The moment Yuuta opened his eyes, he expected to see his room in front of him. But to his surprise, everything was just a shade of black.
"Yeah, I'm blind all right." Yuuta sighed but somehow, he was relieved that Lav Kravia saw him out as he logged out of the VRMMORPG Lucid Dream Server. 'What were her words again? I'll be expecting you soon, master? Seriously, what a strange NPC'
It was already in the middle of the night but Yuuta could tell that his younger sister and his dad were still awake. From the faint sounds coming out of the television and the steady clickety-clack on a computer's keyboard, Yuuta could more or less guess what they were doing.
"Man, it sure feels weird not being able to see now. But I shouldn't get too used to it." Yuuta said to himself as he clicked his tongue once again. "I guess I should go get some water downstairs.
Tap tap tap.
"Ah, here we go again." Yuuta sighed as he went back to his bed.
"Big brother! Big brother! You just logged out of the game, right? Right?" Yui came bursting inside Yuuta's room as she jumped and belly-flopped on her brother's stomach. "Pops and I saw you! You were so cool when you took down that Lav Kravia demoness. Now that I think about it, she was pretty sexy."
Yuuta felt like he wanted to grab a corner for himself and stay holed up in front of it. He did some questionable things in-game and for some reason, his younger sister was aware of it. "How did you know that?" Yuuta couldn't help it anymore.
A grunt escaped his mouth as his younger sister rolled on his stomach. Now, she was lying on her back on top of his stomach. "You were in a video on youtube! One of the top recommendations right now! You've become pretty famous!"
"Wait, what?!" Yuuta exclaimed.
There was no doubt about it. His playthrough was broadcasted on youtube. How else would his younger sister know of it? She must be telling the truth, right?
"In any case, that game, or rather, lucid dream, is pretty well-made," Yuuta commented as he relaxed on her bed. "Who would've thought that the developers actually made a million different first stages for all the beta testers. That means each of us beta testers experienced different tests."
Upon saying that, Yuuta fell into deep thinking. From one of the notifications he received in-game, it was said that he was the first person to pass the first stage. One out of a million is something quite unbelievable.
"Why was I the only one to pass the first test?" Yuuta asked himself.
"Ah, that?" Yui interrupted his line of thought. "It was mentioned in the live stream that everyone received their first test based on their thought patterns. And it's also randomly generated. Technically, they didn't create a million levels. They probably just created different scenarios from games and made a combination or two from them."
"That's understandable."
"But big brother! How were you able to move like that in the game? Were you secretly training martial arts by yourself? Can you teach me?" Yui's eyes sparkled as she finally got away from Yuuta and instead sat on the side of his bed.
"It was reflex, it's nothing special. If you were there, I think you might've done the same." Yuuta smiled. He had kept his secret for so long.
There's no way he's going to reveal it to his sister now, even more so to his father.
Yuuta blinked his eyes. For a moment, he thought that maybe everything that happened in the game was real and he could really see. He held up his hands upwards and squinted. No matter what he did, not a shred of light entered his eyes.
It was just a lucid dream and yet, Yuuta wanted to live there forever, free from the blindness he suffered, and free from the hardships that went along with it. 'If there's a chance that I could see again in real life, then I'll take it. I wonder how much Yui has grown. How about dad? Will he look older by now? I for one got older.' Yuuta smiled to himself as he clenched his fist.
This game, this lucid dream, for sure is the most fun that Yuuta had after all this time.
"You can go back to your room now, I'm going to sleep." Yuuta voiced out, letting out a yawn. Although he couldn't see his sister's reaction, he could tell that she was pouting.
"B-but," Yui uttered but she held it in. She didn't want to sound overbearing to her brother so she decided to just walk away.
"There's an extra futon at the back of my cabinet. Just don't invade my bed when I'm sleeping. I move around a lot and I might kick you to oblivion." Yuuta wore a smile. His sister has always been clingy and as the older brother, he couldn't help but spoil her a little bit. After all, his sister always relied on him as far as he could remember.
Just like that day.
Click!
"Time to sleep," Yuuta said to himself after hearing the lights switch off.
...
The next day was another regular day for Yuuta,
except it wasn't.
The moment he stepped out of the house, he immediately noticed Shiki's presence standing just behind their gate. Shiki rarely goes with him to school and every time he did, it's either there's an occasion or there's something urgent he had to tell him. That's why Yuuta was a bit taken aback by it.
"Yuuta, good morning." Shiki greeted. There was a hint of nervousness in his voice, making Yuuta ask himself what's going on.
And for some reason, Shiki was also darting his head here and there as if he was looking for someone or something.
"Good morning, anything wrong? You sound a bit nervous." Yuuta greeted back as he opened the gate, walked out, and closed the gate behind him.
"Oh about that," Shiki whispered, leaning in nearer towards Yuuta. "You may not believe this but when I looked out the window yesterday, I saw someone weird standing in front of your house. He looks like a man in his thirties or forties, wearing a white suit and white pair of glasses. He also has a white mustache."
"Are you messing with me right now, Shiki?" Yuuta doubtingly asked.
"No, I'm telling you." Shiki persuasively continued. "I saw him last night! He was standing in your doorway as if waiting for something. He wanted to ring the doorbell a couple of times by placing his hand there but he decided not to do it. After that, he looked towards my window and adjusted his glasses He almost saw me!"
"Can't relate." Yuuta sarcastically commented. "If you're done messing with me, we can start walking to school."
"I'm telling you! It's true! After that, a white limousine pulled out in front of your house and he went inside." Shiki continued, apparently not giving up on informing Yuuta who didn't want to believe him. "Is he one of your relatives? If so, then I apologize for calling him weird."
"No, we don't have any relatives like that. Not that I know of." Yuuta confirmed. "Are you sure you weren't dreaming yesterday?"
"No, I swear I wasn't dre— OH! SPEAKING OF DREAMS!" Shiki suddenly excitedly screamed, making Yuuta instinctively flinch due to the volume.
"Stop screaming like that. You know how sensitive my hearing is, right?"
"Right, sorry," Shiki gulped. "In any case, I saw the live stream of Lucid Dream Corporation yesterday! You were in the teaser trailer!"
"How did you know it was me?"
"I'm pretty sure it's you. You and the character in the game looked the same! One hundred percent!"
'So I really look like that in real life, huh.' Yuuta said to himself. "Say, Shiki. Was I always that handsome? I've seen my character in the game and I look pretty good."
"Bro, if I were a girl, I would have fallen for you already!" Shiki excitedly said.
"Stop that, it's gross," Yuuta muttered.
Yuuta didn't know where Shiki's excitement came from but what he didn't know was that his best friend was just overwhelmingly glad that he could see again, even though it was only in the game. Of course, he still couldn't bear the fact that he was the reason for his blindness, but now, his sense of guilt and regret was somewhat momentarily lifted.
"Why are you crying?" Yuuta couldn't help but ask as he heard a stray tear stream down Shiki's cheeks and splashed on his uniform.
"How did you know that?!" Shiki exclaimed. "Still... I'm just glad that you could see again. Once the game comes out, I'll spend all the pocket money I saved up and buy that VR Headgear. That way we can play together."
"It's pretty expensive, you know." Yuuta dared, forming a half-grin on his face.
"Then I'll just have to get some part-time job this summer. How on earth did you become a beta tester of the game anyway?"
"Probably because I was blind, who knows. I was just approached by some weird guy in the streets and he handed it to me. I thought it was some contraband goods at first." Yuuta casually said, ignoring the fact that what he said was actually dark and heavy.
"Hey, Yuuta," Shiki looked up as he placed both his hands at the back of his head. He took a deep breath. "I'm sorr— "
"Don't say it." Yuuta interrupted him.
"You don't have to say it." He continued. After all, what happened that day was not something he regretted doing.