The crowd was going wild. Cheers exploded all around, flashing lights lit up the arena and confetti drifted through the air, sticking to Ryan's sweaty face and getting in his eyes.
Everything felt like a real blur,his teammates shouting, hugging and patting each other's backs. Their faces were lit with pure joy, flushed from the thrill of winning.
They had done it. Somehow, against every obstacle, they had won the Kingdom Forge World Championship.
In Ryan's shaking hand, the Orb of Wishes brimmed with a soft glow. It felt smooth and cool, but there was a strange weight to it,more than just the object itself. It was heavy with everything that had brought him to this very point: the regrets, the losses, and the broken promises.
This wasn't just a trophy. It was his last shot at something better.
He looked around at the faces of his team, laughing and celebrating. They looked so happy and so free. But Ryan couldn't stop his thoughts from drifting to the people who weren't there.
He thought of his mom, her tired smile which usually stretched thin from worry. His dad, silent and proud, trying to hide the weight of their crushing debt. Molly and Mia,his little sisters,faces pressed against their apartment window, too young to understand why dinner wasn't always guaranteed, why their laughter had turned to quiet crying when they thought no one could hear.
He remembered going to bed hungry, pretending he wasn't, just so they could eat. Selling his last game console. Accepting help that always felt like pity. He was barely hanging on, day after day.
And the company that had destroyed everything,cold, ruthless. A hostile takeover that left his family with nothing.
Ryan hadn't played Kingdom Forge for fun or fame. He played to survive. Every dungeon, every boss fight, every sleepless night was just another way for him to fight back against the world that kept trying to crush him. But no matter how hard he pushed, it never felt like he gave enough. The game was his only escape,but it never fixed the real problems.
The Orb pulsed in his hand. Silent, but asking: What do you wish for?
Around him, his teammates were already using their wishes,rare items, cool mounts, digital treasures. Ryan wasn't thinking about any of that. His eyes were somewhere far beyond the screen, locked on the faces of his family, on everything he had lost.
He closed his eyes. Their faces came back to him, worn down but still filled with hope. He thought of everything he'd done wrong, and everything he might still lose if he kept going down the same path.
And then, in the middle of the noise, with a voice barely louder than a whisper, he said:
"I wish… I could start over."
The words slipped out,and the world responded.
A crack ran through the Orb.
Light burst from inside, blinding and wild. It didn't just pull Ryan out of the game. It followed him,rushing past the screen, pouring into the real world, wrapping around him like fire that was somehow alive. It moved with purpose.
And then,everything stopped.
Time froze.
And then, just like a movie playing in reverse, the world began to rewind.
Memories flew past him in a blur. Moments of joy, heartbreak, fear, and love. Each one felt sharper than the last.
The day he became the first Holy Paladin. The years of practice. Joining Crimson Wake and wondering if it was the right move. The betrayal. The chase. His parents' deaths. Starting his first guild with the only people who still believed in him.
Logging in for the first time, eyes wide with wonder. Awkward college days. Middle school crushes,silly and unforgettable.
The quiet nights, lying awake, asking if any of it mattered. Selling the last console. Giving up meals so his sisters could eat. Hearing his mom cry through the walls.
All of it rushing past.
And then,further still.
A newborn's cry. Strong arms holding him close. Laughter in a hospital room.
Ryan didn't just see it. He felt it.
Tears slipped down his cheeks. His body shook as the force finally let go. And just like that, time stopped once again.
Ryan stood frozen, he watched in disbelief as the nurse gently lifted the newborn version of him and placed him into his mother's arms.
As if in respdeep rumble echoed through the air.
Time, which had been rewinding moment by moment, suddenly surged forward again, this time fast, wild and unstoppable. Ryan was swept up in it like a leaf caught in a flood.
Everything began to replay.
He watched himself grow,first steps, baby giggles, wobbling between his parents as they clapped and laughed. And all he could think was:
Not this again.
Then came grade school. The awkward years. That middle school he only got into because someone owed a favor. The high school no one wanted to go to,three years of parties, wasted days, empty nights.
College was no better. Just another name on a diploma from a place no one cared about.
Then the company collapsed.
His parents, proud and stubborn to the end, were crushed under the weight of that loss. Corporate suits had picked the bones clean. Kingdom Forge became his lifeline. He didn't play for fun,he played to survive. To chip away at the mountain of debt. To keep the lights on.
Crimson Wake took him in. Not because he was special,because he was cheap. The leader had once been his biggest rival. That fact always left a bitter taste in his mouth.
Ryan watched it all again and felt rage boiling inside. His fists clenched tight.
No.
That life, that future,wasn't going to happen again. He refused.
He saw himself as a toddler again, learning to walk and stumbling into preschool.
It was unbearable.
"No! Not again!"
He shouted, striking out at the air, pounding the ground beneath him. Nothing responded. It was like punching glass,thin, breakable, but forever just out of reach.
But then,something rippled.
The world flinched, ever so slightly. Ryan froze.
Had the universe heard him?
In that orphanage, long ago, he saw the boy,himself,make a different choice. He reached out, asking his parents to adopt two younger girls.
Ryan's breath caught.
The timeline bent. The boy grew up with them,his little sisters,laughing, close, connected. He studied hard. Teachers praised him. Friends cheered for him. He made it to high school at the top of his class.
For once, he was winning.
Tears rolled down Ryan's cheeks again,but this time, they came with something else: hope.
But hope, like all good things, didn't last.
The corporation struck again. His family's business was swallowed whole. Assets, gone. Dreams, broken. He watched his parents' faces collapse under the weight of it all.
Even with everything he'd changed, the same storm had returned.
Ryan dropped to his knees, numb.
"It's coming back," he whispered. "It's all happening again."
The weight of it crushed him. No matter how hard he tried to shift the past, the future always found a way to reclaim him.
He pounded his fists against the invisible walls that held him in place. Harder, again and again. Trying to break through. To reach that version of himself,the kid who still had a chance.
Then, the light flickered, his heart jumped. He hit the barrier again. A brighter spark answered. Harder,again. Again.
And then, a crack appeared as a fracture split the air.
'One final blow.'
Smash…
The world shattered around him. Ryan screamed as the loop tore apart, a force yanking him out of the timeline like a puppet on snapped strings. Everything turned to chaos.
And then, a grave darkness and silence consumed him.
Somewhere in that endless black, Ryan opened his eyes.