I woke up to the ringing of the cellphone on my nightstand. The ringtone was of an old pop song that I liked as a teenager. Over and over a young man's voice sounded out the lyrics: "I've been up and loosing sleep...". The ringing lasted until the chorus before shutting up and returned the room back to a state of silence. The room was dark but I could see a thin speck of line leaking through the gap in the curtain. The tiny ray of light landed atop a glistening glass bottle, a remnant of the night before. A bit of dark liquid reminds in the near empty bottle. Having not yet fully awaken, I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and strained for my phone. A notification showed a missed call from my mother. [I'll call back later I guess...] I yawned while stretching out my arms. I suppose this is what one calls a rude awakening. It's already 10 a.m. but nobody was going to blame me for sleeping in after last night's episode. Having finally gotten myself together, I noticed something very peculiar. Perhaps I was in too much of a daze to notice before, but there were what seemed to be bars on the edge of my vision. It would be accurate to call them a likeness of user interface systems[UI] in video games. True to the idea, two colored bars line the top of my field of view[FOV]. One red and the other blue, logically them would represent health points[HP] and mana points[MP]. [I must be seeing thing] I reasoned that I am probably just suffering a hangover. I rubbed my eyes again thinking the bars would go away, but I found myself staring back at the colored bars. [I guess I must be dreaming. To have a boring dream like this... How bad has my imagination become?] Though I recall similar scenarios in books I've read in the past, those were still just works of fiction. How would things like a video game mechanics suddenly incorporate themselves into real life anyways? Real life isn't some light novel where the protagonist gains super powers incomparable to the average joe. Anyhow, disregarding the random UI elements in my field of view, I turn my attention back to my phone. I suppose if this is a dream, I could at least do some stupid things while I'm at it. Picking up the phone and dialing my mother's number, I placed the phone next to my ear. My mother's voice came on after a few seconds. [This dream is quite good. Even Mother's voice is accurate to a T.] "Hello Mother, I apologize for not picking up earlier. I was taking a shower and didn't hear you call." I gave her an excuse as usual, though she probably won't care anyway. "Have you been eating well? You need to sleep earlier, I guessed you probably just woke up." "Yes, Mother. I am eating and sleeping well. I just did my laundry and cleaned my place. You got nothing to worry about." I took a quick glace at the cloths strewn across the floor, some articles collecting dust after being left alone for a long time. An empty container of instant ramen laid on my coffee table. I certainly have gotten used to lying, I might be just as skilled as a professional liar. "Anyways, Mother I have something to tell you..." It's actually kind of hard to think of something I want to say to Mother. I haven't seen her in a long time, but I reckon she only calls me because my sister nags hers. It's alright with me anyhow, my little sister has always been my parent's favorite. "You know, mom, I've always wanted your love and support. I'm sorry I wasn't what you hoped for me to be." Truthfully, that's what I've always wanted to say to my mother. I was the child that failed to sustain the hopes of the parents. I was the failure that walked out of the family to live in this hellhole of a place. This is me. "Huh... I don't know what to say to that." My mother's voice resounded on the other side of the phone. At least this dream fulfilled this much. Now let me wake up... "Bye Mother, I'm hanging up." I tapped 'End Call' and dropped my phone onto the bed. I stood and walked to the window. Drawing back the thick curtains, I looked outside at the morning air. In this metropolis, the only sky I could see was one populated by tall towers. "Although this dream is plenty interesting, I think it's time to wake up now. Dreaming won't help me one bit." I let myself fall backwards at the floor. I wasn't sure what made me do such a thing but a strange feeling urged my feet to relax. Then I hit the floor. And a second later I groaned in pain. "Wait what?" [Did I roll off the bed? Why does my head hurt so much?] Even if I rolled off my bed it's probably just a feet off the ground, so this amount of pain is weird. Rubbing the back of my head, I found myself lying on the floor. Directly in front of me was the window with the curtains drawn back. [What's going on?] Instinctually I reached for the phone on my nightstand, only it wasn't there. My phone was lying on my bed the same way it did in the dream. Picking up the phone I rushed to check the call history, and found a logged 'missed call' and one outgoing call to my mother. [Oh dear lord what is happening?] Immediate I notice the strange red and blue bars floating at the corner of my eyes. It was my HP and MP bars. [What is this? What's going on? This has got to be a bad joke.] Thoughts raced through my head in panic. I could barely contain myself. "It really wasn't a dream..."