I was pretty sure that I was asleep and dreaming. At least, I failed to feel anything as I pinched myself. Well I didn't really have a body that could pinch itself, instead my perception only showed me a few lines of text, kinda like reading them on a screen, without the screen.

Welcome dreamer.

You have been randomly selected to be granted access to this dreamscape in order to prepare your planet for contact with the wider universe. Please use this dreamscape at your leisure.

Waking up and exiting the dreamscape will feel like they coincide for you.

It felt good that my dream was agreeing with me: I was dreaming. It was a silly dream that just showed me text, but compared to some nightmares, I've had, this was quite pleasant. Time passed. The dream was changing from being somewhat pleasant to be boring. Then words

Dreamer, you have not done anything. Would you like a tutorial about the dreamscape?

In order to start the tutorial think about agreeing to it.

I guess it is not time yet to wake up. A tutorial sounds a bit cliche, but why not. Actually, if this was interactive, I had a lot of questions to ask. A new message appears

Dreamer, you can speak to an agent at any time during the tutorial. Just think about it.

That sounded good to me. So I thought about doing these things. First start the tutorial. Second talk to an agent. My dream changed. I no longer felt like looking at messages, but I found myself in a comfortable sitting room. Accross a coffee table from me sat a neatly dressed generic looking man. Now, that I had a body, I did the thing I wanted to do from the start and pinched myself. To my surprise, I felt pain.

At least the setting was pleasant. In addition to the coffee table, the two comfortable chairs for me and the agent, there were bookshelves full of books, whose titles I couldn't make out, and a fireplace. There was neither door nor window. I guess I was not leaving this sitting room by walking out.

The agent then started talking "Welcome Dreamer. As you might have guessed, I'm an tutorial agent. I'm here to answer all the questions you might have. Given the nature of this dreamscape you have all the time you need."

I went for the obvious one "Hello agent. So what is this place?"

The agent looks at me "It's a dreamscape. Basically, you are back in your home sleeping and we exploit the way dreams work to interact with you. The technology behind this dreamscape isn't something, you can understand. You would have to gain knowledge in several areas that your species hasn't even discovered yet. Also I'm not real. I'm something your dream made up to convey the information being passed to you."

I'm summarizing "So you are saying that you are so far advanced that you are using something that might well be magic for me to interact with me in my dream?"

The agent nods. My response "Why?"

"Dreamscapes are the standard tool to manage interactions in the wider universe. Interacting via dreamscape solves all kinds of challenges like not speaking the same language or being able to exist in the same environment."

That was not really my question, but interesting. I mean it's cool knowing that all these problems are solved. So I continue to probe "Why contact me?"

The agent looks at me "This might disappoint you. There is no particular reason, we choose people at random from all humans matching certain criteria like not being terminally ill or an infant. Also you are not the only human, we are interacting with."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

This was a hit to my ego, but one I could live with. Next question "So what do you want?"

"Nothing really. We are basically giving some humans the option to interact with the wider universe. It is for these humans to make use of this opportunity. The groups behind this project see as its goal simply to grow the number of species involved."

After reflecting a bit and trying to understand my situation and how I felt about it. It was strange, I was not panicking, I felt completely safe. I guessed this was some effect of the dreamscape. I formulate my next question

"You speak of the wider universe. Does this mean I can interact with aliens in this dreamscape?"

"Yes. You can interact with entities not from your planet. I believe you refer to it as Earth."

Now, I need to ask a question that has to be burning in the back of my mind: "So when will aliens land on Earth? Have they already?"

The agent answers "Not as far as I can tell you". How disappointing.

Being a big nerd, my next action was to test one of the theories on communication with aliens. "You know numbers, right? I mean one, two, three, and so on. Do you think that the sequence of numbers two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen, seventeen, nineteen, ..."

The agent interrupts me saying "Why are you reciting prime numbers? Are you testing me?"

I'm already happy, ready to nerd out more. "In some sense, our scientist have theories about how to start communicating with aliens. One of the plans was to use math in particular prime numbers as a basis of a language. From my understanding of mathematics, prime numbers should be universal for everybody regardless of pretty much anything. So I was curious if this was true."

During my explanation the agent started to look a little less generic and a litte bit exasperated. He summed up my explanation with "So instead of doing your tutorial, you decided to test the validity of speculations from your species about the universality of mathematics."

I grin widely and nod. I continue "You said you are far more advanced than humanity. This means that you certainly know a lot of mathematical proofs that humanity lacks. For example do you know if the twin prime conjecture is true? This conjecture says that there infinitely many primes p such that p + 2 is also a prime. For example eleven and thirteen." I'm feeling very happy with myself.

The agent stares at me and answers "I'm not allowed to provide information that will advance humanity. From your attitude it seems that you would knowing the answer to this question be an advancement of humanity."

"So what information are you allowed to give me?"

"I'm here to explain the tutorial and make you feel welcome in the dreamscape."

On this, I reflected and I realized my out. "Well, you know I'm still not sure if this is real or if it is just a dream. So telling me the solution to a mathematical problem that I can verify while awake will convince me it is."

The agent began to reply, but instead of hearing it, I found myself staring back at a line of writing:

Dreamer, your request is being reviewed. Expect an answer the next time you go to sleep.

With this information, I decide that I have enough, and attempt to wake up. A message appears

Dreamer, you have chosen to wake up.

The next thing, I know is that I am in my bed and my alarm is sounding. Everything is as it was when I went to bed. Well the sun is rising, that is different. Nothing else. So I decide to chalk up this experience to being one strange dream, and go about my day as usual.