Chapter 1: Chapter 1

I stared aimlessly at the passing strangers. Things were different, the streets were lively and people were talking on flip phones. I could not recall the last time I saw one of those things, they were practically ancient to me. I was 25 years old with a decent head on my shoulders. At least from my point of view. Although I never did graduate college, I did well in my trade having a job that provided me with a 135,000 dollars a year, I did not believe that I did bad for myself. Yet, that was in 2025.

Right now, this was definetly not 2025. I had to grab a newspaper from the stand to see that the date was January 1st, 2004. It was snowing, but it was snowing before I arrived here in this time period. The last I knew was that I was playing the mega million because four of my closest friends told me I should. At that time the mega million had the highest jackpot recorded in history, a staggering 2.09 billion dollars. I was never one to gamble but took a chance and spent 10 dollars on a ticket. I had no hopes of winning, but I did just that. I won. I won big.

However, before I could cash in I found myself here on the streets. Standing before these people. My clothing also changed as I was no longer wearing my thin jacket that I normally wore during the cold days. Instead I was wearing this thick puffy coat that my mother used to wear growing up. I missed that woman, but she’s been gone for 10 years now.

As I reached into my pocket I found a card, a credit card with my name on it. It was a blue visa card from Chase Bank. I also found my ID which had an address on it, my birthday, and my picture. I noticed a few things, one this address was the one I had when I was living on my own thinking about entering college. It was an apartment complex in a decent area at the time. Second, my birthday was wrong. I should have been born in 2000, but instead I was born in 1979. Everything else was fine, as it was a Michigan’s liscene and the expiration date was four years away.

There was a store not that far away from me, and most stores had ATM’s inside of them. I had a few bucks in my pocket, but I was curious to see if my funds from before were still present. Anything after that could be settled, such as my living arrangements, and finding out more about this time. Was I dreaming? I had no clue, but if I was there was no way I’d know about it.

For now I headed into the store and walked into the back. The cameras in the store were old as the owner took to having convex mirrors up on the ceiling instead. I questioned if the camera’s even worked or if they were just for apperance sake.

At the ATM I entered my credit card and quickly checked my balance. I prayed to still have my 67,000 dollars saved up. As the ticket slowly came out I had to blink a few times. Then I swallowed and gripped the ticket hard.

This was strange, very strange. I did not have 67,000 dollars in my bank account. I had 10,000,067,000.89 dollars in my account. A huge mistake, and once I saw that I knew that this was nothing but a dream. How could I have such an amount? Whatever the case may be, I was estatic about it.

With this ticket in hand I swiftly placed it in my pocket and left the store. I was sitting on a gold mine and the number of activies I could particpate in was endless. From the newspaper I knew that the year was 2004, but I should have only been 4 years old at this time. What happened during this year? I can’t recall all that well, but I did know that one game came out that changed how people viewed MMORPG’s. It dominated the market for more than a decade and there was no one in the world who had not heard of the game.

That game being World of Warcraft. I myself never touched the game as I disliked the subscription model and my family was too poor for me to afford it. Should I make a game? I always wanted to create one. When I was in my early teens I suggested that me and my friend should make a browser game, but we never did. So the idea was always there, and with this money it was possible. However, was it worth it?

I often played games in my spare time so I knew what was possible and could in theory push the bounds of what gamers thought was possible. Maybe even dethrone the king of this time. But for that i’d need a stuido, developers, and a team to make it all possible. Not a game we’d rush to get out within the next year or two, but one that we fully invested in for the next five years. That idea was not a bad one, but I shook my head.

I should go home first. As I thought of that I stopped walking. Pulling out my ID once more I looked over my address. Did I truly live in this apartment complex? If not, then was I currently homeless? Glancing up at the street sign I noticed it said 5th street, and my apartment complex was on 7th street so only two blocks away. This was the downtown area so it was pretty safe as the police station was only four blocks away. A lot of businesses were open down here as well so the opportunity to find a job did not seem difficult to me. However, that was in 2025, I had to remember that this was a different time.

I quickly took notice of that as there were a ton of white people in business attire glancing my way. I definetly did not fit the part, but no one should give me any trouble as long as I stuck to myself. Which is exactly what I did as I walked the streets and made my way to my apartment complex. The building was much different from what I remembered but I still found the building my apartment was situated in. I was in building 2B apartment 210, located on the second floor.

I found myself standing in front of a dark brown wooden door. It was not the same white door I was used to seeing with the silver apartment numbers plastered on top of the door.

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Checking my pockets I did find a key, the only key I had. I had a habit of keeping my keys in my back pocket and never once did the thought appear in my mind to check my back pocket for keys before. Now that I'm here I just came to the conclusion I should have had a while ago.

The key fit perfectly and with a small twist the door was unlocked. I was disappointed to find that there was hardly any furniture inside. The whole place lacked any decor and everything I owned previously completely vanished. All I had was a brown couch that was big enough to fit two, a small box television, and a brown wooden table. I was missing a lot, but then again this was 2004.

Whatever, at least I had a roof over my head. I closed the door and locked it before I strolled over to the kitchen and grabbed some paper and a pen. It was sitting on the counter waiting to be picked up by me.

There also happened to be a newspaper on my table so I could get more in tune with what was happening. I sat down read the paper and started playing around with the pen in my hand.

That's when I noticed that Marvel was releasing Spider-Man 2, a film that would soon lead to the end of DC films being on top. I did know that in 2008 Marvel completely flipped DC on its head and took control of the superhero universe, and DC movies were never looked at the same since then. I wished they did things differently but they never seemed to learn.

Thinking about that, it sparked an idea. I should take control of the DC cinematic universe to bring it to a golden age. However, they were currently in a good spot and would be until the release of Iron Man. Once that movie was release DC films were as good as dead.

Instead, I wondered if I could bring forth the Invincible universe. I enjoyed what that comic did and how it always brought up the matter of the many versus the few. There was a ton I could do with the material, but was that comic series even released yet? That was something I had no idea about. Tomorrow I'd have to visit my local comic book store to find out.

As long as there was a lot of material to work with, then it was a possibility. I mean, I was still unknown and had no credibility but that would change in time. All I needed was a chance, money was not an issue.

As for my game, there was no need to rush on that front. I had the idea for a game but an idea was just that. It only mattered if I could use it, and right now I could not.

The best thing was if I did create my own studio to release movies and films, I would get in contact with a lot of people. From there I could find writers and storytellers, people that could help me create my own game.

This whole thing was probably a dream anyway, and when I woke up everything would go back to normal. For now though, I simply wrote down what I needed.

A location then I'd have to build a studio, or buy one. From that point on I was entering the realm of the unknown. I knew very little about creating movies or films, but I was willing to do just that. I'd start with first finding out what universe I wanted to bring to the big screen and from there talk to the writers and see how we can adapt it.

So I started jotting down what I needed.

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