Part 1
THE SYSTEM-SPECIFIC CURSE OF THE NIGHTMARE HAS BEEN DE-ACTIVATED]
[THE HOST WILL BE FORCEFULLY AWAKENED IN 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0]
A violent surge of electricity tore through Kimura's body. His back arched, muscles convulsing as if every nerve had caught fire. His eyes snapped open, pupils dilated in shock.
"What the flipping—shit!"
His voice broke through the silence as he sat bolt upright, gasping. For a moment, he couldn't even process what had just happened — the nightmare, the monster, Vanko, Sena's voice — all of it was colliding in his skull like fragments of shattered glass.
Then came the pain.
"Ahhh! Ahhh! AHHHH!"
Kimura clutched his chest and head at once, fingers digging into his skin. The agony wasn't just in his flesh. His **mind**, his **soul**, even the fragile tether of his sanity — all of it burned, twisted, distorted. Crossing between realities without the strength to endure it was like being ripped apart by invisible hands.
A black aura erupted from his body, a corrosive miasma thick with despair. It bled into the Safe Zone like poison ink dropped into clear water, corroding the marble beneath him. His scream turned guttural, his vision swimming.
[ALERT!]
[Penalty Detected: Existential Decay – Type: Aura.]
[Cause: Unauthorized Alt-Universe Traversal.]
[Initiating Emergency Protocol… Transferring "Decay Aura" from Hunter → Target (???/???)]
"What… a-aaAAAHHH—!"
His voice cracked as the air in front of him split with a sharp *rip*. A green portal whirled open, pulsing like a living wound in space. From it emerged a **hand** — no flesh, no bone, only pure energy condensed into a shimmering construct.
It reached for him.
"Whaaa—!"
Kimura tried to resist, but his body was too weak. The hand grasped at the black aura clinging to his form, trying to peel it away. The dark miasma shrieked in response, as though it were alive, retaliating with crushing pressure. The ground around him blackened, plants withering instantly, marble pillars cracking under its malice.
Kimura, caught between the two forces, could barely think. His senses were shredded, reality itself blurring in and out of focus.
Meanwhile, in the G.O.D Safe Zone, the clash intensified. The aura lashed back at the green construct, its tendrils like chains of shadow. For a moment, the two were locked in a deadlock, pressure waves rattling the very foundations of the sacred land.
Then, the hand clenched into a fist.
*BOOOOOM!*
The punch it delivered shattered the stalemate. A shockwave flattened everything behind Kimura for miles — entire blocks of ancient structures reduced to dust. The wind pressure alone howled like a hurricane. The fissures of energy it left behind tore through space itself.
The dark aura screamed.
*SCREEEEEAAAKHH!*
Its high-pitched shriek echoed like the wail of a dying world. With one final rip, the energy construct tore the corruption free from Kimura's body, dragging it into the portal. The black miasma flailed, resisted, then was swallowed whole as the portal collapsed with a thunderous snap.
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Kimura collapsed to his knees, gasping for air. His body trembled violently.
"Huff… huff… huff…"
The pain was gone, but his body was left ravaged. Though his wounds had closed, his **senses** were a wreck. His eyes saw only fog, his hearing rang with a shrill whine, his nerves burned as though disconnected from his flesh.
Still, his soldier's instincts screamed at him to act. He dug his nails into his palms, forcing focus.
"I… n-need t-to… foc… cus…" His voice stuttered, words crumbling as his mind struggled to align thought with speech.
He squeezed his eyes shut, inhaling deeply. His training, his discipline, all the drills burned into his body over years of war came rushing back.
**Inhale.**
"Control the emotions…"
**Exhale.**
"Control the senses…"
His heartbeat slowed, though faint tremors still ran through him. He focused on rhythm, on breath, on reclaiming his body piece by piece.
Inhale.
Exhale.
The nightmare had passed — but its residue lingered.
Kimura Takato knew this was only the beginning.
Part 2
Inhale.
Exhale.
Hours slipped by in silence.
Kimura sat cross-legged at the edge of a broken stone platform, the air around him humming faintly with residual energy from the earlier purge. His posture was rigid at first — every muscle tense, veins twitching beneath the skin — but slowly, gradually, the rhythm of his breathing began to ease.
"In… out… in… out…"
His chest rose and fell like the tide. The fog in his mind thinned, his shredded senses inching back into place. The high-pitched ringing in his ears dulled to a manageable hiss. His vision, once a haze of white and black, sharpened enough for him to make out the runes carved into the ground around him.
"...Huuuuh~~"
The sound that left his lips was half sigh, half groan, but it was relief all the same. He hadn't collapsed. He hadn't blacked out. His instincts, his training — they'd saved him. Again.
Kimura flexed his hands, staring down at the trembling fingers.
"Still shaky… but usable."
He rotated his shoulders, cracked his neck, tested his legs. The soldier in him was methodical, never rushing. After a long pause, he rose to his feet and let his gaze drift across the Safe Zone for the first time since waking.
What he saw left him momentarily speechless.
A sprawling forest of pillars surrounded him — each carved with thousands of glowing runes, some pulsing faintly, others cracked and broken. Even the smallest stood taller than skyscrapers, dwarfing him into insignificance.
At the center of it all was the tree.
It rose like a titan's spear thrust into the heavens, a thousand meters of bark and roots woven into a monument of life. Its leaves shimmered in shifting hues — emerald green, royal purple, molten gold, and serene sky blue — each one glowing softly, like fragments of starlight caught in its branches.
Thick roots coiled around the rune-pillars, fusing with them, feeding them. Energy pulsed through the network in rhythmic surges, a heartbeat of the cosmos itself.
Kimura stared, jaw slack. For all his battles, for all the hell he had endured, this was… beyond comprehension.
"...What is this place?" he whispered, more to himself than anyone else.
But the system heard. It always did.
[Affirmative!]
[The hunter's query is acknowledged.]
[Would you like an explanation of this location alongside your requested files?]
Kimura pinched the bridge of his nose. His head still throbbed, but the soldier in him knew that information was survival.
"Yes. Show me everything. Start with Vanko's file — the sorted version. Then tell me my role as a hunter, my objectives. And… tell me about this place."
The system didn't respond immediately. Instead, a faint hum filled the air. The rune-pillars flared once, as though acknowledging his request.
A translucent panel materialized before him, larger than any he had seen so far. Its surface stretched like a floating wall, lines of data flickering rapidly.
[Retrieving the sorted file of Chris Vanko…]
[File type: Origin (Sorted)…]
Kimura's jaw tightened at the name. "Vanko…"
The mercenary lord's face flashed in his mind — his arrogance, his cruelty, his screams as Kimura tore into him in the nightmare. Even remembering it made his stomach churn.
The panel stabilized. Lines of text scrolled across its surface in neat sequence.
[Alert!]
[File Type: Origin]
[Subject: Chris Vanko]
The letters burned into Kimura's retinas as the file began to unravel before him.
But before he read, his eyes flicked back to the massive tree in the distance. He could feel its presence pressing against him — not hostile, but watchful. Every instinct screamed at him that the peace here was *not real.* That this "Safe Zone" was just another illusion, a gilded cage masking horrors beneath.
His voice was quiet, almost reverent as he muttered, "A soldier never lets his guard down. Not even in paradise."
He turned back to the panel. His heart pounded as he braced himself to read what the system had dredged up about Chris Vanko — the man, the monster, the nightmare.
"Alright," Kimura whispered. "Let's see the truth."
The file opened
---
Part 3 – The File of Origin
[Alert!]
[File Type: "Origin."]
[Subject: Chris Vanko has been retrieved.]
A translucent screen shimmered into existence, blotting out the ruined skyline above Kimura. Its edges pulsed faintly with violet light, like a heart still beating.
[Info:
Name: Chris Vanko
Age: 57
Alias: The Mercenary Lord of the Higher Hierarchy.
Sentient beings slaughtered: 108,008,369.
Monster kill count: 79,689,640,940.
Achievements: Dark Lord. Possessor of Demonic Nature. Lust Incarnate. Sadistic Demon.]
Kimura's jaw tightened, his hands trembling as he forced himself to keep reading.
[Combat Power: 65
Skills:
• Demonic Chains
• Darkness Manipulation
• Fear-Despair-Lust Container
• Entropy Disruption (Anti-Aging)]
But it was the "Main Info" that tore into him like knives.
[Origin: Born as Hasai Shido. Human by flesh, demon by nature. At age thirteen, consumed the flesh and blood of his own family, reveling in sin. His clan—once 50,000 strong humans, a line stretching back to 3459 B.C.—was annihilated by his hand. His mother, sisters, kin—all violated before slaughter. The Shido line ended with him. Thus began the path of Vanko.]
Kimura's breath hitched. His eyes reddened as though blood itself filled them. His chest twisted with nausea so fierce he nearly vomited.
"That bastard…" he muttered, voice low and shaking. "I knew he was filth… but this? This is rot that shouldn't exist."
He pressed his palm to his forehead, trembling as memories overlapped—the way Vanko's gauntleted hand had touched Saki's cheek, the way his daughter's scream had echoed as beasts tore into her. Knowing now that the man who did it had begun his reign of horror by feasting on his own blood made the bile in his throat burn hotter.
He clenched his fists until blood seeped from his cracked knuckles. "You're not just a monster. You're worse than nightmare itself. Even calling you human is a disgrace."
The system interrupted his spiral with chilling indifference.
[Now the basic info—aligning with your Hunter Title.]
The screen shifted, words scrolling like commands carved into the sky.
[Your duty as a Hunter:
Exterminate Nightmares spawned from the Dimension of Endless Nightmares (D.E.N).
Eliminate aberrant beings—demon lords, corrupted gods—spawned when D.E.N monsters bleed into other worlds.
Each successful extermination raises Combat Power (CP) by a certain amount.
Upon reaching CP 108, you may quit and designate a successor.]
Kimura froze. The soldier in him catalogued every word, every implication. The reality struck harder than any blow: he was now bound to a war spanning not just cities, not even nations—but worlds.
His lips curled into a bitter grin. "A soldier's duty. Even here. The battlefield just got… bigger."
The system pressed on mercilessly.
[What is the D.E.N?]
Lines of alien text unfurled, overlaying his vision.
[Dimension of Endless Nightmares:
• Logos Energy Extraction – siphons ripples of knowledge from the higher Logos Dimension to generate infinite energy.
• Energy Providence – the primal source of all energy in cosmology, sustaining even gods.
• Dungeon Generation – endless dungeons of increasing scale. More than 25 'Main Dungeons,' including Scaletrón City.
• Corruption Conversion – absorbs/feeds on the despair, aura, and corrupted emotions of players to manufacture meta-physical energy so that the hunter can them as a powers source.]
Kimura stared, his breath shallow. "You're telling me this whole dimension is a… parasite. A machine that eats despair and spits out power."
The system answered coldly:
[Affirmative.]
Silence followed. Heavy. Suffocating.
Kimura dragged a trembling hand across his face, wiping away sweat and blood. His body felt cold, but inside his chest, fire roared hotter than ever.
"Then fine," he whispered, his voice a vow only the broken ruins could hear. "If despair is what you want… then I'll turn mine into a blade. And I'll carve Vanko into nothing."
The screen pulsed, awaiting further input.
But Kimura only lowered his head, his teeth bared in a grin that was equal parts madness and resolve.
---
Chapter 8 – Questions and Answers
Part 4 – The Weight of Sin
"...Do it."
The words left his mouth like iron scraped across stone.
The system's screen pulsed once, acknowledging his command.
[Affirmative.]
[ Retrieving sequence of crimes committed by Subject: Chris Vanko. Warning: Volume is extensive.]
---
Hours bled away.
Kimura scrolled through panel after panel, each page another atrocity. His eyes burned, but he forced them to stay open. His throat was raw, but not a sound escaped him. His soldier's discipline made him read every line, every number, every cruelty committed by the mercenary lord who had once mocked him.
Massacres. Enslavement. Rituals. Betrayals so vile they made the blood of history's tyrants look merciful. Vanko was not a man. He was entropy in flesh.
By the time Kimura reached the end of the list, his stomach churned with a nausea that felt like poison. He clenched his jaw so tight he thought his teeth might crack.
"This…" His voice trembled, dripping with disgust. "This isn't a man. He's scum beneath scum. Calling him 'king of filth' would be a kindness he doesn't deserve."
The words echoed into the empty ruins around him, bitter and sharp.
---
The Safe Zone stretched endlessly around him as he walked, dragging the file with him. Rune-pillars towered overhead like sentinels, glowing faintly in rhythm with the colossal tree at the center. Its four-colored leaves shimmered, scattering motes of light that drifted like fireflies through the broken air.
It should have been beautiful. It *was* beautiful.
But Kimura couldn't shake the chill crawling under his skin. Every instinct screamed at him: *this peace is a veil… nothing here is safe.*
The thought returned, unbidden: the monster version of himself, the distorted grin, the way it had devoured Vanko alive. His shoulders shivered despite the warmth of the glowing leaves.
"...Tch." He spat to the side, trying to ground himself. "Paranoia or instinct, doesn't matter. I'll treat it the same."
---
[Affirmative!]
The system's sudden voice boomed in his skull, making him flinch.
"Fucking hell!" Kimura snapped, clutching his ears. "Keep it down, you space parasite!"
The screen pulsed. [Correction: This is the Hunter Q&A function.]
"Then fix the damn volume!"
[Volume is at default maximum.]
"Who the hell sets MAX as default!?"
The screen hesitated. Then:
[Adjusting to auto-audio adaptive mode.]
Kimura blew out a shaky breath, muttering under his teeth. "Better. About time you stopped trying to kill me with sound."
---
He tapped the panel with a bloodstained fingertip. "Now… answer me this. You've been feeding me Vanko's sins like a ledger from hell. But do you have access to my memories too?"
[Answer: No. The system does not have direct access to the Hunter's memories. Memory-sharing requires host approval via settings.]
Kimura's lips curled in a bitter smile. "Good. Last thing I need is you rummaging through my head like it's an open market."
He paused, his gaze sharpening. "Show me your functions. All of them."
The panel flickered.
[Acknowledged. Other functions are prepared but locked. Keyword required: "Main Menu."]
Kimura didn't wait for the system to finish. "Main Menu."
The air shifted.
*Swish!*
Every panel vanished. For a heartbeat the Safe Zone was blank, silent. Then, with a low hum, a new interface appeared — not a simple panel this time, but an arching, semi-transparent display that curved around him like a command center.
| {Main Menu} |
— {Status}
— {Inventory} [Locked until CP 10]
— {Daily Quest} [Locked, Requirement: CP 25]
— {Training Mode} [Locked, Requirement: CP 100]
— {Trinity Flame Cultivation} [Locked, Requirement: Collect three shards of the Holy Flame]
— {Shop (Lv.0)} [Unlocked]
— {map (lv 0)} [Unlocked]
— {Settings} [Unlocked]
A footnote pulsed at the bottom of the screen:
[Note from (???): This power is not a "system," but the birthright of the Hunter. The Origin of the Hunter has shifted to D.E.N's Resident.]
Kimura narrowed his eyes at the note, suspicion flashing across his face.
"So… you're telling me you're not a system at all?"
[Correct. The (???) designation is not a system, but the inherent right of all Hunters chosen by the Dimension of Endless Nightmares.]
Kimura chuckled dryly, shaking his head. "Fine. But parasite or birthright, doesn't matter. You respond like a system, so that's what I'll call you."
The panel stayed silent this time, as if sulking.
---
Kimura's grin faded. His tone hardened. "Now, enough games. Tell me the truth." His eyes narrowed, sharp as blades. "Why… did I have that nightmare?"
[Answering…]
The system's tone grew colder.
[The experience was not a dream or hallucination. It was the activation of two default skills: "Dream Walker" and "Curse of the Nightmare."]
Kimura's blood chilled. He swallowed hard, forcing the words out. "So… it was real."
[Yes. "Dream Walker" allows the Hunter to experience multiple lives of alternate versions of themselves during sleep. "Curse of the Nightmare" ensures those dreams are exclusively nightmare immersions. Due to first-time instability, hunter temporarily inhabited one alternate self.]
Kimura stood frozen. His face remained blank, but his eyes betrayed him, flickering with unease.
"Passive skills…" His voice cracked. "They only trigger when I sleep… right?"
[Yes, Hunter.]
For a long moment, silence ruled. Then Kimura tilted his head back and let out a hollow laugh.
"Of course." His hand dragged down his face, nails scraping skin. "Even in sleep… I can't escape the battlefield."
The laughter died. His shoulders sagged, and a helpless expression clouded his features.
"…Figures."
---
---
Part 5 – The Main Menu
Swisk!
All the panels vanished at once, the air snapping back into silence. For a heartbeat, Kimura thought he had gone blind. Then, in front of him, a new interface unfolded like a giant obsidian slate etched with glowing runes.
{ Main Menu }
{ Status }
{ Inventory } – [Locked until Combat Power 10]
{ Daily Quest } – [Locked – Requirement: CP 25]
{ Training Mode } – [Locked – Requirement: CP 100]
{ Trinity Flame Cultivation } – [Locked – Requirement: Find the Three Holy Flame Shards]
{ Shop Lv.0 } – [Unlocked]
{ Settings } – [Unlocked]
[Note by (???): This is not a "system" in truth,
but the inherent birthright of the Hunter,
whose Origin has been rewritten into the D.E.N's Resident.]
Kimura stared at it, lips pressed tight. His soldier's eyes scanned each entry like a tactical map, cataloguing what was locked, what was open, and what it implied. Every word screamed trap, but also opportunity.
"…Birthright, huh?" His voice dripped with suspicion. "If this isn't a system, then what the hell is it? Some parasite dressing itself as a gift?"
[Answering…]
[The Designated (???) is not an artificial system.
It is the inherited right of every Hunter chosen to walk the D.E.N.]
Kimura's grin was sharp, bitter. "Inherited right, or shackles with fancy wrapping? Doesn't matter. I'll still call you 'system.'"
For the first time, the text did not immediately respond. The silence carried weight, like the thing on the other side of the screen was thinking.
Kimura chuckled coldly. "Heh. Guess I struck a nerve." His grin faded as fast as it came, his eyes narrowing. "But jokes aside—cut the smoke. The real question is why I had that nightmare."
[Answering…]
[It was not a dream or nightmare. It was the simultaneous activation of two default, passive skills:
– Dream Walker
– Curse of Nightmare]
[Function: Together, they forced the Hunter into an immersive parallel experience, inhabiting another version of yourself from a different world-line.]
Kimura froze, his jaw tightening. His eyes darkened, unreadable. "…So you're telling me that monster I saw—the one with my face—that wasn't some hallucination? That was me?"
[Affirmative.]
[Due to instability during the first activation, you were only capable of entering temporarily. Subsequent uses will strengthen the immersion.]
Kimura's voice broke into a hoarse laugh, one that sounded halfway between disbelief and despair. "So every time I sleep, I'm dragged into another version of my own hell? Tell me… do they all end like that?!"
[Answer: Yes, Hunter. The Curse of Nightmare enforces nightmare-type immersions exclusively.]
"…Passive. Uncontrollable." His grin was gone now, replaced by raw exhaustion and fury. He dragged a hand down his face, nails scratching across the scarred skin. "So it doesn't matter if I want peace. The second I close my eyes, I get thrown into another nightmare with another doomed version of myself."
Silence pressed heavy against him.
Kimura finally muttered, almost to himself: "This isn't power. This is torture."
The system pulsed again, neutral, merciless.
[Correction: This is your inheritance as a Hunter.]
Kimura's laugh was hollow. His fists trembled, veins bulging, but he didn't strike the menu. He only whispered through gritted teeth:
"…Then I'll survive every nightmare you throw at me. And when the day comes, I'll turn them into yours."
The runes across the menu flickered faintly, as if in answer.
(End of Chapter 8)