Eon looked at the teenage boy who was walking towards him. Based off the boy's appearance, he was obviously from the outskirts.
He had purposely navigated through the borders of the outskirts near the middle class districts to avoid other outskirts dwellers, but he had never been to this region before so he was bound to run into someone eventually.
"Hey! I'm talking to you."
Yelled the boy, snapping Eon out of his thoughts.
"Um! What were you saying again?"
Eon was so busy trying to fight off his sleepiness that he had missed the question.
The older boy's face exposed his annoyance.
"I'm asking what you're doing here. You trying to steal from me or something?"
Eon, not wanting to get into a fight, tried to diffuse the situation.
"Oh! I'm not doing anything. I guess I'm just lost."
The boy didn't seem to believe him and decided to threaten him.
"Don't you dare lie to me. You want to try to steal from me don't you? I don't care if you're a kid. Try it and I'll make sure you regret it for the rest of you're life."
Eon didn't say anything for a few moments and just stood there confused.
'What the spell is wrong with this dude. I just said I wasn't going to do anything. Does he go around randomly picking fights with everyone he sees '
"I'm sorry for bothering you Sir. Don't worry I'll be taking my leave now."
Eon was already used to dealing with adults who thought they were always right just because they were older. So swallowing his pride and apologizing was easy.
Not wanting to deal with the weird teenage boy who was probably high on something, Eon simply turned to leave. He hadn't taken more than a couple steps when he suddenly collapsed on the floor.
'Damn! This sleepiness is getting harder to resist.'
Summoning all of his will, he managed to get back up to his feet.
Eon turned around expecting to see the older boy laughing uncontrollably at his comedic fall but instead the boy had a look on his face that made it seem like he was dealing with the most annoying thing in the world.
"Wait here."
The older boy said simply, as he walked back to the ventilator shaft. He opened it and began to pull out random pieces of trash from it as though he was looking for something in particular. Not long after, he brought out a small box which had been hidden deep within and opened it. He grabbed something from within and tossed it to Eon who caught it clumsily.
Eon looked down at the object in his hands. It was a tube which was labeled "SYNTH- PASTE UNFLAVORED".
When he looked up again, the older boy was already in front of him again.
"If you were that hungry, you should have just said something."
The older boy seemed to have mistaken his sleepiness for starvation and Eon wasn't planning to clarify the misunderstanding. Only a fool would reject free food in the outskirts.
"Um… Thanks I guess."
Eon said but then a thought flashed through his mind as he looked at the suspicious teenager.
"Wait, it's not poisoned is it"
he asked cautiously. It wasn't uncommon for people from the outskirts to eat expired food but they had to be careful since food poisoning could lead to death.
The frown on the teenage boy's face deepened.
"If you don't want it, give it back."
he said as he stretched out his arm.
Eon hid the tube behind his back and hurriedly apologized.
"No! Sorry that's not what I meant." he began as he quickly considered his words.
"What I'm trying to say is why would you give me, a stranger something like this?"
From what Eon could tell, the teenage boy in front of him didn't seem like the type to share. In fact no one in the outskirts did. So this total 180 change in personality was weird and creepy.
The boy gave a smirk before responding.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not doing this out of the kindness of my heart. Normally I wouldn't give a damn even if you were to die in a ditch somewhere. The problem is, if you die around my territory, you'll attract scavengers."
Eon was more confused than mad about his rude remark.
"Scavengers?"
The teenage boy sighed and gave a look that seemed to say 'don't you know anything?'
"They're corpse robbers. And if they're not satisfied with whatever they find on you, they'll find a way to make a corpse, which would be troublesome for me."
Eon was stunned. He knew the people in the outskirts were ruthless but this was a whole other level.
The teenage boy must have confused his speechlessness for fear because he turned to leave.
"You have something to eat now so scram. Get out of my territory."
Eon didn't hesitate to squeeze some synth-paste into his mouth as he started walking. He took a dozen steps and suddenly turned around as though he just remembered something.
"Hey! What's your name?"
He yelled out in the direction of the teenager.
The older boy who was already a distance away stopped for a moment then simply said,
"I'm Sunless" before walking away without looking back.
After the teenage boy left, Eon continued his journey and began to think to himself.
"Did that dude just aura farm? He's acting like he's the main character or something."
That random thought served as an epiphany causing Eon to suddenly realize what world he was in.
"Wait a minute, he said his name is Sunless. I know that name. Did I just meet the main character of Shadow Slave?"
If a normal person were to confirm that they were in a fictional world, a flurry of thoughts would probably cross their mind and they would feel all sorts of emotions, but this was not the case for Eon.
"Well at least I know what world I'm in now."
To Eon this revelation didn't really change anything. He only wanted to figure it out to satisfy his curiosity. He was still stuck in this world and he was probably going to die in his first nightmare anyway.
Regarding Shadow Slave, he knew the general plot of the story but it wasn't like he had made it his mission to memorize every little bit of the lore and events.
He emptied the remaining contents of the tube into his mouth before disposing it in a nearby recycling bin.
Now that he had something in his stomach, his sleepiness was slightly alleviated and he could think properly again.
"Couldn't I have been reincarnated in a world I paid more attention to? Or at least one with a higher chance of survival."
The more Eon thought about it the angrier he got.
"Why am I even infected anyway? I'm ten years old damn it. Shouldn't the nightmare spell only target seventeen year olds or did it randomly decide to become a predator."
Eon suddenly noticed that he had been yelling and people around him were staring at him like he was a crazy person.
'There's no point getting angry it won't change anything.'
He thought to himself as he calmed down.
'If I were to die, I wonder if Grampa Max would be sad? Knowing him, he would probably be upset.'
Eon wondered if he should have told Grampa Max that he was infected with the Nightmare Spell but then he quickly dismissed the thought.
'He's only taking care of me because he thinks I'm a normal kid. I can't keep worrying him.'
Eon came to a halt as he reached his destination.
He looked up to see a fairly large building with security cameras that seemed to cover every corner. It had the words 'POLICE DEPARTMENT' written boldly on it.
"Alright let's get this over with."
He said to himself as he steeled his nerves and stepped into the police Station.