The world has become another

It was the height of summer.

The great dragon opened its giant maw and swallowed earth.

And the world has become another.

A lot of people, it seems, have forgotten about everything that happened.

There was no time before the dragon appeared.

The dragon has always been there.

Kite or Mao-Mao -- a tier-3 online entertainer -- had died. Her soul had left the world when the dragon blasted the earth with its disintegrating light.

It was like the final boss's ultimate attack.

It could not be avoided and it could not be blocked.

And somehow, like in a game, Kite is back again--

But her loss against the great monster she never even dared to face was not without consequences.

Kite returned to a world without her friends.

There exist shadows of her friends, figures who behave much like how her friends did--

But Kite cannot help but feel that they aren't real.

In fact, most people in this world aren't real.

There is a spectrum of realness according to her arbitrary feelings. The dragon feels the closest to being real, then Kite, then most of the objects in the world, then a select number of strangers...

Two friends have a semblance of realness, and the rest felt very much like impostors.

Kite cannot bear to meet them out of disgust.

Kite spent her time walking around outside, she had longed for a break away from her usual routine.

She had felt an odd sense of guilt doing what she did while the world seemed to be ending, but now that she's away, she cannot really think of anything else she could have done instead.

People had become able to do less and less things by the day.

Pretending to be happy despite the state of the world was not necessary, by certain metrics, but Kite felt deep in her heart that it must have helped at least one person.

That person was not her, but she doesn't regret doing it anymore.

This world is quite unusual.

The great dragon still watches with its great big eye.

However, there hasn't been any scream for at least a week.

There are pretty much no other illusory things, although that simply makes the dragon feel all the more real.

There has been no one turning into a demon.

Kite felt a bit stupid not realizing it sooner, but the martial law has been lifted somehow.

The services still don't meet the standard, but are still improvements to how they were before.

Kite ate a bowl of icecream. It had been a while.

How lucky it is to get her favorite flavors -- vanilla and mint tea.

The next thing Kite realized late is the very likely possibility that she has been dreaming all this.

She doesn't believe in the afterlife, in the first place, and the optimistic interpretation of her situation is that she didn't die when she thought she did.

What even is a disintegrating breath of light?

A few days later, one of the real strangers must have made the same realization as Kite--

Kite read the plan on the stranger's page online: he was going to try to exit the dream the usual way.

So he jumped off a building.

Kite came to check the scene.

The mark has yet to be cleaned off the ground.

A few days later, someone figured out that the world is their garden.

There is a video going around featuring a boy flying over a public pool and pissing on the crowd below.

There is also another video of the same boy crying after he was arrested.

Kite didn't take long to figure out how to fly on her own.

It becomes more credible that she is stuck in a dream somehow, and it is not her own dream.

Kite figured out a possible explanation for why she cannot wake up. At the same time, she is faced with another mystery. Whose dream would this be?

Kite spends more time exploring the city.

This is definitely not the product of her dreams. She's never had such intricate dreams.

If she wasn't seeing black, she was either sweating by a fire or freezing next to an ice cream machine.

Now, she's found more than a few cats, and two cat hang-outs. An introvert she knows would be quite happy with this discovery.

There are also a few curiosity shops in the hidden nooks of the city, the most impressive of which has a collection of adult-themed tapestry.

There was also a shop with the statue of Stalin on display. How retro!

The same shop also has a miniature statue of Mao-Mao. Very niche.

An idiot challenged Kite in a supernatural battle. She blinded him with a flash of light and ran away.

When Kite doesn't feel like exploring, she goes to the city park and lounge in the shade as a big cat.

Kite just feels like being a cat sometimes.

One time, she felt like she deterred an idiot from engaging because of that habit.

Thinking of it, she might have deterred more than a few people from bothering her, most of whom don't have a semblance of realness.

Kite doesn't think she's particularly attractive, but there must be something about being in a public space that increases encounter rates.

Most idiots seem to want to spark some romance, or perhaps just don't know how to talk to strangers.

One other idiot came looking to fight. Kite also blinded this one with a flash of light, then successfully hid from the enemy by crouching and turning invisible.

Kite knows the urge of testing one's blade against another, but she doesn't really want to hurt people.

A few more days passed--

Kite is starting to feel like the world should be ending any time soon.

She feels like more and more people have developed a semblance of realness.

Kite thought that there's a relation between the people who died under the illusion of having been disintegrated by the dragon's breath and the people who feel like real people inside this dreamworld.

However, this hypothesis should follow that a lot more real people should have appeared already.

And it should also be only a matter of time until someone she knows follows her into this place.

A few more days later, a certain pervert realizes Kite's expectations--

Catrovert, in his red catty glory, calls out to Kite from atop a wall.

Now, instead of sending text messages, he is somehow sending telepathic messages

[I found you, Mao-Mao]

Kite could feel herself involuntarily transforming into Mao-Mao, specifically the form she uses in the sea-lounge world.

"Pervie, did you die already? Everyone thought you'll be the last one to go

"Not that I thought I would be the first one"

[Still alive, me

[You: debatable]

"What do you mean?"

[Body: dead

[Mind: here]

"Stop being a cat and let me hit you -- so annoying"

[No]

"Come here"

Kite telekinetically pulls Catrovert into her arms. She squeezes him in her arms, mindful not to actually hurt.

Catrovert let her do as she pleases.

Kite teleports herself and Catrovert to her favorite spot in the park.

"So, why did you look for me?"

[Testing something

[And I wanted to see you]

[The others don't know you're dead]

[I checked]

Kite feels like crying, but she's not supposed to.

Kite doesn't cry, and Mao-Mao doesn't cry.

And Catrovert is not the kind of friend she wants to cry in front of.

[You have a message?]

"Not really... What did the fans say?"

[Like others

["Probably dead" but don't know]

[Can you mind-dive?]

"Probably"

[Nevermind then]

"What do you mean?"

[Take no chances]

Kite squeezes Catrovert for a bit. He squints under pressure.

"What will happen now?"

[Don't know

[We all die]

"That bullshit again. Do you really believe that?"

[Hope not

[But feel it]

"Meaning?"

[Irrational feeling it will happen

[Same way I found you]

"Shit, really?"

[Yes]

"Shouldn't have told me that"

[Next time, don't ask]

"That too

"Oh yea, Pervie, what do you think about this dreamworld"

[Weird

[Shouldn't exist]

[Happy it does]

"Why?"

[Wanted to see you]

"Oh yea, you said that. Just a random thought, what happened to CC? Who is CC anyway?"

[Schoolfriend

[Said she liked me]

[We talked]

"Then?"

[Turned into demon

[Dead]

"Fuck! Why do I keep asking you shit?"

[Stupid]

Kite squeezes Catrovert again.

She stops to think, about nothing in particular. Moments of her life rush through her mind.

Kite sighs.

"Do you know how to get out of here, Pervie?"

[Me? Yes

[You? No]

"Why?"

[You: dead]

"Oh yea, how do you know that anyway?"

[Checked

[Record says body in morgue]

"Okay, I'll stop asking. I'm starting to change my mind about feeling touched that you came to visit me"

[Unfair]

"Hey, let me feel my feelings here"

[I'll go now]

The red cat melts into the ground and disappears.

Kite returns to the bizarre world where only she is the real thing. She never expected to feel the absence of another so deeply.

Then she realized something quite disturbing. If the pervert can just go through medical records like that--

It doesn't feel like a real possibility still, but she dreads the notion of Catrovert looking through her stuff.