Is it a dream or reality?

"Angela, are you real or just a dream?"

Drake asked after waking up, though not expecting any answer from the empty room.

As long as he can remember he had been having strange dreams.

When he was born, he was found to be too dull, he did not cry or had the same twinkle that a baby's eyes have.

The doctors did some tests but could not find any concrete reason, so they concluded that he had some problems with his brain. They told his mother a few functions of his brain like emotions were blocked.

His mother was devastated hearing that. But she stayed strong for her son.

She went to many doctors and neurologists, but none was able to tell his condition.

In the beginning, he used to sleep most of the time. Though that is like other babies.

At that time, he used to have a dream where he was moving into a vast void.

Such dreams ended by the time he was three. As a result, he became much more active compared to before. His mother and elder sister were incredibly happy about that. But that happiness was short lasting.

He started having a new type of dream which started with him leaving the void and entering a strange new world and landing near the outskirts of some woods. His body materialized slowly as a newborn baby.

An orphanage caretaker found him. After searching for a long time for his parents, with no results, the orphanage staff assumed him to be abandoned and admitted him to the orphanage.

Later dreams were about him living his life in the orphanage. He would have such dreams once every week.

Every time after waking up from the dream, he would be much more active and able to show emotions to some extent but as days went and the next week came near, he would start becoming dull again.

By the seventh day, he would just stay in bed, feeling too weak mentally with no emotions in his dull eyes. All for the cycle to repeat next week.

His mother, after the initial happiness, again panicked seeing his new condition. But the result was the same. No doctor knew or could identify his condition. They only said that his current condition was better than his previous one. With age, he would be better.

A false hope but his mother and sister took it, hoping for a miracle.

Every week when Drake had that dream, he would wake up in his dream. Yes, he suffered from the same ailment, much worse than in the real world, in his dream.

He would mostly sleep the whole week. Wake up for brief intervals for food, excretion, etc.

Every week only when Drake slept in the real world and saw the dream, would the Drake in the dream world wake up the longest, but he would still look dull with no emotions.

He found that that world was not like his world. There were martial artists in that world. The orphanage owner was a strong level 1 martial artist.

He even heard someone saying that there were wizards in big cities. He did not believe much as he had never seen a wizard.

But he saw the owner fight someone using martial arts. The fight was no less than any multi-million budget martial arts film.

Due to his physical condition, he was unable to practice martial arts. That led to him being ostracized and bullied by other kids in the orphanage.

In a world where everyone aspires to be a martial artist, even those who were not martial artists knew some superficial martial arts. This made his inability to practice martial arts akin to a sin.

His life would be a living hell if not for her. Five years older than him, she was five years old when he arrived at the orphanage.

As soon as Angela saw him, she immediately declared that she would take care of him.

And true to her world she had been taking care of him for the last twenty years.

She never let anyone bully him. If anyone bullied him behind her back, she would find them and then beat them.

She was the most talented in martial arts. Not even older kids were her match.

Everyone wondered why she always stayed with a cripple. Even the orphanage owner thought it was a pity. Without him, she would be free to properly walk the path of martial artists without being restrained by a dead weight.

But despite everyone's words she never left his side. Treating him like family.

Angela was cute as a child, but her beauty started budding as she became a teenager. She was the perfect combination of beauty and strength.

That made him even more ostracized as he was the only one getting such a beauty's favor.

Though he cared what others thought about him. His dull psyche rendered him unable to do that in the dream world. Even in the real world with temporary emotional capabilities, he dismissed them.

He loved and respected her and felt happy that she treated him like family.

Sometimes he felt bad about her but never mentioned it to her as he did not want to disrespect her love for him. He just hoped that someday he would become capable enough to protect her as she protected him.

Her talent in martial arts was extremely high, having reached level 1 by the time she was fourteen.

She only told him about it. She was very smart, and she knew that sometimes showing off too much might lead to trouble.

Everyone had to leave the orphanage at sixteen years of age to fend for themselves.

All the kids were waiting for her to leave so that they could bully him finally and those that were interested in her could court her properly.

But she did something that left everyone flabbergasted. When leaving she asked for his custody. Everyone was against the idea, but she was adamant and finally took his custody.

She took him towards the outskirts of the town, away from others' eyes where she had already built a small house for them to live in.

She started hunting for food and income. Sometimes taking bandits or criminal extermination requests.

At twenty-five years of age, she was already a level 3 martial artist, close to reaching level 4.

To the outside world, she was a genius who reached level 2 at only twenty-five years of age.

These dreams were so vivid that it made it difficult for Drake to dismiss them as mere dreams. Combined with his condition, it was difficult to do so.

Sometimes he wondered if it was his past life. But how was it possible as he knew his past life?

Yes, Drake was reincarnated in this world. His previous life was boring, so he was not sad for long that he died. Though his new life is eventless too. At least his life in the dream world was interesting.

—

After freshening up, he went to the kitchen to have breakfast with his family.

He lives with his mother and sister. His father after seeing, how useless is he, left his mother and the family for another woman.

It was a tough time for his mother. First his condition, then her husband's betrayal left her in tatters. But she never gave up and brought up her two kids on her own.

Even with his condition, Drake completed school and a bachelor's in software engineering.

He worked as a freelance programmer. Any permanent job was next to impossible due to his condition.

His mother and sister did not want him to work, but he insisted as he would be bored sitting at home doing nothing. After listening to his reasoning his mother and sister accepted his request, but on a promise that he would not overexert himself, a promise he was happy to keep.

Drake reached the dining table, his family already there waiting for him.

They smiled watching him come.

"Good morning, honey. Are you feeling good?" greeted Sarah, his mother with a smile as she asked for his well-being, knowing today he had woken up from the dream.

Sarah was 45 years old but looked like she was in her mid-thirties, a result of her strict diet and exercise regimen. She had beautiful blond hair that she kept loose, long enough to reach her lower back. Her beautiful face was not diminished by age. Her body was a piece of art with curves in all the right places.

"Good morning, Drake." greeted Rebecca or Becky, his sister with a smile.

At 25 years of age, she was the dream girl of everyone, having inherited her mother's beauty and body. She had blonde hair like her mother that she liked to tie in a high ponytail, reaching her hips. As a follower of a strict regimen like her mother, she was fit like her with some abdominal muscles though that only gave her beauty a wild side.

"Good morning, ladies. You look more beautiful each passing day." greeted Drake back with a smile and complimented them together with it as he sat on his chair.

"Mister, flattery will get you everywhere.", responded Sarah, clearly happy with the compliment her son gave her. She served him his breakfast.

Becky only responded with a kiss on his cheek, happy with the compliment.

Drake laughed; such interactions were normal in their family.

The family started their breakfast with some small talk.

Then Sarah, as if remembering something, asked Drake, "Honey, did you cook the sandwiches for the girls?"

"Yes Mom, they liked them. They asked me to thank you," answered Drake, clearly happy with the fact that he could help Angela at least in some way. He asked his mother to teach him how to cook so that he could cook for Angela.

"Then next time I will teach you something new."

"Are Kaori and Shizuka okay? Are you all getting along with each other?" asked Becky next, feeling worried for the girls.

"They are ok, Becky. As I told you previously, because of Angela and my condition, they did not have many problems talking to me. Though they still do not talk to others. They are coming out of their shell after what happened to them." Drake answered.

"That's great. Try to take care of them, they experienced too many negative events." Becky advised Drake. She sympathized with the sisters, after what happened to them.

"Don't worry, my dear sister, I will," Drake answered, a bit cheekily. Becky responded with a light punch on the arm followed by a giggle. Sarah had a smile watching her kids getting along.

Drake then told them what happened in his dream this time as they continued their breakfast.

Drake had long ago told his family about his dreams. At first, his family thought they were mere dreams but as they became more vivid, they started taking interest in his dreams. It became a family habit that Drake would tell them about his life in the dream world.

Likewise, he told Angela about his real world. He did not tell her that for him it was a dream world, just told her that his soul periodically goes from one body to another, and his real family was on the other side.

When he told her about his family, she was incredibly happy for him, but he could see the sadness hidden deep in her eyes, thinking that he would leave her one day.

He assured her that for him, she was as much of his family as his real family was on the other side. That day, Angela cried for the first time in front of him, feeling happy. She always had a fear that Drake would leave her someday, but now she understood her worries were unfounded.

A few years back, on a whim, Drake decided to learn to cook. He thought that he could then help Angela at least with something.

It succeeded and he cooked egg fried rice for her that his mother taught him. Feeling doubtful at first he did that a few more times and even cooked another dish he learned later. He understood that he could affect his behavior in the dream world.

When he told that to his family, they became excited. His mother became even more enthusiastic about teaching him to cook. He even taught these dishes to Angela so that she could then when he was unable to, that was most of the time.

He did not know whether his family believed him when he told them about his dreams. They were just going along with him to make him happy.

He did not know. Not when such events were blurring the line between dream and reality. He did not know and could not tell if it was a dream or reality.

As for Kaori and Shizuka, they were twins rescued by Angela from a pirate crew a year ago.

She found them while following the trails of the leader of the bandits whom she took the task to kill.

Angela's fighting style is like that of an assassin. So, she liked to collect information about her targets and then kill them silently. That is why she followed the leader after killing all his subordinates back at their camp, wanting to find out where he was going.

After following the leader to the pirates' ship, she found all the information about her targets and then carefully incapacitated them all.

There inside a small room, she found the twin sisters. They told her that the pirates came there to get some new women, as the previous ones either committed suicide or were killed by the pirates' after being broken to the point of no repair.

They told that in an even tone, as they had been on the ship for the past 5 years and had seen the same scene more than a dozen times.

Angela was impressed by their will as they were not broken even after five years. They told her they had revenge to take and could not die before that. They were always looking for a way to run away. But the pirates never gave them the chance. They could not afford to lose the wenches who could take all their abuse for so many years.

Angela showed them the way to town and collected the bounty for the bandit group. When she was about to leave they stopped her and requested her to take them in and let them serve her. They wanted her to teach them to fight so that they could get their revenge.

Angela finally relented after much persuasion. But on the condition that they had to serve him also.

The incident that forced them to their life on the pirates' ship and then their life on the pirates' ship made them feel distrust towards men. But Angela would never compromise his safety for some strangers she saved on a whim. So, she made them promise that.

They thought hard but finally agreed.

Initially, they did not interact much with him, but with his condition and his cooking, he opened up to them. Now the only man they talked to was him.

Whether a man or a woman, the way to their heart goes through their stomach.

Angela taught them to fight and after a few months of practice, they started following her for simple missions.

When he told his family about them, they were indignant and sad for the twins. After that, they would ask about the twins' well-being every time.

Becky, as if she remembered something, told Drake, "Drake, the game that you were so excited about, I have ordered three deep dive game capsules for it. They should be delivered by noon, then we can install one in each of our rooms."

Drake was excited hearing that, he thanked his sister, "Thanks Becky, you are the best" and then kissed her on the cheek.

Becky only responded with a chuckle and ruffled his hair to show affection.

Infinite Seas. The new game was in a craze everywhere. A VR game launched two days ago. It boasted 100% realistic graphics. A tall claim, but was proven true after the game was released.

Everyone who played was full of praise, saying they felt like they were in a different world.

Drake wanted to play it the day it was released, but because of his condition that was not possible. He even forgot about it, only remembering when his sister told him she ordered the game capsules for the family.

His family members were not interested in games, but their interest was piqued after listening to praise after praise of the game. So Becky decided to get capsules for her and their mother as well if they decided to play to pass the time or just accompany Drake in the game.