Chapter 40 Dreamscape
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*Ring ring ring*
The alarm rang loudly in the room, a skinny young man slowly reached out his hand to the ringing phone and turned it off.
He slowly sat up and held his head. He furrowed his brows and muttered.
"Did I just have a nightmare..."
He felt extremely uncomfortable as if he had just experienced a terrible dream. He couldn't remember clearly what the dream was about but he only knew that it wasn't good.
"Nhat, come down for breakfast!". From downstairs came a woman's voice.
"Ugh...I know mom! Wait a moment." He responded to his mother's voice.
"Hurry up. The whole family is waiting for you!"
"Yes!!"
He slowly got up from his bed and quickly cleaned himself up. Then he went down to have breakfast with his family.
...
"I'm almost done eating and you're just showing up now?" A young girl spoke with a sarcastic smile.
The boy had just entered the dining room when he heard his sister's sarcastic voice. His eyebrows twitched but quickly relaxed. He had no reason to be mean to his sister, because she was right.
He walked to the dining table, pulled out a chair and sat down. Then he immediately put on a pained expression.
"You're such a heartless younger sister. Something must have happened for me to wake up this late. You don't care about me at all."
"Pfft, stop acting. You always wake up late." The girl interrupted the boy.
"This time it's real. I have a reason for waking up late."
The girl raised her eyebrows when she heard that.
"Stop it, you expect me to believe that?"
And so, the two siblings started arguing as soon as they met.
The middle-aged man was scrolling through his phone, then with a quick glance, he returned his gaze to the screen.
'These two are always like this'. He sighed inwardly.
He was so used to the scene before him that he didn't bother to stop it. He knew that the relationship between the two siblings had always been very good. They might argue very often, but they loved, respected, and protected each other very much.
"Nhat, Nhi. You two should focus on eating. If you keep arguing, the food will get cold and won't taste good anymore." A middle-aged woman was holding a bowl of Pho in her hand and brought it to place in front of her son.
When the woman spoke, the two siblings finally stopped arguing. But their eyes still showed that they still wanted to continue.
"Mom, Nhat said he had a reason for waking up late! Can you believe it? He's always been late, and now he's making up excuses." Nhi said to her mother indignantly.
"Okay, okay. It's a tiny issue, but you two are still determined to argue. Let's stop it here." The mother could only smile bitterly.
"But this time I really have a reason for waking up late! I slept really early yesterday! I shouldn't have woken up late today!" Nhat looked at his mother with a wronged look.
The mother raised her eyebrows when she heard that. She looked at her son with a meaningful gaze.
"You slept early yesterday? You mean you usually stay up late, right?" She smiled and looked at her son, who was frozen in place by her words.
"N-no! I always sleep early...let's eat before it gets cold-"
The boy quickly changed the subject when his mother mentioned sleeping early. He quickly picked up his chopsticks and ate heartily, not caring about anything around him.
The mother looked at him and could only smile bitterly. Then her eyes became serious.
"You're an adult now, so I can't take care of you like when you were little anymore. You have to take care of your own health, you know. Don't stay up late, it's bad for your body."
"...I know." The boy, after a moment of silence, finally responded to his mother's words.
"You too, Nhi. You wake up earlier than your brother, but I know you stay up late too." The mother turned her eyes to her daughter.
"...yes". She didn't know what to say other than to follow her mother's wishes.
"..."
"Okay, you two eat. It won't taste good when it gets cold". The mother spoke.
"Yes...". The two siblings spoke at the same time.
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"I'm going to school. Bye"
Nhi picked up her backpack and said goodbye to her family. She walked out of the house and headed towards the local college.
"I'm going to my room". Nhat said to his parents.
The couple didn't find it strange to hear their son say that. After all, it was the same every day. The father didn't say anything, just turned around and left, starting his daily chores. The mother nodded and said: "Yes, you can go up".
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"Haaaa, I'm so full. What should I do now?"
Minh Nhat lay on the bed after the meal, staring at the ceiling and letting his mind drift.
He was unemployed, so he had nothing to do. In fact, he couldn't do anything properly.
Intellectual work? He's a bit slow in thinking, so...
Physical work? What could he do with a body full of illness?
...
Suddenly, he remembered what his mother had said earlier. An indescribable sadness appeared on his face.
He knew his health better than anyone else. And he knew very well that he wouldn't last much longer. His body had always been weak like that before he became the lazy, freeloading person he was now.
There was a time when he was really worried about his health and tried to train himself. He wanted to be as healthy as everyone else, but then he realized that everything was meaningless.
No matter how hard he tried, his body couldn't get better. It would only get worse if he overworked.
His body was like a single-use battery, the more he used it, the faster it would drain. No matter how many times he went to the doctor, he couldn't find the root cause of the problem.
And the only solution he could think of to prolong the "battery" was to do nothing. He would just lazily live through the day.
But recently, he always felt like he wouldn't last much longer. His intuition told him that it would be 5 years at most.
Although his family didn't know that he only had 5 years left to live, they knew his physical condition. They knew that he couldn't move around and work too much. This was the main reason why they turned a blind eye to his lazy, parasitic actions.
"Haizzz..."
He sighed and looked at his phone screen. He couldn't help but open the novel reading app.
"Guess I'll find something to read to kill time..."
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"Are you sure this is the way?"
A boy and a girl with striking hair in common were quickly moving through the maze.
"I don't know...but I have a feeling it's this way!". The petite girl with orange hair said.
"Alright...I'm counting on you." The boy with red hair replied.
Livy and Briar had been moving together for a while now. They had encountered quite a few traps, but most of them weren't life-threatening. This was probably due to Briar's extremely high luck. And with Briar's quickness, he was completely able to react and deal with the activated traps in a timely manner. Thanks to that, the two of them had been able to move smoothly on the path from just now.
While moving, Livy suddenly stopped for a moment. An unpleasant feeling rose in her heart. Her expression gradually became unsightly as that feeling became more and more obvious.
"What's going on?" Briar stopped beside Livy and asked.
"I have a bad feeling... we have to speed up!" She frowned and resolutely took a step forward, speeding up her pace.
"Huh... okay." Briar quickly chased after Livy.
As time passed, Livy felt more and more uneasy. She had a feeling that it had something to do with Danz.
'Danny's in danger!'
She trusted her intuition, and that made her panic a little.
'Please don't let anything happen, Danny!'
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"That damn nightmare again"
I've been having nightmares over and over again these past few days. Although I don't remember everything clearly, I can be sure that I've been having the same dream.
In my dream, I saw myself transmigrating into a novel, as a supporting character. No, supporting character is an exaggeration, I can only be considered a background character, an NPC.
Then I died and was regressed. It sounded too unreal. But that can't be considered a nightmare, right?
What made it a nightmare was the moment I burned to death in the fire. Even though it was just a dream, I didn't feel any pain, but it was really haunting.
"I must have read too many novels...". I rubbed my temples.
"Okay, let's go down for breakfast."
...
"Nhi, after we eat, let's go shopping together?"
"Hmmm... okay. I'm almost out of foundation, I'll go buy a new one later"
"Now that you mention it, I'm almost out of sunscreen. I think I'll buy one."
'Haha...'
The two of them were talking about cosmetics again.
"Mom. Your skin is already beautiful, but you still have to take good care of it?" I said.
My mother immediately replied.
"Where do you think beautiful skin comes from? I have to take good care of it. If I didn't take care of it, my face would be covered with dark spots by now." My mother grumbled.
"But I don't see any...spots?"
'That's not right...'
'Why can't I see my mother's face clearly?'
My mother's face was blurry now, as if something was covering or blurring it. This sent a chill down my spine.
I quickly glanced at my little sister and father. I was shocked to see that their faces were the same as my mother's.
"What's wrong, Nhat?"
'My mother' saw the panic in my eyes and asked worriedly.
"Ah...no. Nothing. I'm full, I'll go to my room first."
Then I quickly ran back to my room.
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"Why did I only realize it now..."
I recalled the moments I spent with my family. And in them, my family's faces were always unclear. I tried to remember what they looked like but it was useless, I had forgotten what they looked like.
"Haha..."
Nightmare? No. That was the cruel reality. The place I was in now was the real "nightmare".
I remembered everything now. This place was just a dream that I was stuck in when I was about to deal the final blow to the Minotaurus. It seemed that this was what that damned demon left behind. A Minotaurus doesn't have any skills related to illusions, let alone the ability to put people into dreams.
A dream that brings people to a reality that they secretly wish for. But a dream is just a dream; it cannot become reality. If one doesn't realize this, it's fine, but once they discover everything is just an unreal dream, it will only become a nightmare.
Although I desperately want to remain here, savoring these moments with my family despite knowing it's all fake, I'm unable to. The outside is the reality that I need to face, I can't hide in a dream. More than anything, there are still people waiting for me outside.
I know that if I continue to stay in here, I will be able to live in a dream that I have always wished for. But that would mean I would die in reality. After all, the Minotaurus was still alive and could kill me at any moment.
"But how do I get out of here..." I muttered.
'Ah, that's right'
I opened the drawer and took out a utility knife from it.
'Maybe if I die in here, I'll return to the real world'
That thought began to invade my mind. But I wasn't sure.
I didn't know if my guess was correct. I was afraid that if I died in here, I would die outside as well. But I couldn't think of any other way to get out of this place.
...
No good. I can't stay here. I have to take a risk now. Who knows when the Minotaurus outside will get to me? Either I kill myself in here and die anyway, or I do nothing and it kills me. Either way, I'm going to die, so I might as well take a chance. Maybe I can escape and avoid the Minotaurus' attack.
I stared at the utility knife in my trembling hands. I gently pushed the blade out and held it to my neck. Praying that everything would be okay.
"Please...get out!"
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