Muffled voices, distant car honks, and the echo of footsteps sounded across the hallway. Muted conversations followed varied groups of people as they walked through the sunlight streaming in from the tall windows, completely focused on their own mundane lives. Laughs, whispers, and light groans served as a testament to the peaceful, ordinary reality they were used to living.
It was just a casual day.
A door opened, and through it came a young man wearing a denim jacket. He glanced briefly at the classroom behind him before ruffling his hair and combing it backward with his fingers, finally stepping into the now-empty corridor. His features lit up slightly as his eyes locked onto a bench a couple of meters away. Two young men raised their eyes from their cellphones as they felt him walking in their direction.
"Bro, what took you so long?" the first boy spoke, feigning deep annoyance. His skin was lightly tanned, and he was wearing a baseball cap.
The second guy, sporting a green beanie, pulled out one of his earphones before sighing. "Did you just come from Professor ... 's class? What did he want?"
The young man glanced back at the classroom door, and after a couple of seconds, he simply shrugged. "Nothing much. He just wanted to talk about the reading report I submitted last week."
Saying that, he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and tapped the screen a couple of times.
"Waiting for that novel's chapters?" Cap asked, flattening himself against the back of the bench without caring who might be looking.
Staring at his phone for another second, he eventually slid it back into his pocket with a sigh. "Yes, but it hasn't uploaded yet... Did you guys wait long for me?"
"Nah, just a few minutes," Beanie shrugged, waving a hand. "And it's not like we have anything better to do. Our last two classes were cancelled... Those fuckers, three free hours. Can you believe it?"
Cap scoffed loudly at his words. "Just three? I came to class at eight in the morning, and I don't have another class until five in the afternoon! Who the fuck made this stupid schedule... I want to have some words with them."
"Same here..." Beanie grumbled, before standing up from the bench with a pained groan. "Now let's get out of here. I'm famished."
Scoffing at their usual antics, he followed the duo as they exited the Humanities building. He was immediately met with a cold breeze that made him silently thank the fact that he had brought a jacket, even though it was the middle of June. He squinted up at the sky; the sun was high, bathing the campus in a deceptive warmth. Yawning, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of sunglasses, and slipped them on.
As they walked through the shade of the trees, he reached for his jacket's inner pocket, only to flinch immediately. Clicking his tongue in a muted curse, he began to frantically search through the rest of his pockets, but he couldn't find what he was looking for.
"Fuck..." Cursing under his breath, he turned to Beanie. "Hey, do you have a smoke? I left my pack in my other jacket."
"Nah, dude. I only smoke electric. Do you want a hit?" Beanie answered immediately, waving to another group of students in the distance.
"No, thanks. Keep that shit to yourself," He said with a pained sigh. Shaking his head, he eventually added, "So, should we crash at the cafeteria? I think the rest of the group might already be there."
"Ohhh, actually, I've been craving some burgers," Cap interjected, his voice instantly growing excited. "Shall we go to O'Malley's for a quick bite?"
"Bro, we had O'Malley's last week," Beanie clicked his tongue in disapproval.
"Yeah, also... I'm kinda short on cash at the moment," He said, scratching the back of his neck.
"Huh?" The duo looked at him in genuine surprise. "Why?"
He kicked a stray pebble along the pavement and exhaled a pained breath. "I had to send the scooter to the mechanic. It didn't want to start up."
"Bruh," Cap snicker-giggled, patting his back. "That piece of shit starts on hopes and prayers. It's a miracle it's still running."
"What did they tell you was wrong with it?" Beanie asked with a chuckle.
"Dunno. The dude at the mechanic shop said it was related to the flux capacitor or some shit like that," He said with a snicker.
His joke was met only by a collective, deadpan look from his friends.
"...You wish you had a DeLorean," Cap eventually muttered, clicking his tongue.
Laughing at his own joke, he continued, "I'm kidding. Nah, I think the transmission wasn't transmitting... or something close to that." Arching an eyebrow lightly, he added immediately, "Man, I really need to pick up the basics of mechanics. Nowadays, mechanics will absolutely fuck you over the moment you least expect it."
"We know you'll end up enjoying it, hahaha," Beanie fired back instantly, a laugh that was immediately mirrored by Cap.
Frowning in mock disgust, he simply shoved his middle finger right into Beanie's face, but Beanie smoothly slapped it away.
"Fuck you," He said through gritted teeth, though he exhaled a tired laugh. It was always the exact same routine with these guys.
They continued walking through the campus, eventually reaching one of the annex entrances where students parked their bikes. Noticing that a very particular one was missing, he arched an eyebrow in Beanie's direction.
"Did you walk here today? I don't see your bike."
Beanie's fists clenched instantly at the question, and he answered through gritted teeth. "Bitch, don't even get me started on that. Some junkie stole it last night."
"Damn, really? Did you see who did it?" He asked, genuinely surprised.
"Yeah, a neighbor's door camera caught him, but you know how these things go. Who knows if I'll even get it back if the police catch him... if they even catch him," Beanie muttered with a frustrated groan.
He clicked his tongue, feeling the genuine frustration in his friend's voice. But as if completely oblivious to the heavy mood, Cap asked in an inquiring, serious voice:
"What color was he?"
The two of them stopped, turning to look at their so-called friend with a synchronized look of pure, unadulterated disbelief.
But Cap simply threw his hands up defensively. "What?! It's a genuine question!"
"No, the hell it's not!" Beanie fired back immediately. "What does the color of the robber have to do with the robbery?!"
"Everything!" Cap argued instantly, raising his voice enough to make a passing group of students turn their heads in their direction. "Do you know that statistically, most crimes are committed by—"
"Oh, shut it, Uncle Ruckus!" He interrupted, barely containing a massive grin.
"U- Uncle Ruckus?!" Cap stammered, looking clearly offended while Beanie immediately began laughing his ass off beside them. "I'm not black!"
"Dude..." He said, reaching over to grab Cap's arm. He pulled his sleeve up, revealing his skin to the sunlight. "You're Mexican. You're practically already halfway there."
Beanie laughed even louder at the delivery, and Cap stared back in genuine, helpless distraught, completely unable to come up with a single comeback to defend himself.
Laughing at their friend's expression, the group continued walking, passing the Technology building and reaching the main campus hub where the shared facilities were. As they made their way through the drifting crowds in the direction of the entrance, he turned to look at the tall gym building.
Noticing his expression, Beanie raised an eyebrow with a knowing smile. "Are you going to visit her?"
Cap looked between the two of them before focusing on the gym, the exact same knowing smirk appearing on his lips.
He stayed silent for a couple of long seconds before shaking his head. "Nah, her practices aren't until the afternoon."
Nodding at his words, Cap asked as they kept walking, "So, what are we gonna eat then?"
"Some place cheap..." He answered immediately. "I told you, I'm running low on funds until I get paid next week."
"Broke-ass bitch," Cap scoffed. But before he could even begin to argue, Cap's arm slung heavily around his neck. "Did we say anything about you paying? Next week you pitch the beers, what do you say?"
Smiling sheepishly at his friends' gesture, he shoved the arm off his shoulders. "Get your paws off me... Fine, let's go to O'Malley's."
As the duo laughed brightly, walking toward the front doors, he looked one last time toward the gym, his lips curving upward slightly. But before he could think anything more, a palm slapped hard onto his back.
"Hey, come on, ..."
Hearing those words, a strange, disjointed feeling spread through the back of his head. 'What was that?'
He turned back to see Beanie pointing to the main gate with his thumb. "We should hurry before someone steals our spot, hurry up, ..."
It was deeply bizarre. His friend's lips had moved at the end of the sentence, but absolutely no sound came out of them. But that wasn't even the strangest part... The absolute worst of it was that despite being unable to physically hear what his friend was saying, he still knew what it was.
It was his name.
After all, he was used to hearing it, seeing it shape on his friends' and family's mouths. It was obvious he would recognize it instantly. So why couldn't he hear it now? Why couldn't he remember his own name?
The realization spread through him instantly, the strange feeling twisting into something utterly, fundamentally wrong. Vertigo overwhelmed him. His legs grew weak as his head began to feel light and bloated at the exact same time.
"..." Beanie called out again, but once more, he couldn't register the words.
A violent shiver ran down his spine, cold sweat instantly dampening his back. A grotesque sense of dread gripped his heart as something stirred deep inside his consciousness. Wrongness.
His friend opened his mouth again, but this time, he could finally hear a sound. Only, the words came from a completely different voice—carrying a name that didn't belong to the boy in the denim jacket.
"Zachary!"
The memory faded instantly, shattered into a million pieces. The cozy afternoon that inhabited his mind was rapidly replaced by his current, brutal reality. The soft, nostalgic breeze and warm sun dissolved into a humid, heavy draft carrying the smell of smoke and salt. The warm June sun was replaced by the pale, biting light of the Nameless Sun.
He was back on the Shore.
"Yes, darling? I'm listening." Zachary said without moving.
He was laying flat on the hard marble floor of the arch with his arms folded behind his head, his crimson eye squeezed shut as a forced, easygoing smile curved his lips.
"...I just dozed off for a second."
One couldn't dream in the Dream Realm—that was a stated fact, and he was no exception to the rule. His mind had simply drifted off. It was becoming a bad habit of his ever since his long period of isolation back in the Dark City. And perhaps because of his enhanced Mind, his memories were becoming increasingly vivid.
Opening his single eye, Zachary turned his head slightly to the left to see who had called his name. Nephis was standing right beside him, her tall figure blocking out the sun, her arms crossed beneath her chest as her foot tapped rhythmically against the stone.
Her armor was still repairing itself inside her Soul Sea, so she remained in the same makeshift utility clothes the rest of the cohort were wearing. Under the pale sun, her porcelain skin appeared almost to glow. Compared to Effie's massive, muscular frame, Nephis was toned and tight, yet she maintained her distinct, feminine curves.
Zachary squinted his single eye up at her. Nephis didn't shy away from his gaze, but after a long, unblinking second, he simply closed his eye again and turned his face back toward the sky.
"If you have nothing to say, could you stand out of my light?"
Even with his eye closed, he could easily picture Nephis's pristine face twisting into a strange frown before quickly returning to its usual, aloof mask. But contrary to his expectations, she didn't utter another word, remaining standing beside him like a silent sentinel. Zachary tried to ignore her, but her piercing gaze was impossible for Cinder Eyes to completely tune out.
Sighing dramatically, he asked in a strained voice, "Do you actually need anything, Neph?"
A beat passed. Eventually, Nephis simply answered, "No."
Saying that, she turned on her heel and made her way back toward the fire where the rest of the cohort was gathered.
Half-opening his eye, Zachary turned his head to watch her silent back, clicking his tongue softly. He could practically see the wheels spinning inside her head.
Looking past her toward the campfire, Zachary saw Kai sitting with the rest of the group, talking amicably. Effie was laughing loudly at something the idol had just said, slapping him on the back so hard that Caster actively flinched beside him, while Cassie giggled softly at the archer's muffled groans.
It was a nice sight, and a thoroughly welcome one. Members of a cohort didn't necessarily need to be on friendly terms—tactical efficiency and Aspect compatibility were usually prioritized above all else. But if you could add genuine companionship and familiar banter to the formula, it was always the ideal scenario.
The current dynamic should have been cause for celebration...
That would be the case, at least, if Zachary and Kai were actual permanent members of Changing Star's cohort. But the two of them had joined as external attachments, a boundary Zachary had made explicitly clear on the very first day of the expedition.
In the original novel, this stark divide between core members and external assets had made the cohort act distant and reserved toward Sunny and Kai. That dynamic was completely absent here, largely thanks to Zachary's casually disruptive presence. They had tried to maintain their distance at first, but his quick jokes and unrelenting banter had rendered those social walls entirely useless.
Even Caster, who usually kept his deeply suspicious nature hidden behind a polite smile and flawless manners, was gradually lowering his guard around them.
Propping himself up on his elbows, Zachary continued to observe the scene. Nephis sat down beside Cassie, gently patting her friend's shoulder as the blind girl offered her the Endless Spring with a bright smile.
'It's a familiar atmosphere...' he thought, a faint smile touching his lips that didn't quite reach his single eye.
Almost instantly, his relaxed expression flattened like an illusion, replaced by a cold, calculating focus. With a subtle shake of his head, Zachary forced his Mind to return to the pressing logistics ahead: the continuation of their trek South was only a couple of days away, and he needed a solid blueprint for the threats ahead. More specifically, he needed to figure out how to restore his most vital tool in time...
Flow Control.
The Soul and Soul Essence—despite being the foundational pillars around which this entire supernatural world revolved, and a force he was already actively experimenting with—remained deeply elusive in their true nature. The novel had simplified essence as a primary fuel source: a raw energy Awakened used to reinforce their physical bodies, trigger their Aspect Abilities, or power complex external phenomena like sorcery and spelltech.
Yet Zachary couldn't shake the feeling that there was far more to it than the text had ever addressed.
It was basic logic. It had been roughly fifty years since the dawn of the Nightmare Spell, since the Waking World was first forced to collide with the supernatural realities of the Spell. Humanity had made remarkable strides, learning to bridge advanced technology with Awakened abilities. But fifty years was a drop in the ocean—nowhere near enough time to uncover every underlying law governing this energy.
Zachary couldn't help but recall his original world. Despite discovering nuclear energy—one of the most complex, efficient power sources in history—humanity's primary application for it was still fundamentally using radiation to boil water and spin a turbine. Could the exact same primitive limitation be happening here? Was Soul Essence being utilized in its most basic, unrefined form simply because no one had figured out the deeper mechanics?
He couldn't be certain. And realistically, despite tapping into his Soul far earlier than an Sleeper should have been able to, he was still an absolute novice in the grand scheme of things.
'What do I actually know for sure?' Zachary mused, thoughtfully scratching his chin.
First, Soul Essence resided within the Soul Core. Despite the intrinsic connection between body and soul, the Core was not a physical organ located in the flesh. That was precisely why Master Jet's ability to bypass physical armor and strike the Soul Core directly was so terrifying.
'Yet Soul Shards actively contain condensed essence, and those are undeniably physical objects,' Zachary thought, casually rolling one of the translucent shards he had harvested from the spiders between his fingers.
When an Awakened crushed a Soul Shard, the essence trapped inside dissolved and flowed straight into their metaphysical Soul Core. That was a known fact. But how did that energy transition from a hard, physical state into a purely metaphysical one?
'...Does this lend credit to the multi-planar theory?' he thought with a dry, internal laugh. 'That living beings exist across multiple planes simultaneously? A physical plane where the Body resides, a metaphysical plane housing the Soul... and perhaps an abstract plane occupied by the Mind?'
Zachary shook his head with a quiet scoff. 'Look at me... Even after everything, I guess I'm still just a closet philosopher at heart.'
Theoretical physics and metaphysical philosophy didn't matter right now. What mattered was finding a practical loop to absorb essence and get Flow Control back online.
'Once a Core is fully saturated, it's physically impossible to absorb more essence into it... with the sole exception of Divine Aspects, of course,' Zachary mentally corrected himself with a frustrated click of his tongue, until a specific memory surfaced from his fight in the catacombs.
'Wait. There was another exception...' He distinctly recalled how, after slaying the last Guard and hitting his Core's absolute cap, a residual trickle of essence had bled out from the Core and directly into his physical Body. 'Would that same overflow effect trigger again?'
He immediately shook his head. It wasn't that simple. There was a fundamental mechanical difference between manually absorbing a crushed shard and naturally absorbing the soul fragments of a slain human.
'This is absurdly overly complicated...' he cursed under his breath. Then, his single eye snapped open with a sudden spark of reckless ingenuity. 'It doesn't need to be complicated. I can just force it to be simple.'
Without saying a word, Zachary raised one of the shards he had been playing with, popped it straight into his mouth, and swallowed it whole.
He swallowed hard, his throat working as he squeezed his eye shut, focusing his entire awareness on tracing the sharp, painful path the hard crystal took down his esophagus and into his stomach. Tuning out the external world entirely, he sharpened his internal senses, a massive, triumphant grin spreading across his face as he felt the miracle take place inside his gut.
The physical shard was violently breaking down, converting directly into raw, unrefined essence. And just as it had been happening every time he digested the flesh of Nightmare Creatures, the essence didn't go to his full Soul Core—it bled outward, radiating directly into every muscle, bone, and fiber of his physical Body. Only this time, the concentration was exponentially higher. It made perfect sense; the essence density in a raw crystal was leagues above what lingered in cooked monster meat.
The tactical implication was crystal clear. It would only be a matter of time—and a few swallowed shards—before his Body accumulated enough residual essence to bring Flow Control back online.
Opening his eye while keeping that wide, triumphant grin plastered across his face, his senses finally returned to his surroundings. He immediately caught the entire cohort staring dead at him with expressions of unadulterated horror and bewilderment.
"Did... did you just eat a Shard?" Caster asked, completely failing to hide his confusion behind his usual polite mask.
"Yes," Zachary answered immediately, licking his lips with a satisfied smack. "And no, I won't share."
"You do know that was inside a Nightmare Creature... right?" the Legacy asked once more, clear disgust bleeding directly into his usually refined voice.
"Do you know what else was inside a Nightmare Creature?!" Zachary shot back without missing a beat, before barking a sharp laugh.
His nasty, unhinged joke was answered by a collective, horrified flinch as the cohort simultaneously registered the double meaning behind his words. Effie in particular flinched hard, her eyes widening as she vividly recalled his twisted humor back at the cathedral.
Laughing at their synchronized, disgusted reactions, Zachary sighed with a happy, content expression. He strolled over to their circle and casually dropped down on the marble, leaning back on his hands right beside Cassie.
After giving him one last long, bewildered look, the cohort gradually returned to their quiet conversations as Nephis began preparing dinner over the central fire. Watching their casual exchanges, Zachary leaned further back, staring up at a stray, wispy cloud drifting lazily across the pale grey sky.
To be honest, this friendly, mundane atmosphere had made him a little melancholic. Perhaps that was the exact reason that random memory from his old college days back in the Other World had suddenly resurfaced in his head.
But before his mind could wander any further into the past, Kai suddenly addressed him from across the fire.
"Hey, uhmm... Zach..."
The young idol spoke with a hesitant, overly polite voice as Nephis quietly seasoned the meat beside him. "I don't know if this is a difficult thing to ask... and please, feel completely free to refuse if you don't want to answer..."
After such a heavy, nervous preamble, the rest of the cohort naturally quieted down, their attention snapping directly back to the two of them.
Kai glanced around, visibly surprised by the sudden, intense spotlight. He looked slightly regretful, clearly worrying that he had overstepped a boundary, but having already committed to the question, the archer offered a reluctant wince.
"I just... I haven't really heard much about you, like... before all of this," Kai gulped loudly before clarifying. "Like, what did you do before ending up in this corner of the Dream Realm? I'm not being suspicious or anything! It's just... how can you be so carefree in a place like this?"
Seeing the sudden, genuine interest the idol had taken in his background—and noticing how the rest of the cohort was subtly straining their ears for the answer—Zachary raised an unamused eyebrow and snickered.
"You ask a lot of questions, don't you, Rocco?"
Kai flinched at the playful accusation, his face flushing with embarrassment. But before he could stammer out an apology, Effie came bounding to his rescue.
"Come on, don't be so hard on him, Blabbermouth," the huntress interjected, leaning forward over the fire with a wolfish grin. "I'm actually pretty curious myself. I mean, look around you!"
She gestured dramatically with her hand at the people sitting around the crackling flames. "You've got a mighty Legacy, a Princess from a legendary clan, a literal idol, and a drop-dead gorgeous huntress... What kind of things did you do before this to stand with such accomplished figures?"
Zachary's expression didn't change, but eventually, he shook his head with a long, defeated sigh. Effie had completely forgotten to mention Cassie, but the blind seer had an effortless way of slipping into the background, so Zachary didn't linger on it.
Instead, a practical realization hit him: in all this time, he had never actually given a proper backstory to Effie or Kai. It hadn't really been a priority for him—after all, he couldn't exactly tell them he was a reader who got transmigrated into a web novel. Back at the cliffs, he had tried to express his genuine feelings to the girls by heavily twisting and adapting the Original One's backstory.
But after everything they had survived together since then... keeping up elaborate, tragic half-truths felt increasingly pointless.
Apparently, though, he was the only one who felt that way, because everyone was still staring at him, waiting for a dramatic reveal. Seeing that there was no smooth way out of it, Zachary finally exhaled.
"Well, I guess you two are the only ones who haven't heard the pitch," he said, chuckling pointedly at Caster. The Legacy looked away awkwardly, his jaw tightening slightly in mild embarrassment over the fact that he had run a background check on Zachary back at the Academy.
"I mean, there's really nothing much to share, to be honest. I come from a really normal background." Flashing a sudden smile, he added, "I can even bet that I've had the most mundane childhood among everyone present."
Coming from a world without the Spell, that was a fact. Kai nodded at his truth as Zachary continued.
"It's a really common story, you know? My parents died in a Gate Break, and... I was pretty shocked." Zachary stopped for a second before continuing immediately. "I mean... they've never done something like that before, so—"
But before he could continue, his story was interrupted by Effie's shameless laughter. The huntress was holding her belly as everyone turned to look at her with dismayed expressions. Beside her, Cassie's shoulders trembled slightly, but she quickly caught herself and shook her head in disappointment at Effie's posture.
Feeling how everyone was looking at her, Effie tried to regain her composure, but a few quiet laughs still escaped her lips. Under the heavy gazes of the cohort, Effie pointed a trembling finger at Zachary in accusation.
"You... you can't throw things like that in there!" she said with a painful giggle. "This is serious, Blabbermouth! How can you joke about that?!"
Zachary nodded solemnly at her words. "I'm sorry that you took my story as a joke, Effie... I'll try to be more careful next time..."
"No! That's not what I—" But she couldn't finish as the accusatory eyes of the cohort settled intensely on her. Realizing that anything else she said would just sound like an excuse, Effie finally said quietly, "I'm sorry, Zach. Please continue."
Maintaining his flat expression while barely keeping his laughter in check on the inside, Zachary coughed into his fist.
"Well, as I was saying..." Stopping again, his face twisted slightly before he said in resignation, "It's just... I don't even know if I can say this. You're gonna laugh at me..."
"No, I promise we're not gonna laugh," Kai said with a serious expression, throwing a stern side-eye at the huntress, who nodded immediately with a determined face.
Receiving his promise, Zachary sighed deeply before continuing. "So, as I grew up... right, I remembered—"
"Hehehehe." Effie held her stomach, trying to contain the giggle pulled straight from her lungs. Her eyes were tearful as she raised a hand to the cohort, who could only look back at her with sheer disbelief.
Seeing how the huntress's unbreakable composure was completely crumbling beneath the judgmental eyes of everyone, Zachary couldn't contain his laughter anymore. Listening to his easygoing laugh, Kai followed immediately, right along with the rest of the cohort.
With that shared laughter, the atmosphere turned light as Nephis began handing out dinner. Receiving a skewer of golden-brown meat, Zachary blew off some steam before taking a look at the meal. It was pieced meat separated by small rolls of seaweed. Taking a big bite, Zachary nodded in appreciation. It was always surprising how, despite lacking proper ingredients, Nephis managed to cook something incredible every single time.
Between bites and drinks from the Endless Spring, Zachary told once again the same story he had once narrated to Nephis and Cassie back at the cliffs—obviously while carefully omitting the deep loneliness that crept into his heart from time to time.
Finishing his meal, Zachary licked his thumb carelessly, using the gesture to dislodge a stubborn piece of meat that had caught between his fangs. He was thankful that in the bundle he received from the Artisans there was a makeshift toothbrush, though he would be even more grateful if he had some dental floss.
'Who would have thought that dental hygiene would be so utterly neglected in the apocalypse,' Zachary lampooned happily to himself—until Kai once again spoke aloud. Only this time, the archer addressed the whole cohort instead of just him.
"You know..." The archer said while wiping his greasy hands with a scrap of cloth. "Back at the Settlement, before I was invited to attend your meeting at the lodge, I met a resident from the Castle with Zach."
Taking his finger out of his mouth, Zachary watched intently as the archer continued talking under the attentive eyes of the cohort.
"It was a memorable encounter, for sure..." Kai said with an awkward laugh. "But what was really memorable was something else. He asked me a question I wasn't expecting."
Kai took a deep breath, looking into the fire as he spoke solemnly. "What do you dream about?"
They were simple words, and yet the cohort reacted to them differently. Nephis turned from the idol, casting an intense but brief look at Zachary before turning back to Kai. Effie looked slightly bewildered; having stayed on the Forgotten Shore for three long years, she knew the heavy weight dreams carried in this place.
And Zachary... Zachary looked at the idol with a mildly frustrated expression. 'This guy really doesn't know how to stay quiet, does he?'
Oblivious to his real thoughts, Kai continued with an easy smile. "Back then, I couldn't answer... And yet that question remained with me over the following week. Now, with this journey and what waits ahead of it, I have begun to wonder what I'll do once I get out of this place."
To the expectant eyes of the cohort, the idol smiled shyly and finally confessed. "Avatar singer."
Such a tame answer after all that dramatic build-up made Effie and Cassie snort in soft giggles, followed by a small, amused smile from Nephis. Being familiar with the industry, she could easily imagine the stir the idol's presence would cause in such a competition. Caster simply shook his head with a gentle smile.
But hearing such normal, mundane words, Zachary's amused smile slowly disappeared as he turned his head toward the idol. A strange, bitter taste began spreading through his mouth as a familiar, heavy feeling took hold of his heart.
Effie asked a question that didn't quite reach his ears, but Kai was quick to answer with a gentle smile.
"I just… I just think that it would be nice to be judged based on my skill and talent alone, with nothing else getting in the way. Also, that would be such a great way to announce my return to the fans! Just imagine... they would be so excited! It would be the perfect media storm."
Zachary's heart continued beating normally, but with each pulse, that strange, familiar feeling spread further through him. He began absently tapping his fingertips together as Effie chimed in with a broad grin.
"I don't even have to think about it. I would go eat chicken wings… the real ones. And then start preparing myself for the Second Nightmare. Pretty simple."
Hearing their words... their laughter... this exact conversation...
It made him deeply uncomfortable.
The reason was simple: Zachary had read those exact words in the original novel. And now, without him initiating the topic, the same dialogue was repeating itself word for word. Zachary was no stranger to this; back when he traveled with Nephis and Cassie through the Labyrinth, he had found himself dropping into conversations he had once read, even initiating a few himself.
But now, it was different.
Having accepted the fundamental detachment he bore to this world and its inhabitants, finding himself stuck inside a scenario he once knew purely as fiction... how could Zachary even begin to see these people as anything more than mere characters, if they were following the exact script someone else had written for them?
The very detachment Zachary had accepted began clawing at his heart, and a fleeting melancholy crossed briefly over his face without anyone noticing. He had been laughing with these... people just mere seconds ago.
And now... it felt like he was right back at square zero.
'Perhaps... all of this would have been easier if I had accepted the merger with the Original One,' Zachary mused as he traced lazy circles on his fingertips. 'I wouldn't feel this rejection toward this world... because this world would actually be my own.'
His thoughts drifted back to the vague, flickering soul of the Original One from the beginning of his First Nightmare. The guy had been so feeble, his personality so vague, and his ego poorly formed. If they had merged... it was highly probable that Zachary would have retained most of his own personality while simply adopting a few traits and habits from the original host. The only real difference would be carrying an additional set of memories while viewing this reality as his genuine home.
'But then again, having already forgotten my own true name and the names of everyone I held close... who knows how that would have affected me.' Zachary pinched his leg until the skin turned bright red, grounding himself.
As the conversation continued around him, Zachary sank deeper into the dark recess of his thoughts. 'Knowing how much the merger would have benefited me in the long run... would I have accepted it?'
The question made his lips twist downward. The final promise he made to the Original One before taking full control still rested heavy on his shoulders—so heavy that he regretted it from time to time, right alongside his promise to Dahrio.
'Would I have made a different choice?'
The truth was, he didn't know. And that lack of an answer was a brutal answer in itself.
'I guess nobody can truly claim not to be a hypocrite, can they?' Zachary thought sadly, a small, sardonic laugh escaping his lips.
Having heard it, Nephis turned in his direction with a raised eyebrow.
"What? Did you also think that this was my natural hair color?" she asked with amusement, playing idly with her silver bangs.
Coming back to the conversation and instantly grasping what they were discussing, Zachary shook his head slightly before his usual easygoing smile returned to his lips.
"I did at the beginning..." His smile twisted slightly for a fraction of a second before smoothing back out. "It gave you this main-character vibe, you know? The whole Legacy package."
Hearing his answer, Nephis broke into a bright, melodic laugh. But listening to the sweet sound, Zachary could only manage an awkward, faint smile.
"A main character..." Nephis muttered, her smile lingering as her giggles faded. "That doesn't sound so bad, but this life isn't a story... There might be villains, true, but it's our job to also take the place of protagonists."
Her voice sounded heavy, ringing with absolute determination. Perhaps she didn't fully believe her own words deep down, but her eyes blazed with intense purpose the second the existence of villains was mentioned.
The cohort nodded solemnly at her speech—her spark was effortlessly contagious, after all. But Zachary just felt a cold, sharp turn in his stomach.
"Well, what about you, Zach?" Nephis turned to him with a small, expectant smile. "What would you do on the outside?"
At the question, the whole cohort shifted their focus back to him, while Kai leaned in with genuine interest.
"Yeah, what would you do, Zach? You always talk about how much you wish to return home, but that isn't really a long-term goal, is it?"
It took every ounce of physical control he had over his Body to keep that easy smile pinned to his face, even as the pungent, metallic taste of iron flooded his mouth. Closing his eye for a brief second, he leaned back leisurely, answering with a casual chuckle.
"I'll open a bar."
During those long past months in the darkness of the Cathedral, his mind had mostly housed tactical calculations—mapping out every conceivable outcome and survival scenario for the end of the Forgotten Shore. And yet, in those fleeting, quiet moments, Zachary had occasionally allowed himself to ponder the road ahead after escaping this hellhole.
How would he move forward once he actually stepped into the Waking World? How was he going to face the avalanche of future story arcs heading his way?
Nothing was set in stone yet, but one thing was an absolute certainty: for the elaborate plans he was going to build, he would need capital... lots of it.
The cohort's expressions twisted into collective confusion at the random answer, prompting Zachary to cough into his fist.
"Don't look at me like that. It won't be just any ordinary bar..." He leaned forward conspiratorially as the group listened in. "By day, it'll be a normal bar. But at night... it will also be a completely normal bar."
Effie's expression instantly flattened into a deadpan glare, but before she could even raise a fist to threaten him, Zachary quickly added, "That's just the front, of course. Beneath the establishment, that's where the real business happens." He snickered, visualising the whole setup in his head. "I'll be dealing in Memories, high-grade information, and other shady underground assets... A total Casablanca type operation."
Hearing the absurd yet detailed pitch, Nephis chuckled softly, shaking her head. "I can't even pretend to be surprised. That sounds exactly like something you'd pull."
"Really? I honestly thought he'd try his hand at a career in poetry. That sounds just like you, Mr. Inconvenient," Effie chimed in with a boisterous laugh.
Zachary joined in with the group's shared laughter, but the mirth didn't reach his single eye in the slightest.
'The simple truth is... I am fundamentally different from all of you,' he thought, a quiet, melancholic smile lingering in his mind.
Despite breathing the same air and treading the same stone, his reality was vastly different from theirs. Escaping the Forgotten Shore wasn't the light at the end of the tunnel for him. The Waking World awaiting them wasn't a place that would welcome him back with open arms like the rest. His real endgame lay far beyond it, hidden behind layers of destiny and narrative threads that only he knew. That was his true destination.
But he couldn't share any of that, could he? He was a foreigner here—an uninvited stranger merely passing through their world.
So for now, the only thing he could do was sit by the fire and laugh along with them.