An Oddball's Quest

(Marcus’s POV)

So uh… Apparently I learnt something new today. That is, to not eat three cups of instant noodle and passed out to bed. The reason I said this to, well, myself of course, was because of the fact, an odd fact, of me waking up in a forest in the middle of the night.

Even a mentally unstable person know this isn’t the reality, but I was caught astounded. I am probably among those people who wished to have a lucid dream; experiencing the joy of gaining control inside your dream and do whatever you wanted for a short amount of time, everyone just needs that.

Thought it’s not my wish to wake up inside a dark, gloomy, terrorizing and inaudibly suffocating forest with dead and living trees mixed together, disturbing my view. If I knew I were to get thrown inside a lucid dream this realistic and, well, filled nature, I would have opted to wear a more pleasantly suitable outfit rather than these white tank top and stripy shorts of mine. I look like that one uncle who would always scold us students if we were to pass into his view. “So uncouth!” I suddenly remembered him yelling at me.

Then again, I should really be thinking of what should I do in this dream. I have been standing here for a few minutes talking to myself already without moving an inch. And besides, this red bar that appears in front of my eyes kept on getting lower and lower, and I too am getting a bit fatigued seeing as such.

“Halt, wanderer.”

Oh, here he comes. Probably the quest giver of this dream.

I tilted my head slightly upwards to see the presence of a man floating above me as he looked down to my sleepy face. His pallid face wore a stern look, making him look kind of intimidating. It’s even more when he has that white long hair and wore an outfit like that one vampire count I played in a video game.  

His face contorted into a confused look, before he said in that echoing voice of his.

“Who are you, child?”

“Uhm…” I darted my eyes around. Well, I guess by ‘child’ he meant me.

“Uh Excuse me, I just want you to know that my name is Marcus and I’m 22…” I slid my eyes off focus from him and returned back to look at him. “so I am not a child.”

The man immediately narrowed his eyes judgingly. I can see from the spot I am standing on that his pair of grey eyes were scrutinizing my looks. Gosh, I know our outfits were different but can’t you at least inspect me secretly?

“Did I just made a mistake in choosing a proxy?” He mumbled loudly.

“Sir, I can hear you loud and clear, you know?”

He scowled to my instant answer before he heaved a sigh.

“Alright, nevermind. You will do.”

He shifted his floating position to the side and revealed a path glowed with red lights. At the end of the path was a glinting huge red crystal that hovers above the path.

“See that crystal? Collect those in an amount of time to fill the health bar. If you fail, you will face a great consequence.” The male simply said.

“Mister.” I put one of my hands like a student wanting to ask questions from their teacher.

I can see the male grumble. “What is it?”

“I know this is random, but can I know your name?”

The male creased his brows. After pausing for a few seconds as he threw me judging looks, he questioned, “Why?”

“I just wanna know that’s all. I might forget this later, but I’m curious.” I shrugged.

The white haired male looks like he’s reflecting a lot. Well, it’s a given if he’s talking to me. I am the most oddballest oddball of my family, confirmed by my anime and manga loving circle. People talking to me either ended the conversation quite instantly, or trudge deeper into the verge of madness facing my strange behavior. I just can’t help it, God adds more odd personality when creating me so here I am, a strange kid named Marcus Collins.

The male sucked a sharp gasp, obviously at the verge of osing his patience. I am quite apologetic for him but that’s what you get if you talk to me.

“Call me Rox. You do realize you’re getting more tired as time passes bu, right?”

Now that he said that, I do feel heavier little by little. The red bar is already half it’s original length too.

“The red bar you see is your health bar. Let it drain until that skull icon at the end and you will die, here and in the real world.” The male named Rox stated.

My jaw dropped instantly.

“Eh hold up.” I raised my hands to my chest level like I don’t understand, when in fact I do not understand at all what he said.

“I thought this is just a lucid dream?”

Rox scoffed. “Stay there, and we will know whether it’s a lucid dream or not.” He then immediately disappeared.

I blinked as I stood there, silent. Is this for real? Am I in VR now wait, did I turn off my VR headset before I go to sleep?

I jolted, snapping myself out from my peer wonder. If I were to left dwelling into my thoughts, I would be unconscious of my surroundings for a long time.

“Alright, off we go I guess.” I began my fist step to the crystal.

Just like what Rox had informed me, collecting the crystals increased my health bar a bit, and when he said that  there’s a time limit of collecting the crystals, I really did see a clock ticking in my view. The number showed a solid 12:00 before it ticked to 11:59 accordingly.

I paced my eyes between the time and the crystals I saw. There were numerous crystals scattered in the path lit by red glowing lights. The more I collect the crystal, the more the health bar increased.

I don’t know whether this Rox guy is talking the truth or not, but playing this lucid dream game is fun~!