Then I’m Not Sleepy Anymore 1: Chapter 1: Oh, We’re Dueling?
Then I’m Not Sleepy Anymore Chapter 1: Oh, We’re Dueling?
Then I’m Not Sleepy Anymore The desert stretched out, endless, yellow sand spreading to the edge of the world.
A massive, gilded temple stood alone at its center.
Every surface of the temple gleamed with gold leaf, its architecture evoking the tombs of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, solemn and opulent.
But all that splendor was dead silent, empty, without a single soul in sight.
Yushin had lost track of how long he’d been trapped here since he transmigrated.
Months, maybe?
Or years?
He didn’t know.
This place had no day, no night.
Time itself seemed to have stopped meaning anything.
He’d walked the temple’s side halls and corridors more times than he could count before he was finally forced to face the cold truth: he was the only living person here.
Loneliness was a slow kind of torture, one that only got worse the longer it dragged on, until it drove a person insane.
The one saving grace was that, for whatever reason, his transmigrated body didn’t seem to need food.
No matter how much time passed, he never felt hungry or thirsty.
Unfortunately, that was only true physically.
Mentally, his craving for food only grew.
Every extra moment he spent stuck in this godforsaken place, his longing for all the food he’d loved in his past life grew a little sharper.
Without exaggeration, if someone let him order takeout right now, he was pretty sure he could eat the delivery guy along with the food.
Just as Yushin was starting to think this endless, dead silence might actually drive him mad, things finally took a turn.
He’d been idly running his fingers along the old stone bricks lining a corridor pillar out of sheer boredom, when his fingertips landed on a brick that felt subtly loose.
He paused for a moment, then pressed down on it without thinking.
A dull grinding sound followed, and the wall, which had seemed perfectly seamless, sank inward, revealing a hidden door.
The sudden change made his chest tighten.
A long-absent feeling, anticipation, welled up in him, tangled together with nerves.
He tamped down both the hope and the unease and stepped carefully inside.
Past the hidden passage was a small, sealed chamber, lavishly decorated but completely empty, save for an ancient stone pedestal standing at its center.
Above the pedestal, a golden octahedron hovered in midair, suspended about half an inch above the surface, slowly rotating.
The thing looked to be cast entirely from pure gold, a single seamless piece, its eight facets smooth and evenly cut.
Set into its center was a raised relief carving of the Eye of Horus.
The shape and style immediately reminded Yushin of the seven Millennium Items from the old Yu-Gi-Oh!
anime.
The only thing was, while this object’s design was close to the Millennium Items, he was fairly certain none of the actual Items in canon looked quite like this.
Yushin slowly raised his hand and let his fingertips brush against one of the gilded facets.
The instant he touched it, light flared to life along the octahedron’s engraved patterns.
Golden light spread across all eight faces, and the Eye of Horus at its center flickered and pulsed.
Yushin felt his consciousness seized by some invisible pull, and before he could resist, he was dragged into the swirling vortex at the center of that eye.
The next moment, the world spun around him.
It felt like his mind had been projected, through the artifact, into some boundless void.
For a while, he felt like he was traveling through a kaleidoscope tunnel of twisting, warped shapes, and at the far end of it lay a darkness like the depths of space.
Countless points of light were scattered through the void, and if you looked closely, you could see that each speck of starlight seemed to take the shape of a person.
The light closest to him had already grown faint, and it went out completely a moment later.
Yushin drifted closer to it, and the next instant, he felt his entire consciousness caught by some pulling force, yanking him straight toward that extinguished light.
Yushin felt a sharp sense of being split in two.
Half of his consciousness seemed to remain behind in the empty temple, while a thinner, weaker thread of it felt like it had been forcibly stuffed into some completely unfamiliar body.
He tried to make this body stand up, but it felt like dropping a brand-new engine into a beat-up old car.
It took him a good while before he could finally, barely, force his eyes open.
A thick, damp smell of mold hit his nose first, mixed with the sour reek of rust and rotting wood.
His vision fought free of the doubled blur, and what he saw was rough, blackened stone walls.
There was no daylight overhead, only an old oil lamp caked in grime, hanging from somewhere above.
In front of him stood thick iron bars, layered thick with rust.
Cold air seeped through his thin clothes and into his skin, and the sound of water dripping into a puddle echoed hollow and unsettling.
Yushin quickly realized that this new body of his had probably belonged to someone who’d died not long ago, and that he was now trapped in some kind of prison cell.
What was going on?
It felt like…
he’d used that Millennium Item lookalike to split off part of his consciousness and project it into someone else’s body?
Had he turned into some kind of ghost riding shotgun in someone else’s body?
Yushin was a little dazed.
Except most spirits riding shotgun like that were just standing in for the real account holder.
Looking at his situation now, though, it seemed like the original owner was already dead, and he’d basically hijacked the account and slipped into a body that hadn’t even gone cold yet…
Before he’d even had time to fully adjust to the body, he heard footsteps.
The footsteps approached from outside the cell, growing louder, shattering the stagnant silence of the cave.
Two figures stopped outside the iron bars, black robes wrapped tight around them.
Their hoods were pulled low, and worn bone pendants hung from their sleeves.
The taller of the two pulled out a key and turned it in the lock with a sharp click.
The heavy bars swung inward, and cold air rushed into the cell.
“It’s time for the sacrificial ritual,” the tall one said coldly.
“Move.” Yushin understood now.
His current identity was, more or less, some sacrificial victim caught by a cult.
A normal person would probably be terrified by now.
But Yushin wasn’t scared at all, not even close.
If anything, he was a little excited.
For one thing, his actual body was still back in that eerie temple.
Right now, he was basically a spirit riding shotgun, remote-piloting this flesh from somewhere else, and if things got dangerous, he could just disconnect and bail whenever he wanted.
For another, his days in the temple had nearly driven him out of his mind.
After so long, finally seeing living, breathing, talking people, even if they were probably cultists, was enough to lift his spirits.
But to the two cultists, something about this felt strange.
Why did today’s sacrifice look at them with something like enthusiasm in his eyes?
Then they watched as their sacrifice took the initiative to step out of the cell himself and said, “Lead the way, then.” The two of them exchanged a look.
Was it just them, or did this guy seem a little too eager?
But a job was a job.
Keeping their faces carefully blank, the two of them flanked Yushin, one in front and one behind, and marched him toward the altar.
The formation was obviously meant to keep him from making a break for it, but Yushin didn’t care in the least, and even kept up a stream of chatter the whole way there.
“So what cult are you guys with?
Which god do you worship?
What’s today’s ritual, anyway?” “Is the altar far?
Is the process complicated?
Is there anything I should prepare beforehand?” “Come on, say something.
If you’re going to sacrifice me to some evil god, the least you could do is tell me which one, right?” “Oh, right, what are your names?
When I meet your dark lord in a bit, maybe I can put in a good word for you two…” The tall one and the short one had both been keeping perfectly straight, mysterious faces.
But as Yushin kept talking, the tall one’s composure started to crack, and he couldn’t help blurting out, “My name’s Ellis.
Our dark lord is-” The short one snapped, “Shut up!” The tall one shrank back and went quiet.
To be fair, this wasn’t their first time escorting a sacrifice.
Past victims had usually been sobbing, limp, thrashing in a panic, but one this hyped up, chasing them with questions the whole way, one who’d nearly talked them into feeling for him, that was a first.
They were supposed to be the ones leading a helpless sacrifice, and yet somehow it was this guy who was giving off the weird vibes.
Past a long, narrow passage, the ritual site finally came into view.
It was a massive underground cavern, jagged stalactites hanging from its ceiling.
Thick candles burned, trailing smoke, and at the center of the cavern stood an altar built from black stone, its edges studded with fragments of animal bone.
Rows of black-robed cultists lined either side, heads bowed, standing in silence.
The ritual’s presiding figure stood alone atop the altar, his oversized robe pooling down to the floor.
The presiding figure raised a hand, his deep voice echoing through the empty cavern.
“Today we offer a sacrifice, flesh and blood as the catalyst, offered to our lord through the rite of battle.
We beg the Supreme One to grant his grace and cleanse this world of its sins.” He turned to face the crowd below and raised his voice.
“Bring the sacrifice to the altar!” The two escorting cultists turned at the sound, reaching out to grab Yushin, only to find there was no one behind them.
Their hearts skipped.
They spun around frantically, terrified the sacrifice had made a run for it.
But when they looked up, they realized he hadn’t run at all.
Their sacrifice had already scrambled up onto the black stone altar all on his own, quick and efficient about it.
Every cultist in the room: ?
A sacrifice who didn’t cry, didn’t struggle, and didn’t even need to be led, one who just climbed up onto the altar himself?
They’d genuinely never seen anything like it.
Yushin planted himself in the center of the altar, and seeing that the presiding figure in front of him looked a little stunned, he prompted, “Come on, let’s move this along.
What’s the process?” The presiding figure:….
This sacrifice had very nearly short-circuited him.
The guy looked openly eager.
Could you believe that?
But in the spirit of professional cultist conduct, the presiding figure pressed on.
“The offering to our lord must be completed through the rite of battle.” Yushin asked, “How’s that work?
We just throw down straight hands, right here?” As he said it, he was already rolling up his sleeves.
The presider shook his head.
“That kind of primitive method does not suit our lord’s supreme teachings.” As he spoke, he raised a hand and pulled back the outer layer of his oversized black robe, revealing a matte black Duel Disk strapped to his arm, its metal engravings catching a faint gleam in the candlelight.
“The rite of battle shall be completed through sacred cards, offering our lord the soul forged in combat!” Yushin’s eyes lit up, the soul of a card game addict instantly ignited within him.
Oh, so it’s a duel.
Should’ve said so from the start.
Guess I’m not sleepy anymore.