'...What is reality anyway?'
This a typical question that most depressed otakus in the world think about. But Hal (who actually went to school and now has spaced out while listening to his math lecture) was going to take this question seriously.
(Even so, he could stop himself from remembering the phrase, 'Reality be rent, synapse break, banishment this world!' Which made him slap himself on the forehead pretty hard.)
Thus begins his monologue;
Why is the sky blue, why are stars hot, why do we walk on the earth, why are planets round, in short, why is everything the way they are?
Well obviously, because of the laws of nature and the universe...
Then why are those laws of nature in itself, the way they are? Couldn't they have been different?
Why can we imagine insane fantasy worlds inside our heads, worlds which cannot exist in real life?
Why can't they exist in real life in the first place?
Well, what if they do exist somewhere out there?
Then there should be an infinite amount of worlds out there somewhere...
But wait, those worlds that may be out there don't follow the natural laws of our OWN world, so that means they have different natural laws for their respective worlds?
Then, there are an infinite amount of different natural laws for the infinite amount of worlds out there, but only our world is painfully limited to a few VERY SPECIFIC natural laws?
So theoretically, our world is an insignificant speck of an infinite bed of worlds...
Hold up... Since we're living in a small insignificant world (compared to the infinite amount of worlds that may be out there) with some limited natural laws, in a bigger reality that has an infinite amount of natural laws, doesn't that make our world like a glitch in a bigger, infinite reality?
Infinity... A concept that our puny human minds can't comprehend... Maybe if we WERE able to comprehend what infinity is, we could break out of this glitch-like reality...
"MISTER MEYERS, I'M SPEAKING TO YOU!"
Hal felt as if he were electrocuted, as he wrenched his focus off of his thought process, and turned to his math teacher, who was reprimanding (more like scolding) him for not focusing on this supposedly VERY IMPORTANT topic on vectors (at which Hal was uncannily good for some strange reason, which made the teachers' yells go right over his head).
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
--------------------------------
Evening, back at Hal's apartment.
Today, however, Hal didn't feel like doing his usual (anime/manga), because his mind was very busy trying to figure out any flaws in his theory of reality. He was laying spread-eagled on his bed, without even changing his clothes, while staring at the plain white ceiling of his apartment room.
A few hours passed, and Hal was still in the same position.
"Ah fuck it," He said to himself, "This theory is based on too much speculation, and even if it kinda makes sense this kind of theory is useless anyway..."
'Look at me, trying to escape reality by drowning myself in my thoughts...'
He was exhausted, both mind and soul.
He needed an escape, a refuge.
He needed... to sleep...
As Hal closed his eyes, all of his senses were shut off instantly.
It felt as if he was floating in nothingness.
Wait, 'felt'? How can he feel himself if he lost his senses?
'Oh, did I fall asleep? Guess I might've...'
'Wait, how the hell am I aware that I'm asleep?'
'Is this a lucid dream or something? But how did I fall asleep the instant I closed my eyes? Wait, I can still feel my eyes!'
Hal opened his eyes.
Black.
'Did I go blind? Nah bro get a grip of yourself...'
He looked around. Still black.
But he knew he was in some kind of space. His senses felt turned off... But turned on at the same time. This feeling was weirding him out.
The black space he was in felt empty, but unimaginably full at the same time.
'What the fuck is this? Am I going nuts? I know, I ate too much cheese during the school break but this is just ridiculous!'
Hal looked down at his own body, and he wasn't expecting to see what he saw.
'WHAT THE FUCK??? WHERE DID MY BODY GO?? AND WHAT IS THIS WEIRD SMOKE?'
His body was now a formless blob of some kind of golden-colored smoke. As Hal looked closer, he saw that a silver-colored thread was shooting into the darkness from within his smoke-like body. After fidgeting around a bit, he realized that he had control over this formless body.
After confusedly, aimlessly and helplessly moving around in this dark space a bit, he thought if he followed the silver thread that was coming out of him into the seemingly 'nothingness', he would get somewhere...
And he was right.