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.

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

arresting,

of them had the same question after watching the clip on

even a human there, behind the

they, too, appreciated the undeniable aesthetic value

as famous as Leo Striker… in 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 Leo make a mistake, or was his mysterious adversary just

rather confusing: no one had the slightest

they didn't stop on just that one

that Sunny had uttered during his infuriating visit to

was violently

thing that people found during their investigation was two more

killing Daoist Saifer in the

other showed Mongrel killing the Fool… once again, with a single ruthless

most renowned young duelists in the world. They weren't the absolute elite, but still some of the best the Dreamscape had to

victory over Leo Striker was neither lucky nor accidental. Mongrel was, indeed… just that

how could

some other famous

Mongrel had never entered Dreamscape before that day. His

"Victories: 30."

"Defeats: 0."

And:

"Status: Offline."

had much more crucial things to do than spend

if Mongrel was a Master, that would explain it all. He