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You have opened "an Angel's Parting gift."
You have obtained [ An Extra Life ]
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"Extra life?" but David had no time to think. He quickly activated the item as his vision suddenly went dark.
"Ugh. Where the hell am I now? " David pressed his head, which was aching like crazy. He hadn't seen such an item ever. He had no idea what happened after activating it or if he had escaped from that area.
"Wake up, loser!" a voice reached David's ears as he looked up to see a punch coming his way. He quickly rolled to his side, narrowly dodging the attack.
"What the hell is your problem?" he shouted, looking towards the direction of the punch, noticing that it was a tall and fat guy.
"Roy? Why the hell are you here?"
"and what the hell happened to my voice? Where is my coarse and deep voice?"
"You dare to call me by my name? "Roy lunged towards David, ready to land another punch at him.
David swiftly dodged the attack before landing a punch on Roy's neck, instantly knocking him down.
"Why are you talking like we are in University, man! Wait-" he checked himself to realise that his well-built and manly body was nowhere to be seen. Instead, it was replaced by a weak and scrawny one that might break at any moment.
"Did the item send me back to the past? But Why?"
"But if this really is the past, then that means!" a quick realisation hit David, as he quickly rushed towards his home, leaving the unconscious body of Roy in the alleyway.
"Mom, I am Home!" he shouted, hoping this was all reality and not a dream. A sweet voice reached his ears, melting away all his worries. David's mother was lying on a bed with a machine attached to her heart.
"How was your day, dear?" she asked, smiling.
"Y-you're really okay!" David rushed towards his mom and hugged her tightly. "I am glad you are alright!"
"What happened, Dave? Did you have a bad dream?" she asked as she gently patted David's back.
===
"Well, that was embarrassing.", David thought while lying on the bed in his room.
"I am a forty-year-old man, the same age as my mother. But I am glad she is alive, and I even know how to treat her condition. I won't be late this time."
"I really am back in the past", he muttered as he looked at his smartphone.
"4th Dec 2023, Orion will release tomorrow."
"The game was free to play, as the point was to make most of humanity play it. But the VR headset to handle it was costly."
"Thankfully, I have a rich best friend, who I also need to save this time." David grinned; he dialled the contact under the name "Tom".
===
"You want to play a game with me? This can't be true, you are not David, who are you!" a tall and handsome man sat beside David, who was eating stir-fried noodles.
"You are da wun who told me that we should play Orion together.", David muttered with his mouth filled with noodles.
"Chew properly, then we can talk", Tom said, surprised to see David finish bowls of noodles like it was nothing.
David ate five more bowls before he felt that he was finally finished.
"Phew, now I feel better. It's been some time since I have had a fresh meal", he thought.
"We should play Orion together!" he said, looking at Tom, his best friend.
Tom was the famous and rich kid of his university. He wasn't good at studies but was handsome and good at sports, making him popular amongst all the university girls.
"It's kind of ironic that he ended up being the best friend of a weak nerd like me", David thought. They had met when David was paired up with Tom for a project. It was the first time David had visited Tom's home, and he realised that despite being popular, Tom didn't have a single person he could call a friend. Over time, the two started spending more and more time together, becoming best friends.
"But you told me you don't have time for silly games. What brought the change?" Tom asked.
"Well, I thought that maybe I need a change of pace!" David replied.
"Did Alice reject you or something?" Tom smirked as he nudged David to spill the beans.
"Alice, that bitch", David muttered, as memories of her past actions ran across his mind. "She is why Jason was able to infiltrate our territory and take away everything!" he thought, clenching his fists.
"So she did, huh? It is okay. Your bro will help you find a better girl", Tom replied, puffing up his chest.
"Is it possible that you don't want to game with me, scared that I might beat you in the only thing you're better than me?" this time, David smirked.
"Only one thing? What about football, swimming..." Tom started to recite everything he was better at one by one.
"Okay, okay, Stop! "David giggled. He missed this banter with Tom and wanted to continue doing so. Still, he knew that he needed to enter Orion as soon as possible.
"Well, if you have decided, we should play Orion together!" Tom said as he held David by the hand, quickly taking him in his car to his mansion.
They entered the mansion only to be greeted by a row of maids and servants.
"This never gets old", David said, smiling.
They quickly went to the mansion's basement, where two giant machines were covered by a plastic sheet.
"I knew you would come around someday, But I didn't know it would be this soon!" Tom smiled as he pulled the sheet off the machines, revealing two of the latest state-of-the-art VR machines.
"How do you have these? They aren't even available to the public yet", David asked, looking at machines. These machines would last us till the 'Merging'", he thought.
"Uhm, maybe you forgot. My dad owns the company that makes these machines." Tom smiled.