Afterlife Dream

I didn't know how long I was in the dormant state. Once I was unconscious, the pain stopped and was replaced by a warm feeling of floating in a sea of memories.

I remembered everything.

Or better said I felt like watching the story of my Afterlife Dream life in super speed.

I remembered my death.

I remembered logging into Afterlife Dream for the first time.

I remembered meeting Kitty.

I remembered meeting and doing Dai City Party Quest with HellWitch and Lazarus.

I remembered Wolfhound's and DragonTalon's scandalous incident.

I remembered taking the ship to Paradise Island for the first time and meeting Aurendiria.

I remembered meeting BlackPuma for the first time in Frozen Tundra.

I remembered my first raid with Livina and ZhaoYun.

I remembered the emergence of the Dimensional Master, the start of it all.

The disappearance of players inside the realm.

The bridge building event.

The carnival event.

The disappearance of thirty players at once when they went to confront the Dimensional Master.

And then, our determination to reach level 150 and find out what was happening.

I remember the last things we said to each other before we entered the so-called new world.

"Let's do this," Cecilia said.

"We will succeed at all cost," HellWitch declared.

"We will go back safely," Lazarus said.

"We will bring the others back with us," ZhaoYun said

"And then we will save the game," Livina said with tears in her eyes. "And we will all exit the game together."

I opened my eyes and it was the morning of the 23rd September again. Only that it was a lot earlier than the time I used to wake up at. I threw a lazy glance at the clock on the nightstand. It was 4 AM in the morning.

I fell back to my pillows with a groan. I closed my eyes and rolled inside my blanket, intending to continue sleeping for two more hours. My plan was foiled by a series of disturbing sounds.

Ding.

Ding ding ding.

I raised my left arm lazily and a two-dimensional rectangular screen popped up, illuminating my dark bedroom with soft, blue light. It was my user interface. And someone was sending me a message.

"Dude."

"Dude, are you up?"

"Dude, I know you are reading this. I can see the double tick marks in blue..."

I rubbed at my eyes and groaned. Damn it ZhaoYun, so early in the morning?

I typed the same sentence into the chatbox.

"Oh, Lord. I am so glad. So have you finally remembered everything now?"

Right. I found my memory scroll aka missing tablet. After that, I fell unconscious again and then the day restarted.

"Yeah," I answered. "How about you? Oh, how is everyone???"

I sat up on my bed abruptly.

How was everyone? Didn't we all go on a personal treasure box hunt? Did everyone manage to recover their electronic device?

I quickly opened the party window and saw that five players were online, including me. The only other player who was offline was Cecilia.

I let my body fall back to the bed as I stared at the party window.

I was Antares.

Lara was HellWitch.

Theo was Lazarus.

Allen was ZhaoYun.

And lastly, Alice was Livina.

"Hey, bro, what are your plans today?" I typed into the chat message.

There was no answer. I also typed into the party chat but got no answer in return.

Tired of waiting, I eventually fell asleep again and was woken up a second time when Mom drew the curtain open and bright sun rays flooded my bedroom within an instant.

"Daniel, rise and shine! Come on, wake up!"

I groaned and muffled something into my pillow.

"Awwww come on. You don't want to be late on your first day!"

"Mmmhgrmblll..."

I pulled my blanket aside, grabbed the same clothes that I had worn over and over again for my "first day of school" and dragged my lazy self toward my parents' bathroom.

Mom peeked at me, full of curiosity.

"Daniel? Why are you using our bathroom?"

"Because Jaden is having a bathroom breakdown," I informed her while making my way upstairs.

"He is?" Mom asked with a frown. "I didn't know that. Daniel, how did you even know? Are you a prophet?"

Haha.

I might as well be.

I came across Dad who was still getting dressed.

"Hey, Champ!" he called out to me. "Ready for an exciting first day at school???"

I gave him a weak smile. "Yeah, Dad."

"And why are you here? Do you need something from me?"

"Yes, your bathroom."

"What? Our bathroom? Why?"

"Jaden is having a breakdown," I repeated the same answer I gave to Mom and shut the door behind me.

Once I recovered all my memories, I saw things differently. It was all so real and yet so unreal.

I died that night, in the middle of August. My death was quick and painless. Afterlife Dream picked up from the moment I died, erased the event of my death, and gave me a beautiful life that I was never meant to have.

A full recovery, a healthy body, resuming a life of a student, and even becoming the star of the baseball team.

Messages started to arrive in my user interface when I was eating breakfast.

When my user interface lit up and I read through the messages, my family did not comment on that. No. To be more accurate, they did not even see the floating screen on my arm.

"Antares? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. We are back! We are back!" Alice, or Livina, chirped into the party chat. "I can't believe it!"

Everyone was typing at the same time.

"Guys, what should we do next?" ZhaoYun asked.

"It is quite clear," HellWitch wrote. "Good morning everyone, by the way. I am so happy that I don't have to steal money to buy a phone every morning anymore."

I had to chuckle at her remark.

"We go and find Cecilia?" I suggested. "She is the only one we have yet to find."

I checked my missions and there was no new one.

"Okay. Meet up today at 10 AM in the game cafe?" ZhaoYun suggested.

"Please don't!" Livina wrote. "I am still far far away from you guys! Let's do this today afternoon! I am going to the train station now!"

"There is no hurry," I claimed. "It's not like we can find Cecilia if we meet up. Why don't we continue posting on the game forum and the newspaper?"

"Sure," ZhaoYun agreed. "I will keep posting. Hopefully, she is back with us soon. Liv, I will pick you up at the train station again."

"Okay!" Livina said in return.

"Then see you again this morning for the newspaper ad submission, Antares?" HellWitch asked.

"Sure," I said.

HellWitch waited for me at the usual place, under a maple tree which leaves had turned red and golden thanks to the season.

"Yo," she said, raising her hand and waving at me.

"Yo," I said in return.

We walked together next to each other.

"So here we are, in the so-called new world."

"I kinda understand now why the others didn't make it," HellWitch mused. "Think about it. Maybe BlackPuma never got out of his time loop. And the thirty people who disappeared, it must take them ages to break through their time loop."

"You are not wrong," I agreed. "We are only six people. So many days had passed and we had only come around to gathering five of six. Cecilia is still missing to date."

"Really thanks to Theo and Allen for cracking the way to log into our accounts. We would never have made it this far without them."

I grinned. "Now you appreciate your gaming nerd of a little brother a little more, eh?"

The girl gave me a shove into my ribcage with her elbow. "What are you talking about? I always appreciate him. Theo is smart. I just want him to be productive elsewhere and not gaming."

I laughed while rubbing at my hurting ribcage.

"How is everything at home?"

HellWitch's life story was particularly sad. Now that she lived with her parents again, was she any happier?

"Meh," she said. "To be honest I noticed that something was off before the time loop even began. Their marriage ended in such a grotesque way but when they came to pick us up again, it was as if Dad never cheated and he did not already have another child with his mistress. It all felt so fake."

"I am so sorry to hear that," I sincerely said.

"Meh, don't be."

I guessed that in some cases, even the Afterlife Dream did not know how to properly iron out all the wrinkles. But then I got a bright idea.

"Oh hey, wait."

I grabbed HellWitch's wrist. "What do you say if we are a little bit more creative this time around?"

"Huh?" HellWitch frowned at me. "What do you mean?"