Shadow Slave

Sunny crawled out of the simulation pod and lay on the cold floor for a while, breathing heavily.

'How come an illusory arena is so exhausting?'

The designers of the Dreamscape were really weird. The people who frequented the Colosseum were even weirder, though. Sunny couldn't even begin to understand the quirks of their behavior.

'That's how subcultures are, I guess?'

After a while, he stood up and went upstairs to make himself some food and replenish all the energy he had spent during this intense and taxing hour.

Sunny made himself a light dinner, devoured it with wolfish hunger, and then relaxed in a chair while drinking a cup of delicious tea.

As he rested, his communicator buzzed.

He took a sip of tea, then opened the message Effie had sent him.

"Hey doofus! Have you seen this? I think I found a new boyfriend for your girlfriend!"

The message ended with a winking emote and an attached video link.

Perplexed, Sunny clicked on the link… and spit out all of his tea.

Forgetting to wipe his chin, he stared at the holographic screen in front of him with wide eyes.

"What… what the hell is this?!"

The video was… of him.

Of his duel in the Dreamscape, to be precise.

***

Caught in stunning quality, the recording of his short duel against the young man in azure armor was playing on a loop, set to menacing and epic music. The caption read "Mongrel Victorious". Sunny stared at it for a while, then slowly lowered his gaze and looked at the view count beneath the video.

'S—seven… seven zeroes?!'

Was that Leo Striker guy someone famous?

Sunny only came to his senses because of the pressure of his Flaw. Gritting his teeth, he sent Effie a short message:

"I have not seen this."

'What the hell is happening?'

Feeling apprehensive, he went on the network and typed "Mongrel, Dreamscape" in the search bar. Immediately, thousands upon thousands of results showed, all featuring the fearsome image of Weaver's Mask.

Sunny gulped.

"Oh, no. Oh, no."

He opened the first link, and almost spat blood.

"Mongrel defeats Leo Striker, Daoist Saifer, and the Fool in three strikes!"

The short montage of a bunch of his duels played… this one had even more views.

'That doesn't even make sense. Were those two famous as well?! What three strikes, I hit the second guy twice…'

Feeling an approaching headache and a bit of panic, Sunny scrolled through the feed, growing paler and paler with each second.

There were countless videos, captions, and discussions. Thousands of people were fervently debating his duels, his identity, and the hidden meaning of his words. It seemed as if they had somehow become convinced that he was some sort of a profound sage, going around spouting words of enlightened wisdom.

There were whole discussion boards dedicated to interpreting his "teachings"!

"Oh, no…"

Sunny grabbed his head, realizing that the buffoon he had heard being discussed in the cafe… was him! Come to think of it, many of Rain's classmates had been talking about this stuff, too.

Had she seen this garbage as well?

He groaned.

…At least no one seemed to have any idea about who Mongrel was. His efforts to obfuscate his identity were working, as was Weaver's Mask.

But the worst was still to come…

As Sunny was studying the mess he had made, new notifications started appearing in the feed.

"Mongrel returns!"

"Mongrel decimates the Colosseum!"

"Seventy victories in sixty minutes: Lord Mongrel's shocking rampage!"

"Mongrel is Saint [REDACTED]'s bastard son: CONFIRMED!"

He closed his eyes.

'...Gods. What is this crap?'

Opening a random link, he read in horror:

Mongrel #1 Sympathiser: "I was there, guys! It was incredible! He was like a natural disaster! So awesome…"

Random Shoe: "Did you hear what he said?"

Mongrel #1 Sympathiser: "Words are worthless, silence is gold! So profound. My whole outlook on life changed."

Random Shoe: "Wow, my dad used to say me the same thing when I tried to talk to him after school."

Mongrel #1 Sympathiser: "Wait. Shoe… are you Mongrel's son?"

"User Random Shoe changed their name to Mongrel's Son"

Mongrel's Son: "Aren't we all Mongrel's children?"

Sunny closed the link and went to another page.

"Silence is Gold. One strike of a sword is worth more than a thousand words: an in-depth analysis of the postneonihilist philosophy of Mongrel."

'Postneo… what?'

Stupefied, he opened another link.

"Reacting to Mongrel's 70 wins! You gasp you lose!"

And another:

"Mongrel does not believe in styles. Styles only separate men..."

And another:

"I spent a night with Mongrel: a candid confession of a former idol trainee."

Deactivating the communicator, he sat quietly for a while, and then groaned again.

"Oh, no!"

***

The new recording of Mongrel's stunning performance in the Colosseum flew around the globe in no time at all. Starved for new information about the mysterious demonic fighter, people became glued to the screens of their communicators…

They were not disappointed by what they saw, to say the least.

Mongrel's already considerable renown — or infamy, depending on who you asked — became even more widespread.

Sunny had grown up in the outskirts, so he had never been really exposed both to the network culture and to the peculiar fanbase of the Dreamscape. That was why he had severely underestimated the effect his recent visit to the amateur arena would have on the people interested in these things.

He had only wanted to reach the number of victories required to access the professional duels as fast as possible, but failed to take into account how outstanding the feat of defeating seventy opponents in just one hour would look from the side.

…Especially considering the fact that he had killed the last half a dozen or so with his bare hands, not even bothering to use a weapon. These last few duels looked especially striking, impressive, and gruesome.

If before people called Mongrel a sword demon, now he had become just a demon in their eyes.

What's worse, even though it took all of his power and lots of effort for Sunny to achieve these victories, due to the fact that his face was always hidden behind the fearsome mask, he appeared to be completely calm and indifferent, as if defeating so many people in a row was nothing to him.

A walk in the park.

Added to the fact that he had dismissed his sword near the end of the hour and then left after shaking his head, it seemed as though Mongrel was not only a demon, but also held all the rest of the duelists in utter contempt.

Mongrel was disappointed in them…

That disappointment ignited a fire in the hearts of many duelists of the Dreamscape, pushing them to train harder, reach higher, become stronger.

Mongrel's status was always in front of them, reminding these young men and women what they were striving to achieve:

"Mongrel"

"Victories: 100"

Defeats: 0"

And of course, all of them continued to wonder about his true identity.

Very soon, someone made a logical connection: an incredibly talented young warrior appeared in the Dreamscape soon after the hundred survivors of the Forgotten Shore returned to the real world, putting every Awakened there to shame.

Obviously, Mongrel was one of these hundred heroes!

But which one?

It didn't take people a lot of time to solve the mystery.

On one of the discussion boards on the network, an anonymous user wrote:

"Guys, isn't it obvious? Who is among the best of the best of the Forgotten Shore warriors, and also has a big reason to keep his identity a secret?"

Another answered:

"Wait… wait. You're right! It was right in front of us the whole time!"

And then, the shocking piece of news spread through the network as wildfire:

"Mongrel's true identity is…"

Kai of Nightingale!