17 Chapter 17: Drowning
Nightmare**
Water distorts light in subtle ways.
Every time we open our eyes underwater, we can't see clearly. Our eyes were not designed for seeing underwater. So, all scuba divers have goggles that have an air pocket for us to see through.
So, then the question appears, how do Fishes see? How do their eyes work underwater?
**
Rake had his eyes open. He was sure.
He saw things. But everything felt weird.
He felt like he was in a flow. Following something. He was pushed by the flow as he was also making the flow.
Not to mention he couldn't feel his hands. Or legs or anything really.
It felt like he was on autopilot.
He saw differently, he felt differently, and was….different….?
**
Some time ago, as Rake's essence entered the soul shard and attempted to assimilate it, something happened.
Something he could've never anticipated.
[Corruption detected. ]
[Trial failed]
[Terminating trial…]
[Error]
[Secret conditions met]
[Aspect activated]
[Secondary nightmare trial activated]
[....]
[KILL]
**
Rake soon realized that the funky things that he was seeing were just in panoramic view.
His brain wasn't used to seeing things in the way that it was seeing. And all around him, all he saw was a dark wall.
A moving dark wall?
'Are those teeth... and eyes?'
Soon he felt something that he never thought was possible.
He felt hunger.
It wasn't the typical sort of hunger. It was something else. Humans hunger for food. Because that's what's needed to survive. It's something baked into their system.
But what Rake felt was something similar yet different. He felt a distinct desire for 'something'.
He couldn't put a ring on it.
But soon he smelled it. Something that he had to taste. To eat. To feel.
He heard something. Something slightly loud.
He noticed something.
The black moving wall around him was agitated somehow.
The teeth and eyes surrounding him moved fast.
The water around him was flowing rapidly. He instinctively moved. Faster and faster with the crowd.
And then he saw it.
A human.
A human struggling, inside a vortex of water.
He stared at the face of a man.
No, a slab of meat.
Just looking at him made Rake go crazy due to hunger.
And so he sped forward. Faster than all his peers.
And he took the first bite, tearing off the man's soft cheek flesh.
The taste….was sublime.
He never knew something could taste so tasty.
He wanted to take another bite.
But he was too late.
The swarm was already upon the man.
No, onto the slab of meat.
NO!
HE MUST HAVE MORE!!
MORE!!
But by the time he rushed his tiny body towards the slab of meat. It was gone.
The swarm had pecked it clean. There was nothing left. Not even bones.
He was devastated.
It was he who ate the first bite. He deserved to have it all.
HE HAD TO HAVE IT ALL!!!
IT BELONGED TO HIM.
HOW DARE THEY!
Rake then felt the hunger towards his peers.
His fellow piranhas.
They….they had more, right?
The meat…
It was inside their stomach. If he could bite them into pieces and grab the pieces….
He would be able to eat it again.
That's right.
All he had to do was to eat them to eat those pieces again.
Makes sense right?
So, Rake moved.
Faster than he had ever before.
And he bit into the first victim. On its stomach.
His sharp teeth sank deep into the flesh.
He used the momentum to tear away the flesh inside the stomach.
It wasn't as delicious as before. But it was still great.
Rake felt a high he had never experienced before. He kept going, tearing into more and more fish.
His speed increasing faster and faster.
Eating more and more pieces.
Until he met an enemy he couldn't ignore.
A big piranha.
An awakened Locust.
Rake's eyes gleamed.
This one must have a big piece inside. I'll have it.
He sped even faster towards it, unconsciously controlling the water around him.
As he reached close. Close enough to bite, everything went dark.
He was a tiny moth that had run towards the fire.
As soon as he was close enough, he was torn apart by the monster in one bite.
He had no chance.
**
Everything has a price.
Nothing is free.
Especially to the Nightmare Spell. The bigger you dream, the higher you have to climb,
the tougher the trial.
And the more crippling the flaw.
Rake had forgotten that when he tried to exploit the spawn system to get free cores and become stronger faster.
But he couldn't be blamed. He was running out of options.
And now, he's in the same place again. In a deeper hole.
A hole that he still hasn't realized he is inside.
An alien body and mind with twisted chaotic human desires.
**
Real World__
Rake was last seen losing his tails to get to the outskirts unseen.
He had some things he wanted to see.
Mainly the condition of the people there.
He also wanted to see if there was anything he could do.
When reading the web novel, he remembered that the condition of the outskirts was bad.
But how bad?
He had to check.
**
He reached the outskirts.
It was as bad as he remembered.
No, it was worse.
All the people there were thin. Their skins were rough.
The kids looked emancipated. The adults... They all had a wiry frame.
They were also short due to malnourishment.
This overwhelmed him.
He had seen poverty. He had seen helplessness.
He was from a third-world country back then.
He may not remember 1400 chapters of a web novel that he read for fun. But he remembered his life clearly.
It was the only thing that kept him sane throughout the last 4 years.
And he remembered an old woman from back then.
The old woman had no proper family. She had to beg to eat. She couldn't move easily. She moved at a snail's pace with the help of a stick. Her back was damaged. Her eyes showed hopelessness. All they wanted was to see another day.
Every time Rake looked at her. Or even thought of her. He would feel guilty. Guilty for having a privileged life. Guilty for being happy.
But that was one case. There weren't that many people like that in his area. Or not many that he saw.
But here. That's all he saw.
Maybe not as extreme as that woman. But they made him feel the same.
There were large houses. Flimsy ones where these people lived. The women looked sickly. The men looked like they hadn't eaten anything tasty in their life. Their bodies were falling apart. And lastly, looking at the children broke his heart.
He felt guilty for being powerful. For being beautiful.
His happy mood soured like industrial acid mixed with milk.
He remembered why Shadow Slave was a dystopian world.
It was dying. Slowly but surely.
Twenty percent of the human population lives like this in this world.
That's one in five.
Among ten people, two lived like this.
Yet there was nothing the government could do.
They tried their best to sustain this population with the limited amount of resources that they had left.
The clans tried their make the dream realm more habitable.
The government was left with this insurmountable task of caring for the rest of the population.
…
Rake walked around.
The further he went in, the better yet worse things got.
He saw more men who had something other than just skin on their bones.
Yet he also saw more people with disabilities.
He then looked towards the factories. He realized that that was where most of the people were working in.
He stared more and more at those giant factories. Factories that produced necessary items for humanity.
Yet most of their labor was done by the most unfortunate among them.
But they were alive.
The government rations kept them alive and moving. Rations that maybe employed them to make.
He stared.
He noticed at least two crippled people for every street corner he walked.
He noticed sewage next to the streets.
Kids trying to mug someone with a small blade for tubes of synthpaste that possibly tasted worse than wet cardboard.
He saw everything with his own eyes.
He smelled the filth and human desperation.
He could taste the air filled with smog and pollutants.
His feet squelched as he stepped into the mud made of urine and soft soil.
And he resolved his heart to help as many people as he could. Unlike back then, when he was just a student with no income, no money, and no power, he had everything here.
And so could these people.
**
AN: Had nothing better to do. {I did. But am choosing to procrastinate for absolutely no reason}
So, there. The next chapter.
Yeah, this trial isn't going to be easy on Rake. Slight warning.
Also, yeah... I wonder if you guys can figure out what Rake's plan is regarding the outskirts.
You guys are way too smart and can predict things really accurately. Too accurately.
Anyways, the hints are there as always.
And thanks so much for reading. I can't believe so many people desire to destroy their brain cells by reading my crappy fan fic. But I'm extremely happy you do.
Hope you guys enjoyed it and I hope you have a really awesome day.
Byeee.
