Meaningless text jumped in her vision, but she only wanted to look at the black-haired youth’s face one more time.
A strong wind blurred everything. Tears finally rolled down. The wind carried her into the sky, spinning her faster and faster.
She suddenly lost weight, abandoned her heavy body, reached the highest point, and then fell.
Everything around her felt tangible. She jumped back in shock but hit the chair back. She tried to recall what she had been doing. The screen of the notebook in front of her was scrolling with production team credits and manufacturer logos. She stared at the computer before remembering that she had stayed up all night to complete the RPG game and had fallen asleep while watching the end credits.
The screen returned to the game title page, with silhouettes of various characters flashing one by one.
The black-haired figure in a black cloak flashed and disappeared. For some reason, she suddenly felt overwhelmingly sad.
She racked her brain and finally remembered that what she had just seen was the final dark scene of the game, the defeated final boss.
She propped herself up from the desk and walked to the bed. Rubbing her eyes, she found her hand was wet. Somehow, she had been crying.
Her thoughts seemed completely rusted. She didn’t know why she was crying, just numbly falling onto the bed and turning to face the wall.
She quickly fell asleep.
From that day on, she began to have the same dream frequently.
In the deepest layer of countless dreams, she floated in the void. Beside her was another person, someone she did not know, but who made her feel at ease. Beneath them was a nest woven from millions of transparent silk threads, carefully lifting upward, like wings.
When she had this dream, she was always extraordinarily lucid.
She wished to float forever in this dream with the person she could not remember.
But when she opened her eyes to the daylight, she remembered nothing, going to class, eating, chatting, living normally. Like a cicada underground, long dormant in the darkness called life, believing this was all there was, only briefly emerging in dreams, seeing true sunlight.
But when she awoke, she would always only remember having dreamed.
And the dream was, indeed, just a dream.
The Final Choice
