Lord: Sequence Master

"Let's test out Freddy's powers…"

Rosen sat back in his office chair, gazing at the bustling streets of Yorknew City through the floor-to-ceiling windows. As the city glimmered beneath him, he leaned back, closed his eyes, and tapped into the power of Freddy's Nen ability. In an instant, he drifted into sleep, descending into a dark and mysterious dreamscape.

Within this darkness, Rosen found himself surrounded by countless bubbles, each representing the dreams of the city's inhabitants. Some bubbles were white, symbolizing peaceful dreams, while others were pink, denoting fantasies. However, it was the black bubbles—nightmares—that piqued his interest. These bubbles, filled with dread and terror, pulsed with ominous energy.

Rosen instinctively selected one of the black bubbles, which belonged to a government worker in City Hall, and his consciousness slipped inside.

The man was trapped in a nightmare, reliving a terrifying memory of witnessing the monstrous forms of the Shadow Beasts, bodyguards of the Ten Dons. Although the beasts hadn't harmed him at the time, the encounter had left him living in fear of their unpredictability. He knew they could kill him at any moment if they deemed it necessary.

Rosen decided to experiment with his newfound power. As soon as he entered the nightmare, the world of fear became his to control. Freddy's Nen ability granted Rosen complete dominion over the dreamscape, allowing him to manipulate every aspect of it. He could control time, create clones, alter the man's memories, and more.

Probing deeper into the man's subconscious, Rosen uncovered a trove of hidden secrets. The man had not only embezzled funds but also conspired with the Shadow Beasts to undermine Rosen's authority as mayor.

A flicker of malice crossed Rosen's mind. He considered unleashing Freddy's deadly techniques on the man but stopped short, realizing there might be more to gain.

Rosen attempted something new—summoning his Divine Territory within the dream. To his amazement, it worked. His Divine Territory, rooted in the Sea of Consciousness, manifested in the nightmare. This gave him a startling idea: could he use the Divine Territory to transport people from the dream realm into his domain?

With some effort, Rosen tried pulling the man's consciousness into his Divine Territory. However, the attempt failed. Frustrated but undeterred, he reasoned that moving people directly from the dream realm might not be possible, at least not yet. As a Sequence 9, his abilities were still limited.

Growing tired of the test, Rosen decided to kill the man within his nightmare. Flames engulfed the worker, and his real-life body also succumbed to the flames, his heart stopping as he died.

Surprisingly, a fragment of the nightmare remained after the man's death. This fragment, born from the man's final moments of fear, contained dark spiritual energy. Rosen realized he could absorb it into his Sea of Consciousness, enhancing his control over nightmares. However, doing so came with a price. The negative energy would slowly corrupt his mind, turning him into something similar to Freddy Krueger.

Not wanting to risk this transformation, Rosen opted to feed the nightmare fragment to his Divine Territory instead. His domain accepted the energy, and a thin, dark layer began to form at the boundary of his territory, acting as a protective nightmare barrier.

Though fragile for now, this barrier could grow stronger with time. By continuously feeding his domain with nightmare fragments, Rosen could potentially create a powerful shield against invading spirit creatures. He smiled at the thought of fortifying his domain with such a twisted defense.

With this newfound strategy in mind, Rosen decided to target a stronger opponent next—a Nen user.

In the Hunter x Hunter world, Nen users were not uncommon, though most ordinary people had no idea that Nen even existed. Those who had unlocked their aura nodes wielded tremendous power, but most were cautious about how they used it.

Rosen scoured the dream bubbles for Nen users but found that none of them were asleep yet. This made sense—Nen users, with their vast reservoirs of life force, required far less sleep than ordinary people.

He waited patiently until the city began to quiet down. By 11 PM, a few Nen users finally began to drift off to sleep, their dream bubbles lighting up in the vast darkscape of Yorknew's subconscious. Rosen grinned. Now, the real fun could begin.

(End of Chapter)