6. Dream in Red (Part 1)
He scrambled off the ruined bed, breath quickening. "Dad?" he called, voice catching in his throat.
He received no answer.
His footsteps crunched against the warped wood floor as he moved cautiously across the room. This was supposed to be his bedroom… wasn't it? The layout was eerily familiar, but more twisted, like a decaying reflection of the real thing.
He stared at the window in his room. The curtains were molded, rotten and torn, revealing a grimy glass that was caked in dust to the point it couldn't even be used to see the street below.
He looked away from it. More interested in his immediate surroundings.
Jaune headed for his bedroom door.
When he grabbed the doorknob Jaune immediately let go, as if burned. He was surprised to find it freezing cold and slightly damp.
Like a shard of ice in his hand.
But he ignored the feeling and grasped it once again.
It creaked as he pushed it open.
The hallway beyond was just as screwed up as his room. The wallpaper hung in peeling strips. The lights overhead were broken and cracked. Carefully examining the floor, he could see shards of the broken bulbs littering the ground
"Dad?" he called again, louder this time.
Still nothing.
He stepped into the hallway, taking slow steps, trying to keep his breathing steady. His chest felt tight.
"This isn't real. It's a dream. Just a really messed-up, weird dream," he muttered, glancing down the corridor.
A mirror hung crookedly on the wall, the one that his father had hung up earlier, cracked straight through the middle. When Jaune passed in front of it, he paused.
His reflection stared right back at him, but not quite right. His hair was the same, his face still familiar...but he looked paler.
More anxious and a darker look than they had moments before.
He swallowed and moved on.
The bathroom was a husk of its former self. The tiles were dusty and cracked, the mirror inside was completely shattered and the sink faucet was dry and streaked in molded water-stains.
He shivered just looking at it.
Reaching the stairs, he peeked down. The lower floor lay in shadow but something seemed to flicker far down below...maybe a faint light from the living room or maybe something else.
He couldn't tell.
"This is crazy," he whispered. "Just wake up, Jaune. Just... wake up."
But nothing changed.
Jaune gulped, trying to swallow his pooled saliva.
He stood there in the darkened hall, heart pounding in his chest, cold sweat gathering at his brow.
And then—
Ding.
A soft chime, mechanical and completely out of place, echoed through the silence of his mind like the drop of a coin in an empty well.
Jaune flinched. "What the hell was that…?"
Then it appeared.
A floating pane of dark red light blinked into existence before him, hovering in the stale air like a hologram projected out of nothing. Black, eerie text scrolled across it in crisp, glowing letters:
.
.
[Welcome to the Dream]
[You have been granted access to the Nightmare System.]
[Start Tutorial?][Y / N]
.
.
Jaune stared, frozen.
"…Okay. That's new."
He blinked a few times, half-expecting it to vanish. It stayed however and pulsed faintly, as though waiting.
"A system? Like in those novels?" he murmured, cautiously leaning closer. The light gave off no heat and the air around it didn't waver, either.
His mind raced. He'd read about things like this.
The specific genre was something similar to the 'isekai', genre which involved dungeon crawlers, or even special worlds with hidden rules. But this wasn't a game or a fantasy novel. This was his hallway. His new house's dusty, rotting hallway.
And yet…
A strange thrill bubbled beneath his anxiety. Not quite fear, not quite excitement—something in between.
'Something is happening.'
"Okay. Deep breath. It's just a dream. I've played this kind of setup before. You always choose the tutorial. Only idiots skip the tutorial."
He hesitated, though. His finger hovered over the glowing Y, which pulsed ever so slightly, like it knew he was watching.
"This... is a dream right?" he whispered. "There is just no way this can be real...but... What if it's something else?"
The silence offered no reply.
He swallowed.
Then reached out and tapped Y, before he could second-guess himself.
ding
The chime popped up again and the screen was replaced by another.
.
.
[This is your status page.]
===
[Jaune Arc]
[Rank: 0]
===
Aura: 0
Will: 0
Body: 0
===
Runes: 0
===
[Killing dream creatures awards rune fragments. Rune fragments can be used to increase stats.]
[Rune fragments can also be used to create Rune skills based on your willpower and imagination.]
[Aura fuels Rune Skills, Will fuels structural power of Rune skills and Body physically enhances you.]
[Try your best to survive.]
[Good Luck.]
.
.
With that, the system dinged again the tutorial window vanished, leaving Jaune with more questions than answers.
He stood rooted in place, eyes wide.
"That's... it? What the hell do you mean by Welcome to the dream? What the hell are runes? What dream creatures? Why is everything so broken and destroyed like a trashy version of reality!?"
The Nightmare system did not respond.
He wasn't sure whether to be sad, annoyed or confused. Maybe all three. His heart thumped in his chest like a drumline.
'That was real,' he thought. 'I didn't imagine that. That was a system window. A literal system window straight from fiction.'
He turned slowly in place, as if expecting more floating messages to appear, but the hall remained as ruined and quiet as ever.
"Dream creatures? Runes? Skills based on imagination?"
His palms were starting to sweat. Part of him wanted to scream, and the other part which was louder part, wanted to see what came next.
"Calm down Jaune" he muttered. "First things first... we have to find dad and see if he's here too. If he isn't...well...there is still a possibility that I'm dreaming. Wait... the system said "Welcome to the dream"... so isn't that confirmation that I really am dreaming?"
He glanced down at his hands, flexing his fingers. They felt normal. But everything else was wrong.
Within his mind he could feel a new awareness of...something. Almost as if there was a hidden switch that seemed to call on him to pull it and when he did, the small chime showed up again.
.
.
===
[Jaune Arc]
[Rank: 0]
===
Aura: 0
Will: 0
Body: 0
===
Runes: 0
===
.
.
"My status page." Jaune muttered, trying to analyze the information he was given. "I can call upon it at will."
Aura. Will. Body. Those words kept looping in his mind. A system that responded to his thoughts.
One that could give power.
And if there was power...
Still, Jaune felt his mouth go dry, and his legs weren't quite steady.
"I guess the tutorial's over," he said to himself.
The hallway ahead stretched into darkness, silent and expectant.
And Jaune moved forward.
He had to find his father.