reo trudged back to his work station, the feeling settled over him again—that strange, restless sense that something was missing, waiting for him just out of reach. The usual clanging and grinding of metal around him seemed distant, muffled, as if the junkyard itself were holding its breath.
He shook his head, chalking it up to another moment of daydreaming. But just as he reached down to grab a hunk of scrap metal, he felt it—a strange vibration in the air, almost too faint to notice. He froze, glancing around. The piles of discarded car parts and broken appliances loomed like shadows, their jagged edges casting eerie shapes on the ground. He had a prickling sensation at the back of his neck, like he was being watched.
Then he heard it, a faint whisper drifting through the stillness. "Reo…" The sound was so soft, it could've been mistaken for the wind slipping through the cracks and crevices of metal around him. He squinted, trying to pinpoint where it came from, but all he saw were heaps of rusted junk, still and silent under the gray sky.
"Hello?" he called out, feeling foolish even as he said it. His voice echoed slightly, swallowed up by the junkyard's maze. But the whisper had sounded so… real. His pulse quickened as he dug through the piles, ignoring the sidelong glances from his coworkers. There was something here, he could feel it.
And then he saw it—a faint glow flickering from beneath a mound of metal shards, like a firefly trapped under glass. Reo's heart thudded as he reached out, his hand trembling slightly. As he brushed aside the debris, a small, rectangular device emerged, partially buried in dust and grime.
The moment his fingers touched it, a chill shot up his arm, like he'd touched ice instead of metal. The device was heavier than it looked, its cold surface unnaturally smooth, almost slippery. His fingers traced over the strange knobs and buttons, each one foreign, almost alien in design. He could feel a faint thrum of energy pulsing from it, as though it had a heartbeat of its own.
Reo swallowed, a shiver running down his spine. He didn't know why, but every instinct in him screamed that this was important—that this device was somehow meant for him. And though he couldn't shake the unease curling in his stomach, he slipped it into his pocket, feeling the weight of it pressing against him like an omen.
As he clocked out for the day, he shouted to his coworker, Joey, "Clocking out, Joey. Stay safe out there, buddy." Joey shouted back, "You too, All-Star."
Back at home, Reo took out the small radio and his toolbox, eager to see what he could do with it. As he unscrewed the small box and connected the broken wires, he couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and curiosity. But as he examined the radio, he couldn't find a power button. "This little thing is strange, I must say," he muttered to himself as he started pressing the various buttons on the radio.
Suddenly, he pressed a button that made the radio beep and start making strange noises. The volume increased, and a strange light began to glow from the radio. Reo's heart raced as he tried to make sense of what was happening. In a panic, he tried to run out of his small apartment, but the light was growing larger and pulling him in.
"Aw, shit! What the hell is this?!" Reo screamed as his body was sucked into the light. He felt as if he was being pulled through a tunnel of swirling colors and shapes, and he had no idea what was happening to him.
Reo's eyes fluttered open, and he blinked against a dazzling wash of neon lights flickering above him. A queasy wave of dizziness rolled through him as he tried to sit up, his vision swimming with vibrant colors and strange shapes that refused to settle. He pressed a hand to his chest, feeling his heartbeat thundering as if he'd just run a marathon. He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself, but even the air tasted different—thicker, with a metallic tang that lingered on his tongue.
Squinting, he glanced around, disoriented by the towering, neon-lit skyscrapers that surrounded him, stretching into a sky streaked with hues of pink and purple. The world around him was alive, humming with strange sounds, and creatures he'd never seen before—cyborgs with gleaming limbs, aliens with scales and feathers, all moving past him as if he were invisible. His head spun as he struggled to take it all in.
His gaze dropped to his own hands, and he froze, a strange tingling spreading up his arms. His tattoos—they looked sharper, more vivid, as though they were glowing faintly against his skin. He could feel an odd energy pulsing through them, buzzing just beneath the surface. His fingers trembled as he reached up to touch his face, feeling his own skin, solid and real but somehow… different.
He staggered to his feet, unsteady, glancing around until he spotted a reflective surface on a nearby building. Driven by an instinct he couldn't quite explain, he walked over and stared at his reflection. There, in the smooth glass, he saw himself—but something was off. His eyes seemed brighter, his features a little sharper, almost as if they'd been fine-tuned. His muscles felt taut, brimming with a strange, newfound strength.
"Where… where the hell am I?" he murmured, his voice barely a whisper as he stared at his transformed reflection, still trying to process the impossible reality around him. He took a shaky step back, the vibrant world swirling around him, every sound, color, and smell assaulting his senses. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the ground beneath him steady as he tried to get a grip. Whatever this place was, it was nothing like the world he knew—and deep down, he knew that everything had just changed.
He sat up and realized that even his own body had changed. He was still the same height, but he could sense that something was different. His tattoos seemed more defined, and his muscles felt tight and stiff. He looked around and saw flying cars and giant skyscrapers with neon lights advertising things he had never even heard of before. The hovering cars circled the busy city, and he was in awe of everything around him.
Suddenly, a strange ringing noise sounded in his head, clear as a bell. "Notification Alert," a small, flashing red exclamation mark appeared in the corner of his vision, hanging there like an annoying pop-up. Reo blinked, trying to make sense of the sudden graphic in front of his eyes. "Am I... am I hallucinating?" he muttered, reaching up to swipe at the air, half-expecting it to disappear.
Instead, the exclamation mark shifted, opening into a full holographic display that filled his vision. He jumped, stumbling back as words scrolled across the screen: "Welcome to Bayside City. You have been transported from your realm into our beautiful, lustrous city. Here, you have the chance to change your life and become whole again."
Reo squinted at the words, his fingers itching to press something, anything, just to make sense of it all. After a hesitant moment, he jabbed at the screen, only for a new set of icons to pop up, each more confusing than the last. "Quest Log," "Skills," "Inventory," "Map." The symbols looked like they were straight out of a video game, but nothing about them made sense. "What is all this stuff?"
Out of sheer curiosity—and frustration—he tapped on "Skills." Instantly, a list of his stats appeared, but the terms blurred together as he tried to make sense of them. "Speed 8, Agility 8, Jumping ability 9… Dunk 6?" He rubbed his eyes, bewildered. "Wait, these are my… basketball stats?" A small laugh escaped him, half disbelieving and half amused. "Whoever made this really did their research."
As he continued through the menus, one stat stopped him cold: "Age: 17." Reo paused, his eyes widening. He looked down at his hands and arms, noting the leanness of his muscles, more defined than he remembered, tight and powerful. He felt his face, running a hand over his jaw as the realization hit him. They reset me. His heart raced with a strange thrill, a blend of disbelief and wonder. "I'm… back to seventeen."
He fumbled through the screens, accidentally opening "Inventory" instead of "Map," where a single item icon floated: a basketball. He stared at it, almost ready to laugh out loud. "A basketball? Really? I can't even use this in a fight or whatever!" He tried swiping the screen again, only for the image of the basketball to enlarge, taking up his whole field of vision. Groaning, he poked at the air until it finally minimized.
Just as he was starting to piece things together, a notification pinged loudly in his ear, startling him. "Quest 1: Explore the city. Completion rewards: 50 experience points. Accept?" The button to confirm flashed in front of him, but he hesitated, wondering what would happen if he refused. "What happens if I don't accept? Do I just… sit here?"
With a sigh, he gave in, poking at the "Accept" button. The screen cleared, leaving only the quest details in the corner of his vision, almost like it was waiting for him to get moving. "Alright, so I just… explore, I guess?" he muttered, glancing around at the towering buildings and alien creatures walking past him as if this were all perfectly normal.
As he started to walk, the map in his vision blinked on, a tiny red dot marking his location. He tried zooming out to see more of the city, but accidentally zoomed so far out that all he saw was a galaxy of stars. Frustrated, he swiped again until he returned to his location. He could feel a mix of excitement and exasperation bubbling up as he navigated through the unfamiliar controls, each wrong button press reminding him just how out of his element he truly was.
"Alright, Bayside City," he muttered, squinting at the flashing markers on the map, "let's see what you've got for me."
Reo was filled with excitement and determination as he strolled through the park, his eyes widening when he caught sight of a basketball court illuminated by neon lights. The court's surface shimmered, changing texture underfoot, smooth as glass with a faint glow. A tall green humanoid with bright purple eyes glided through the air, dunking with effortless grace, his movement almost superhuman. Watching the game, Reo felt that familiar burn—the thrill of competition—the same fire that used to drive him on the high school courts.
"Hey, you guys got room for one more?" Reo called out, though his voice trembled slightly.
A player, the tall green alien called Lexz, laughed, towering over Reo. "Yo, look at this little fella!" he called. "You sure you want in on this? These sad bustas over here could use the help, I guess." The players chuckled, but Reo's pulse quickened with anticipation.
As he stepped onto the court, he felt a strange hum pulsing through him. A tingling sensation spread up his spine, and suddenly, he noticed faint glows surrounding the other players—aura-like colors hovering around them. He blinked, trying to make sense of it, but as the ball was passed to him, the world sharpened, his senses seemingly tuned to an unnatural clarity.
What's going on? he wondered, but there was no time to think. He felt the ball connect with his hands, and something inside him snapped into focus. He could sense the green aura around Lexz nearby, his eagerness to steal the ball like an open book to Reo. Instinctively, Reo pivoted, faking to the right, and watched Lexz bite on the move, his hands reaching for empty air.
"Whoa," Reo breathed, barely containing his surprise. He drove to the hoop with a speed that startled even him, easily maneuvering past another player, a lanky cyborg whose metallic limbs whirred as he tried to keep up.
"Over here, kid!" called out Jix, a hulking purple humanoid with wild orange hair and the appearance of an ogre. Reo returned the ball with a quick pass, noting how he could sense Jix's aura too—a mix of raw power and determination. Every movement on the court felt heightened, his reflexes sharper, like he was seeing a second or two into each player's intentions.
Just as he was beginning to get the hang of it, Lexz switched tactics, facing off against Reo directly. "Alright, shorty, let's see what you got," he sneered, dribbling with a fluidity that suggested years of skill. Lexz's aura pulsed with confidence, his stance ready, and his eyes fixed on Reo.
Reo felt the challenge like a spark igniting inside him. Alright, let's do this. He locked onto Lexz, reading the faint flickers in his aura that hinted at his next moves. Lexz feinted left, but Reo saw through it, anticipating the real move to the right. He darted to intercept, his own body reacting almost automatically.
The two went back and forth, moving in a fierce rhythm. Reo was amazed by his own agility, his instincts sharp enough to match Lexz stride for stride. He'd never felt this tuned-in before. His heart pounded, a mixture of exhilaration and disbelief flooding through him. He could feel his muscles responding faster, pushing harder, each step echoing with the thrill of competition.
Finally, with a quick cross-step, Reo seized an opening and drove toward the hoop, launching himself into the air. He could feel every ounce of strength in his legs, propelling him higher than he'd ever managed before. With a rush of exhilaration, he made the lay-up, the ball hitting the backboard and sliding cleanly into the net.
Lexz let out a low whistle, nodding at Reo. "Not bad, shorty. You got some moves."
Reo grinned, breathing heavily, his entire body buzzing with the realization of what he was capable of in this strange world. If this is what I can do here, he thought, then I might actually have a shot at something big. His senses were still heightened, his vision sharp as he glanced around at his teammates. He felt a thrill of possibility surge through him—a sense that he was no longer just Reo from the junkyard, but someone stronger, faster, ready for a whole new game.