3 - A Strange Dream

After wondering around for a while, Rumi found a cave that looked a bit creepy. Actually, saying it was a creepy would be an understatement, as the secluded location made it an ideal place for crime. Besides that, the cave itself was pretty big, yet the entrance was a bit small, meaning not much sunlight and fresh air could go into the cave to actually light up the cave or make the cave less stuffy.

"Wow, this looks like a place someone could hide the bodies.." Rumi casually commented as she went inside the cave. It took a moment to adjust her eyes to a darker environment but she was lucky that she used to stay in a dark room in her past life due to her being unable to afford high electricity bills. This led her to see better in the dark so Rumi wasn't bothered by the dark cave that much.

As she explored the cave, she saw a few weird logs in the distance, however, as she got closer, she realized they resembled humans in a laying position.

"So..they actually hid the bodies in here." Rumi muttered. She didn't even know if she could be surprised at this point.

It was as if anything goes around here.

Rumi sighed and shook her head. "Seriously, I thought I finally found a perfect place to sleep..."

She looked at the surrounding bodies and sighed again. She sat down and continued to think of her next step when a rather bold idea came into her mind.

"Wait- what if I pretend to be dead and blend in with these guys? Since this place seems to be just a place to hide bodies, they probably won't dispose of the bodies either. Isn't it great to play dead and hide in here?"

It sounded absolutely ridiculous, yet, Rumi could see it working if she knew how to play it right. Surely, it would be more than awkward, disgusting and scary to sleep here with all of these bodies, and no one in their right mind would be willing to do this.

But, that was exactly the reason Rumi could see how this could work.

She had heard of a saying, "Sometimes, the most dangerous place is the safest to hide." because most of the times, no one expect to have someone hide there and thus, tend to overlook it.

And, not being found in her sleep was the only thing she needed right now.

"Alright, it's decided. But, first, let me explore the cave until I know every inch of it.. The potential escape routes and how I will wake myself up.." Rumi told herself.

As enticing as her plan was, she knew there could be mishaps or errors in judgement. So, she would first make sure that she could get away if anything were to happen, hence, the escape routes.

The next problem was to make sure she could wake up before she got into danger in her sleep. This was a harder part, especially because she was never a light sleeper even in her past life.

She basically died in a house fire because she didn't even wake up in time so there was that.

However, even after thinking for a while, Rumi can't figure out a solution.

So far, she had passive skill Sloth, which only boost efficiency in things she do.

Then, she had fire resistance passive skill that could make her resistant to fire to a degree.

She could also see better than normal people in the dark but apart from that, Rumi couldn't see any notable advantage.

She did however, came up with a few rough ideas in her mind after a while.

The first one was setting traps that would make anyone who would enter the cave made noise so that she could wake up and get away in time. But, the huge downside of this was this could make whoever that was entering realize someone was here, judging by the traps and she couldn't guarantee she could wake up by the noise either. Some people could be trained to not make a noise even if they suddenly get injured so relying on people's reaction to a trap wasn't a reliable way to wake herself up.

And, if she didn't wake up in time and instead alerted them, she would be over.

Next was to find some natural alarms to wake herself up. While exploring the cave, Rumi had seen different parts of the cave that could make some noise, like water droplets dripping down from the stalagmites, splashing sounds one would make when stepping into small ponds in different areas. But, the problem with all that was the noise would be barely audible. Rumi knew none of this could wake her up.

She also thought about developing a sleep schedule and wake up at certain intervals to check the surroundings but just like the other two potential solutions, she lacked the means to guarantee she would wake up.

"So, the problem comes down to my bad habit of sleeping heavily.." Rumi sighed again, before laying down onto the rock hard floor of the cave.

"Dang, those webnovels don't even show the real struggle one's gonna have in sudden change in lives...Even with two passive skills, I feel kinda trapped. Or amI being too paranoid?" Rumi muttered, looking at the stalagmites and falling water droplets.

She watched the waterdroplets fall from the stalagmites and into the small puddle on the cave floor. It made soft, barely audible, yet rhythmic noises as it seemed to fall at a specific interval.

Rumi watched and wondered if getting used to that rhythm could help her set up a natural alarm clock. But, reality had to disappoint her as she found herself slowly drifting into sleep.

'I'm so f*cked...'

That was her last thought before she was drifted into dreamland.

--------------

It started off with a peaceful, fun visit to the amusement park. Rumi found herself excitedly running to her favorite rollercoaster ride as her child self. She got onto the ride and was happily waving to her parents and friends. Then, the ride started, and as the rollercoaster got higher up in its trail as it moved forward, she found herself looking back at her parents and friends, but she found herself being barely able to see them.

She saw her child self cry out and ask to stop the rollercoaster and closed her eyes until it stopped.

Then, the scene changed to her usual self standing in a field of grass - no, an amusement park with grass and trees overgrowing on top of the once-fun rides. The once vibrant and lively park was now silent and dull, with no one in sight. The vibrant colors had faded, the fun rides had become rusted, and the once busy main street had become lonely with its cracked pathways.

The scene was a little haunting, yet there was something that was pulling her in.

Rumi found herself stepping into the main street, then the scene changed again.

This time, she was back into her child self where she was holding her mom's hands, walking on that very main street, laughing and jumping in excitement for all the fun rides. Then, the scene of her getting onto that rollercoaster ride and then crying for it to stop showed up again.

Rumi felt herself crying along with her child self, sobbing and shaking as the ache in her heart became stronger.

"Why did you abandon me back then..?" She heard a voice from a far.

"Who are you? What're you talking about?" Rumi found herself asking at the mysterious voice.

"I'm -"

Rumi couldn't hear the voice, instead, the dream repeated from the start, again and again.

Yet, Rumi still couldn't hear the voice at the last part.

After unknown amount of repeated loop, Rumi heard the voice said instead, "Come on, it's time to wake up, Rumi."

"But-"

"Wake up.." Sbe heard the voice said, before she was jotted awake.

Rumi was breathing heavily as she woke up but a quick glance at her surroundings made her calm down quicker. With the glance, she saw two man walking to the area she was laying down, carrying a body of another man.

"...was such a drag."

"...Right? Carrying this dude..."

She heard them talking, but the voices weren't loud and clear enough to make out what they were exactly saying.

But, she kept her guard up as she laid in her place without moving. Thanks to the darkness, they would at least be unable to tell if she was closing her eyes completely or not, so Rumi could watch them.

Rumi was thankful for the mysterious voice that told her to wake up at that, because she didn't know what could've happen without it waking her up.

She waited there until the men left the body and went outside the cave. She didn't move until the footsteps were far away and the time interval was long enough for it to be safe.

"I need to get stronger...or I won't even be able to sleep to maintain Sloth.." She muttered.