Chapter 1: A Dream

I found myself in the midst of an Indian traditional wedding ceremony, surrounded by vibrant colors and joyful festivities. The air was filled with the sweet aroma of flowers, and the sound of laughter echoed through the venue. I stood there, a perplexed guest, when a sudden craving for ramen overcame me. It was a strange desire amid such a formal occasion, but the urge was undeniable.

Without warning, I was no longer at the wedding but on a raised podium. Dressed in my finest attire, I held a bowl of ramen in one hand while facing an audience that seemed equally bewildered. What had just transpired?

My voice, unfamiliarly confident, carried through the room as I began to speak about quantum superposition and the many-worlds interpretation. I delved into the complexities of parallel universes coexisting in a state of quantum ambiguity. The white board behind me was covered in equations, as I educated the audience about the beauty of parallel universes existing, while my other hand still held the bowl of ramen. The words flowed effortlessly from my lips, as if I were an expert in a field I had never truly delved into.

But then, a disagreement seemed to have arisen beyond the podium. Members of the audience started to argue vehemently, asserting that I did not deserve the Nobel Prize for my flawed theory. Anger welled up within me, and in a moment of irrationality, I hurled my bowl of ramen at the dissenting voices. The audience retaliated with tomatoes, flinging them at me with unruly fervor.

In the midst of this chaos, a hauntingly beautiful violin melody filled the background, its mournful notes contrasting sharply with the absurdity of the situation. I moved down from the stage, determined to confront the audience who dared to challenge me. As I drew closer, I realized that the faces in the audience were all mine, mirroring my anger and confusion.

Before I could further make sense of the scene in front of me, my brain registered the violin music, recognizing the tune and jolting me awake.

....

Kane woke up in the dim light of his room, his heart racing. His mind was still ensnared in the chaotic whirlwind of the dream he'd just experienced. It was a dream unlike any other, a kaleidoscope of surreal imagery that left him curious and intrigued. He blinked at the ceiling, trying to make sense of it all, but the fragments of the dream slipped through his grasp like grains of sand. Only bits remained. Ramen, Nobel prize, something physics related??

The dream made no sense to him. Then again, no dream ever did make sense, right? But strangely, the scenes that did remain in his mind seemed to have etched themselves. He could vividly remember that the ramen bowl was quite large and steaming hot. He could almost feel the flavor. 

*GRRRRR*

His stomach grumbled at the thought as he turned off his alarm and got out of his bed. He grabbed his phone from the bedside table, checking his notifications. Noticing nothing interesting, Kane quickly tapped into the group chat with his friends. The chat had been a constant in their lives—a place where they shared everything from memes to life updates and sometimes their dreams.

In fact, he had been considering for a long time to create a collection of all their dreams as a book. They were always fun to read.

*Kane*: "Hey, everyone. You won't believe the dream I just had. It was legit crazy, I think I won the Nobel Prize or something. Can't even describe it properly."

And then he went on to type around ten messages describing the stuff he could remember. After he was done with that, he placed his phone on his table and made his way to the kitchen. It was the weekend today; he had no work piled up either, so he was going to chill all day. Play some league, watch some twitch and then do some calisthenics training later. Life was chill as far as he was concerned.

After a short jog and a quick cold shower, he heated up the overnight soaked oats he had prepared last night, heating it up. Adding some bananas and nuts, he took the bowl and went back to his room.

'They should have seen my message by now. Let's see their reactions.' He chuckled and opened his phone.

*Layke*: "Bruh, that was just you looking in the future. Ngl, you will win it one day fr."

*Jaypreak*: "Seems normal eh? Just your average day educating the people xd."

*Raju*: "It would be even better if there were flying donuts instead of tomatoes."

Kane chuckled at Zephyr's comment. The "flying donut" was an inside joke from one of his previous dreams.

*Khatra*: "I had a weird dream too. I was in a library, but all the books kept running from me? And the librarian was my ex, so I could ask no one for help either? A nightmare, honestly. Glad I woke up from that."

*Layke*: "I had a fun dream compared to you all. I was on a ship and the ocean was made of whiskey, so me and my mates all dove to fill our glasses. Then we partied all night, but when the captain came and started scolding, I was alone? Bruh, I swear every time it's like this. XD"

*Detektive*: "Wdym dreamt about it? That's your daily routine lol." Kane quickly typed in. Asche, also known as Layke in their group, was working in merchant navy. Right now he should be sailing across the atlantic. Should be around near midnight for him.

*JayPreak*: "My dream was just a giant game of hide and seek with cats in tuxedos. But hey, I guess mine wins the weirdness contest?"

Kane laughed at reading Jay's message. One day, he would comb through these messages to chronicle all their dreams into a book. But not anytime soon. He was too lazy to do that right now, he thought.

After that, they continued to bicker, forgetting about the dreams they all had in a moment. They continued poking fun at each other and offering humorous interpretations. It was all part of their daily routine—coming together in the virtual world to bond despite being separated by physical distance.

Growing up together in the same orphanage, they were like sibling. But they had all drifted once their careers started shaping. Yet despite that, they had kept up with each other, managing to meet a few times during the year. In fact the date for their next meet-up was coming closer. Once Layke arrived at his location, he would take a flight back, as this was his last trip of the year. They would gather once he was back in the country. 

Thinking about their reunion, Kane shared his thoughts in the group. They then started planning about the stuff they wanted to do together. As the conversation flowed, Zephyr (also called as Raju) shared a recent insta reel that had gone viral. 

The reel began as a seemingly ordinary dashcam video, showing the view of a car riding through a picturesque field, with the sun setting on the horizon. But then out of nowhere a number of objects starting falling out of the air, some even materializing out of nowhere. There were enlarged earphones and pens, and then buildings that were miniature. It looked like a hodgepodge of items, and the video made no sense. The car had stopped by now as the objects stopped appearing. As the chaos settled, the final creation that appeared was a portrait of someone, created out of the amalgamation of objects that had appeared. It looked amazing, honestly. Like the modern art in museums you would see. 

*Raju*: "I wish I could edit like that. Terrific skills. Marvel should hire this guy honestly, might save them."

*Layke*: "Yo this looks like one of our dream, complete random ah bs!"

*JayPreak*: "Nah I could do this too, just buy me a decent pc lmao."

The group continued their conversation, but Kane was no longer focused on the chat. Because something else had caught his attention. Something that was way more weird than the CGI in the reel.

Among the clutter of objects that appeared in the reel, a single white board sprawling with equations caught his attention. The same white board that was in his dream. Now appeared before him in a randomly edited video online?

Was this some crazy coincidence? How was he sure it was the same? Had he seen this reel before and maybe he didn't remember about it?

He closed the chat and then watched the reel again, pausing it right at the instant when the board materialized. Then he zoomed in on it, taking a snippet of the image. It couldn't be a mere coincidence, could it? Well he had to find out, so he took the cropped image of the board and decided to run a search on it, to see if there were any matches.