221 Fragments

...…

Shin had no clear idea how long or short he had been sleeping, but during this time, he was dreaming. A dream the was vague and quite a blur, the phrases that he got were not even clear. 

"I sorry…"

"Don't … "

"Please… …"

"… blame…"

"You are … … fault."

"… understand … this … for … "

During his sleep, Shin's eyebrows were kept getting into a frown when dreaming. And even if he couldn't clearly hear and see what was in that dream, he was also turning his head left and right as if the dream was turning into a nightmare. And what made it worst was the scenes on this nightmare-like part being a little clearer.

What he saw was young girl wearing dirty clothes and standing on a wooden platform not far from he was standing. Her hands were spread on each of her sides while being bind in by chains that were tied on the pair of metal poles on each of the side of platform.

And from where he was standing, Shin could see that the girl suffered quite some beating based on the wounds and bruises on the surface on both of the arms of the girl. And after few moments, the girl raised her head and look at him.

Shin couldn't clearly see that face of the girl as it was too blurry but he felt that his heart suddenly stopped beating when he felt the gaze of the girl landed on him. Then he seemed to feel that the girl smiled at him for a moment before telling him something.

He couldn't hear what she was saying nor read the movements of her lips as her face was a little blurry in his sight.

Then…

Bang!

He heard a gunshot that came out of nowhere. Then he saw a bullet pierced through the head of the girl which gave him a painful feeling in his chest as if he was being stabbed by something. Especially when he felt that the girl was still smiling at him.

He raised him right hand as he tried to stretch it out to reach the girl. He even tried to open his mouth as he wanted to say something, but no words come out. He even tried his best, but to no avail; his voice was still stocked at his throat.

Then his eyes turned even more cloudy as look the blurry face of the girl that was slowly falling from looking at him.

Then some unexpected feelings suddenly start to sprout from his chest. At first, they were feeling of being too weak, helplessness, and having no ability to change anything. Then those feelings slowly turned into self-blame and guilt all the way it finally became hate, rage, and furiousness.

And after a transition of those emotions, unknown strength burst out from his body as he suddenly felt that he became powerful. Then he stared blankly at the lifeless body of the girl on the platform not far from him. He looked at her for a few more moments before slowly raising his head to look at the sky before shouting so suddenly.

...

"NO!"

And after a few more moments, he suddenly frowned his brows as he became confused. He knew that he had a dream, or more like a nightmare. But just like most of the common dreams, he forgot about it almost immediately the moment he woke up. What's more, the dream seemed to be too fragmented for him to remember. But the main thing here was the unexplainable pain the he felt earlier from the dream was still present and made him uncomfortable.

Then he unconsciously raised his right hand and placed it on his chest and rubbed it a little before clenching that hand of his.

And before he thought about anything more, a voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"Looks like 'sleeping beauty' was finally awake. Or don't tell me that you still need some more time to become fully wake."

Shin turned his head at the direction where it came from and saw Faker standing not far from him while leaning in the wall. He was confused at first when he saw the latter, but a sudden burst of information assaulted his head as he remembered why he was here.

His eyes suddenly turned wide as he quickly stood up from his sitting position and became on guard while scanning his surroundings and looking for his enemies.

Faker suddenly started chuckling when he saw what Shin was doing. "You really are still asleep. There is no use at looking for Immortal now. That guy already escapes the moment I arrive in here. So, don't bother looking for him."

"Huh?" Shin was still in a confused state after hearing that. And it took him a few more seconds for everything to sink in his mind.

Then he looked at Faker with confused look at his face before asking. "I lose conciseness? And I still didn't log out of the game? Is that possible."

Faker chuckles once again and said. "Well, that is mostly because you are using a VR Cabin, if you are using one. That one is of the advantages of the VR Cabins. Whenever something unexpected happened inside or outside the game, the auto-sleep mode of the Cabin will kick in and prevent you from logging out of the game immediately. Then the system will wait for five to ten minutes before sending you out of the game." 

He paused for a moment before saying. "And what happened to you earlier fall on that special category."

Shin knitted his head as he heard that and asked. "How the heck did I lose my consciousness anyway and why did Immortal runaway."

Faker shrugged his shoulders and lied through one's teeth. "How would I know? When I arrived here, you are already about to get killed. Fortunately, Immortal is also in the end of his ropes at that time so his concentration is already quite low. With that, he fails to hit you in that last moment when I tried to distract him. Then he escapes immediately after that. And that was also the time that you lose consciousness."

Shin was still confused but he knew that they had no extra time to discuss about what had happened and said. "For how long did I lose my consciousness?"

"Seven minutes. You are only unconscious for seven minutes at most," said Faker.

Then Shin swept his gaze at the entire hall once again, but this time, it was for him to observe the place careful. "Looks like the core is already disabled. I guess we don't have anything to do now. How are the things on brother Lawless' side?"

Faker exhaled deeply before saying. "It is not that good but it is not much of a problem too. The War God: Simba is on our side after all."

Then Shin looked at his stats and couldn't help but clicked his tongue when he saw how terrible the state that he was in. "Tch! D*mn! Quadruple weakened state? That was a massive decrease in my stats. Now, my stats are only on par with Newbie Players that are on Level 20 at most."

He paused to think for a moment before adding. "I hope the pardon card that Leo has is enough to negate all of these negative buffs"

After that, he turned his attention at Faker once again before saying. "We should hurry now and support them."

But Faker refused the idea right away and said. "But from my opinion, it is the best for us to stay here for a little more time and…"

Faker was still in the middle of talking when Shin suddenly cut in at what he was saying due the latter part of what he had said.

"Don't worry brother Faker, I can still handle myself. Even if the pardon card from Leo can't help me remove these weakening debuff, I can still leave the party and summon my Elemental Companions to help you guys in battle."

Faker couldn't help but started chuckling once again and said. "I guess you are still sleeping. Have you already forgotten about what you ordered your pet?"

Shin suddenly frowned his eyebrows as he became a little confused. Then after a little moment, he finally remembered about it. "Ah! Yeah!"

Then he quickly turned his head to look for Whitie who was absent in the entire battle earlier. But the white tiger was nowhere to found. That was why he quickly opened his virtual map to locate the location of his pet.

And that was when he saw that Whitie was being located right below him based on what was indicated on the map. "Huh?"

At this point Faker opened his mouth once again while saying with a slight bitter tone. "I don't know how much luck are in your reserves, but it seems like that this place is somewhat related to the missing King of the Holy City. So, instead of going with Lawless and the others, I think it is better to look for the real King that is being held as captive in this place. How didn't you know about it? Based in on the position of your pet, it seems that you already given it the job to search area at the start of your battle with Immortal."

Shin shrugged his shoulders a little before replying. "Well, I am not that sure about it either. It was just I suddenly feel that there is something amiss on this place when I saw that Immortal himself was guarding this place. That was why I ordered one of my pets to search the surroundings when my Elemental Spirits were forced to reverse summon."

And while they where discussing, a similar system notification sounded at their ears almost at the same time.

And when Shin saw that, he couldn't help but smiled bitterly as he said. "Speaking of about luck, looked at what we have here. I don't know if this is luck or something else."

...…