Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A rush of wind brushed through the sea of golden splendor, a wheat field as far as the eye could see.

A slight giggle escaped the man’s lips as a side leaf first brushed against his cheeks and then against his nose.

AAAHHHHCHOOOOOO!

He snapped up, briefly rubbing his nose before proceeding to reach out his arms. A mighty yawn escaped his mouth, one which could rival even the king of beasts.

“Mhmmm…. What time is it?” he muttered groggily.

His arm reached out habitually towards his phone, only for his hand to come up empty.

“Hmmm…?”

He turned his head and blinked. Two more times. Three more times just to make sure.

The man shot up, briefly blinded by the golden wheat stalks which reached upwards to his neck. A picture perfect blue sky above, pure white clouds, and golden rays flared from the sun. He scoured the area. All around, a vast expanse of wheat.

“WH-WHERE AM I?” His voice travelled out but got no response.

“This… Why am I here? Is someone pulling a prank on me? I was just…” He suddenly brought his hand to his mouth, his brows furring down as he tried to make sense of it all. “Wait, what was I doing before? I was… ” He couldn’t think of it. Was it merely a lapse of memory? Perhaps from a night of drinking or perhaps his mind hadn’t fully woken up. However, that didn’t seem right.

“I live at…. I work as a…. My family, they are ....” Whatever answer he tried to get simply came up blank. Finally, he tried to recall his name. “I… who am I?” A chill ran down his spine.

He brought his hands in front of his view. They were shaking uncontrollably as his mind began to spiral into a negative space.“Why can’t I remember who I am? What… What do I even look like?” His chest heaved rapidly. His vision was already beginning to distort around him when a voice not far from him managed to snap him out of it.

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

His neck snapped upwards.

“YES! Yes. I am here! Wait there. I’ll come to you!” he responded.

He ran towards the sound of the voice, his movements driven solely by his desire to see another person, whoever it is. However, rushing through the field, it all looked the same. “Hello. Please say something again.”

“I’m over here!” The voice returned, now accompanied by a hand which reached above the wheat stalks.

He rushed forward, pushing back the wheat stalks and creating a path. As he got closer, he gulped down. His hand reached out, pushing away the final stalks which separated the two.

In front of him was a young woman, clear eyes and medium length auburn hair. She looked to be somewhere between a high school senior or a college student. Like him, she was dressed in casual clothes which did not fit the situation they were in.

She’s…

Not knowing exactly what to say in the moment, he reverted to the only thing he could think of.

“Hi.”

“H-Hi.”

They both took a pause and then simultaneously asked, “Do you-”

“Uh, you go first,” the man said.

“Do you know where we are?”

He shook his head. “I don’t. I just woke up and was here. How about you? Do you remember how you got here?”

“No. I just woke up as well but I’m having trouble remembering what I was doing before. I-I can’t even remember my name…” Panic rose in her voice.

“You too, huh…” The man stroked his chin in contemplation. However, seeing that she was going through a similar downward spiral as he had before, he tried to calm her down. “Let’s take a moment to gather our thoughts. I’m sure we’ll figure something out,” he said.

The woman nodded and they began to talk.

***

“Alright,” the man began, “basically, both of us woke up around the same time. We can’t seem to recall who we were or about our life beyond this point. We have no clue where we are or why we were put here. Anything which could identify who we are was also removed from our clothes before we were brought here. The only thing we were left with was our clothes and the items left in our pockets.”

In front of them were two items. One was a knife and the other was a slingshot. There were a couple of pebbles around them, perfectly sized to serve as ammo for the slingshot.

“I also don’t recognize where we are,” the woman remarked, “and it scares me that I can’t see any trees or mountains in the distance. It’s like this whole world is just one long wheat field.”

The man gulped down and continued with a nod. “I noticed that too. In fact, everything in this world feels a little fake. For instance, the ground is dry and the wheat around us is already mature. However, nothing is harvested and there is no sign of any irrigation which would be required to grow the wheat. Assuming this is wild wheat, this makes even less sense from the lack of diversity. Did you notice, all of the wheat stalks are at the same height?”

“A false world… who would go through all the trouble?” The woman questioned.

“Actually, I already have a theory. But… it might be a bit farfetched.”

“Really,” she lifted her brow in surprise. “Please, whatever it is, I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

“I don’t have any evidence for this but assuming that everything we see is fake, the world, the sky, even the temperature, then I think it is safe to say that we are no longer in our original world.”

“How do you know?”

“We might not remember who we are or those close to us, but we can at least remember and recognize things about our world. I think it is safe to assume that constructing a place like this would cost an astronomical amount of money. Not only that, medical research would have had to jump decades to be able to remove selective memories relating to our identity.”

The man shared a gaze with the woman and held out three fingers as he continued, “That’s why, I think there are only three possibilities. The first is that we’ve been kidnapped and all of this is a simulation. Second, we've been transported into another world where the familiar universal laws we are familiar with no longer apply. Third, we’re both dead and this is the after life we are both sharing.”

The woman’s eyes dilated into pinpoints. None of his answers brought her comfort and instead, brought her to the edge. Any of those answers meant they couldn’t return to their ordinary lives, whatever it was.

“I—”

Before she could say a word, he interjected. “Sorry, I changed my mind. I don’t think this is the afterlife.”

She lifted her head and asked, “What makes you so certain?”

“Could you give me your hand?”

Confused, she lifted her hand towards him. They were strangers but they were also the only ones here in this strange world. To find out where they were, a simple request like this didn’t need much thought.

The man took her hand and gave a quick pinch.

“OW!” she withdrew her hand. “Why’d you do that?” She rubbed the red spot on the back of her hand.

“Pain. If this is the afterlife, we wouldn’t feel pain. Atleast, I don’t think so.”

She pouted slightly. “Then that just leaves this being a simulation or this being another world, right?”

“No. I will also take back my second option.”

“Why?”

“The more I think about it, the more I think about it, the more I realize only the first possibility makes sense. If you were to create a world such as this, it would be fairly easy to create inside a virtual space. I said before that we don’t have the technology to remove selective memories but what if we simply forgot about the type of technology like that?” His eyes narrowed and his voice deepened as his internal thoughts spilled out. “In truth, whose to say any of our memories are real at all?”

Suddenly, the woman grabbed his hand. An involuntary reach that seemed to snap the man out of his thoughts.

“Please, don’t say anymore,” she whispered softly. “I don’t want to think anymore about that.”

The man looked at the woman’s shaky figure. The implications to his theory were far reaching. Her entire body showed such indignation at such a scenario and he realized he went too far.

He swiftly shifted his gesture. “You don’t need to take me so seriously. My mind just wanders off sometimes. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was a conspiracy theorist in my ordinary life.”

His laughter brought a smile to her face and they both soon settled down.

“What should we do now?” she asked.

“Well, if everything we see around us is a simulation then it likely means this world was created for us. I don’t know what it is that they want but the weapons in front of us were provided to aid in our survival. For now, we should probably keep moving.

Just then, movements from the nearby stalks drew their attention.

“Something’s here…” the man said.

The two of them froze in place, their hearts thumping wildly. In this simulated world, anything could appear. But what?

The wheat stalks continued to rustle about and then, a creature half their height with green skin jumped out.

They both recognized the creature in an instant.

“That’s… it’s a goblin!” The woman shouted as she stumbled back, landing on her butt.

The goblin, heinous in its appearance, stared at them briefly with its cold vertical slit pupils. It then snarled wildly, charging straight towards the closest person who, in this case, was the man.

“Quickly, the weapons!”

The man immediately reached for the knife but the goblin was quick and was already in a mid air tackle. The man’s limbs snapped forward by the force of the goblin’s tackle, forcing him to release the knife from his grip.

The momentum continued, carrying the two of them further back as they rolled on the ground several times before settling on a position which saw the man looking upwards at the goblin’s hideous face. The goblin cackled as it lifted a bone dagger high, the light gleaming against the edge, before jabbing downwards towards the man’s head.

No thought crossed the man’s mind, only the instinct to survive. He jerked his arm in front of him, catching the dagger with his palm. He grimaced from the pain. Blood dripped down the dagger which had pierced half way through his palm.

Suddenly, the woman appeared from the side, having forced herself to move past her fear, she threw out a punch which landed against the side of the goblin’s head. The punch barely managed to move the goblin. It dropped its smile and gave her a cursory glance.

Her blood went cold seeing the disparity of strength. No way. It didn’t even flinch. She couldn’t even react before it swiped its arm towards her. Despite its short structure, the muscles which defined its body carried with it real strength. Its nails bit into her skin, leaving gashes across her face as she fell back.

The goblin then turned its attention back to the man, its smile returning as it continued to drive down the dagger further in.

Adrenaline coursed through the man’s body as he grit his teeth. He used both hands to push back. Yet, even with the surge of energy, his disadvantageous position meant he had to exert double the effort to simply push the dagger back from reaching his head, a battle he was quickly losing.The dagger inched closer and closer. All the while, blood continued to drip down the dagger, splattering against his eyes and distorting his vision. I can’t… I can’t hold out much longer.

Just then, the woman returned, this time, a weapon in hand. The knife which the man had dropped earlier was now in her grasp. She plunged the knife down, aiming for the neck. This time, the goblin reacted fiercely as the knife punctured through its skin and into flesh. It leaped upwards, swinging wildly as blood gushed outwards from its wound.

“Quick, it’s not finished!” The man shouted, quickly taking the opportunity to tackle the goblin on the ground.

The goblin thrashed around like a wish caught on land. The man struggled to hold the goblin down, using all of his strength to hold it still. He turned his head. “What are you waiting for? Finish it off!” There was no time for niceties and the woman knew that as well.

She gulped down, knowing this was do or die. Summoning up every bit of courage she had left, she reached down and grabbed the knife, pushing deeper.

Warm blood gushed outwards as the goblin writhed in pain. It thrashed vigorously, shrieking out as the dagger drove further in, before finally, it stopped.

Silence returned to the area and only the panting of the two remaining survivors remained.

Finally, after what seemed like a while, did the woman come over towards the man, her shadow casting over him.

“Are… are you okay?” she asked.

“Yea, I-” The man’s words stopped short as he turned his attention to his wounded hand and watched as it began to close up on its own.

“Look,” the woman cried out in shock. “The goblin’s body is gone!”

The corpse of the goblin was gone, replaced by motes of light which had already surrounded the two.

She stared at the motes of light, their warmth spreading throughout her body. The goblin blood which had splashed all over her was gone and the injury she had sustained from the goblin’s nails no longer hurt. No, it wasn’t just that, it was gone.

Both of them marveled at their bodies, watching their wounds and bruises heal up all on their own. The exhaustion which had grounded them also began to fade, replaced with a surge of energy now circulating through their bodies.

Then just as quickly as they arrived, the motes of light dissappeared.

“What just happened?” the woman asked.

The man furrowed his brow, contemplating deeply. “I think this proves the simulation theory. We can feel pain like in real life but our wounds were completely healed when we defeated the goblin. Isn’t that sort of like when video game characters get healed when we level up?”

The woman turned to her hands, opening them and closing them, trying to get a better feel. “I think you’re right. It isn’t just that our injuries were healed. I feel a bit stronger as well.”

Suddenly, she noticed something sticking out of the ground. “Wait, isn’t that…” she approached the item, and reached down.

“What is it?” the man asked.

She showed the item in her hand, the bone dagger used by the goblin.

“An item drop,” she answered, her own voice carrying a tone of disbelief.

“This confirms it,” the man replied.

Just then, the place began to rumble.

“What now?!”

A pillar of light descended down, appearing in the center of the wheat field.

In that moment, the two had a simultaneous urge to head into the light. The woman unconsciously began to walk towards the light when the man extended a hand and stopped her.

She snapped out of her stupor and turned behind.

“That light…” the man muttered. “You felt it too, right?”

The woman gulped down with a nod. She held a hand to her chest. “Yes. I don’t know why, but I really want to go in. It feels… warm, like going home.” She saw the look on the man’s face and asked, “What are you thinking?”

“If this follows the rules of a game, then that beam of light will likely take us to the next stage to fight an even tougher opponent. But… If the rules of this world are like those of the game, that’s one thing, but what happens if we die? Will we respawn or will we die in real life? Does time flow the same here as it does in the real world? What happens if we…”

The man was a mumbling mess, only finally stopping when the woman reached over to take his hand.

She gave him a gentle smile. “I don’t know who I am or how I acted before coming here. But, in our short time together, I’ve found that you are dependable, smart, and brave, otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to defeat the goblin.” She looked to the skies and continued, “This world is unfamiliar with us and we don’t know what they want from us. I believe the only way we can get those answers is to push forward.”

She rose up and extended a hand to him. “So stop prattling and let's go.”

Her words seemed to help settle down his own feelings. Though he thought of himself as intelligent, the fight clearly shook him. And yet, it was this woman who seemed to now be the more pragmatic one. Her words fully convinced him.

The man returned a smirk and took her hand. “I’m not prattling. I’m making acute observations.”

“Hmmm,” she placed her hands behind her, and swung around. “Is that so? You know, hearing your mumblings again, it suddenly reminded me of someone.”

“You remembered someone you knew?” he asked, surprised.

“No, more like a sense of someone I knew. A friend, perhaps. I think he used to prattle away at things when he was anxious as well.” She turned her head slightly. “It’s cute.”

Her words were enough to cause him to self-trip on nothing.

Before she could turn to see his fumble, he had already used the opportunity to pick up the remaining items, a knife in one hand and a sling shot in the other.

“A knife, a sling shot, and now the goblin’s bone dagger.” He weighed the two items in his hands. “It’ll only get harder from here on.”

“Yea. However, I do feel a bit stronger than before. I wonder if perhaps we also leveled up.”

The man tightened his grip around the knife, feeling as though a second match with the goblin would’ve gone much differently. “I think so as well.”

The woman nodded. “If they wanted to kill us they could’ve done so already. But, I think instead, they want to see how well we can do.”

They stood before the beam of light which would take them to the supposed next stage.

“I suppose there isn’t really any purpose in coming up with a plan since we don’t know what we’ll be going up against. However, I’ll make sure to protect your back and I expect you’ll do the same for me,” he said, his face and voice stoic.

“You can count on me,” she replied.

As she was about to step forward, the man’s voice returned once more. “What should I call you?”

“What?”

“I think it would be better if we’re able to have a name, even if they’re not real, in order to address each other easier.”

The woman tapped her chin, eyes closed, as she thought about a name. “Oh, I know!” Her finger went up, her eyes wide. She turned to him and said, “How about Emily? Yea, Emily. I like that name!”

The man nodded. “Emily…”

“How about you?” she asked.

“Something plain but easy to remember… I’ll go by David.”

“Alright, David. It’s nice to finally place a name on your face.” She grinned wide.

Suddenly, the area went red.

“Looks like it's telling us to hurry,” Emily said.

David nodded. “I’m gonna figure out why we were put here. And then, I’ll make sure we return to our original life.”

“Mn, I’ll hold you to it.”

Together, they stepped into the light.