It was early evening, around 7 p.m.
A bank that sloped gently was overlooking a river that was shallow and ran through the city.
A figure emerged from the water with some difficulty. Panting, he collapsed onto the short grass.
"Huff... Puff..."
The figure spent a few minutes catching his breath. Once his breathing finally stabilized, he cursed loudly!
"Damn it!"
After a few more seconds of silence, he sat down on the grass and began to look around.
"Where am I? I've been here before, but at the same time, I'm also feeling a bit lost. It's as if I recognize the place, but it's also completely different from what I remember. Ah, fuck it."
He searched through his clothes until he found a cell phone and a wallet. He paused for a few seconds, staring at the wallet. He couldn't recognize the object in his hands as his own.
"This wallet isn't mine."
He opens the wallet and rummages through it in the dark, pulling out some papers, an ID, and a photo. The papers appear to be grocery receipts, saved for some unknown reason.
The ID looks like his, with a photo from his youth—maybe when he was 18—but the photo... he recognizes the photo.
"I thought I lost this photo. Why is it here?"
The photo contained the most important people in his life: His younger brother, Kailo, who is four years younger, and his childhood friend, Sam.
He had known Sam since he was little, even before his brother was born. Their parents were friends and worked together. He still remembers when Sam's parents died and his parents started taking care of Sam. They practically grew up as brothers.
They were ten years old at the time and have been inseparable ever since.
Five years later, his parents died as well. This left the three of them on their own. They weren't sent to an orphanage only because Sam's parents and his parents had left substantial inheritances, and some family friends stepped in to take responsibility for them.
They lived on their own, but these family friends visited occasionally to check on them, as they didn't have time to look after three teenagers themselves. The three of them had always been very responsible.
After standing there for a few minutes, reminiscing about the past, he snapped out of his trance and went back to searching. Finding nothing else, he turned to his cell phone.
At first, he tries to turn it on, but nothing happens. Thinking it might have shorted out from the water, he taps it a few times, as if trying to shake the water out of the device. He tries to turn it on again.
This time, the screen glowed for a few seconds. But before it can turn on, the screen goes dark again.
"No, no, no! Turn on your piece of junk!"
Just as he's about to give up, the phone lights up again right after it goes dark. This time, the light is much brighter. It shines intensely, and when the man tries to close his eyes, he realizes he can't.
His vision is fixed on the phone. As the light burns his retinas, he sees several lines of code behind the light. Then, a beam of light enters his forehead.
Soon after, the phone returns to normal, and an update screen appears.
[Emergency update in progress. Ends in: 7 hours, 59 minutes, and 47 seconds!]
"What?"
But before he can figure out what happened, excruciating pain takes over his head.
Then, a flood of memories takes over his mind. Memories just like his own, but slightly different.
He remembers his favorite TV shows, but in these shows, people have powers, and he knows they're real:
There are news reports showing people fighting real monsters.
He remembers his school classes, like biology and animals, but with many different kinds of animals: magical and colossal ones.
Everything is similar and different at the same time: history, physics, anatomy.
He remembers his cherished memories, but with slight differences.
The pain stops at the memory of returning late from the construction site. He had taken a detour to a bakery that was open late to buy a cake to celebrate his little brother getting the highest score on the last exam. Suddenly, a strong wind caused by someone flying pushed him off the bridge and into the river. The thought that flying was forbidden within the city walls crossed his mind. But this thought is quickly replaced by clarity about his situation. After dying, he had somehow ended up in a version of himself decades younger in an urban fantasy world.
No, he didn't enter the body of a younger version of himself. It would be more accurate to say that he merged with it. He is still his younger self while also being his older self.
They share the same first and last names: Ethan Davis.
They are the same person.
They have the same temperament, strengths, and feelings.
But their worlds are different. Magic and technology go hand in hand here.
Here, people cultivate mana. They use it to strengthen the body or cast spells.
It's just like in all those novels and comics he's read.
"Wow! So, my older self got a second chance at life, and my younger self gained years of experience..."
He shook his head, wondering if he would ever gain special powers like the protagonists.
"No, even though being reincarnated was magical enough. I can't believe something like that would happen to a loser like me."
Ethan sat on the grass for a few more minutes, sorting through his thoughts and memories. After all, his memories from the past 60 years had merged with his memories from the past 18 years. There was also the magical factor that made the memories strange. Sometimes he remembered the version without magic and sometimes the version with it.
"Damn, I don't have time for this. Kailo's party. He's more important. I'll think about this later."
He grabbed his phone to check the time but found the screen frozen on the loading screen once again. He also realizes, however, that this isn't his phone. It isn't the new Ethan's phone, but the old Ethan's.
"Why did this phone come along? Never mind. Where's my phone? The other phone?!"
Ethan searches along the riverbank until he finds it. He tries to turn it on, and it turns on normally.
Even though it's an old phone, technology has advanced so much that a little water wouldn't ruin it.
"Oh man, I've already wasted half an hour. I hope the bakery is still open!"
He puts both phones away and rushes off to try to achieve his goal.
His younger self is trying to fulfill his role as the doting older brother.
His older self is excited to see his little brother again after more than a decade apart.
Almost an hour later, at around 9 p.m., he arrives at the small apartment where he lives with his brother and Sam.
It's a very small, one-bedroom apartment.
When their parents died, they left a substantial amount of savings for him and his brother.
Wanting to save as much as possible for his brother's future education, he chose to move to a smaller, cheaper apartment.
Sam did the same, thinking about his studies, so they moved in together.
The location is relatively good, which makes up for the size. Plus, it belongs to a family acquaintance who gave them a discount.
Kailo gets the only bedroom since he needs space to study in peace. Ethan and Sam share the living room; one sleeps on a mattress on the floor, while the other sleeps on the more comfortable couch.
When he arrives at the door, he feels around in his pockets for a key before remembering that he doesn't need one. The door recognizes the person's DNA upon contact with the doorknob. It's similar to the smart locks on Earth.
On his way home, Ethan remembered another interesting piece of information: this world isn't called Earth, but Alva.
He had no recollection of why he was given that name since he wasn't a top student on Earth either.
When the front door opened, he could see the entire open-concept living room and kitchen.
In the kitchen, a young man, about 5'5" and 18 years old, was setting a small table for four.
At the stove, a 14-year-old was stirring pots from which a delicious smell wafted.
Watching this scene, Ethan was filled with feelings of longing and nostalgia. It had been years since he'd seen either of them, and even longer since they'd all been together like this.
His eyes filled with tears. He couldn't control himself. They simply streamed down his face without stopping.
Eighteen-year-old Sam looked toward the door and smiled.
"You took a while; I was starting to get worried. You know the town's been strangely restless lately…"
But he stops talking after seeing the tears on his friend's face.
"Ethan?"
The teenager, Kailo, also stops and looks at his brother at the door, his face clouding over as concern grows in his eyes.
"Brother, did something happen?"
Snapping out of his trance as the two approach, Ethan wipes away his tears and makes up a silly excuse.
"Hahahaha. It's nothing, I'm just happy I got here before you guys started dinner!"
Then, Ethan finally enters, setting the cake down on the small table, and then turns to his brother, hugging him and lifting him up. Ethan is relatively tall, standing at 6 feet, and Kailo is a teenager almost as tall as Sam, plus he has a strong build, so it's easy for him to lift his little brother.
"This is my genius little brother. First place in school on the midterm exam, 7th in the whole city!"
Ethan spins around the room with his brother in his arms, laughing spontaneously and joyfully.
"Ethan, I know you're happy, but could you let go of me? I'm getting dizzy already!"
Kailo says, his eyes already spinning.
Sam watches closely, a gentle smile on his face.
"Ethan, you have the rest of the night to spoil him. Put him down, take a shower, and then we can have dinner."
Ethan reluctantly lets go of Kailo. Then, he looks around.
The small apartment, no bigger than a studio, is tidy, mostly thanks to the two of them. Despite being small and sparsely furnished, it feels completely like home and cozy.
"Ethan?"
"Huh?"
"Welcome home!"