1
NIGHT
TERROR
"I feel sleepy and feel like I'm going to pass out, due to the sleep paralysis I had last night," said Heyang on his way to school, dragging his body because of lack of sleep. It seemed the night terror he had freaked the hell out of him.
While he continued down the road, he also mentioned that having night terror was normal for him and that he usually encountered it, but last night was different because he saw a figure — a dark figure which was approaching toward him. In his usual night terror, Heyang only sensed someone's presence or heard some noise.
When Heyang entered his class, he saw his friends Vera and Cael. Vera saw Heyang's face and said, "Oooo."
Heyang replied, "What's with the look?"
Vera explained, "You look like a man who is going to die in some minutes. Having trouble sleeping?"
Heyang sighed and told him to knock it off, while Cael said, "We're just curious."
Heyang told them what happened last night, and to calm his mind Vera said, "Well, sleep paralysis is normal. It might be terrifying, but it won't harm you because it is your imagination."
Heyang asked with a concerned face, "What if it can harm us?"
Vera paused a little and replied, "Well, according to science it won't harm you… but there are cases where people die during this."
Looking at the situation and the intensity of Vera's words, Cael intervened and tried to end the conversation.
Even if the conversation had ended and the school too, Heyang couldn't let go of the thought of encountering the same night terror he had. So after school, at home, he opened his laptop and searched for some solutions online, where he found a video explaining about lucid dreaming.
The man in the video said, "If you are having night terror more often and you want to get rid of it, then you have to stop looking at horror videos or any kind of stuff that might trigger this event. But if that doesn't work, then you can try LUCID DREAM. If you know how to do this, you can control your dream, that means you can do whatever you want in your dream. Well, there are many tricks to do this.
You can use a thread tied around your wrist, and before you say why — because the human brain can't tell the difference between dream and real world, so this thread will be the sign to indicate whether you're dreaming right now or not. And don't you dare close the video or you're doomed because it is not done yet.
You don't only have to tie a thread; you have to build muscle memory too. For this, set an alarm every thirty minutes and stare at your thread.
Second trick: you have to write something on a paper and stick it to the ceiling above your bed, because in our dream we can't see the letters, they cannot be interpreted.
And the third one is watching your hand. If it is a dream, you may find out that you have more than ten fingers on both hands.
And before you leave, there is a very important thing that you can't leave, that is…
BUYING OUR NEW T-SHIRTS WITH COOL PICTURES STAMPED ON FRONT AND BACK."
Heyang sighed and closed the video and the laptop. So, he tried the muscle memory trick.
After doing it for four hours, he was ready.
"Before I sleep, let me set the alarm."
Zzzzzzz… zzzzzzz… zzzzzzz…
At 3:30 a.m., Heyang opened his eyes. His body froze. He couldn't move a muscle, and in the dark corner of his room, from the shadow, he saw a hand slowly pulling out.
Heyang was trembling with fear, but the real deal was that Heyang already knew it was a dream, but he couldn't move. The figure started approaching him, and at the last second the dream flipped.
Heyang opened his eyes and he could move his body. He checked his hand and said, "It is blurry, I cannot tell how many fingers I have, but I guess I'm dreaming right now."
He smiled, showing relief, but when he stood up the figure appeared again and was standing right in front of him. The figure slowly reached it hand to him.
Here Heyang had no choice except to face it. So he flicked the hand of the figure away and with all his might he punched at him, but it didn't even inch a little.
But Heyang continued with a full 360 kick on the figure. The impact was so high that it made the figure fly and crash into the wall. The impact knocked out the figure, and Heyang tried to confirm it by poking it with a stick.
After this, the alarm buzzed.
2
THE
MISCONCEPTION
Heyang woke up, brushed his teeth, drank tea, and headed off to school.
At school, during a lecture, Vera asked, "Hey, you look fresh today and happy."
Heyang said, "Yeah, because I found a solution about that night terror, so I feel relieved."
While they were talking, the teacher shouted, "Who's talking in my class?"
Both friends froze.
Heyang whispered, "Where is Cael?"
After the school hour was over, everyone left except Heyang because he wanted to take a leak. While taking his leak, Heyang gazed upon the scenery in front of him.
ZIP.
Heyang froze and slowly looked above, because next to him at the gents' restroom the figure was standing, looking bigger and grinning.
In an instant it slapped him and sent him flying a few meters away, crashing into solid concrete. In the middle of that, Heyang really thought that he was a dead man for sure, but surprisingly he survived.
And in that moment, Heyang himself made a theory of his own, whether true or false:
"Ha! I survived. I think as the figure trespassed into reality, my ability too that I manifested in my dream."
With that he grinned, clenched his fist, and said, "Now let's fight for real."
But before he noticed, the figure punched him so hard that he crashed through several walls and ended up in the middle of the school ground. His blazer got torn, so he tore it up.
He asked the figure a funny question, "Are you hitting the gym or what? Because you look way bigger than last night."
The figure stayed silent. In a blink of an eye, it dashed toward Heyang and punched, but he dodged it. After that it threw a barrage of punches, but Heyang dodged with ease.
He tried to counter with a punch, but his punch landed directly on the fist of the figure, clashing. The impact bruises and cut the skin of his knuckles and blood spurted out of his hand, tearing the sleeve.
At the same moment the figure lifted both arms above its head and descended them while targeting Heyang, but he barely dodged and the attack landed on the ground, smashing the concrete.
Heyang saw a chance and kicked at the neck of the figure, pushing it down, its hands dipping into the concrete due to the force. However, the figure roared and stood up opposing the kick and sent Heyang flying away, but Heyang carefully stayed on his feet.
It seemed Heyang was getting more hyped up and a bit prideful. Heyang charged at the figure with an uppercut, but the figure blocked it, so he followed with consecutive punches, and at the last punch he exerted his maximum force, sending the figure crashing into a wall.
Heyang became more prideful and said, "I thought today was my last day, but no, it is the beginning of my real life… and you — smirk — you should consider again before messing with me."
The figure stood up saying, "Phase one has already started, so I think my job is done, but… I want to beat the hell out of this brat."
The figure dashed so fast that Heyang couldn't even see it coming. It grabbed his ankle and smashed him into the ground and threw him. Heyang flew, crashing into the building of the school and again smashing onto the playground.
The figure stepped on Heyang's chest and started punching continuously. Heyang was giving up, his face swollen and bleeding.
The figure again threw him away. Heyang's head was spinning. While he tried to adjust his mind, the figure threw a long wooden pillar at him which hit directly at his face.
Heyang couldn't take it anymore and started begging, "Stop it… STOP IT, I… I give up."
The figure replied with a little sympathy on its face, "Sorry, brat, but it is necessary."
After some beatdown it threw him on the ground and waited, saying, "It might do the thing."
In Heyang's mind:
Pride — How could I lose? I can't lose.
Wrath — I will kill him.
Greed — Only if I had more power…
TICK, TICK.
"EEEKK!"
Heyang woke up confused.
The figure, showing with a gesture that the work was done, jumped high, but Heyang grabbed its leg midair and said, "Where do you think you're going?"
He threw it to the ground and grabbed its neck.
"Give me one good reason not to end you."
The figure said, "What is your idea about your newly discovered ability? Don't you want to know about it?"
"Well, thank you, but I already figured out that as you trespassed into reality, my powers too."
"Ha ha ha! How childish. Sorry to break it to you, but I helped you get those powers."
"And what makes you think I will trust that after beating me without any context?"
"Valid point, but that was part of the process. You have been chosen by our master. Look how strong you became in such a short time. In the future you will unlock series of abilities — flying, creating weapons, regeneration — you will be like a god walking among humans."
The word chosen bent Heyang's mind.
The figure knew what it was doing. It never told the whole story, only enough to make Heyang feel great.
Heyang overflowed with pride, so he didn't ask questions except one thing:
"How did you bulk up so fast?"
The figure replied, "Oh, about that — the skinny one you fought last night was my brother."
"Your bro—"
The figure interrupted, and with seriousness it said "look kid you have to boost your power as quick as possible"
Heyang – "why so "
Figure – "because trouble is coming "
"With those words, the figure vanished, leaving Heyang confused about its meaning. He glanced at the destruction they had caused and hurried away."
3
The
Myth
Awakens
Heyang was on his way home.
"I don't like people staring at me with no rea— oh… it's because my clothes are pretty torn up."
He reached his house, but there was no one to greet him with a welcome back. He was alone.
Heyang took off his shoes and entered the house. He hung his torn clothes on a coat hanger. After cleaning himself, he prepared a simple meal — some noodles.
Eating noodles while watching TV is a perfect combo. Most people, if they got a superpower, would try to test it, see what else they could do. But Heyang was tired — more than usual. So after finishing his noodles, he turned off the TV and went straight to bed.
…zzzzzzz… zzzzzzz… zzzzzzz…
At 7:00 a.m., his phone rang. Heyang woke up and answered.
"Hello, what do you want, Vera?"
Vera said, "Didn't you hear the news about our school?"
"Nope," Heyang replied.
Vera explained, "There are cops, forensic investigators, engineers, and others at our school, investigating. Extensive damage was done to our school buildings by someone."
Heyang trusted his friend Vera, so he said, "I want to talk about something important, and we can't talk here. Come to my house. Let's have a little chat."
When Vera reached Heyang's house, he saw Heyang sitting on the stairs. Heyang looked up and said, "Remember my sleep paralysis? Well, it's getting freaking ridiculous."
Heyang explained everything to Vera. But as human nature goes, Vera didn't believe him — until Heyang showed a move that wasn't humanly possible.
While they were having their little chat, people at the school were confused. The principal and teachers had no idea what had happened. The principal thought to himself, Who did this?
They would get their answers months later, because people started getting crazy abilities overnight, and the government was still observing them. They didn't know what to do with these people except experiment on them — until some creature attacked Heyang.
It was nighttime. Heyang wanted to take a leak, so he went outside because his bathroom was outside. After finishing, he saw someone in the distance. At first, Heyang thought it was the figure, but no — when he looked carefully, he saw a being half-human and half-tiger.
Heyang sensed danger.
With a roar, the creature charged at Heyang, slashing continuously with its claws. But it was easy for Heyang to dodge. Heyang grabbed the creature's hand — the hand of Keibu Keioiba — and threw him. It seemed like Heyang had the upper hand.
Heyang jumped after the creature and tried to talk.
"Hey, who the hell are you, and why are you attacking me?"
As always, the creature didn't answer. It smashed Heyang into the ground and tried to punch, but Heyang dodged the blow.
"Phew," Heyang said. "That was a close one."
The fight continued — the creature slashing, Heyang dodging and countering. They ended up in a field. But as the fight went on, someone appeared in the distance. He carried a sword and wore a full black outfit with a mask on his face.
They paused and stared at each other for a while.
Then the swordsman dashed and slashed, forming an arc in the air. Heyang barely dodged. He wasn't a normal swordsman — every move he made was hard for Heyang to avoid. And it became overwhelming with two opponents at the same time.
After a while, the swordsman cut Heyang's hand. From behind, Keibu Keioiba landed a heavy punch that sent Heyang flying a few meters away.
At that moment, Heyang thought it might be better to run — but there was nowhere to go.
The swordsman kicked Heyang and stabbed toward his chest. He slowly pulled the sword out.
Heyang was dying.
They left.
But someone arrived — a man.
He placed his hand on Heyang