Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

[Saturday — 7th December 2030 — 00:30 pm]

It was a wonderful Saturday night or morning depending on how one looked at it. Befitting their age, the young people were enjoying their time— moving around the city, alone or in groups, visiting nightclubs or other places to relax, have fun, and spend time with their friends or even strangers. Generally, it was their ritual to have some much needed time for themselves and unwind for the day.

Adam found himself leisurely floating above such a nightclub as he wondered what he should do from now on. After leaving Yui and walking around in the night while witnessing the nightlife of the city of Los Angeles, Adam realized that he was once again left with not much to do on immediate notice.

He still had around 24 hours left for himself before he could enter the dreamscape once again and explore the illusive Wonderland that he had found himself in. There he would also be able to find out more about the perpetrator that had killed him in the last seconds of his time there and made him so much angry. Then, he would have to face Natasha on the 9th of this month while hoping that his preparations would be enough by then to reach the level necessary for him to succeed and save her from the clutches of the Wolf inside her.

Once he was done with this crucial task, saving Natasha and ensuring her successful control over the entity within her, he would go on his mission the very next day and visit France— a foreign country that he had never visited before in his life. If he were to think about it clearly, he had not really visited any country other than America and Japan, where he was allegedly born.

'Should I kill one French dude and take his soul to learn the language of that country?'

Thanks to having killed Diego and Miguel and repeatedly reading their books already, Adam now had a great grasp of Spanish and could speak it quite fluently. Miguel had even learned some Russian before… clearly, it was with the explicit intention to deal with the Russian mafia and expand their business to the Russian market.

All this knowledge was now all his and it had been so easy that it was almost laughable to him.

Once again, Adam realized that the only thing slowing down his growth now was his morals and his mindset. After all, what stopped him from searching for a scientist who specialized in physics and killing them in cold blood to steal their knowledge? It was precisely his morals and his aversion to killing others just for his gain when they had done nothing to him that was holding him back.

Even though doing it once or two times would surely bring phenomenal results for him.

"Hey, Genesis. What do you think would happen if I absorbed two contrasting knowledge at the same time?"

{Nothing will… I believe. However, we would need to experiment to be completely sure about that.}

"Experiments and experiments. Again and again… So many experiments, hah…"

Adam changed his posture midair, looking now as though he was sleeping with the air as his bed and the sky as his blanket.

"Sadly, I cannot do those experiments inside the Dreamscape, at least not yet… Who knows what would happen once I reach a higher level…"

All the power from the Dreamscape came from his pure imagination and will. This was what was referred to as the manifestation of Dreamforce.

When he used fire, it wasn't so much him using fire but imagining what he thought a fire would look like and bringing it forth into reality or into the dreams of Dreamscape.

He could do the same here using the power of [The Magician] but unlike in Dreamscape, in this world— the world of reality, the manifestation of his imagination would be nothing but an illusion.

Adam sighed as his face became illuminated by tens of scarlet butterflies flying all around him in a beautiful pattern.

Just how can illusions even become reality? It made no logical sense…

This was a very tricky question to answer… as it would then mean that one had to give a definition of what reality was.

In the end, what we recognized as reality was nothing but a matter of our perception.

"Perhaps I have been thinking about it wrong."

He had been focused on making illusions transition to reality. But could use on other matters.

this undoubtedly proved to be something outside of his skill set for the time being. Trying more as he was now would be nothing but a fool's errand. He would only be wasting his time— time that he could use on other matters.

But what if, rather than focusing on making things real, he focused on making someone think that the illusions were real instead? What if… he tried to change the way they perceived the things he made and make them believe that it was in fact real…

Literally speaking, something real was the state or quality of having existence or substance.

How did people determine whether they were dreaming or having a hallucination or in fact were in reality? How did they make the contrast?

They felt it with their bodies. With their touch, with their bodily senses. The eyes could trick them. The ears could trick them. But their sensations of touch would rarely trick them and lead them astray.

If he killed someone using his illusions and made that person feel the pain of death, feel the pain and harrowing emotions of departing from this very world, would that person truly die for real?

What about fire? If he made something that looked like fire, caused heat, and gave them the sensation of burning that would actually damage them…

Then was it not fire itself? Was it still an illusion or was it reality in the form of illusions? Just what was it, in the end…?

"Haha and now I can't help but wonder if I should simply take a course in philosophy."

Either way, he believed that his way of thinking was worth testing out. Even if it failed, at the very least, it would without a doubt be a new way to torture people in the worst ways possible.

He would take that as a win for now. Being positive never hurt anyone.

Activating his communication lenses, which was embedded into a virtual reality system, Adam waited for his call to connect…

[So…What do we have this time]

"You are hurting my feelings."

[Huhu…Go on… Spill it already. What do you actually need this time?]

Adam laughed, "You know. I am starting to feel a bit bad honestly. After all, I really do only call you when I need some help."

Adam was shameless but not that shameless. Furthermore, relationships that were only based on interest were sturdy but also very flimsy when they were needed the most. With the rate things were going, he might become only a business partner to Hacker, which was something he didn't want at all.

She was just way too useful for him to just be business partners with.

"Honestly, I called you because I need your report. The one I asked about the Mermaids."

[Oh that. Give me a minute.]

The sounds of keys being tapped filled his ears before numerous messages reached him and his lenses.

[Okay. So I searched deeper into this whole affair and I realized the one attacking the Mermaids is just a puppet. The true mastermind is this guy here…]

Pictures flashed endlessly before stopping on one particular man. He had a huge body and a fierce expression. One of his eyes was completely white, with a long scar running along the forehead down to the middle of his right cheek, going through the whitened eye…

"He seems quite fierce."

[That he is. The one who is trying to get the Mermaids to bow is a tough nut this time. Name's Boris. He is the second in command of a developing gang between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. He was once part of the KGB or at least the supernatural side of the KGB. He is a gold-rank hunter and rumors are that he could have become an Executor if he just had a Divine Weapon with him.]

"Hum. A gold rank as a subordinate. Is the boss an Executor?"

[No. For most people, becoming an Executor without a divine weapon or something close to a divine weapon is basically impossible and a divine weapon isn't something any random person can have.]

Hacker chuckled as she tried to show more of the common sense of the world to Adam who, for all he had done, had only been Adam had certainly reached the point where he thought such things were common or at least relatively common.

introduced to the supernatural for a bit more than a month at most.

"I see. I guess my viewpoint was skewed too much."

Everyone around him was basically either a zodiac, a legendary blacksmith, had a divine weapon, or was related to some kind of god, an angel, or a devil cum demon.

Adam had certainly reached the point where he thought such things were common or at least relatively common.

"Sigh. Whatever. Is the organization behind this Boris friendly to Yui?"

[I can feel your bloodlust from all the way here. Well, if you wondering if you can murder them, then I say go all out. We were kinda close but Yui decided to cut all ties with them since they started selling fairy dust. So you could even say that we are close to being enemies now. Their organization is pretty huge so they are quite dangerous but I guess against you, numbers are completely meaningless. Isn't that right, Prince?]

"I feel like you see me as some kind of murderous fiend? The first answer isn't always violence you know? I just plan to go to that Boris fellow and negotiate amicably. I will even provide some deals to make everything fair. After all, they are making quite the loss because of me."

[Hahah… and what will you do if they refuse?]

"..."

[Thought so. Well, in the end, do whatever you want. Your actions are beneficial to us so I have no reason to be against it. Just… Be [Do you wanna bet?]

"Bet what?"

careful. I know you are strong. Very strong even. But Boris is pretty strong as well.]

"Trust me. I will be careful and honestly, you are a bit too pessimistic. This might not end in bloodshed."

[Do you wanna bet?]

"Bet what?"

[If you succeed in finishing everything without killing anyone and in fact having a peaceful conclusion with no hard feelings with the other side I will give you 100 million dollars.]

Adam whistled out loud at the mention of the reward. He was quite impressed.

Then he remembered that 100 million was just enough to buy 10 cigarettes from Medusa and so his admiration vanished like the smoke of his cigarettes that he took on the go.

"Forget the money. If I win, you invite me to a good restaurant."

[Oh? Is the Gigolo finally putting his moves on me? Then what if I win?]

"Then it will be I who will invite you?"

[Hahaha. Very smooth… Doesn't it mean we going out to a restaurant either way!?]

"So?"

[Very well. You are on. Just remember. I don't eat in cheap restaurants.]

Clearly, she was sure of her victory.

"Then it's a date."

Adam whistled and started walking away. This time he was sure it wouldn't end in a massacre.

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Bonus for Gifts:

A car= 1 bonus chapter

A Dragon=  3 Bonus Chapter

A Castle=  5 Bonus chapters

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500 GT= 1 BC

1000 GT= 2 BC

Bonus for Priv unlock

5K= 3 BC (Spread over four days)

10K= 8 BC (Spread over a week, otherwise I would die)

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