Shadow Slave novel Chapter 408

Chapter 408 Oh, No

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: