Chapter Text
‘This is not how I imagined my day going.’
I’m currently inside a police station registering myself as a dreamer. Usually you would come in when the spell first infected you, but my case is a bit special. You see… I was just transmigrated to the world of Shadow Slave. The last thing I remember is reading a worm fanfic while walking home.
‘I probably should have paid attention while crossing the road, that truck hit me like a… well, truck.’
The next thing I know, I’m standing on a random street of NQSC. How did I know it was NQSC, you ask? Well, I really wanted to know where I was when a weird voice told me to walk to the next street. So, as any normal person would do, I did what the voice in my head told me to. Totally normal person kind of thing. When I arrived on the next street, I ended up overhearing two guys talking shit about the NQSC government. I stood in a close part of the street, acting like I was busy with something for about 60 seconds. Then I left.
‘How did I know it was 60 seconds? I didn’t count. How did I know to listen to those guys specifically?’
And just as that thought came, so did the answer.
Path: Finding out where I am.
Mode: Instruction
Cost: 10 CC
Step 1: Go to the next street
Step 2: Walk through the street until you reach a place where people are talking
Step 3: Stay close and listen to two men speaking about the NQSC government
Step 4: Stand still and act like you are busy for 60 seconds
Step 5: Leave the area and walk away normally
Path completed
Just like that, I figured that I wasn’t a normal person. So the next course of action was trying to see my runes, and just by thinking about it, the spell answered.
Name: Thomas de Oliveira.
True Name: N/A
Rank: Dreamer.
Soul Core: Dormant.
Class: Beast.
Probability Engines: 1/7
Strings Created: 0/1000
Memories: N/A
Echoes: N/A
Attributes: Causal Intuition.
Aspect: [Pathbound Seer].
Aspect Rank: Divine.
Aspect Description: [You can see possible futures before they happen. These futures appear as instincts and mental pressure toward the most likely or effective outcome. You naturally compare different paths reality could take and are pushed toward the one that leads to success. However, the more complex the situation, the more overwhelming the possible futures become, making clear thinking harder and slower. In extreme cases, too many possibilities can overload your mind and temporarily freeze your decision-making.]
Innate Ability: [Causal Intuition].
Ability Description: [You instinctively feel the best action to take in a situation. It does not appear as words or visions, only as a strong sense of direction or “rightness.” It helps you react faster and make better decisions without conscious analysis.]
Aspect Ability: [Future Branch Perception].
Aspect Ability Description: [You can briefly sense multiple possible near-future outcomes of your current situation. This does not show full visions, only fragments of likely results based on your next actions. It helps you choose safer or more effective paths, but becomes unstable when too many variables are present]
Aspect Legacy: [Not unlocked].
Flaw: [Overthinking Collapse].
Flaw Description: [When too many possible outcomes appear at once, your mind can become overwhelmed. This causes hesitation, delayed reactions, or temporary inability to act until a clear direction is forced by external pressure or instinct.]
And just like that, we are back to the present. To this police station where I am lying to the face of a few concerned police officers. At least I'm not winging it.
Path: Academy Entry Registration
Mode: Instruction
Cost: 45 CC
Step 1: Go to the police station
Step 2: Tell the officer you are a new Dreamer and need to register
Step 3: Explain that you were not able to come earlier because you fell asleep before reaching safety
Step 4: Say that you ended up entering your First Nightmare during that sleep
Step 5: State that you came to the delegacy immediately after finishing the First Nightmare
Step 6: Answer basic questions and confirm your identity as a Dreamer
“...And that is all, officer.”
The man is pale, not in the ‘guy who does not see the sun much’ pale, but a nice white paint pale. I guess being told someone entered the first nightmare without an awakened to overlook the process would scare anyone. Failing in the nightmare would have meant a nightmare creature appearing in the city.
“W-well, congratulations on surviving the first nightmare. W-what do you plan on doing now? An awakened is already on the way.”
Step 7: Wait for 6 minutes
“Guess I’ll just sit here and wait, then.”
Sitting in one of the available chairs, I think back to what I learned about my aspect ability.
‘It’s a discount version of Path to Victory. I can only path things up to 24h in the future and have limited processing power. It calls this processing power Cognitive Charge (CC). Each path costs an appropriate CC cost depending on complexity. Upon completing or ending the path, the CC used for it is liberated for use again. I currently possess 100 CC, which means all my paths can’t exceed a value of 100 when added together.
I also noticed that there are three modes I can use. Instruction mode tells me a step-by-step guide to complete the path that I have to follow on my own. Intuitive mode gives me a gut feeling about things involved in a path, like if I had a ‘path to avoid danger while walking home,' it would give me a bad or good feeling depending on the route I choose. And lastly, I have automatic mode. This one is just going full Contessa, my body automatically completes the path perfectly.
A funny thing is that my innate ability acts just like a weaker version of my Intuition mode, except it doesn’t cost CC and I don’t really know where it will lead me.
When exactly 6 minutes passed, the door opened and a woman entered the station. Her skin was flawless, pale as snow. Short raven-black hair cascaded from her head, and icy-blue eyes looked directly at me.
‘So this is Master Jet. Damm, the novel didn’t do her justice.’
“So you are the new dreamer. Congratulations on surviving your first nightmare. I’m Master Jet.”
Step 8: Introduce yourself.
“Hello, Master Jet, I’m Thomas.” I smile.
‘Oh yeah. It’s all coming together.
A week has passed since I entered the academy. I did the classic Shadow Slave SI routine, which means spending all my days with teacher Julius preparing to enter the dream realm. But today something really interesting happened, Sunny and Nephis finally arrived. I’m really glad that Canon is just starting. It would be awkward to arrive here hoping to influence the story only to discover the protagonist is already a supreme. My power was really useless for finding out when I am in the story, It cannot see the past. The only thing in its sight is the next 24h, so I couldn’t see if Sunny had already had his nightmare.
‘Time to be a stalker.’
Path: Get Closer to Sunny
Mode: Instruction
Cost: 30 CC
Step 1: Go to the wilderness survival training
Following the path, I arrive at the scheduled lesson with teacher Julius. This time, I’m not the only student there. A short boy is already talking to teacher Julius, his hair is black, and he has extremely pale skin.
‘You need some sun, bro.’
Step 2: Greet Julius with a smile and familiarity
I do so.
“Thomas! Just in time, we have a new student with us! This is Sunless."
Sunny looks at me as if cataloging every detail.
Step 3: Keep your body relaxed and incline your head slightly to the left
Step 4: Look at his shadow from the corner of your eye, then quickly look back
Step 5: Frown slightly, as if thinking about something
Step 6: Greet sunny while looking distracted
Following the path, I proceed to greet Sunny.
“That… forget it. Hi, my name is Thomas. Glad to have another survivalist with us.”
"Hi..." He says while frowning slightly.
“Come on, boys. Do you two know how to swim?” Teacher Julius asks us with a sinister smile.
Step 7: Bond over swimming in the freezing river
I sigh internally.
‘Great’