🌌 Chapter 36
"Some trials test your strength. This one… will test your truth."
🏫 Scene: Sinjai Academy – Trial Grounds
The entire first-year batch stood before an enormous silver gate that glowed with pulsating symbols. The air around it shimmered as if space itself was bending.
Instructor Zareth stepped forward.
"Welcome to the Trial of Memories — a simulation forged from the real events of the Eclipse War."
Gasps echoed in the student ranks.
"This trial will simulate a dimensional rift exactly like the one that caused the fall of the city of Marenith. Those who enter… may not just see memories — they may become them."
Aeren stood quietly beside Anshi. He was calm… too calm.
"What does that mean?" Anshi asked.
"It means if we die in there… we might not come back," replied someone behind them.
🌀 Scene: Entering the Rift
The gate cracked open.
A pulse of time-energy blasted through the ground. Some students staggered back — some screamed.
But Aeren stepped in first.
His body didn't react — it resonated.
The moment he entered, he felt his chest grow warm — the sigil on his back pulsed again.
Then, one by one, the rest entered.
⚔️ Scene: Inside the Simulation – A Fallen World
The students landed in what looked like a ruined city — broken towers, shattered skies, flickers of memory still echoing in the air.
The sky wasn't blue — it was bleeding black, like a dying galaxy above them.
Instructor Zareth's voice echoed in their ears.
"You are now in Marenith, Year 1030 AE — the moment before the monster tide struck. Your task: survive for 6 hours, find and eliminate marked monsters, and collect memory cores."
"Top 5 performing teams will move to the elite training circuit. The bottom 10 will be disqualified from further ranking competitions."
"And… the simulation is live. You can get hurt."
Aeren blinked.
He looked at a shattered building — and suddenly, he saw how it fell. Not just visually — his mind played the entire scene as if rewinding time.
"Did you see that?" he whispered.
"What?" Anshi asked.
"Nothing… just déjà vu," he replied.
🕷️ Scene: The First Marked Monster
Team after team ran into mutated beasts — wolves with bone armor, insects the size of cars, floating shadow creatures with gaping mouths.
But Aeren's team, with Anshi and two others, worked efficiently.
Anshi unleashed fire-coated arrows, while Aeren simply… observed.
He watched the monster's twitch, predicted its attack pattern, and whispered the best angle for Anshi to strike.
"Three seconds before it turns left. Hit its core — just below the second rib."
Thwack!
Perfect hit.
Their team climbed the rankings fast.
🕰️ Scene: 4 Hours In – Aeren's Awakening Deepens
Something was changing in Aeren.
Every monster he saw — he could analyze its past movements.
Every building — he knew how it broke.
He realized he wasn't just seeing… he was reliving fragments of the war.
"I can see their thoughts…" he whispered.
At one moment, Aeren even dodged a sneak attack before it happened.
🌑 Scene: Glitch in the Memory
Then it happened.
Aeren reached an abandoned war zone — and suddenly the simulation began to glitch.
A new scene began to override the current one.
But no one else saw it.
He stood alone… in front of a black cathedral in the middle of the war-ravaged city.
The doors creaked open.
Inside — the cloaked man again. And behind him — a sealed coffin with runes written in time language.
"Why are you showing me this?" Aeren asked.
"Because the world is not what they told you."
"This isn't just a memory simulation. This is a key. And you… are one of three locks."
Suddenly, the coffin trembled.
A scarlet eye opened from within it.
"He awakens…" the cloaked man said."He sees you… Dreamwalker."
Aeren staggered backward — just as a giant black tendril emerged from the coffin and tried to grab him.
But the scene snapped — and he was back in the ruins with Anshi.
"Aeren! Where were you!? Are you okay?!"
He blinked again.
"I saw… something I shouldn't have."
🧭 Scene: Final Hour – Countdown to Finish
The leaderboard hovered overhead.
Team Anshi – Rank 4
Team Von Aric – Rank 1
Team Nyra Solis – Rank 2
Team Aeren – Rank 5 (surprising everyone)
They needed just one more kill to jump into the top 3.
Then a loud, ancient growl echoed through the simulation.
A Level 5 Beast — Thornscale Tyrant appeared.
Everyone froze.
This wasn't supposed to be here.
But it was a glitch… or maybe not.
The instructors tried to override the simulation, but—
ACCESS DENIED – Overseer Lock Engaged
"Someone… has hacked into the simulation!"
Aeren clenched his fist.
"This is just the beginning," he said."They're watching us."
🌒 Chapter 37 Preview:
"The Broken Simulation – Glitch of the Void"As the Thornscale Tyrant begins rampaging through the simulation, students panic and the instructors lose control. But Aeren — half-awake, half-connected — realizes this is not a simulation anymore. This is a message from the Dreamwalker world. And worse... something else has entered through the glitch.