"Mr. Blackwood, I am sorry to tell you that your mother passed away in a car accident at 4:28 p.m. today, July 2nd, 1995." The middle-aged police officer said in a deep, steady voice.
The young man sitting across from him was barely an adult himself. He was 18 years old, with sharp features, pale skin, and dark hair. His eyes were wide and unfocused.
Zane Blackwood sat blankly on the chair, the officer's words washing over him.
He was in shock, but not because his mother had died.
He was a man out of time. A traveler.
Just yesterday—or what felt like yesterday—he was a business analyst from Switzerland, living in the year 2025. He'd spent the last two years on an academic exchange in Germany, learning the language and culture. Now, after a simple nap, he'd woken up here.
"Scheisse," Zane couldn't help but mutter. "I just went to sleep..."
"What was that, son? What did you say?" the officer asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"It's nothing, officer. I... I'm just in shock. It's too much," Zane quickly covered. His English was perfect, but the excuse felt hollow even to him.
His mother was dead?
Zane had been an orphan in his original life. The idea of a 'mother' was strange to him. He had no emotional connection to it. He felt no sadness, only a dizzying panic and confusion. The world felt like it had tilted, and he was struggling to stand straight.
A short time later, Zane left the North Hollywood police station and walked into the strange Los Angeles night.
Back in the house that was supposedly his, he spent the night piecing together his new life. He used the broken memories from the body he now lived in.
His name was Zane Blackwood. He was 18 years old and had just graduated from high school. He had no plans for college and no real job prospects. He was a very ordinary American teenager. His only small claim to fame was being a good basketball player, but he'd failed to get into the NBA draft a few weeks ago.
He was also, apparently, an orphan now.
His grandfather was an American who had married a Swiss woman. They had a daughter—Zane's mother, the woman who had just died. He also had an uncle somewhere, but they hadn't talked in over ten years. He was completely alone.
"Damn it all," Zane sighed, running a hand through his hair. "It's always the same. A lonely life." A flash of real sadness hit him, not for the mother he never knew, but for the life he'd just lost. "And I just bought that apartment overlooking Lake Geneva!"
That beautiful two-bedroom flat, the result of years of hard work, was gone. Vanished in the blink of an eye.
"But wait..." he thought, a new idea cutting through his sadness. "What am I upset about? This is 1995. America is a goldmine if you know where to look."
He was from the future. While he wasn't a history expert, he knew the big events. He knew which companies would become giants. He didn't need his old life. He could build a new one, a better one.
"Forget the apartment in Geneva," Zane declared to the empty room. A spark of excitement started inside him. "I'll build an empire here!"
The house he was in now was a good-sized 1,300 square feet. Even on the edge of Los Angeles, it was worth something. It was a start.
"1995," he whispered. "The beginning of the great Internet age. It's time to think about the future."
One week later, Zane had finished the arrangements for his mother's burial. As he returned home from the small, quiet service, a strange sound chimed in his mind.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host for successfully binding the Future Information Fragment System!]
A system? His golden ticket?
Zane's heart leaped. The wild stories he'd read online weren't just stories after all! His excitement, however, didn't last long. As he explored what it could do, he found himself complaining out loud.
"What kind of useless system is this? There are no tasks, no rewards, no store... all it does is provide random future clips, and most of them are about movies! What am I supposed to do with that?"
Did it not realize he was from the future? He already knew about the big movies. What a piece of junk.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host. You have received a Newbie Gift Package!] The mechanical voice chimed again.
A gift package? Zane thought doubtfully. Probably more useless facts. "Alright, let's see what your 'grand prize' is."
He opened it. His eyes widened.
"Oh... well now. That's more like it."
The Newbie Gift Package had two specific pieces of future information:
August 9, 1995: Netscape Communications will be listed on the stock market. The opening price will be $28 per share. The price will shoot past $75 on the first day, before closing at $58.25.
November 22, 1995: The film Toy Story will be released. It will earn $192 million in North America and $360 million worldwide. It will become the highest-earning film of the year. Its production company, Pixar Animation, will become world-famous. Its value will break $1 billion.
Zane leaned back, a slow grin spreading across his face. "Okay, that's really useful."
He had to admit it. He was from the future, but he was just an ordinary person. He knew Apple and Microsoft would be worth trillions in 2025, but who could remember the specific stock market details from thirty years ago? He was a business analyst, not a financial expert. This system gave him what he truly needed: exact information he could use.
This was how he would build his fortune.
On August 1, 1995, Zane walked out of a Wells Fargo branch in Los Angeles. He had a smile on his face and a slip of paper in his hand.
After nearly three weeks of paperwork, he had finally settled everything his mother left behind. After paying a huge inheritance tax and lawyer fees, he was left with the 1,300-square-foot house and $20,000 in savings.
"God, these banks are predators," he muttered, shaking his head.
He had just mortgaged the house for a one-year loan. For a property worth well over $150,000, the bank had only given him $100,000. And they gave him a crazy high interest rate of 12%. In one year, he would owe the bank $112,000, or the house would be gone.
"Whatever," he said, tucking the bank draft securely in his jacket. "It's a risk I have to take."
With a total of $120,000 in hand, he didn't waste a moment. He took a taxi straight to the airport, bought a ticket for the next flight to New York, and went looking for a company to invest his money.
"The stage is set," he thought as the plane took off. "Now it's time for the show to begin."
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