My name is Basara Yuro. I am twenty years old and my life is mostly me staying in my room, consuming anime, manga, and games.
I have a so-called power that lets me control what happens in my dreams, also known as lucid dreaming.
In my dreams I can be anyone I want. I can do anything I want. I can even change into a girl if I feel like it. In that world I am limitless. In real life, I am nothing.
My days blur together.
I have not seen my friends in a long time. They are busy with work or school, and I do not belong in their lives. I drift along and rely on my parents who are far too kind to me. I do not deserve them.
Sometimes I get a text from my friend Hosoyama asking if I want to hang out. I always ignore it. He has a life I cannot be part of.
Even the simplest things feel like mountains. Depression is a real bitch for real.
"Looks like it is 5 p.m. Probably should go to bed," I muttered as I climbed under the covers. I wished I could sleep forever and never wake up.
Little did I know that this time my wish was about to come true.
Huh? It's so dark… What happened?
Where are my muscles, my harem, my powers?
What is going on here?
Oh no… what is that?
A face floated in the darkness before me. Its eyes were shattered, like broken glass, with glowing green pupils that seemed to pierce straight into my mind. There was no nose, only a gaping mouth lined with four jagged rows of silver-white teeth that glimmered unnaturally.
"Basara Yuro, your wish has been granted," it said. Its voice slithered into my ears like smoke.
"My wish?" I stammered, frozen with fear.
"Yes. You wished to sleep forever," it said, the smile stretching impossibly wide across that horrifying mouth.
"I… I did wish that. But"
"Well, your wish has been granted. Be careful what you wish for, young one… because you just might get it. Farewell, and good luck."
The monster dissipated into a swirl of dark mist, its laughter echoing and twisting, fading into a sound that seemed to crawl inside my skull.
The darkness lifted slowly, revealing a forest burned to ash. The ground was soft, like moss, but gray and crumbling beneath my feet. The trees were blackened skeletons, their twisted branches reaching for the sky like claws. Even the fruits were gray and shriveled, hollow echoes of what they once were. A faint, acrid smoke clung to the air, and the wind carried whispers I could not understand.
A roar shattered the silence. It came from behind a rockor maybe it wasn't a rock. Shapes twisted in the corner of my vision, moving with unnatural jerks. My heart pounded. Should I check it out?
I crept closer and peeked around what appeared to be a boulder. A bear-sized creature hunched over a carcass, its fur charred and ragged, eyes glowing faint red. Its teeth looked sharper than any predator I'd ever seen, dripping with something dark and viscous.
As I moved closer, it lifted its head and growled.
"What do you want?! This is my food! Find your own!"
The monster's head tilted unnaturally, like it was trying to look through me.
"Hey, you! Behind that boulder!"
"It's a rock!" I shouted, my voice trembling. I had no idea why I even said that.
"A rock, whatever. I said go away. This is my food, and I don't share," it hissed, the growl vibrating in my chest like a warning drum.
Even from where I stood, I could feel the heat of its gaze, the sharpness of its teeth, and the sense that this forest… this place… was alive and hungry, waiting for me to make a mistake.
I backed away from the "rock," my heart hammering in my chest. The forest around me seemed to shift, the blackened trees bending slightly when I wasn't looking. Shadows moved like living things, crawling across the gray ground, whispering in voices just below hearing.
The bear-like creature sniffed the air, its glowing eyes locking onto me. Its head tilted in a way no real animal could manage, and it let out a guttural growl that shook the ground beneath my feet.
I wanted to run, but my legs felt heavy, as if the forest itself were pressing down on me. Each step was a struggle. The air tasted like ash and metal, and every sound was distorted, echoing as if the world had broken into fragments.
"Do… do I have to fight it?" I whispered to myself, my voice trembling.
The creature's eyes glowed brighter, and it let out a low, mocking rumble, like it could read my thoughts. I felt a shiver crawl up my spine.
Then, without warning, it shifted, moving in a blur that made my eyes sting. Its massive paw slammed down where I had just been standing, sending a cloud of gray dust into the air.
I had no choice. I had to move or become part of this nightmare forest.
"Ah, you're quite swift for a Yuman," the beast said, licking its teeth. "You might give me a satisfying hunt."
No… I taste terrible. I'm boring. Not worth hunting at all!
At a second glance, it sneered, "You're far too small, no meat on you. You wouldn't even make a light snack. And Yuman meat? Ugh… not worth it."
Then, without warning, a horrifying stench hit mepure death, rotting corpses, and metallic blood. I covered my nose, but it didn't help.
The monster, who apparently had an even stronger sense of smell, bolted away, abandoning its preywhatever it had been eating.
A deafening roar suddenly echoed across the land, so loud it made my ears bleed. A massive black cloud hurtled toward me at impossible speed. Chills ran down my spine.
And then… silence. Darkness. I was deaf. I was blind.
Before I knew it, a gigantic hand made entirely of bones grabbed me.
I looked up and saw an enormous skeleton towering at least fifty meters high. Its eye sockets glowed red, cracks covered its skull, and a dark-purple gem pulsed deep in its ribcage like a beating heart.
"Welcome to Dreammare," the skeleton said with a voice that shook the ground. "I smelled a Yuman. But as I came closer, I smelled a Dragon. You."
"M… me?"
"Yes. What is your name?"
"My name is Basara. Basara Yuro."
The skeleton burst into booming laughter.
"Don't fuck with me, Yuman. I knew Basara. He was the king of this world five thousand years ago. A weakling like you could never be the almighty Basara Yuro."
It leaned close, the red glow in its eyes sharpening.
"No lies. Not this time."
My mind was spinning.
Five thousand years?
I was in my dream world yesterday. None of this made sense.
"I asked you something, Yuman. Answer me!" it roared.
"Or what? Are you going to kill me? Joke's on you. I was already searching for a way to die."
"Oh? A joker. Do you even know what happens to beings who die here? Let me enlighten you. Dying is the least of your worries."
"Wait, what does that mean?!"
"Farewell, joker."
The skeleton stepped back, raising its massive arm. Its bones rattled like grinding stone.
Suddenly I felt weightless. He had thrown me with insane force.
Wind pressure slammed into me so hard it felt like it was peeling my skin off. My body gave up resisting. I spun through the sky for minutes. Maybe hours. I could not tell anymore. There was only smoke, dust, and pain.
Eventually, the ground came rushing up toward me.
I hit with a force that shook the land and formed a massive crater.
I felt nothing.
Then I looked at my body.
My legs and arms were twisted and crushed, bones jutting out at impossible angles. My ribs were shattered. One of my eyes lay on the ground in a puddle of pink goo. When I touched my head, a huge chunk of skull and brain was missing.
I should have been screaming in agony, but I felt nothing.
Then I remembered the skeleton's words:
"Dying is the least of your worries."
Suddenly, my body began to heal. Bones snapped back into place. Flesh reformed over shattered muscle. Within moments, I was able to stand, though the air around me felt heavy and suffocating.
Well that was pretty neat, I thought. This place must have super regeneration or something.
I stood up, stretched a bit, climbed out of the crater, and finally got a good look at the world around me.
Nothing but wasteland. Cracked ground. Dead air. And dozens of big black dots scattered across the horizon.
One of the dots shifted.
My heart almost stopped. It wasn't a dot. It had legs, long ones, and it was walking straight toward me.
I tried to run, but my body still felt heavier than normal. Every step was sluggish. I stumbled right into a cluster of sticky, woven lines.
Webs.
The black dots weren't dots. They were spiders.
This was bad. Really bad.
I yanked at the threads, but they clung to everything. My hands. My clothes. My face. When I looked up again, at least ten of the spiders were closing in.
I was doomed.
One of them jumped. I caught its jaws and held them apart with shaking hands, but another spider slipped in from behind and sank its fangs into my leg. My strength bled out of me in seconds. My body turned useless.
Then everything faded.
When I came to, I was wrapped from neck to toes in thick, sticky threads. A cocoon. I could barely breathe.
I knew what spiders did to their prey.
They didn't just kill. They drained. Slowly. Completely.
A horrible death.
I didn't want to die like that.
I thought about everyone. My parents. My siblings. My friends.
How I should have talked to them more.
How I wasted so much time.
How I never imagined my life ending in a place like this.
But it was too late.