Kai woke up screaming.
His body shot upright.
The blanket tangled around Kai's neck by his own hand.
Suffocate.
A moment had past before Kai could realize and let go.
"HAAAH—!"
Kai's breathing became ragged.
Fast.
Too fast.
"Did the crimson eye, controlled me?"
"The endless darkness."
"The warning."
"The voice."
"Every image remained vivid in my mind."
"As if the dream had been real."
Kai's trembling hands fumbled through the darkness.
"Flashlight."
"Flashlight!"
The darkness felt alive.
Watching.
Waiting.
"Kai's fingers finally found the flashlight."
CLICK.
Light burst into existence.
The narrow beam illuminated the generator room.
Broken machinery.
Concrete walls.
Metal shelves.
Nothing else.
No giant eye.
No unknown creature.
No endless void.
Just reality.
Kai exhaled shakily.
His breathing slowly stabilized.
Though trembling didn't stop.
Not immediately.
Mental Stability: Activated
Minor Mental Shock Detected
Effect Reduced
Kai stared at the notification.
A bitter laugh escaped him.
"So that's what it means."
"The skill wasn't preventing fear."
"It merely stopped me from completely falling apart."
"Useful."
"Very useful."
"without it—"
"Maybe."
"I won't be able to recovered so quickly."
"The dream had felt wrong."
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Terrifying.
Horrifying.
Something worse.
"Like witnessing something humanity was never meant to see."
"Something beyond understanding."
"The System had attempted to identify it."
"And failed."
"The System had issued only one recommendation."
"DEATH."
Kai clenched his fists.
"Just remembering it made me sick."
"No."
He shook his head.
"Thinking about it now wouldn't help."
"Survival came first."
"Everything else could wait."
Hunger suddenly struck.
A sharp reminder that Kai was still human.
Kai opened his backpack.
One chocolate bar.
One canned meal.
Not exactly a feast.
But enough.
For now.
The chocolate disappeared quickly.
Sweetness spread through Kai's mouths.
The first genuinely pleasant thing he'd experienced since the Nightmare began.
The canned food wasn't much better.
Cold.
Bland.
Yet it filled his stomach.
And that was all that mattered.
"Maybe I should continue eating later and replenish my supplies."
When the meal ended, Kai finally felt alive again.
A little.
"Now came the important part."
"Planning."
"Randomly wandering around would get me killed."
"I remember I had a map from the reward."
Kai opened the backpack.
Then pulled out the folded map.
"A piece of paper ripped from a bigger picture."
Looking at the map.
Might be 1/8 of its size.
Kai scanned the map.
Immediately—
Something felt wrong.
Kai frowned.
"This isn't normal."
"The city layout was identical."
Roads.
Buildings.
Districts.
"Everything as where I remembered."
Yet strange markings covered the map.
Thin lines.
Gray lines.
Black lines.
Crimson lines.
"It spread across different sections of the city."
Dividing it.
Separating it.
Almost like borders.
Kai's gaze stopped at the shopping mall.
A gray line surrounded it.
Approximately one kilometer wide.
The entire area had been marked.
Kai's eyes widened.
"A territory."
"As I remember."
"Nightmares possess territorial instincts."
"The Smiling Walker."
"The shopping mall, is its territory."
"The gray marked line matched perfectly."
Kai continued examining the map.
More line existed.
Far longer line.
Far darker in color.
Some covered entire districts.
Others stretched across multiple city blocks.
One region near the city center was marked with a deep crimson color.
Just looking at it made Kai uneasy.
The map didn't explain anything.
Yet the implications were obvious.
Every marked area belonged to a nightmare.
Something powerful.
Something dangerous.
The city wasn't abandoned.
It had already been claimed.
Nightmare Encyclopedia Lv. 2 Updated
Map Function New
Known Territory Detected: Smiling Walker Territory: Shopping Centre - 1km
Status: Vacant
Warning: Nightmare re-occupation 6 hours
Kai's expression darkened.
"Nightmare re-occupation!"
"Another Nightmare would occupy the area."
"The mall had become a temporary safe zone."
"I couldn't stay here."
"Not knowing what kind of Nightmare would show up."
An hour later—
Kai stood before the mall's main entrance.
Backpack secured.
Knife at his waist.
Flashlight clipped to his belt.
The supplies were replenished.
And Kai already eat his second breakfast.
The shattered glass doors stood open.
Beyond them waited the outside world.
Kai took a deep breath.
Then stepped forward.
Crunch.
Broken glass shifted beneath Kai's shoes.
Kai left the shopping mall.
Kai looked up the sky.
Frozen.
The sky was gray.
Not cloudy.
Not stormy.
Gray.
An endless blanket of lifeless ash stretched across the horizon.
There were no sun.
No light.
No blue sky.
Only a dull glow illuminating the world.
As if day and night had merged into one.
The streets were chaotic.
Poll of blood everywhere.
Scattered flesh.
Organ.
Limbs.
And half eaten person.
Silent.
Buildings stood like abandoned tombstones.
Vehicles remained stranded.
The entire city looked dead.
Kai slowly lifted his head.
Staring at the unnatural sky.
A chill crept down his spine.
"The world had changed far more than I realized."
_______
And somewhere beyond those silent streets—
Countless Nightmares waited.
Watching.
Hunting.
Growing stronger.
Kai tightened his grip on the backpack strap.
Then took his first step forward.
The journey only started.
To be continue...