The boy was a dreamer in a world reshaped by the advent of "the game."

Out of what was once the Earth emerged a land inhabited by monsters, magics, and other things typical of a fantasy novel. The game had a specific name once, but once its imposed rule to "win or die trying" terrorized humanity, that no longer mattered. Although everyone knew winning secured survival, no one knew what it meant to win.

The boy, too, didn't know what victory would look like, but he knew he was a winner. As he grew into a man, emboldened by his dreams of becoming the singular victor of an abandoned world like this one, he joined a party famed for its strength. Here, he found himself amongst mages capable of reducing entire terrains into rubble, assassins notorious for their mastery of illusion, warriors whose weapons could shatter even the toughest opponents with ease, and healers whose abilities were but a half-step short of resurrection. Weak, plain, and powerless, he nonetheless remained in their company due to his expertise in survival, enabling the beloved bard to wait hand and foot on these beautiful forces of nature.

As the years passed, the bard's party grew accustomed to the patterns of this game. A new "round" would commence when hordes of creatures— armies of grotesque enemies with unique abilities rotating between those of mages, assassins, warriors, and healers— would spontaneously surge towards any human survivors they could find. The periods of rest between each round could be as long as a year or as short as a week, but ultimately, the priority was to stay alert, survive the round, and look for potential clues to victory by sifting through the enemies' corpses. The more the party learned through this cycle, the more it shrunk, until its members finally encountered the beast.

The mighty being's steps alone resulted in a resounding thud that instantly filled the battlefield with the stifling scent of iron and decay. Horrified, the bard realized he was the only one still standing. The sole survivor. Once more, the man was reminded of his boyish dreams as the beast offered him the choice to 'start over.'

The choice to start over.

The dreamer is often only a victim of delusion.