Chapter 001: Unawakening

After receiving terrible grades, I couldn’t help but face-palm and sigh.

All this time wasted away, only to feel bad about myself. Was university worth it? Am I a failure?

Still, I was always at the top of my class before, effortlessly at that.

It’s just that… Learning so much content by heart and by my lonesome isn’t for me.

I get up and walk to my fridge, barely two meters away from my desk, my bed and everything else in my tiny dorm room that smelled stale.

“Nothing much in there…” I sigh.

I prepare to go out and buy groceries, I take my metro pass, a bag and my wallet and go out.

Entering the subway, I still feel like shit. But starving wouldn’t help. I have done that before, albeit out of laziness. I would always end up motivated by hunger to get my ass into the grocery store.

The doors open to let passengers enter the subway cars, I enter. As the loud noise increases with the acceleration, I doze out.

I get off at my stop and walk a minute until I enter the butcher’s shop.

I get minced meat, chicken, cheese, eggs and yogurts. All anyone ever needs.

“Thank you! Have a good day sir!” The butcher energetically says farewell.

“Have a good evening!” I reply.

I go back home.

This short, uneventful routine doesn’t break the pace of my life.

I enter my room and start eating the steak tartar with some cottage cheese.

Then a small dot in my vision flashes white, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Hah… Again…?” I wonder out loud.

I look out the window towards the blue skies. White dots, tamer, slide across my retina. These are white blood cells’ shadows, visible with bright light against a light background.

But this time, the hundreds upon hundreds of white dots align, forming words.

“What in the?…”

I try to read, but counter-intuitively, moving my eyes around only makes it harder, as the words move with my eyes, making the background move around and breaking my concentration.

Reading without moving my eyeballs, word by word, is excruciating. When I’m done, I almost wonder if I’m crazy.

‘English language display test.’ It wrote.

That’s it.

Did someone nearby make a weird contraption for some sort of VR machine? If that’s it, then congratulations, your machine makes people all around see the output.

When I look again, it’s gone.

“Must have been the wind.” I say in wonder.

I pause before I go read some novels and go to sleep.

…

I see bright white walls, a good distance away from me. I’m inside a pure white room. I look down at my hands and move them normally. There’s not a single odor in this place.

“Huh… A vivid dream, how rare. Alright, keep calm, otherwise I’ll wake up again…”

I try to imagine and make some hot girl from my class appear. A certain Elisa, a Taiwanese transfer student with long raven hair, a beautiful face, a meek personality and a good figure.

She doesn’t appear.

“God damn it…” I curse.

I’m in my underwear anyway, it might be awkward to see her. The same boxers I went to sleep with.

Turning around in the room, I notice something.

On a wall, there’s writing.

“Oh… A game… Where are the turtles then? But I don’t really want to kill turtles though…”

Soon after, a black door with a crimson handle materializes in front of me, in the wall.

Being uncomfortable in the white room, I take the blood-red door handle in hand and twist it.

The door opens to reveal an empty black space, seemingly the size of a toilet stall, although I couldn’t really estimate the size.

“What…?”

I think I get it.

When I enter and close the door, I’ll appear in the turtle world.

What else?

I try it.

The second I close the black door behind me, geometric patterns light up on the walls, then the next second I see a lake in front of me, a distance away. Overhead are tall trees.

With the sounds of nature all around me and the polished stones around the lake, it seemed like I had entered a serene painting.

As I approach the lake, many tortoises come and go.

The fragrance of pine trees reminded me of my youth.

“There’s no way this is just a dream… It all feels… So vivid.”

A bigger tortoise looks at me and starts croaking to scare me away.

I walk further back.

Still, two hours to kill a tortoise.

If this is a weird dream, then it doesn’t matter what I do. If it’s not, then I better get on with it.

(Bigger was better? Let’s see… I’m almost naked, with no weapons. Still, I could break a branch or grab a rock.)

I doubt a branch would do much, especially when I can’t sharpen it like I’d want.

(Let’s get a big rock.)

I walk around a return to the lake with a rock weighing at least ten kilograms.

“Fuh… Let’s get this over with.”

I had no more doubts that this was reality. Not with the exhaustion settling in and not when I can clearly remember everything from the past.

I was beginning to think I was abducted by aliens.

“Trying to see how easily I obey or something? For… Points? Fuck!”

The same, alpha male tortoise from before comes over and croaks at me.

Its beak could hurt like hell. But its speed and range made it easy prey. Hell, if I pin it from behind, as long as its friends don’t come over, I’ll be fine.

I approach cautiously, step by step, then I lift the rock to my chest, and finally above my head.

“Kruiiii!!!”

“…”

I throw the rock down at its head.

It doesn’t retract itself in time, and gets hit.

“Is it dead…? Or knocked out?”

I walk behind the tortoise and place my foot on its shell, crouch and grab the rock.

To make sure, I lift the rock and bash it at its skull, until the crunches of bone gets softer.

Blood oozes out slowly. Maybe it’s because of the stress, but I feel my lungs burn up with my light asthma. The smell of iron wafted from the blood.

A white door appears. A message is written on it.

“This message… It’s as if it’s taunting me to continue. That this isn’t good enough.”

I didn’t see a bigger tortoise, and my arms are tired. Looking around, many tortoises around me gather and start snapping their beaks.

I’m even getting quite chilly in my underwear.

It’s time to go.

I escape through the white door.

The white door leads back to the white room.

A hologram screen appears.

“…”

Search…? But there’s no shop I can go into?

(I better use the points as if this is the last time I’m in here. Can I get money?)

“Search, money.”

Another hologram appeared, where I could scroll down. It seems relevant searches went on top. By scrolling, I saw many, many currencies. Even… Zeletian dragon bone coins.

I realized that this was some sort of weird joke.

If they can offer anything, how about giving me a better memory? At least that’ll boost my grades like crazy.

“Search, memory.”

Again, many, many options to choose from, with only enhanced memory 1 available to me in terms of cost.

“Then… I’ll take enhanced memory 1.”

The option disappears from the screen.

Nothing else happens.

Maybe I ought to try with something more concrete. I have one point left.

“Search, hammer.”

Many different types of hammers are listed. Clicking on one gives a picture, and even customization options, which cost points.

The best one that costs a single point is the spring steel hammer, a one-handed, all steel hammer with a flat end and a rubber grip.

I click on the ‘purchase’ button on the bottom.

The same hammer pops out of nowhere on the ground.

It seems both voice commands and the interface work.

I grab the hammer. It has a nice weight to it.

“Now what?”

A screen appears.

“Yes…”

…

…

…

Ding Duu Duu Duiii~

I wake up to my phone’s alarm.

I still remember that dream… God, it was terrible.

I get up.

Yup.

A dream. No hammer to be seen anywhere.

I turn on my laptop. I look up when and where my classes are scheduled and prepare my notes, paper and pens.

I eat breakfast real quick with a few eggs and cheese, dress up and go to class.

…

The mundane life I have does not change.

…

…

…

Six days later.

After studying and trying to memorize the schematic of glycolysis, complete with enzyme and molecule names through each step, I notice how well I’m performing.

After drawing the whole thing on a piece of paper twice, I can look away and rewrite it all, almost to perfection.

(What the… What’s with my memory all of a sudden? Did my raw meat diet finally work? I had improvements before, but this…)

Then I remember the last part of that one ‘dream’.

I place my head in my hands.

“No way… No way… But that dream hasn’t happened since…”

With troubling thoughts throughout the evening, I eat dinner and go to sleep after watching anime.

…

I open my eyes. White walls.

“It’s been a week… Will this happen every week?”

A screen appears in front of me, answering. I look around, finding the steel hammer next to my feet.

“… What happens if I die here?”

Challenges don’t get progressively easier. Although the first was easy enough, like some sort of tutorial to get used to violence, I’m not stupid.

“What…? Wait, is this even a dream? Or am I… Transported here?”

“…”

The answers feel short. I stay silent after that last response and look at the wall.

“Survival… Food supplies… Then I’ll have to hunt, or gather nuts and fruit. At least the hammer will help to build the shelter. The flat end should go through wood well enough.”

Where will this happen? In the same forest as before? Somehow, I get the feeling that might not be the case.

Perhaps surviving a whole day means I’ll get sent to somewhere dangerous. A desert? The north pole?

But this is called the ‘Dream World’, so does that mean anything goes?

A black door had already appeared further away.

It seems I can only go there.

Once more, I enter through the door. As I close it, lights around me light up and I teleport away.

Looking around, I’m in an Amazon forest look alike jungle. Humid, dense air carries the sweetness of a pollen.

I could imagine that the biggest dangers here were venomous animals and predators. Perhaps the heat as well, which combined with the humidity already made me feel unwell.

“Alright… I better not move much from here. The more I move, the more danger I’m in.”

I take my hammer and go to a nearby tree.

I look around carefully. Nothing to note.

I start hammering a branch with the sharp end of my hammer, it digs in little by little.

Still, if I knew this would happen, I’d have gotten an axe instead.

Suddenly, a small but long green thing falls on to me and bites my arm.

“AH!”

I swing my arm a few times and it falls off, then slithers away.

A leaf-green snake.

“Shit, it hurts!”

It’s definitely venomous. Such bad luck. I didn’t even see it, its camouflage is too good.

I take the wound to my mouth and suck the blood and venom out.

Thankfully I can reach the wound with my mouth, otherwise, I might have died just like that. Or I would have needed to scrape off my flesh with the hammer, which would be by far the most painful thing I would ever have to suffer.

After spitting out blood five times, I feel a bit better, but light-headed. Thankfully I was able to act almost immediately after the bite.

“I wish I could drink water…”

The snake isn’t far.

I don’t have the strength to work on the shelter anymore. The heat is getting to me.

I did not have time to adapt to it.

I start walking to the opposite direction of the snake, slowly.

(I’m still light-headed. It’s only been 24 minutes or something since I got here. This is going to be hard.)

“I don’t want to die…”

I start hearing the sound of running water.

(No, it’s a waterfall…)

I continue towards that rumbling noise.

Step by step, I walk through the trees and dense vegetation.

It’s hot, humid and I feel sick.

I arrive to the waterfall. The water looks pristine.

No animals in sight. I walk to the river, sit down and wash my hands, then take a handful of water to drink from.

“Ah… Much better.”

At the third drink, I put my hands in the water for one last sip.

“AHH!”

A sharp pain hits my hand.

I take my hand out immediately.

It’s a fish!

I step away from the river, grab my hammer, place my hand on the ground, and hammer the fish.

It lets go of my hand.

I have a nasty bite between my thumb and my index finger, making me bleed even more.

(How fucking aggressive are these fish around here!?)

God, if I had to survive here a week, I’d die. I thought I’d do well after seeing many hours of survival and primitive technology videos. Things aren’t so easy.

If only I had a shirt I would tear it into bandages.

The only ‘supply’ I have is this small dead fish.

However the good news is that I could probably repeat the feat with this fish species in a safer way, and farm for points.

(Each one has its worth in points, right?)

I rest there, and stop moving much, just looking around, behind me for any movement.

No crocodiles spotted. No panthers. No monkeys.

For now, it seems okay.

The dense vegetation makes it hard to even reach the river, especially without making a sound. So I should be fine with just my ears, if not for the waterfall.

With that thought in mind, I walk down the river, slowly, after going through reeds and bushes. I take the fish and hammer with me.

When the sound of the waterfall isn’t too much anymore, I stop.

“This far is good enough.”

Deep inside, my stomach starts hurting.

“It’s the river water, isn’t it?”

I now feel even worse. I probably have diarrhea. Or worse.

It’s probably been two hours now. I have to start earning points, otherwise the next time I’m here, it will be the last.

(For the shelter, I’ll break reeds.)

I cut some away with the hammer, keeping two with pointy ends for defense.

The definition of a shelter isn’t too restraining.

I’ve decided to just use reeds for the roof and walls, with small pieces sticking out as defense.

I work slowly.

After a while, it seems I have enough for the defensive spikes. I move towards a large bush, push it and start hitting its main trunk. After 15 minutes, I break through it. I lift the bush and move it at the one spot where the vegetation is thinner.

There will be noise if something comes.

I start planting the reed spikes in a large circle.

By the time I’m done, I feel somewhat hungry and sick.

“I could eat the fish raw, but I don’t feel like eating either…”

I go sit back down and break off reeds.

After a while, I get hungry again. I wash my hands and the fish real quick in the river, making sure nothing gets near me.

I hammer the fish skin open and bite into it.

The taste is mild, but this isn’t pleasant. The warmth of the forest, the fishy taste, my unwellness… It’s all too much.

I finish eating whatever I can.

My stomach feels terrible. Hopefully I can digest some of it.

I go back to breaking off reeds.

After a while, I start planting reeds down in a tent shape.

I make good progress and continue at it.

…

It’s almost nightfall.

I somehow finished up my reed tent. It barely fits me inside, but I’m happy with it.

After I squeeze in, I can hammer a few more reeds to close off my tent in all directions.

Sadly, a small snake could fit through, but I’ll just have to pray I can sleep in peace.

In the beginning, I had hoped I’d just pull an all-nighter to get more points, but with the snake and fish bites and the river water infection, I’m at my limit.

I take the remains of the fish and bury them to hide the scent. I’ll use those remains as bait tomorrow.

I lay down and quickly fall asleep on the dirt.

It’s warm enough that I don’t need a blanket. Hopefully I don’t catch a cold on top of everything else.

…

I wake up while it’s still dark, hearing a loud bushy noise.

That’s for sure the sound of the big bush I removed and placed away.

There’s something big out there!

I grab my hammer and then I don’t move a muscle.

I hear steps going further away so I relax.

Maybe… It was just an animal trying to reach the river. I did block what could have been an animal’s path.

I’m dead tired.

I fall back asleep.

…

The sound of birds gets louder, and I wake up to a few sun rays shining through my tent.

It’s morning.

I sit on my butt. The ground sure wasn’t the most pleasant thing to sleep on.

I look around. The tent is fine and nothing bit me in my sleep.

With this, I ought to be fine. I open up my reed shelter and get up.

I stretch around, cracking my articulations.

My stomach feels better. My wounds… Are beginning to fester, but actual serious side effects won’t happen until after I leave this place.

I dig out the fish remains.

I grab a reed, split it in three and place the fish remains inside.

The goal is to bait some fish on the very shallow part of the river and whack them with the hammer.

I go to the river and do just that.

After a while, another biting fish appears, lured by the smell.

I lift up the hammer. It flees. I wait, and it comes back, wanting to bite at the end of the reed. It latches on. I lift the reed and it stays on there. I whack the reed on the ground, the fish starts flopping around, then I whack it with the hammer… It’s dead.

“That went well.”

I repeat this, over and over again, until the white door appears.

I use the reed as a stick to help myself up and immediately walk through the white door.

I walk slowly, exhausted.

My surroundings change.

My wounds are still there in the white room. But the stick is gone.

“Hey, can you heal my wounds? Does that cost points?”

It seems my wounds were there to stay.

“Search for healing.”

Enhanced regeneration seemed really good, but I decided to search more carefully for other things first.

Actually, if only I could have bought regeneration instead of memory enhancement, I might have been much better off.

(But…)

“Hey, can I use my points right after the mission announcement?”

“…”

Alright, then I’ll only use enough to heal myself back up.

“Search, regeneration.”

This gets me back the same results as before.

“Search, disinfection.”

Immune system, that’s good. This would also handle viruses, venom, poison and more.

“Purchase enhanced immune system 1 and purification spell 1.”

The options disappear.

Suddenly, a memory appears in the depths of my mind.

I place my hand over my injury on my arm.

“Purify!”

I feel strength leave me. The sickly color also disappears slowly as light shines from my hand onto the wound.

(I only have five points left, I’ll leave them be.)

I wish I could have gotten the enhanced regeneration too, but it’ll have to wait.

“Let me leave.”

I wake up. I still feel groggy.

I look at my arms. The wounds are still there.

“Fuck.”