Shadow Slave

Sunny get out of the PTV, somewhat apprehensive of what he was about to see. The police officers present at the scene looked very relieved to see Master Jet and him appear — their tense faces cleared, and the darkness hiding in their eyes seemed to dissipate a little.

This was not at all how these types of situations were usually portrayed in popular media. In the crime mystery shows, whenever a plucky mundane detective encountered a cold and by-the-book Awakened agent, their relationship always started very confrontationally, with mutual disdain and debates over who was supposed to handle the case… only to end as an entertaining team-up, of course.

Once again, reality turned out to be very different from how storytellers liked to portray it. There was no conflict over jurisdiction or negativity expressed by the police officers. Instead, they were genuinely happy to see the Awakened specialists arrive.

…Well, of course they were. It was just as the old policeman had once told, right before Sunny faced the First Nightmare — if he died there and no Awakened was near, they would have to fight the Nightmare Creature his body had turned into themselves. And that was not something mundane humans ever wished to do.

Master Jet walked over to one of the policemen and greeted him with a short nod. Despite the fact that he was much older than her — not to mention Sunny himself — the officer treated them with the utmost respect.

"Nice to see you again, ma'am. Greetings, sir. Let me show you the way."

He led them deeper into the alley, toward a heavy metal door that hid in the deep shadows. It was wide open, and there were strange flashes of intense white light coming out of it, mixing with the red glow of the police sirens. The whole situation seemed a little surreal to Sunny, as though he was in the midst of a strange dream.

'I mean… where else would I be addressed as "sir" by a police officer? Life sure is funny sometimes…'

Slightly amused by this thought, he turned to Master Jet and asked:

"What is this place?"

She hesitated for a few moments, then said in an unexpectedly dark tone:

"It's a… club, of sorts. Called the Slaughterhouse. One of the few such establishments in the city."

Sunny stared at the door, which had no sign or any indication that there was a club on the other side of it. Was this a marketing ploy to create a feeling of mystique and exclusivity, or were there things going on inside that needed to be hidden?

"...A peculiar name for a nightclub."

with a corner

is meant for a very specific clientele. The ground floor is your usual dance club, but beneath it, there is a VIP area with an underground arena. There is nothing illegal going on there, just… things that are

paused, and then added

The fighters are paid generously, of course, and the club profits from the rich assholes who enjoy watching this sort of thing enough to recoup losses if one of the Echoes is accidentally destroyed. Everyone

Sunny frowned.

Echoes were made to fight each other just for the spectacle of it. Hiring mundane humans to battle them, though… wasn't it

suddenly become a

childhood in the outskirts. His current surprise was just because he lacked knowledge of what

what happened

Master Jet shrugged.

out. All I know

spared her a glance,

ma'am. Not for people with weak stomachs. And also not something that a mundane human would have been able

'Charming…'

was filled with the smell of blood. Sunny found himself in a vast hall flooded by flashing lights, blinding white mixing with short moments of absolute darkness to create a strange and invasive atmosphere. It was hard to perceive anything in this strobe

Master Jet frowned:

with the

looked

off the music, but

him an unamused

get on

away, shouting at his colleagues. A few moments later,

down than Sunny had expected. He did not pay too much attention to the design of the interior, the raised stage, or the bar with hundreds of expensive-looking bottles

face, Sunny was looking

broken and terribly disfigured, as if chewed and spewed out by a tornado. But of course, a natural disaster had nothing to do with what had happened