*beep* *beep* *beep*

*click* *groan*

"Give me a bloody break... Can't I sleep for an hour or three...?" A man with disheveled black hair commented with a tired expression, as he had his entire body covered with a blanket. He desired to be able to sleep for as long as he wanted, but the subsequent alarms made it really hard for himself to fall asleep, forcing him to put his blanket aside and get off the bed and turning off his alarm clock.

"F*cking hell... Another day, another mundane teaching session..." The man commented with a tired expression, as he looked at the "7:47 AM" time on his digital alarm clock. With a hint of reluctance, he made his way towards the bathroom and after a slow cleaning session, he gave himself the usual look to make sure he looked decent enough for the others and once he confirmed that his black hair looked neat, his brown eyes looked fine and his face didn't have any spots, only then he left it, while wearing a new set of clothes.

After that, he went to his tiny kitchen and made himself a bowl of cereal, while a loud, male announcer's voice echoed from his 14-inch television:

"Onto our next news. A new vaccine is scheduled to be mass-produced from WH*, thanks to the massive collaboration of many known companies, such as-" *bzzzt*

"Don't you have something better to show? Let me know the monster movements for the day, so I can see what I can grind for today, at least." The man commented, as he changed from one channel to another, trying to fight a channel that wasn't talking about unimportant news. As he was doing so, he noticed an old iPhone on the table and couldn't help but comment tiredly:

"I really need to stop leaving my stuff randomly around. Why do I still have this old phone? I could have sworn that I had thrown it away."

Ashton, or the man currently eating, wasn't a man of riches and power. He was just a lone man, living a lone life and getting through the day with commissions from his customers, in the most popular and talked about VRMMMO, Teamfighers Online. What those commissions entailed, were mostly escort and gathering missions the many weaker people that played the game, but he would occasionally teach newcomers through the commissions, should it ever be requested. As for his strength in the game it was great at best, as he was a level 182 Glacial Swordmaster, which was one of the worse Tier 5 Classes in the game. He wasn't weak though, far from it, but there was one factor that dropped his power level significantly, that being his horrible reflexes. Thanks to that, he wouldn't be able to get any good work through some of major leagues and was left with minor jobs that didn't require any major reflexive capabilities.

"Well, time to get to work..." Ashton commented, as he put away the old iphone and tried to look for his VR Visor but after looking around for the next thirty minutes, he was starting to feel annoyed, as he was wondering where he had last put his visor. As he was looking around, he heard a ringing noise from his old phone and once he took it out, he couldn't help but comment:

"What the... How come this old piece of junk is fine? I could have sworn that this thing wouldn't be able turn on. This day is starting to become weird."

In the end, he decided to give up on that thought and check out the number of the caller and quickly saw the word "Wolfgang" on the screen.

"What does uncle want all of a sudden? He hasn't called ever since last year." Ashton commented with a slightly confused expression, before picking it up:

"Hey uncle. What's ya calling first thing in the morning?"

"What do you mean, first thing in the morning, it's almost 8:30 AM! You'll be late for your first day in University!" Ashton's uncle, Wolfgang yelled out angrily, as he was hearing Ashton's nonchalant voice.

"University? What the hell are you talking about uncle? Is this some prank call?" Ashton asked with a confused expression, as he had already dropped out of university a couple of years ago.

"What prank call, you dimwitted sloth! I'm already waiting outside of your apartment complex for the past thirty minutes waiting for you to come out!" Wolfgang yelled out angrily once again.

'What the hell is going on? Is he doing some kind of elaborate prank?' Ashton thought to himself, before deciding to leave his apartment and check outside. Once he did so, he saw that a silverish car was parked in the middle of the road and a man with silverish-white hair and casual clothing was waiting outside. Ashton quickly recognized the man as his uncle and was feeling even more confused than before. As he was looking at him, his uncle was staring back and he quickly went towards Ashton and twisted his ear with a furious expression, as he berated him:

"Now you decide to come out of your apartment! I agreed to let you stay alone, since I knew that you were more than capable of taking care of yourself, but look at you. Wearing only a t-shirt and and a pair of shorts, unkempt hair and I don't see your bag on hand! Can you explain yourself!?"

"Owowowow... Can you stop pulling my ear all of a sudden? What the hell is going on with you? You haven't called since last year and now you are berating for something that I stopped two years ago." Ashton asked with a pained expression, as was holding onto his ear, after it was nearly ripped off with pure physical force.

"Last year? Two years ago? *thud* Wake up already Ashton, it September 14th, 2024. Your first day in college." Wolfgang yelled out angrily, as he bashed Ashton's head with a fist. The moment Ashton he heard the date, he decided to check the date on his old phone and once he saw the same date, it was then that he quickly run off towards his apartment once again, completely ignoring Wolfgang's reaction and decided to check the mirror once again. It was the same face that we was used to seeing for his entire life, but he never noticed the lack of dark circles under his eyes, or the smooth skin his face had. Not only that, he quickly decided to check on the internet through his phone about Teamfight Online, but he was met with sites that said the same thing:

"The Greatest VRMMO that will change the world: Teamfighters Online. Releasing on September 21st, 2024."

The moment he read that, he felt that everything was crashing down, as the anomalies were starting to make sense. The lack of news on the VRMMO, despite it being constantly talked about in the future, even in news broadcasts, his old phone outside, the sudden call from his uncle, despite the lack of communication they had recently and the mentioning of his university, despite having completely forgotten about it for over two years, it all led to the one sentence that was plaguing his mind.

"I returned to the past, didn't I?" Ashton explained with complete disbelief and shock.