1 Awakened

Waking with a hatred I should have never felt, I frantically surveyed my environment. If someone saw my face right now, well...

I found myself in a hospital wing. 'Coma?' I thought to myself. 'Then, that must have been a hallucination.'

I last remember myself being beaten black and blue for stupidly messing with a group of obvious thugs, being put into a coma because of that mistake. There was a… dream. 'Yeah, not a hallucination' where surreal things happened to me. The problem wasn't the impossibility of them, but how detailed everything was. I felt the pain and emotions, made decisions, lost things. It was the worst thing I have ever experienced.

Rage. Knowledge. Power. Growth. Rising to the peak. The death of the only people I care about. An obsession with trying to escape reality. And… a new need. A sort of purpose, belief, faith, whatever it may be seen as.

I needed to go BERSERK.

*Bam!* I slammed my head against the back of my hospital bed. 'What's wrong with me? That obviously wasn't real… was it?'

Inside my brain, something had changed. I could tell. Although I can't control it, I have an ability to go completely insane with fury whenever I want. Something I discovered in that "lucid dream" I became able to do (granted, I could control it better there). As of right now, I may accidentally activate it for no reason.

From all my little experience in life, I can't logically explain it. My reactions are now overly twitchy. I can hear, see… almost feel everything going on around me, and it's uncomfortable. I want to sleep, but can't because everything is too loud.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down as much as I can manage. Even so, It didn't help. With a more clear state of mind, I focused more on the dream. More skills flooded into my brain; ways to move, slice, stab, cut, dodge, many things I have no idea where or how to use, but know how to do them.

Clearer details came to fruition. My parents… dead. The obsession, with a game. Rage with myself. Pushing… no, torturing myself to gain knowledge and power. Growing from a nobody until I became something everybody feared. The only people I trusted being taken advantage of… forced to betray me. Their last pleading words to me, full of sorrow.

Worst of all, an emptiness, never to be filled.

All of it is still hazy, but I got the gist of it. Assuming it isn't true, the me of the present has taken control of the past. In my new, more mature self, I have realized my extreme naivety

*Beep~ Beep~ Beep~*

*Shua~*

"Patient!

*Huff~*

You're awake! Please calm down, your heart rate is too high."

"Oh…"

A kind (looking) old man had barged into the room. Although it felt to me like I was thinking to myself for hours, it probably hadn't even crossed the minute threshold.

"Sorry, sir. It was just… a little scary." I said truthfully. No reason to lie to a doctor.

"No need to worry, my boy," he said with a smile, "that is completely normal.

You may not remember, but you have been in a coma for the past two days. Don't worry, I won't bore you with the specifics."

I nodded while pondering my next question. I looked over my lucid dream, trying to find anything I was comfortable revealing. But it was all in vain. Betting on the possibility of my question leading to more on his part, I decided to ask the next question in line.

"Sir, when can I leave the hospital?"

Freedom is very important.

Looking up from his paper he responded. "We'll hold you for the rest of the day, son. You are one lucky kid though, since you suffered no serious injuries. All that you will notice is a soreness for a bit. Refrain from doing any extraneous activities for three days and it will go away without issue."

"Okay, thank you."

"Mnn." He nodded, "Rest up. I have to take care of some stuff, so our conversation has to be cut short. A nurse will be with you shortly" he said as he was walking out of the room.

~

Taking his advice, I got some rest (with much difficulty the first time). I was in and and out of sleep for the whole day, with every bit of rest gradually leading to more details being cleared up about my lucid dream. It was getting unbearable, since I had no time to think about them when I woke up because I would already be going back under, and I was being overloaded.

As I was about to call for the nurse, one walked in.

"Excuse me?" she asked," I have a call from your parents."

"Mnn." I took the phone. "Thank you," I said sleepily.

...

"Ma?" We are talking in english now, as opposed to the korean before.

"Yes, honey. Your father is ri-" the phone was snatched from her hand (made apparent by the rapid shaking sound).

"Oh my goodness! My precious child! Are you alright?!? We were so worried!" He yelled. "(mumbling) We never should have let you out of our sight…"

"Yes, pa. *Chuckle* You can calm down. I'll be out of the hospital tomorrow. The doc said I was healing quite well."

Both my mother and father are in the states receiving medical care which is why they can't come here directly. Although the treatments they are receiving are't enough (they didn't tell me that, but I figured out by thinking a little harder after getting out of the coma). Their disease is curable, and that's why I have been working so hard.

"Anyways," she took back the phone, "enough about that...….

~

We talked for a while after that. I was able to get out of going to the graduation ceremony for my last year at highschool after asking the doctor to send in a notice (it was supposed to be tomorrow). Even though my recovery went well, I still was a little drowsy, so I was given a ride by the hospital to my apartment.

I thanked the driver and went to my room.

'Same as I left it. *Feew~*' In my bedroom, I had the capsule I bought with the money saved up over my summer jobs. Nearly every student, no, person at my school had been talking about it. The tech was earth shattering.

It could, like others before it, send you into a different reality, allowing full control over yourself, but this time, the reality is cranked up to eleven. It was built to play the game "Duality," which promised to be the biggest, most advanced, and greatest MMORPGs yet created. Coupled with their massive marketing campaign and these ludicrous claims, most people with an internet connection know of the game and are planning to play it.

In conjunction with the new capsule, players will be able to feel, smell, and taste things they experience in game, allowing for never before seen mastery of skills. More important promises (backed up by the companies 100 year reputation of being spot on with them) include dynamic skill systems (you execute them yourself) and the fact that the game will be able to replicate the most exciting emotions as if the game was real. Things will even secrete fake pheromones to make people feel real emotions from them.

This crazy game is set to release tonight, and is what I will use to test out my lucid dream.

Last time (well, in the dream), I only joined two months after the release since I was busy getting ready to go into college and I had no time to play. Just before I went in, my parents died.

This horrific event pushed me over the edge, and somehow, I had a rational thought in my violent animosity, and decided to take it out in game instead of in real life.

"*Sigh* I'll stop thinking about it…" I said out loud, and got into the capsule.