The Opportunity System - Chapter 2 Dream

Later that afternoon, Hiro discovered that the man’s name was Raugh. Even though Raugh could kill the snake by himself and didn’t need Hiro’s help, he accepted the ‘business’ from Hiro, giving him some food.

“Hiro, right? How did you end up here in this isolated forest?”

Swallowing a red fruit, Hiro answered:

“I told you, after my death, I came here like magic!”

Hiro and Raugh were walking through the forest for hours when they saw an old cabin made of wood.

“Do you live here?” asked Hiro while pointing to the cabin.

“Hmm.”

“Don’t you miss the society?”

“The kingdom is near here, if I miss people, I just go there.”

“The kingdom is near? Why didn’t you said before? I thought the nearest civilized place would take one week on walking?”

“It wasn’t a lie. The nearest village should take one week, and the nearest kingdom..hmm, let me think… It should take three months.”

After the dialogue, both entered the cabin.

“Excuse me~”

“No need to be polite, just find a place to sleep.”

Looking around, Hiro saw animal carcasses. There was a lot of them, at least one of each species.

While observing them, Hiro saw a familiar one, it was almost like a human skull.

“Ra-Ra-Raugh, I mean, Mister Raugh. What is this? Why does this seem like a human skull?!”

Turning around, Raugh looked at the human skull and said:

“Ah, that? It is my dead son.”

“Yo-your son?! Why is your son’s skull here?!”

“This way he’s going to be with me until I die. It’s a family tradition, I won’t eat you, hahaha.”

Pretending to be relaxed, Hiro said:

“Ahhh, I get it now, ahahaha.”

With an awkward smile, Raugh said:

“Let’s not talk about it, want to eat something?”

With no mood to eat, Hiro rejected:

“No, thanks, Sir!”

‘He’s really afraid of me…’ Raugh thought.

Hiro was thinking what he was going to do, with the nearest kingdom being this far when he asked:

“Mister Raugh, there’s something bothering me.”

“Oh? Say it.”

“Why were you running a fruit shop in the middle of nowhere? I think people wouldn’t go there.”

“Hmm… People go there sometimes, and I have nothing else to do.”

“This… Why would someone go there?”

“I’ve told you that if you go south, you will reach a village, but, if you go north, you will reach a graveyard, a big one.”

“Why a graveyard would be this far?”

Sighing, Raugh said:

“It’s complicated, I will resume for you. This forest was once a part of some kingdom, this kingdom was very strong, it reigned an unbelievable territory. One day, the enemy kingdom formed an alliance with another enemy kingdom, and they destroyed the great kingdom. The people who survived, later on, brought back the corpses of their loved ones who died in the war in secret and buried them there. This story is old, it has been centuries, but people actually come here to pay their respects.”

Listening to the story, Hiro noticed that Raugh was becoming sad.

“Mister Raugh, is there a connection with you and the fallen kingdom?”

It should be normal Raugh being a citizen of the old kingdom if the kingdom was destroyed a few years ago, but, the kingdom actually was destroyed centuries ago, it should not be possible.

Looking at Hiro, Raugh sighed and said:

“No, how is that possible… I will prepare some food for you. Sleep early, I will let you take some food for your journey.”

After dinner, Hiro slept easily, as he was very tired.

…

Hiro used to dream a lot when he was a kid, but growing up affected that.

To him, it was not an important matter, it was just dreams.

Actually, it has been a long time since he dreamed, and today something changed.

He dreamed about his mother, his father, his friends, his girlfr- he doesn’t have one. It felt nostalgic, it had been just a day, but it felt like years.

The old computer that he used to play games, the ordinary things that made his casual life a satisfying one, the friendship that made his life more fun. Just thinking about all of this would make him sad and heartbroken, he would never feel like that anymore.

People would feel sad if someone dies, but, what the dead would feel about the living people?

Nobody ever thought about it because it was not possible.

After all the sweet dreams, Hiro woke up, but he saw nothing, it was pure black. All his surrounding, black. He couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t make any noise, he couldn’t even touch himself.

He tried to scream, but nothing came out of his mouth.

Suddenly, from afar, a tiny light was becoming bigger and bigger, until it swallowed all the darkness.

Now, it was a white world, but he was in the same state, he couldn’t hear, see, smell, feel or make any noise. Maybe this is the world of the dead, he thought.

After waiting for some time, nothing happened. Hiro became worried.

‘Will I be like this forever?’

‘If death is like this, I can endure it.’

He didn’t know how much time has passed, but he remained quiet, it was the only thing he could do.

‘Actually, this is kind of comfortable. Not being able to speak, hear, smell and touch is actually comfortable.’

Hiro didn’t how much time passed, it seems like he has been like this for years, but it also seems like just ten minutes passed by.

Even if he closed his eyes, all he would see was white. After some time, he started to feel bored, when suddenly, characters appeared out of nowhere, in the blank space.

‘OPPORTUNITY SYSTEM’ was written in the air.

Below it, there were other things like:

Opportunity Radius: Universal (OFF); Global (OFF); Nearby (ON); None (OFF);

Opportunity Type: All (ON); Personal (OFF); None (OFF);

Opportunity Genre: All (ON); Monetary (OFF); Relationship (OFF); Survival (OFF); None (OFF);

HUD: All (OFF); Inside (ON); Outside (OFF);

There were some grayed options, which couldn’t be seen.

After reading everything, Hiro became even more confused.

‘If I set the opportunity radius to universal, will I be the luckiest man in the world?’

‘But, how can I change it, if I can’t even move…’

As if a lamp lit above his head, he thought:

‘That’s right! I’m inside my dreams, probably. I can control everything with the power of my brain here!’

Seeing the options, he chose the first one and set the Opportunity Radius to Universal.

After some time:

‘Help him, Hiro. It will make you rich! H-‘

‘Strike him first, so you could win th-‘

‘You should invest in this new busin-‘

…

…

…

The voices kept coming in a monstrous way. He heard a deafening number of voices, which made him almost go crazy.