Chapter 03: The Return Home

Pushing the door open, that sense of familiarity and comforting scent that Jack could feel coming from the other side of the door was his front hallway back in his apartment. As he entered through the door frame, the door slammed shut behind him as if the wind took hold of it and threw it violently. Turning round to look at the door quickly, he felt something heavy in his left hand, pulling him down. Glancing down he saw his old suitcase that he once used to move into his university dorm, he also noticed that he was wearing a yellow puffer jacket that he grew out of, due to his weight gain over the years.

A wave of shock hit him out of nowhere. Jack let go of his suitcase and rushed to the full-body mirror in the corner of the front room, his heart pounding with shock at what could be. Much to his amazement, what he thought was happening, was a fact. Instead of waking up where he died on the stairs, the system instead, gave him a second chance at life starting from 6 years ago, back when he was 20.

Unable to mentally process this miracle that had happened to him, he touched his face and his body with his hands to confirm that it's not a dream. In fact, it was all true, he was transported back in time to his university days, where he was still slender, freshly shaven, and at this point in time, a person who has yet to lose to themself.

All of a sudden, his pocket starts to vibrate, reaching his hand inside he finds his phone and notices the caller ID being one of his biggest regrets since his death. It was a call from his mother. Anyone would feel a sense of emotion from receiving a call from their mother, who had devoted their everything to their child, after not seeing them for a long time. However, for Jack it was different, for 6 years he had hardly spoken to or seen his mum due to his self-isolated lifestyle, and even caused his mum heartbreak, by how far he had fallen.

Seeing her name on the phone, made all these feelings hit at once, the regret, the self-hatred, and they want to make things right. Slowly sliding his thumb across the phone to accept the call, Jack hesitantly raised the phone to his ear, in anticipation to hear his mother's voice.

"Hello? Jack? Can you hear me?"

Jack couldn't hold back his tears, out of all the emotions that were building up in anticipation, the one that hit him most at the sound of her voice was guilt. The guilt and shame of what he did for those 6 years, breaking his family and destroying a part of his own mother. Wiping away his tears and rubbing his nose on his forearm, he tried to act as if everything was 100% okay and normal.

"Yeah, I can hear you mum, what's up, what'd you need?"

"Okay good, what took you so long to answer? Oh well don't worry, you can tell me later. Look I just got your text that you've given up your deposit and quit the dorms at uni, what's that all about? I also got a text from your counsellor from uni that you're thinking of dropping out! I want you to put your stuff away if you're home and get ready for me to get back from the shop. We'll have a proper talk about this later. Oh! And don't worry about Rachel, she'll be over at her friend's tonight, so she won't be in the way."

Of all the days to return back, it was the day that Jack said enough was enough and quit university for good. It was on this day in 2015 when Jack destroyed his future, lost his temper with his mum, breaking the laptop she worked tirelessly for him to have, in a fit of rage, and ultimately the day the cracks in their parent-child bond started to fully appear.

Jack agreed with a very brief response to his mother's prompt and hung up. He took off his jacket, threw it on top of his suitcase in the corner and collapsed onto the sofa. With his arms stretched over either side on the head of the sofa, he began to think very carefully about what's about to happen. Jack knew this was the first test since his return, to make things right. This wasn't only about fixing his past mistakes and looking after the family who he shunned, this was also about his personal future and how he was going to make the most of his second chance at life, that the system granted him.

Realizing this, Jack followed the last instructions that the system gave him and double-tapped the lower part of the back of his head. After doing so, the System HUD immediately popped up in a small window form in front of him. It displayed his level, which was Level 1, his skill list, which currently consisted of 0, and lastly an inbox option on the bottom right with a red '1' highlight above it.

"This is probably one of those 'welcome to our game, thanks for playing, here's the lore' type of inbox messages, right?"

Clicking the inbox notification, his initial guess was half right. The mail was another message from the system, confirming his welcome and integration to the system, with an added P.S at the end of it, which wasn't mentioned before when faced with the automated voice introduction that the system gave. This added note at the end was an option for the system to either note the user of new skills gained via the inbox or if the user wanted to have immediate HUD notifications as to when these skills were gained. Choosing the logical and easier option of the two, Jack chose the Immediate HUD Notifications. His thought process, was along the lines of if simplicity is key, why make things harder than they need to be?

Making his selection, he closed the system, slapped his hands down on his knees and began to do what his mother asked of him. He took his suitcase and jacket to his bedroom and began to unpack, neatly placing clean clothes in the cupboards, dirty clothes in the wash basket, and his possessions such as his laptop neatly and carefully on the desk. Once involved in a task, unless disturbed by others, Jack tends to lose himself in the task, which caused him to then go into the front room and begin to tidy up things that were out of place and neatly arrange objects, like the TV remote.

After completing this task, Jack released a deep breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his wrist. Suddenly a high pitched beep alert sound came from nowhere and a drop-down notification appeared in front of him on the HUD. He had managed to unlock a new skill, 'New Skill Acquired'. Jack tapped the drop-down alert and immediately rolled his eyes. The Skill was labelled 'Maid Manor - Level 1 (Maid in Training)'.

"You've gotta be having me on… THE FIRST SKILL I UNLOCK IS A DAMN MAID SKILL!"

Once again looking at the HUD menu after shaking his head in disbelief, he noticed the origin of the skill. It was 'Maid Manor' and seeing this, his heart immediately sunk. This game that he had managed to buy on a sale years ago for only £2 was in fact one of those lewd themed games, where an individual inherits a mansion filled with beautiful women, who are all his loyal maids. As anyone can imagine, the plot for this game's story is very obvious as to which direction it goes.

Knowing this, his thought process was heading towards the direction of "please don't make me efficient in the servitude of a certain kind" and "please, please, please don't make it compulsory to wear a maid outfit to use any skills". He hurriedly began to click onto the skills menu, then the 'Maid Manor' skillset specifically. Reading the skills description very, very carefully, a sigh so strong you'd have thought wind blew in through the window, was let out of Jack. The skillset from 'Maid Manor' was more focused on the daytime activities and workload of the maids, rather than the after dark skillset.

Level 1 (Maid in Training), gave the user the basic sense of duty that a maid would have and enabled the user to have a 10% increase in energy when conducting acts of cleaning and organization. As simple as this skill is, with it in his skills library, if Jack wanted to leave university for certain after talking it out with his mother, he would be able to earn more money than his transcription job working as a cleaner and still would be able to conserve his energy by using this skill.

Tapping the back of his head to deactivate the HUD, he began to check his phone for the time as it had been a while since his mum had phoned him. Almost like clockwork, the second he saw the time, the key's began to rattle in the keyhole of the front door. As the door swung open, Jack saw his mum, a little 5ft 4 woman in her mid-40's struggling her way through the door with 3 shopping bags on either arm. Two of the bags were held by her forearms on either side, with the remainder one bag in each hand.

"Jack, come get some of these bags and take them to the kitchen please."

Seeing her face, he smiled widely and became slightly teary-eyed. He sped up to her and hugged her tightly, wrapping his arms tightly around her neck, as he towered over her at 6ft 1.

"Yes, I love you too, now take these bags or my arms are going to fall off."

He began to chuckle at her remark, took hold of four of the six bags and carried them into the front room. With his mother placing the two remaining bags on the floor next to the four that he placed, they began to unpack, placing things in the correct cupboards, along with putting the remaining things in the freezer and fridge. Finishing up the task with both of them making a cup of tea, one with two sugars and milk for Jack, the other with no sugars and no milk for his mum. They headed to the front room and sat in chairs that sat opposite each other, with the coffee table between them. The moment of happiness from a moment ago, began to fade as a serious aura descended into the room. This was about the be the moment where Jack would properly fix his past mistakes and embrace this second chance.