CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING

「Dreams-imaginary events, stories our mind creates while we sleep.

They could be entertaining, romantic, frightening and sometimes bizarre, but the purpose of a dream remains subtle.

Vaguely understood by humanity, dreams have been topics of scientific, religious and philosophical theories for an eon.

Evidence points toward them being a result of emotions, memories or just stimuli.

Are they only fleeting moments in the infinite expansion of time, or maybe something more」

Before I emerged into the darkness, I saw a glimpse of a once-lost dream, a reflection of fleeting fragments of my former life. Though I dreamt it, I understood that it was real.

I remember vividly a dream of my young self, thou it felt like a nightmare. I was smiling, laughing. As I rode along in a family-sized car.

"Where am I?",

I said.

I looked through the glass window of the car,

It was night, with hazy snow falling over,

On reaching out to the glass, I felt the sting of cold from outside.

"Is this a dream?"

No, rather, the cold sensation made me realize—it wasn't simply a dream, but a nostalgia.

"..."

Looking around, I saw two people murmured while riding with me. One, a young man in his late twenties and a woman, probably in her mid-twenties. Both were in the front seat.

"Who are they?",

I asked, as only to see their faces were blurry as they turned over in view of my younger self.

*Silent*

... Vroom.

I could hear them utter a word, but I couldn't hear what they said over the sound of the car engine.

The interior of the car gave off a warm sensate. While my body was melted into the warm sensation of the car.

*Scree*

I heard a sharp sound of the car tyres losing their grip from sliding down from the roadside, as my body could feel itself losing the feeling of gravity as the car fell down.

*Boom*

Unknown to me we had an accident falling down the hill.

—————————————————————————

After a while,

Waking up from the fall, I opened my eyes only to see the sight of red painted on the shattered glass screen,

"Is that blood?",

I said to myself as the smell of iron was nauseating to my nose.

As I tried to move, I could feel a throbbing pain from my stomach.

*Ba-thump*

"It hurt, it hurts."

I said to myself.

I then felt a weird sensation over my head, after surveying, I came to realization that the car was upside down.

Crack, crack.

With my hands feeling numb from the wound, I stretched out, smashing the window at my right.

*Smash*

I then moved out of the car through the broken down window. With my intention of calling out for help.

*Thud*

Attempting to stand, I noticed that I had lost the sensation of feeling from my legs.

Seeing that standing was to no avail, all I could do was crawl.

*Creep*

As my legs were cold from crawling for long, I couldn't muster strength to move again, so I turned, lying on my back.

Hah... Hah

My breath felt heavier every second, from the intense cold.

Opening my mouth to talk, I shouted.

"Help!, Help!!, Help!...",

—————————————————————————

[H-elp!, Hah... H-e]

After a few moments of shouting, my voice faltered. Seeing as there was nobody responding to my aid, it felt like—I was the only one in the world.

*Crack*

I then heard a blunt cracking sound from the snow. On hearing this, I glanced at my feet, and noticed, I was on top a frozen lake.

*Plash*

Suddenly, there came a huge collapse of ice. Before I could react, I was instantly trapped underneath the lake.

*Plop*

Then came a falling sensation as I grasped for air beneath the lake, kicking my arms to swim upward.

*Gurgle*

I could feel my arms and legs losing strength as the cold kept them from moving due to numbness.

"It's cold"

I whispered to myself as I watched the air bubble from my lungs floating up, then finally I lost the feeling of my body after a experiencing a cold shock, my consciousness faded.

————————————————————————

... Ugh.

After a while, I came conscious.

'Where am I?

It's dark, it's as if I am floating in the sea but cold, very cold.

Did I die?

Hah, I see, I am dead.

I said, as I was trapped in the darkness, I could feel a cold sensation through my body as I was floating without care of where I was.

There I stood still, froze in the darkness, with only my consciousness awake.

*Shine*

I could remember vividly a blinding light which flashed and brought a feeling of being [REBORN] into a new world, and filled with a warm expression of life once again.

—————————————————————————

'Initiating mana base'.

*Whhirr*

'Combining mana structures'.

*Fwoosh*

'Creating humaniod'.

*Plop*

'Procedures Successful'

'Analysis subject'.

'No abnormalities found'

'Subject is safe'.

"Huh... What's going on?"

It was pitch black, I could remember the warm sensation I felt. I was being held on with warm hands while being wrapped in a warm blanket.

Trying to grasp the situation, I heard voices from the background when I opened my eyes to see through, a light blindly coursing through my eyes for a few seconds before finally I was able to see clearly what I say was a hall with lights on.

I glanced to the right. What I could see was a glass almost able to reflect a mirror. Looking through the mirror, there was a reflection of a baby. That was when my first thought came through was,

"Eh. Was I reborn?", I said.

I remembered clearly cases of being reborn in [Another World],

To my surprise, I was completely calm.

Then with a delay I thought,

'Oi, Oi, wait a second, where am I?

How come I am being reborn,

Where's the beautiful angel that would bring me here?',

As I looked left, I could see a glass wall, then as I looked through my surroundings, there was a glass cage in which I was being kept in.

I then attempted to muster the strength to move my body, my limbs kept moving against my will, and as I tried again and again.

"I give up".

I said to myself, after exhausting my strength from the movement. But to my surprise, it hadn't passed a few minutes since I tried moving.

'Is this how much strength I have?'

I wondered as the my current strength was not up to 1% of my former strength.

*Cries*

I then heard cries of a baby, so I thought,

"Who is that?"

I looked through my little limbs, I could see another baby just a few feet next to me being held by the arms of a man or was it a woman? I didn't know who it was, all I could find out was a person dressed in white, covering the body like those of an angel with a heavenly aura,

At first, I thought,

"Am I in heaven?"

Later was my thought doubted as I looked above the heavenly aura. And above was a hat covering most of their face.

Then I was simply curious questioning myself

'What is this place?'

I thought, as the whole scenery seemed like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Before I could look out for more answers, I noticed that I was not the only one being confined in a glass cage, but it was like a facility where babies are being kept.

As I turned, I heard in the background the [men in white] talking.

[Men in white] 1: "How are the babies",

[Men in white] 2: "They are all healthy, no abnormalities",

[Men in white]1: "Looks like this batch is the first to have no abnormalities",

[Men in white]1: "OK, send over the results to the professor",

[Men in white]2: OK.

———————————————————————

After a few days I came to notice that the facility in which I am being kept is like a top secret facility that exists only in a manga where you would train to become a spy,

'Haha... If only that was true'.

Well, from what I can tell the [men in white],

Only come to take us out of our glass prison, from lunchtime.

Which gave a bit of free time to exercise our limbs, though most of what we did was crawling.

To me, none of those information is important, and the only thing I could feel was suspicious was none other than the [men in white].

'Maybe this place doesn't seem so bad'.

I thought to myself, after living a carefree life and being reborn here, my doubts were worn off due to the comfort which was brought about.

Of course I knew this place was very much suspicious, but from being a introvert in my former life, all I could think of was that.

'I would just have to make it through my new life'.