Chapter 27:

THE DIGITAL SHELTER

Lover Online Volume 1 & 2

They say we all live in two worlds: the one we see with our eyes open and the one we dream with our eyes closed. For him, both existed, and sometimes the latter was more real than the former.

His name was Asimil, although it had always sounded like a loan, like an inherited jacket that never quite fit. As if in some forgotten corner of his soul, another name was struggling to get out. That afternoon, as he walked home, he felt the crushing weight of a failure so monumental that it had extinguished any flame of rage within him.

He dragged his shadow along the sidewalk as memories of the day flared, projecting painful images in his mind. The “accidental” shove in the hallway, his backpack falling and scattering his things across the floor. Javier, with his innocent smile, feigning awkwardness as his friends kicked his Vencrhris sleeve. The murmurs in the dining room, a whistling chorus that always accompanied him:— …he says he plays 12 hours straight… — , — …he only draws Chinese monkeys… —, until a piece of bread dipped in ketchup landed on his cell phone screen.

Each memory was a nail in his heels, sinking him in an invisible mud made of shame and the certainty that his passions were flaws. The street was crowded, but he moved forward like a ghost. Transparent. Insubstantial. The geek boy. The weird otaku.

The traffic noise was a dull hum, drowned out by the chaos in his own head. He approached a crosswalk. The green pedestrian light was flashing, inviting him to cross, but he couldn't see it. His gaze was lost in the asphalt, reliving the teacher's look of contempt, the laughter of his classmates.

All he wanted was to get to his room, to his refuge, to that other world where he wasn't a ghost. He wanted to refigure himself in his otaku world, the only place that felt like home, almost like a memory of another life.

He took a step to cross the street, his mind miles away.

It was then that the outside world returned with thunderous violence.

A deafening screech of tires burning against the asphalt. The furious roar of a truck's horn that filled the entire space. He looked up, coming out of his trance, only to find two blinding white headlights, two angry suns bearing down on him.

Time stood still. There was no fear, just a strange, lucid calm. He closed his eyes, waiting for the end.

But the impact never came.

Or perhaps, the impact was the entire universe.

The light from the headlights didn't crush him; it dissolved him. The noise of the truck faded, transforming into a warm, welcoming vibration. The asphalt under his feet evaporated, and he felt a soft vertigo, as if falling upwards. Impossible colors were born in the darkness, forming arcs of data and sounds that were pure music. The smell of pollution was replaced by the scent of ozone and pure energy.

And then, a voice, inexpressive and at the same time cold, resonated in every particle of his new being: "Anomaly detected. Forcing emergency neural connection. Welcome, Traveler."

The world that had crushed him, in its last act of cruelty, had set him free. The accident was not an end.

It was the beginning.

A stabbing pain pierced his skull, sharp and sudden, like the echo of a brutal blow. Asimil moaned softly, feeling the rough bark of a tree against his back and the wet grass under his legs. The air smelled of wet earth and something else, something electric and clean, like ozone after a storm.

He sat up suddenly, holding a hand to his head. The dream… that dream.

The images assaulted him with terrifying clarity: the walk home from school, the poisoned taunts, the weight of his backpack, the screeching of tires, the two headlights of a truck bearing down on him like the eyes of an angry beast. He could feel that strange, lucid calm again just before the end.

He shook his head, trying to shoo away the last vestiges of the nightmare. It's only been a dream, he told himself, though a part of him felt an icy chill. A very real one, but just another dream. The headache began to subside, leaving only a groggy feeling.

He opened his eyes wide. He was on the shore of a lake with waters so still and crystalline that they reflected the sky like a perfect mirror. A deep violet sky, where crystal islands floated lazily and two moons, one silver and one golden, shared the firmament. He was in the Altverse.

He stood up, shaking the dirt off his clothes. He couldn't remember how he had gotten there. He probably fell asleep while scouting or resting from a mission. It wouldn't be the first time. Thoughts of another life often seeped into his dreams, making them more vivid and oppressive than usual.

In the distance, suspended in the sky like a promise, the citadel of the Harmony Clan shone with its golden lights. His home. The only place where the name Asimil didn't feel like a disguise, but an identity.

He had to return. Sacres would surely be worried about his absense

Leaving the lake and the haunting shadows of his bad dream behind, Asimil began to walk. It was time to go home. To his true home.