Darkness.
That was all Mason saw. He wasn't a very religious person, but he still believed in the concept of heaven and earth. And he thought if he were to die, then he'd go to heaven, because he'd already lived his hell on earth.
But he was wrong, because it seemed like the universe decided to fuck him in the ass one final time. After living out his hell on earth, he'd still go to hell and suffer for eternity. Because that was all he was made for… to suffer.
"Mason!"
'What kind of a twisted hell is this?' Mason thought to himself as soon as he heard a voice call out his name. He was dead, so he knew that whatever was happening here wasn't real. As if being subjected to an eternity of solitude in darkness wasn't enough, why did he have to be psychologically tortured?
After all, she wasn't supposed to be here, so how come he could hear her call out his name?
"Mason!"
Mason was about to curse, but he felt something else. He felt his eyelids fluttering, like they were struggling to open, and then finally…
Light.
A lot of it.
So much of it that Mason had to squint his eyes for a few moments so that his eyes could adjust to it.
Just when he was about to observe his surroundings and figure out where he was, he heard a door open, and his head snapped to his left—the direction from which he heard the sound of the door opening.
"Mason! Damn, how many times do I have to call you?" At the entrance of the door was a blonde woman who looked to be in her early forties. Her hair was currently tied in a bun, and she was wearing reading glasses.
"What? Who? How?" Mason was surprised when he saw the person standing by the door.
That was Kate, his foster mom. She looked exactly how he remembered her, albeit a lot younger.
'Wait, what's she doing here?'
Mason hurriedly sat up on his bed and looked around. The more he looked, the more confused the expression on his face became. He was beginning to realize that wherever he was, it looked a lot similar to the room he had when he was growing up.
'What? How am I here again? I moved out when I turned twenty.'
"Mason, is something wrong?" Kate looked concerned and walked over to Mason's bed, sitting at the edge of it. "Are you nervous about the trial?"
'Trial? What trial—wait… It can't be, but that would explain a lot. But it can't be.'
"No, I'm fine," Mason said, raking his hand through his hair. "I'm fine. Everything's fine."
"Are you sure?" Kate asked with a smile.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Kate nodded and was about to stand up and leave when Mason held her back. "Wait, do you mind telling me what day it is?"
Kate looked at him and cocked her head. "Why? Are you a time traveler from the future or something?"
Mason forced himself to laugh and shake his head.
"If you want to know the date, look at your damn phone," Kate said while walking out of the room.
'That's right, my phone!'
Mason slapped his head and rushed to the other side of the bed, where there was a bedside stool. On top of the stool was an old-looking phone. Mason immediately switched it on, and when he saw the time and date, he almost fainted.
'What kind of sick, twisted thing is happening? I'm eighteen again? No, this can't be'
Mason sat on his bed, deep in thought, trying to figure out how he ended up over ten years back in time. After thinking for a few minutes, he remembered something that happened right before he "died."
"Shadow and light football system, huh," Mason muttered under his breath before standing up and walking into the toilet.
Mason stood in front of the mirror, not wanting to believe that he had actually gone back in time, but as soon as he saw himself, he knew that there was no use denying it.
Staring back at him was his eighteen-year-old self. His blonde hair was a bit messy and scattered, but not so much that it was an eyesore, the hair holding a certain aesthetic charm to it. He had blue eyes and a pale complexion.
His frame was very impressive for an eighteen-year-old, making it obvious that he had been training physically since he was quite young.
Mason moved his hands up and down, and seeing that the reflection in the mirror did the same, he came to accept that he was actually back in the body of his eighteen-year-old self.
'The trial.'
Mason's jaw clenched when he remembered the trial. After all, it was during the trial match that he suffered the double ACL injury, and everything went downhill from there.
As soon as he remembered that fact, Mason was almost tempted not to go for it, but he stopped himself from making that decision. It was supposed to be a friendly match between Middlesbrough U-21s and Rangers U-21s, and he'd feature in it just so Middlesbrough could know where he stood in terms of his ability. If anything, the match was just a formality, and they'd already decided to sign him.
In fact, they would've signed him… if not for the double ACL.
But that was in another reality. This time, Mason had a second chance—a chance to rewrite things, another chance at having the career he knew he had the talent to have. And he wasn't going to waste it.
"Trial it is," Mason muttered as he slapped his cheeks and took off his clothes before hopping into the shower.
'And after the trial, I'll try to find out more about this shadow and light system.'
He'd heard some of his friends in school talk about web novels that they read having systems or something similar to it. He'd try to find out whether that was the case for him.
Today…
Today was the day when everything started.