Leavenworth, USA
With a tinge of redness slipping out from the horizon, the ridges and mountains around the town welcomed the morning sun. The mountains were still the same, yet hardly anyone had come here in the last year. Well, they had a regular customer. The silence of the night had been broken not only by sunrise but also by the painful moans of a man in his twenties.
Aldrich had been holding his head, and one could hear the heavy groans now and then around him.
"Damn, my head! Ahhh…!" The pain was just too much to bear for a single person.
But out of nowhere, a greenish light had blanketed him. And Aldrich felt like someone had erased his pain using a rubber.
'What? How?' The sudden relief was pleasant, pleasant enough for a normal person to take solace in the chilly morning. But he wouldn't be Aldrich Guo if he did not ask the right question at the right time.
Aldrich looked at the rising sun, but the sun looked eerily blurred. He realized there was a screen between him and the world beyond.
[…
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…]
Aldrich saw the message hoping it must have been some kind of prank. But except for the silence of the mountains, there was no one else. One more thing caught his attention, there were no traces of the campfire and his tent. The message on the screen kept flashing, but Aldrich wasn't a whimsical person. Everything else would have to wait until he finds out what had been going on.
Aldrich didn't have his mobile and wallet on him, so he went down the ridge and walked back to the town. Aldrich could see the pamphlets to join some Guild here and there. The traffic and running people were still the same, but the cheery atmosphere had felt dampened.
Reining over his curiosity, Aldrich hurried towards home. But suddenly his gaze fell on the newspaper in the hands of an old man. The way Aldrich had snatched the newspaper out of his hands had frightened the old man, and he involuntarily took several steps back.
'How can this be?' there was only one thought in Aldrich's mind. 'Just for how long have I been sleeping?'
"1 June 2021, Tuesday"
Aldrich shoved the newspaper back to the old man and asked, "What date is today?"
"What are you? Mad?"
"Tell me," Aldrich narrowed his eyes towards the old man. It already scared the old man a little, now seeing the young man's murderous eyes, and an even more horrifying thought surfaced in his mind.
'Is he one of them? Damn it, my rotten luck,' the old man cursed, but a smile had already planted itself on his face.
"Haha young man, don't be mad. I have a case of poor eyesight. I am just an old man. Yes, yes! Date, it's as the newspaper says, 1 June 2021. Please don't be angry."
Seeing the old man so nervous with his shaky hands, Aldrich realized that this old man must have some misunderstanding. But there were more important things than to improve his stupid impression.
Aldrich ran towards his home. An uneasy feeling had anchored itself in his heart, thinking of his parents. Soon, Aldrich saw a familiar face. The old man didn't look tired, but anybody could feel the turmoil in his emotions by the way he kept stopping while cleaning the front door.
Aldrich approached the old man, and his throat felt inhumanly dry.
"Fa… Father?"
The old man jolted by the sudden call. He turned back, but an inconceivable thought had already occupied his mind.
The cleaning cloth fell out of his hands, and by the time its wetness dampened the floor, the father and son were already glued in a long-awaited embrace.
"I am sorry father, it must have been hard on you." Aldrich apologized, cleaning his teary eyes.
"It's ok, it's ok. Let's first meet your mother. We will talk later."
Mr. Ben held Aldrich's hand and took him upstairs. It almost felt like the old man was afraid that Aldrich would disappear otherwise.
"Sarah, look who's here." Mr. Ben shouted as soon as he entered the upper floor.
Aldrich's mother feebly walked out of the bedroom, looking even more haggard than her husband. Mrs. Guo gasped in shock and approached Aldrich in a trance. The tips of her fingers traced the curves of Aldrich's face.
"My son… our son." More words couldn't come out of her mouth, but she had somehow found the strength to hug Aldrich.
An hour later, Aldrich told them almost everything that happened, only leaving a few details out of the context. It baffled the couple, imagining the turn of events that had taken place.
"Just thank God that you came back at last. First, we thought you were like the other Dreamers, but then you didn't return even after a month. And Boomie, son, contact him."
Mr. Ben completed his wife's words and said, "He had been going into those mountains almost weekly. We have told him to take a rest. It's hard enough, seeing that he has become a big celebrity now."
Aldrich had also got the gist of things that had happened in the last year. But many things needed to be sorted out by analyzing himself.
"Mom, I am going to have some rest, and I am hungry."
"Ah! I forgot to even ask. Let me prepare your favorite dish." Aldrich's mother ran to the kitchen and, seeing her cheerful face, even Mr. Ben's face had gained some color.
"I will be in the shop. Come and find me later."
"Dad, just for some time, don't tell anyone about my return," Aldrich told his father and closed his eyes in deep contemplation.
Mr. Ben couldn't fathom any explanation of this sudden request. But there had been moments like these in the past when Aldrich had turned into another person entirely.
"Okay, but you must tell Boomie as soon as you can."
Aldrich went to his room and searched the internet. The articles related to Dreamers, the Night, the Guilds, and the Dungeons had flooded the whole thing.
'Find which Dungeon might be your next Random-Allocation!!!'
'Want to join the Blazing Royal Guild?! Submit your DCR (Dungeon Clearance Rate) here.'
'Finding it difficult to survive in Dungeons? Watch Brea Grill's complete guide on how to survive the Crawlers and Climate.'
'Don't be a burden on your Party Members and buy a Common-Rank Healing potion from ADA today.'
Thousands of similar advertisements and videos had left behind the traditional news and promotions on the internet. But among the plethora of hocus-pocus, Aldrich had chanced upon the dark side of things, too.