Waking From A Nightmare

"Hm?"

Tilting his head sideways, Ian glanced at the source of the sound that broke his train of thought.

An annoyingly handsome young man with messy black hair, slightly shorter than him, was wearing a dirty uniform and sitting, or rather sleeping, on his desk beside him.

Alan Lockwood, the name of the boy, the person who is the neighbor of Ian sitting beside him on the seat near the window during class, all according to the arrangement made by the school.

His neighbor, a classmate he always ignored, was about to interact with him, afraid to become entangled in his mess of a life.

"...REvenge... I will."

'What's with this guy?' Ian thought irritably, annoyed by his prior thoughts as he looked over the man who was murmuring incoherent words.

His clothes were soaked with sweat as a large frown formed on his face. Gritting his teeth, the boy kept on murmuring, disturbing not just Ian but also the students near them.

"...I won't..."

'Is he having some sort of nightmare?' Ian wondered as he watched how some nearby students glanced at the boy with annoyance and curiosity.

As Ian watched Alan, he couldn't help but recall the pitiful life of Alan. Belonging to a poor, dull household with a sick sister, Alan had a pretty tough childhood.

He always scored at the bottom of the class and is a person who hasn't awakened his mana heart even at the age of 18, becoming an object of scorn for the students and the teachers alike.

If not for his close friendship with one of the star students of the school who recommended him and with another fat classmate of theirs who belongs to a rich family, he would have never been admitted to this school.

His perverted and submissive behavior with no interest in academics, along with his handsome face with slight feminine features which can mistake him for a female if not for his body shape and short hair, makes him the perfect target for bullying by the school bullies.

Every day, Alan gets his ass beaten up by the bullies, and the school authorities keep their silence about it, ignoring the bullying.

'He has a pitiful life, doesn't he? Well, he brought it upon himself, I guess.'

Even if Alan has a pitiful past, Ian doesn't have any sympathy for him, not only because it has nothing to do with Ian but also because of Alan's personality and incompetence to not stand against his bullies, which in Ian's opinion is pathetic.

As Ian recalled the information he knows about Alan, which isn't much given their distant relationship despite being neighbors, he watched Alan suffering through a nightmare.

'Should I wake him up?'

"...fucking... traitors."

Ian thought, seeing Alan's condition worsening, before finally deciding to wake Alan up.

Hesitating at first, Ian put his hands on Alan's shoulder, slightly shaking him while calling out his name.

"Alan... Alan."

"...mother... fuc-"

Seeing that shaking didn't have any effect on Alan, Ian shook him more violently, resulting in Alan finally waking up from his nightmare.

"Huh?!"

As Alan opened his blue eyes, he looked at the face of Ian, whose mouth hung open, frozen in shock.

"HUH!"

With a look of shock on his face, Alan shot up in confusion from his seat, taking a defensive stance, causing the seat to fly back, disturbing the entirety of the class that now had all eyes on him.

"Isn't this the class I used to study 20 years ago?... Is this a dream?"

Alan voiced out in confusion as he watched the familiar scene of the class that he had graduated from decades ago.

"Am I dreaming about my word days in the moments of my death?... haha."

Alan chuckled in front of the whole class that now gawked at him like a clown.

Disregarding the weird gazes of the class, Alan looked at the middle-aged man who taught him during his last years of high school.

"It's been a while you, old fucker"

Silence...

Just pure silence echoed the walls of the classroom as everyone heard what the smiling Alan said to the teacher, causing the smile on everyone's face to vanish, replaced by the expression of shock as they listened to what Alan referred to their teacher, whose face had turned red completely with anger and embarrassment.

"The heck did you call me?!"

Mr. Richards shouted with anger as he threw the chalk at Alan, hitting the bullseye perfectly in the middle of Alan's forehead, causing him to wince in pain.

"Ugh..."

'Wait, I am feeling pain... In a dream?' As Alan questioned in his mind, Mr. Richards shouted once again, wanting to drag him to the principal's office.

"To the principal's office! Now!" Screamed Mr. Richards, still in anger for the humiliation the troublemaker has caused, like which he had never experienced before.

As the events unfolded in the classroom, Ian, our protagonist, who was responsible for waking up Alan from his nightmare, was still frozen in shock but not by the dialogue between the teacher and Alan, but by the abrupt appearance of a blue holographic screen in front of him that no one else could see.

[Regression has been completed successfully!]

[Initializing Talent Replicator System!]

[System Bound!]

[Error!]

[Error!]

"Don't tell me... I Am Really Back?!"

In the background, Alan's loud voice echoed, as the cascades of messages typing error appeared on the holographic screen, making Ian more confused and bewildered.

[Error!]

[Multiple errors detected!]

[Running analysis...]

[It is detected that the host is not the regressor]

[Error! System theft detected]

[Initiating Protocol 1069]

[Self-destruction has been initiated]

[Self-destruction in progress]

[System store deleted]

[Quest board deleted]

[Inventory deleted]

[Deleting System Assistant]

[System Assistant successfully deleted]

[Deleting Rewards Storage... 1%... 2%... 98%]

[Error! Deletion failed!]

[Attempting again]

[Error! Deletion failed]

[Deleting Replicator]

[Error! Deletion failed!]

Cascades of messages and pop-ups kept appearing in front of Ian's eyes at such speed, making Ian unable to keep up with it. Confusion took over Ian's mind as his brain didn't know how to react.

[System deletion failed!]

[Terminating action]

[A final message for the thief]

[FUCK YOU!]

Boom!

Before Ian could register any of the messages, an invisible force attacked him out of nowhere, causing his body to fly backward under the eyes of the students and the teacher who was leaving the class angrily.

Bang!

A loud voice of Ian crashing on the table behind him echoed throughout the classroom as small amounts of blood came out of his mouth and nose. Ian felt his consciousness slipping away as the pain in his body deepened before his sight finally darkened, entering into a deep slumber.