Layers Of Nightmare

"[9 seconds…]"

"What the f.u.c.k is…" William rose up from his bed and looked around. The machine-like voice sounded like it was right next to him, but he did not see anything weird around his bed.

"[7 seconds…]" The machine continued its countdown.

'Did I read too many novels?' he pondered as the countdown said six.

"System!" he said. Yet, nothing of the screen in his imagination, nor an animate object appeared in front of him.

He waved his hand in front of his face and on top of his head, still, he did not sense anything. And so, his only conclusion was, 'Yep, I must be very tired.'

William fell on top of his pillow once again after deciding to ignore the dreary machine voice. However, once the countdown reached three, the machine voice became demonized all of a sudden.

" T̵͜͢h̴̨͘̕͞r̨̛e͡e̛͏̴̢ " The sudden change in voice forced William to sat up once again with a flinch. The voice was so vivid that an image of someone drowning instantly appeared in his mind. He felt his heart missing a beat.

" T҉҉w̶͞o̴͏ " Now, he was sure that the voice no longer carried a tone of a machine.

" Ò̸̡͞n̛҉̷e̴҉̧ ..."

By the time the last blood-wrenching countdown entered his ears, his back and limbs were already covered in cold sweats. William tried to pinch his arm, the pain gave him a hard-to-believe proof that he was not having a lucid dream.

Several seconds passed in a pin-drop silence. William waited nervously for anything to happen after the countdown ended. Yet, nothing came out even after a minute or two passed.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Unknowingly, his hand had reached for his phone on the table. Just as he tried to press the torch function once again, a sudden splitting headache stung his head.

"ARGH!" he yelped in pain while holding his head with both hands.

A stream of images flowed into his brain –various cold weapons displayed themselves in his mind. When he closed his eyes, vivid form of the weapons floated in an orderly manner under the cover of his eyelids, similar to a museum display. It felt as if he had entered a second dimension where he could move around to each weapon's side with just thought.

"What is going on…" William opened his eyes to realize that he had returned to his room. It was a weird sensation, and it would be a lie to say that he was not curious.

He closed his eyes again to delve into the imaginary space. The visual was so clear, just like when he tried a VR game.

William 'strolled' around the dark space and found out that there were several tens of cold weapons that could not be defined as standard. Other than common sword, spear, axe, dagger, halberd and some others, he saw several unique weapons with sophisticated shape that one might wonder what the purpose was.

There was a sword that was jagged on one side but smooth on the other. A trident which middle spear was straight, while the side spears curled down toward the handle. A long staff with a pair of bayonet molded on each end. Heck, there was even a weird thick saw with a shape of letter 'n'.

Finally, William discovered a sword with a thin handle and a relatively thick blade that was made out of several square blade compartments. From its appearance alone, he had some certainty that it can extend like a whip when he swung it. The sight of it reminded him of a weapon owned by a certain red-headed shinigami, just without the spikes on each blade compartment.

He mulled over before grabbing the unique sword. He wondered if he could get the sense of touch as well in the strange space.

William could feel about three kilograms of weight in his hand. He smiled in excitement, but before he could swing it for a test, the sword disappeared from his hand. At the same time, all the cold weapons floating around him had disappeared with a poof. Replacing them were another five weapons.

Three of them were non-automatic firearms: a Desert Eagle, a Magnum revolver and a blunderbuss. The remaining two were a standard metal shield similar to those used in middle age and a buckler.

If anything, every weapon that he saw—cold or not—were all silver in color. He did not know what the color signify, but at least he could enjoy the curious experience during this drunk-like state he was in.

'Hmm… what to choose…' William contemplated for a while. Even if he knew that they would disappear anyway on touch, there was a voice deep in his heart which told him that this will be an important decision to make.

'Why though…?' He pondered in confusion. Strangely, his heart began to beat rapidly once again.

As a science major, he refused to believe what he had gone through for the last few minutes. Nonetheless, "seeing is believing"; everything he experienced was as real as it could be.

Eventually, he commanded his ethereal body to reach for the Desert Eagle. There were several reasons why he decided to choose it. If memory served him right, a Desert Eagle can fit eight or nine bullets, which was more than a Magnum revolver. From the start, he had removed the blunderbuss from his choice. If he could choose the more versatile modern weapon, why bother with the old one? As for the protective arms… well, firearms has the range, while shields made him feel like a sitting duck; he was not comfortable with the image.

When he grabbed the gun, he could feel the weight in his hand. Honestly speaking, it was slightly heavier than he thought –about two kilograms. After all, this was his first time 'touching' a gun. Just like before, everything disappeared before he could do anything else.

William still maintained his eyes closed as he expected the space to make another change. Unfortunately, only darkness remained behind his eyelids. Much to his indignation, a voice returned to his ears, causing him to open his eyes.

"[Weapons selected, deploying tasks now.]" At least it was not the demonic voice.

'What tasks?'

William tried to close his eyes to see if there was something new. He was right. He saw an A4-sized hollow square with silver border and silver texts displayed itself.

'Now this, is similar to those system prompts in the novels!' William smiled in excitement, thus he voiced out the word once more with his eyes closed, "System!"

Nothing came out.

He refused to give up just like that, so he said another word, "Status!"

Nothing came out either.

William sighed. His disappointment was immeasurable and his day was ruined. Nevertheless, he began to read the screen prompt, written in it was,

[New Task added]

[1. Survive the nightmare]

[2. Escape the apartment]

At the bottom left corner of the screen was a small sentence that he almost missed, it said,

[Hallowed Emissary will arrive in 00:01:00

Warning! Host's power is lower than the Emissary]