5 Nightmare

Rash did not know how much time had passed when he opened his eyes again, unable to move. The surrounding place is very dark, and he cannot see anything.

'Where am I?' He thought of himself, surprised at the scene and bewildered by what he saw. Then he remembered the battle against the beast, "Is this what a person sees after death?"

While he was confused, the scene began to change around him, there is a little boy with bare feet running behind some boys, trying to catch up with them, but he could not, and he fell on the ground, then the children stopped and returned where the boy fell and helped him to get up, and then they grabbed his hand and started running together.

'What is happening?!!'

But before he understood what was going on, the scene changed again, this time the same boy with his torn clothes, he had grown to the age of five, sitting with his parents in the dining room while they all ate at one table in a happy and cheerful atmosphere.

????

The scene has changed again, the boy has become big, a lot of people around him are cheering for him, after working hard he has finally succeeded and now he will go up to the podium to receive the award, yet why is he still wearing torn clothes and in a miserable appearance?

Then another scene and another and another...

Rash felt more and more bizarre, because the scenes were quotes from that boy's life from childhood to adulthood. That boy in the scenes was definitely him, but he never experienced any of those moments in his life.

If everything is just dreams, then why and what is the point?

Or are these just delusions resulted from his internal remorse?

Rash did not understand anything, no matter what he thought of it, not that he was stupid or something, but the scenes were not consistent with each other, were they sad or happy moments? Are they memories of his past or someone else's?

So he decided to watch and not think too much about it as he is unable to move anyway. The scenes continued one by one, until he did not know what had happened, as Rash opened his eyes again to meet with a very dazzling white glow.

Huh?!

His voice was weak, his throat was dry, and he suddenly felt very thirsty. He tried to figure out what was going on. The place around him looks like a small room, there is a large window on the side with white curtains swaying with the movement of the air, while the warm sunlight throws its strings on his face.

He tried hard to move his head to the side, there is a closed door on the other side from the bed, with a small table with some white flowers on it, Rush did not know what it was, as he never cared about such things. However, he knew that he was in a hospital room because there was some medical equipment that was on the side and attached to his body.

Here he began to feel his body, he did not seem to feel any pain, but he was unable to move due to the plenty of bandages around his body, 'So I am not dead yet, but how, even if that monster hadn't done it, I probably wouldn't have lived only from the wounds?'

Suddenly while he was trying to figure out what was going on, a strange picture appeared in front of him. There is something written on it, <Final stage of installation 80%> he thought it was the work of one of the devices connected to his body, but he realized that this was not possible.

The picture was very close to his face about thirty centimeters ahead, he extended his hand trying to touch it, but his hand crossed through the picture, changing the direction of his face several times, but the image as if it was attached to his face maintained the same position near him.

After a few moments the number in the picture has changed, this is the first time that he realizes the thing in front of him is not just an image, but rather it looks as if it is some kind of message that appears on the programs.

He slowly raised his stiff body until he was able to sit up. There is some numbness all over his body but this did not prevent him from moving. He looked with his wide eyes again, perhaps he could understand what was going on, still, everything seemed very normal.

"Damn... just what is going on?!" He has become anxious, usually he does not care much about the things that are going on around him, but now there are a lot of strange things that have happened, and he does not understand the reason yet.

????

Then, after a few seconds, the message disappeared in front of him, and in its place appeared a small squirrel-sized object, very similar to an anime character, but it appeared alive. Rash does not know much about anime, but he has seen some of them in his life, so he knows at least that.

The character standing in front of him looked at him, "We have finally met, buddy." His voice was very nice and childish.

"We finally met?!" Rash muttered softly, "Who are you? And what are you talking about?"

"I am 'Nightmare'... You do not know me yet, but I have been with you since you were born a few days of your birth, only things took longer than expected to complete the installation. From today onward, I will be your System in order to turn you into a superhero to eliminate the Gallus."

"What?"

"Because it's the first time you've heard of the system, let me simply explain who I am." Nightmare explained in a childish tone, "System in general is a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism, and in my position I am a special kind of system. My job is to help guide you to be strong and protect the world and defeat Gallus."

Rash went silent for some time, not realizing what was happening in front of him, thinking that he might have lost his mind and started seeing things from imagination, but everything seemed very realistic. The strangest thing of all is that this illusion claims to have existed throughout his life? Is this a joke?

Rash clenched tightly on his hand and then directed a powerful punch to his forehead, trying to wake himself if this was just another nightmare, yet nothing happened and the strange object was still standing in front of him like a little ghost.

"Hahaha... What are you doing? Do you think this is a dream? No... No... everything you see now is completely real, uh... What you saw a moment ago were dreams that I created myself as a kind of welcome, do you like it?" There was a big smile on his little face, bragging about what he had done.

"So that dream moments ago was it of your making?" Rash asked him to make sure.

"Well, I thought it was good to make you feel better. Actually, I like making others have nightmares, but since we're going to be acquaintances from now on, it would be bad to make you have nightmares, right?"

"Wait, I haven't accepted yet if I want to be with you, so stop making my decisions." Rash refrained from doing anything until he realized the situation he was in.

But Nightmare spoke with great confidence as if he was doing the right thing, "Let's think logically, you are currently so weak and unable to protect yourself, so why refuse my offer? I think it is good, NO, you need to do it no matter the price before it is too late. Who knows when the end will be?"

Rash thought a little about Nightmare's words, regardless of whether what is happening now is real or not, at some point he wanted to be strong as well, at least he would be able to defend himself. Unfortunately, he does not have any talent in this field, and he failed miserably in the test of abilities in the school, 'Still becoming a hero, the hack. If it is antihero I can accept it but to be a hero is impossible.'

He has lived his life thinking the hero was so great like any other child but from the moment he got beaten by that hero, Rash started hating them all. Now to become one himself is like slapping himself in the face.

"Also, there is something for you to see." Nightmare interrupted his thinking, "Look, this is your status window."

Suddenly a new window pops up before Rash with a lot of statistical numbers and information.

[Name: Rash Nightmare | Race: Human 95% Hybrid 5% | Level: 1 <0/20>

Class: The Hero Who Will Destroy Gallus

* As a hero you won't die when health is at the minimum.

HP: 70/100 | MP: 40/100

Strength: 5 | Vitality: 5 | Agility: 5

Dexterity: 5 | Intelligence: 5 | Wisdom: 5 | Luck: 0

]

Rash: "What the h*ck."

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