EX rank supporting role’s replay in a prestigious school-Chapter 941: Night Walk (14)

The words of Baekho-gun made me recall the words of some higher beings.

Some of them had said that I was carrying something.

I thought they were referring to something like the trajectory of the player or the duty to protect this world using my powers.

But perhaps my thinking was wrong.

"Carrying a nightmare... That must refer to Inseomnium itself."

Even if I wasn't Inseomnium, the fact that the nightmare moved when I was asleep remained unchanged.

I once saw Kim Shin-rok in the Death Grove, where he extracted the speck of the nightmare to torment the Wung tribe.

That Wung tribe had been the enemy who kidnapped the child of a noble couple, and was subjected to a long and painful revenge in a distorted space.

But despite being pierced by a bamboo spear from Jukho and having their neck crushed by the noble couple, that Wung tribe stood proudly, openly mocking Kim Shin-rok.

The change in the Wung tribe came only after Kim Shin-rok extracted the speck of the nightmare.

"Speck, as in a small amount. It was so light that I handled it carefully, afraid it would scatter into the air instantly. But as soon as it touched, the Wung tribe’s attitude completely changed."

The change in the Wung tribe was dramatic.

When the speck touched, the Wung tribe resisted with all their might, knowing it was futile, and then began to convulse.

The Wung tribe, consumed by the speck of nightmare, fell asleep and woke up, repeating this cycle. Each time, they lost more of their will and became consumed by fear.

After several repetitions, the Wung tribe, who had once been so defiant, began crying and clinging to Kim Shin-rok.

Even the Wung tribe, who seemed like they would never speak, eventually confessed to following the commands of the Wind King and the Rainmaster.

Their mind collapsed, and in a state of delirium, they discarded their pride and obediently revealed a great secret to their descendant, Kim Shin-rok.

If the speck had such power, one could only imagine how terrifying the full force of the nightmare itself must have been.

And Maeng Hyo-don, who must have been affected by the nightmare twice while sleeping near me...

"As long as you carry that nightmare, it will not escape your dreams. Even if it tries to slip out while you’re asleep, its influence will be far weaker than the speck and cannot spread beyond a confined space."

Baekho-gun seemed to carefully choose his words, likely trying to comfort me.

Baekho-gun’s words weren’t wrong.

It didn’t make sense that the nightmare, Inseomnium’s power, which even the true-blooded beings feared, couldn’t break through a sealed building, no matter how strong it was.

It was true that the power of the nightmare was suppressed because I was carrying it.

When I asked Baekho-gun about the nightmare before, he gave me this answer:

"You have nothing to worry about, Joid-shin."

"Don't worry about it, just do what you need to do."

Was he telling me not to worry because my nightmare’s influence was even smaller than the speck? Was he saying I should continue doing what I need to do, no matter who is affected by the nightmare?

It didn’t make sense.

I felt suffocated by guilt.

"You're telling me not to worry, even though Maeng Hyo-don couldn’t sleep properly because of the nightmare?"

Baekho-gun didn’t answer.

If he had known, he should have told me earlier so I could have made a plan. If I had known, I wouldn’t have been so careless, thinking it was okay to give Maeng Hyo-don the same room and casually teach him math.

I tried to remember if anyone around me had ever had nightmares.

Then I remembered Moon Sae-ron, who had screamed and woken up during an overseas reporting trip.

"That happened during a stay at a hotel overseas."

"Others were playing games and staying up all night, while Moon Sae-ron was sleeping in the room next to mine. And since building standards overseas are looser than in Korea, the powers of the otherworldly beings might have leaked out."

I remembered the conversation between Je-gal Jae-gul and the newly awakened Moon Sae-ron when they rushed over after hearing the scream.

Moon Sae-ron was terrified and wanted to go somewhere with more people.

"Ahaha, sorry! I heard so many scary stories yesterday that it came out in my dreams!"

"You had a nightmare? Should I call a doctor?"

"I'm fine! It wasn’t scary at all. Oh, I'm fully awake now, so I’m not scared anymore. If possible, I’d like to be somewhere with more people! Is the second-year class 0 still awake? The Newspaper Club should be awake too, right? Wow, it would be fun to hang out together! I want to stay with everyone until the morning! Teacher, do you want to play a game?"

Moon Sae-ron was so scared when investigating the ghost stories at Eungwang High that she didn't even want to sleep alone.

But it seemed like I had shown her a very terrifying dream.

The Moon Sae-ron, who was trying to adjust her condition to investigate, had become a game addict, staying up all night with other gamers.

Thinking about what Moon Sae-ron said, her nightmare might have been far worse than she let on.

"I might have shown her a nightmare, but it wasn’t me... It was Inseomnium, the nightmare that I carry."

That was a useless statement.

No matter the process, the fact remained that I had been sleeping near her, and that was why she had been affected by the nightmare.

I had always trusted the words of my last playable character without a doubt, but now I felt the contradiction.

"You told me not to worry, right? Do you still think the same way?"

Baekho-gun’s gaze darkened.

From his eyes, I sensed embarrassment, but it didn’t seem like he was lying.

I tried to piece together the information I had in my mind to understand Baekho-gun’s true meaning.

Baekho-gun wasn’t someone who would dismiss Maeng Hyo-don’s suffering from the nightmare as something trivial.

If he were, I wouldn't have respected him, and no matter how strong he was, I wouldn’t have chosen him as my main playable character.

Perhaps even Baekho-gun didn’t expect this situation.

"Now that I think about it, it’s strange. If you said not to worry, it should have been fine."

I recalled the information about the nightmare.

Then, a phrase from the second 12th zodiac summit came to mind.

The leader of the two factions had a title of "Nightmare Envoy" and had said this openly:

"Nightmare Envoy: Lately, the power of nightmares has been growing stronger. If the 12th alliance’s barrier breaks, it could be troublesome."

Even if I am carrying and suppressing its power, if the nightmare’s influence has been growing stronger, problems could arise.

The contradiction between Baekho-gun’s words and the current situation might be the result of that.

In my mind, information about the nightmare kept flashing, and the words of people around me regarding dreams passed by, making me dizzy.

I struggled to clear my chaotic thoughts and continued speaking.

"Up until now, there really hasn’t been anything to worry about, right? Maybe even when I’m sleeping, I wake up quickly, or the nightmare hasn’t had much of an impact. Could it be that the nightmare has grown stronger since you told me not to worry?"

I spoke faster and longer than usual, but Baekho-gun seemed to have understood it all.

Baekho-gun slowly nodded and then answered.

"If it had been right after you arrived, the dreamer would have woken up without me needing to remove the traces of the nightmare."

"You opened the window to erase the traces of the nightmare in Maeng Hyo-don’s dream, didn’t you?"

"Yes."

Then, how did the nightmare grow stronger?

I compared the moment I first arrived in this world with the current situation.

"When I first came to this world, I stayed for several months in a neighborhood without any supernatural equipment. If the whole neighborhood had been plagued by nightmares, it would have spread as a rumor, but that didn’t happen."

"You were the only player in that area. Nightmares are difficult to affect beings without supernatural abilities. Only fully awakened beings can consume those dreams."

I almost sighed at Baekho-gun’s answer.

Could it be that Baekho-gun knew about the nightmare from the moment I arrived in this world?

I met Baekho-gun on the first day I came here, so it was entirely possible.

And that day, after I saved Kim Shin-rok and performed various deeds, Hwang Ji-ho might have taken an interest in me, investigated my surroundings, and if Baekho-gun wanted to, he could have found that information.

If that were the case, it would also have been conveyed that there were no other players near the neighborhood where I stayed.

"Also, Hwang Ji-ho once said this."

—Humans are less affected by nightmares. Even if they have a scary dream, as long as there’s no physical harm, they wake up by morning.

Unlike true-blooded beings, who can fall into a "deep sleep," humans, especially those without supernatural abilities, usually wake up in the morning as long as their body is functioning fine.

It seemed that humans, particularly those without supernatural abilities, were less affected by nightmares.

So, what about the opposite?

Could it be that humans with strong supernatural abilities, or non-human beings, are more susceptible to nightmares?

"Could it be that the nightmare grew stronger because my total supernatural power increased?"

When I first came to this world and now, the difference in my total supernatural power was huge.

Back then, I barely defeated a single Rinoseron using my weapon’s instant kill skill, but now, I was confident I could defeat a hundred of them.

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With or without a weapon.

Hearing that the nightmare had grown stronger made me more uneasy.

"I can’t afford to sleep near true-blooded beings or their descendants anymore."

Even Maeng Hyo-don, a human, couldn’t wake up easily.

Baekho-gun said that only after he removed the traces of the nightmare could he wake up, so I couldn’t be sure what would happen if I slept near a being with a true name.

—Hwang Ji-ho had explained why they feared nightmares.

"I remember well. We have a true name that binds the soul and body."

—Nightmares invade our subconscious through dreams. Once they invade, the nightmare consumes the true name we’ve sealed in our hearts.

A true name is a wedge that connects the soul and the body.

If you lose your true name, the bond between the soul and the body weakens, and your existence becomes unstable.

And right in front of me, there was a being who had lost their true name.

It was Baekho-gun.

When Baekho-gun lost his true name, even the Celestial being had made him a servant of the divine realm to prevent him from leaving the silver light.

"You are a true-blooded being who lost your true name."

Baekho-gun nodded once.

Baekho-gun's loss of his true name was the same in both the realm of Flamagona and this world.

In the Flamagona realm, Baekho-gun never found his true name before his end.

"Is the loss of your true name related to the nightmare I carry?"

I expected Baekho-gun to hesitate or be cautious with his words, but he answered immediately.

"No, the loss of the true name and the nightmare are unrelated."

"Really? I thought there might be a connection, given what I carry."

The words I had just said sounded very cynical in my ears.

I thought he would ignore or not answer it, but Baekho-gun continued.

"However, there might be a connection between the loss of my true name and the nightmare."

"What do you mean?"

The two expressions, "losing the true name" and "the whereabouts of the true name," were technically different, but it sounded like a wordplay.

I narrowed my eyes and asked again, and Baekho-gun calmly replied.

"My true name was used to grant you divine protection."