When A Mage Revolts

The weather was scorching hot. The old air conditioner emitted a creaking noise, letting out a breeze that made people feel light-headed.

"Hey... Wake up! Wake up!"

An impatient voice snapped from above, causing the young man to wake up from his dream with a start. He jolted up from the office desk, narrowing his eyes to look, with his back to the light. What he saw, however, was the unsmiling face of his boss. Immediately, a shiver went through his heart; there was no longer a hint of sleepiness in his entire body.

He hurriedly explained himself. "Sorry, just had lunch so I felt a little sleepy, I..."

"Work hard, don't loaf on the job." His boss merely gave him a glare and said nothing more; he soon turned around and left.

The young man sighed in relief.

He sat back onto the chair, massaging his temples. That brain of his, which had just woken up, was clearly still somewhat drowsy and heavy. For some unknown reason, he felt as though he had just had a dream, a long and complicated dream. That dream seemed to have exhausted all of his energy, causing him to be extremely weary now. It was as though he had just been through eighty one trials*.

However... The strange thing was, he could not remember what he had seen in his dream.

This was already an extremely strange matter. However, he did not delve into it; perhaps it was because he was feeling very dizzy at the moment, or perhaps he was being guided by some voice in the unseen world. He dismissed the issue matter-of-factly. His boss had not gotten far at this time; suddenly, he turned his head and looked back, so the young man tossed this matter to the back of his mind and lowered his head, pretending to be concentrating on the work.

When he lowered his head, he saw the payslip that he had placed at the edge of the table. The poor numbers looked even more insubstantial after going to deductions again and again. However, on the column for the name, all the words had been blurred out; his name seemed to have been pixelated* and was totally illegible.

"Ugh... Why do I feel like it's getting less and less..."

For unknown reasons, the young man did not notice the pixelated name. He simply held the payslip and gave it a few glances before putting it back down, as though there was nothing to be weirded out about. With a light click on his mouse, he immediately opened up the work file on the computer, ready to continue editing the PowerPoint file he had been preparing for his boss.

His name had also been written on the folder in the file. It was very blurry as well, but was ignored by him once more.

After he had begun working, it was as though a fast forward button had been pressed on the world; the movements of every person became fast and robotic, going to and fro in the office. The hands of the clock on the wall spun around extremely fast. As time passed by, two o'clock turned to eight in the blink of an eye, and the sky darkened within mere moments.

The young man walked out from the boss's office in a downcast manner and lazily stretched himself. The people in the office had all gone. He returned to his desk, shut the computer down and packed his stuff. Finally, carrying his bag on his back, he waved, out of habit, at the two empty seats of his colleagues on either side of his desk. After turning out the lights, he left slowly through the main door.

Arriving before the elevator, he pressed the down button. With a ringing sound, the world before his eyes suddenly turned into a flurry of snowflakes.

After that, the scene reappeared; the young man had returned to the compartment he had rented. The lighting there was extremely yellow. The electric fan whistled as it blew, but it was unable to cool off this cramped little space much. Setting his laptop on the side, he laid on his bed and aimlessly browsed through the webpage on it.

The newspage of an unknown software jumped out again. He glanced over it, and suddenly saw a push notification about an article titled, 'Benjamin Franklin Lures Thunder with a Kite'

...Could this even be considered news? He could not help but think in his heart that perhaps the editor did not know what to write, so they had taken such a story from a junior high physics book to fill in the number of words quota.

Strange things are abound.

The young man closed the page without hesitation.

Beep! The moment he closed the page, his laptop automatically crashed.

"...F*ck."

The young man massaged his head, feeling an intense headache. He knew that this laptop of his probably had to be sent in for repairs already, but at that moment, he really could not be bothered about it due to his irritable mood. Thus, he tossed the notebook to the side and picked up his cell phone to open up the browser.

The browser on the cell phone mysteriously stopped on a page of an encyclopedia.

'Bible Story— Cain and Abel'.

What the hell? He had never searched for anything like this.

The young man immediately shut the page. However, his fingers seemed to have accidentally pressed on another link. Subsequently, another news page jumped out. On it was written, "Queen Elizabeth II of England, a ruler who has broken the record. What on earth is the secret to her longevity?"

A strange feeling surged up in his heart.

He did not know what was going on, but some scenes seemed to begin flashing into his mind.

Light and shadows, castles, armies, a flying ice ship... Those images seemed extremely detached from everyday life, like a world that only existed in the special effects of a movie. However, the young man did not feel foreign, for some unknown reason. Instead, he felt that they could not be more familiar and intimate.

Why?

Finally, he remembered the dream.

"Dream... What on earth was in that dream? Was it really just a dream?" The young man covered his head with his hands. The images that had just flashed and appeared gave him some sort of enlightenment, but he was still unable to remember anything. He felt that the dream seemed exceedingly important; he had forgotten some things of utmost importance, and he must recall them.

However, a mysterious sleepiness soon surged up, making him drowsy. There seemed to be a voice at his ear, saying, "Sleep... You're too tired, don't force yourself, just sleep for a while... Don't think back about those unhappy things..."

Very quickly, the young man became extremely sleepy. His consciousness became clouded.

He instinctively sensed danger, and continuously warned himself not to sleep, that if he were to doze off, he would forget everything and lose everything that was important. However, he simply felt too drowsy; he was unable to resist the mesmerizing voice. Bit by bit, his heavy eyelids closed as he resisted.

Buzz... Pap!

Suddenly, the cell phone vibrated violently. It vibrated so hard that it even fell to the floor, emitting a clear and crisp sound that startled the young man up from the brink of falling asleep.

He subconsciously picked the cell phone.

Before he could answer, a robotic voice sounded out from it.

"If you need to speak to the phone operator, please press zero."

As though he had been hit by a bolt of lightning, the entire body of the young man shook as he was filled with enlightenment. Everything around him, including the hot and humid compartment and the yellow light from the lamps... Every single object that existed in this world suddenly became illusory, going further and further away from him.

All that was left were him, the cell phone and the laptop.

He held the cell phone with both hands. All sorts of images flashed through his brain; they were fragmented, but extremely real. At that moment, he felt as though he had already walked to the edge of a bubble. With just a light touch, the whole bubble that isolated him would vanish into thin air.

The cell phone merely repeated those words, playing the sentence again and again. The tone of voice was calm, but there was a strange feeling of impatience to it, as though it was urging for something.

The hypnotizing voice sounded out by the ear of the young man once more. "Give up... Why do you want to give up the life that truly belongs to you? You belong to this place, why do you want to think about those unhappy things? Give up..."

There were two voices mixed together in his ears. The young man took a deep breath and lowered his head. He looked at the '0' button that was flashing continuously on the keyboard of the cell phone.

Subsequently, he pressed down on it without hesitation.

Ding!

There was a soft sound, extremely crisp and clear.

The two voices in his ears that had been incessantly repeating themselves came to an abrupt halt. At the same time, the interface of the cell phone keyboard disappeared as well. However, replacing it was an emoticon that had appeared in the center of the screen. It was a smiley face.

Then, in the next second, the entire world fragmented.