Thump! Thump! Thump!

Amidst the darkness, one's heartbeat could be heard, however, it wasn't just one heart that was beating in the shadows. Hidden within the dark room, faint sounds of beats could be heard. Those hearts drummed together, echoing in the pitch-black, narrow space.

Thump.

Thump..

Thump...

.......

Silence filled the darkness. Time passed as the silence continued to linger until a weak groan shattered the hushed atmosphere.

Maria felt a searing pain erupting from her muscles and limbs while her head pounded relentlessly. She could feel the pain and discomfort both internally and externally, enveloping her in agony. It was the most pain she ever had compared to her injuries during high school.

There was darkness when Maria opened her eyes. She couldn't see anything but black.

What the..? Where... am I...?

Maria panicked and hurriedly sat up to check her surroundings. But the moment she turned to look behind her, an expression of awe appeared on her face.

Billions of white stars scattered the vast sky, lighting up half of the unknown abyss from where she was. Planets were orbiting around the big sun, Maria had never seen the sun this close, it was bigger than she could ever imagine. She could even feel the heat of the sun crawling on her skin.

Compared to the beautiful spectacle that unfolded behind her, in front of her was nothing but an endless void shrouded with fog. Maria stared into the void for a second before turning her attention back to the boundless space.

Asteroids and meteors wander through the depths of space while comets can be seen orbiting around the sun with their flickering tails. All kinds of celestial bodies roamed the atmosphere, with the swirling colors of blue, purple, and orange reflecting in Maria's eyes.

Wow...

Maria couldn't help but agape her mouth at this sight. She had always been fond of astronomy, it was a sight and knowledge Maria was interested in.

Learning what lurks within the vast space, the meaning behind the existence of planets and stars, and if aliens truly existed and were inhabiting other planets that the government had yet to discover, everything about the universe amazed Maria. She found herself admiring the distant space she was in.

As she gazed at the scenery in front, Maria quickly snapped from her reverie, almost slipping into oblivion from her current situation. She held her head and looked down, trying to avoid getting distracted.

Hang on, where am I...? 

Am I... dreaming?

Am I lucid dreaming again? Just like what happened last night...? But how... and why for the second time?

Wait... if I'm dreaming, then...

If that was the case, then Maria wanted to explore more about this strange yet breathtaking dream. This was the closest thing she would ever get to observing space at such proximity. She wanted to take advantage of this opportunity before she woke up.

Ignoring the pain wracking her muscles, Maria tried to stand up on her knees. But to her surprise, she suddenly felt her knees go heavy and tacky. She lifted her right hand to find that her palm was moist.

Now that Maria noticed this, she looked down at her body and found bits of black goo covering her clothes and arms. She looked at her palm with furrowed brows.

What is this? Gross...

Maria wiped the mysterious substance on her clothes, but despite wiping the black goo on her coat, her palm was still dyed black. A horrible stench assailed Maria's nostrils, making her feel nauseous as she fought the urge to vomit.

She looked down from where she sat, reaching her hand out and slowly pressing it down. Her hand began to sink slowly into the mysterious black substance, causing her to flinch and retract her hand quickly. It was as if a murky, black mud covered the vicinity.

Even from the distance, Maria could tell that the solid ground from before had turned sodden.

Maybe it's better if I wake up instead...

With that thought in mind, Maria carefully stood up while looking at her feet. Fortunately, her feet only sunk about a centimeter deep. She was relieved to see she could still walk a bit since she originally thought that the mysterious mud-like substance was similar to quicksand.

Maria looked at her moist hand, furrowing her brows with one thought.

I need to wake up.

There was a brief moment of hesitation before Maria took a step forward. She thought that she could explore her dream world to find a way to wake up, even with the ground turning into a mire. What harm could it do to her other than make walking difficult?

Yet, once she took a step forward, the ground beneath her feet disappeared as her body was plunged into cold darkness. The ground she was previously standing on had turned into water!

It happened so fast that Maria couldn't react in time.

Attempting to catch her breath, Maria immediately swam towards the surface. However, as her body tried desperately to swim up, waves of dark water began forming from the distance. The black waves knocked down Maria, preventing her from swimming up.

The planets that were once hovering above space were now falling into the black waters. The planets fell one by one, the first being the Moon with Neptune following behind along with the others.

With each planet falling into the ocean, large tidal waves were made that crashed onto Maria's position, causing her to sink deeper into the black waters, struggling to resurface. She heaved a deep breath while water entered her nose and mouth.

Gah! What is happening?!

The ring on Saturn's planet wobbled uncontrollably before plummeting, causing thousands if not millions of pieces of rocks and chunks of ice to rain down. Maria was nearly crushed if it weren't for her quickly diving down, evading the pouring rocks.

But the impact of the rocks caused a massive wave to crash into her. Following that, the Saturn planet fell and Maria was once again hit by an enormous wave.

Maria struggled to keep herself afloat in the waters, sucking in quick breaths with each chance she got before being swept again by the waves.

She thought she could make do just by taking quick breaths, but something frigid and thin began to coil around her ankle. Maria's expression stiffened, unable to react as a powerful force pulled her down into the depths of the dark waters.

The unknown hand dragged Maria down into the abyss below. Her vision blurred and she could feel water enter her ears and nose. Despite her predicament, Maria didn't panic.

It was strange, why wasn't she panicking? Could it be the effects of the dream? Was it like that dream that happened last night?... Is everything a dream even...?

Maria didn't know anymore.

The thing that was pulling her felt like a hand, with fingers wrapping around her ankle and holding her, feeling its sharp nails graze her skin, yet it didn't pierce her.

The hand that pulled her down didn't have a strong grip on her that Maria could easily escape from it, but she was far too deep to swim up.

She couldn't hear anything anymore, only the sound of water passing through her ears.

It felt like minutes as Maria was dragged down the endless abyss, the darkness shrouding her vision.

Even though she was being dragged into the unknown abyss for the past few minutes, Maria wasn't drowning. No, in fact, she was breathing normally, like she was breathing air. Her nose didn't hurt and her eyes didn't sting.

What?... Is this the effect of the dream?

Maria felt like everything came to a halt for her, the hand that seemed to pull her down had stopped. It continued to hold her ankle, but it wasn't pulling anymore.

It just held her ankle, its nails brushing the surface of her skin. Although the nails felt sharp enough to penetrate Maria's flesh if pressed further, the unknown entity seemed to refrain from exerting any force. Instead, Maria could feel its tremble as it held her ankle gently.

Dreams... really are weird...

At that moment, amidst her thoughts, something flashed brightly from above. Something plummeted down the deep abyss, causing a loud 'splash' that could be heard even from the deepest parts of the water.

The flash of light and the unknown object was actually the sun that had fallen into the abyss, sending large waves scattering in every direction. Maria could feel the water turn to a boiling point as her chest tightened.

Ah! I'll be boiled alive...!

Maria used what little strength she had to swim up to the surface. She could feel intense heat rising throughout her skin, her eyelids on the brink of closing, and her limbs aching with fatigue.

Shit... I won't make it up!

Just as Maria clung to the last bit of conscience she had left, something reached out from within the darkness. It was another hand; it grabbed her wrist and hauled her upward from the abyss. She felt her body reel forward as the hand that held her ankle released her from its grip.

The light grew brighter and brighter, and Maria felt her eyes open bit by bit. She could see a dark figure pulling her up, swimming through the waters swiftly while wearing some sort of black cloak, their face obscured by the darkness.

The unknown figure continued to drag Maria up until she could finally see the sight of the twinkling stars again.

Maria swam with her feet until—

"Puah!" Maria heaved a deep breath and felt the cold breeze brush against her face.

The giant sun could be seen from the distance, the enigmatic waters engulfing it. Though the sun was being engulfed by the black waters, the blazing warmth from it didn't go out. The heat radiating from the sun did not wither away, but increased the temperature of the water, bringing Maria comfortable warmth, unlike the hypothermia-inducing coldness from before.

I... thought I was going to be boiled alive...

Shouldn't I be? I mean... the heat of the sun still hasn't been extinguished yet...

Hah... what am I thinking? I'm just glad I didn't get boiled alive in my dream...

While Maria was still processing what just happened, she felt a light bump on her shoulder and turned around to see a floating asteroid beside her. She quickly climbed onto the large rock and sat on top of it, using it as a sort of float.

Once she collapsed onto the asteroid, Maria vomited a mouthful of water before looking at the vast area she was in. She looked at the black waters with a nauseating feeling.

It was dark; The sky had no more planets or asteroids or meteoroids, only the stars shimmering remained. The black waters were as dark as the night space, Maria couldn't see anything from the distance, not a single land. Only the floating pieces of planets and rocks could be seen.

Maria stood up with shaky legs. She tried to look for someone, anyone, especially the person that pulled her up. She wasn't able to catch a glimpse of the person when she had reached the surface. Even when they pulled her up, Maria couldn't even discern the gender of her savior due to the black cloak they wore that blended well with the dark waters.

All Maria knew was that it was a person. She felt their warmth clinging to her wrist while pulling her up. It was a complete opposite of the hand that had dragged her down earlier, Maria felt nothing but a bone-chilling chill from its fingers.

...Is someone in my dream again? Would it be like that unknown girl with no face?

"Tsk... all this thinking is giving me a headache," Maria grumbled and held her forehead.

The more Maria thought of things, the more she had a headache.

First was the mysterious message on her phone, the second was the unknown woman who had disappeared after giving her a USB that not only she but her friends had also received, and the third was the message she saw before fainting on the sidewalk. And now, she was lucid dreaming.

Before passing out, Maria could vividly remember those two messages.

『Congratulations! You have been Selected to Participate in an Event!』

『The Main Event, Player Selection, will now Commence!』

Isn't this the Main Event that took place in the book, Game of Survival?

The novel's title also appeared in the last message earlier.

『Welcome to Game of Survival!』

Now everything was starting to confuse Maria, giving her a big headache thinking all of it.

Perhaps she was still dreaming and her subconsciousness happened to create a dream sequence where she was in the same novel that she had read way back in ninth grade until college. That was a possibility, right?

I'm still dreaming, it's possible that everything is still a dream.

No matter how much she tried to deny it, it still felt wrong to her, but there was no real explanation for these occurrences to even happen logically or scientifically.

Then what exactly is happening...?

Maria had to sit down to clear her mind. She caressed her throbbing head and looked at the asteroid she sat on. Her hand began to touch the exterior of it, feeling the cold and rough texture of the rock in her palm.

There were cracks and small holes formed within the asteroid. To reduce her headache, she had to find the answer herself instead of thinking.

In order to determine if she was truly dreaming...

Maria picked up a broken shard of the asteroid and began scraping it against its exterior. Once the piece of the asteroid had a sharpened edge, Maria lifted her left wrist and took a deep breath.

She felt the sharp, cold rock slit across her wrist. A metallic smell wafted the air and Maria felt her blood drip down on her forearm. 

It hurts... I can still feel pain here...

This still wasn't enough proof. There were some cases of people feeling pain in both lucid and non-lucid dreams. She needed another way to determine if she was truly dreaming or not.

Maria looked over the distance to see if she could spot anything. With the vast black waters and planetless space, it was impossible to see anything in such an immeasurable area apart from the floating celestial bodies.

The waters were calm and nothing was falling anymore. Maria thought the stars would also fall but she was glad they didn't.

Having large planets falling was bad enough, imagine millions of stars descending. The stars were her only light source after the sun had collapsed. If the stars were to sink as well, then her dream would be engulfed in complete darkness.

What if she just waited for something to happen? Didn't that work before?

No... I had to wait over three hours that time... which was strange, to be honest...

But Maria didn't have time to ponder about her previous dream. She had to focus on her current situation.

Maria looked down at the cut on her wrist, then shifted her attention to look at her surroundings.

With the bizarre setting and illogical physics occuring such as the floating planets, Maria was confident that everything that happened to her as of now was most likely one big dream.

This... I'm dreaming about that book. Yeah, just dreaming...

In this dream, she was currently a participant in the event from Game of Survival. Then, the only way to wake up was to... think and act like she's in the book.

...Temporarily, at least.

Game of Survival, Maria hadn't heard of that title for six years now. And she never thought she'd hear it again after all these years.

Her muscles still felt some soreness and discomfort after waking up so Maria had to sit down to ease her nerves and muscles. She took a deep breath and sighed, reducing her anxiety.

Let's gather what I know of the Tower of Nightmares based on the book's information.

Surveying her surroundings, Maria already had a guess as to where she was.

After being selected and teleported to the Tower of Nightmares, the first place a player would be sent to would be—

〖The Dreamscape.〗

A dreamscape is a manifestation of one's subconscious mind that is transformed into a form of land or scene. The tower would gather information about the owner and mold them into a setting, often based on the characteristics of the owner's personality, memories, and desires.

There could also be NPCs posing as significant people for the owners. Depending on the dreamscape's form, for example, Maria's dreamscape includes a vast outer space, so there should've been astronauts or even extraterrestrial life.

But there was no sign of life or man-made objects anywhere. There were no rocket ships, satellites, spaceships, shuttles, aliens, nothing. Maria already knew the possible reason behind this.

If the owner is a very emotional person, their dreamscape is most likely to comprise individuals who are important to them. On the other hand, if the owner is more impassive or indifferent, the dreamscape is likely to manifest a scene without any NPCs involved such as Maria's.

The main theme of The Tower of Nightmares is one's dreams and nightmares. Its purpose is for players to overcome their nightmares that would take shape within the tower. If they want to escape, they must fight off their deepest fears and nightmares.

Once a player dies in the tower, it doesn't mean it's over. They'll be forced to repeatedly go through their nightmares inside the tower until they can overcome them.

Recalling the description of the penalty, Maria shuddered with a frown.

What a terrible penalty...

Dream or not, Maria didn't want to end up like that. And so, Maria thought deeply about what to do now.

While thinking, Maria suddenly sensed the asteroid below her begin to quake unsteadily.

Something is happening? Not only that, but the waters were shaking violently. Bubbles formed and there was the sound of gurgling coming from somewhere.

An ominous feeling occupied her chest as Maria looked at her surroundings to see where the sound was coming from. She felt her heart skip a beat when she saw something swimming through the waters from the distance.

The stars exuded a brilliant light, illuminating a large shadow swimming through the waters. It was big, bigger than a blue whale! Maria felt her heart pounding fast at this sight and began looking around for anything to use.

What is that? Why is it so big?!

Swimming was a terrible choice and staying in the asteroid wasn't an option. The planets close to her were too far and big for her to climb on. Some asteroids and meteorites were also broken into chunks and too small for her to ride.

Maria rummaged through her clothes and felt a sharp blade poking out of her pocket. She pulled it out and was surprised to see her pocket knife.

This also appeared in my dream last night.

She held the knife tightly and watched as the unknown creature swam past floating meteorites. The closer the creature got, the clearer Maria saw it.

There were white dots incised on the creature's scales that glowed within the dark waters. White lines were joined together by various dots, forming some sort of shape. She could clearly understand what the dots and lines signify based on their strange pattern.

It's a group of stars... it's forming a—

Maria's eyes widened when she realized what it formed.

Fuck! Why do I have to dream about that of all things?!

It got closer as it swam rapidly through the dark waters. Maria could see the constellation imprinted on its scales, illuminating the waters as it swam toward her meteorite.

Maria didn't know what to do as she watched the creature swim toward her. Fins burst up through the waters, like blades of grass sprouting from a freshly watered lawn.

Its head, covered in blue and green scales, began to slither from the waters, revealing its long neck. Sharp spikes protruded from the back of its head to its neck while its reptilian eyes stared at Maria; A vague scar could be seen on the monster's left eye and jaw. It opened its mouth to reveal its pair of sharp teeth as it let out a loud shriek.

The Cetus Constellation! A sea monster in Greek Mythology!

The creature cast its gaze downward at Maria, its reptilian eyes focused on her, breathing slowly while seemingly observing her. Its towering height and reptilian eyes were enough to make Maria tremble slightly.

While her sight was trained on the Cetus before her, Maria's mind started to scramble for a plan, trying to find a way to escape her predicament. Her attention soon shifted to the fathomable depths of water, her brows furrowing.

Swimming was a terrible choice since she was up against a sea monster... and a sea monster in Greek Mythology of all things! Swimming was practically death!

How can I escape then...?

The asteroids nearby were too far away to even swim to. The Cetus had more advantages than Maria if she were to swim. It'll be much faster than her and bigger that it could swallow her whole along with the chunks of asteroids.

If it weren't for the fact that the asteroid Maria was standing on was much bigger compared to the sea monster, it wouldn't hesitate to devour her along with it.

The Cetus just stared at her with a growl, making Maria grip her piece of asteroid tightly out of fear. Where would she go now?

As Maria and the Cetus engaged in a prolonged stare-off, the monster suddenly let out a thunderous roar. Then, in a rapid move, it hurled its arm towards Maria.

Grabbing hold of shards of asteroids close by, Maria started hurling the rocks at the beast but found that the attack didn't inflict much damage. However, it was still enough of a distraction for Maria to plan out her escape.

From the distance, she spotted long, sharp spikes that stuck out from the black waters. If Maria could distract the creature, she could climb on one of the spikes and hope for the best she could escape. Maybe she could even distract it by hiding in one of the floating planets.

It's worth a shot...

Maria threw the last bit of asteroid and looked at the monster in front of her. Once it noticed her no longer attacking, it let out a shriek before charging toward her with an open mouth.

Her plan was simple, provoke the creature and wait for it to attack her. Once it charged at her with its mouth, she would immediately jump off of her asteroid and make the creature crash its snout at the hard asteroid. It should be enough to catch it off guard.

When the creature was only a few meters away from devouring her, Maria took a deep breath and turned to jump. But before she could even leap up, she felt a strong force hit her. She was suddenly flung off from her asteroid by an unknown force!

Maria was momentarily stunned until her gaze fell, and there, she saw it.

A large shadow hidden below the deep black waters, a pair of two, glowing pearl-like eyes looking at her, its mouth beginning to open, revealing hundreds if not thousands of teeth inside.

Its mouth was open, ready to swallow Maria.

Ah.

Damn it...

Where did this come from...?

Splash!