Aiden opened his eyes to the dim, artificial light of his subterranean dormitory room.
The transition from sleep to full alertness took less than a second a reflex ingrained in him through decades of commanding front-line troops.
Standing up, he opened the narrow storage locker in the corner.
Inside hung a few standard-issue Academy uniforms.
Aiden pulled one out, tried on the jacket and trousers, and adjusted the collar.
It was stiff and restrictive, clearly designed more for parade discipline than practical movement.
With a disappointed sigh, he stripped off the uniform and tossed it onto the desk.
Instead, he reached for the black tracksuit the police department had provided him after his medical evaluation.
It was flexible, light, and offered a full range of motion.
“Comfort over protocol,” Aiden muttered, zipping up the tracksuit jacket.
“Every single time.”
Leaving his room, he navigated the underground corridors and made his way toward the central cafeteria, his stomach already demanding a substantial meal.
When he stepped through the cafeteria doors, however, he paused.
The vast hall was packed to near capacity.
Hundreds of teenagers in various outfits were shouting, arguing, laughing, and crowding around the serving stations.
The quiet, empty cafeteria from the previous evening was completely gone.
‘Did the entire freshman intake arrive overnight, or is there another mandatory briefing I missed?’ Aiden wondered, raising an eyebrow at the chaos.
Undeterred by the crowd, he grabbed a heavy tray and maneuvered his way to the food counters.
He bypassed the lighter pastries and cereal, stacking his plate high with high-protein options, piles of roasted meat, thick sausages, and dense starches.
The kitchen staff stared at his towering plate in mild alarm, but Aiden simply took his utensils and scanned the crowded floor for a place to sit.
Most tables were overflowing with noisy groups, but near the far corner of the hall, he spotted an almost empty table.
Only two people were sitting there.
The first was a boy with messy black hair and heavy dark circles under his eyes, so dark that Aiden genuinely questioned when the kid had last enjoyed a full night’s sleep.
Opposite him sat a girl with striking golden hair and bright blue eyes.
She was remarkably still, maintaining an almost unnatural posture amidst the surrounding noise.
Aiden approached, pulled out a chair at the edge of the table, and set his tray down.
“Mind if I sit here?”
Neither of them objected.
The tired-looking boy merely gave a faint, exhausted nod before returning his gaze to his own plate, while the girl gave a polite, silent nod.
Aiden sat down and immediately began digging into his meal with practiced efficiency, savoring the taste of real food after his long ordeal.
But as he cut into a portion of meat, his eyes naturally drifted back toward the girl with the golden hair.
He froze mid-chew, a piece of meat almost catching in his throat.
Upon closer inspection, her striking blue eyes didn’t track any movement in the room.
They were completely unmoving, clouded by a faint, translucent film that reflected light without focusing on it.
‘She’s completely blind,’ Aiden realized, quietly swallowing his food.
‘A blind Sleeper entering the Dream Realm…
this world truly has no mercy.’
Resuming his meal, Aiden turned his attention inward, subtly monitoring his surroundings.
Ever since entering the packed cafeteria, his Emotional Vessel attribute had been firing continuously.
With hundreds of teenagers crammed into one space, waves of anxiety, arrogance, fear, and excitement radiated through the air like a chaotic hum.
He had to consciously tune out the background noise to maintain his focus.
However, as his perception swept over his table, a distinct anomaly caught his attention.
The signature radiating from the exhausted boy sitting across from him was entirely wrong. Find the original chapter at g.com.
Normally, a person emitted a unified stream of emotional resonance.
But from the black-haired boy, Aiden detected two distinct sources flowing simultaneously.
The first was ordinary a mixture of fatigue, caution, and quiet irritation emanating directly from the boy.
The second wave, however, came from directly behind him.
It was a subtle, eerie surge of amusement and detachment, lingering at floor level.
Aiden shifted his gaze downward under the pretense of reaching for his water glass.
Stretched across the floor beneath the boy’s chair was his shadow.
But unlike a normal reflection of light, the shadow seemed slightly denser, its edges twitching with a faint, independent rhythm that did not match the boy’s movements at all.
Aiden narrowed his eyes, taking a slow sip of water.
‘Two emotional signatures from one person…
or rather, from his shadow.
Is that his Aspect capability, or something far worse?’
He set his glass down, his analytical mind immediately filing the observation away as a potential threat.
‘This place is packed with walking anomalies.
I need to remain extremely cautious.’
Before he could analyze the shadow any further, a sudden commotion erupted across the cafeteria, instantly cutting through the room’s background chatter.
Aiden turned his head toward the far side of the cafeteria, where a large crowd of students had gathered around a massive digital display embedded into the wall.
The screen flickered with a detailed roster, ranking all the Sleepers currently enrolled at the Academy from highest to lowest.
‘What kind of ranking system bases its entire metric on a preliminary intake interview?’
He instinctively scanned the bottom of the leaderboard, fully expecting to find his name in last place given his refusal to disclose his Aspect or Rank during the interview.
To his mild surprise, he wasn’t at the absolute bottom.
Two names were listed below him: a sleeper named Sunless, and another named Cassia.
‘Did those two decline to answer their interviews as well?’
Shifting his gaze away from the bottom tiers, Aiden swept his eyes up to the very top of the list.
Rank 1: Nephis
True Name: Changing Star
Aiden remained silent, taking in the hushed, awe-struck murmurs rippling through the crowd.
Most of the surrounding students were openly stunned that someone in their cohort possessed a True Name, with several hushed voices already referring to her as an absolute monster.
‘Wait…
are True Names really that rare?’ he thought, narrowing his eyes.
‘Out of all the Sleepers gathered in this massive academy, only one person has a True Name?’
In truth, Aiden knew the actual count was two—counting himself.
But he hadn’t anticipated just how uncommon they were.
Based on what the police doctor had explained, the Nightmare Spell evaluated a candidate’s performance in their First Nightmare, bestowing greater rewards to those who achieved extraordinary feats.
True Names were reserved for the tiny fraction of Sleepers who accomplished something extraordinary in their First Nightmare.
‘Does that make me an anomaly in this world?’
Aiden’s mind lingered on the question before drifting back to the terrifying reality of his First Nightmare.
A sudden, cold shiver ran down his spine.
Just recalling those memory fragments made his skin crawl.
‘Then again…
I definitely earned that True Name.’
If most of the teenagers chatting in this cafeteria had been thrown into the situation he faced, their chances of survival would have been negligible.
Even with decades of military experience as a Supreme Commander, Aiden had come dangerously close to breaking under the sheer hopelessness of it all.
Anyone else might have surrendered the moment they realized they were entirely bound and helpless.
‘Right.
Enough dwelling on the past.’
Without a doubt, his First Nightmare ranked among the worst experiences of his life even when factoring in the bloody battlefields of his previous existence.
It was a dark milestone that would remain permanently etched in his memory.
Shaking off the grim thoughts, Aiden suddenly noticed that a dense silence had washed over the cafeteria.
The loud chatter had vanished.
Nearly every student in the hall was staring toward a corner table, where a girl with brilliant silver hair and striking gray eyes sat quietly, holding a warm cup of coffee.
A moment later, a small group of highly ranked Sleepers began walking toward her table.
Leading the group was a tall, broad-shouldered young man with sharp green eyes and a confident posture.
The silver-haired girl tilted her head slightly, looking up at him with mild, indifferent surprise.
“Mmm…
what?”
Aiden took another bite of his meal, watching the interaction unfold.
‘Oh, this should be entertaining.’
The green-eyed youth stopped before her table and offered a polite, graceful bow.
“Lady Nephis.
I am Caster of the Han Li clan.
I see that your trial went well?”
‘So that girl is Nephis…
Changing Star,’
Aiden deduced, connecting the dots.
‘And Caster…
isn’t he ranked second on the board?’
Nephis seemed mildly perplexed by the formal greeting.
After a brief pause, she gave a bright, simple smile and shrugged her shoulders.
“It is what it is.”
Caster held his polite composure, though his smile stiffened slightly.
“I see.
I am very glad that you returned unharmed.
Uh… not that I doubted your abilities, of course.”
Nephis gave a brief nod.
“Thank you.”
Without another word, she lifted her mug and took a quiet sip of her coffee, completely cutting off the conversation and ignoring Caster’s presence.
Aiden swallowed the last piece of meat on his plate, watching as Caster awkwardly cleared his throat and backed away.
‘Ouch.
That was brutal.
Caster’s pride just took a heavy hit in front of the entire cafeteria.’
Standing up from the table, Aiden picked up his heavy tray and carried it over to the return station.
‘Well, drama aside…
I think it’s time I check out what combat classes this place actually offers.’