Shadow Slave

Some time later, Sunny saw Rain out, watched as she walked away, and then calmly closed the door.

As soon as she did, however, his placid expression evaporated.

"What the hell! How come I didn't know about this?!"

Hastily taking out his communicator, he accessed the network and searched for information about the Dream Tournament.

A few minutes later, he sat down on a chair, a little stunned.

"What is this insanity?!"

Sunny knew, of course, that Dreamscape duels were a popular form of entertainment — both among the Awakened, who participated in them, and among the mundane humans, who followed their favorite duelists and created boisterous fan clubs.

However, he had no idea that even the Great Clans paid attention to the illusory game.

Apparently, the creator of the Dreamscape held a big tournament each year, and each year, one of the Great Clans — either Valor, Song, or Night — sponsored the prize pool. Participants who managed to achieve good results were able to receive cash prizes, Memories, and even Echoes.

The rewards for the finalists were especially generous, and came directly from the Great Clan's armory. They were also of the Ascended Rank.

Sunny trembled, his eyes burning with avarice.

no… think about

the unaffiliated Awakened. But did it matter? Sunny had already failed to keep his fake persona under the radar. Anyone who paid attention to Dreamscape had at least heard about

there to

goodies! That's

completely absorbed

weren't enough, there was another reason for why this tournament now seemed

months, Sunny had participated in hundreds of duels in various arenas. His goal was to absorb as many styles as possible, to reinforce the foundation of Shadow Dance and

all battle styles were made the same. Some were simple and straightforward, while others were complex and unique. The more unique a style was, the harder it was

not like he had a magical ability to peer into the very essence of a style… this ability of his

of simpler styles, which would in turn improve his capacity to discern the patterns of more complicated ones with sufficient speed. After all, all styles were constructed out of the same basic elements. The

in the Dreamscape arenas was not that high… for obvious reasons. True talents had better things to

aware of your weaknesses. In

the only worthy opponents he could find were a few rare eccentrics and a rare gem here and there, not

technique, too, which Sunny couldn't perceive and was only able to infer from indirect clues. Sadly, he wasn't exposed to a lot of opponents practicing

added into the mix, people who would usually not waste time in the Dreamscape were bound to show up, lured by the scent of

powerful Ascended weapon or armor could change their

with one stone. Compete for these prizes

be a fool to miss this

would be to bring even more exposure to Mongrel, Sunny couldn't let such an opportunity go. Plus, he had some free time while Effie and Kai were traveling to the Chained

feed, he started reading everything he could

***