(1) A very sucky day

You know, sometimes life is fair, sometimes things go how you plan, and you think you are on top of the world. In these situations, you start to believe that nothing will change, everything will stay just how it is, and you'll ride this wave until you are old and can't ride it anymore.

But sometimes, you think the world is ending, and things don't go how you wished they would or how you planned.

I arch my neck to look up at the sky. The journey here has been an up-and-down rollercoaster of epic proportions. What am I looking at, you ask? Well. A giant holographic screen in the sky, of course!

"WELCOME TO THE NEW DIMENSIONS DUELING ACADEMY. I hope you all are excited about starting this year's class, but first introductions are in order."

I can't help but comment. "Well, this is different."

Now, you might think this journey has been long, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the journey until now has only taken two days!

So let's rewind a bit.

Two days earlier.

I walk out of the building where I used to work, "used to" being the core takeaway. You see, when your boss comes up to you saying they just greenlit a purchase of new updated equipment, you'd think that be a reason to celebrate. But when you are the one expected to set it all up; you've seen it and advised against following the sales team's so-called "advice," you get nervous, REALLY NERVOUS.

'The stuff we have depended on is twenty years old. This might be a problem.' That is what I thought when I heard this.

Surprise, I was right. After an entire weekend plus two more work days of problem-solving, I had successfully... Reinstalled the old equipement. As soon as this was discovered, I was called into the CTO's office.

What happened there is a story all on its own, but it ended like this. "IT WAS YOU WHO WAS ALWAYS BLAMING THE OUTDATED EQUIPMENT FOR DELAYS, AND THEN SIR WILLSON DECIDED IT WAS TIME FOR AN UPGRADE. YOU TRY TO BLAME HIM. YOU'RE FIRED!" Was the CTO's take on the situation.

'I should've quit as soon as I knew what he was buying... Why did I spend four days of hell trying to make it work?!' Was the thought going through my head on the car ride back home. I lived in a small apartment and didn't need anything else. I had my computer, a bed, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Some would call it minimalism. I call it "I don't spend enough time out of work"-ism. My parents probably wouldn't have approved of me living like this, but that didn't matter; they were gone. Trucks, man, they are scary...

'Well, at least I'm in a situation where I can take a vacation before job hunting' With that thought, I jumped in bed, undressing be dammed. I was exhausted.

Next morning.

"BEEP, BEEP, WAKE UP FUCKER! BEEP, BEEP"

"GODDAMIT!" I yell as I try to grab my phone in the dark and turn its alarm off. I had forgotten to turn the alarm off yesterday; I was still wearing my work clothes.

It's 6:00 AM, and after sleeping for almost fifteen hours, I'm not feeling particularly sleepy. I get out of bed, and after taking a shower and putting on more comfortable clothes, I boot up my PC and look at the news. Nothing is happening that interests me, I mean, except at least two "Once-in-a-lifetime" events. Remember when those still happened once in a lifetime? Because in my thirty years, I've experienced at least twenty of them. After closing the news site, I open up Yu-Gi-Oh! Master duel.

What? Who do you think plays YGO these days? Because thirty-year-old men would be my first option. I picked it up after a friend who's still in Uni recommended it. That was when pendulums came out; I started playing on Dev Pro, then watched the animes for some laughs.

At about 7:30 AM, I checked my E-Mail.

[Has life got you down? Don't know what you want to do? TRY THE NEW DIMENSION DUELING ACADEMY]

'Woah, Konami, that's an aggressive way to market your product.'

I check the E-Mail contents, and it looks like a marketing E-Mail for a new game? It doesn't specify, but there's a "Register" link. I click it, and it brings me to a webpage asking for my E-Mail address, so I put in mine, and after submitting it, I receive a "We'll be in touch" message. I don't think much of this except maybe, 'How will they fuck it up this time?' and go back to Master Duel.

Later that night

I thought I had woken up, but I'm standing up, and this isn't my room. So maybe, a lucid dream? There's a text box like in a game in front of me. It says: "Want to try something new?"

'Well, I never had a lucid dream before. Maybe the stress caught up to me.'

Not seeing a button prompt anywhere, I answer out loud. "Sure"

Then a spectral voice rings out all around the room. "Well, then your wish is my command." The black void I was in is then replaced with white space, and a woman with long wavy blonde hair dressed in what I can best describe as a "Greek dress" stands in front of me. Her most noticeable feature is her eyes. They are blue, but her pupils are stars-shaped and colored gold.

I ask, confused. "Who are you?"

She gives me a bright smile and goes. "HIiiiii, I'm Nes! Goddess of Reincarnation!"

'Reincarnation? WHAT?!?!?!'

"WAIT! I'M DEAD?!?!?!" I yell at the goddess, not realizing the tone of my voice.

She recoils a bit, then smiles again. "Yup! As of five seconds ago, actually!"

I start "breathing" heavily, not that I could do that, I'm dead, but I try anyway. Then after a minute, I manage to speak again. "Can... Can you give me a few minutes?"

"Don't worry, take your time. I've waited for someone for a lot longer than that."

I then sit down and try to calm myself.