A regular human whose body form is unknown is sitting while looking at a large screen showing something. He is alone at the moment and appears to be watching dozens of TV broadcasts simultaneously. That human is myself, my name is Joe Walker.
Without any explained reason, I suddenly woke up in this dark place. Strangely, I only remember simple things and experiences I have learned. However, I cannot recall any memories from my past.
I was only told by a mysterious masked man that I am already dead. He said that I made an agreement with someone that put me in this position now. However, I cannot remember the agreement I made.
I thought I was being deceived, but I seem not to care. I can live peacefully here without thinking about food, money, work, love, and other things. It is very calm, peaceful, and serene here without any conflicts that can happen or be created. Because there is only myself living here.
Wait... Is this really the life I want?
Hmm, i think... I don't really care about that, so I'll just continue like this. Sitting quietly in this room while watching memories of living beings from many different dimensions.
I can even see the memories of a shark and an alien! Isn't this amazing? Yes, it's truly amazing. It's amazing if I overlook the strange feeling I often feel every moment.
I don't know how long I lazed around in that room. I tried to change the atmosphere by transforming the room into various shapes according to my imagination, but this feeling is truly disturbing. This feeling is clearly loneliness. I realized that since the first time I was here.
However, several times the masked man came to visit me and asked me, "today, what do you want to do?"
What a weird question! I mean, I don't even have a clock to know what time it is.
Oh, why don't I just make a clock myself?
I then created a clock with my imagination and with the help of the mysterious man who often visited. It turns out that in heaven, there is a special clock there. I asked the mysterious man to synchronize the clocks.
But it feels strange for me to use this clock. Because this clock has a different time rule than what I know.
In one day, there are 100 hours, in 1 hour there are 100 minutes, in 1 minute there are 100 seconds, and so on to the lowest level of time. One day already spends 1,000,000 seconds here, more precisely a ratio of 11,57 days equivalent to one day in the world I knew before.
It seems like God is too busy that He created such a simple clock. But considering that the concept of time does not work where I am, I realize that it is useless.
The mysterious man also said that the clock is just a reminder of when it's time to rest and work.
Doesn't the angel sound like an office worker? I just knew this, no... I never even imagined it throughout my life, I am sure of that.
By the way, I have been watching TV all this time. It might be a bit wrong to call it a TV, because what I see now are memories from one of the unknown creatures.
It seems this person was born as a hall rabbit-human? What am I witnessing right now?
Hey, wait, a rabbit laying eggs? Hey, who created this strange world? Since when do rabbits lay eggs? Do they really lay eggs? Am I wrong? No, rabbits don't lay eggs!
It seems like this person lives in a different dimension from the dimension where I lived before I died. Are all different dimensions always as strange as this?
Let's see another one, this is too strange.
Hmm... Giant crabs?half Scorpion-humans? Dinosaurs working in an office like regular humans? Oh... There are some dimensions that do not have human races in them. Why is everything so strange? No, there must be some that look normal. It's impossible that out of the countless number of dimensions, only one is similar to my previous world.
If logically thought, all possibilities that happen will always have something close to each other. There may be differences in some aspects, but there must be something slightly similar.
I keep searching because of my strong curiosity. Until I didn't realize that the masked man came to visit me.
"Nice to meet you again, Mr. Joe."
"Yeah, can you please be quiet for a moment, I am so serious right now."
"What are you doing? I have been watching your activities for several hours now. You have been staring at those screens non-stop for 3.461 hours 87 minutes and 89 seconds. Are you okay?"
"You are quite creepy, stop giving me detailed information about how long I have been doing something. And you yourself said that here we won't feel any fatigue or something like that."
"Oh, right..."
"How can you be an angel with your intelligence like that?"
"I don't know either, is that a compliment?"
"Of course not! How clueless you are!?"
"Is that... normal? I just got emotions, so I don't quite understand, right?"
"Why are you asking me back? Sebastian?"
"Sebastian? Did you call me? But that's not my name."
"So what's your name?"
"My name? Hmm, I don't know?"
"In that case, from now on, your name is Sebastian!"
"Why?"
"To make it easier for me."
"Oh, if that helps you, go ahead."
"Thank you, and please be quiet for a moment."
The mysterious man now has a name, Sebastian. I chose that name because it sounds cool to me.
After that, I focused on the memories of countless creatures and searched for what I desired.
I felt annoyed because Sebastian had been watching me silently all this time. Doesn't he have other things to do? Oh yes, it seems he's not busy.
"Sebastian!"
"Why are you calling my new name like that?"
"Can you help me, please?" I said with a pleading tone. Ugh, disgusting, stop... There's nothing cool about that. But oh well, there's no one else here.
While the mysterious man began to help me, the voice of another mysterious person echoed. Before that, why did I change "Sebastian" back to "the mysterious man" again?
"It's because of me, sorry for confusing you."
The voice echoed in my head, and I didn't understand who it was.
"Who are you!? Who's there? There? I mean, who's in my head? It sounds weird. It seems... Hmm," I looked serious in thought.
"Oh, damn... I accidentally made this character into a comedy character."
"Hey, wait, that's not anyone, that's the voice inside my own head. That's me! Oh damn, why am I like this?"
"Stop talking to yourself! Wait, why am I getting angry at someone else instead? Oh well, for now, I'll focus."
Wait a minute... What am I doing right now? Focusing on finding memories of creatures living in a seemingly normal world? And then what? Just watching them?
Suddenly, Sebastian asked, "Mr. Joe, what are you going to do today?"
"There it is again, that question! Why do you ask that every time you visit?"
"I'm just asking, are you bothered by it?"
"That's not the issue, I just think you expect something from me."
"..."
"Why are you silent? Am I right?"
"Well..."
I felt something unpleasant. I decided to stop Sebastian from speaking.
"No no no no, wait a moment."
"Why?"
"Just wait, it's better to keep it to yourself."
"Why?"
"I feel like the plot will get serious. I don't want my life to be disrupted by a serious plot!"
"What do you mean?"
"Never mind, just be quiet."
"But..."
"No! Just be quiet and help me find what I'm looking for right now."
"...alright."
Finally, he complied with my request. That's right, just like that. You and I will do this boring activity forever. I don't feel sorry for myself at all! This freedom is more enjoyable than living in suffering and sacrifice. Although this freedom is also a symbol of loneliness and solitude.
After a few minutes, Sebastian started asking, "By the way, what are you looking for?"
"Why didn't you ask that earlier!?"
"I thought you would tell me. So I was waiting..."
I sighed and asked, "So, what have you been doing all this time?"
"I'm not sorting memories, but something else."
"Something else?"
"Yeah, I'm giving dreams to some living beings."
"Dreams? Why?"
"I don't know, it's quite enjoyable to see the happiness of an individual who is alive. Even though it's only in a dream, their happiness feels real."
"Oh, how do you do it? Can I do it too?"
"Of course, you can, you are the owner of this special room. Basically, you are an 'outer god' with that authority."
"So, how can I do it?"
"Right now, you can't."
"Why?"
"Don't you reject the authority of the 'outer god'?"
"When?... Ah, you mean when you wanted to tell me something earlier?"
"Yes, you rejected it, right? So I'm the one holding that authority now."
"Give it to me now..."
"Huh? Don't you not want it?"
"Come on, give it to me now! I'm the original owner, right?"
"That's true, but..."
"Just give it to me."
"...sigh," Sebastian sighed and placed his left hand on my head, emitting a light that made my eyes feel dazzled.
I closed my eyes because of the glare, but when I opened them, I hoped for something cool to happen. But contrary to my expectations, nothing happened to me at all. I thought my body would become strange or bigger to the point of being unrecognizable. But my body still looked normal as usual.
Sebastian asked, "Mr. Joe, do you want to know how to create a dream for someone?"
"Yes, how?"
"You just have to sit and concentrate. Just like I told you before. Everything that happens in this room is according to your imagination. You can do whatever you want as long as you are the owner of this room. Just like when you summon screens showing the memories of living beings. You have to imagine how you can see someone's dream world. After that, you are free to imagine and do anything inside it."
"Oh... Hmm, let me try."
Imagining how I see someone's dream world? How do I imagine it? How...
Do I just have to think the same way as when I want to see the memories of living beings? If so, what I have to do is hope!
Suddenly, the screens he wanted appeared. The screens clearly displayed various individuals.
I saw clearly how the screens showed the dreams of various living beings in different dimensions in front of me. I didn't know which dimension it was from, but one thing is for sure, I felt happy for succeeding.
If all this is true according to my imagination, then I can also enter someone's dream. I have that authority, right? Outer god, I don't care what that is, but it seems fun.
Is this the job I have to do? If it's something like this, I would have done it long ago! Why didn't you tell me from the beginning, Sebastian? I've been bored for quite some time lately.
I smiled because I was happy.
Let's choose one to give a magical touch to.
I searched and found some that were quite strange but interesting. However, none of them were human, I didn't care about that. I tried to find a normal human. And in the end, after searching for 2 hours, I found one.
A man was dreaming in a quite strange world.
Is his world tilted? It's really tilted! And he leaned there casually, ignoring the tilted world. There was only green grass visible. It looked comfortable to visit.
I imagined how I entered the man's dream world and started to close my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I was already behind the man.
It seems like this person doesn't know my presence.
I smiled, the desire to prank him was overwhelming. I made the man's dream chaotic.
I made the weather rainy as I imagined it. I made lightning try to strike him so he would run. I intentionally made sure he didn't get struck by the lightning, I just wanted him to run.
Ahahaha, I couldn't help but laugh in this situation.
But suddenly, I thought, is it okay for me to do this?
Feeling satisfied with pranking the man, I returned to my original place. But before I returned, I gave the man a gift. A mighty and powerful Bull from a mythology I knew, 'minotaur'.
I returned to my original place and saw Sebastian who seemed unaware of what I did. I realized that I didn't actually move physically. Only my soul moved at that moment.
Putting all that aside, I don't care. What's more important is that it's quite fun to waste my time like this! Alright, I'll do what you want me to do. This kind of thing is actually quite enjoyable for me, ahahaha, ehehe.
I start calling Sebastian with my cool voice.
"Sebastian!"
"Yes, what's up?"
"About what you wanted to talk with me earlier."
"Why? I won't talk about it anymore if you don't want to. Let me be the one to ask another 'outer god' and their guide to complete this mission."
I panic, "No no no, let me handle it. It's okay, just leave it to me!"
I can't possibly give this easy task to someone else. Just making someone's dream more exciting, right? Even if there are other specific conditions, I can still enjoy it.
I smile at this moment because I feel happy.
Suddenly, Sebastian says, "Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure! This is easy for me!"
"Alright then, first I will explain to you what you will do."
"No, it's not necessary, I already understand."
"Really? But I don't remember telling you the details of this mission."
"Never mind, just trust me!"
"Hmm, alright, if that's what you want."
Yeah boy! With this, if I make a mistake, it will be Sebastian who is blamed, not me.
If I'm asked 'why did you mess it up?' I can just say that I wasn't told the details of the mission.
Besides, this is just a dream, one or two people having bad dreams won't cause a big problem, right?
Ahaha, am I a genius?
Suddenly, Sebastian says from behind, "well then, goodbye Mr. Joe. I'll be waiting for you in this room while you work on your mission."
"Eh?"
Why he say 'goodbye' to me?
After that, I regretted what I had done.