Chapter 17 – The First Connection & A New Plan

Chapter 17 – The First Connection & A New Plan

One day until winter break.

Ivan sat at his desk, staring at the clock on the corner of his screen. One more day. One more day until he could finally begin his content grind full-time, without school taking up most of his energy.

His mouse scrolled mindlessly through his For You Page on Musical.ly (soon to be TikTok), when suddenly, something familiar popped up. A video from that creator.

And just like that, memories flooded back.

In his last life, Ivan had a lot of friends. Good ones. But in this timeline? None. He had purposely skipped that part of his life, pushing everything aside to focus on grinding—school, money, content.

But was that really the right move?

Because when he really thought about it, there were two people that had always been there for him in the past timeline. His two best friends, the ones who stuck by him through everything.

Adin and Tom.

And he met them the exact same way—through the Discord server of this creator.

A nostalgic smile crept onto his face. He could reunite with them again. But he needed to be careful. It had to be natural, just like it was back then. No forcing it.

Ivan joined the server without saying anything. He wasn't in a rush. He just wanted to observe for now, slowly work his way in—just like before.

His fingers hovered over the keyboard, tempted to type something. But he held back.

Not yet.

Checking the Roblox Obby

Feeling restless, he switched gears and decided to check how his Sonic obby on Roblox was doing.

A few hundred joins.

Nothing crazy.

A disappointment, really.

He had expected more. Maybe not instant viral success, but at least some momentum. Yet, the numbers barely moved.

And then it hit him.

I made it too soon.

There was no real trend supporting it right now. The timing was off. That's why nobody was clicking on it.

He leaned back in his chair, thinking. He needed something that would actually work. Something that had blown up in his past timeline.

Then he remembered—the emo obby.

Back then, "emo culture" was huge on Roblox, and obby maps themed around it had exploded in popularity. If he made one now, it would blow up.

That was his next move.

The New Obby

He cracked his knuckles and got to work.

For the next few hours, he designed the perfect emo obby—dark themes, edgy decorations, floating platforms, and music that fit the vibe.

It wasn't just about throwing together some jumps. He understood trends now. He had seen what worked before, and he was going to execute it perfectly.

By the time he finished, it was late.

Really late.

But tomorrow was the day.

His first ever YouTube video.

The real grind was about to begin.