I woke up from a weird dream. I dreamt that I got stuck in a world doomed to repeat over and over. It seems impossible to count how many times I died in that world. I looked at my alarm, it kept flashing 6:43 AM as if it was telling me to wake up and get to school. I got ready to go to school.

  “Bye, get better,” I told my brother who was too sick to go to school. I forgot how many times I said it this year. I headed out of the house to go to school. I went along the same path as always, and my behaviour too: boredom. Tomorrow, I decided, I will find a new way.

  About a few hundred students are marching up the stairs together in a uniform line. The adults supervising them welcome them inside. There are more students behind me talking about the test we have in the first period.

  I arrived at my class. It was the same as always. I did a test, talked with my friends during the break, took notes, had lunch, took more notes, and then went home.

  At home, I did the same thing. I ate, studied, played on Xbox with my friends, and then checked up on how my simulation was doing when my friends got off. It got late so I slept. Every day felt the same, it became a routine. It was boring, basically repeating almost everything every day, I wanted to change it but I didn’t know how. So, I checked up on the simulation again.

  There are two worlds, the first, which I designed to have magic, also has magical technology comparable to the modern world. The second is more technologically advanced than ours, just to observe futuristic technology. The names of both simulations are pretty dull. It's just Simulation #1 and Simulation #2.

  Everything had gone the same, boring way until I tried to join the first world. It looked like it was in the future, like the second world, but has magic too. I had spawned in the city. People were walking with flying bags and cars hovering above the ground. There are no traffic lights, only flying light orbs of green, orange and red. There are a lot of metal signs to express the people's freedom in what seems like Neon light. Gold and diamonds appear to be ordinary here as if there’s an abundance of them. Everyone has what should be expensive jewelry in the real world. Simulation #2 should not look like this. Anti-gravity technology hasn’t been developed yet. Also, diamonds and gold are supposed to be rare. The two simulations appeared to have merged somehow.

  In the corner of my eye, I can see people fighting with magic in an alleyway. One person just manipulated gold from his watch to defend himself from an attack, and the other seemed to create boiling water from water vapour to launch it at the man. I recognize the magic system, it allows people to manipulate particles like elements from the periodic table and molecules. The third has a camera filming the fight, acting as a referee. It seems to be a death match for an unofficial fighting tournament. It must be dangerous. One of their powers can get out of hand and hurt…

  A heavy metal sign was struck by gold and made a loud sound. People stared in disbelief. Blood kept dripping out as if it was a race. My head became disfigured. That was my first death, yet I felt it wouldn’t be the last.

  I cried out in immense pain. I can’t believe what just happened. My death felt too real. I tried pinching myself to see if I was dreaming. Answer: I didn’t wake up, but this can’t be real. Why can’t I escape this dream? I somehow was back in the same spot and time when I arrived in this world for the first time. It still has the same scenery and people fighting.

  I can’t die again, right? I just need to be careful of the sign again. They are fighting illegally. I’ll just wait here and call the cops.

  “911, what’s your emergency?”

  “People are fighting in an alley dangerously with their abilities, I think they may have gotten someone hurt. Do you need the address?

  “We have already located your location. We are bringing in the police. Please remain patient.” I hang up the phone. I just need to wait here, and perhaps I’ll be safe if I watch out for falling objects.

  It’s been a while since I called the police, and they still haven’t arrived. I’m in the future. They can locate my location instantly with a call; what is taking them so long to come? I went closer to see what was going on. One of the fighters spotted me and perhaps feared I would run away and call the authorities and instantly shot boiling water at me.

  I got boiled alive. That was my second death. It felt real again; I had no choice but to accept that it was not a dream. I am back to where I started. Why must it be me who keeps dying? My chest clenched, and my heartbeat increased very fast. What did I do to deserve this? I did nothing wrong my whole life. What got me stuck in my simulation? I don’t care anymore. I’ll just beat up my murderers. I’m sure that will do something. The police won’t do anything.

  Before I sprinted toward the horrible murderers, I stole a pocket knife from someone. They don’t need it more than me; I’ll just return it. I was about 5 meters away from the water user when he spotted me.

  “Why do you guys fight so carelessly? Do you not care who gets hurt?” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

  “What are you doing here? Leave before I have no choice but to kill you!” The water user said as he got stabbed with a gold knife.

  “Sorry, audiences, it seems like a random passerby is trying to interfere with the fight. The fight will be temporarily on hold as we take care of him.” The referee manipulated oxygen in my lungs to suffocate me.

  I woke up from my third death. It somehow felt more painful than last time. I went to a corner of a building sat down, kept looking down and shook a lot. I shouldn’t have tried fighting them. Why did I even go near them? I don’t even have any powers. Why do they get powers? How do I get powers? I don’t think I can escape this hell. I looked around. Everyone was using abilities. Everyone. Just not me.

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  I lost track of how long I stayed in this corner as I was having these thoughts. I just noticed I became wet from the rain. I don’t know when the rain started. I wanted to stay for a little longer.

  “You don’t look too great. Need any help?” A stranger looked down caringly.

  “No, I’m okay. I was just about to leave.” I didn’t know why I lied. The stranger left.

  I got up and made sure not to go in the same direction as the fight. I shouldn’t think so negatively. Who said I have to leave this world? I can just have fun here. I might not have abilities, but this is the future. Much better than my previous old life.

  I was wrong. I’m not in a better world. Right in front of me are a dead body and a serial killer. I tried not to get found. However, it was too late. He turned his head and smiled as if he anticipated me.

  “Finally, you made it.” He didn’t talk like a habitant of this world. He had a long black jacket and brown boots. He had a face mask and was most likely to hide himself during murders.

  “What are you talking about? Why do you know about me?” I was afraid and stuttering. I tried walking back slowly so I could run when he didn’t notice it.

  “Why wouldn’t I know about you? Didn’t you create both these worlds after all?” He said while walking forward to make sure I didn’t run away. I suddenly found out who hacked my simulation.

  “So it was you who brought me in here!” I shouted with many emotions. I was about to run toward him to fight before I remembered what happened the last time. I tried to remain calm. I was still full of rage.

  “Indeed, I did.” He was so full of himself, he didn’t look regretful of what he did.

  “Why? I don’t even know who you are.” I had so many other questions, but that was all that came out.

  “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself, I am Gyilkos,” He paused. “Now, for the reason, why I did this?” He took a long pause to think. “You sinned.” He declared.

  “How! What did I do? I did nothing illegal. So what do you mean I sinned? Sin against what?” I whined. I was about to say more, but I was cut off.

  He continued. “Sure, you did nothing illegal. Though, what you have created is a sin. Simulations should not exist. They are immoral!” The serial killer rebuked.

  “Why are you talking about sins? Isn’t killing a sin? Yet you have killed a person right here.”

  “Much better than them being alive. Have you thought about what could happen if they knew they were just a simulation, that they aren’t real? It affects their mentality a lot, and they won’t be the same and go crazy. We can’t let simulations continue. Imagine if people in the real world get ideas that they could be in a simulation. If simulations are an example, people can go crazy too. They might be unable to handle that they aren’t real, and there’s no point in anything. They’d just break laws and create anarchy because what’s the point in having a goal when nothing is real?” He held forth, attempting to make me change my mind.

  “Why should I care what happens to them? That world is too boring. Every day is the same. I don’t understand why people enjoy life when too much misfortune happens. Creating my world is so much better as I can control things to go my way. And if you don’t want these people to go crazy, just don’t tell them that they are in a simulation. It’s very easy not to. I haven’t yet, because there’s no need. So you can just not either, it’s not like they’ll find out about it, I have coded it so that they won’t find out.” I finally stopped being angry after letting my feeling out.

  He sighed. “If words aren’t getting into your head, I’ll just have to force you to erase this simulation and all the other ones you have created,” He looked like he was trying to pick one of all the possibilities he’s thought. “I’ll just make you die painfully so many times until you do what I ask.”

  My head got chopped off before I could say anything back. Instead of waking up in the same spot, I woke up in front of Gyilkos.

  “That was a quick and painless death, right? Don’t worry. It will get more painful as we go on.” He said.

  That death was too quick. I couldn’t feel any pain. I didn’t have much time to think about it before my next one. This time he stabbed me in the heart and afterwards took the knife out. I bled a lot.

  “Someone help, please! I don’t want to die just yet!” I could only scream softly. The pain was making it impossible.

  “Why are you still struggling? Other people would have given up on their second or third death. Yet, you’ve died around five to six times so far. Usually, one is enough to break someone. They don’t have enough willpower to stay sane. I think I will need to increase the pain even more.” Gyilkos noted.

  After Gyilkos finished rambling on, I got electrocuted. I still stayed sane. He noticed I was still good. He electrocuted me ten more times to mentally damage me. I could no longer talk after I revived. When I finally got used to getting electrocuted to death, he switched his methods.

  I screamed in pain as I was crushed by a heavy object. I don’t know why Gyilkos chose an anvil, but it was agonizing. It wasn’t over, the object kept changing. Every time I woke up, I got flattened by a heavier object than the last. Each somehow got less and more painful than the previous. It happened five times, fifteen times, thirty-four times, seventy-six times, ninety-five and then I lost count. It was at least a hundred. I want this to be over. Why did this happen? Did I deserve this misery? For simply creating simulations? No! I thought to myself. I shouldn’t blame myself. I only have this crazy insane man to blame. How do I know if people go insane after learning the truth, I didn’t even test it yet. I’m sure he’ll give up eventually. I won’t give up.

  “How have you still not given up? You’ve died dozens of times, and no human brain can withstand that!” He finally got annoyed. Great, he lowered his guard. Maybe I have a chance to escape this.

  It was time for a new kind of death, a much more painful one. This time my executioner drowned me. The first three dozen times, I died in the water. After around every dozen deaths, the liquid I breathed in got more poisonous and painful. My skin got decayed from half of the fluids. I have lost my life hundreds of times by now. It was excruciating as my skin got burned off my body alive. I didn’t want to think about escaping or moving anymore. I just want to go back to the real world. I prefer the boring world of before to this.

  “You already gave up? Just like that, before my last card? I wanted to try it, so I will.”

  It was the first time I died slowly. I was burnt alive. At first, the temperatures were low. It took forever for me to die. The second was a little higher, and I burnt to death quicker. The fire got hotter each time I died. After about a hundred deaths, the fire got too hot for me to feel pain before I lost consciousness.

  “You no longer feel it? I can’t let that. I’ll make the pain more severe.” Gyilkos sighed in boredom.

  The heat of the fire quickly rose to the thousands after every hundred deaths. I forgot why I was here. I could barely remember anything, not even the real world. My thoughts started to become messed up. It takes most of my energy to withstand the pain of each death.

  “I’m surprised. You’re still pretty lively after thousands of deaths, though barely. I’m sure you’ve understood not to create too advanced technology. We don’t even care about these simulations. People going crazy over the truth was just a lie. Technology can destroy the world if too advanced. That’s why I’m here, to stop it before it happens. My boss doesn’t care what methods I use.” He started walking away. “Oh, I’ll release you now. I hope you get better soon and cooperate with us.”

  I couldn’t reply. My mind was all over the place. I’m just so relieved it’s finally over. I can finally leave this hell and go back home.