A young man was running down the steps leading to a subway station while saying, "Damn! The subway's here!"
He then began to run down the stairs even faster, and when there were only a few more flights to go, he jumped to the ground and ran towards the subway, which had begun to close its doors.
He squeezed through them with a backpack on his back, and after some effort and the help of a subway employee, he managed to get in.
The people around him didn't react to seeing this, as if it was something quite common that perhaps they had done before.
The young man tidied his shoulder-length black hair and then headed toward one of the empty seats.
He sat down, throwing himself onto the bench, which caused a lady next to him to give him an ugly look.
He then said a little awkwardly, "H-Haha, I'm sorry." But the lady didn't answer him and turned her face to her cell phone, stopping paying attention to him.
He then thought, 'Whew! I thought I wasn't going to make it. This is the last empty Subway of the day. If I missed it, I'd have to spend the whole journey standing up and being crushed by other people. I'm sure that was my idiot boss's goal! Who does he think he is to hold me back for an extra hour?! He thinks I have nothing else to do but work for him! I need to start looking for a better place to work.
The young man then picked up his cell phone and started looking through the messages he had received that day.
The first message was from someone he was expecting, his mother.
"Son, are you coming home for the holidays?"
The young man replied, "I don't know, Mom. It will depend on my work. Maybe I'll have to go on holiday."
He then thought, 'I said maybe, but I'm sure my idiot boss won't let us go on this holiday, just like all the others.
He then answered the rest of the messages he had received from some friends, looked at some social media, and then put his cell phone away while thinking, 'Enough. It's a long way to the last station. I'm going to get some sleep.'
He then leaned his head against the subway wall and, after a few minutes, started to doze off.
...
"... getting off the vehicle."
The young man woke up after a while to a noise.
"The vehicle has arrived at the final station. Exit to the right. Be careful of the gap when disembarking the vehicle."
Upon hearing this, the young man looked around and realized that only he was still inside the subway.
Then he said, "I guess I was pretty tired. I didn't even hear the cell phone alarm. I also can't believe no one had the nerve to wake me up. People are getting kinder by the day."
He was about to get up when he suddenly heard, "The vehicle is about to leave. Please move away from the doors."
On hearing this, he rushed up and said, "Hey! I'm still in here! Wait a minute!"
The young man then started running towards the door and passed through it as soon as it closed.
He then thought, 'Whew! Getting stuck on the subway would have been an enormous waste of my time. I can't wait to get home and have a shower and something to eat.' But then something unexpected happened.
A huge black hole that looked like some kind of portal appeared in front of him, and before he could think, he was pulled into it by some sort of force.
...
After a moment, he came out on the other side of the portal and said, "What was that?! I went through a portal?!"
The young man then began to look around and realized that he was no longer in the subway station but in a forest.
He said, "A forest?! What's going on?!"
The young man began to try to understand his situation, and after a while, he said, "Ah! I get it. This is a dream. This must be one of those lucid dreams."
He then walked over to one of the surrounding trees, leaned against it, and said, "Wow, it really looks like a real tree. Well, let's take a look around and see what this dream is about."
The young man then stretched his hands up in the air with his fists closed and stood still for a while. After realizing that nothing was happening, he started to jump around a bit. Still, after a while, he realized that nothing was happening again.
He then said, "That's strange. Why can't I fly? Isn't that normal in dreams? Especially in a lucid dream, hmm ... there must be a reason for that. Well, I'm sure it will all make sense if I explore this forest a bit."
The young man then began to walk through the forest, trying to understand what kind of dream he was in.
...
A few hours passed, and the young man was sitting next to a tree resting.
He spent hours walking through the forest and found nothing to explain the supposed dream he was having.
He then thought, 'What the hell kind of dream is that? I've been walking for hours, and I can't find anything different in this forest! Am I dreaming that I'm lost? What's the point of dreaming that? I'd rather wake up if this really is the dream I'm having.
The young man then took a bottle of water from his backpack, drank the rest of the water he had in it, and said, "It's good that at least I have my backpack. If it hadn't been for that, I'd have died of hunger and thirst in this damned forest."
He then rested for a while, got up, and continued exploring the forest.
After a while, he still couldn't find anything in the forest, so he said, "What's going on?! There's nothing but trees in this forest. All this time, I haven't even seen an animal or insect. What am I supposed to find here? Am I really dreaming that I'm lost? What a horrible dream. Is there anything I can do to wake up from it?"
The young man then began to think of some way to wake up when, suddenly, something that made him extremely happy happened.
He then said, "Yes! I'd forgotten about that. Of course, after drinking a whole bottle of water, I'd feel like going to the toilet. Good, now all I have to do is wait, and I'll naturally wake up."
The young man continued walking through the forest while waiting to wake up from the dream, but after some time had passed, and he still hadn't woken up, he said, "Why am I not waking up?! Everyone wakes up when they feel like going to the toilet. After all, if you don't wake up, you might end up ... NO!"
Realizing what was about to happen, the young man said, "I can't piss myself! I'm in the subway! I have to wake up now!"
He then began to pinch and even slap himself to see if he would wake up, but nothing was working.
He then said, "Damn! It looks like the only way out of here is to find the goal of this dream! I have to find something in this forest before it's too late!"
The young man then started running through the forest, looking for anything that might catch his eye, but he didn't find anything.
He then thought, 'No, this can't be happening! I'm not going to piss myself on the subway! Where's the way out of this damn forest!'
He then continued running for some time until he finally saw something that caught his eye. Through the leaves of the trees, he could see the wall of a relatively distant city in the distance.
He then said, "A city! I've finally found something! That can only be the point of this dream!"
He then started running towards it as fast as he could while thinking, 'Faster! Faster! I have to get there before it's too late!'
After some time running, he arrived in front of the city gate. Two guards were standing blocking the way, and when they saw the young man, one of them said, "Look, one more person made it before sunset."
The other guard then replied, "That's right. He's the fifth one today. The first batch of participants looks pretty good."
"Let's welcome him so we can close the gate for the day."
"Okay, let's go."
The two of them approached the young man, who was still running towards the gate, and then one of them said, "Good afternoon, friend. It must have been a long journey here. We have a room for you to rest and have something to eat and drink. Come with us."
Hearing this, the young man continued running towards the city gate and said, "I'm sorry, but that'll have to wait! I need to get into town! It's an emergency!"
One of the guards then said, "An emergency? Did you get hurt in the forest or something? If so, we have a doctor ready to attend to you."
The young man then said, "I'm not hurt. I just need to get into town as soon as possible so I can get out of here before disaster strikes!"
The other guard then said, "A disaster? I don't know what you're talking about, but you can't just enter the city. You'll have to pass a test first."
The young man then said, "I'll take that test later. I don't have time right now. After all, as I said, a disaster is about to happen."
One of the guards then said, "Well, it must be pretty serious for you to be so desperate, but unfortunately, rules are rules. I won't be able to let you in without first passing the test."
The young man then said, "Well, in that case, I'll have to pass the test by force."
He then walked up to one of the guards and punched him while thinking, 'That must be the focus of this dream. I must have to defeat these guards and do something inside the city. Probably defeat or protect someone important. Well, let's get past the initial mobs quickly and move on. I don't know how long I'll be able to hold off the urge to go to the toilet.
Seeing the young man throwing a punch in his direction, the guard laughed and said, "Looks like that's one of the idiots."
And the other guard said, "Yes, and there's only one solution for that kind of person."
The guard then held the young man's punch in one of his hands without exerting any effort and then kicked him in the stomach, throwing him backward.
The young man then lay briefly breathless on the ground, thinking, 'What just happened? How did these random mobs manage to stop me? Aren't I supposed to be much stronger than them in this kind of dream?!'
The guard who kicked him then approached and said, "Are you calmer now? As I said, you can't enter the city without passing the test first. Those are the rules, and you'd better get used to them if you want to have a peaceful life here."
The young man coughed a little and said, "Rules? What are you talking about?"
"Hahaha, don't worry. We'll explain everything to you little by little. Now get up and come with us."
The young man then thought, 'Looks like I have no choice but to do what he's asking me to do.
He then got up and headed towards the city gate.
The two guards positioned themselves on either side of the gate, and one of them said, "Well, I bet your first impression was terrible, but I hope you adapt well. Welcome to the Tower."