Karan found himself in a boundless dark abyss. He was floating just floating away into nothingness, when a blue hologram appeared before his eyes.
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Do you want to enter Dreamscape?
Yes (Won't be able to log out for 9 hours)
No (You will sleep normally)
_____________________________
He chose the first option. Just because he was curious about what Dreamscape was.
At one moment, he was in the void, and in the next, he found himself standing in a rather weird place.
There was a very dense fog all around him. And most importantly, started to remember who he was.
Didn't I just go to sleep? He thought. He remembered distinctly that he was out on a job, and, tired after a day of work, he went to sleep at his base. He remembered that he was wearing just boxers when he went to bed. Now, he was wearing khaki-colored pants, a white cotton shirt, and black military-style boots.
"What.." He mumbled, looking around. "What happened?"
It is then that a bunch of holograms of blue windows started appearing before his eyes.
_______________________________
DREAMSCAPE INITIALIZATION
Synchronization Complete.
Aether Interface: Stable
Consciousness Anchor: Established
You are alive.
Newbie Starter Time has been assigned.
When the timer reaches zero, termination is going to be immediate.
Death within this space is irreversible.
Survive
_____________________________________.
What in the tarnation.. He was left utterly confused.
"End simulation. Log out," he commanded, but nothing happened.
Well, it was worth a try at least.
The window vanished as he willed it to.
With the windows, slowly the fog started to thin out as well.
Soon Karan found himself standing in a very large city square. He was standing on cobbled ground. The city beyond the square seemed to be made of houses of wood and stone. They looked so ancient, something straight out of history books.
In the middle of the square was a white marble fountain, above which was a very large, blue, cuboid-shaped crystal, floating in the air. Scribbled on all the faces were Commandments in blood red color, which looked rather ominous.
But the thing that left him speechless was the environment itself. There were mountains in the distance, and they were green. The sky was bright blue instead of the faded greyish blue that he was used to. The air itself was so clean and so fresh, it truly felt like a dream.
It is when a flash of light appeared by his side, and a man appeared beside him. The man seemed to be in his middle ages and was wearing clothes similar to his.
"Hello there," the man said, "Do you know what is…" But before the man could continue, the flashes of light started appearing all around them. And before they knew it, the empty city square was filled with people.
It started off as whispers, people talking to each other, trying to understand what was happening. And slowly, mayhem broke out.
Everyone started speaking at the same time, some crying for their families, some panicking, some thinking that they had died.
Karan stayed silent, cause he knew panicking won't help. But at the same time, he was vigilant; he knew that they were in a simulation of sorts. But he could not remember how he ended up here in the first place.
"This is awesome," he heard someone say. He looked over his shoulder, and there he saw some kids, teenagers. They were high-fiving each other.
"We are going to level up like crazy dudes," one of them said.
Level up? Then he remembered his nephew, who talks about role-playing games and other stuff. Personally, he had never played any game, nor did he have any knowledge about them.
Now curious, he made his way to the teenage group.
Karan was standing tall at 6'2, the kids immediately got intimidated by him. "Do you guys have any idea what is happening here?" He asked them,
One of the kids, with a smile, said, "Dont you get it? We have been chosen to go into the fantasy world. We will get to fight demon lords and make a harem,"
Karan raised his eyebrow, "What?"
"Haven't you read any webnovels in your childhood?" one of them asked.
Seeing his clueless face, one of the teenagers answered, "Just wait till you get access to your status window or skill tree or something. There is also a possibility that someone from this world comes and gives you a tutorial on how this world actually works."
Karan didnt understand a word that the boy said. But he did remember that earlier windows vanished because he willed it. No by any verbal or written command.
Status, he commanded, and a blue window appeared before his eyes.
______________________________
PLAYER STATUS
Name: Karan Ahuja
Tag:
VillageNumber: 67
Level: 3
Class: Unassigned
__________________________________
Karan stared at the window for a few seconds, trying to take in whatever was written on it.
Tutorial. He commanded, yet nothing happened this time. At the same time, he also noticed that no one noticed that he had a window open before his eyes.
Karan wanted to know more about what was happening. So he turned around and started heading towards the only signboard that he saw when he got here in the first place.
Several people were already standing near the fountain, reading the text from the crystal when he got there. Before reading the crystal, he looked down into the fountain. He saw black skin, blue eyes, and a shaved head staring back at him. It was his real face. He didnt have a neural transplant, but he had learned that simulation could reflect the real face. It was really weird experiencing it in person.
But it was nothing close to the words scribbled in blood red color on the crystal…