Delton laid on his bed, with his bloodshot eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling, which showed a gloomy, overcast sky. He tapped his temple twice and a voice echoed out.

"Again. Normal signs of health.”

He shook his head and rolled over to get up. Sitting at the edge of his bed, he shut his eyes tightly and opened them slowly many times while breathing heavily throughout the process.

"The weather today calls for overcast throughout the entire day and night. I have prepared a light sweater for you by the door.”

He stood up with his arms raised up, stretching his back, which let out several cracks. Slowly inching towards the dining room and reaching the dining table, furnished with a plate of mixed vegetables and grilled fish again, his body keeled over on the chair. Spreading his legs wide and letting his arms droop down, his body slouched down as he continued to shut his eyes tightly from time to time.

He muttered, “Why did the dream take so much energy from me, as if I didn’t sleep? According to the assistant, I’m not even hungover.” On the corner of his eye, a light started to blink, so he said under his breath, “Speak of the devil.”

“My records show that you have not been fulfilling your daily nutritional value. Please eat the dish prepared for you, or I will start deducting credits from you.”

Delton shook his head, gulped, then grabbed the provided knife and fork. His eyes widened after smelling the food. The heavy sounds of metal clanking and grating against the plate echoed out in the barren dining room.

"Why am I so hungry? It’s like I truly experienced that entire dream,” Delton eked out with his mouth full.

"You are showing slight signs of lunacy. You have been talking to yourself throughout the waking period. Shall I set an appointment with a therapist?” Delton chuckled then tapped his temple twice.

He then threw the knife and fork down and immediately downed two glasses of water, finishing the meal with a heavy sigh. He got up and stretched with refound energy. Slapping himself with both of his hands aa couple of times, he repeatedly whispered, “Just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream… But why am I still remembering it in such detail, like it was my actual memories?”

He continued to mutter to himself about the dream, recalling certain parts of it and entering a daze, as he walked out of his apartment, and leaving behind a pressed and fresh light gray sweater. He walked the familiar route, while the sounds of the cars above and the people below not garnering any attention.

Delton lightly bumped the side of someone, but Delton completely brushed past the individual beelining towards his destination.

"Fucking manufacturer! Did you just bump into me and think you can leave?” The figure yelled out with a deep and powerful voice, however, Delton continued to walk, as if the words never existed. A hand grabbed his shoulders and forcefully turned him around. Another hand grabbed his collar and raised him off the ground brining Delton’s eyes leveled with a set of slightly wrinkled and angered red eyes.

The figure had a shining, waxed bald head and sword-like eyebrows, slanted downwards forming a triangle at the bridge of the nose. He stood a foot taller than Delton and wore a suit emblazoned with a red tie and a red pin that was of a sun with flames arranged like a flower. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, then spoke in a lower and colder tone, “Now did I get your attention you worthless piece of shit manufacturer?”

What initially was a slightly cold morning due to the weather, started to heat up as the bald man started to glow a bit, releasing an oppressive hot aura. Though Delton snapped out of his daze, he looked straight at the bald man’s eyes with complete indifference, even revealing a smirk, as if saying, ‘Is that it?’

The bald man stared at Delton and curiosity filled his mind, since the manufacturer did not panic at all when he revealed a bit of his power. Instead of dwelling on it, he became even more angered, as he was about to let out more of his power, he noticed a crowd of people, all wearing similar clothes to Delton, gathering around them. The main difference in their clothing other than color was that they were all wearing light sweaters. They looked towards the bald man, as if egging him on to do something.

Emboldened by the stares of the surrounding and Delton, the bald man punched at Delton with his right hand. Delton, seeing the punch come at him, realized that the punch seemed extremely slow, much slower than the punches that the figures in his dream had. So slow, that he let out a chuckle. Before his body could react to evade it, the punch landed on his cheek and he was knocked down to the ground.

Delton spat out some blood, since his teeth cut the inside of his cheek due to the punch. A sizzle could be heard on his cheek as a fist imprint was marked on it, as if he was tagged by a hot iron. He stared at the steaming fist made by the bald man, with a puzzled look on his face. The bald man looked at him with a devilish smile, “Do you want more?!”

Suddenly, another man, who looked slightly younger, in a similar suit with long flowing blue hair and blue eyes, made his way through the crowd. He walked up beside the lying Delton and helped raise Delton up by grabbing the back of Delton’s shirt. The blue-haired man then took off one of his red leather gloves, then placed it slightly above Delton’s marked and bruised cheek. A glow emanated from his hand, and the damage slowly disappeared in a couple of seconds. The originally smooth hand, wrinkled slightly as if aged a bit.

Placing the glove back on his hand and without looking at Delton, he spoke with a monotonous voice, “I apologize for my colleague’s behavior. Please reach out to the Mom Sol Corporation HQ at this city for your compensation.”

He stared at the bald man and spoke in a harsher tone, “Now’s not the time and nor is this place for you to have one of your temper tantrums, especially on a much needed manufacturer. Don’t forget why we’re here.”

After the blue-haired man finished speaking, he then left the crowd through the opposite direction from where he came from.

The bald man gritted his teeth, as the temperature started to drop down again and the steam on his fist disappeared. Without hesitation, Delton turned around, then continued walking the familiar route; the crowd making way for him.

Delton tapped his temple twice and whispered, “Schedule the therapist as soon as you can. I think something’s wrong with me to mess with officers from Mom Sol.”

“Done, the next available appointment is a week from now.”

Delton sighed as he recalled the punch earlier. It seemed so slow, as if it could be avoided. Reminiscing about the punch, he moved his body, as if to avoid it, but realized he would have been hit by the punch anyway. He muttered, “It wasn’t that the punch was too fast. It was actually slow, but my body’s slower.”

He also recalled the aura of the bald man. An aura that should have easily suppressed a First Awakened like him. However, it was nothing compared to the fear of death caused by the draconians from his dream.

His thoughts were interrupted as someone to his side, yelled out, “Way to show those corporate dicks!” After the shout, others cheered him on. Delton noticed that several other manufacturers were giving him weird looks. Some even gave him a thumbs up, cheering him on. Others even applauded at the sight of him.

As Delton waited for the bus stop, some passers-by wanted to take pictures with him. Delton blushed a bit and looked down to the ground and agreed silently.

He whispered, “Finally,” and immediately walked up to the landing hover bus, extricating himself from the growing crowd.

He sat in his usual seat, staring outside the window. Letting out a sigh, he noticed that he had received multiple notifications from the group chat. Scrolling through the messages, he found the first one to be a link to an article with the title,

Regular manufacturer, Delton Cloud, stands ground against Mom Sol corporates

The other messages read:

Left_Behind: @Jack_once you're fucking crazyt!

Like_a_horse: Delton you fucked up big time. I know I give you all shit, but I don't want any of you to go to prison.

10th_Awakened: Can he apologize @Fire_God

Fire_God: No corporation will take something like this lightly, especially Mom Sol right now. Tensions are rising over there, due to the insurgences. I'd say just lie low for now Delt.

Left_Behind: WTF GOT INTO YOU?

Delton read a bunch more messages like the ones above questioning his sanity and wondering if he was alright in the head. Delton smirked and left a response,

Jack_once: I just had the worst hangover of my life. I was just out of it that morning.

10th_Awakened: Dumbass

True_Chicken: You're an idiot

Like_a_horse: And here I was actually worried about someone as dumb as you

Left_Behind: Fuck you Delt, I worried a lot

Fire_God: Even if it was from a hangover, I'd say you should consider your options.

Fire_God: Idiot

True_Chicken: I think you were still drunk from last night, if you thought you could stand a punch from them

Even the lurkers in the group chat came out to message insults and concerns at him. However, one message silenced the group chat once again.

Jella_Kontor: Be more responsible with your actions. Those people are not someone, a person like you can mess with.

After another moment of silence, another bombardment of messages happened. Delton scanned some of these messages, and one after another was how surprised that the great Jella Kontor was still in the chat after all these years. Other messages congratulated her for her successful feat in becoming a Third Awakened. Now, everyone has completely forgotten the news about Delton, and the group chat focused on Jella. However, she did not respond to any of the messages.

Delton turned off his notifications, as he continued to look outside, reminiscing every detail about the crazy dream he had had.

Delton arrived to work and went inside his building. He immediately saw the dozens of his coworkers looking at him, as if they had waited for his arrival. Jade walked up to him with a worried expression. She opened her mouth to say something, but before she could say anything, a huge applause came from the crowd behind her, cheering on Delton for doing what he did this morning.

Delton meekly greeted Jade, then walked quickly to his assembly room. After the door, shut behind him, he muttered, “Fucking hell.”

Delton assembled for a whole nine hours without listening to music. He assembled in a trance every now and then, muttering out words like,

"Draconians can kill me in one hit…”

“What kind of world was that…”

"How long ago could that have been…”

A voice echoed out in his head, snapping him out of his trance,

"You have reached the daily maximum working hours. Any more work will not be paid.”

Sighing, Delton did not even finish assembling the last part he had in his hands and left the remaining pieces on his desk. As he exited his room, Boss Bopa was waiting for him. He lightly placed his hand on Delton’s shoulder and spoke, “Kid. Grab a drink with me right now. My treat.”

Delton, about to say something, swallowed the words back down his throat, then nodded. Since Delton started work earlier than the others, most of the other assembly rooms were closed and no one was in the lobby.

The two of them exited the building. Delton ignored the increasing number of credits in his view. Like in their building, most other buildings in this area were manufacturing plants, so most of the manufacturers were still working, letting Delton and Boss Bopa have the street completely to themselves. However, even with such rare privacy, they continued to walk silently, with Delton lagging a bit behind Boss Bopa.

They arrived at a pub, a few blocks further from the restaurant they ate at yesterday. Thew were the first patrons of the evening. Grabbing a high table for two, which did not have any chairs, Boss Bopa motioned for two drinks.

After minutes of silence, a waiter wearing casual clothes brought out two pints of beer. Boss Bopa took a big gulp of his pint, gesturing for Delton to do the same, so Delton obliged. Boss Bopa spoke after burping, “You got balls, kid.”

Hearing these words, Delton who was drinking his beer, started to choke on the drink. After coughing a bit, he eked out, “E-e-excuse me.”

"To lie straight to our faces yesterday about wanting a regular life and pulling the crap that you did this morning.”

"Boss Bopa, you misunderstand. I meant what I said. I just had a really bad hangover this morning.”

"Sure. That excuse may fly for some people. But a majority of us manufacturers won’t see it that way. I’m sure you’re familiar with the mandatory increase in production that’s impacted almost all manufacturing plants here. I’m also sure you’ve heard that the Top 10, including Mom Sol, has agreed to explore the Beyond. Now that the manufacturers know the reason for their severe overworked requirements, tensions are growing.”

Delton stayed silent, nodding at each sentence that Boss Bopa said, as Boss Bopa continued, “You probably haven’t heard this, however, as news was heavily suppressed to not cause unrest. There was a big riot last week in another manufacturing state. Some of us manufacturers were killed.”

Boss Bopa took another big gulp of his drink, while Delton stared at him, taking sips of his. After letting out another burp, Boss Bopa continued on, “Some of those manufacturers were my friends. But you probably don’t know them. Who cares about them, then? You do know some of those overworked manufacturers, though. Like Micko. The overworked are gonna see you as something you’re not. And so will Mom Sol.”

Seeing that Delton did not respond to him, Boss Bopa kept talking, “I’ll talk to some of my connections. If what you’re saying is the truth, we can get a formal apology from you to the corporation, while you will still receive the compensation that corporate will prepare for you.”

Delton finally responded, “Sure sounds good with me. I just want all this to be over with. Thanks, boss.”

Boss Bopa made several swipes with his hands and said, “Woah woah woah. Slow down, kid. Think about this carefully. I just wanted to give you the options. Because an apology from you would bring the ire of the majority of the manufacturers onto you. You’ll be seen as some traitor, who only cares about yourself.”

"Listen, Boss Bopa. All I want is for all this attention on me to go away. I just want things to go back to normal. You know how I am.”

"I thought I did, until I saw that video of your ‘fight.’ The expression you had was of complete arrogance. Nothing like the introvert I thought you were.”

Delton raised his head up a bit to those words, revealing a shocked expression. Boss Bopa spoke, “Either way, you have those options. Choose a side. But you can also lay low for a while, but that will mainly bring frustration from both sides.”

After hearing all of this, Delton took the remainder of his drink and finished it in one gulp. Boss Bopa’s eyes widened as he looked at Delton because Delton wore that arrogant expression he had seen in the video. An expression unlike that which a regular person will have after hearing such news. Delton lightly placed his glass on the table, then spoke, “Don’t worry, Boss Bopa. I’ll stay out of the limelight in the following days.”

Several groups and individuals had entered the pub, since they first came in. The waiter went up to them again and handed another pint of beer to Delton, saying, “A drink courtesy from that group over there.”

Following the waiter’s eyes, Delton saw a small group of manufacturers sitting down at a table. He raised the drink and lightly nodded at the group. Delton drank the whole pint of beer in one motion, causing the group to cheer him on.

"Is this what you call laying low?” Boss Bopa chuckled.

“Trust me. I hope that was the last drink that someone buys me ever again, including you. I hate that feeling of everyone looking at me. Haven’t you noticed that all eyes have been on me since we got here. Even the waiters! Haha! I couldn’t look up from the table because of them.” Boss Bopa looked around and noticed that almost everyone in the pub is paying a particular attention to them.

Delton went on, “I’m gonna head out now before anyone else offers me a drink. I can’t have another hangover like today. Thanks again!” Delton quickly left.

Boss Bopa shook his head at the departing Delton, chuckling to himself. He then motioned the waiter for another drink.

Delton looked down on the way back to avoid getting noticed. However, many people still recognized him and started to ask for pictures and interviews. Delton walked faster, escaping the group of people, “Fuck! It’s the sweater. I’m the only dumbass not wearing one.”

He opted to skip the bus stop and took the longer walking route. However, he regretted it as more and more people walked up to him and took pictures of him. Feeling his face get hotter, he increased his brisk pace to one that was almost running.

Somehow, he was able to ignore the crowd, making it back to his apartment. However, in front of his complex, stood a small group of interviewers. Some wearing manufacturer clothes, others wearing clothes representative of the Mom Sol Corporation. He forced his way through the crowd, pushing them aside and ignoring all the questions.

Shutting the door behind him, Delton slumped down to the floor, clutching his hair and shutting his eyes, and yelled out, “Fuck you Kyle or whatever the fuck your name is!”

After taking a shower, and changing clothes, he fell on his bed, ignoring the increasing amount of notifications that he had silenced earlier. He whispered to himself, “Please no more weird dreams.”