A twenty-year-old dude was sitting in the chair facing a birthday cake in his lap; daze, haggard, sad, shaking, quiet, and finally alone.
The letters in the cake were, "Happy Birthday John [20]. Love, Mom and Dad." The cake was shaped like a triangle and was just big enough for a family of three to each have a small slice. The cream was thin with little toppings and the cake was beginning to soften from his tears.
Most important of all, on this day the young adult, John Smith, was suddenly forced to mature. He, as the only son of his parents, has received gentle love and care from his parents' guidance.
On this very same day, he had seen with his very own eyes. Touched, with his own hands and saw the dying breath of his mother and father in his arm. He can no longer see, living, in the far future. Like fogs, his sad mind clouded his thinking process. He finally fainted. From now on, he is truly alone in this whole world without a parent's guidance.
- - -
By the time he woke up. It was already 1:34 pm in the afternoon. He had a strange dream, it all started when he was playing a game that his parents bought him for his birthday.
In his dream, he saw the future. He was experiencing the up and downs of the real world. He closed up his heart and kept playing the game in memory of his mother and father's last gifts as the last method to set himself free.
He can perfectly remember the days and years spend playing the game. At the beginning of the game, he spends most of his time playing alone by himself. By the end of the first year, he finally forms a solid party of six that he could call a substitute family. By then, his gaming skills were already way beyond an average player, elite.
In the second year, the voice of resentments begins and conflict escalates quickly over time due to drops and precious equipment. A week later, the party split their way leaving only two honest buddies in the original party, he and the party leader.
Together, both work hard together to progress in the game along with many random players in the passing three years.
His talent as a gamer truly shown itself to the world. He surpassed the elite players by a few notches. Even his party leader can't catch up to his performance any longer. Finally, he was on his own again.
It was not until a chance meeting at the Undead Grave that he met his soulmate. A desolate figure was wandering alone carrying a huge ax, not fit for a lady. Her face was filled with emptiness, a disparity like his own.
He could only console her with a small accessory that he got while back in the beginning. It was the very first item that he had gotten that gave him the courage to move on. A unique item that allows a user to seal a level one monster in the accessory acting as a tamed monster.
The monster sealed inside was a unique slime that is unlike any other slime. It was the only slime available in the whole game. The slime had great potential, but it was too lazy unless it was necessary to move. It also shapes like a small basketball with a firm membrane, unlike a typical droopy slime.
Other than this first meeting, they continued to see each other by coincidence, or not. It wasn't long that they chance upon a quest to party together that they finally stayed as a party.
He became the party leader while she, a member. Without complaints, she follows him with the slimeball in hand. Sometimes, she would habitually rub the top of the slimeball. Sometimes she would squeeze the slimeball as if playing with it.
This leisure time, though a bit awkward between the pair, they stayed as a party for the next five years.
Silently, they became lovers. Slowly, they begin to depend on each other. Finally, their loneliness begins to heal.
In the end, they married and had a little baby girl. They had achieved something never imagined, a family that they could call their own. The day that their baby girl was born was the happiest day for both of them.
Their life continues in peace in the following years, until that night. He and his family slept together. Silently, the scene of the dream ended there abruptly and he woke up. He went through the dream-like movie, but it was as long as every year that went by.
He remained confused until the end. Was the dream truly his future or is it just his brain consolating his desperate mind? No, he felt that the dream is too real for it to be just a dream.
However, for whatever reason, he could not help but be angry at something. He had a bugging feeling that something was very off by the last part of the dream that night. He let his emotion from the dream to take over his rationality, so he impatiently enter the game. Thus, end chapter one.