Magister Insanity

Tired of hiding, I slowly rose from my spot beneath the seats. A quick glance around revealed devastation: seats ripped from their frames, windows shattered, shards of glass littering the floor. Overhead luggage racks hung crooked or smashed entirely, spilling contents across the aisle.

Blood and dirt coated walls and floor. The metal frame of the bus groaned under the strain. Torn fabric and twisted plastic lay scattered, creating jagged obstacles in every direction.

The stench was unbearable. Most alarming of all: the number of bodies sprawled across the aisle.

For Christ's sake… I'd never seen a dead body in my life. And now, there were dozens of them.

What the hell was this?

Judged any way, my situation was pretty dire.

Truthfully, I was more bewildered than panicked. How could one go from riding a bus to stepping straight into a Nightmare? And not just any Nightmare, this was the game I used to play on my smartphone and PC. Somehow, I'd jumped from one reality to another without warning. An island surrounded by blood-red seas, crawling with monstrosities and unspeakable evils… was hardly ideal.

Still, survival wasn't impossible. If this world followed the rules of Shatterverse, then there had to be a way. After all, Shatterverse strictly followed the rule of 'fairness.' The game developers wouldn't create a game a player couldn't pass. Maybe I'd even get a good reward, considering the abyssal start I'd just encountered.

Just then, the memory of the reward message surfaced.

...Could it be that?

Too bad I couldn't claim it even if I wanted to. The Shatterverse app had magically vanished from my phone, and with no Internet service here, I couldn't download it again.

Tough luck.

'Wait… what if it was a reward I didn't need to log in to claim?'

A sudden thought ignited my fleeting hope.

Remembering all those popular webtoons and stories where the main characters would summon a system. I was indeed living in a fantasy, then summoning that should be possible. Immediately, shimmering runes appeared in the air in front of my retina. Somehow, even though I did not know or understand this ancient syllabus displayed before me, the meaning behind them was somehow clear.

[Congratulations. You have gained access to the Nightweave.]

[Your profile is being initiated...]

[Your reward has been delivered.]

Yes, yes! It worked!

Excitedly, I focused on the runes describing my abilities. However,

'W-What?'

Was something like this even possible?

* * *

Name: Sonny.

Rank: Dreamless

Origin Sea: Dormant

Echoes: —

Traits: [Photographic Memory], [Mark of Judgment], [Nighthawk].

Legacy: [Temple Shadow]

Legacy Description: [Temple Shadow is an almost forgotten and powerless entity, rarely seen and even less understood, lacking any notable skills or abilities. Like ordinary wretched shadow, it possesses no influence over the world.]

* * *

How could one person be this unlucky?

Speechless, I could only stand frozen like a statue, staring at the absurd runes.

There were multiple things I hadn't seen before like Origin Sea and so forth, but I certainly knew what a legacy was. In short, Legacies were special abilities that a player's avatar could use. In Steelverse, obtaining a legacy required either defeating a specific boss alone or discovering a hidden altar.

The latter was notoriously difficult, so most players opted to solo a boss instead, which was hardly easy either.

More importantly, nothing in the game required real money. Perhaps that was because Shatterverse simply didn't allow purchases with actual currency. There had been complaints and questions about this, but the Umbra support team offered no real explanation.

Looking back, something this good felt almost unreal.

Maybe it was, after all. Perhaps that was why the game had exploded in downloads overnight and became a global sensation.

'What the heck am I supposed to do with this useless ability?'

Just when I was about to lose my temper, a sudden noise drew my attention. Something was crawling out from the pile of bodies. Or rather, someone.

…A person?

Not just one. A few more emerged, stumbling from their hiding spots, some peeling themselves out from between the dead.

Twelve in total.

Twelve survivors. More than I expected, considering I hadn't thought there would be any besides me. Maybe it was arrogant, or foolish, to assume I'd been the only one who made it.

Still… twelve survivors out of forty?

"Is it safe now?"

"I don't know. But the bird's gone, isn't it? That has to mean it's safe… right?"

"Damn… is this really all that's left?"

I studied their faces one by one.

The first was a broad-shouldered man in a black T-shirt and grey jeans. Short hair, a neatly trimmed beard, early thirties at most. He carried himself like someone strong, maybe the strongest among us.

The second was a thin man with graying hair, probably late forties. He had the sharp, weary look of the average business man. Of course, someone like this would have more luck surviving in a boardroom than in the harrowing shores.

The third was a woman with long brunette hair. She looked youthful but it was difficult to tell her precise age. Her pale hair looked pretty pale and flustered which was understandable.

Surprisingly, there was a familiar face among the survivors: the white-haired young man I'd seen earlier, the one who had been arguing with the grumbling man before the attack.

So, he'd made it out alive too.

Perhaps noticing my stare, the white-haired boy turned his head and locked eyes with me. He held my gaze for a long moment before looking away.

'What a strange fellow.'

The survivors slowly gathered. The weary businessman was the first to speak.

"Um… what do we do now? I suppose it makes sense to introduce ourselves. Let me start. My name's Choi Minjae, I'm a translator from South Korea."

The broad-shouldered man followed without hesitation.

"I'm Grant."

The brunette stepped forward next, then spoke with a gentle but shaky voice.

"Hello, I'm Margaret."

The white-haired boy gave a half-shrug, speaking as if it didn't matter.

"Ezra."

Finally, all eyes turned toward me. I hesitated briefly before answering.

"…Sonny."

Introductions finished, a heavy silence settled over the ruined bus. None of us knew what to say next. The air stank of blood, and the vehicle creaked uneasily under our combined weight. This was no place for conversation.

Choi Minjae finally broke the silence with an awkward cough.

"Alright… with that out of the way, we should start thinking about survival."

Grant nodded.

"Agreed. This bus isn't safe anymore. Who knows what'll happen if we stay here."

Just like that, the group began to file out of the wreck, and I followed. Traveling together meant better odds than exploring alone, both common sense and video game logic agreed on that.

Still, I was prepared to leave on my own if they chose to linger. After that demon bird's attack, though, none of us were foolish enough to stay behind.

Outside, the world revealed itself more clearly.

I saw a mountain.

Serrated and lonesome, the mountain tore into the horizon like the teeth of a giant beast, its sharp ridges carving into the night sky. The moonlight poured across its slopes in a ghostly silver glow.

The land itself was like a vast, rocky island adrift in an endless crimson sea. From our position, it seemed the bus had crashed against the island's western edge, mere steps away from tumbling into those bloody waters. Gales slammed against the mountain rapidly, shrieking with impotent fury.

'Wow… it's exactly like in the game, only more real.'

Now that I thought about it, the developers had always said Shatterverse was closer to a simulation than an RPG.

"What the hell is this place? Where are we?"

Choi Minjae's voice cracked with despair. If I didn't know any better, I might have broken down too.

"It looks like some kind of island. But not a normal one. What kind of bird was that? A monster? And why is the sea crimson? No… could this be augmented reality?"

Grant frowned, deep in thought. Then, as if something had just clicked, his eyes lit up and he suddenly turned toward Ezra.

"Hey, earlier you said we were in another world. What did you mean by that?"

Ezra tilted his head, seemingly puzzzled by the question. It was as if he was just asked a very dumb question.

He then replied in a matter-of-fact tone:

"Isn't it already obvious? Just look around. Do you see a place like this and think we're still in the same reality? Our phones don't work, the sea is crimson, and that bird we saw was anything but normal. All of that should make the truth clear enough, don't you think?"

Yes, he was right.

Everything about this place was undeniably unnatural. But the human mind always looked for a rational explanation, clinging to reason rather than accepting the unknown, even when it was shoved right in front of your face.

It was like losing at rock-paper-scissors three times in a row and claiming some invisible force was rigging the game against you.

Sometimes, thinking that way was okay. But sooner or later, you had to face reality, even if it was unnatural.

"Oh my god..."

Margaret screamed. Everyone turned back at the source of her terror then turned pale in a cold sweat. Something reminiscent of a red sea serpent slowly emerged from the blood-red sea.

"W-What the hell...!"

I recognized 'It' almost immediately.

[Nekrithis]

Such a monster was commonly called a sea corpse eater. The design was simply that unique.

And now, its abyssal eyes had locked onto us.

"U-Uwaaaah! It's coming!"

The survivors screamed and braced themselves. Running along a straight line would hold no merit and only prolonged the inevitable. Surprisingly, I didn't show any fear. Maybe it was because we weren't dealing with a normal carnivorous beast.

Chop!

Grabbing the broken bus with its powerful, mighty jaws, the sea beast slowly dragged it into the depths of the crimson waters. Luckily, that Hollow was a beast that only feed on dead bodies. It was probably attracted to the smell of the dead passengers.

Even so,

'That was too close!'

Once again, we had narrowly avoided certain death.