Chapter 37: Nightmare turned to Reality...
Seeing them sit in their respective chairs but still not eating the food, she explained, "This dish will convert directly to energy upon consumption, so there is no need to worry about your bodies."
"This type of food was mostly made for taste and well a little mana regeneration isn’t that bad."
Looking down at the beautifully cooked meal in front of her, Lucy despite her reservations she got ready. ( 🍴Ò_Óˇ )
Lucy was the first to dig in because she was never worried about not being able to digest it. If anything, she was only worried about not having enough to quench her growing hunger.
She took a massive bite. As soon as the food entered her mouth, it exploded with an unimaginable depth of flavor. It was a little spicy, perfectly balanced with a rich sweetness and carried a tantalizing tinge of sourness that made her taste buds dance.
The moment the food hit her tongue, it melted and transformed into pure energy which was then absorbed into the Nightmare Domain.
Eating quickly she finished it in no time.
Yum! ( ๑´ڡ`๑ )
Lucy realised while raw food was the best, cooked food had their own uniqueness as well.
Licking the plate clean, she looked around the table her golden eyes wide with longing as saliva almost leaking from the corners of her mouth...( º﹃º )
She realized that everyone else seemed to be taking their sweet time eating.
Narrowing her eyes she watched Sara eat her food, noodle by noodle, as if she would put on weight if she ate any faster.
Night looked like he was constantly sniffing and wiping away tears as he ate. ( ಥ﹏ಥ )
He looked exactly like a broke kid eating for the first time in a 5-star hotel.
Eve and Lilith on the other hand, looked like they had just discovered anime for the first time. It seemed like they were somehow telepathically chatting with each other, discussing every single detail as they kept eating. The deep, pondering look was absolutely comical on their mechanical faces.
Death looked the most dramatic out of them all. She just kept staring at the food like it would magically vanish into thin air. After everyone else had finished half their meals, it looked like she finally mustered up the courage to eat it.
Looking at Death’s full dish, Lucy thought with sheer envy about how good it must feel to still have a full plate. Staring down at her own sparkly clean dish, she had the sudden urge to eat the plate itself just to distract herself, but she stopped reminding herself that it was Sara’s plate.
After all of them had finished their meals, Sara looked at them and said, "If you want to eat more, I can take you to the shop. You can buy them using System Credits."
Night asked, "What are System Credits?"
It was Lucy who, in her teenage-sounding voice, answered. "It’s the currency used by everyone since the System arrived. You will unlock it after Level 10. At Level 10, you unlock many System features like the Shop, Profiles, POV Streaming, and more."
Sara looked at Lucy, not surprised in the slightest since Night had already mentioned she could talk. Beasts could speak after reaching Level 20 after all and many high-level ones could even take human forms. Some of them even lived among humans secretly.
Night thought it sounded exactly like social media, live streaming, and e-commerce.
"System Credits (SC) though, are very important because to use the other features you needed enough SC. To buy something from the Shop you need SC; to see private information in a person’s profile you need SC; to tip, you need SC, and so on."
"With enough SC you don’t need to worry about resource you can simply buy them from system shop."
"Real World Shops are just for show this days. Managed by people so create a lively ambience in the cities"
"Plus after the merger, it can apparently be used among the various races as a common currency... if we survive till the merger that is," Lucy added.
Sara said with absolute confidence, "We will survive the Merger."
But Lucy narrowed her golden eyes and countered, "Not if we keep getting invaded by other races in the universe."
Sara shook her head. "You seem to only know the strength of the powerhouses famous across the known lands but the World Council members’ strength is on an entirely different scale." Looking at Night, she continued, "The ’Leader’ that the Ghost mentioned is probably a member of this Council. This might be why I don’t have much information on such a strong, secretive organization."
[Author’s Note: The Ghost is the person who wanted to use Night as a vessel (Chapter 1). "Leader" here refers to the Chosen One (Chapter 25) and the entity the Ghost claimed owned the facility Night was trapped in at the start of the novel.]
Seeing her still not fully grasp the danger, Lucy explained, "You seem to miss one crucial point. While you fought the wolf from across the portal, I sensed things clearly. The ease with which that wolf used its strength showed its real level was well over 80."
"But the one that let us go, the one named Rango... though he hid it well, me being a wolf previously allowed me to sense things much more clearly. He must be more than Level 90, and very close to Level 100."
"If it had been him invading and not that cocky wolf, I highly doubt this city would have survived."
"If beings like that fully enter our world, mighty World Council or not this planet won’t even survive long enough to see the Merger."
Saying this she nervously stopped, realizing this kind of grim information was probably not the best way to get people motivated. ( ^_^; )
Sara was stunned. She fully realized the terrifying gravity of the situation but she didn’t show it outwardly.
From the information The Witch had shared earlier, the World Council clearly knew exactly how serious these types of invasions were.
Thinking of this, she calmed down.
Well, if things went completely south, she could always just escape with the kids in the academy. After all, she was supremely confident in two things: her space magic and escaping.
While escaping sounded cowardly, it couldn’t be helped. Though she had been a true powerhouse during the first year the System arrived, she had fallen back later because of her heavy responsibilities at the Academy. Now she was barely even known. Most people simply knew her as The Witch’s assistant or her mouthpiece.
Well, now she knew exactly where she should focus her research and those invasion portals looked very interesting... ( ¬‿¬ )
She was pulled out of her thoughts by Night who asked in a blatant attempt to change the depressing topic, "What is the lore thing you talked about earlier?"
She looked around, seeing Death looking bored while Eve and Lilith watched everything with learning curiosity.
She replied with a sudden smirk that made Night instinctively flinch. (≖ᴗ≖)
"Due to the Nightmare Aspect originally dominating Earth, the world was affected in a very mysterious way," Sara began.
"It didn’t happen all at once. It happened so slowly and gradually that people didn’t even realize the changes themselves. But some perceptive ones who lived long enough definitely noticed these changes."
Seeing that she had their full, undivided attention; with even the bored Death now looking at her curiously she leaned in.
She continued in a hushed, eerie tone, "People eventually realized that everyone’s nightmares were slowly becoming reality."
"The interesting part is that everyone has something they truly fear... something they consider a Nightmare."
"For some, a war-torn world was a Nightmare."
"For some, absolute peace was a Nightmare."
"For some, relationships was a Nightmare."
"For some, lack of relationship was a Nightmare."
"For some, physical pain was a Nightmare."
"For some, the lack of pain was a Nightmare."
"For some, Hell was a Nightmare, and for others... Heaven was a Nightmare."
After saying this she looked at them with a dead-serious face. They all suddenly felt as though the lights in the room were receding with every sentence that left her lips.
By the time she reached the end, the room looked pitch black, with only Sara’s face visible in the dark. Her grey eyes glowed with an unnatural light and if one looked closely, they could see tiny worms swimming within them.
Seeing this Night felt like his poor, tiny heart was going to stop.
Sara whispered, "For everyone had their own Nightmare... and they became became reality."
"Or..."
"...you could say, in a twisted way everyone’s dream came true."
"Maybe all of this is just a nightmare."
"Maybe it always was, and we are just slowly realizing it now."
"Maybe..."
"...Everything is just a dream."
Thud. ( ×_× )
A small body flopped out of its chair and fell heavily onto the floor. Foaming slightly at the mouth, Night whimpered in his unconscious state, "No... no... I am not tasty... I am small and skinny... and I probably suck..."
End of Volume 1 - Everything is a Dream
