Nightmare Mythos

'The corrupted human that magically spawned at the Harden City is no other than the tourist of the City of Wheels which is the first of the few victims of the disappearances? That… how the hell did it manage to come there?'

Confusion was visible all around the place. They finally know the reason why Vin gathered them here in his room, but to their surprise, it was actually one of the victims of the disappearances before it became much worse.

Now another layer of problem appeared on their front which they couldn't just neglect as if it was mere air.

How does the tourist manage to slip through the Langston Bridge without altering its alarms or any casualty along the way? In fact, it just started going crazy after it was on the Harden City, where Cesar and the rest of the group coincidentally took a stop.

Another question was how the tourist became a corrupted human.

The second problem could connect to their previous suspicions that a Nightmare was indeed hidden in this city. Meaning, any suspicions that there's no Nightmare here was clearly out of the choices.

The only thing they needed to consider was if the tourist was exposed to a Nightmare itself or something that involves a Nightmare, for example, an item or something.

Finally, the long silence seemed to have stopped the moment Chin raised his take with confusion in his voice.

"You all must've realized how weird this is. For now, I don't really have any idea how that corrupted human, a victim of this city, managed to pass through various cities and the Langston Bridge itself without even causing a casualty. It only did when it reached Harden City,"

Alms looked at the students, particularly eying for Cesar before he brought up the matter, "Cesar, you said that the corrupted is sentient enough. Not like those irrational, irascible creatures that go around, relying purely on instinct. Does that mean anything?"

Cesar immediately gave an answer with a defeated shake of a head, "It's just something I felt when facing the corrupted. It clearly looked like it was mocking us, probably having fun as well. That's why I said it is sentient enough. It showed emotions aside from being… crazy, I guess?"

Vin couldn't help but observe them with a slightly helpless face, seeing that the group that happened to meet the corrupted human, the only clue they had on the disappearances, was also in the unknown on what was really going on, immediately put the meeting into a stop.

"Let's end this for now. Everyone should rest for tomorrow's search routine. If you have any findings, immediately report them to me right away,"

…

Walking outside of Vin's room, everything was silent. Their mind was occupied with the matter regarding the disappearance, for the right reasons.

Now, the only clue they had seemed to have vanished without a trace as Vin didn't seem to know where it was.

Their job was to provide clues about it.

They just actually don't know where to start.

'Will even finding a starting line matter at this point? By the looks of it, our hands are already tied with so many missions.' Cesar mused inwardly as he couldn't help but sigh.

Reyna who was only watching him by chance, immediately called out to him and said, "Why do you look so defeated? Is it because our progress hasn't been any good?"

Cesar retorted with another sigh, "That's one thing. I mean, I just couldn't make my mind up regarding our mission. Our task is to find the missing person, right? Yet they didn't leave any single clue. Suddenly, we discovered that the corrupted human discovered at Harden City was just another person we're trying to find."

Cesar paused as he looked around, "Would we fail because we couldn't retrieve any of these people dead or alive?"

Alms and Chin couldn't help but shift their faces onto him, wearing incredulous expressions as if he couldn't believe what he was saying before letting it be. Seeing him and Jacqueline wearing the same faces says all about their nature of being objective, it didn't look like they were up for arguing.

After all, everyone had different reasons for attending the academy. If they didn't care much about the lives of the people but merely thought of them as some sort of casualty, then there's nothing to discuss about it.

Nike, who has been quiet all around, had a different opinion. He wasn't as cold-hearted as the two but he at least had some morality when it came to those victims. He explained very carefully.

"Instead of thinking about accomplishing the task, why not focus on finding the victims themselves? I understand that you and Jacqueline wanted a flawless run but it won't be happening if we started thinking about such things like this."

'What is he even trying to say?'

Cesar and Jacqueline had both thought inwardly as if they were one mind even though they couldn't hear each other's thoughts. Not wanting to make this… argument longer, they nodded in silence and made each their own way.

The rest of them decided to return to their own rooms. As for their own posts, it was just very right timing that their shift onto it wasn't their time, and able to rest in the night and slept for about a few hours.

For Cesar, he had a different objective at this time of the night.

He went straight to a department store just right outside the main base of their area where usually a set of goods was being sold, it was weaponry that artificers which had close ties with the military were deployed.

In this area, every person has the freedom to choose whatever weapon they want to have, as long as they are willing to pay for it. These artificers wouldn't have brought their products and were willing to sell them if people were just going to get them for free.

"Nothing interesting…"

Cesar roamed around the department store, trying to spot what caught his eye yet to no avail, he was left disappointed. Not until he landed on a particular name of a business from afar within his line of sight.

-Moren Shop

"Oh?"

Remembering the time when he had scammed a scammer from the shop itself, Cesar took a stroll inside the store to see if the product they were selling was indeed what their reputation suggests.

Right after they went away from Harden City, Cesar gathered intel regarding the Moren Shop and knew their business was nothing to scoff at. Their enterprises have been franchised, and various branches with different kinds of products were being sold.

They are a contender on the business world but they weren't the top either. And it was because some of the branch managers were greedy businessmen themselves, scamming people of their products from time to time.

With that kind of shaky reputation, it was bound to lose some customers. Still, they were striving because their products were top-notch. That's why Cesar's group was very happy to receive at least one item from the shop then.

"Hi~"

Suddenly, a soothing voice came from the counter and started walking in his direction. Busy looking for products, Cesar's eyes finally landed on one of the specialized weapons hanging on the walls.

The one who called him instantly froze at the spot once she realized who it was. Cesar, who was interested in buying the revolver he had seen, shifted his gaze and wanted to ask the seller the prize when his expression froze as well.

"…"

"…"

Cesar stared blankly for a few seconds before his lips curled upwards, and his eyes glinted with avarice, "What a small world are we living in, right, Melinda?"

The woman, the seller in the shop, the same businesswoman he had met at Harden City, was no other than Melinda of Moren.

Melinda's face cracked before letting out a crooked smile, "W-welcome, customer Cesar. It's a small world i-indeed,"