For the next two weeks, my life bled into a brutal, mind-numbing routine.
Wake up. Force my unwilling body to move. Drag myself to the gym and hammer my muscles until they howled like broken things, until every fiber whispered "Please, Daddy, stop" and even then, I kept going, carving strength out of weakness.
Eat all the best meals that were shown in the menu of the cafeteria, shoveling it down like a starving rat, sometimes i overeat to the point that i needed to throw up.
I have also started to avoid conversations, avoid people like a disease, and if anyone was persistent enough to approach, I'd give them answers twisted enough that they'd think twice before trying again. Half-truths, half-lies, whispered from a mouth that had already given up pretending to care.
After that, it was Wilderness Survival with Teacher Julius.
A man who, at first glance, looked like an old pervert who'd sell his soul for a whiff of a college girl's perfume, Julius was a damn good teacher. Patient, detailed, and sharp.
He is a good teacher. Patient, methodical, almost... kind in a way that made you uncomfortable, like finding a working light in an abandoned asylum, he made sure I understood it like it was carved into my bones. If it weren't for him, I knew I'd have been nothing but another rotting corpse in the Dream Realm.
He didn't mind when I asked questions. He didn't snap when I made mistakes. He simply taught — as if pouring knowledge into my skull was his only purpose left in this rotting world.
There was another teacher too — one who insisted on stuffing a sword into my hands and stuffing even more questions into my already-overworked brain.
Every time she asked me something, I'd respond the same way:
nonsense carefully crafted into half-truths, polished lies with just enough reality to leave her confused, blinking, wondering if I was dumb, clever, or legally insane.
Her name?
Morgan.
Just thinking about her made my brain short-circuit.
The first time I saw her, I'll be honest: my mind was full of sinful, unholy thoughts.
In my defense, she looked like Goth warrior princess fever dream — leather, swords, glare sharp enough to file my sanity down to a nub.
But then I found out who she actually was, and every dirty thought I had about her felt like a federal crime.
She's the princess of the Valor Clan.
Yeah. That Valor Clan.
One of the top human clans, a big shiny name with enough political firepower to make governments piss themselves.
'And it just felt like yesterday i was gawking at her ass.'
Oh, did i tell you about her father?
Just one of the three supreme beings of humanity.
No big deal.
Totally normal.
I definitely wasn't mentally committing suicide right then and there.
'A hollow man.' That's what the i had called her father — a supreme powerhouse men who suffered a lot because of his flaw, and lost all his emotions after his wife death, but the question was:
'What the hell was Morgan doing here?'
This academy was basically a daycare center for teenagers with superiority complexes.
A place where baby geniuses learned to throw fireballs and punch holes in walls without wetting themselves.
'Is she here for talented individuals for her clan.' but why come herself.
She could have sent a foot soldier to scout for talent.
Hell, she could have sent a glorified errand boy.
But no.
Princess McSwordWaifu had personally showed up.
Why?
Nothing about this lined up with the original novel.
There was no mention of Morgan walking into the Academy like it was a Sunday stroll.
And the government?
They were allergic to Great Clans.
The very idea of letting someone like her waltz in should've made them gnash their teeth until their fillings cracked.
What changed?
Why now?
What the hell is happening behind the scenes?
My brain tried to connect the dots, but there were only question marks.
Angry, vibrating question marks.
I groaned and dragged my hands through my hair like some mad philosopher on the verge of a meltdown.
But after a few moments of existential suffering, I sighed and tossed the entire conspiracy theory into the trash heap of my brain.
Honestly? I don't care.
I've got bigger problems than trying to untangle political drama between powerhouses who can snap planets in half if they sneeze wrong.
My one and only goal?
Survive.
Because the future waiting for me isn't sunshine and rainbows.
It's a meat grinder.
And I intend to come out the other side still breathing.
'So yeah where was i ?. Yeah!'
I trained hard under these two people, the one teaching me how to survive while the other is teaching me how to fight, and I learned.
Faster than I should have.
Faster than anyone expected.
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And just like that two weeks have passed.
Lying in my room after another long day — greasy pizza slice sagging between my fingers —a thought hit me like a slow-rolling train.
'I'm a genius.'
There was no point lying to myself about it.
Julius noticed it too, and so did Morgan.
Julius started calling me "young genius" between lessons, the pride in his voice something raw and real, while Morgan has increased the training more to see where is my limit.
To be honest i told Julies to stopped with the name, while i told Morgan to go easy on me, but it seems like not even one is listing to me, as they just dismissed me.
'Motherfucker's' i couldn't help but cursed as i don't like them already, it's not because i don't like praises but it's because they are boasting me around their little circle like i am some sort of trophy to them.
'Was it really a good idea to learn from them ?' i couldn't help but started questing, all the things i have been doing, i mean i did give it my all because i have less time to fully prepared for the dream realm, and i wanted to learn everything from them, so that my chances of survival should increased.
'But maybe i shouldn't have gave it all.'
"sigh" with sigh i also come a dark realization.
'Why?'
Why was I so talented now? Why did knowledge slide so easily into place inside my mind, like pieces of a puzzle I hadn't even known I was solving?
I wasn't some idiot before. I was no stranger to books, to study.
But this?
This was something else.
This was unnatural.
Theories began to creep into the corners of my mind like mold.
Is it a gift? A cheat code slipped into my soul when I crossed into this world?
Some reward from whatever cosmic entity had thrown me here because of the torture i received in my previous life.
'Or is it something far more disturbing?'
Maybe... I wasn't the only one inside this body. Maybe Sunless soul that originally belonged here hadn't entirely left. Maybe I wasn't alone.
I couldn't help but shiver, then my eyes were widden as if i have just come to an realizations, i hurriedly enter the soul sea, the one i have been avoiding like a disease because i was afraid, Afraid to face the Unknown.
'I need to see it myself.' i don't know why but their was this nagging feeling of what is about to come.
As i enter the soul sea, i was shocked, scared, and also hopeless.
"What.... the... hell.!!!!!!!"
The view that was in front of me was not the one i was expecting, not it was something else.
'This is not the soul sea of Sunless!!'
The scene in front of me was straight out of horror movies.
Pic
The whole sky is completely red, like blood is everywhere. In the center of the sky, there's a black circle— it's a solar eclipse . Around the black sun, there's a thin white-blue glow— the only light in the whole sky. The sky is filled with twisted clouds and lightning-like cracks. It looks violent, like the sky is ripping itself apart.
Below the black sun, there is a dark shape that looks like a castle or fortress. This castle has giant red wings stretched out on both sides. The wings look torn,huge, and powerful, almost like bat wings or a fallen angel's wings. The castle itself is full of sharp towers, spikes, and dark structures — very dangerous looking, not peaceful at all. It feels like the castle is floating down from the sky, like it's falling slowly or flying forward.
Underneath the castle and wings, there are huge dark clouds. These clouds are thick, violent, and boiling, almost like smoke from a massive fire. At the bottom of the image, you see red cracks everywhere — like roots or veins stretching across the ground. The land looks broken, burned, and bleeding, like the world itself is dying from inside.
"What hell is this...." my words almost sound like a whisper, looking at the scene in front of me i couldn't help but feel uneasiness's.
i still remembered the words written in the novel describing Sunless soul sea.
A silent, calm dark sea illuminated by a lonely black sun
"Then what the hell is this thing!!" i couldn't help but gritted my teeth in anger, frustration, and even hopelessness was all of these things was i feeling right now.
'Nothing is going as it was said in the novel...' i thought bitterly, if things are already changing what the use of my knowledge from the novel.
'Isn't it practically useless.' then with a sigh i looked around the soul sea, i then focused on the soul sea or specially the Castle.
Then Suddenly i found myself standing in front of it, The gates of this Castle was 100 or 120 meter tall, their was also the statue of two giants soldiers standing side by side of the gate, like they are guarding it from intruders.
As i took a stepped forward, only to stopped, why because suddenly a gut feeling told me to stopped, like if i took another stepped fowards, i would die.
'Damn it!!' does that mean i can't even explore my sea of soul freely.
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"sigh" 'whatever' yeah no point in getting angry over things that are out of my understanding.
Casting one last look to the Castle i got out from my soul sea, as i now stared at the white ceiling.
'So someone is really out their huh.' i mean what happened just now, is the prime example of this.
And then a heavier thought dropped into my chest like a stone:
If there is someone — or something — powerful enough to rip me from one existence and weld me into another...
they're still out there.
Watching.
The idea settled over me like a funeral shroud.
An invisible hand pulling the strings of my life, unseen eyes weighing every choice I made, deciding whether I deserved to live another day or be snuffed out like a useless flame.
Every small twist of fate, every breath of survival — not mine.
Theirs.
'Someone wanted me in this world whether i liked it or not.' but the question is why would they want me, what does i have that interest them so much.
My body shook without meaning to and
"ha ha ha ha HAHAHAHAHAHAAH" a laugh — dry, broken — slipped from my throat.
What could I even do about it?
Nothing.
Fight back?
Against what? Against something so far above me I couldn't even comprehend it?
No.
There was only one path left open to me:
Get stronger.
Survive.
Endure.
Because whoever — whatever — pulled me here hadn't done it for kindness.
This world was a slaughterhouse, and I had been thrown into it naked, bleeding, and expected to dance until my legs gave out.
Fine.
If they wanted to watch me dance, I would dance.
But I would not fall like the others.
'And I sure as hell wasn't going to make the same mistakes Sunny made.'
And it also means that now i can't trust anyone or rely on my knowledge from the novel.
'Shit has gone from funny to dark real quick.'