Shadow Slave

Sunny salvaged some food from the destroyed fridge, had a very late supper, and went down to the basement again, this time to travel to the Chained Isles.

By then, all shadow essence he had spent during the duels and to keep the Mantle of the Underworld from turning back to stone had already been restored.

Wearing the onyx armor required a constant flow of essence to maintain the [Leaving Stone] enchantment active, and with the Soul Serpent assuming its weapon form, Sunny couldn't use the Shadow to keep the expenditure to a minimum. Wearing the Mantle for prolonged periods of time was rather draining... however, it was also a perfect way to train himself on how to manage essence most efficiently. He had no complaints.

...It was funny, though, that the Dreamscape required a person to expend real essence despite being just an illusion.

'Oh well.'

Climbing into his new, state-of-the-art sleeping pod, Sunny lay comfortably in the soft cradle and smiled.

'No more sore muscles! Finally.'

With that, he closed his eyes, and very quickly fell asleep.

While his soul wandered the Dream Realm and his body slept, locked in an underground bunker behind multiple layers of protection, though... several things happened in the real world.

The clip of his short duel against Leo Striker had unexpectedly gone viral.

All around the planet, countless people watched it with a wide range of reactions. Some found it funny, some fascinating, while some simply scrolled past it as they watched their feeds.

Even those who did not have any interest in the Awakened duels found it striking, though. The image of an infernal wraith clad in black onyx armor defeating a charming, noble human warrior with one swift and ruthless strike was, indeed, very cinematic… just how Leo had predicted. Even if, to his dismay, the roles had ended up being switched.

What's more, even though Sunny had not even known that their fight was being broadcasted, he accidentally looked directly at the invisible camera right after cruelly putting the tip of his odachi through the opponent's eye.

the eyes of the human being behind it, sent shivers down the spines of people

arresting, and strangely

same question after watching the clip on repeat

a human there,

different reaction. Although they, too, appreciated the undeniable aesthetic value of the short and striking duel, they paid more

just one strike? The exact moment when Sunny delivered the deadly blow was analyzed, disassembled, and put under the microscope. Was it skill or pure luck? Was it intentional or accidental? Did

answer was rather confusing: no one had the slightest

became curious, they didn't stop on

every fight and every word that Sunny had uttered during his infuriating visit to the Dreamscape were found and published for everyone to

the contents of those recordings, the whole duelist circle was violently shaken. One shock

that people found during their investigation

Mongrel killing Daoist Saifer in the span of

the Fool… once again, with

less than a minute to easily crush three of the most renowned young duelists in the world. They weren't the absolute elite, but

obvious: his victory over Leo Striker was neither

could that

he some other

continued to dig, coming to a bewildering conclusion: the man who called himself Mongrel had never entered Dreamscape before that day.

"Victories: 30."

"Defeats: 0."

And:

"Status: Offline."

theories appeared postulating that Mongrel was, in fact, a Master who had visited the Dreamscape to have fun. There weren't that many Masters in the world, and all of them had much more crucial things to do than spend their time having illusory duels. Even if they did, however,

was a Master, that would explain