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When Julian opened his eyes and found himself staring at that familiar and nostalgic ceiling of his single room apartment from back when he was a single college student living in his tiny apartment, he blinked his eyes as if he expected it.

"I still can't believe it actually worked." He quietly mumbled to himself as he stumbled out of the messy bed and towards the mirror to examine his own reflection. The person who stared back at him wasn't the droopy drunk and bearded tramp he'd gotten used to seeing all these years, but instead a younger, more healthier and livelier self. The only sign that something wasn't as it seemed was the grey pupils which gleamed with experience beyond that which his otherwise late teen appearance suggested.

Julian ran back to the bed and grabbed his smartphone to check the date. It really was the day before the global release of Mandate of Heaven. A few clicks and a few frowns at his bank balance later, Julian had already ordered the VR game capsule from the online store of the game studio. Recollecting from his memories, Julian remembered a similar setting where the mysterious gaming company behind Mandate of Heaven had eschewed from a traditional marketing of the game.

When it would come out, Mandate of Heaven would go on to blow the minds of reviewers and players alike, generating an unprecedented hype and demand for the game's capsules causing a heavy temporary shortage. While Virtual Reality games had long become the dominant medium for gaming, no other game had ever reached such a level of realism and simulation capabilities.

Julian walked out of his unkempt apartment and out of the residential building to a small Turkish street food store on the opposite side of the street. Heavy nostalgia hit him as he ordered the cheap and familiar food for a scrumptious lunch while simultaneously checking through the news. Just like old times. As he was reminiscing about the past, and his new present, he resolved to right all his misgivings and use this chance again wisely.

At that moment a strong hand clapped on Julian's shoulder almost giving him a start. The moment of surprise passed in a flash as his eyes calmed down and a smile appeared on his face. Turning towards the muscular man's foolishly grinning face, Julian smirked a knowing smirk filled with a mixture of conflicted emotions.

"Why do you look so down, huh buddy?" The muscular guy yelled too loudly for a normal conversation. Julian shook his head in frustration before punching the man's stomach. "Why don't you wear your god-damned hearing aid, Sonny? You'll scream us all deaf one of these days!" He yelled back in an equally loud voice, causing the muscular man to flush red in embarrassment. The shopkeeper also knowingly shook his head at the antics of the two common fixtures in his store.

The man called Sonny fumbled through his pockets before taking out a small gadget and placing it on his ear. "This shit looks ugly, man. How will I get any girlfriend if I wear them?" He grumbled in a much more modulated voice this time. Julian smirked again and rolled his eyes. "The way you scream your throat off without it is surely very attractive to the opposite sex." His comment caused the regulars at the Turkish food store to laugh.

Sonny unceremoniously sat down opposite Julian and ordered two Dürüms or Turkish rolls while Julian continued staring down at his smartphone. "What are you doing gluing your eyes to the smartphone?" He asked in frustration when he saw this good friend of his continue to ignore him.

"I'm creating an account on the brokerage to invest in the stock market." Julian casually remarked to receive an expression of befuddlement from his friend.

"Since when did you take interest in something that frivolous?" He asked in shock.

"Since today." Julian nonchalantly replied. "By the way, are you still planning to stick with Virtua Strike Online?"

"The game is still going strong. Why would I quit it? I've got one of the most premiere guilds in the game and our workshop is doing rather well." Sonny replied.

"There's a new game coming out. Mandate of Heaven. You should keep your eye on it." Julian hesitated for a moment before carefully replying. Sonny would come to know about the game sooner or later anyway. Even if the future was laid with tragedy, Julian had an opportunity to avert that cycle by virtue of his time displacement into the past.

"I've heard some rumors in gaming circles, but the developers are unknown and the marketing has been pretty low key. You know something that's not on the grapevine?" Sonny asked in surprise.

"Just keep some liquid dough on hand. It might get difficult to purchase the capsules later."

"They use their own custom capsules?" This caused Sonny to be even more puzzled. All current VR games were developed on a common Capsule protocol system to minimize entry costs for gamers and popularize the genre from the very beginning. For a game to come out with its own custom capsule was highly unusual and a pretty risky move. It would mean either the game was so amazing that it could drive demand for capsules on its own benchmarks alone or that it's mechanism was wildly different from other VR games. Sonny might look like a person with a frivolous thought process, but his mind was sharp. Julian's words made him sit up and take notice.

Sonny gobbled his food and quickly took his leave to look into the matter. As the chief of a competitive gaming workshop, keeping a pulse on the changing landscape of the gaming scene was an important duty of his. Given the age disparity of the two, Sonny looked like he was in his thirties while Julian had just aged to nineteen, one wouldn't expect the two to be such close friends. When Julian was still in school he was a member of Sonny's gaming workshop and that was how their friendship had developed.