Afterlife Dream

HellWitch looked at me and asked, "Can you guess what he went back for, Antares?"

I shook my head. What could be so important for a ten-year-old boy that he decided to run back into a burning orphanage? It must be something very dear to him, maybe a memento from his parents...?

HellWitch's eyes were empty when she answered her own question.

"It was his android."

...

"It was his android phone, Antares. Can you imagine?"

His phone. Lazarus went back into the orphanage to fetch his phone.

"And do you know why he wanted to save his phone? Because it did not matter whether he lost a home to live in. My brother had long since abandoned his life on earth and dedicated himself to Afterlife Dream. For him, the life that we had in the orphanage was no life at all. His true life was in Afterlife Dream.

He would rather risk throwing his real life away just to be able to go back to Afterlife Dream, day after day."

Unbridled tears fell from HellWitch's eyes like two little streams across her cheeks. Her gaze was unfocused as if she was personally reliving the moment when her brother ran into the burning building. HellWitch closed her eyes and wiped the tears away before she continued.

"During the fire, everyone was panicked and scared. We all struggled to escape from the building. The girls' dormitory and the boys' dormitory were in separate buildings, so I did not know what happened to Laz.

As soon as we got out, we headed to the safe area. I heard the orphanage head screaming and asking us to calm down because she needed to do a headcount for the boys and girls. That was when we found out that one boy was missing.

It was not possible to know right away who was missing, so the orphanage head asked the boys to pair up with their roommate. It was then that Laz's roommate started to wail and said that Laz went back inside the fire."

"My mind turned blank. I thought I must have lost my consciousness and then something must have possessed me, because when I came to my senses again, I was already inside the burning dormitory building, screaming for my brother.

I went deeper and deeper into the fire, trying to find my brother's room. After calling for so long that I almost lost my voice, he finally answered me.

Laz was crouching under his bed, crying and scared shitless.

He got his phone, but he could not find a way out. Being the older sister, I dragged him with me as we ran around blindly for an escape route.

The fire got bigger and bigger, but we could not find a way out wherever we went. Eventually, the smoke got thicker and we inhaled too much of it. I still remembered lying to my side on the floor, looking at Laz's face while I waited for death to come and pick us up."

"After that, we both died and here we are, reincarnated into Afterlife Dream. The game that we used to play when we were still alive."

I was speechless. I thought that Kitty's death was horrible, but HellWitch's and Lazarus' death took the prize.

HellWitch laughed to herself as she recalled the moment she stood in the farmhouse and the game asked her to create her avatar. Just what was she thinking and feeling at that time? I sighed in my heart.

"How did you two find each other?" I found myself asking.

"It's the IDs," HellWitch said, pointing at the text above her head.

"Our orphanage head was a passionate wannabe playwright. The orphanage put up original plays every year for Christmas and all the children participated in the plays. It was a clever ploy to showcase the orphanage children so they could get adopted quicklier.

When the fire happened, we were rehearsing an upcoming play. I played a character named 'Hell Witch' while Laz played a character named 'Lazarus'. When we met each other at Dai City, I knew immediately that it was him, and he knew that it was me right away."

"Oh."

Now, that was good.

"You know, when I heard about this whole Life Points system, I was ecstatic. I have great ambition for my next life. I will work hard in Afterlife Dream to have a good life in my next. And then I took a look at these... benefits and my spirit plummeted."

I stared at her in confusion. I thought that the list was great. The list had everything I had ever wanted. What was so wrong with the list???

HellWitch's tears had stopped. She gave the Life Points Trade List a sharp look.

"When the four people left today, I always thought to myself that they were lucky people whose life was not as miserable as ours. The benefits that they wanted were trivial. As for me and Laz, we can go and take all benefits on the list and we might still not get what we want."

She raised her finger and started scrolling down the list. There were around thirty benefits, but she passed them as if they meant nothing to her.

"Take a good look, Antares. Is there a benefit called 'Happy Family'? Or 'Doting Parents'? Or 'Happily Married Parents'? Because if my parents had loved each other then we would not have died."

HellWitch let out a chuckle dripping with mockery. After throwing one last glance at the list, she left.

HellWitch's words lingered in my head for the whole day. I thought that I was one unlucky chap for missing out on all the good things that life had to offer. In retrospect, I was also one lucky chap for missing out on all the crappy things that life had to offer.

Gun to my head, I could quickly pick the benefits that I wanted for the next life. First and foremost, health. And then athleticism. And then riches. These three reflected the qualities that I lacked in my previous life. To sum it up, I wanted to be Jaden, but a rich one.

HellWitch wanted to be herself. She was happy with herself. She was just dissatisfied with her parents. Could we pick our parents? Could we make sure that they were happily married to each other? Could we ensure that they loved us? I didn't think so. I mean, I myself was an abandoned baby, but I was glad to be abandoned. Had I not been abandoned, I would not have met my wonderful adoptive parents and Jaden. Even in my misfortune, I was blessed.

I counted the Life Points that I needed. 2500 points. That was about 250 to 500 successful Fire Golem raids. Besides, I was going to complete higher-level raids in the future. I took a deep breath and stared at the benefits that I wanted. I wondered what HellWitch was going to do with her Life Points.

A message popped up on my user interface screen.

"Dear Antares, you are cordially invited to join 'Twelve' Guild. Please confirm by clicking the 'Yes' or 'No' button below."

I clicked the "Yes" button without hesitation.

When I was still on the waiting list, I could access the guild chat but not the guild menu. After I was accepted into the guild, a guild menu button appeared on my user interface screen.

Twelve guild, fifty members. The members were listed according to rank, starting from Guild Leader, Guild Vice Leaders, Elders, and then Members.

"Welcome, Antares!" Aurendiria wrote into the guild chat. "You are finally here!"

I smiled to myself.

"Yeah. Hello again everyone."

"Level up quickly so we can go to higher level raids together!" Lolita wrote.

"DragonTalon too, don't slack off! You still have to complete the Second Job Advancement Test!"

"Aaargh," DragonTalon wrote. "I know. I am already hounding the Fairy NPC every day just in case she can give me the balloon sooner!"

I looked up at the bright red sky and thought to myself that life in Afterlife Dream was good. There was no hurry to get the 2500 points. I could stay here forever. I wouldn't mind.

A message popped up on my user interface screen again.

"HinoKun has sent you a friend request. Do you accept or not?"

I accepted. HinoKun followed up with a message.

"Hey, man. Thanks for the help today."

"Eh, no big deal. I heard Lazarus got his today. Are you running tomorrow for your own, then?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Great, same time tomorrow? I will come to distribute the Fire Orbs. Oh and..."

A notice showed up on my screen.

"HinoKun has sent you a mail."

I opened it and my eyes nearly went blind from the magnificence of its content. 30,000,000 gold in one mail.

"Please distribute the gold to everyone who participated."

"Thanks!!!" I replied happily.

I wanted to pass the treasurer work to HellWitch, but after the talk today, she might not be in the mood to do the job so I did it instead.

It was 30 million gold for 26 people. Everyone was more than excited to do the final run the next day. Livina would like to take four people from the outside to fill the squad. I happily complied.