Tempokai

  One day, I realized that the world isn't real. This shouldn't have been that earthshaking a concept, yet somehow it was. As if it was just a game that I wasn't meant to learn. You get lost in games; it's natural and expected. The best of games tell a good story and give the pyer a fair chance of coming back again next time.

  But when you live in that reality for years, the ground gets taken from under your feet, so to speak. This pce is more than a game for me.

  I had a dream. Not just ordinary dream, but collection of memories in a weird time and space I didn't even know was there until it came back and I woke up. It felt like waking from a long nap. But what happened while I was dreaming could never have been.

  There was... another me, in the world full of buildings sky high and full of noise that always threatened to break and cut you into bits if you get too close, in a city filled with too many strangers.

  The buildings stood like colossus to the sky that always threatened to drown everything else. The nighttime skyline, all lights from towering high rises. An ever-present pressure in my ears.

  You get used to that, the noises, the ctter and grit of the pce. And another me grew to be a part of that reality, of those lights in the night skyline.

  He walked past everything, until he got to his home. He wasn't impressed by the gleaming bck high rise in front of him that looked like a shiny monolith in the midst of this mad crowd.

  It didn't look so cool to him; I didn't understand why. I didn't have such buildings and towers. His pce was down in the lower city; dirty and packed, filled with those that never have time or money for such pretenses. He walked through the crowded streets until he came to his home.

  Inside of his somewhat maintained home filled with mysterious technology, another me walked and wandered around, doing this and that with a set of futuristic tools. He walked past them, not giving me time to look closely. I never took the time to. I was impressed by his worldly goods and the home itself. The interior of my pce had so little technology, because everything was made with magic and ran on some enchanted thing or another. It was magical, not the same magic we knew; not like what I've learned on this pnet and from its inhabitants. This home was as a fantasy for me; like my home would be fantasy for him, at first sight, at first gnce.

  He walked to his bedroom, and there stood another technology made machine that looked a bit different. It looked a bit different than the others. It had a shiny rectangur shape with a humming glowing red light in it and a solid red button. He took a minute to touch it. Then it burst into life and began to operate.

  What on earth happened here? From where these lights came from and what makes them light up? Is it even a thing at all or some sort of enchantment?

  Another me moved a controller in a shape of a mouse-looking thingy, but he pressed a small green glowing ball on it to open it. It seemed to open like a chest of sorts.

  The screen faded to bck, and soon it bursted in color and showed a weird form of music with weird colors, then the words and graphics filled it all in.

  This weirdness filled a space on screen for a little bit and the sounds seemed to move with it, when they showed some words on the screen.

  I... could read them. Why? I couldn't before! But now, I could read them. The words on screen said "Welcome" and then went on to say "To our world".

  A moment ter, the words vanished, and the screen turned bck once more. Giant regalia showed up, and read "Persionia Online" in big letters on top of the screen. Then the screen faded out.

  A few moments ter, the words were gone, and the screen changed to show a dark image. It was a tower, a castle in the middle of a big city, surrounded by smaller buildings. My other me started to use another controller, and suddenly, the scene changed.

  It was now daytime, and the city was much less busy than it was during the night. There was more people around. In fact, there were plenty of them walking along the roads.

  It looked... like my city.

  The people were dressed strangely, wearing strange clothing and having weird hair colors and styles. They wore things I never saw on my home. It was strange to see them all gathered together. It was an odd sight. Everyone was wearing armor, as if there a war going on. Or something simir to it.

  I could barely make sense of it. It was strange, and yet familiar.

  My other self finally showed some emotion. Happiness.

  I... can't expin why I felt this way. It just did. His mouth twitched into a smile. He kept staring at the screen and using controllers to manipute the image on it.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  No response. Of course. It was just a dream, after all. He continued to stare at the screen. He stared for quite some time. He looked so happy, though, and I wanted to know why.

  Then I woke up.

  ***

  The world around me became real again.

  I sat up in bed, trying to clear my head. I felt... weird. A little out of pce. I guess I should be used to that by now.

  I opened my eyes and looked around. I was in my own room. My own room. A room worthy for the son of cheapskate baron that I was.

  I was still sitting up. My face felt hot, and I wiped it with my hand. I stood up, and my legs were a bit shaky. I walked towards the door, then stopped. Someone opened the door before I could reach it.

  It was my mother. She stood there, holding a tray in her hands. It looked like breakfast, but it wasn't the kind of meal that she usually made. Her hands shaked, but she held on the tray tightly.

  "Good morning," I said.

  "Good morning," she said back. She smiled, a tired smile. She was exhausted, like the people I've seen in the dream. But why? What was going on?

  "Why are you so tired?" I asked.

  "I am..." she started. "It's nothing."

  She sighed, and it sounded like a sigh of relief.

  "You've been asleep for 4 days."

  She hit me with that st word. Four days.

  I... I had been asleep for four days?