Layers Of Nightmare

After decisively jumping down, William sprint away with all he got. The door to the ground floor was just below him!

'10 more steps!' He could see the large 'G' sign right ahead.

When William reached out his hand on the door handle, a furious roar resounded, followed by rapid stomping. William did not dare to look back, he pulled the door open and run for it.

Now, he just needed to run straight through the 15 meters (~49.2 ft) long lobby and he will reach the front door.

Soon, the door behind him exploded as a menacing creature burst out. It let out another roar before bulldozing toward William—destroying all the tiles and sending furniture flying.

William was less than halfway through the lobby. Though he did not know if the creature will disappear once he completed the tasks, there was no way to back off now.

The sight of the double door up front reignited his spirit, adrenaline rushed into his brain. His pupils shrank into a pinhole, in his heart was a word...

'FASTER!'

"Right there!" William bent his body to put forward his shoulder and barged out of the door.

"Duck!" A man's voice entered his ears. It was the same voice as before!

William rolled forward and the massive claw missed his head by a few hair strands.

BANG!

A silver bullet flew out of the sniper rifle onto the monster's head. However, it did not stagger as long as before. It recovered in just three seconds!

It was about to charge again, but a large spearhead coated with silver radiance greeted its face instead.

With the sound of cracking bones and spurting flesh, its head was instantly obliterated. The hulking monster collapsed, no longer showing any signs of moving.

Two announcements resounded in his ears,

"[Congratulations on killing the Hallowed Menace!]"

"[Congratulations on surviving your first night! Bonus has been added, please fetch them when the instance close.]"

William seemed to not hear the announcements, he got up and looked back. A large abomination, now without a head, laid flat on its back unmoving.

"Its dead! Hahahaha!" William laughed uncontrollably, thinking that living never felt so good.

Suddenly, a terrible sensation engulfed his body as he fell on his four. His sense of pain had returned, whereas the lack of oxygen supply caused him to breathe sporadically. He experienced a deep burning sensation, while his consciousness began to drift away.

One person approached him. He offered a hand and said, "Get up or your organs will fail you."

William gritted his teeth and took the rough hand. The old man pulled him up, at the same time, William bowed his head and said,

"I don't know what happened here, but thank you for saving my life."

"Oh, no problem," the man said gently. "You were my student after all."

"Huh?" It was then William lifted his head to look at his saviour.

William gasped as his eyes went as wide as saucers. Never did he imagined that it was such a familiar face. "Professor Alex?!"

The old man smiled. "Good evening, William. Or should I say, good morning."

If it was not one of the professors he admired in the university, he would have snapped and say, "Good morning my ass!" to vent.

While William was still stunned, Felicia shouted from up front. "Dad, I've finished collecting the materials!"

"Okay, let's go!" Alex said.

"Wait a minute!" William said in a hurry. "Can you explain what is going on here?"

Alex did not answer, instead, he shoved a piece of paper to William and a round sapphire pill.

"The pill helps you to recover. Read the paper after you wake up." Alex walked off.

"Wake up? What?" Amidst his confusion, a familiar sounds of alarm echoed in his ears.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

It was his regular morning alarm.

'How? I left my phone up-' His thought was cut-off as darkness overwhelmed his vision.

…

The sun has risen high up in the sky. The new day was neither too cold nor too hot, it was another auspicious morning where birds sang and people went to their respective workplace. The street was bustling with traffic, while the trams and busses work like usual.

Back in his room, William opened his eyes wide then sat upright. His phone was making beeping noises as the alarm went off.

He looked around absentmindedly, still could not believe that everything was just a dream. It felt so real!

His finger reached out to silence his phone on the table next to the bed.

Beep.

William took a deep breath. However, a sudden crushing pain invaded his c.h.e.s.t and head.

"Hnggh!"

It felt as if he was stomped by thousands of stampeding horses. The word "help" was at the tip of his tongue, but suddenly, a crunching sensation came from inside his right palm.

"Huh?" William open his hand, there, he saw a thumb-sized sapphire pill and a piece of crumpled paper.

What Professor Alex said in his 'dream' came to his mind. Without further ado, he popped the pill into his mouth and swallowed.

No medicine can have an immediate effect when ingested—that was the law of pharmacology, and yet, the pill defied just that. It took effect just as fast as an IV injection!

From his throat into his stomach, William felt a gentle cooling wave that soothe his body. Whether the crushing pain or the burning sensation, all disappeared like it was never there to begin with.

The effect did not stop there. When the cool sensation landed in his stomach for a while, William could feel that he gained a smoother thought process and energizing warmth. If not for the color and how fast it reacted, he would have thought that he had swallowed a lump of cocaine.

With his mind cleared, William began to contemplate the event again. In the end, the pill and the paper were solid proof that it was not just a dream!

There was another another thing he worried about though.

'Right, Marvin!' William immediately got up from his bed and open the door.

At first, he was shocked to see that Marvin's room was empty. Only when he walked to the kitchen did he heaved a sigh of relief.

A black-haired South Asian young a.d.u.l.t was washing his dishes. He seemed to notice his friend and looked back, asking, "What's wrong? You don't look so good."

"Nothing," William said dismissively, a smile formed on his face. He then looked at the black backpack that was leaning on the kitchen counter. "You're going to work? Its damn Saturday!"

"Yeah." Marvin smiled back. "Now that the semester is over for me, I figured I might add my working hours during the holiday."

After drying his hands with the hand towel at the counter, Marvin slung his backpack and walked to the front door.

"See ya, Will."

"Ah, take care."

Having done the short exchange, Marvin went out and locked the door.

As international students, both of them knew that their parents worked hard to give them a chance to study at top universities. As such, they were trying their best to spare time for part-time work. Marvin, however, was working a lot more than William. After all, most socioeconomic students did not that many classes compared to science students.

William walked back to his room absentmindedly. This time, he gave the crumpled paper in his hand a good look.

'Just a regular white paper?' He unfolded the paper. On it, was a single sentence written with a black ink.

"'Come find me in the university's cafeteria at 12 p.m.'?" William glanced at the clock on his phone, which showed 9.48 a.m. "Alright."

There were so many questions left to answer in his brain. Professor Alex seemed to be much more mysterious than he thought, but meeting him was his only way to get the answers he wanted.