Afterlife Dream

I hated to admit it, but I too had thought about it.

The more I tried to make sense of what happened to me, the less sense it made.

Even if I recovered from pneumonia, I would not be rid of my weak body just like that. A miracle indeed happened. Jaden spoke from terminal lucidity. What if it was something else?

For example, death?

Dead people would not be sick or anything. They were, well, dead.

We sat there in awkward silence. The two cups of steaming cocoa in front of us already chilled down due to the cold autumn weather. The silence was broken by Theo who came running toward us with Allen in tow.

"LARA! DANIEL!"

"What is it?" Lara asked with furrowed brows.

"We managed to log in!!!"

"Excuse me what?"

"We managed to log in!"

"Log in where?" I asked dumbly.

"Into Afterlife Dream! Come on!!!"

All four of us ran back to the game cafe where Theo and Allen hung out all morning. The old man of the barber shop gaped at us as we walked past him as if he were a statue. As soon as I took my seat, I asked, "What are the username and the password?"

"The username is your full name with an underscore, and the password is your birth date!"

I stared at Theo. That easy? But he looked so sure.

I turned to look at the computer screen and typed in my full name and my birthdate with trembling fingers.

It couldn't be, could it? It couldn't be...

But then, as soon as I clicked enter, the screen lit up and I was in the character selection game.

There was only one character in my account, with the ID "Antares". A bishop, level 150. Woaw. The last time I played, I think I was level 50 or something. How did I gain 100 levels in a blink of an eye?

Two seats to my right, Lara let out a little scream when she too managed to log in.

"Oh my God, it works. It really works!"

Lara turned to us and pointed at the screen. "Look! I have a Musashi level 150 by the ID 'HellWitch'!!!"

After making sure that I and Lara logged in just fine, Theo and Allen each took their seats and logged into their accounts.

I put on my headsets and clicked to start the game. A piece of haunting background music played in my ears, and my character was sitting in front of a computer. Inside a room full of computers.

"..."

There were altogether four players in the computer room. There was me, Antares, and then of course HellWitch, then Lazarus, and lastly ZhaoYun. Green bars were floating on top of their heads. We were in a party.

I went to check the party setting and saw that we were missing two more people. Livina and Cecilia. Alice must be one of them, but where was the other one? Why did she not contact us?

"Guys," Lazarus, as in Theo, wrote in the party chat. "Open the mission list. There is a mission for every one of us!"

Allen dialed his phone and called Alice. "Hello? Alice? Yes, we have some news. Do you have a computer in front of you? Perfect, can you try logging into Afterlife Dream..."

I opened my mission list and there was indeed one mission for me there. The mission carried the title "Finding myself".

"Dear Adventurer, congratulations on your awakening. You have successfully transitioned into a new world, but your memories have yet to be recovered. Please find your memory scroll inside the treasure box. You have two hours to open the treasure box. The two hours will begin the moment you accept the mission."

What the...

"A treasure box," I quickly wrote into the party chat. "You guys as well?"

"I don't think it is the time to chat," ZhaoYun typed in hastily. "Guys, check the world map. Find your treasure box in two hours!"

I clicked accept and opened the world map. It showed me the town's map. A treasure box icon bounced up and down energetically on top of a building. I quickly zoomed into the building and saw that it was my hospital. The hospital where I spent more than half of my life in!

I clicked on the building and the screen zoomed into the inside of the hospital. There were altogether five floors. I knew that by heart. I went through each floor patiently. In my heart, I felt that I knew exactly where the memory scroll would be.

Since I was a long-term patient, the hospital had kindly arranged for me to stay in the same room again and again every time I came to visit the hospital. They even allowed Mom to decorate my ward to look more like a child's bedroom instead of a hospital. Other than the various medical equipment that must be there to sustain my life, the ward indeed did not look different than my bedroom at home.

I knew the location of my ward by heart. It was on the fifth floor, the second corridor to the left after the elevator, ward number 5256.

There it was. My memory scroll, or better said the treasure box was lying just on top of the bed in ward 5256.

I swallowed hard. I had to go there. I had to go and get my memory scroll right away!

The only problem was that the hospital was not exactly within walking range. Judging by the various gasps and the horrified looks that were plastered all over my friends' faces, they just found out where their memory scrolls were and the locations might just be as far away. Without further ado, we all grabbed our bags and prepared to leave.

"Let's get our treasure boxes! Let's meet here again tomorrow!" I shouted as we all scattered around in a hurry.

"Ok! See you, Daniel!"

"Bye!"

I ran to the side of the road and tried to grab a taxi, but none would stop for me. They literally just went past me as if I was nothing but a stone at the side of the road. I cursed in my heart. Why did they not stop for me? Was it because I was just a child???

Darn it, how was I supposed to get to the hospital, now?

I checked my wristwatch and saw that it was 14.45. Darn it, I already wasted 15 precious minutes! Just as I was frantically wondering about the best possible way to get to the hospital, I saw a lot of cars going in a certain direction.

I craned my neck to see where they were all going. Oh.

They were going to the St. Louis Academy. Possibly to fetch their kids.

I subsequently widened my eyes in shock. How could I be so stupid! Mom was coming at 3 PM! I could ask her for a ride!

I quickly ran back to St. Louis Academy, to the high school building to be exact. I was so in a hurry that I almost bumped against the other kids.

"Sorry!" I shouted, all the while aware that they might just be nothing more than illusions. Jaden came not long after. He grinned when he saw me.

"Hey, Danny, how was your first day?"

"It was wonderful," I quipped.

It was especially wonderful because we finally made a breakthrough. All thanks to Theo, that little gamer, and Allen. I did not know how to repay them. Maybe we could all have a nice meal together once the time loop was over.

Mom came at 15.10 sharp. It was the same time every day, but today I almost went insane from waiting.

"Mom, you took so long!" I complained as soon as I got into the car.

Mom shot me a quizzical look. "What happened, Danny? Why are you sweaty all around?"

"I uh..."

Never mind that!

I had to go to the hospital! What better way to achieve that than faking a sickness? I thus pulled a grimace and pressed my hands against my abdomen. "Mom, my stomach hurts. So badly. I think I need to go to the doctor... maybe I had some food poisoning..."

Jaden sucked in a deep breath. His mouth dropped open in disbelief. Just a minute ago I looked more than fine, and suddenly as soon as I got into the car, food poisoning? Yeah right.

Thankfully, Jaden did not blow my cover.

Mom turned pale. Without wasting any more time, she stepped on the gas and our car almost flew off the road on the way to the hospital. Inside the car, I bit into my lip full of regret.

Sorry Mom, I thought. I lied to you so many times these days. I hoped that the time loop ended soon so we could all go back to being a happy, perfect family. I could not wait to continue with the second day of school.