"I'm off"
"It's cold outside so you should wear this hat"
"Okay. I'll be back later"
Today, I had plans to hang out with my friends, Nessa and Mia. On the way to our meeting place, I decided to walk by a park.
The last autumn leaves began to fall signaling the start of the winter season.
It was such a pleasant walk that I almost ended up late on my appointment.
I had arrived at the meeting place inside a shopping mall. As expected, Nessa and Mia were already there.
"Sorry to keep you waiting"
"It's fine. Let's go eat lunch first"
We went to a nice cafe and ordered pasta then had a quick catch up.
After lunch, we decided to look around the shopping mall and bought some snacks at the supermarket to eat later at the park.
It was a good choice that I brought my backpack with me and didn't need to carry heavy shopping bags.
"Where should we go next?"
"There is a newly opened aquarium nearby. Let's go check it out"
We decided to head to the aquarium near the shopping mall. The aquarium was unexpectedly large and had a lot of exhibits. After exploring for quite a while, we got a bit tired from walking.
"The dolphin show is starting soon"
"Let's go watch and rest there"
The show was around 30 minutes of dolphins jumping around and doing silly tricks.
Once the dolphin show ended, Nessa and Mia both went to the restroom. There were a lot of people lining up so it would probably take a while so I told them that I would go ahead in the jellyfish exhibition.
There were two routes to the exhibition, the shortcut and the underwater tunnel, I chose the latter since it seemed more fun.
The underwater tunnel surrounded by vibrant sea creatures was a sight to behold. The fishes and rays were swimming around without a care in the world.
As I was reaching the end of the tunnel, I heard an unusual loud noise ringing in my ears. All of a sudden, my vision blurred and my head began to hurt.
I fell on my knees and waited for the pain to subside. When I was finally able to open my eyes, I saw a bright light radiating in front of me.
For some reason, my eyes were drawn to this mysterious spherical shaped green light, slowly swirling around.
Then, I suddenly felt a force push me from behind.
"What was that just now?"
I fell into the ground and once I opened my eyes, I looked around and confirmed that I was still in the underwater tunnel.
There was still no sign of anyone here. Was it just my imagination?
Anyway, I need to get out of here and find a place with a lot of people.
Before reaching the exit, I tried to call my friends but the calls still didn't go through. There was no choice so I decided to go back to the restroom near the dolphin show using the shortcut.
Upon arriving, there were only empty stalls and no sign of Nessa or Mia.
"Where are they?"
While standing outside the restroom, I heard a loud cheer near the entrance of the dolphin show.
The door automatically opened and inside the dome, there was a big crowd cheering for the dolphins at the center of the stage.
It seemed to be another dolphin show. I felt relieved to see a lot of people again and searched for an empty seat.
The show started with the same opening act. As the show went on, small flying objects dominated the stage and even holograms were used.
Although, it was a bit strange how this was drastically different from the show we watched earlier.
After the show ended, I checked on my phone but still received no updates. I decided to leave the aquarium and try to look for them in the shopping mall.
I just continued to roam around the mall and passed by a lot of unfamiliar areas. While wandering the 2nd floor, something caught my eye.
It was a new promo poster of my favorite novel.
However, the excitement quickly died down and replaced with doubt.
[Limited Copies of the Final Volume - Shipping Wars Volume 10]
"Final Volume?"
"Volume 10??"
This doesn't make any sense. The latest release was supposed to be volume 5 that my parents gifted me yesterday.
I was bewildered the series would suddenly skip over from volume 5 to volume 10.
After hurriedly entering the bookstore, I saw the novels neatly lined up in order. My eyes widened at seeing volumes 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 which should not have been released yet.
There were several possibilities I could think of. Perhaps, this was a different novel with the same cover artist or maybe the author decided to retire early and released the remaining volumes all at once.
Nevertheless, I couldn't resist and bought them all with the money grandma secretly handed me for my birthday.
I wanted to check the contents of these books as soon as possible and looked for a comfortable place to read outside the mall.
Fortunately, there was a nearby park with a few benches. I sat on an empty bench and started to read from volume 6.
The setting and characters were exactly the same.
"No way. Is this really possible?"
There was no doubt that this was the same novel.
I stood up panicked and the paper bag containing the books inadvertently fell from my lap then scattered to the ground.
While picking up the novels, I noticed a small white paper stuck between the books. I picked up the receipt and utter disbelief hit me.
No matter how long I stared at it, nothing still changed.
Today is November 28, 2016
However, the date that was printed in the receipt baffled me to no end.
Receipt Date: December 1, 2026
It was 10 years in the future.