Wilfried always made it a habit to sit down and watch nature before heading back to his dorm. He knew that if he didn't stop to look at the greenery, he'd be little more than the typical hardcore MMO player. The college campus had a serene charm with its many pathways winding through nature. The plant life was beautiful; especially so in the mild spring of that year. Sitting in nature was the perfect way to reach a state of calm.

His favorite spot was a pair of benches - the ones with the bird statues next to them. Those benches watched over a small cluster of trees. Said trees also happened to be a favorite location for a fair few birds to make their nests. Wilfried wasn't all that sure what type of birds they were (aside from that one robin), but they were quite pleasant to look at.

Sadly, there were only a few birds making their nests in the trees this year. The robin being one of the remaining residents was a relief for Wilfried - that bird was his favorite. It seemed that most birds want a bit of peace and quiet for their nesting spot. A glace at his phone tells him that the likely sources of the disturbance should be appearing soon. And a couple minutes later, Wilfried's hunch was proven correct. A group of girls. Most likely first years given the lack of them the year prior. And their loud complaints about integrals – those complaints were honestly what made him think this was their first year.

His mind seemed to have wondered. Those girls decided that this little tree oasis was the perfect place to do their yoga. Or exercise? Whatever they did really didn't matter. What mattered to Wilfried was that their activities disturbed the birds. For as much as the little bastards - the birds - made noise, it seemed that they couldn't handle a bit of their own medicine. He probably would have done as the birds and fucked off had his number one bird buddy nested elsewhere. Alas, that was not his reality.

Time drifted past as Wilfried soaked in the curative power of nature. His eyes roamed from tree to tree, watching the nearly grown leaves sway in the wind. It was nice. The vibrations of his phone were not so nice. He had a couple minutes before it was time to go. He'd love to stay longer, but alas, he was on a schedule.

With his attention away from nature now, he could start to make out the girls shit talking him. “What a creep. You'd think he'd take a hint that we don't want him watching us by now.”

Had they really just called him a creep? If anything, they were the creeps. He'd been sitting at this bench multiple times per week for over two years! They wandered on over near the benches to do their whatever and they glare at him.

“My sister told me that her school expelled a boy who was stalking a group of girls.” Whichever girl said that certainly wanted him to hear her.

The phone buzzing in his hand told Wilfried that it was time to get going. With a deep breath, he began to get up. He mentally waved a goodbye at the nesting Robin and wished her a safe few days. It was raid time. Correction – it was time to prepare for that night’s raid. Raid time was still a couple hours away. Wilfried’s next couple hours would be ordering food and grinding out buffs, consumables, and gold to purchase whatever he needs.

The heavy bag next to him was lugged onto his shoulder. In his first year, he’d packed lighter and went back to the dorms throughout the day. That was easier on his back, but the extra walking time made him choose between good grades and good raids. As much as he enjoyed his guild, it would be the raids which took the hit. Thankfully, the heavy bag provided enough time to get all the school work done on most days.

Wilfried’s thoughts were interrupted by the group of girls. “I’m so glad that creep is gone.”

“Yeah! Most scumbags tend to run off when police are a risk.”

They were still at that? He hoped that other birds wouldn’t be too put off. It would be rather stressful in a couple weeks with a new raid coming out.

“Do you girls think we can get those university police to scare him off?”

“I don’t know, but my boyfriend said…”

Wilfried had walked far enough that he would have to strain himself to hear the girls talking. Not that he would. He’d rather figure out what his dinner would be. Pizza was always a solid choice.

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That Friday, Wilfried was walking down the hall. His final class had let out and the start of weekend gaming was soon to be upon him. Each step brought him a bit closer to Friday raid night. Not that walking made time go faster – it was a mental thing. He had saved up enough points to hopefully get the boots he needed to finish his set (that was assuming they dropped).

A turn down a hallway brought the ambient noise of other students from conversations and footsteps to little more than faint whispers. Most people would go towards either the dorms or one of the campus restaurants. The path Wilfried was taking lead to neither such location. His target was a small pond next to the staff parking – the opposite directions from the dorms.

There were still a couple students asking their professors some last minute questions before the weekend, but otherwise the hallway was quiet save for a set of soft footsteps behind him. He liked it like that. With a new patch around the corner, raid nights were probably going to get a bit heated as everyone rushes to get their final pieces. Not that his guild would be yelling and screaming at each other like toddlers. Much of the noise would be complaints as the needed gear fails to drop. A bit of peace beforehand would let him relax just a tiny bit more.

Before long, Wilfried found himself opening the door to the stairwell. He passed through the portal and caught a glimpse of the person walking behind him. As any courteous person would do, he held the door. The man’s face held a scrunched up scowl so great that Wilfried could only imagine how bad a day the guy must have had.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The man’s head locked on to Wilfried and his eyes seemed to transform from a raging inferno into cold steel. As he got closer to Wilfried, his face began to harden. The man’s breath slowed as his body began to tense.

Shock flooded Wilfried as he was suddenly grabbed by the man. His body tried to fight on instinct, but the wall of muscle held firm. Before long, Wilfried was falling. Colors blurred as his mind struggled to catch up.

His fall abruptly ended and he had no idea what happened. It would be a second later that his brain registers a searing pain in his neck. Wilfried’s eyes wander for a moment. He was at the bottom of the stairs with his legs resting on the stairway proper. The way his foot hung was certainly not how it was supposed to. Shouldn’t it hurt? Was that the power of adrenaline?

Wilfried went to move away but was confused when nothing happens. His eyes wandered before he realized that his body wasn’t moving. He couldn’t feel anything. Panic surged as he struggled to move.

That man was standing over him, a ravenous smile accompanying the scowl. The man’s lips moved, but Wilfried couldn’t hear a word. The man planted an arm on a railing and suddenly the world exploded in noise. “- huh!? She told me all about how you’d watch her and her friends. I told her that I’d fix the problem. And now I’ll make sure that you never get to stalk my girl again!”

Wilfried watched as the man’s shoe rose into the air. “I hope this hurts, you fucking scumbag!”

The shoe slammed downward in slow motion. Pain bloomed throughout his head. His face felt wet as the shoe pulled away. Wilfried watched as the rubber started heading back down. His neck burned. A snap could be heard and his vision went black.

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Wilfried awoke to the sound of birds in the distance. His eyes felt heavy, his head pounded, and his neck was stiff. A group of clouds marched slowly across the sky. He must have fallen asleep on the grass near the bench while cloud watching. With how exhausted he felt, that was not a huge surprise. He’d rest his eyes for a bit longer and listen to the birds. He needed a bit of calm after such a vivid nightmare.

The birds seemed willing to help Wilfried out. Each song helped to soothe his headache just a little. After a few minutes, the pounding had reduced enough for his body to relax. The birds chirped out songs that sounded normal, but his clearer head made it known that he was listening to a distinctly unfamiliar tune.

Perhaps there were new birds nesting at the university? Wilfried didn’t really care all that much about the nuances of all the different songbird species, but he certainly appreciated the calming music created by each of them. He’d continue to listen for another few minutes. He already fallen asleep so waiting a bit longer before checking the time wouldn’t change much. It was still light out so he hadn’t missed the raid yet.

A shout could be heard in the distance. That was probably one of the frat houses across the pond. Hopefully they weren’t going to have a cardboard boat race like last year. The poor pond was a mess for over a week before the administration forced them to clean it up. A minute without any splashing made Wilfried assume that there was not to be a second great boat race.

Soon after, quiet conversation could be made out in the distance. One of the voices sounded like the guy who shouted. Probably was meeting up with friends to go eat. That meant he should probably get up after the group passed by. It was likely that he’d slept through his alarms.

Wilfried’s line of thought was interrupted as he noticed something off about the corner of his vision. A health bar? He recognized that he was more than a bit addicted to his favorite MMO, Larvik Online, but daydreams were a bit beyond the scope of his addiction. Sure, his mind would wander over to thinking about what he’d be doing in game later. He’d even be willing to admit that he occasionally thought about what he’d do if he had the powers of any of his characters. But daydreaming about some fucking UI elements?

Evidently, it appeared that thinking about the topic was enough to get his brain manifest more UI. Why did brains do that? He had no idea, but every time something like that happened it was best to distract oneself otherwise the brain would be back at its bullshit. His eyes opened to gaze at the clouds. Naturally, the clouds did not help. If anything, it made him notice the single hotbar at the bottom of his screen – no, vision.

As any veteran MMO gamer would do, he got annoyed at the single bar. Wilfried focused on the bar. A bit of effort seemed to have forced his brain to swap over to his preferred layout consisting of a fuck ton of bars. If he was going to daydream UI, he would at least do it right.

With such a dire crisis averted, he was able to swap back over to distracting himself. The voices were getting closer and he could make out some sounds enough to know that he had no clue what they were saying. Not English. He was certain. It didn’t sound like Chinese or Korean either – none of the foreign students from those countries sounded like the mystery language. It wasn’t Spanish and didn’t seem to be a Romance language. He didn’t think it was a Germanic language either.

A moment of pondering brought Wilfried to the conclusion that the language sounds somewhere between a Romance and Germanic language. He figured that it was probably Dutch or Swiss? Those countries were between France/Italy and Germany. They would be a mix of the two language families, right? Or it could be an Indian language – the school had plenty of foreign students from India?

Whatever the language was, it did not seem to get his brain out of the no-life gamer zone. The UI was still there. Apparently he would just have to deal with it.

He’d head back to his dorm and order a pizza. Screw the pre-raid farming – he was still tired and would gladly take a nap. The sleep would fix his brain. Maybe… At the very least, he’d no longer be tired. As long as he set an alarm, there wouldn’t be any issues getting to the raid on time.

Wilfried heard the people behind him loud and clear. Perhaps not so clear, but they were certainly loud at that point. It seemed that during the time his mind wandered, the men (if their voices were any indication) had decided to walk over to him. It was nice of them to check on him. It would suck falling asleep on the campus lawn only to awaken at fuck knows when in the middle of the night.

He planted his arms against the ground and pushed off into a sitting position. His head throbbed a bit in protest of the sudden movement, so his eyes remained shut while the pain lessened. It seemed that an aspirin would be added to his to-do list.

“I’m okay. Just fell asleep. Thanks for checking on me.” Wilfried’s voice was a bit groggy. Not surprising given that he had just woken up.

There was more talk in the mystery language, but nothing in English. A bit rude, but not anything to get mad over.

Wilfried cracked open his eyes. He was greeted with the sight of green grass and a few trees with some birds. Not the worst sight. The scarecrow in the field was pretty neat too. Wait, field?

He blinked. That was indeed a field he was seeing. Hadn’t he fallen asleep by the pond?

Was he just in a lucid dream? That would make sense. “I don’t suppose any of you guys could tell me where I am?”

Once more, there was not a response in English.

“Do you know how I got here? Is this some sort of dream?”

Still nothing aside from gibberish.

Wilfried turned his head and saw more farmland. He pivoted just a bit more and looked at the men for the first time. There were four of them. They were dressed in rugged clothing that was covered in a decent bit of dirt. Each man held some sort of farming tool, not that Wilfried knew what they were called.

“Uh, hi?”

The farmers stared at him before speaking in whatever language his mind conjured up. This was shaping up to be a weird dream.

“Any of you happen to speak English?”

Still no response that he could make sense of. He felt tired. Would the dream end once he ‘fell asleep’?

“I’m just going to try and fall asleep… That okay?”

Wilfried let the tiredness wash over him. Dreams could be weird, but they were usually a bit more substantial than talking to a few farmers that couldn’t understand him. As his eyes drooped, Wilfried noticed that one of the farmers has a sleek tail. He hoped that this would be the last bout of lucid dreaming for him.

He noticed a quaint town behind the farmers, only to drift off into the darkness of sleep.