Afternoon Shift

"Manager Hans, good afternoon."

Ethan greet the man in front of him who was currently busy ordering the uniformed personnel. They were restaurant employees.

"Why, it's you, boy. Good thing you came, or I'd be worried about what happened to you."

Turning around to face the young Ethan, the manager said with a smile.

Hans was slightly taller and had a larger stature than Ethan. He was also nearly completely bald.

Ethan remembered this person telling him he was like that even though he was still in his early thirties because it was in their family.

'Well, it suits him anyway.'

Ethan thought as he made a respectful bow.

"Manager Hans, I'm sorry for missing the morning shift since I had a headache and needed to take a short rest; I'll attend my remaining shift now," reasoned Ethan, repeating the phrase he already practiced in advance.

"Oh? Who are you?"

But his manager instead asked in a somewhat cold tone.

"Huh...?"

Ethan immediately raised his head. His face was plastered with bewilderment.

What happened?

He tried to know what was going on but soon heard a giggle from the man in his front.

"Haha! I like your expression! I've never seen it from you before."

Manager Hans heartily laughs. The other employees were also seen smiling.

He was the youngest of all the employees in the restaurant. Because of that, he was always treated as if he were a little brother by these people.

'What? They were the same people I know, right? Did someone mess up my time travel and send me to a parallel world? That moron!'

Ethan was unsure of what was happening, so he softly asked his manager.

"I'm sorry, Ethan. Just that I thought your tone was a little too formal, and I was surprised that you didn't stutter at all." Manager Hans said with excitement and asked, "Did something happen to you?"

'Stuttered? Ah! Now that he brought it up, I remember how easy it is for me to get tense when I'm talking to other people. Ack, I was such a loser in the past.'

Ethan cringed for a moment before answering.

"...It's nothing, Manager Hans. I just read a series of tips on how to speak with more confidence yesterday. Yeah, that's it. So I'm going to try them out starting today."

Ethan stated confidently. Put some dignity into it if you want it to be credible, as the quote suggests.

"Oh! Is that so? Well, then I'm glad; keep up the good work!"

Hans said with a beaming smile but it quickly change into stern as he continues.

"However, because you're late today, I'll cut your pay in half, you got it?"

"Yes, of course, Manager Hans," Ethan immediately agreed as he throw a bow again.

"Then I'll be going to change now, excuse me."

Ethan said before going where the changing room is.

After a while, he was done changing to his uniform. It was just a simple combination of gray color and small embroidery in the chest area.

"Man, I missed this face."

Ethan said while looking at the mirror. His previous image differed slightly from the current one.

His face was still clean, he didn't have a short beard, and he appeared gentler, as opposed to the fierce and sometimes stiff countenance of a guild leader.

The only thing that remained constant was his appeal...so as he wanted to say.

As the clock struck three o'clock in the afternoon, Ethan stopped admiring his younger self and went outside to begin his work.

His task was fairly simple, just delivering the orders to the customers and hearing their inquiries. A server, waiter, assister... or whatever one would call it; that was his job.

The wage is pretty decent however because 6 hours of work pay 450 Credits.

That amount was already enough for an individual to buy two days' worth of food.

However, since he has tuition to save for the next semester in college, rent fee for his apartment, plus he took an engineering course where there are a lot of miscellaneous things to buy, his everyday wage would surely not be enough.

But things are different from now on. He stopped going to school and according to the date, it was still in the middle of March. That means the game UTOPIA was still in the beta testing phase.

He saw an announcement through skimming the web this lunch.

A lot of threads were happening related to the upcoming release of the most anticipated virtual reality game, UTOPIA.

To play UTOPIA, a person would need to buy among the two things that ERIXIS, the company behind the game approved; a VR headgear and a VR cabin.

Following extensive testing, the company of ERIXIS has finally released the latest VR headgear with 90 percent neural connectivity.

Within the game, this headgear can already assess the user's five senses. But some things could be tweaked even more, so the VR cabin, a more complicated piece of gear, was made.

It has 95 percent neural connectivity, which gives the user a slightly better sense of taste, a more realistic sense of touch, and a better connection between their normal thought process and their character's famously fast thinking speed due to a stat increase.

However, the VR cabin at the same time costs more. It was more expensive by 50% than the VR headgear.

Ethan, after recalling these things can only heave a sigh. He was not planning on going back to school anymore.

'Did someone say school? Only idiots went to school.'

He was just kidding.

Ethan still believes that pursuing a profession is the best option for a person because it can provide a decent job after graduating. But he had already decided that he would devote his time to gaming from now on.

'Seriously, I want to enjoy the game again.'

As to what reason he was overjoyed by coming back to the past? Obviously, because he can play a different class this time!

The only problem is he can't buy a gaming cabin.

'I'm so poor!'

Just several hours ago, he was a man showered in fame, power, and money.

He had billions of credits in his bank account. He can buy anything he wants but right now, he was just a poor and nameless guy.

The VR headset is priced at exactly 19,999 credits.

Given his daily wage of 900 Credits, if he works from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., he needs to work for at least a month to be able to purchase VR headgear.

It was too expensive for him at the moment. Because of this, Ethan heaved a sigh again.

'Haaa, I might as well sell my body. Sure I could buy a cabin without delay.'

He suddenly thought and was not scared for even a second. What a courageous man.

"Hey, waiter! Didn't you hear what she was saying? She did say combination one. You might as well clean that ear of yours tsk,"

A teenage girl across the table suddenly roared at him. She was dressed in a neat but eye-catching university uniform.

Pochi.

A small vein protruded on Ethan's head.

'This girl...'

Ethan tried as hard as he could to force a business smile and address the haughty person.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. Your companion's voice was so weak that I couldn't hear it clearly," he said as gently as he can, taking a second to write the order before asking again.

"Combination one is it. Would you like something to drink, ma'am?"

"Uhh...um...er yes. I'd like to order mint lemonade please."

The other girl spoke in a somewhat nervous manner. Her voice was so thin that even Ethan must use his ultra-focus to hear the words.

At a closer look, she and the girl who yelled a moment ago have the same face and the only difference was their hair and expressions.

This girl's face was gentle and modest while the other person was more akin to a ferocious beast.

Ethan, however, was not surprised about the opposites of these twins because he already knows them.

In fact, these two were previously part of his guild, and exactly they are his executives.

The timid type Shaina, and the girl who had mood swings every day, Karina.

They were from a wealthy family and have their university near the restaurant he was working. It was the same university he previously attended.

Seeing these two, Ethan remembered that one scene in the game. The older sister, Karina begged to recruit them in his guild so many times but he rejected them every time.

Ethan was aware that they were skilled enough to join his guild, especially Shaina, who was playing an assassin-type class.

He remembers how he could easily tease them at that time by rejecting their applications.

But right now, they were currently above him in terms of status. Aside from him being a patient waiter, these two had the support of their family. That's why he has to put up with Karina's mood swings.

'There's also this inexplicable feeling. Though it's just a few hours ago, seeing these two reminds me of all my guildmates. I was... closer to them than I had thought, huh.'

With a small sigh, Ethan let go of his gloomy thoughts and addressed his customers again, aka former executives.

"So that's combination 1 and Triple berry juice. While for you, ma'am, combination 3 and Mint lemonade," he tallied all the orders before asking again. "Is there nothing else you wanted to add ma'am?"

"Tch. Hurry up or we'll be late because of you."

"Oh...Y-yes that's all."

Two differing answers come at Ethan at the same time but he still maintains his business smile.

"Got it. It'll be served after five minutes, thank you very much for the order."

Ethan gave a small bow and walked toward the restaurant counter. He could hear Karina making a small sound of complaint, but he didn't mind it.

'Heh, I'm not going to lie, based on her attitude, I thought she was tough, but who knew this girl was a crybaby on the inside?'

Ethan thought back to the times when Karina cried on his shoulder. He can't help but smile because of it.

After serving the twins, Ethan continue his task and took care of the other customers until the end of his shift.

Evening comes, before going back home Ethan drop at the grocery store to buy some food— to buy some cup noodles.

Goal number one!

Save money to buy gaming headgear. Remaining days; three weeks.

This is the start of the battle between his desire for tasty foods and his desire to save money.