"I just need to submit this and we're almost done" Dwight muttered to himself. "It's been a few sleepless nights for me and my team, maybe after this, we should eat at the best place in the city. It's quite expensive but I'll treat all of them for me to say thanks."
Dwight is talking about the luxury buffet restaurant called Circle. It costs around $109 a head, which might not sound like much but in the country that Dwight lives in the price is quite substantial. In fact, in Dwight's more than a decade of career he only managed to eat in that place twice, an experience he cannot forget. He ate there by himself back then when he was starting his career to reward himself, the other one is when their company allowed their team lunch to be held there, of course, it's for free.
"You gonna pay for it buddy?" Jett said.
Jett was their CTO, if there's somebody who Dwight will blame for their current predicament. Dwight will blame Jett. However, Dwight understands that they need to do this, Jett promised the release of a product to a client, he promised without asking his developers, and no estimation was done. Dwight was forced just to go with it.
"No, `you'll` pay for it"
"But I'm already giving my money to you guys," Jett said with a slightly funny tone
"You need to pay for the extra work I'm doing, I never saw a SCRUM Master who also codes for his team. Therefore you pay for it" Dwight jokingly said, though, it has some truth in it.
Jett just shrugged it out and proceeded to talk to other members of the team, the team's seats were arranged together just like in a typical open-office space.
"I'm going to PR this Nigel!" Dwight said, he then focused on getting the PR done. PRs or as they were formally called Pull Requests, is a developer's way to integrate their work with the team.
"Alright, no conflicts" and thus he is done. In more ways than one.
Dwight then noticed that the conversations that the CTO is making, and the team's joking around started to fade away. Until he can't hear it anymore. This makes him a little bit relieved since he it's a sign that he will be able to sleep right then and there.
[I can't take it anymore, I need to nap for a bit. Ahh, my stomach is hurting again and I hope this heartburn will go away as I sleep too. I'll never do this again.]
In Dwight's more than a decade career, he always said to himself to never do it again whenever they cram. However, he's still here sacrificing his time and health for what he thinks is for the better.
After all, if the company he is working for succeeds, he will succeed with it. He managed to increase his salary by 15x since he started through promotions, increases, or by a developer's secret way of doing it, resigning and looking for a new company that will pay him better. In short, he is doing this to basically get leverage in the company he works for.
The same could be said for the other developers who were cramming with him.
However,
***
[I'm dreaming huh,] Dwight thought. He didn't sleep for four days after all then after those 4 days of hard work, the last thing he remembers is lying down under his desk. He thought he shouldn't do it, after all, they are not done with their work yet even though it's already past their CEO-defined deadline.
He suddenly found himself in a moderately cool dense forest, with trees of moderate height. Despite that, he feels his sweat starts to stick to his skin. Making him want to remove his current attire. A NASA bomber jacket, a white shirt inside, skinny jeans, and a pair of Jordans. He usually wears this way because his boss likes to turn the AC to the lowest temperature. And he likes the feeling of cold too.
"But isn't this dream feel way too vivid? I guess this is how it is when you cram 5 nights' worth of dreams into one." he can even feel the sensation of tickling in his back, [This never happened to me before, all of these feel awfully real. Maybe I should do a 4-day no-sleep spree so that I can do this again.]
Dwight then had a bright idea, he heard that if you know you're in a dream, you can control that dream. So he then started thinking about banging her office crush that he's been courting for months now. ]I didn't know you can imagine things while in a dream, it's also quite vivid too.[ he thought as he sat up.
[So when will she approach me? Maybe that whole controlling your dreams is a lie. Weird, one of my previous co-workers told me he can do it]
Nothing happened. In fact, it's been way too long since anything happened (when he woke up) it started to worry him a little bit. Dwight then slapped his face, first a weak slap, then finding out nothing changed he slapped it harder, maybe a little too hard. Seeing that he hasn't woke up no matter how hard he tried (He also tried some of his I need to go to work so I need to wake up technique)
[I wonder what's happening maybe I'm not waking up due to that] thinking about the 5 days' worth of sleep he's doing right now.
Dwight then saw what looks like a goblin, 3 of them in fact, he then got awfully curious so he stared at it as if he was frozen.
[They're laughing? Where did this goblin come from? Go*blin Slayer?"
One of the goblins then started running towards him, when it is around a few meters away he lifted what looks like to Dwight is a dagger. Seeing this Dwight was really surprised, this might be a dream but what came to his mind first is to dodge it. However as the goblin ran to him and tried to stab him, Dwight reacted too late and he got nabbed in the side of his right hand.
[Blood?]
The goblin then started laughing at him, along with the other 2 still in the bushes. Dwight doesn't know if they're hiding or just watching their friend kill him, To the goblin who attacked him, he looks quite shocked. Anyone who had a murderous mindset might think he is just a sitting duck.
Thinking about his current situation he believes that the best he can do is to disarm the said goblin. thus he proceeded by squeezing and twisting its wrist as hard as he can. [These goblins while being as small as a child is a little stronger than one.] (Don't ask me how he figured this out). He did all of this while kneeling due to the goblin's height.
He then let go of the goblin, feeling a little bit sorry for it. And to Dwight, not knowing what to do. Dwight noticed that the two goblins are now laughing louder pointing at their friend, well maybe not actually their friend.
The goblin then picked up the dagger again and tried to jump Dwight again. In a sense of panic, Dwight followed what his training told him to do. While in the air, he punched the goblin's unnaturally big head as hard as he can and the goblin fell. He then grabbed one of the goblin's hands and made sure he can't post up on it. Rode the goblin's small back and smothered the goblin with elbows and punches at the back of its head until it is not moving anymore. Anyone who will see this might think that Dwight is a merciless killer, still beating his opponent even though its probably unconscious.
He then want to make sure the goblin is dead, thus, he stomped the goblin's head until the bones of its skull broke and its brain mushed.
The two other goblins stopped laughing and started to look like they were scared. Dwight still prepared to face them. However, they ran away from him.
[Oh no, this one feels way too real, have I actually killed somebody?]
He then felt a slight joy for being somebody he idolizes even for a little while, however, he then felt sorry for the goblin.
[This feels way too real, maybe I should think it's real too. Did I just get Isekai'ed?]
There are a lot of things running through Dwight's mind now. Many of them are pointless, one of them is [Then how is our product? My developers, Patrick? Oh no he didn't know about that thing our PO told us. I'm totally dead with our CTO.] pointless because he later then concluded that if he is actually isekai'ed, then he shouldn't worry about those things, he should worry about his own survival.
[Alright I somehow need to look for settlements, If I saw another goblin maybe I should try to kill it again, if this one carries a dagger then the other ones might have daggers too. I'll grab one's wrist as they stab me then do what I just did to this one.]
[What if there were two? Should I kick them? Make them unconscious? If Goblin Slayer* was to go by then they might stab me on my thigh maybe is should stomp them instead. I should not assume they're stupid also, just not intelligent."
[What if there are three? Should I just run? I'm pretty confident with my cardio]
[Even though there are three of them here and only one attacked doesn't mean the others will do the same.]
[I've also seen goblins attack with ogres or hobgoblins? To me, they're very similar, I should just run too.]
Feeling himself, he then started to calm himself down.
"Sigh, where am I now, I used to like Isekai back in the day but I don't think being Isekai'ed is a good thing. I always thought being Isekai'ed is either a lot of responsibility or just death waiting to happen to you. I haven't met any god either" Dwight muttered to himself.
He doesn't like the idea of being the savior of the world. After all, great power comes with great responsibilities. [I would rather have responsibilities I know I can do rather than have a lot of responsibilities that come with a lot of uncertainties.] after all, if it's his responsibility, if he is the chosen one, it doesn't automatically mean that it will all end up in success. He learned this as he grew up. However,
"Oh god of this world, grant me thy power to save this world from all evil" He muttered while thinking it might actually be quite cool to save the world. Perhaps he is quite divided about it.
-sigh-
[Whatever my purpose here I guess I should just live with it, for the meantime maybe I should look for human settlements if humans still exist here.]
Dwight has this idea that, in a world full of dragons, monsters, demons, and other unimaginable creatures. Humans perhaps won't and can't exist. It just doesn't make sense to him that in worlds where there are creatures just as intelligent or maybe even more intelligent than humans, humans can survive.
And as he looked around him, he can't find any intelligent living beings. No, the goblin doesn't count because he thinks it's not intelligent or alive.
[Now that I think about it, the goblin has a dagger, so maybe humans do exist here, goblins have no use for daggers after all if nobody is hunting them, nor can they make daggers? They also have their private parts covered, so is this also an influence from humans? I never heard monkeys covering their private parts. So I should assume that goblins might be smarter than monkeys at the very least]
So Dwight then grabbed the dagger and examined it. [It even has a sheathe, I don't think that if goblins have daggers they won't sheathe it. Anyway, the dagger's design is very human.]
He continued to look for the things goblins might have. However, he didn't find any point of interest except they look a little bit different from how they looked based on what he already know.
[It might not be a bad idea to carry this with me. However, if I stab a goblin with this, I shouldn't try to pull it off right away. Ahh that makes me able to kill at most 2 goblins if I am confronted".*
Dwight then tried to lift the dead goblin by its head. He tried to decapitate it using the dagger. However, the dagger only managed to cut through the goblin's neck halfway.
"Ahh, so dull, at least it didn't get stuck, maybe I should just really stab things with it."
Dwight would like to test it, however, seeing that the goblin's head is just wrecked, it didn't make sense for him. However, he feels that if he stabs hard enough, the dagger would probably go through because the goblin's skull felt surprisingly brittle to him.
He then heard some goblins running, Dwight was alerted by this but hearing them getting farther away, rather than fighting, he believe he should just get out of this place so he did.
And he then walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, without any destination in mind. Not seeing any signs of humanity.
At this point, he was thinking again about all of the things he can't have anymore. Dwight just earned his SAFe registered scrum master certification. He worked hard for it. All of the luxuries he foregone, his friends, his family, his crush. At least he can probably train just like he used to, but nobody is there to train with him, probably, but boxing needs no training partners.
Dwight just thought about all of the medieval-themed shows and the fantasy shows he thought made sense, thinking about how he could apply them to his current situation.
While walking, he thought about many things until there he ran out of things to think about.