*****

Outside the window, the cheerful chirping of birds filled the air, accompanied by the gentle embrace of sunlight streaming into the bedroom, dispelling the previous gloom. In the background, the persistent sound of an alarm clock intermingled with the soft rustling of curtains stirred by the breeze.

Beneath the bed sheets, a hand emerged to slap the digital clock, causing it to fall with a resounding thud onto the carpeted floor, potentially damaging it. The person who had so violently assaulted the clock groaned as she sat up, her blankets slipping to her lap, revealing a young girl. The girl rubbed her eyes and pushed aside her tangled long silver hair, grumbling as she did so.

"Didn't I set this thing to, what… nine? Why does it say six-thirty then?" The girl sat at the edge of her bed, her slender yet short legs dangling down the edge of her bed before hopping down and picking up the clock. "Oh, I know… this was ma's doing, wasn't it…"

Grumbling even more, the girl returned the clock to its original spot and headed for the bathroom in her room.

As she tiptoed in front of the mirror, the young girl wondered if she was still asleep and dreaming. After all, her hair wasn't silver but cyan, and her eye color wasn't cyan but silver.

Pinching her cheeks, the girl groaned in pain.

"This isn't a dream. Did the two prank me again? But surely I would wake up if someone tried to dye my hair!? And why is it longer?!" Panicking a little, the girl frantically rinsed her hair with the showerhead, attempting to remove whatever had caused her hair to change.

Forgetting that her eyes also changed colors.

Realizing her efforts were in vain, the girl hurried out of her room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen, where she knew she would find her mother.

"Ma!" The girl shouted, almost tripping as she entered the kitchen, slightly panting.

"Annd, you're up! Now, don't be so loud and angry. I only adjusted your alarm," her mother said, with her back to the panicking girl as she cooked at the stove behind the counter.

"NO! That's not the problem! Look!" The girl shouted, frantically waving her wet hair as she jumped around.

"What is it that got you worked up so early in… the…" Her mother's words came to a slow halt as she took in her daughter's appearance, then frowned disapprovingly. "Milya Ferdrich, I don't ever remember allowing you to dye your hair. You're even wearing extensions? I have to say though, it's really well done. Did you stop liking your ma's hair color to do that?"

"I didn't! I'm not wearing anything, I woke up like this! It's not coming off!" The girl slammed her hands on the counter.

Frowning, the mother lowered the heat on the stove, covered the pot, and turned around to approach her daughter once more.

She took the girl's hair into her hand, noting how soft it was, and examined it closely. The strands felt natural and smooth, and the gloss didn't resemble any dyed hair she knew of. She furrowed her brow as she noticed another issue and placed her hand on the girl's right cheek.

"Wait, are you wearing contacts?" the mother asked, making the girl gasp in surprise.

"I'm not! I forgot! My eyes changed colors too! As if my hair and eyes swapped colors!" The girl frantically explained.

"What…" The mother uttered in disbelief. "Did… Did you take some kind of drug before you slept?"

"N-not that I know of…" The girl sighed. "What do we do with this, ma?"

The mother rested a hand on her cheek, observing the girl with a frown.

"Well, you're not hurting anywhere, are you?" She finally asked after a moment of thought.

"No…" the girl replied, running her fingers through her hair.

The mother nodded and returned to the stove, stirring the contents of the pot.

"Well, we can think about it once something else happens. But just to be sure and safe, I will call the clinic for an appointment." She turned off the heat, removed her apron, and carried the pot with gloved hands to the counter. "Now dear, you can either take a seat on the table while I finish this up or go up there and wake up your siblings."

"Okay…" the girl mumbled, casting a worried look at her hair.

"Pa won't be able to join us, he already left earlier because of an emergency in the office." the mother added as she arranged plates on the table.

"Got it." the girl said and left the kitchen, heading upstairs.

Not a minute later, the mother heard loud footsteps from above, sounding like someone was running, and a moment later, she found out why.

"MAAAA!" a high-pitched, young voice echoed throughout the house, waking the other sleeping occupants. "Mimi's wearing cosmetics! Why did you allow her when you wouldn't let meee!"

Upon hearing her youngest daughter's envious words, the mother could only sigh in exasperation. Deciding to address it later when everyone was seated at the table, she quietly continued preparing for the meal.

After completing her task, a young girl with light blue hair rushed down the stairs and entered the kitchen. Following her was a tall teenage boy with dark blue hair, who gently smiled at the younger girl's antics. Behind them came another young girl with light blue hair, and finally, Milya, who appeared exasperated as she took a seat at the table.

"Ma!" the younger girl called out.

"Yes, dear Lily?" the mother replied with a sigh and a gentle smile.

"Mimi's wearing cosmetics! Why aren't you angry at her!? You said we can only do that when we're older!"

Sighing once more, the mother knelt down to the girl's level, gently combing her hair with her fingers. "Calm down dear. I'll let you do it too when you become fourteen like your sister. Right now you're just ten so wait for now, okay?"

"Promise?" the girl pouted, still not entirely convinced.

Chuckling at the girl's skepticism, the mother nodded. "Of course, dear."

"Yay!" the girl happily skipped to a chair at the table with a little assistance from their eldest brother.

"Good for you, Lily," he said before settling into his chair.

"Un!" the girl eagerly agreed.

"Come on, Mary, don't doze off now," Milya remarked, slightly shaking the shoulders of her younger sister seated beside her.

"But Mimi… it's still too early…" Mary mumbled, nodding off in between her words.

"I know, trust me, I'd rather be sleeping too," Milya chuckled as she served herself some food. "But you'll have to suffer with me now because ma decided to change my alarm for some reason she still has not told me."

"Oh my, I haven't told you yet?" her mother commented with a chuckle. "It was a prank, I must have forgotten."

"Of course it was…" Milya sighed in exasperation.

With that last comment, the family commenced their meal. They bantered occasionally before finishing up. The mother cleared the dishes while the children went their separate ways, engaging in various activities and playing with their gadgets. The brother headed upstairs, expressing his desire to read some books. Lily followed him, wanting to use his computer. Mary and Milya settled in the living room, engrossed in their phones.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The mother joined them after finishing the dishes, participating in their activities.

"Ah. Mimi, I just remembered, have you heard of that VR game?" Mary asked her sister, leaning in closer.

"Which one? There's so many coming out every month, I think I lost track." Milya replied.

"Reality Collision Online. Another fantasy RPG with magic and stuff. It was released I think a year ago. It's quite popular with a constant online player count of 100,000. Can't relate though, I prefer fps games. It suddenly gained traction after they released the trailer for the game's massive expansion, and now everyone's jumping on the gun, doubling that number." Mary explained. "They're doubling the map in just a single update, can you believe that? That might triple the game's storage requirement with all the new content, who knows."

"I see. I'll probably check it out… akh…" Milya winced as her head was suddenly seized by a sharp pain. She held her forehead in her hands, trying to regain her composure. As her vision started to blur, she slumped to the side, resting on her mother's lap.

"Milya? What's the problem, what are you feeling?" the mother inquired with furrowed brows, clutching her daughter's shoulders.

Noticing Milya's paling complexion, she gently laid her down on the sofa.

"What's going on, dear? Come on, tell me if something's hurting." the mother urged.

"M-milya? What's wrong with you all of the sudden?" Mary asked with concern.

Milya looked at her mother and sister through her fading vision before everything went dark, and she lost consciousness. She could hear her mother's frantic calls before it all turned into a distant hum and faded as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Milya slowly awakened, realizing she was alone in her room. She sat up with caution, her mind still reeling from the earlier onslaught of pain. Then, in a sudden rush, memories flooded into her consciousness. Her recollections of growing up in the slums, of resorting to theft to support her family, her mother's involvement in prostitution, her father in a hospital gown, the bloodied shirts worn by her older brother, and the sorrowful faces and sunken cheeks of her younger sisters. All of it surged inside, along with the memories of a game called Reality Collision Online.

And then her own death.

Milya gasped for air, clutching her neck as she hyperventilated while the memories relentlessly invaded her mind, forcing their way into her head. Her forehead as well as her chest and back were covered in cold sweat, damping her clothes as it clung to her skin

"What…" Milya grumbled, her hands clutching her hair in anguish, her head pounding as even more agonizing memories flooded into her mind, recollections of her family's struggles in poverty.

"I… died?" She asked herself as the torrent of memories gradually slowed and then came to a halt.

"RCO? W-what are these… 'Collide'? What's that? S-skill?" she stammered wildly, utterly bewildered, panting heavily as she slowly processed the new memories filling her mind.

And with that last stammering, Milya fell face-first onto the carpeted floor, unconscious.

At that exact moment, her mother coincidentally chose to enter the room, finding her lying on the floor covered in sweat. "Oh my goodness, Milya!? My dear, why are you on the floor!? Aleb, get here and help me get her back on the bed, my goodness!"

Aleb, Milya's older brother, hurriedly entered the room. Once he saw the situation, he quickly and carefully carried her sister before he gently laid her on the bed.

"What happened here, ma?" He softly questioned her mother after making sure that Milya was comfortable under the blanket.

"I don't know, I just found her lying on the floor. Maybe she woke up and then tried to stand only to pass out again before she could?" The mother deduced.

"That must be it, maybe she's confused…" Aleb gently patted his sister's head, tucking a small collection of her hair behind her ear.

In her mind, the girl's new memories settled into her mind, she vividly dreamed of it as if she was living it once more. The memories, the pain, the suffering, the hopelessness. It all swirled within her mind as it settled into the whirlpool of memories that she was, flowing ahead of her current memories and settling down gently, no longer foreign.

The girl and her future self came to terms with each other, no longer conflicting within her mind as the two merged together.

The girl's eyes twitched before they slowly opened, her memories flashing before her eyes in an instant, before she closed her eyes again, taking a bit to readjust to the now turned-on lights.

"That's a ceiling I used to miss… Did I really return..?" The girl mumbled inaudibly. "Ma? I-is that you?"

"It's me, dear. Tell ma, what's the problem, is there anywhere hurti-" The mother leaned down to her girl before she was abruptly cut off by her daughter hugging her tightly.

"Nhn…" The girl shook her head, denying it."It's just… let's stay like this for a little, okay?"

"Of course, dear, ma will always be here until you calm down." The mother softly said, kissing her girl's forehead as she gently patted the back of her head.

The girl rubbed her eyes as she swept away her tears with her fingers. "Ma… something happened, can we talk?"

"Got it, dear. Aleb, can you leave the room for now?" The mother nodded, turning to her son as he nodded.

"Wait, no. Bro can listen too, it's fine! It's better if he knows too," the girl hurriedly objected, shaking her hands frantically.

"Got it, I'll be sure to listen," he nodded before sitting on the chair next to the bed, looking at her sister attentively.

The girl looked at her mother and brother, her lips unable to hold back from curving upwards. With one last look at the two, the girl took a deep breath before she spoke, determination clear from deep within her eyes. Seeing this look, the two couldn't help but tense up and they made sure to take whatever she was about to say seriously.

"Ma, bro, I think I just got memories of the future." She said with determination. "It's okay if you don't believe me, but I want you to please trust what I might and will do in the near future."

The two looked at the girl, bewildered, not just by the words she said, but the sudden leap in maturity of the tone she spoke in. The two looked at each other, learning that the other was just as surprised. The mother sighed before she looked back at her daughter, still with that determined look, though she was definitely tense from nervousness.

"How far?" She finally asked, surprising the girl with the unexpected question. "Is it in months, years?"

"Wha…" The girl jumped onto her knees. "Are you not going to doubt me? Ma? Aleb?"

"Normally, we would. Even now I think at the back of my head that whatever you said was because of confusion. After all, you just woke up from passing out twice." The mother took hold of the girl's hands, caressing them gently as she continued. "But I don't want to just dismiss what you just said, especially when you said it with such seriousness. That's why, how far do your memories go?"

Milya brightened up at her mother's words, glad that her mother was willing to trust her, despite the absurdity of her words. "Seven years, ma. In those seven years, a lot happened and we became poor and stuck in the district fourth."

The look on her mother's face became serious in an instant. "That will have to be discussed further. Your pa and I just used up a huge chunk of our savings with your grandma's incident, we're still in the red and we can't afford another.

For now, take a rest. We'll further talk about this later when pa's home."

"Okay," Milya nodded. "I'd rather that my memories are wrong, but I learned that hoping for the better outcome will just hurt me more when the worse happens."

"Dear…" The mother leaned down and hugged her daughter one more time.

"I don't know what the future you went through and experienced just yet, but know that we're here, okay?" The mother broke the hug before leaving the room. "Rest well, okay? We'll talk when you're ready."

"Take care," Aleb said before joining his mother, his voice gentle and kind. "And thank you for trusting us."

'He's the same as always. So silent and soft.' Milya thought with a chuckle. 'Kind of hard to believe he's the same person who joined a gang and killed people for money and our protection…'

'In our family, it's him that had to sacrifice the most, wasn't he? Don't worry, bro. I'll make sure that you don't go down that path. That you don't have to.' Milya thought, pumping herself with even more determination. She laid down on her back and pulled up the blanket before she closed her eyes, resting herself to further process the memories within her mind.

It might have settled down and been absorbed by herself, but she still hasn't come to terms with the current situation.

'I'm really alive… and I went back in time… I have a chance to change the future!'

'Pa won't have to suffer for us, ma won't have to abandon her dignity for money, bro won't have to suffer through nightmares every night. I'll make sure of it!"

A few hours passed, and Milya woke up feeling refreshed. Looking to the side, she found her digital clock saying 8:39 pm.

"Pa should be home by now…"

Milya hopped out of bed, went inside her bathroom, and groomed herself lightly. Enough that she didn't look like someone who just woke up. Checking herself once more in the mirror, Milya nodded in satisfaction before stepping out of the room. Downstairs, she found her mother and father at the dinner table, talking about something. Probably what she talked about, or probably not.

"Pa!" She immediately ran towards him and hugged his head, sending the man into quite the confusion.

"It's good to see you too, Milya. But please let go of my head, I have a migraine…" The man said with a chuckle, patting Milya's forearm.

"Hm? Why? Did mom tell you already?" Milya asked with a frown before smiling. "Wouldn't be surprised if she did though."

"Ah there's that too… but no, not that. You see, Milya, Pa just got fired. Haha! Oh but don't worry! We're still financially good for the next six months! I just gotta find another job in that timespan!" The man said, scratching the back of his head as he laughed out loud cheerfully.

"That's not funny, Pa…" Aleb said from the sideline, having just arrived.

'Oh no… he wouldn't make it…' Milya felt a sense of dread after hearing her father's words, remembering how her father couldn't find a job due to the sudden change in the economy due to the players selling away all kinds of things for a quick buck. And her father is an accountant. Normally, such a job should have landed him a good position with the sudden boom, but he was simply unfortunate enough to have the good jobs that didn't exploit their employees stolen from him. Those he landed, he was fired when they found a recruit with a better history. It was just bad luck.

He did try other jobs, but those could only do so much to feed their family of six. Soon they had to sell their properties until what was left was their house, which they had to sell too. It became eight when her grandparents could no longer support themselves and had to be taken care of. Soon, they died due to a lack of medicine.

Her father getting fired is the first sign of their stroke of bad luck. And at that time, the price of Reality Fusion headsets skyrocketed, and the game too. They just couldn't afford it.

"Bro! When is Reality Colission's expansion scheduled!?"

Aleb checked his phone, typing for a moment before replying. "In two months, it says. Does that have to do with your future memories?"

'There's only two months!? No way I can catch up with only that much time!'

*****