9 PM, on a dim alleyway between two small buildings.
A man is seen just leaving from the back of the restaurant and into the alleyway.
“Hey John! Wait up!”
“What’s up?” John said as he turned around with a little annoyance on his face as he hadn’t even walked that far from the restaurant when someone from behind him suddenly called out to him in a rushed tone.
While scratching the back of his head, his worker said in a hopeful tone, “Hey..uhh… would it be okay if we swap our day offs?’
“Why?” asked John with tiredness in his voice.
“There’s a sudden family gathering on Friday, so..yeah, that’s it man”
“It’s no problem as long as you have told the manager about this” replied John with a shrug.
The eyes of his coworker quickly brightened and said, “Really!? Cool, and don’t worry, I’ve already told the manager regarding this, and he said it's okay as long as you agree. Anyway, thank you man! I’ll see you the day after tomorrow then!”
Watching his coworker go back inside the restaurant in bright steps, John gave a shrug as he turned around and muttered, “I guess I won’t be going to work tomorrow then”
Arriving at his bus stop, John waited for his bus for a couple minutes before it arrived and boarded it.
Except for the bus driver, there were only five passengers on the bus excluding him, and they were either reading a magazine or sleeping, all of them probably on their way back home after a long day at work.
John made himself comfortable at the very back of the bus and dazedly watched the passing night scenery with an expression of melancholy on his face.
“No smartphones, no internet, no pornhub… sigh~”
Los Angeles, California, United States of America, July 4th, 1993, it was Independence Day.
It was already the fifth day of his rebirth, transmigration, time travel, soul possession or whatever words you can call it.
The first thing that happened was him groggily waking up inside a bathroom with a bloodied floor, and on the sight of it, he panicked and it made him scream like a little girl as he quickly rushed out of the bathroom naked, and in his panic, he tripped on the way out and almost face planted on the cold hard floor, but luckily managed to catch himself on the way down.
On all fours, he stayed in that position as he tried to process what was going on, until his swirling thoughts were broken by the sound of a knock by the door.
In his confusion, he casually went to answer the door, but the only thing that greeted him was a piercing scream followed by a slap to his face!
Only then did he snap out of his stupor and realized he was naked!
“Shit, I still feel embarrassed every time I think about it” John mumbled with a slightly red face when remembering that embarrassing scene.
While watching the passing scenery by the bus window, John noticed his reflection from it, forcing him to smile.
In the reflection was a young man around early to mid twenties with dirty blonde hair and a pair of blue eyes.
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In summary, he had become quite the attractive young man from a 35 year old middle aged man whose hobby was reading novels and mangas to watching K-Dramas while working at a 9-5 white collar job.
In other words, it was a boring but quite fulfilling life for a single man like him, and the only good news was that he wasn’t a virgin anymore when he “died”.
The only problem now is that he doesn’t remember how he had gotten into his current predicament, and one of the last few things he remembers was that he went to sleep late at night after binge watching his favorite anime series during the peak of lockdown because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
And then…he woke up in the middle of that bloodied bathroom, got seen naked with the prize of a humiliating slap, with the only fortunate thing being that it happened on a Motel or he wouldn’t have been able to face his neighbors if it happened within his home.
Now, he had taken over the identity of 25 year old John Smith, an orphan starting 3 years ago when he lost both his parents in an airplane crash in Tokyo, Japan during their long awaited vacation that they had planned for years, leaving him a small house that had been passed down to the family for generations, which at least solved the housing problem, and of course, some cash that could support him for at least a few years if he lives modestly.
Unfortunately, the poor young man had even accidentally killed himself from slipping on the bathroom floor and bumped his head on the toilet bowl.
Such an unfortunate but cliche thing…
“It really makes me wonder if I saved the universe in my past life. I thought this only happens in fictional stories, but I didn’t expect it would actually happen to me. Which really begs the question, was the author…who had first written this kind of genre before…actually experienced this? And out of amusement, shared it with the world?”
Ding!
Reaching his stop, John disembarked from the bus and walked cautiously on his way back to his house as he continued to contemplate on what he will do from now on, something he started doing ever since he had arrived in this year of 1993 in the City of Angels, Los Angeles.
His initial confusion when he arrived here had already passed as he had slowly resigned himself to reality during the last few days since it wouldn’t change a thing even if he racks his brain on how it happened or how to go back.
[He doesn't have a friend left! Wait a minute, it’s the Warrior’s music! It’s the Ultimate Warrior! I can’t believe it! The Warrior’s here! What is going…]
While watching a rerun of the WWF on the TV in his bedroom, John couldn’t help but be amused as this takes him back to the days when he was a kid and was a big fan of wrestling.
After watching for a bit, John turned off the TV and left to wash off his tired body before heading to bed.
With only the light coming through the window from the moon, John stared at the ceiling and muttered, “Just what am I gonna do from now on? Am I gonna be stuck being a waiter at that small restaurant? Well, I could also open a small restaurant since I’m pretty good at cooking myself, but I…I just don’t feel the drive to do it even I though I have my inheritance that i could use to build the business”
Rustle~!
Abruptly sitting up from the bed, John muttered, “I’ve been thinking about it, should I also imitate those protagonists in those stories where they plagiarize those stories before they get published?”
It only lasted for a moment before he quickly shook his head to get rid of such malicious thoughts, “Nah, I’m still not at that situation where I didn’t have a choice but to steal those works”
Creak~
Frustrated, John angrily lied down on the with a bam, “Goddammit, it has been five days and I still don’t have a good idea on what path I should take in this era!”
Just like the past few nights, John slowly fell asleep, leaving his worries for another day.
The night was peaceful with the noise of insects in the surroundings, but this peace was shattered when the clock struck at 12 AM!
A large ball of light, the size of a basketball, suddenly appeared on top of the sleeping John. It hovered there for a few seconds while pulsing softly like a heartbeat before it slowly floated down towards the peacefully sleeping John while its size slowly kept shrinking as the distance between the two grew closer until it became the size of a marble and slowly entered John’s forehead with no obstruction.
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