“I’m sorry.”

A voice transferred directly into his head, one that was apologizing but felt insincere. One that didn’t apologize out of the goodness of their heart, but felt that the apology was necessary.

The boy had no idea why they were apologizing or who they were but one thing he did know is that this wasn’t a dream.

Surrounded by a white light which would eventually change his world forever, Ace Bracker was about to embark on the journey of a lifetime.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

*BEEP, BEEP*

The alarm was going off to mark the start of a new day in Toronto, Canada. The boy stretched his arm out and turned off the alarm.

He was about to go back to sleep but realized that summer break is over and he was now in his third year of high school (four years of high school in Toronto). It was a school day and he had to get out of bed or he’d be late.

“Auhhhh.”

He let out a groan as he did his daily stretches to wake his body up and get ready for the start of the day. He then put on his uniform, fixed his hair, and checked himself out in the mirror.

Ace is a 16 year old boy standing at 176cm with a build that is not too skinny, but not built at all. His face is handsome enough for girls to check him out but he was quite shy so he unconsciously avoided them.

He has dark brown hair that he inherited from his mother and green eyes that he got from his dad.

Once he finished admiring and checking himself out, he made his way to the kitchen where a woman standing at 168cm with dark brown hair made into a ponytail over her shoulder was waiting.

She was cooking something on the stove and when she noticed Ace, a smile covered her face. This woman was Ace’s mother, Selena Bracker.

“Good morning! First day back at school, are you excited?”

“Good morning..”

This good morning was way too loud for a Monday morning. It annoyed Ace a little bit because he was still half asleep but it was his mom so he didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Good morning..”

The next person to walk inside the kitchen was Ace’s father, Joshua Bracker, a man standing at 185cm with black, messy hair. He had a build that was more on the built side, a result of him playing sports and working out when he was younger.

He couldn’t work out as much anymore, but he made sure to maintain the build. He also wasn’t a morning person so he entered the kitchen with a slouched poster but, he made sure to get up on time as to not be late to work.

“Leeeenaaa, is breakfast readyyy yett?”

His dad always kept a somewhat playful and relaxed attitude with his wife, and has been doing so for the past 20 years. He calls her by Lena, a nickname that he gave her back when they first met.

“Oh Ace, you’re up, good morning..”

His dad noticed Ace sitting at the table and gave him a pat on the head with his eyes half open as he made his way to a seat across from Ace.

“Breakfast will be ready in a second, I’m making eggs with a side of a special ingredient coming straight from me, hehe.”

His mom winked in his dad’s direction while pointing at herself to return the playful attitude her husband showed her.

Ace felt a little uncomfortable when his parents acted like this, but he’s used to it, so it didn’t bother him anymore.

When his mom finished cooking breakfast, they all sat at the table and started to eat.

“So Ace, mmf, arefh you readyf toh gofh backf toh schfool?”

His dad asked while chewing on the food in his mouth.

“Finish the food in your mouth before you start talking.”

“Sorry, sorry, are you ready to go back to school?”

“Yeah, made sure to sleep earlier last night.”

Ace finished his breakfast quick and started to leave for school. He’s at that age where he doesn’t interact with his parents too much.

“I’m off for school.”

“Have fun!”

Ace exited the house and started to walk towards his school. It was about a 20 minute walk from his house to the school. Once he reached the halfway point..

“Oh shit..”

It started pouring and Ace started sprinting with his bag over his head, desperately trying to avoid getting soaked more than he already was.

Ace was quite athletic, he played basketball in school and made sure to do a small exercise everyday. He made it to the school in about 5 mins sprinting at full speed while making sure to avoid slipping.

He reached the school entrance and put his hands on his knees, exhausted from sprinting to the school.

A boy the same age as Ace noticed Ace defenceless, and pushed him over from behind while his hands were on his knees.

“Hahhaahahah, idiot, don’t stand like that in front of me.”

Ace fell to the ground face first, but it wasn’t too hard a push, so he was fine. As he started to get back up, he looked up to see who it was and noticed it was his best friend, Isa Porter.

Isa was a boy with dark brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair who stood at 175cm.

He wasn’t as athletic as Ace and his face wasn’t as handsome, but he was quite smart. He always got really high grades but he didn’t care too much for them, he cared more about gaming and spent most of his time doing that.

“I’ll get you back for that.”

Ace said as he stuck his middle finger up at his best friend while holding a small deadly grin on his face.

“Hahaha, yeah right.”

Isa stuck his tongue out to his best friend who was making his way up from the floor. Once Ace got back up, they made their way to their class, Isa rambling on about the game he was currently playing.

Once they were about to reach the class, they were greeted by two other boys standing at the class entrance, both around the same height as them.

“Yo! Jin! Roy! How you guys been?”

Ace started waving his hand in the air, excited to see his two friends after a few months. He saw Isa over summer break a few times so he wasn’t as excited as when he saw Jin and Roy.

Ace walked up to one of them and did a handshake. They put their hands together, slid them back towards themselves and folded their fingers. They called this a “dap”, and it was used by most of the kids in the school.

“I played basketball all through the summer. Ace, I’m definitely going to beat you now!”

Jin exclaimed excitedly, sticking his fist in front of Ace after they dapped.

“Hahahaha, in your dreams. Ace never lost to you once before and I was playing with you the whole time, you didn’t get any better.”

Roy said, backing up Ace and his skills as a basketball player.

All three of them were on the basketball team, with Ace being the star point guard and Jin always trying to get better than Ace. They’ve played one on one, time and time again but Ace never came close to losing.

Once they all talked about their summers, the bell rang, and the school day started.

Ace never cared too much about his studies but he knew that they were important so he tried to keep his grades up. They weren’t as high as Isa’s but they were all above average.

The day wasn’t as boring as a regular school day, because it was the first day back, so the students still had the excitement of finding out who was in their classes but, to Ace, it was still school so he wasn’t as excited as others.

He was happy to see his friends again, but he wanted the in-class parts of school to fly by and be over quickly.

When school finally ended, Ace and Isa walked home together. Ace and Isa have been neighbours for years so they walked home together every day. They’ve known each other for about 10 years and have became close friends since then.

The rain had stopped by the time school ended so they went to the convenience store on the way home.

“I’m grabbing a blue popsicle, you?”

Ace said as they walked towards the store.

“You already know what I want.”

“Yeah, yeah, a red one, same as always.”

“You get the blue one every time, I don’t want to hear it from you.”

“I take pride in the blue popsicle, once you try the blue, you never try another one. That’s just how it is.”

Ace puffed his chest out while defending the popsicle he’s loved trying to persuade his friend to try one.

“I’ve already tried the blue, disgusting.”

Isa put a finger near his open mouth to express that the blue one made him want to vomit.

“The red one tastes like frozen blood, I don’t know how you can eat that.”

“You’ve never even tried it, how do you know?”

Isa put his palm to his face at his friends dumb remarks.

“I don’t need to taste it to know, it smells disgusting.”

“Popsicles don’t have a smell, idiot.”

“…”

“Can’t say anything back, I win this argument, show me your forehead.”

Ace stuck his forehead near his friend and received a hard flick to the face. This was something the two friends did whenever there was any type of argument and there was a clear winner.

Ace put a hand to his forehead, hurting from the hard flick. Both boy’s flicks were pretty deadly as a result of them flicking each other over the years.

“You also buy me a popsicle for saying something dumb.”

“Wait wait, who said anything about buying the other person’s popsicle?”

“Cmon, just today, I forgot to bring money.”

“You flick me then ask for money?”

Isa put his hands together, looking at Ace with a nervous smile on his face, begging for some change.

“Fine, fine, but you’re buying me one tomorrow.”

Isa pulled his closed fist towards him, celebrating at winning Ace over.

Ace went inside the store while Isa waited outside.

After a few minutes, Ace came outside with his hands behind his back and an evil grin on his face.

“Hahahah.”

After revealing his hands, he started to laugh.

Isa gave a sigh in response to the things Ace was holding.

There were two blue popsicles in Ace’s hands.

“Idiot, you just wasted your money, I’m not eating that.”

“Yes you are. You made me use my money so you better finish that. Also, it’s hot as hell out here, no way can you walk twenty minutes without sucking on that.”

Isa sighed and agreed to finish the blue popsicle.

On the way home, they were drenched in sweat from the heat but they continued to talk about the games they were going to play once they got home.

Ace wasn’t as big of a fan of games as Isa but, he still enjoyed playing them with his friend.

Once they reached home, they both gave each other a dap (handshake) and rushed inside their houses that were right next to each other.

They both wanted to get away from the heat as soon as possible.

Ace’s mood changed into a darker, slightly more depressed one when he entered the house.

“I’m home.”

Ace’s parents both worked until about 7 p.m so he was the only one home but that wasn’t the reason behind his depressed tone of voice. Every time that Ace came home, he was reminded of something that stung him deeply.

Something that he could never forget no matter how hard he tried, and the harder he tried, the more he remembered. Every time he thought about it, his mood went downhill and he would start to be depressed, so he tried to suppress the thought. He didn’t want to put his mood down after a good first day of school, so he looked up, slapped both his hands against his cheeks, put a smile on his face, and went on with his day.

He quickly rushed upstairs, changed out of his uniform into something lighter, and hopped on the game to find Isa waiting for him in a voice chat.

“What took you so long? We got home at the same time.”

“Shut up, it was only a few seconds longer than you. I’m gonna flick you for that tomorrow.”

“No way, that doesn’t count, that wasn’t dumb compared to what you said about sniffing popsicles.”

“Fine, it cancels out only today. What we playing?”

“Get on the gun game, we haven’t played that in a while.”

“OK, hopping on right now.”

Ace clicked a few buttons on his controller and started to get excited.

“I’m feeling good today, gonna drop way more kills than you.”

“Bet on it, if you drop more kills than me, not only will I buy you a popsicle tomorrow, I’ll buy them for the rest of the week.”

“What if I lose?”

Ace felt his best friend put on a dark grin behind the headset.

“You buy me popsicles for the rest of the week and….”

“…”

Ace started to get nervous at what his friend was going to say.

“You eat your first red popsicle tomorrow!”

“HAHAHAHA, yeah right that’s happening, bring it on!”

Ace, carried along in the heat of the moment, forgot all about how good Isa was at games, specifically at shooting games.

They were playing a team death-match. In this mode, there are two teams who have to reach a certain amount of kills to win.

Ace and Isa were on the same team but that didn’t matter because the challenge was on who could get the more kills, not which team won.

They both tried their hardest, dropping a bunch of kills, without the rest of their team needing to do much work.

When the game was about halfway over, Ace and Isa were about tied. Ace suddenly felt an intense aura coming from somewhere.

There was only one person who could emit such a thing.

“Time to get serious.”

Behind the headset was Isa with a deep tone, ready to go all-out.

“Shoot.”

Ace thought Isa was trying his hardest throughout the first half of the game but, he was mistaken.

Isa knew that Ace was an average player so he played at the same level, keeping their kills equal just so he could brutally destroy him and crush his hopes of winning.

With a dark laugh coming through the headset, Ace already accepted his defeat, decreasing the amount of kills he was getting per every death.

The opposite was happening on the other side of the headset.

Isa was going crazy and wiping out the whole other team while laughing about it the whole time. You’d expect an extreme level of concentration with a string of kills like this, but it was the complete opposite.

“He’s a madman.”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!”

Ace’s controller was already placed on the floor, unneeded by it’s owner. If the controller had emotions, it would feel like a cat who was kept in a house to keep mice away, only for the owners to realize that it’s allergic to mice, then putting it up for adoption. The controller would feel a great deal of sorrow and would be unable to go on in life without a purpose.

Finally, the game had finished, with Isa winning by a landslide. Ace never wanted tomorrow to come, knowing that he had to taste the poison called the red popsicle.

“Prepare yourself for tomorrow, haha.”

“You’re crazy. I refuse, I can’t eat that popsicle.”

“Hahahahaha, you can’t back out of this one.”

“Putting that thing in my mouth is like drinking raw venom. That’s like French kissing a snake!”

“Oui, oui, get ready to start smooching.”

Ace had to prepare himself for tomorrow, a day that he never wants to see.

“Fine, I’ll eat the damn thing.”

“Hahaha, yes you will.”

After that, they played a few more games, Isa dropping way more kills than the rest of the team in each game. Ace played for a while but decided to take a break and get off the game.

“That was fun, I’ll see you tomorrow Isa.”

“Hahaha, tomorrow, hahaha.”

Ace got completely immersed in the game, forgetting about the bet they made about two hours ago.

“AHHH, SHUT UP ALREADY, DON’T REMIND ME!”

“HAHAHAHAHA!!”

Isa sounded like he was the villain of a superhero movie as he was laughing. Ace had to accept his defeat like a man.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, hmhmhm.”

“Trying to make your laugh quieter doesn’t make it any better, later.”

Ace shut off his console and went downstairs where he saw his dad, returning home from work.

“Oh, Ace, how was school?”

“Not bad, I’m in the same class as my friends.”

“Good for you, after I change, want to go outside and play some basketball?”

“Sure, but you sure you won’t crack your back?”

Ace didn’t talk too much with his parents, but when it came to a challenge, he just couldn’t resist. His dad knew how to get on his good side.

“Hahaha, it’ll hold out long enough to beat you.”

“Don’t think you’ll beat me just because you’re a few centimetres taller.”

“We will see about that.”

His dad went upstairs and changed into some sporty attire to play against his son.

They both went outside and played rock, paper, scissors to see who started with the ball.

“Haha, I start.”

Ace won the rock, paper, scissors to gain first possession of the ball.

“Didn’t really matter to me, I’ll win either way.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, old man.”

“Old man?! You’re gonna regret that.”

His dad said with a deadly smile on his face, his rage showing through his skin.

Ace was the star point guard of his team and his dad knew this but, he also played some basketball back in his day, so he was determined to win.

Ace started with a few dribbles through his leg, a crossover, then drove towards the basket. He zoomed past his dad and started to layup when,

“HAHAHA, as if I’d let that go by me!”

He was blocked by his dad.

Ace was shocked, this was a mental blow that will stay with Ace for the rest of his life, a memory he will have to carry with him, and a bragging right for his dad, usable at any time.

Ace’s determination dropped but, this game was up to 15 so he could still make up for it by winning this game.

“I’m not done yet.”

Ace grabbed the ball that was free from the block and resumed his dribble. They were on the road so there was no 3 point line, but Ace distanced himself from the basket to reset the play.

He played the possession more safe, shooting a mid-range shot that Ace was proficient in. His dad tried to block it, but he was getting older so he was not fast enough to close the distance between him and Ace.

*Swish*

2 points for Ace.

“You may have blocked me but, I’ll still win this game.”

“Hahaha, you got blocked by an old man.”

Ace tried the same play again, but failed in sinking the mid range so his dad now had possession.

Ace’s dad was taller and a little more built than Ace so he had the advantage when closer to the net.

He used his body to slowly move closer to the net, Ace unable to resist the strength of his dad. His dad then rose up and did a layup, Ace not being able to make up for the height difference.

2 points for Joshua Bracker.

The game kept going like this until it was 14-13, Ace having 14 points and it was Ace’s possession.

Ace slowly dribbled towards the net, switching the hand he held the ball as he moved forward. He then did a spin move, his dad being unable to react due to his old age. Ace was going for the same layup he did at the start of the game.

A smile came onto Joshua Bracker’s face, ready to deliver another block.

Ace jumped up, going for a layup on the right side of the backboard, his dad jumping in the same direction when suddenly...

Ace switched to a reverse layup on the other side of the backboard and scored the bucket.

“LETSSS GOOOO!! I WIN! Take that old man!”

You could see the disappointment on his father's face when he realized he missed the block.

“You got lucky this time, but next time, you won’t have that same attitude.”

“Whatever you say.”

A car suddenly pulled up to their house and inside was Ace’s mom, Selena Bracker.

“What’s this? Joshua playing like he did back in high school?”

“You should’ve seen me, I was just like the star I used to be.”

“What’re you talking about, you were a bench player.”

Ace was unable to contain his laughter, his dad being exposed by his own wife.

She parked the car, and they all went inside. Ace and his dad both went to take a shower, while Ace’s mom prepared dinner.

Once they finished up with their showers, there was pasta ready in the kitchen for all three of them.

Ace lost the rush he had earlier and was back to his antisocial-at-home self.

“Looks good mom.”

Ace praised his mom’s food unenthusiastically, but she knew that it was genuine, so she had a smile on her face.

They all sat at the table and ate their dinner. Ace rushed to eat his dinner and went back to his room to indulge his hobbies of watching sports, watching anime, and reading manga.

“Ace! Come down, let’s watch a movie!”

His mom called him down, Ace sighing at the thought, ignoring her request.

“Come down, hurry, or I’ll ground you!”

Ace brought himself downstairs, upset from the blackmail he received from his mom.

Ace sat himself on the couch, away from his mom, but his mom kept a smile on her face. His dad was busy with some work, so he didn’t watch with them.

The movie was about an hour and a half, and it was a basketball movie.

His mom was being considerate since she forced him to watch with her.

The movie was about a boy who was the worst on his team but tried his hardest and succeeded in making it on the starting lineup in his last year of high school and winning the national tournament.

The movie was quite good, a movie that Ace could relate to and one that didn't bore you halfway through.

Once the movie ended, his mom had tears streaming from her eyes. Ace also had a small twinkle of liquid in his eyes, but he quickly rubbed it away because he didn’t want to show his mom that.

His mom hugged Ace really tight after the movie, crying tears of joy at the movie.

“Mom, get off me.”

Ace didn’t forcefully remove his mom from hugging him, but he felt embarrassed, so he tried to get her off.

“Just a little longer, that movie was really sad.”

“*sigh*”

After a few more minutes, his mom took herself off of Ace and wiped away her tears.

“Thank you, Ace. Spend some more time with your mom please, she gets lonely.”

“Ok, ok.”

Ace gave a slightly sarcastic response to his mom’s request. He then got up and went back to his room when he realized that it was getting late.

He watched some anime before shutting off his lamp and calling it a night. He drifted off into a deep sleep for a few hours, when...

He was suddenly woken up, surrounded by nothing but white.

It was only for about 30 seconds that he was entrapped in this world of white, but in these 30 seconds, his world would be changed forever.

Not knowing what was happening, Ace looked around, confused on if this was a dream or not.

“I’m sorry.”

A voice transferred directly into his head. A voice that apologized but didn’t sound sincere. A voice that didn’t apologize out of the goodness of their heart, but one that felt that it was necessary to do so.

He knew when someone was being sincere, and this wasn’t it.

He was still confused as to why they were apologizing until...

The 30 seconds passed.

Now, instead of being surround by a white light, he was dipped inside a shade of moonlight, placed on top of a field, surrounded by a forest. He had no idea what was going on, he couldn’t get a grasp on it all.

After about a minute of just sitting there and thinking it was a dream, Ace actually took a long look around and tried to fully understand the situation.

“Wait..”

His voice trembling from what he just discovered.

“Stop..”

Ace knew what this was called, he spent time reading and watching people going through this experience through anime and manga.

“Tell me this isn’t real.. Please..”

Ace just got sent to another world. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, he believed that it was just a dream, but no..

This was reality.

“Please..

He started to tremble.

He couldn’t stop his hands or body from shaking. Everyone in the shows were always excited or happy about going to another world but..

“Please..”

He was scared out of his mind.

Why would he be happy about this?

He had loving parents,

a good friend,

a proper place to live,

and food to eat,

but someone/something decided to throw him into another world?

Fuck all that.

He wanted to go home, he wanted to turn off his alarm clock again, get dressed at home again, eat breakfast with his parents again, go off to school again, say hi to his friends again, walk home again, eat popsicles again, play games again, play basketball with his dad again, and watch movies with his mom again.

Yesterday was the last day he could do all that.

No way.

He was scared out of his mind.

He wanted to go home.

He curled up into a ball in that small field, closed his eyes and started sobbing.

He hoped that this would all be a dream, when he already knew the answer to that question.

364 Days

23 Hours

59 Minutes

Map

Support

“—!?”

He suddenly opened his eyes in shock of what he just saw.

Words were being visualized in his head when he closed his eyes.

“*sniff* What was that?”

He wanted to confirm it, so he closed his eyes once more.

364 Days

23 Hours

58 Minutes

Map

Support

“—?!”

It was true, these words were being visualized into his head. One thing was different this time though...

The 59 minutes had now turned to 58.

There is some sort of time limit and if his guess is right, then that time limit is exactly 1 year,

But that’s not the only thing that surprised him…

What was this word called support?

He closed his eyes once more to see the words.

He didn’t know if there was a way to activate the words that were shown so he just focused all his attention on the word support.

“…”

“Yoohoo, it’s mee~! The main man, the transporter, your god!”

“—?!”

Ace’s body jumped, scared by the sudden voice.

A voice forced their way into Ace’s head. It sounded like a young boy’s voice and this was the same voice who was apologizing earlier.

Ace wiped the tears away from his eyes, relieved that he wasn’t alone.

He then realized that this was the guy who took him away from his home.

He started to boil up and get angry, he wanted answers that only one person had.

He wanted to get out of this world that he was in.

"Who are you?!"

"Where am I?!"

"Why am I here?!"

"How do I go back?!"

"Tell me!"

The god quickly responded to his barrage of questions...

“I’ll answer those in order but I don’t have much time so try to pay attention.”

The god's tone of voice turned into a more serious one than before, preparing to answer all the questions seriously.

"Number 1: I am the god Deeta, and indeed, the one who brought you to this world.”

“Number 2: You are in the country Felona, a beautiful kingdom who has an enemy that they are having trouble getting rid of.”

“Number 3: You are here to get rid of that enemy. You will start off as strong as you were in your old world but your growth rate is increased exponentially in this world so you will be able to defeat the enemy with training.”

“Number 4: There are two ways to go back. The first way is a two way trip, you can go back for exactly one day, and then you will have to return here. The second way is to defeat the enemy of the kingdom of Felona.”

All this information was hitting Ace like a truck. He needed to take time to process it when..

“If you have questions, ask them now, as you can only talk to me for 2 minutes a day, and one minute is already up.”

He had to take in all that information and respond with proper questions within one minute?!

--I need to get back home!

Ace's determination to go back home overpowered his worries..

He collected his thoughts and picked the questions he was going to ask.

Ace's tone of voice also turned more serious, returning the seriousness this "god" had shown him.

“First, what happens if I don’t defeat the enemy within the time limit?”

“This world will be destroyed, you along with it, with no chance to escape.”

“—?!”

That was a hefty load of info to take in, but Ace constantly reminded himself of his goal.

“Next, if I use the second option to return home for one day, there is no restrictions on who I can talk to and what I can do?”

“Absolutely no restrictions, but I suggest you use that option quick and try to explain the situation to your parents and friends before they go to the police and claim you as a missing child. I only have time for one more question.”

“…”

“Why me?”

“Because you have good potential. That's all there is to it.”

“That’s it for today, if you would like to use the second return home option, just say “return home” three times over. Once you use it, you will be transported at exactly midnight, at the end of the day.”

His voice returned to a more playful, kiddish tone.

“Bye byeee…”

And the voice disappeared from his head.