There was no earth or sky where he appeared. There was only darkness and emptiness around him. It was a sif he was surrounded by an ocean of emptiness.
But this darkness and emptiness was different from the conditions of the tunnel because there was no suffocating force trying to push him back, and there were actually stars in this darkness.
These stars had various colors. And as he looked at them, he realized that they were islands.
These islands were plentiful and were shining brightly. Even so, the world was still dark.
When he looked behind him at where he came from, he saw a round black gate at the edge of an island. This helped him realize that the islands were dreams.
So he realized that he had just walked out of his dream, and the suffocating force he felt in the tunnel was actually the barrier of his dream preventing him from leaving the safety of his dream.
