1999, May 22nd

  William sat in his room, looking at the reports. It seemed the release went well, just as he expected. It wasn't growing as fast as QuantumFlux or as consistently as QuantumPay, but it was still growing nonetheless. Still, it was too early to say; after all, it had only been 2 days since release. He took his attention away from the report for Vox. Instead, he turned his eyes towards the report for QuantumPay. It had been almost 2 months since the release, and he was curious to see how much he had made.

  He looked at the growth stat. Due to the aggressive marketing and discount until June, their user base had been growing rapidly. For example, they were currently charging 1.0% + $0.10 for small transactions, 0.75% + $0.10 for medium transactions, and 0.5% + $0.10 for large transactions. Clearly, this wasn't sustainable long-term. He remembered when Eve brought up this problem to him a few days before it was released. He'd told her that it was a loss-leading strategy to gain market share and would only last until the end of May. While they weren't making any profit from large transactions, they were so rare that it was not really a problem anyway. It was just a gamble to see if he could attract more online merchants with this.

  It worked. While not as spectacularly as he might have liked, it was still a huge increase. He'd already gotten 12,000 merchants to sign on. Of course, there were no predatory terms like being able to use only one payment processor. It wouldn't make sense and would only serve to push merchants away. Still, by June, they'd be readjusting the prices. Large transactions would rise to 0.75% + 0.10$ while medium transactions would rise to 0.9% + $0.10.

  Even with those prices, he made a lot of profit. In April, there were a total of 152,347 transactions. The volume was $9,847,000, with the average transaction being around $64.6. And there had been a total of 412,673 transactions in May, with it continuing to rise. The volume was $27,134,000, with the average transaction being around $65.8. Since the month was not over yet, the transaction and volume were still rising. These amount to a total of 565,020 transactions and $36,981,000 in volume. The revenue was around $312,400 from qualified credit cards, $278,900 from premium credit cards, $196,700 from debit cards, which all come to the total of $788,000.

  Of course, these didn't include any costs. The interchange cost was around $348,200, server infrastructure around $73,400, customer support around $96,000, and marketing around $45,000, coming to the total cost of around $562,600. So it made them a gross profit of $225,400.

  That's not bad... He nodded. In just two months, it was actually decent. But he was already preparing for the future. He had heard news that Confinity and X.com were merging. These were from Eve, who had more connections in the business world, unlike him, who was completely focused on the technical and strategic side. Still, he trusted Eve completely. From what he remembered, Confinity and X.com merged in March of 2000, but this happened earlier and was not that significant. While it cut into his profits a little, he expected it. The market was, after all, not static. Every action was bound to have consequences.

  He shook his head and put the papers aside. His thoughts wandered as he looked at the message he got from Eve that morning. Normally, he wouldn't advise sending such sensitive information through any messaging app, but it was his own, and he was very confident in his own cybersecurity. Eve 'suggested' that they should become less dependent on OEMs, now that their name was quite well-known in the eyes of the public, at least in North America. Her suggestion was to lean even more heavily into retail. That could be a good idea... He nodded. Of course, retail is a good idea. For now, at least. He shook his head. I keep forgetting I'm not in the future. The market hasn't exactly solidified yet, so it could be good.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  William smiled. She's sharp as hell when it comes to this stuff. Damn, I'm so lucky. Waving his thoughts away, he replied to the message.

  Will: Do it. You're better at this anyway.

  Eve: I've already prepared for it. Knew you would agree.

  Will: Lol.

  Eve: What's Lol?

  Will: You're always on the Internet all this time, and you don't know? Fool, it's 'Laughing Out Loud'.

  Eve: No need to be so rude, asshole. Alright, I'm busy. Talk to you later.

  Will: C ya.

  He closed Vox and closed his eyes. He rested for a while. He felt completely out of it. He sighed as he grew more and more drowsy. Damn, am I this sleepy? Not having a sleep schedule sucks... He fell asleep on the table.

  William was, once again, in the meadow with wild hyacinths. As far as his eyes could see, he saw purple flowers. The sun was shining bright, reflection off the lake nearby. He looked behind him. There was a big oak tree. It looked ancient, as if it had been here for decades. He looked down at himself. His hands looked small, like the hands of a ten years old.

  He walked over to the oak tree and sat beneath it. It felt natural. He gazed out at the scenery in front of him as he hugged his legs. After a few minutes, he heard footsteps coming from behind the oak tree. He looked over. It was the purple haired girl. She also looked around ten years old, unlike the previous time, where she looked five. In her hands, she carried a blueberry pie.

  She smiled at him, "Hey, Will."

  Confused, he waved back, "Hey."

  She handed him the pie, "Right, this is for you, Will. How have you been? We haven't seen each other in a while."

  He took it and looked down at it, "Last time we met?"

  She sat down besides him, "Silly. It was last month. Don't you remember?"

  He looked at her face. Although it was still blurry like before, it was a little better. At least, he could see her eye color now. It was purple, just like her hair. It was weird, actually seeing a purple eye. Like, something up the uncanny valley. He shook his thoughts away and answered, "I've been doing well... I guess."

  She smiled at him, tilting her head, "That's great. What about your relationships? Is it like before? Do you still have only three friends?"

  His eyes widened. Is she talking about Hannah, Aria, and Raven? He chuckled a little, "No. I only have two meaningful relationships now."

  The girl clicked her tongue, "I thought you would have more friends in this life. I guess not. Who are they?"

  He smiled and looked over to the lake, "The first is Sarah. She's our maid but she's more like my mother nowadays. She's been caring for me since, well, since I was born. The other one's my girlfriend. We've been friends since I was 4 and we've been in a relationship for 3 months now."

  She stared at him, her eyes wide. "You? Have a girlfriend? My little Will have finally grown up."

  He looked at her and after a moment of contemplating, he asked, "So, why can't I remember you?"

  She hesitated for a moment before shaking her head, "It's not time for you to remember yet, Will."

  He stared, unblinking, "Even if I don't remember, I can infer what happened. I probably had trauma. It should be related to my parents. So either my parents died in an accident and I was the only survivor or they were killed in front of me."

  She clicked her tongue again, "Damn you and your brain, Will."

  "Tell me. Why isn't it time for me to remember?"

  "You'll be destroyed if you remember. Even if you think you're ready, you'll still feel the shock and grief if you remember. You're not emotionally mature enough yet."

  He nodded then, "I see. Then what are you?"

  She smiled, "What do you think?"

  William shook his head, "I can only see two things you can be. You're either my twin sister, since we're clearly both the same age in our dream, or you're a friend at the orphanage that took care of me."

  She booped his nose, "That's for you to figure out, Will. One hint though, I'm neither."

  "Wha-"

  "It's time for you to wake up, Will." The world twisted and it went dark.