1 Dream World

In a small remote town located in the middle of the United States, lives a man named JD. Now, one might say that he is not really living, but more like existing. He is of average height, build and intelligence, so one would struggle to pick him out amid a crowd.

He goes through his everyday life as usual, but to him it just feels as if he is going through the motions. He works at an office, where he never really talks with anyone, and that is mostly because he hates people. The thought of interacting with others is just too much of a headache for him. Even his job gives him a headache, because it is the exact same thing every day.

So, his entire adult life, he goes to work, goes home, makes dinner, then proceeds to either watch a few episodes of his favorite anime, read manga, or dive into one of his fantasy books, before going to sleep and dreaming.

His dreams are the one thing that brings excitement to his life. In them, he can have the adventurous lifestyle that he longs for. He is capable of being a hero who can do incredible feats, while also being able to save the damsel in distress. That is the only time in his life, where he truly feels alive, until he is forced to wake back up and resume his ordinary life.

The lack of excitement in his life is partially since he lacks the confidence to venture out and make exciting things happen. In the dream world though, he can have that confidence. His world is only limited by the creativity that his imagination provides.

One day, after getting home from work, JD was feeling more exhausted than usual and decided that it was time to embrace his dreams a little early and went to bed at 8pm. Little did he know, this would be the last time that he would get to sleep in the world that he knew. His entire world would be turned upside down in the blink of an eye, or more accurately, as soon as he closed his eyes.

JD fell right to sleep due to his overwhelming exhaustion. As soon as he passed out though, he heard what sounded like growls right next to him.

He opened his eyes immediately and jumped up, but he could see that the sun was out. "Did I really sleep till morning?" he said confusedly. Looking around, he realized that he was outside in what seemed like a field. "What the hell is happening?!?" he shouted with slight panic.

That's when he noticed where the growling was coming from. After his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the sun, he saw what looked like a dark grey wolf 15ft away from him. It had apparently just killed a small rabbit that it was about to feast upon when it was so rudely disturbed by JD appearing out of nowhere.

Now, it should be said that JD wasn't someone who had the courage or even the guts to try to defend himself from something like this, so he just froze once he made eye contact with the wolf. "Fuck! I don't know where I am or what is going on, and now I'm about to die. Of course, the most exciting thing to happen in my life, also happens to be the moment of my death. This would be my luck." he complained to himself.

That's when the wolf began to walk slowly towards the intruder. It prepared it's body and when it finally was in the right spot, it pounced. As soon as it jumped in the air, straight towards JD's neck, he threw his hand out to protect himself and curse his luck and the gods for putting him in such a miserable situation.

However, as the beast was just about to land on him, something unexpected happened. He had kept his hands up the whole time to try and block the beast while closing his eyes, but when he did, a fireball flew out of his hand at an incredible speed and burned the wolf to ashes immediately. Not realizing what he had just done, JD opened his eyes after a moment, wondering why death had not greeted him yet. That's when something popped up in his mind.

10 exp gained

"Huh?" he said to himself. "I must be imagining things."

As he stood up, he noticed that this world looked much different compared to what he was used to seeing outside. The trees were much larger, as well as the leaves having a bright blue color. "am I still in a dream?" he wondered to himself.

That's when he noticed that even his hands and the rest of his body looked different. His body had a solid white color to it, almost as if he was a corpse. He soon noticed that he had leaves and dirt on his head from laying in the grass. When he went to remove it, he noticed that there were two small bumps on the top of his head.

While this was disconcerting, the thing that not only terrified him, but also made his blood boil, was the realization that he no longer had his long hair. JD wasn't proud of much in his life, but he absolutely loved his hair. He had been patiently growing it out for several years and was meticulous when it came to caring for it. However, it seemed as if all that time and energy spent towards his hair was now all for nothing. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he decided to go over to the stream nearby to try and get a look at his reflection and clean up a little.

As he walked to the water, he couldn't help but think that he was in a horrible nightmare where he was able to still control his body, but not the circumstances surrounding him. Also, he knew that this body was not his. It felt different and yet somehow familiar, but for the life of him.