"What? Didn't I go to sleep just now…?!"
Chrome rose from his sleeping position as he looked around in confusion…
'Strange… Why don't I feel sleepy anymore?'
As far as he remembered, Chrome was sure that he had just gone to bed after staying up till midnight reading his favorite novel. how could he possibly wake up as soon as he fell asleep?!
'Is it one of these nights…?'
Seeing as how the sunlight could be seen through the window that was situated in the far end of his room, Chrome contemplated the possibility that his brain might have been in the state of 'Sleep Misperception', where some regions of his brain would be awake while he was supposedly asleep, at least that was what he knew about it from that article he read due to having such 'Sleepless' nights frequently…
'Why don't I feel sleepy though…'
However, unlike what he was normally used to, waking up to feel that he hadn't slept at all, along with being exhausted. This time, he felt that he just had one of his most comfortable sleeps while only his conscious mind felt like it hadn't slept it at all.
'We are supposed to be on summer break, so why…?'
Other than the strange 'didn't really sleep' thought in his mind, what bothered him was the fact that he had automatically woke up at 8 AM, which was the time he woke up to school at, his mind also kept telling him that he had to go to school today…
'Then… the only logical explanation would be that I'm lucid dreaming!'
Finally coming to a proper answer while disregarding the notion that this was the most realistic lucid dream he has ever had that it didn't really sound right, Chrome accepted that fact as he started thinking about how he should proceed…
'I guess I should follow the dream's intention for now…'
As Chrome had already been on summer break for the last month, and considering the fact that his last year in high school was already finished as he would start going to university soon, he wanted to use this lucid dream as a way to settle his abnormal nostalgia for school days and maybe meet some of his friends…
'This may be a dream, but considering how realistic it is, it should be quite an enjoyable one…'
Thinking again, Chrome had already considered this dream as his mind's own action that started due to his nostalgia. As such, he left his bed, dressed up, took his bag, and left his house after taking the keys with him…
'There is no telling how long this dream would last after all…'
Taking in mind the fact that a lucid dream can last for several days, weeks, or even years, Chrome didn't want to be stranded out of his house, especially in such a strange dream.
Not bothering himself with the fact that there was no one else in the house other than himself as he believed that it would have something to do with something hidden in his subconscious or something, Chrome headed out on his way to school…
`~~`~~`~~`
Not noticing anything unusual on his walk, which only took about ten minutes as the school was quite close to his school, Chrome calmly strolled through the gate as he entered the building his class was in, slowly making his way there…
However, as soon as he entered the classroom and looked around at the familiar faces of his classmates, strange thoughts and fragments of illogical memories started to emerge in his mind, which was similar to how he felt the urge to go to school once he woke up.
Thanks to these strange occurrences, the way he looked at his classmates and his thoughts about them felt different, a certain huge guy that was sitting in the left corner of the class that he didn't have a lot of interactions with, gave rise to some unpleasant feelings, while another girl that sat next to his chair who he never interacted with as he was quite unfamiliar with girls, gave rise to some warm feelings…
'This dream sure has lots of strange elements to it…'
As the thought of this being anything other than a dream didn't make sense with the few inconsistencies it had with his normal day, Chrome disregarded the thoughts that denied that fact as he would only feel perplexed about what was happening, opting to wait and see if this dream would end on its own…
The familiar teacher who was one of the few that didn't give a different impression than the one he was used to for Chrome, Entered the class as he said,
"Hello, Class! I know that you must be cursing me deep inside for bringing you here in your break, but it's out of my hand that the Extra Academy's tests will start in two days, plus I have some pretty good news for you."
Mentioning some strange academy's name that only made Chrome more preplexed, the teacher's words gave Chrome a sense of longing for a reason that he didn't know of yet...
"But teach, you know that most of us aren't awakened yet! It's useless coming here since we can't even take part in the test…", the student sitting in the desk in front of Chrome's said in a sad tone, this classmate was actually Chrome's best school friend…
"Yeah, not everyone is privileged to join the acceptance examination like us, hehe…", the big guy that gave Chrome several unpleasant vibes said sarcastically as he grinned while staring at both Chrome and his friend…
'What's this actually about? Why is he looking at me this way when I have never spoken to this point…?'
"Stay silent Fred! I won't allow you to keep throwing these sarcastic remarks in class...", the teacher frowned as he said to the big guy with slight apparent anger…
"Whatever…"
"... There is also no need to think about it that negatively Bryce, as I just said, the reason I asked you all to come today is to share some good news with all of you," the teacher continued as he smiled towards Bryce, Chrome's friend…
"Now, back to the topic, I will be brief about it since you all know about it from the 'New History' class, but I still need to do an introduction…"
'Hopefully, this would explain something about this weird dream…'
At this point, the belief that 'this was still a dream' was just a delusion that Chrome used to spare himself the panic and overthinking that would come from denying that, so he just waited for what would possibly either explain what was happening or bring an end to this silly hallucination…
The teacher brought a chair that was close to the whiteboard and put it in the place he was standing before sitting and taking a deep breath as he narrated,
"As you all know, humanity is no longer normal, some also believe that we are no longer humans to begin with.
"All of this started 20 years ago, the day when the 'Great happening' took place, specifically during the 'Extraordinary Night', a great light lit up the dark skies as people woke up strangely at the same time, with most of them experiencing an abnormal situations. Situations like back pain disappearance, better body condition, some allergies that were no longer in effect, and other various occurrences…
"After weeks of scientific research and safely experimenting on thousands of people that experienced this abnormality, we were able to ascertain that the source of that was actually a strange energy wave that most of the human bodies have started producing which was likely to be caused by that strange light that lit the sky in the 'Extraordinary Night'...
"These energy waves that were later referred to as Exos was discovered to have a slightly improving effect towards the human body as a whole, giving it a slightly higher strength than normal along with a stronger immunity and other limitedly improved body functions…
"The emergence of Exos brought as an overall improvement as a human society as well, as people have become more productive and creative with the help of Exos, alongside the death rate that was lowered even in the case of older people, one could say that it was a great gift to all humanity.
"However, reportedly 5 years later, on the same day that the 'Extraordinary Night' took place, what was later known as 'Tax Collection' or 'The Day of The Awakening' had once again changed the world that we were barely starting to get used to…
"Certain humans that had a higher Exos productivity rates started to gain superpowers all of the sudden, as what we called 'Gates' started opening all over the world, threatening to return the casualty rate to how it was before the Exos emergence or even worse!"
'Is this really still a dream?!'