The World of a Fantasy

Chapter One

Chapter One: Dream Of A Happy Future

A twenty-year-old dude was sitting in the chair facing a birthday cake in his lap; dazed, haggard, sad, shaking, quiet, and finally alone.

The letters on the cake were, "Happy Birthday John [20]. Love, Mom and Dad." The cake was shaped like a triangle and was just big enough for a family of three to each have a small portion. The cream was thin with little toppings and the cake was beginning to soften from his tears.

Most important of all, on this day, the young adult, John Smith, was suddenly forced to mature. He, as the only son of his parents, received gentle love and care from his parents' guidance.

On this very same day, he had seen with his very own eyes. Touched with his own hands and saw the dying breath of his mother and father in his. He can no longer see living in the far future. Like fog, his sad mind clouded his thinking process.

He finally fainted.

From now on, he is truly alone in this whole world without a parent's guidance or warmth.

- - -

By the time he woke up, it was already 1:34 pm. He had a strange dream. It all started when he was playing a game that his parents bought him for his birthday. It was such a particular dream.

In his dream, he saw the future. He was experiencing the up and downs of the real world. He closed up his heart and kept playing the game in memory of his mother and father's last gifts as the last way to set himself free from the tragedy.

He can perfectly remember the days and years spent playing the game. At the beginning of the game, he spends most of his time playing alone by himself. He could not trust anybody else because he had seen many ugly faces. By the end of the first year, he finally forms a solid party of six that he could call a substitute family. Even so, his heart was still cold. By then, his gaming skills were already way beyond an average player, elite.

In the second year, the voice of resentment begins and conflict escalates quickly over time due to drops and precious equipment. His substitute family was not as friendly as it seemed. A week later, the party split their way, leaving only two honest buddies in the original party, he and the party leader.

Together, they both work hard together to progress in the game along with many random players in the last three years. Even after years, a new substitute family can no longer be formed and replace the old one. Occasionally, the two would sometimes encounter their old party members, but it never lasted.

His talent as a gamer has truly shown itself to the world. He surpassed the elite players by a few notches. Even his party leader can't catch up with his performance any longer. It was by then that he realized that his strength could no longer be matched by his party leader. Finally, he was on his own again.

It was not until a chance meeting at the Undead Grave that he met his soulmate. A desolate figure was wandering alone carrying a huge ax, not fit for a lady. Her face was filled with emptiness, a disparity like his own. Their power was not that far apart and they rivaled in prowess.

He could only console her with a small accessory that he had got back in the beginning. It was the very first item that he had gotten that gave him the courage to move on. A unique item that allows a user to seal a level one monster in the accessory acting as a tamed monster.

The monster sealed inside was a unique slime that is unlike any other slime. It was the only slime available in the whole game. The slime had great potential, but it was too lazy unless it was necessary to move. It also shapes like a small basketball with a firm membrane, unlike a typical droopy slime. Only the cuteness within the slime was its laziness and spherical membrane.

Other than this first meeting, they continued to see each other by coincidence, or not. It wasn't long after they changed upon a quest to party together that they finally stayed as a party permanently. The quest was a long chain of 'S' rank quests and through that long quest chain did their closeness sip into their cold world.

He became the party leader while she was a member. Without complaint, she follows him with the slimeball in hand. Sometimes, she would habitually rub the top of the slimeball. Sometimes, she would squeeze the slimeball as if playing with it. Sometimes, she hacks with a huge ax. Sometimes, she would do that. Sometimes, she would do that. Sometimes, she would...

This leisure time, though a bit awkward between the pair, they stayed as a party for the next five years. During those years, his cold and bitterness finally turned into a summer-spring.

Silently, they became lovers. Slowly, they begin to depend on each other. Finally, their loneliness begins to heal. Time will witness their story, history will recall their story, and the future will tell their story.

In the end, they married and had a baby girl. They had achieved something never imagined, a family that they could call their own. The day that their baby girl was born was the happiest day for both of them. He was extremely happy. He saw how such a small baby could be born and develop into such a big figure in the next few years.

Their life continues in peace in the following years, until that night. He and his family slept together like usual. Silently, the scene of the dream ended there abruptly and he woke up. He sweats like crazy. He had just been going through a dream-like future, but it was as long as every year that went by. It was foggy, yet it was so clear.

He remained confused until the end. Was the dream truly his future caused by his extreme stress from his parent's death or was it just his brain that was wiring a consolation within his desperate mind? No, he felt more than that. The dream is too real for it to be just a dream.

However, for whatever reason, he could not help but be angry at something. He had a bugging feeling that something was very off by the last part of the dream that usual night. He let his emotion from the dream take over his rationality and he impatiently entered the game. Thus, end chapter one.