Aiden woke up on the morning of the Winter Solstice feeling unnaturally drowsy.
It was an eerie sensation one he had never experienced before.
Logically, it made no sense given that he had gotten a full eight hours of solid sleep.
However, he knew precisely what was happening.
The doctor at the police precinct had warned him about this heavy, oppressive fatigue.
It was the universal precursor to entering the Dream Realm for the first time, signaling that the transportation process would occur by nightfall.
Aiden had spent every waking hour at the Academy preparing for this moment.
He had optimized his gear, conditioned his body, and gathered all the operational intelligence he could glean.
Yet a quiet voice in the back of his mind reminded him that no amount of preparation could fully mitigate the unknown.
The Dream Realm was a brutal, volatile theater of war he had never set foot in.
Survival wouldn’t depend solely on preparation, it would demand ruthless decision-making and, above all, the strength to survive.
Pushing those thoughts aside, he took a slow breath to settle his pulse.
He had no training drills scheduled for today.
The only objective was to rest and mentally prepare for the descent.
With a low sigh, Aiden sat up on his bed and surveyed the small subterranean room he had occupied for the past four weeks.
He double-checked his inventory one last time, though he had already packed every essential item into the [Bottomless Pouch].
His supplies were thoroughly organized: dozens of sealed water containers, high-calorie canned rations, cold-weather clothing, and basic medical kits.
When he had first heard teacher Julius mention that Awakened sometimes ate the flesh of Nightmare Creatures to survive, Aiden had assumed it was a morbid joke.
Upon learning it was common field practice, a strange curiosity took root in his mind, he actually wanted to see what monster flesh tasted like, assuming the creatures didn’t eat him first.
Taking one final look at his empty room, Aiden made his way toward the cafeteria for a final morning meal.
The moment he crossed the threshold into the hall, a heavy wave of emotion washed over him.
Though he couldn’t immediately distinguish every individual emotion, the overwhelming collective signatures were undeniable: raw fear and suffocating anxiety.
The usual lively chatter and casual banter that filled the hall were completely gone.
Aiden grabbed a mug of bitter black coffee, hoping the caffeine might cut through his unnatural drowsiness.
He knew it was ultimately pointless against the Spell’s supernatural influence, but during his previous life, pulling late-night command operations had turned drinking black coffee into an ingrained psychological ritual rather than a physical need.
Instead of heading to his usual table with Cassia and Sunless, Aiden leaned against a far wall, sipping his drink in silence.
His decision to avoid them was purely pragmatic.
He had no desire to sit near the blind girl today.
By his cold tactical calculations, her odds of surviving more than a few hours in the Dream Realm were practically nonexistent.
He knew that if he sat across from her now, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from probing her mindset, trying to determine whether she had a contingency plan or was simply waiting for the inevitable.
He took a slow sip of the bitter liquid.
“Mmm…
usually the first sip wakes me up a bit,” he muttered under his breath.
As expected, the coffee did nothing to dispel the heavy, supernatural lethargy weighing down his eyelids.
***
When the sun dipped close to the horizon, Instructor Rock assembled their group in the foyer of the Sleeper Center and escorted them outside.
Across the snowy grounds surrounding the main facility, other instructors were leading their respective cohorts toward the same destination: the Academy’s central Medical Center.
The building resembled a high-tech shrine rather than a traditional hospital.
Inside, cutting-edge medical technology was integrated alongside powerful Awakened Healers.
For the entire duration of their journey through the Dream Realm, the physical bodies of the Sleepers would remain housed within specialized pods, kept alive by medical technology and the supernatural abilities of Awakened Healers should anything happen to them on the other side.
Then.
Instructor Rock led them into a vast, silent containment hall.
Aiden paused as he took in the sight before him.
Rows of wheelchairs filled the room, occupied by individuals sitting entirely motionless, their eyes staring blankly into nothingness.
Aiden didn’t need a medical diagnosis to understand what he was looking at.
The complete absence of emotional resonance radiating from them was enough to make the truth obvious, they were dead.
Instructor Rock’s voice cut through the silence, casually explaining the reality of their situation.
If a Sleeper’s soul was destroyed in the Dream Realm, their physical body might remain behind in this state.
a Hollow, a vessel devoid of its soul. The source of this chapter is g.com.
‘Right,’ Aiden thought grimly, eyeing the hollow bodies.
‘Just another reason to make sure I come back alive.’
Half an hour later, each Sleeper was escorted to their individual isolation cubicles to prepare for pod insertion.
Aiden stood before the glass pod, staring at the cold interior where his physical body would rest for an indeterminate period.
He had no idea how long he would remain there.
His survival would depend on his strength, his intellect, his tactical choices, and his ability to discern whom he could trust in that hellscape.
Taking a deep breath, he summoned his status interface to check his Emotional State:
[Current Emotional State:]
[Happiness: 5%]
[Anger: 2%]
[Sadness: 70%]
[Fear: 30%]
[Anxiety: 40%]
[Love: 1%]
‘Well…
elevated fear and anxiety are probably healthy operational responses under these circumstances,’
Despite his attempt to maintain absolute composure, the Nightmare Spell’s metrics provided an unvarnished breakdown of his underlying stress.
Yet Aiden had no intention of losing his composure.
He wasn’t an ordinary teenager, and he certainly wasn’t going to squander this second chance at life.
He would do whatever it took to survive.
Step by step, Aiden climbed into the pod and lay back against the cushioned interior.
As the heavy glass canopy sealed shut, the overwhelming lethargy dragged his consciousness into absolute darkness.
And from the depths of that boundless void, a cold, mechanical voice echoed in his mind
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Aiden!]