With a single needle, I eliminated the man who would one day become "the richest merchant in Remille."

It's a strange question how I got to this situation. A few hours ago I was sitting in comfort, in a climate-controlled room, typing for hours on end, while not taking my eye off a screen.

Our company had some time ago released a very broad game from the Otome Game line. It had been quite exhausting, being one of the few programmers at a small game company, required you to do a lot of the work pretty much yourself.

Writing lines of code, checking for any bugs, and even testing out many of the story scenes that I honestly wasn't wanting to know, had me sleeping in that room for days.

Thanks to everyone's work, after the release we received a lot of good reviews, "the story was a little unusual", they said. But for me, it was pretty heavy, from the CG scenes to the plot that I read, I could tell our writers loved tragedy.

For even before the beginning of the game, the playable character already had childhood traumas that are presented in nightmares, related to the death of her brother and to a vile man who would become the main antagonist in a questline.

Anyway, the hellish days were over so as soon as I finished my last tasks for the day, I felt like all my energy was gone, my legs gave out, and I decided to lie down on my makeshift bed to rest.

It was simply a luxury, being able to sleep after so much work, my eyes could barely stay open, and my ability to keep my balance was already almost non-existent, so on my way to the mattress, it took me against a bookcase, the shock knocked me on my back to the floor, and then, made the bookcase with a lot of objects fall on me, ironically, except for a headache, my body was very comfortable, strangely I felt a heat take over my body, which was ridiculous since the floor was pretty cold.

The headache lingered, and it was even more shocking to me, as I seem to have begun to dream.

"In an instant, I fell asleep?"

I think I kept feeling my head wanted to explode, but the rest of my body felt healthy.

"And what was I doing here? Ah! I was carrying boxes onto a wagon, and then I hit my head."

- Hey, stop resting and finish carrying the wagon.

Said a man, who I didn't recognize, but that thought was for a second. That was Giovani, my employer, we were getting ready to transport some items to the city of the lord of these lands.

"That was weird, who am I even?"

My head hurts so I ignore my doubts, I better focus on finishing my work, I can't lose this job I already started, I need money to feed my little sister.

"Wait, do I have a sister?"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

As I finished putting all the crates on the covered wagon, this information that I didn't know where I got from put me in doubt again, who am I? I'm dreaming?

"I'm a programmer for a company, but I need to do this legwork so I can get some bronze coins to buy food for Lucia...".

I must have gone crazy, this dream is influenced by the game that led me to collapse these last few days. Lucia is the protagonist of the game.

- Hahaha. I understand now, so that fat guy is no stranger to me, he reminds me of the villain of the protagonist's trauma that I saw in the game's CGs.

Except he's not as fat as in those scenes, and he still has hair.

What the fuck am I dreaming, at least in my spare time I didn't want to have to remember work, but this dream is even worse because I have to work carrying boxes in my dream.

“Give me a break.”

But why do I think this is a dream? I remember Lucia giving me a big hug and kiss this morning, as I had to leave the village for a few days.

"She's an obedient girl, she'll be fine."

I don't remember any scenes of Lucia hugging her brother in the CGs of the game, the human brain is amazing, capable of creating such illusions.

"But I remember having a meal prepared by my sister, it was a little salty, and my tongue still tastes it."

- Hey, boy. – I got a slap on the back of the head. – How much time do you intend to waste standing still, get on the wagon and let's go, I have to make these deliveries as soon as possible, otherwise, I'll lose the trust of the customers.

The slap surprised me. I've had this kind of "feel something" event in a dream, but this kind of scare would soon make me wake up in a panic, this time I keep dreaming.

- But sir. Shouldn't we get an escort? Everyone's talking about a pack of wolves gathered nearby. It's too dangerous to go out like this without protection.

I raise my concern to my employer, this fear had been weighing on my heart for some time. That's why I hugged Lucia so tightly because this might be my last time seeing her.

“Did I have this concern?”

- Nonsense, boy. This job is worth more thanks to the fact that no one else dares to do it, with all the cowards out of the picture, we'll get a lot of money taking advantage of this rumor of wolves, and the chance of being attacked is almost non-existent. Trust me, we can do this. - Said the man dressed in expensive clothes and with a confident smile.

"I do not like him."

Anyway, I climbed in front and pulled the rope, and started leading the horses, ignoring the fact that I was able to do something I'd never done before. Now I can think calmly, I am a worker, almost middle age, an orphan, without siblings, I did not remember knowing the feeling of having a family, there are many memories, tastes, and thoughts, which were not mine, but at the same time, they were. This is not just a dream.

I have memories of my job, the modern world, and the fatigue I suffered a few hours ago, so I previously decided that this was my real thing and everything else was just a dream.

But my memories here are also clear, the feeling of wanting to protect Lucia, and the fact that I worked so hard this week, it's still vivid for me, it cannot have been created in my imagination.

Because this reality bears similarities to the game I worked on, I treated that thought as ridiculous, could the modern world have been just a dream this humble worker created to escape his reality?

Impossible, it's too much content for both worlds to exist only in a dream, I can only believe in something fantasy-style, maybe a reincarnation, or a soul fusion, anyway, those thoughts are irrelevant at the moment, for now, I must think about the situation I find myself in.

I understood who Lucia was, the protagonist of the Otome Game I worked on, with a tragic past, where her brother whom she loved so much, died in a job while transporting goods for a rising merchant, Giovani.

This is hilarious, my self of this world was already apprehensive about this high-risk job, because of the wolves that roam the region.

But if my memory is right, it won't be by chance that I become food for wolves, but because this man will use me as bait to save his own life.

So, I'm the brother of the game protagonist I worked on in my other life. Ironically before the game's story even starts, I'll be dead.