Chương 68: Feverish Thinking

'Is this agony?' It is.

'Not even roaches to count in this cell.' This was no cell. You have no eyes.

'Oh yeah, Martin took them.' June had no eyes; there was no space to echolocate, and there was no light to see with. June was in the deepest depths of Royal Central, entombed in dirt.

'Do you think the others are ok?' They're probably dead.

'No, no, voice, I'm not asking you.'

'…'

'Am I going insane?' It's been a week since June has talked to anyone. It's been a week since June saw the light. It's been a week since June was able to move his body. He was always at its doorstep, but June was not going insane.

"But mana are supposed to just float around aimlessly."

'Why do they have faces?'

'Is it just pareidolia?' The first bit of progress June made in magic training with Leonard was his last. He could see what he assumed was mana but could not create a magical nexus for unknown reasons. Mana was supposed to float aimlessly around its sources, but some of the mana June could see moved around in bursts. Sometimes it lingered around its source, but it typically moved about on its own.

'Leonard said I don't have talent in magic, but he said hard work could help me make up for talent.'

'I tried so hard to see earth mana.'

'Why do I only see blue ones and white ones?'

'…'

'I can't believe Grace was participating in the tournament; it's a good thing she survived the beast.'

'It's a shame she died two weeks ago.' It has been 3 weeks since the revolutionists formed into a proper faction. In the meantime, they have waged war against the royal faction, and portions of refugees from the royal and revolutionary factions have escaped to Brighthaven. After the Revolution faction was formally created, June and the cohort traveled to the Royal Central, the royal faction headquarters.

3 weeks ago, June, Ann, Silvester, and Eren stood in a crowd of mourning but outraged people. Samuel stood on a podium, giving a speech about the regret of battle and running away to Brighthaven for a better life. This was the first meetup of the revolutionaries.

'Yes, plural.' The enemy faction had 48, 000, whereas Brighthaven had 45, 000. On the sixteenth day, a thousand people died, leaving the Royal faction with 47, 000. Until the rest dissented, of course. Though the Royal faction had more people than Brighthaven, it didn't work as a cohesive vessel like Brighthaven. In reality, the Royal faction was only 15, 000 strong. The rest of the enemy faction was made up of ragtag disconnected groups that were either dragged into the Royal faction or had allied with it.

Of the 47, 000 remaining enemies, about 32, 000 of them weren't fully loyal to the royal cause. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. And a staggering 11, 000 just so happened to be birthing a new faction that has expressed an interest in partnering—no, assimilating willfully into Brighthaven.

Almost 96% of the people under Major Ford had dissented; even the humble Dreamer guards who tossed Samuel out of Ford's tent were now standing in the immense crowd of revolutionaries.

'They fully forgot about the beast of the blue bonfire.'

'How sad.' Everyone in the cohort was wearing a disguise; it wasn't too hard to hide. Most Aspirants had no aura, and June's aura was hidden in his eyes. Ann ended up dressing his entire face with bandages for some reason, which meant he couldn't open his eyes. Fortunately, he didn't need his eyes. The cohort's job in the major's camp was finished.

'Good times' They were good times indeed. June would have wiped a tear from his wistful eye if not for the fact that he was buried alive.

'Don't forget that they removed my eyes.' June was simply here due to poor luck.

'And poor life decisions don't forget that.'

The cohort walked to Royal Central, the base of operations and the brain of the Royal faction. June studied a makeshift book with letters carved into leather instead of paper; it was a rickety solution for paper, but his people had greater things to worry about than paper production. The book was held together by leather bindings; its spine was made from some creature's bone, and its covers were made of a cured wood.

'What a luxury for a report journal.' Atish painstakingly made this portable treasure for June's cohort. It included army counts, major figures, figureheads, supply lines, floor plans, and even some Dreamer abilities.

'It even had little portraits.'

'Atish could probably sustain a living as an artist!' June was looking at one particular picture of a familiar woman.

'Grace.'

'So she survived!'

'She even got a promotion; would you look at that!'

'Acting Lieutenant Grace.' June cleared his throat.

"This woman, I know her." Eren took a peek at the portrait of Grace.

"Ex-lover?" June looked at Eren with a furrowed brow before responding.

"No, but she is someone who saved my life when I was a mundane." Ann snatched the book from June's hands with a fluid grace.

"You want to contact her? She's a lieutenant; doubt she'll defect." June scratched the bridge of his nose. The thought that Grace would defect to Brighthaven was idealistic at best.

"Considering the Royal Faction was a premade faction, it's reasonable to assume she wouldn't ruin her life over a game." Grace was a temporary lieutenant of a small force when they met. June had a feeling that even in the insanity of the night realm, people didn't dish out titles and rankings unless they had a measure of trust.

'She probably was a part of the premade faction.' In the end, it meant that if she defected, she would be betraying all her ties, allies, and potentially the royals who brought her here.

"Still, I think she would be inclined to help us."

"Just not too much."

'Grace seemed like a good person; she went out of her way to save me, and she also made sure my stay was comfortable.'

"In the end, this is a game, but betraying her faction meant destroying her life in the real world."

"But a little corruption wouldn't hurt as long as no one knew."

'How naive I was then.'

'Still, I don't think I learned my lesson.' June tried to shuffle around to an itchy and unreachable spot, and as a result, some dirt that had entombed him crawled into his half-reformed eye in its socket and crept into his nostril, making it harder to breathe.

"I would let out a dramatic sigh or a cough, but I don't want more dirt in me."

'Do you think the buckshot in my stomach got out?'

2 weeks ago, It had been a month since the party left Brighthaven and a week since leaving the revolutionaries. The cohort had split up to complete several tasks. Silvester joined the Royal faction training school under the guise of a student. Ann joined the watchmen who police the Royal Central. Eren was sent off to wander the town as a mendicant to find allies. The Royal Central was similar to Brighthaven in size and complexity.

The headquarters was positioned as a castle in the center of a large lake; a militarized favela sprawled around it. Unlike Brighthaven, the Royal Central didn't have a wall to protect its people, nor did it have a moat or a cliff; the only protected place in the Royal Central was the castle in the center of the lake. The stark difference between the grungy hellhole and a picturesque castle in the center was baffling.

On one side, pretty royals swam and kicked their feet in the crystal lake; on the other was a ghost town with the occasional watchman chasing an escaped worker. Only the premade faction and the elites of other factions received proper treatment. June scaled the walls of the central castle and looked over his shoulder, holding in a snarl. Atish had most of the floor plans and Royal Central key points copied down onto the report book.

A few of the mages and architects who were forced to build the castle ended up defecting to Brighthaven.

'Who could have guessed that people dissent when treated badly?' June knew that while in the simulation, people could be treated roughly. People didn't need to eat or sleep here after all. But despite not requiring sustenance or rest in the simulation, human bodies tended to get tired every several hours, and the body that was designed to eat still got hungry. June clung to the walls of the vertical castle, occasionally peering through arrow slits.

He had the floor plan written down, but even then, it was a good idea to have seen it with his own eyes. June scaled to the top of the tower; he could have crushed a support beam at the bottom and killed several royals and important figures, but doing so would have provoked the enemies to attack Brighthaven sooner.

'I don't want to fight anymore.'

'We've done enough damage.' But regardless of his thoughts, June climbed higher. The more he killed, the less of his own would die.

June sighed and was sent into a looping coughing fit as dirt fell into his mouth.

'By the time I got to the top of the damn castle.'

'…' June had scaled the castle several times in his invisible form. He skulked through it a little more each time he climbed to the top. Every time he climbed to the top, he expected to see Grace, but she was never there. He had assumed she was outside the base or relocated. But, to his surprise, one of the revolutionary groups got her while she was sent to deliver a message to Ford. But this time in particular, a week prior to the present day, a surprise was waiting for him.

This one faithful day, when June climbed to the top of her office, he walked in on every single Dreamer in the army during a meeting. There, he met Martin for the first and last time.