"I promise I'll write it only for you! So find me in the future!!"
My alarm rang after I heard those words. Getting up from the cranky bed in my one-bedroom apartment, I stretched with a yawn before looking at the time.
"9:45? I must have snoozed it twice," I thought to myself before walking to the kitchen.
The strange dream still lingered in the back of my mind as I had my breakfast. The aroma of a cappuccino filled the room.
I couldn't help but smile proudly as I took a sip of the cappuccino I had made myself.
"Glad I got this coffee machine. Spending $10 every day at a coffee shop definitely isn't good for my wallet."
I paused for a moment, laughing at myself for talking to myself—a habit I had grown used to.
All I had were books, specifically novels from the internet. I admired heroes as a child—a naive, innocent dream everyone had at least once in their life. Though, for whatever reason, liking novels made my childhood a bit harder…
Ever since I was a child, I talked to myself. The children in school didn't exactly like me much. That was to be expected, after all. While they were playing with superhero toys, I was in the corner reading novels.
My luck didn't change in middle school or high school. Girls called me a nerd, so I never had a girlfriend either. Now I'm stuck as an introvert who talks to himself, and worst of all, the career I chose was that of an extrovert.
Putting on the white, freshly ironed shirt, I felt that familiar sensation of sandpaper-like material rubbing against my skin.
Though a white dress shirt is far from sandpaper, it felt just as bad. Putting on the same old white shirt and black suit, I thought about the dream once again.
"Find me in the future…." I paused for the second time. That thought filled my mind with a bit of bitter sadness.
I realized I was getting sad over a silly dream that I didn't even know the meaning of, which made me chuckle a bit at the stupidity of it all.
"Huh? Find me in the future? Who even was that? Was it a guy? A girl? I know I heard a voice, but I can't recall who it was that called out to me…"
I was lost in deep thought, trying to scramble for answers in a memory that had almost been completely erased from my mind.
The dream was… extraordinary. It wasn't a nightmare. I can recall myself being afraid, but… not because I thought something bad would happen to me.
Suddenly, the phone rang loudly, snapping me out of my daydreaming. Looking at the number I didn't recognize, I was a bit surprised, as I didn't get calls a lot.
"Is it time already? I have to defend a client today. Is it him?" I said to myself before picking up the phone.
"This is not a drill. Everyone remain calm and follow the instructions we're about to give you—"
The voice cut off.
Only then did I look out the window to see the hell outside my apartment.The entire city was engulfed in flames and chaos.People were running in the streets, deformed monsters with blazing black flames chasing after them.
"Okay… what the hell is going on…" I dropped my phone onto the floor as I took a couple of steps back from the window.
Loud footsteps filled the corridor of my apartment, then my door handle suddenly shook with urgency as a woman called out to me.
"Please let me in! The elevator is broken, the stairs are filled with monsters, please!" the woman screamed out as she banged on my door. Her voice was nervous, as well as afraid.
"Hello?? Is anyone home? Please! You're the last person on this floor—everyone else is either ignoring or—"
There was a loud bang, then the sound of a body hitting the floor.
My entire body shook with fear as I slowly walked over to the door, trying not to step on a creaky panel of my floor.
Looking through the ring camera, I saw the body of that woman being eaten by a monster that had a bow on its back.
His skin was stained with crimson blood as well as grotesque scars. The green skin clearly told me it was a goblin.
Towering over the woman's fallen body, the goblin seemed to be around 8 feet tall with muscles that would put bodybuilders to shame.
"Holy—are goblins supposed to be this big…"
I whispered under my shaking lips. Just the thought of that goblin hearing me make a noise, then breaking my door to eat me next, filled my heart with fear.
Thousands of thoughts ran through my head. I wanted to survive. I wanted to run away and feel safe. But those thoughts froze my legs, making it impossible for me to do anything.
Suddenly, a voice appeared in my head. A high-pitched, serious voice, like that of a newly employed lawyer talking to his boss.
"Congratulations for being lucky enough to survive Stage 0. Now we will move on to Stage 1. The first stage—"
The voice cut off as a strange window appeared before my eyes with the sentence:
[Survival of the Fittest]
The voice in my head returned once again, but it said only one word this time.
"Choose."
A timer started running down from 15 seconds, and three choices appeared before my eyes.
• Run
• Hide
• Fight
Once again, I was frozen in place. Everything seemed to speed up. I couldn't keep up. The timer on the strange blue window only went down. I had to choose, and I had to make it fast.
"3…2…1."
Finally, at the last possible second, I chose to Fight.