Jack was hearing the hum of hissing sparks and silence. He felt somewhat heavy and light as if he was journeying in a deep dream.
When he opened his eyes, the first thing he recognized was white. He was in the middle of somewhere pure white containing nothing but an endless expanse. Where his body seemed to resonate with a strange energy as though the space and the ground was alive.
'Am I dead or is this another dream?'
Jack was brushing his hair upwards when he felt a sudden disturbance in the space, followed by a 'ding' notification prompt sounding in his head, and upon looking straight, a translucent human figure was starting to materialize in front of him.
This was a followed by a chair that appeared in the same manner where the human figure the man sat. Before he realized, another chair had appeared behind him as if inviting him to sit.
"You must have been so surprised."
The human figure then said.
"By the time I am talking to you, the calibration of the system must be over already. Congratulations, I guess, and nice to meet you, Jack."
The man was tall and fit, with sharp features and neatly kept black hair despite looking so young. While sitting, there was an easy confidence in his expression which gave the impression that he found amusement in everything around him, but at the same time, emanated arrogance.
There was no doubt in Jack's mind. The man was the man in his dream.
"You are…that man in my dream." Jack thought, to which the man replied with a smile. "You are real? Is this place real or am I dreaming again?"
The man kept the smile in his face.
"That is a lot of questions. To answer the first, I am real. But I am not physically here. This is what I call the inside of the system," he said looking at the whiteness around, "and you are talking to a part of my consciousness, designed to answer your questions, the successor of the urban system."
"Now, your next question was if this is real or are you dreaming again? My answer is that you can take it either way you want. It doesn't matter. Both may be true. What matters is what I am about to tell you."
Notifications soon flashed in front of Jack, and Jack's eyes started twitching in surprise.
Apparently, everything in that dream were real, at least according to the person.
But that wasn't all.
"It is a switch. My life is now yours, Jack." The man said with a big smile as if his biggest dream had happened.
On the other side, Jack was speechless. If someone other than the guy told him something similar, he would have dismissed it and called them insane. But this was different.
The man in front of him was, in that dream, like a protagonist. He was good-looking, physically talented, academically intelligent and highly sociable. But he was an ordinary person, but just because he acts like an ordinary person everyday.
But that was all a lie. In truth, he was a part of a world that hides the truth from the ordinary public…the truth about humanity being descendants of elves, dwarves, and others.
Recalling the dream despite being mostly blurry, Jack started to laugh.
"Your life is now mine? Same with your responsibilities, relationships, and everything?"
"Yes." Same smile.
"Why and how?"
"It just happened that way. I am not so sure myself, but I always wanted to escape from my life and regularly wished for it. I thought it would never happen, but you saved me. The world granted my wish. I received a notification from the system that it may be able to grant my wish as long as someone wished to have my life enough."
"And that is me?"
Wearing the same annoying smile, the man nodded, looking happy and satisfied.
"…I can't accept this! How can you decide something that affects another person's life?" Jack shouted, his voice echoing in the strange emptiness. "I have a family. I have my own goals to fulfill!"
But the other man didn't seem faze and kept the smile on his face, as if saying he can understand but deep down he didn't care at all. Jack seeing this was so irritated veins appeared on his neck.
As if amused, the man replied.
"Don't worry about that," the man said calmly, his tone almost soothing. "Aside from the fact that you'll be living my life from now on, nothing else will change. You'll still have the same family, friends, goals, name, age, everything. Your life will remain yours. It's just… going to expand a little. Think of it as having two families."
"How is that even possible? How am I supposed to believe that?"
The man simply smiled, his expression as patient and gentle as ever, like a salesman explaining something to a skeptical customer.
"I understand if you don't believe me," he said lightly. "It's better if you see the truth with your own eyes. I've told you everything you need to know for now," the man continued, his voice calm but final. "The rest… you'll have to experience yourself."
Suddenly, the man started to break into piece, flickering into sparks of lights and disappearing into the air.
Just before disappearing completely, his voice echoed faintly, almost cheerful.
"One last thing… thanks to you, I can finally have the life I always wanted. Truly, thank you."
How long had Jack had stared in the spot the man disappeared from and the world around him, he didn't know, he wanted to believe that it was just a dream. Yet deep down, he knew it wasn't.
[Jack Crawluster. Arise from your majestic nap, oh champion of procrastination, and rejoin the chaos we call real life.]
***
Meanwhile, in a board room with a long table, an old man with grey hair and bulky frame were frowning while a few other mysterious people in a video call from different places were watching a grainy CCTV footage of Jack's run-in with the blonde stranger in various angles.
In the same room as the old man, two analysts in crisp office uniforms have their fingers dancing across control pads as streams of data scrolled across side panels.
The female analyst stood up, leaned forward, tapping her control pad to control the central display.
"We have identified the attacker to be an awakened Skarn. The Skarn possess heightened sensory perception, accelerated regenerative capabilities, and utilize battle howls designed to disorient opposing forces. Their combat methodology is deeply ritualistic in nature, often regarded as both a spiritual and artistic expression. They are known to overpower adversaries through superior coordination and instinctive synchronization."
"However, the greater concern lies here," the video paused showing the man speaking with someone using his earpiece, "in the individual with whom he appeared to be communicating through his earpiece."
The screens began to show various data using graphs and timelines, and an organization called GraveAsh was flashed.
"A year ago, graveash syndicate is a simple small organization who operates on the slums of the lower districts. But we have received reports that they have recruited several awakened to their group and were spotted in several red zones such as C, G, and H."
Barren lands started to appear in the screen showing pictures of what seemed to have been taken in clandestine operations.
"As to why they attacked Jack specifically or how they even knew of him remains unclear. We may be able to learn something when Jack wakes up."
Just then, the screen replayed the moment Jack had finally won, before he collapsed, followed by the apprehension of his opponent, who had stood up again, by men in black suits.
"We made a promise not to involve him in our affairs after what happened five years ago. Those arrangements didn't change. Do not ask him what happened." The old man then commanded, after hearing them.
Just then, however, a man had quietly entered the room as to not disrupt the meeting, and headed straight to the old man to report something.
"Vice-Executive. He had woken up." The man whispered.
The old man then stood up revealing how big he actually was as he started to leave the room despite the ongoing meeting,
"That stupid grandson of mine will have it."