"Have you ever dreamed?"
A female MC pointed her microphone toward me and flashed a charming smile in her cool office attire; for a split second, I was about to say that my dream was right in front of me, and a big one at that.
But I quickly regained my composure, uttering the sentence I had practiced for a long time.
"My dream is very simple, it is—"
…
Beep!
Beep!
I sat before a surgical bed, or rather before an operating room where nurses and doctors were performing surgery, and I was only looking at the surgical table through a tiny glass pane.
Beeeeeeep~
Only then did I realize a strange sound was coming from my phone.
It was from the editor; it seemed he needed a manuscript urgently.
"Is the deadline here already?"
Too fast, everything these past few days had truly happened so fast that it could be summarized in just a few sentences, or was it because I thought it was too fast?
I hurried into the restroom, opening the Note app on my phone, trying to find the manuscript I had prepared.
"Did I save it? I remember writing it, right? It seems so, where is it, where is it!"
I gritted my teeth, banging on the restroom stall door and hoping I was not bothering anyone.
I closed the door, but it seemed the door would not lock, had I broken it? It seemed so.
Sitting down on the toilet seat, I decided not to submit anything at all, to hell with the money!
"Ahhhh, damn it"
I sat blankly staring into the void, trying to forget this false reality.
But when I tried to sink into the feeling of emptiness, my head kept throbbing.
Like a bottle of coke being lightly shaken, my brain gradually leaked gas and coke in the form of meaningless song lyrics.
It was gentle, it gradually embraced my head, it was like a melodious tide gradually taking over the shore.
Then the only thing I remembered was someone screaming, someone holding me back, someone pinning me down.
I did not understand what was happening, I looked up, only to see the restroom mirror had been shattered into a thousand pieces.
…
Have you ever dreamed?
Dreaming of escaping reality to live within dreams.
There are lives we always long for, we desire, because they are too wonderful, too beautiful.
So we seek the illusory, where reality and dreams are but a step apart.
And someone once said, reading a novel is reading a life, dreaming a dream is dreaming of being a person.
My name is Joe, a person who vaguely heard that while sitting on a business trip, and tried dreaming about it.
'Well, why don't I try reading a few novels?' I asked myself.
Classic novels were too long-winded, and dry too, so I started with web novels to see.
'Oh, how interesting' I tried reading trending series, newly emerging series, series that had been completed long ago…
'But why... is everything so simple' I could not help but wonder, the feeling of joy in the first few books was gradually replaced by a feeling of doubt.
I found it strange, it would either be a regressor, a transmigrator, someone too strong, someone too weak but feigning strength, someone who knows everything that will come,...
'Oh no, there are still other things, where we can continue reading new fragments of lives' I thought while searching different tags.
…
I was not very sure, I felt a bit bloated with web novels, I tried reading classic novels.
Some were good, some confusing, some I abandoned halfway, some I had to wonder why no one knew about them yet.
But the emotions, they were not as intact as at the beginning; when I read web novels, perhaps I still liked the feeling of dreaming when reading about characters like the ones above.
I knew, the feeling was very strange, every character was,... predictable in some way, yet made us dream deeper, even though I knew how every story would turn out, how it would end.
'Hey, why don't I try writing a bit?' I thought to myself, anyway I was tired of my own repetitive life, why not try something new.
I tried writing about familiar character types, sometimes more novel, sometimes classic, I went back and forth to dream about character plots and stories.
I dreamed of stories where I could be the characters within them, and become a part of the story.
But come on, let's not be too delusional, I liked that kind of character but I could never be like that, I had lived this life for many years, and I knew dreaming was always beautiful.
And then one day... I leaned my head on the desk.
On it were cluttered work reports and the computer still displaying work.
I took a sip of coffee, quite comfortable, I had not slept for more than a day, what I needed now was a long sleep.
In my weariness, I often thought about one thing 'Why do online authors and readers love stories of transmigrating into fictional characters and the feeling of standing above ten thousand people?'.
I always knew what the answer was, but always delayed answering it, because anyway thinking more would be of no use.
I let out a long yawn. Looking down at my phone, it was already past 10 PM, a little sleep wouldn't hurt, right?
Glancing at the phone's wallpaper, there were a few people there, but there were no faces at all.
…
"SOMEONE! Someone call an ambulance!".
"There is a dead person!"
What on earth? I was just trying to sleep, was there some incident? Who died?
I tried to use my hands to push myself up and open my eyes only to see a pitch black color.
'Ah... everyone...'
…
Who am I?
I touched my face only to feel a horrific stickiness, it was like a layer of slimy mud, actually it was more like a black asphalt-like substance.
I tried to open my eyes but there was only pitch blackness in my vision, but then it gradually brightened.
A grey color surrounded the world where I was, but then in the world I saw, there was only a brilliant red color.
My name is Ron Irus.
Who am I?
I stood up, but then fell down, my legs had burnt to charcoal.
But that was not the most horrific thing; right before my eyes, on a pure white birthday cake that still had a candle, it was covered with a layer of human skin.
Around it were dozens of dead people, their bodies burnt to ashes, but on some faces where the shape remained, they looked like a soullessness.
Something had happened.
But I could not see it, because this blurred person only saw the brilliant burning fire covering the layer of human skin.
I opened my eyes wide, no, I was always opening my eyes wide, then in a flash, I understood what it was.
I picked up that piece of human skin, then stretched it out, so strange, so familiar.
And then I put it on my face, like wearing a mask.
I am Ron Irus.
Ron put on the skin mask for himself, then his face full of black blood and slimy fluid gradually made it stick to his face.
But then, he could not see anything, seemingly as if the body was in a state of non-action, all muscle strength exhausted, feeling as if about to faint.
Then he lay down on the ground, blood spreading into a river.