Brrr... Brrrr..
The blaring alarm pierced the silence of the dark room, prompting a groggy hand to fumble for the phone, eventually silencing it.
The device was carelessly tossed aside as the figure stirred from sleep, ruffling his tousled hair.
Stretching languidly, he debated whether to rise or succumb to sleep's embrace once more.
Glancing at the clock, he jolted awake to find it was already 11 a.m., prompting a decision to sate his hunger.
Casting off the blanket, he swung his legs out of bed and made his way to the bathroom, where he turned on the tap.
Cupping water in his hands, he splashed his face to banish drowsiness, then blinked away the remnants of sleep.
However, when his eyes reopened, he found himself surrounded by countless mirrors in a luminous, white expanse.
"Am I still dreaming?" he wondered aloud, searching for any sign of reality beyond the reflective surfaces.
He soon spotted an image of a kid squabbling with his little brother in one mirror.
He chuckled, imagining what happened after his mom found out about the fight. Yes, the child in the image was him.
Then, he noticed a reflection of his 11-year-old self playing volleyball with friends at school in another mirror.
Another mirror revealed his 12-year-old self, tearfully embracing his father after coming in second in his class at the exam ranking.
Memories continued to unfold, each reflected in a different mirror.
He saw a snapshot of his 17-year-old self selling books with friends after finishing his final exams, eager to go to the movie theatre.
As he watched, he felt warmth on his face. Touching his cheek, he realised he was crying.
He wiped away the tears with his hands, but they kept coming.
"My life was so good until I turned 18," he thought as he looked at his childhood memories.
Then he noticed something—there were no memories of him after that age.
He turned around and found the answer to his question.
An 18-year-old version of himself stood alone in a space covered in darkness, a stark contrast to the white space filled with his childhood memories.
He stood at the boundary between light and darkness. He didn't know why or how, but after he became an adult, he changed.
Before, he was a cheerful and mischievous kid who enjoyed every moment of life. But after turning 18, he couldn't feel happiness, no matter what he did.
All he felt was emptiness and solitude. Even though he was surrounded by people, he felt more lonely than when he was alone.
That was when he started having strange dreams about a boy named Vanitas El Darkte.
Every night, he saw different chapters of this character's life in his dreams.
Eventually, he got used to it. But over time, he became restless and felt like he was forgetting something important.
Now, at 21, he was an unemployed youth living alone, far from his parents, searching for jobs.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the darkness slowly consuming his adult self, while cracks began to appear in the mirrors holding his childhood memories.
His heart urged him to move towards the adult, but his legs carried him towards his childhood.
The cracks in the mirrors grew larger, and he started running towards them, leaving his adult self behind to be swallowed by the darkness.
The mirrors with his childhood memories shattered into countless shards, and all he could do was stare blankly as his whole world fell apart.
Soon, cracks appeared in the space where he was standing, and he fell into a pit of white expanse.
"Ahhhhhhh!" he cried out while falling into the void.
He closed his eyes tightly and started mumbling, "This is a dream. Yeah, this must be a dream. There's no way all of this can be true," he said, trying to calm his fear.
After some time, he felt like he was lying down on something instead of falling.
He slowly opened his eyes and found that he was back in his bathroom, lying on the floor.
"Sigh. What a strange way to start the day," he thought as he stood up and stretched.
After finishing his morning routine, he went to the kitchen to find something to eat.
Opening the fridge, he realised it was empty. He facepalmed, remembering he had forgotten to buy vegetables after his job interview yesterday.
Blaming his memory, he went to his bedroom and picked up his phone to place an order.
After ordering some food, he put the phone down and sat on the bed.
While waiting, his eyes fell on a notebook on the desk near his bed. He picked it up and started reading.
The notebook contained the story from his dreams. In the last four years, although he couldn't find happiness in his life, he found solace in these dreams.
So he started craving the story he saw in his sleep. He even tried napping during the day to see if the dream would return, but it only came at night, as if afraid of the light.
At night, he would eagerly sleep to witness new chapters of the character's life, and during the day, he wrote down the dreams in his notebook.
It wasn't a tale of a righteous hero fighting evil or a villain destroying everything to become the strongest.
[ It was the story of a boy who killed himself 19 times to see the person he loved again.
It was the story of a mother who turned against the whole world to protect her son.
It was the story of a goddess reborn as a human to be with the person she loved from afar. ]
He stood up and moved to the computer desk. Pulling the chair back, he sat down and pressed the power button to turn on his computer.
He placed the notebook near the desk and typed on the NetNovel website. Logging into his account, he clicked on the create option.
He decided to publish the story of his nights, wanting to bring it to light.
[ Enter the title of the book: INFINITY: THE LOVE AND VENGEANCE ]
[ Enter the name of the author: ####### ]
Create the first chapter...