Dreams have been an unnecessary but ever-present entity that comes and goes as it chooses. They are as vast as the sky, yet no two seem to ever be identical. While some are better than others, most of the time people are glad that dreams are just fantasy and quickly forget that they ever happened and get on with their lives. But what if dreams held a deeper meaning to them? Could we control our dreams voluntarily at the clap of a hand? Chronic lucid dreamers would probably scoff at the fact that many people would wish for their inherent ability to control everything in a fictional space for a brief amount of time. All of this came to mind when he recalled the news from this morning.
A company called HIDE (Human Interconnecting Dream Enterprise) has just released their new product, the D-KNT or Dream Konnect. The idea behind this was thought up by some mad scientist once before, however when people tried it, it caused a huge panic to society as the creator designed it so that when people enter this, they would be locked in with no way of escape. His invention connected the brain to the headset which prevented the brain from making people's real-life body move when they were moving in the fictional world. Since then people have been provided hospital beds to keep their bodies alive. Suddenly, 2 years later, people finally woke up. The secret to whatever happened during that time remains a mystery, however, the technology was handed to the trusted company HIDE who had successfully overshadowed its previous dark past and breathed new life into it.
Today was going to be his first time trying it. He looked at the clock just as the hour hand had past two, anxious about trying it on. He had a few friends in his class that talked about it day in and day out and, as far as he knew, there had been no negative reports on the device, so far. The D-KNT had a large dome shape equipped with a chin strap to keep it centred. The design was minimalistic with a black overall colour and a white stripe at the top that reached from end-to-end. After a rather long one-sided debate in his head, he eventually caved in and threw it on. After carefully adjusting the straps and making himself comfy on his single bed, he squeezed his eyes shut as it worked its way around the curves of his head. Several minutes must have passed as a single sweat drop rolled down his face, onto the pillow. Suddenly a wave of vertigo overpowered his senses as he drifted into a deep sleep. He found himself in an empty place. He felt weightless like he had no mass. He tried to look around, but his eyes were not there. He felt conscious but did not have a body. It's a strange feeling, like being transformed into a single particle and being pulled in by the strongest force in the universe. The only logical conclusion was that this peculiar feeling was due to him being transferred as data. Several moments passed before he was pulled into a large facility of some sort. People started popping into existence around, most likely just as confused as he was.
"Welcome to the D-KNT registration area. You are user #1372. Please enter your details." The automated voice-over read out instructions one-by-one and he selected the options accordingly.
"Name…Shidou Yume… Age… 16…gender…male…"
"You're all set! enjoy your stay here! As a thank you bonus for being one of the first 5000 to start using D-KNT, we have granted you an extra 100 credit chips that you can begin with. Be sure to use them to your advantage! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask a DPC for help! Take care now!" After another flash of bright light and forced squinting, he felt himself being taken away to another place. Powerless to stop it, he looked forward to whatever awaited him. Shidou walked through a gate which led into a new world. A large sign hovering above the exit catches his attention: "Main hub- 10m" he quickened his pace into a light jog as he reached the exit. His feet adjusted from metal to grass with a gentle brushing noise as a sweet smell found its way into his nose, tickling his senses. His first instinct was to start exploring his surroundings. Shidou felt like a child again; full of wonder and excitement. Every direction he looked at had something new and bewildering to discover. The bright pink tinted sky formed a light shadow above everything below it, making the area pleasant and stress-free for their eyes. Platforms bobbed up and down, leisurely orbiting the entire area above their heads, welcoming any curious guests with various signposts attached to each. They varied in shapes and sizes; some more jagged and cylindrical and others looked like cut-out icecaps. The busy chit-chat of people filled the air. Shidou overheard someone mention a new construction that was finally completed after several months of waiting. Just as he began to head off into the town to collect information, a familiar sounding voice shouted his name.
"Heeeey! Shidouuu! over here!" Shidou jerked his head in shock over to the source of the noise, to find a girl around his age with a large grin over her face. Upon closer inspection, however, He matches the over-energetic voice with the face of the girl.
"Wha- Yui? what are you doing here?" There was a reason that Shidou was so surprised. Contrary to belief, it's not because he was shy to find one of his friends there in the fictional world, instead, the girl that he was looking at with the over-sized grin on her face was Yui Suzumiya. She made herself very clear that she had no interest with D-KNT, to the point where she stopped talking to several of her classmates who constantly talked about it during recess. What could have possibly compelled her to have a change of heart- and this quickly as well! Perhaps she received one as a gift from her parents and thought that she would at least try it out, but it seemed more than that. It seemed more like she voluntarily put it for some other reason. Regardless of the reason, he would have to find out later, lest he wanted to spend another day in pain whenever he kept her waiting. Shidou quickly covered the distance between them and soon they were at eye level. She looked a bit different compared to what he remembered. Her long pink hair which was previously tied up neatly into a ponytail now rest over her right shoulder, slightly frizzled. Her clothes were out of the ordinary from what he could tell. The rest of her was the same as in person. A short sky-blue dress cuts off at just above her knees and various patterns can be seen scattered near the rims. He usually only saw her in their boring school uniform, however, he could still see that her choice of clothing was rather strange. He had imagined that she would wear something more… sporty and easy to move around in. That would have matched her personality more, however, Shidou thought this was pretty good too, she looked more feminine than usual. He clears his thoughts, keeping his guard up, lest she tries some trick on him and he spends another day writhing in embarrassment. However, the one thing that has not changed and the sole reason why he recognised her immediately was due to her bright blue eyes that would drown out all the colour around them until there was nothing left. They first met when she moved into the neighbourhood. She lived right across the road from Shidou and they went to the same primary school, so naturally, they became close friends. One day when they sneaked out to go on an expedition of sorts, a wild dog attacked them, causing them to split up and become lost. Yui was still new to town and couldn't find her way back. This caused the expedition to be put on hold as he leads a one-man search party. After an hour of searching, he found her in the bushes due to 2 teary blue eyes popping out in the night. The thing that makes Yui special is that her eyes appeared to glow brightly in the dark, like a blue candle that dances with the wind.
"Hey Shidou perfect timing! I just finished my errand and earned a hefty seventy credit chips! Crazy right?"
"oh… oh yeah! right I remember it mentioning the credit chip system, but I'm not too sure what it is." Shidou notices a slightly smug grin appear on her otherwise innocent face.
"Oh silly Shidou, ignorant as always, guess you didn't read up about it did you? I guess I can tell you a little about it. You see the currency here is called credit chips. You can exchange them for cosmetics, activities and much more at various vendors. You got some upon entering right? Everyone begins with a base value of 100 and it resets to this value every twenty-four hours server time points to the large clock in the centre of town so don't be afraid to use them! Saving them up is also no use as you have a limit of 10,000 at any given time and they reset at the end of the day anyway. You can earn them just like I did a while ago by completing various jobs, kinda like quests in video games for reference and are the rewards. The harder the job, the bigger the reward. Careful though, fail either from running out of time or other means sacrifices your valuable credit chips so watch out alright!" Yui said as she winked her bright blue eyes at him, emphasizing its importance.
"Wait did you say that everyone starts with 100 credit chips? They started me with 200 since I was one of the first ones to try out the D-KNT."
"What are you talking about? Everyone starts with 100, you're being delusional, let me check your- wha? you really do have 200 as a base value? What did you do to get the extra?" Yui seemed to be more annoyed than interested as she interrogated him further, her blue eyes lowering in doubt. Anyone's guess is probably as good as his. After all, they told him that he got this extra for being early, but is there more to it than that? A glitch in the system perhaps, or a one-in-a-million random chance that he happened to be picked for this gift. Either way, he didn't understand why she's overreacting like this, it's not that big of a deal is it? Sure this is an advantage, but it's not that much more, so it's not going to be a problem. He concluded that he should probably keep this information to just between him and Yui though. "I guess the developers just really like me then, I'm the next saviour of mankind."
"Right… you keep telling yourself that." Yui said, rolling her bright blue eyes over to a sign that rested on the ground. "anyway, check this out! there's a new area that was just added to the system a few minutes ago, that's why I hurried here to finish my errand! Let's go check it out!" She's about to explode from excitement so he should check it out first. He was patient and could put off exploring by himself for a bit. He had initially planned to get the highest point of the area so that he could get a rough overview of the whole place. After a brisk walk up a large hill, through a park and past the beach, they arrived at what seemed to be a forest clearing. They were greeted by the DPC (Dream Player Character) which Yui affectionately linked the resemblance to an NPC (Non-Player Character) due to their purpose and eternal curse to repeat the same lines over and over again in the same voice. Yui took 3 large strides in while humming to herself while Shidou gingerly entered this unknown realm. "Hey what are you doing over there? Hurry up and get over here, the fun's about to start! According to the guide, this area is called A Dream's Creation. You can create whatever you imagine up, in exchange for credit chips of course. I'm gonna go ahead and try first then. Okay, I want… oh, I know! Flight! lemme fly around freely." Shidou had known Yui since they were both children, however, he still couldn't decide if she was too carefree or ignorant of any potential risks. "Granted, that will be 50 credit chips." The voice came from all around them. Were there hidden speakers or something? "Okay, no problem. Alright, I'm off Shidou!" She took a few paces back before rushing into an all-out sprint. After the fifth step, she took one big jump and began ascending, far above the surrounding trees, up until she cast a large shadow over the sun. After a few brisk laps of the area, she halted about 20 feet or so above Shidou. She was a little out of breath and was huffing slightly, either from exhaustion or excitement. However, there was an issue about where she positioned herself relative to Shidou. "Haaah… yeah, this is great! Shidou you've gotta try this out as well! the air's cool up here and the view's so pretty." "U-Um… could you move somewhere else first before you say anything else? It's… showing…" "huh? what are you talking abou… AH! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE LOOKING! PERVERT!" Shidou felt his face flush a deep red while she started moving away, holding her dress down all the while. He turned his head to the side and faced the floor, trying to play it off as just a misunderstanding. He could have just not mentioned it and that would've probably been a better idea, still what's done is done. While nodding to himself a strange sizzling noise caught his attention. He turned around to see a now lowered Yui, however, her eyes are now a fiery red colour and she seems to be shaking uncontrollably. This can't possibly end well. "Hey, Shidou Yume? could you do me a quick favour and walk over here? I have a gift that I want you to have." "w-well I think we can save that for later right? we don't need to do that right now. Yeah, let's just do it later." "AH FORGET ABOUT IT, SUMMON FIREBALLS AND ATTACK SHIDOU!" Large molten balls began to form around Yui as she shouts these words and unfairly orders them to charge headfirst at Shidou. As each blast zips by the trees and heads towards him, time seemed to slow down. Suddenly, Shidou felt very light, his mind was clear and confidence filled his chest. He had to do something about these fireballs- and quickly at that. He needed some way out, a way to either escape or redirect them. Something. At this fated moment, was when he first met her.