Julian awoke as the morning sun rose above the clouds, illuminating the living room through his floor-to-ceiling windows.
He rose from the couch with a groggy feeling but quickly gained clarity at the sight of an oozy black substance stuck to his body.
A quick cleanup with some wet towels and a shower took care of the mess, but it left Julian with a worried expression.
He recalled his failure, the panic he felt when he came close to death, and his sudden fall into unconsciousness.
There was a lot to think about and much more to plan. It was as if he were jumping from one task to another without ever finishing the last.
The other regressors, the map from his other self, Oblivion, Mideous, and the golden light emporium.
That didn't even take into account that he had to grind levels, learn how to fight, and handle all the usual game stuff.
He needed a plan, a schedule, before the stress of everything came crashing down on him.
For the time being, he went to prepare himself some breakfast and scroll through the web to see what he could find about regression and the black substance that came out of his body.
A quick A.I. summary was all it took to give him all the practical information he needed.
Regression was as simple as returning to a fixed point in time or one that could change under certain conditions.
The black substance that came from his body was a trope often found in martial arts novels, representing the expulsion of the body's impurities.
Julian looked down at his still scrawny arms and contemplated whether he had experienced the elusive phenomenon.
He chuckled to himself; perhaps not even in fantasy could muscles be gained without hard work.
The smell of reheated croissants and frying eggs filled his apartment as Julian contemplated a schedule for himself.
He needed to build up his body in the real world, eat well to ensure good growth, and take some time to meditate.
Due to the time dilation from inside the game, he would likely lose 4-6 hours, but Julian didn't mind.
He'd still have at least 42 hours to spend in the game, enough to ensure a healthy amount of gameplay.
While it would have been optimal for him to spend all his time in the game, Julian didn't enjoy fully abandoning the real world.
Now that he knew the world would change drastically in just a decade, he wanted to spend some time experiencing the peace of the world before it came crashing down.
Julian quickly ate his egg and croissant breakfast before downing a cup of coffee to prepare himself for the day ahead.
He dried his wet blue hair and changed into a loose white tee and black elastic shorts before heading to his apartment's gym.
It was the first time in a while that Julian had exited his apartment except to pick up his ordered groceries.
He peered into the gym's front door and noticed most of the place was empty, a good start.
Julian couldn't help but tease himself at the drastic difference between how he acted in Alpha and the real world.
He was much more confident in Alpha, more decisive, and much more like his previous self.
It was part of the reason he wanted to spend some time outside the game, to shed off the mental grime that held him down in the real world.
For three months, he had grown dull inside his apartment; it was time he started acting like the Julian his parents knew.
"Excuse me, sir, would you like help with starting a workout?" A voice called out from behind.
Julian looked behind him to see a short, bubbly girl of South Asian descent wearing classic gym wear.
"Are you one of the trainers?" Julian asked.
"Yup, that's me! I promise that whatever fitness goal you have, I can help you achieve," she claimed.
Julian hesitated for a moment; a feeling of pride and male ego coursed through his mind.
The thought of getting help was met with a subtle rejection in his heart.
But his rational mind backed up the girl's offer. He acknowledged his lack of expertise in working out and the benefit of a personal trainer.
"It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience," a quote from one of his ancestors.
To give up his ego and ask for help was the first step Julian made to repair his fractured self.
Julian stretched out his hand, shaking hers to signify the acceptance of her offer.
Nadia, as he found out, was a part-time trainer hired by the apartment to help those who came to the gym.
As a newbie to the job, she worked the morning shift and barely had any clients to her name.
Despite that, Julian acknowledged her gentle but assertive way of teaching and informing him about whatever exercise they did.
She had all the aspects of a great personal trainer; it was only a matter of time before her career would rise.
Or it would have if the world hadn't been set to drastically change in the near future.
By the end of their hour-and-a-half session, Julian felt his entire body become sore from their first full-body workout.
"I'm not gonna lie, you did really well for your first time," she complimented.
"Really? Thanks; I'm pretty much dying over here," Julian sighed.
"It's the first day; it's gonna be hard. Most of my clients don't usually make it all the way through…" she said embarrassedly.
"Glad I'm not the majority then," Julian smiled.
"Will you be working here tomorrow at the same time?"
"No, sadly…" Nadia lowered her head.
"I'm not officially part of the team, so I only work three days out of the week."\
"Sam's probably going to be working the morning shift tomorrow. He's one of our best trainers, so you'll be in good hands."
Julian frowned at the thought; he enjoyed Nadia's style as a trainer. She pushed him and taught in a way he approved of.
Plus, she was the first person who had helped him out. It felt wrong to move on to another trainer.
"What if I hire you as a personal trainer for seven days a week, two hours a day in the morning, for a thousand?" Julian offered.
Nadia did some quick mental math. Fourteen hours of work in a week, for one thousand dollars that was an hourly pay of about seventy bucks!
"For a thousand a week, I could do that!" She smiled brightly.
"No, a thousand a day," Julian corrected.
"I'm sorry, I think I misheard you…" Nadia stammered.
"One with three zeros after it. One thousand," Julian smiled.
"What's your banking info? I'll send over a week's payment to start."
Nadia was stun-locked for a few seconds before stammering out a quiet "Sure."
After sending the money, Julian got ready to head back up to his apartment floor, desperately needing a shower.
As he accessed the elevator, another man stepped out, walking with conviction to the gym.
Julian thought nothing of it, but he knew nothing of the horrors the man had experienced.
As Julian went back to his floor, Nadia danced to a tune at the prospect of her new client.
One thousand dollars a day for two hours of work was five hundred dollars an hour.
Seven thousand dollars a week and thirty thousand every month. Yearly, that was three hundred sixty thousand!
She couldn't help but boogie a silly dance to celebrate her luck. She could send her brother to college, pay her parents' bills, and so much more.
When she heard the sound of the gym doors opening, she quickly gathered her composure to prepare for the next possible client.
To her astonishment, though, it was her younger brother who walked through the door.
"Ahmed? What are you doing here?" she asked.
"It's just that I missed my older sister, is all," he said vulnerably.
"Awww. Come here," Nadia replied.
The two siblings hugged in a warm embrace before separating.
"So what do you want? Money? How much?"
"Can't I just come visit my sister because I miss her?" Ahmed defended.
"Don't look so offended; I know there's more to that innocent face than you let on," Nadia retorted.
Ahmed could only smile at his sister's caring hostility.
He had missed these subtle moments.
Now that he had come back, he would make things right. He had three years before the apocalypse began.
"Sis, I sent some money to your account."
"You know that new game, Alpha? I managed to get ahead and make some money."
"You don't have to worry about our financial situation anymore. Leave it to me," Ahmed declared.
Nadia looked at her bank account and saw 5k had entered from her brother.
She looked surprised for a moment before flashing a proud smile.
"You make some money and give it all to your sis? You little brat."
As she had done for years, she pinched both of her brother's cheeks.
"I'm the one supposed to send you money, not the other way."
"My little baby brother's grown up so fast," she sighed.
"But you don't have to give it all to me."
"Your sis found herself a good-paying client."
She transferred his money back before showing the 7,000 she had gotten from Julian.
"Your sis is getting paid 7k a week! So if you need any money, you come to me, got it?"
"You're what?" Ahmed looked in shock.
This was a deviation from his previous timeline where no such thing happened. He remembered how strained she had worked to pay for him and their parents.
It had been only a day, and yet the deviation from the timeline was this significant.
With the 11 other players who leveled up to 10 and now this, Ahmed grew more worried about the future that would come.
"Did you take the elevator? You probably saw him—6'8," blue hair, skinny guy wearing a white tee and black shorts," Nadia rambled.
"What's his name?" Ahmed asked.
"Julian. Julian Caesar, I think," Nadia answered.
Ahmed tried to remember if this name had any significance in his past life but recalled nothing.
But if he was helping his sister with good intentions, he didn't mind.
He said goodbye to his sister before heading back home to enter Alpha.
For this time, it was time he took his class advancement trial.
He had to get strong. Strong enough to protect the ones he loved before the gates started to arrive.