In a quiet room, a girl with long black hair and brown eyes was deeply engrossed in her studies when a crow suddenly appeared at her window.
"You're doing exceptionally well," the crow remarked. "I've come to know that no one in the world has completed level three yet. You're the only one who's done it so quickly."
The girl closed her book and responded, "I'm glad to hear that, but level four is overwhelming me. There's so much to handle."
"You just need to strengthen your mental resilience, then you'll manage it," the crow advised before adding, "I have some news for you."
"What is it?" the girl inquired.
"There's a girl from your country who couldn't even complete level one due to intense mental pressure. She transferred the title to someone else," explained the crow.
Curious, the girl asked, "What happened to her after that?"
"Her memory of all this was erased. Remember the boy who died to save you in the Feljil realm? The title was passed on to him randomly," the crow revealed.
"You mean Samiul?" the girl questioned.
"Yes, I'm talking about him. You both had a good relationship there, so I thought I should inform you. Bad part is, he forgot everything because he died in that realm ," the crow said.
"I hope he can progress through the levels quickly," the girl expressed with concern.
The next morning, Samiul woke up screaming. He looks around and thinks, "I am back in reality." Tears come from his eyes. His body was shaking.
"I don't know what's happening to me; it can't be a dream. I feel the pain; I feel the torture, both mentally and physically. What's happening to me?" saying that he fell on the bed. His eyes are wide open.
"No, no, nooooo. I... I can't take it." Samiul thinks.
Nine days later: night time.
Samiul is on top of a ten-story building, looking at the city.
" It's been Eleven days since I started seeing these dreams. Every night I sleep, I die hundreds of times. Nothing could be worse than that. I can't bear this pain any longer. It's better if I die once and for all. I didn't share my problem with anyone because I had no one to share it with. Maybe I have people to share my problem with; it's my mom, but I don't want to share it with her. I am sorry, mom, dad, Tanvir, and no one."
He was preparing to jump and commit suicide.
"What do you think you are doing, kid?" A voice came from behind.
Shamiul turned back and said, "Who is there?"" and saw nothing.
A crow came from a tree.
" What? Talking crow? Am I still dreaming?" Says Samiul
"No, it's not a dream kid; I am a real crow and talking. And I know exactly what is happening to you," says the crow.
" What? What do you mean?" Says Samiul.
"I'll start by saying, remove any thoughts of suicide from your mind. It won't help you. Suicide is a grave sin, and the consequences are worse than anything you've imagined in your dream," the crow warned solemnly. "And I know how you can escape this nightmare."
Samiul instinctively stepped back, his eyes wide with astonishment. "I... I stepped back. Now tell me, what are you?" he stammered.
" I am a crow as you can see, but I am not actually a crow. I am an angel, if I introduce myself... " the crow starts saying then Samiul interrupts.
"An... angel? What do you mean?" Samiul asked,
"Please, stop asking the same questions, interrupting my words. Let me explain properly. If you keep interrupting, you'll never understand," the crow insisted.
"Okay, please tell me what's happening to me," Samiul requested, his voice tinged with desperation.
"The story begins long ago when the only intelligent creations in the universe were Angels and God. Adam was created after the angels.
God formed Adam from soil and instructed the angels to honor and respect Adam, declaring him superior to angels..." The crow trailed off, suddenly stopping mid-sentence. "Ah, I seem to have forgotten the rest of the story. How silly of me."
"Why did you stop?" Samiul asked, curious.
"For no particular reason. By the way, I'm Lu-12," the crow introduced itself.
"Huh? What kind of name is that?" Samiul questioned.
"Well, that's my name. It's more like a code," Lu-12 explained.
"What?" Samiul responded, still puzzled.
"Okay, okay. I should tell you what's happening to you first," Lu-12 said, refocusing.
"The Devil King, who has plans to make humanity worship him, has been freed from his cage. After six thousand years of imprisonment in another dimension, he aims to instill fear by killing people, with the ultimate goal of making humans worship him," Lu-12 elaborated.
"I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you're talking about," Samiul admitted.
"Could you please stay silent? You're not giving me a chance to explain," Lu-12 requested, frustrated with the interruptions.
"I am sorry; please continue," says Samiul.
"Ok, so the thing is, angels are not allowed to fight, and the reason The Devil King wants to make a human warship is because he thinks he is superior to humans.
For that specific reason, angels are not allowed to fight with him in this war. So the angel decided to make some human warriors fight with this, and you are one of them whom the supreme angel chose. There are thousands of people like you all over the world who are facing the same thing as you.
To be specific, these dreams are for two good reasons. First, in this dream, you are being killed thousands of times in different ways, which can make you less interested in life so that you can gather enough will to fight with Devils, where we have only a 10% chance of winning.
The second reason is that this is not a dream of torture alone. It's like a level. You are still shucked at level 1 because you didn't get what was happening," says Lu-12.
" Level? Level 1? What?" Says Samiul
"Yas, see, you are being tortured these days; you didn't even try to escape or get out of the area after you found out it was a dream. You saw some portals, right? Those portals are gateways to levels. For level 1, you are supposed to defeat the three monsters who are attacking you, then get inside the portal, and then there comes the second level. There are five levels, and if you pass all of them, then you will be able to escape the dream and become an angelic warrior," says Lu 12.
"Oh, I see. It's like a game. But why me? I am a weak guy. There is no way I will beat those monsters," says Samiul.
"You became a lot stronger than you used to be ten days ago. The problem is, you didn't notice, and about the question 'why you' the answer would be: You chose it by yourself," says the crow and suddenly disappeared in a blink of his eyes.
A few moments later—
Samiul's house. The doorbell rings. Tanvir opens the door.
"Mom, brother's home," Tanvir announces upon seeing Samiul.
Tanisa emerges with concern. "Where have you been? You went out this afternoon, and it's 9:19 PM now."
"Mom, I was... um... I mean, I was outside," Samiul stammers, then heads upstairs to his room.
"Mom, something's off about my brother lately. He seems really strange," Tanvir confides in Tanisa.
"Hmm, he's been acting differently for the past few days. I've asked, but he keeps avoiding the topic," Tanisa replies thoughtfully.
---
In his room, Samiul sits with his head in his hands, contemplating. "Am I losing it? Today, I was about to do something drastic. What if I had actually jumped? I'd be a fool."
He lies down on his bed, reflecting further. "What the crow said... it's sinking in. These realistic dreams are proof of something."
Standing up, Samiul looks at himself in the mirror and notices subtle changes in his body. "Yeah, the crow was onto something. I can see these changes. Maybe this level system is real. If I can complete the level he mentioned, maybe I can escape this dream," he concludes to himself.
Samiul's mom enters the room and asks, "Aren't you going to eat?"
"Just a moment, I'll be there," Samiul replies.
"Samiul, are you sure everything's okay? You don't seem yourself," Tanisa inquires with concern.
"Mom, I'm fine. Really, nothing's wrong," Samiul reassures her.
After eating dinner, he comes back to his room.
He lies on his bed, prepares to sleep, and thinks, "This is the only time I really want to sleep in the past few days."
He closes his eyes with the intention of sleeping to see the dream.
In an instant, he found himself in that dream again.
The monster started getting outside from the blood pond.
"Alright, first I have to get out of this piller and rope, then run toward the portal, huh?" thinks Samiul, who tries to pull his hands out of it, but the rope is so strong that it doesn't help.
One monster directly sliced Samiul from the middle.
He regenerated again, but before he could react, they started torturing him without stopping. The scream of his consciousness echoed all over the surface.