Shadow Slave

Everything having to do with Sleepers was situated in the same building. Sunny followed the instructions sent to his communicator and quickly found the dormitories, which were situated on one of the lowest levels. To his surprise, he actually got a whole room to himself.

It had a bed with a soft mattress, a table, a dresser, and even a separate bathroom! The materials were new and aesthetically pleasing, the air crisp and sterile. It was warm inside, and the outer wall was equipped with a hidden screen that seamlessly imitated a wide window, opening to a picturesque vista of a snowy park.

There were even several sets of clothes with the Academy emblem provided to him for free.

'How extravagant,' Sunny thought, a little stunned.

Rationally, he understood that such an arrangement was not really luxurious. However, to him, who grew up wandering the outskirts, this room was like a palace. He scratched his head.

'Looks like… I've made it?'

Sunny glanced around, then winked at his shadow and smiled.

"I guess we're moving up in the world, huh?"

The shadow didn't respond, apparently not very impressed. Perhaps it didn't care about such things.

'Right, what would a stupid shadow know?'

Sunny changed into new clothes and studied himself in the mirror. Then, remembering something, he summoned the runes.

He finally had time to study the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Memory: [Puppeteer's Shroud].

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Type: Armor.

Memory Description: [A worm of doubt once found its way into a righteous king's heart. With time, the king was devoured from inside and became its puppet. A lifetime later, the Puppeteer Worm escaped from the king's dead body, leaving behind a cacoon of black silk. No one knows where it went; however, once people dared to approach the silent castle, they found the silk among the mountains of gnawed bones and fashioned it into an armor.]

made a

terrifying. Yeah. I'm not creeped out at

that Mountain King was a mature Puppeteer Worm — and already a tyrant… then what the hell would it transform into after becoming a

not to think

body and wrapped it into a set of armor. It was made of dark-gray, soft fabric with

made no sound

to pierce for any Creature below the Awakened rank, which gave him a great advantage in dealing with all

of doubt… does it have enhanced protection against mental

was sure of

anything less from the

was that the Puppeteer's Shroud was obviously not meant to be worn on top of a full set

all the rewards he had received

Sleepers, there wasn't even a limit to the amount each of them could eat! More than that, there

steering clear of

small mountain of food on his plate, he found an empty seat and, for a while, forgot about the world's existence. As juicy, textured, perfectly seasoned meat filled

have lived like that for

why didn't you infect me a few months

on the food, decimating the whole plate in no time. Satiated and more than a little gorged, Sunny longingly looked back and thought about getting

stood up and left the

an administrative worker.

Jet had warned him, Sunny was offered psychological counseling again. Remembering her advice, he refused, and

about his abilities, but also knew that he had to tell the worker something. Luckily, the questions were worded in a way to put Sleepers at ease. As such, most of them started with nice and polite preambles like "would you like to tell me"

mind telling me about the type of Aspect Ability you received, as

did mind, but

I haven't had time to understand it

alright. Are you able to directly

Earlier, I wasn't

enough information to create an impression

he returned to his room, undressed,

be weird, but in fact, it was surprisingly easy. Lying on a soft mattress, with his skin against clean