Chapter 16: Water

**

–Four years ago, in Rake's first nightmare–

In the oceanic coral area...

Rake had to change his tactics. 

So far he can make a sort of 'thunderclap' by discharging a large amount of his essence at once. He can then absorb them again by absorbing the ones in his surroundings. 

But try as he might, he just can't make an effective core of his own. He knew that he had to make it. Without it, no matter how great his essence control was, he would be completely unable to get any stronger. 

So, what should he do? He can't make one while being killed all the time. Or being slowly melted inside a spider's cocoon. 

So that's when a brilliant idea came to him. 

How about directly absorbing a core from a nightmare creature and making it his? 

And if it goes badly, he can just simply die and start again. No biggie. 

No injury is permanent in this place. 

So, that's what his plan is here. 

'Hmm, let's see. I am a dormant beast of sorts. Or at most a sleeper. I should probably stay with the same rank and assimilate the soul shard of a dormant beast first. If it works, then I'll try the others.'

Thinking that, he quickly killed a single piranha and took out its soul shard. 

But the piranha was not alone. There were plenty more where that came from and they were hungry for Rake.

'Shit! Gotta run.'

Thinking that, he quickly started to leap across the platforms. The fish couldn't follow him for long. Eventually, he reached a rocky platform with very few piranhas around. He knew that eventually he would be found by the swarm and be killed. But he should still have some time left. 

" I guess this is the safest place I'm going to get for a while."

Rake sat down on the rock with his legs crossed. He then summoned a small knife that he got as a memory after killing many piranhas. 

'Ugh, this is going to hurt.'

Hyping himself for a second, he cut diagonally across his chest. Right in the spot where his chest met his diaphragm. It was a small chamber in his body allocated for his lungs and heart. It was called the Thoracic cavity. 

He figured that the center of his body was his 'chest'. Since that's where his heart existed. 

The cut started to bleed. Badly. He didn't do it properly. He must've sliced some blood vessels as well. Soon, the blood started to flow down and into the water. 

But by then, he was already in an extreme amount of pain. He gritted his teeth. And simply shoved the soul shard into his chest. 

There was nothing new. Except for the extreme pain, he felt nothing else. But as he tried, he suddenly felt something more. 

He felt the soul shard. It was like his essence had touched it. And by proxy, so had he. 

He tried to then make his essence infiltrate the shard. But the method was crude. And no matter what, he couldn't enter. 

Time was running out. He knew that the piranhas had smelled his blood in the water already. 

Rake was slowly becoming desperate. It just wasn't working. 

Seeing no other choice, he moved his right hand and shoved it into his chest. 

His entire body was shaking. He couldn't help it. His heart was beating erratically and blood was flowing down faster and faster. He couldn't breathe. His lungs were touching his hands and the soul shard.

But he found the shard and scratched it with his nails. He couldn't break it completely as that would make it useless. But he could make a way for his essence to enter and try to acclimate it to himself.

He figured that he only had to make a connection. After his body is rebuilt, it would just be adjusted and become a natural part of his body. This was the way that he saw this going. And it made sense to him at the time. This way he would be able to use the reincarnation/spawning method to his advantage. To cheat the system.

But that wasn't the way that things went. The moment his essence entered the shard, he lost consciousness. With his hand stuck inside his chest and blood flowing into the seawater infested with piranhas. 

**

Real-world

Rake was walking around the city with no purpose. He just simply decided to walk around. 

People were tailing him still. He welcomed it. It felt like he had company. 

He saw an ice cream stall. He stopped. 

"Hmm, ice cream. Let's see how these are."

Rake smiled a bit at the prospect of being able to eat ice cream after 4 years. He wondered how it would feel. After all, this was a completely different body. His senses…more heightened and sensitive. 

He wondered what he would feel more. The sweetness or the cold. Would the two tastes cancel out or would it taste even better? 

He had to know. 

Rake went to the small stall and bought one for every flavor. 

It tasted drastically different. 

Hard to explain, but it felt like both the effects were enhanced. Usually, his taste buds felt a bit numb when the ice was inside his mouth. Then when it melted, he would feel the sweetness and the flavor. 

But now, he had a very different tolerance to the cold. So, he could feel the taste and flavor even when the ice cream hadn't melted. 

A small tear appeared in his eyes. He didn't know why. 

He was too happy to care. 

He was too satisfied. 

He decided that he wanted to listen to some songs. He missed everything and now, he wanted to experience them all. 

He then walked towards a random middle-aged man sitting on a bench reading a newspaper and drinking coffee. 

"Hey there. Since you guys are sent to monitor me, why not join me? I could use a guide."

Rake said to the man with a small smile on his face. 

" I don't know what you are talking about. Who are you?" The man replied with a confused face.

"Aww, don't be like that. I won't bite. I know you have been tailing me for quite some time. How about just accompanying me instead of looking from afar? You can get more info that way." Rake said with his smile still on his face. 

The man wearing an average brown coat then folded the newspaper and stood up.

"Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag. My name is Jonathan. Nice to meet you."

He extended his hand for a handshake towards the potential mimic with the rank of a Corrupted Titan. The possible monster that he was sent to tail, along with his colleagues.

Rake took his hands and gave it a firm shake. 

"Nice to meet you, Jonathan. My name is Rake. I could use some help."

"What do you need?"

"I want a music player. Preferably a small one. Do you know where I can get one of them?"

"Sure, there's an entertainment store near here."

Jonathan then led Rake towards the place.

"Do you have your communicator, sir?"

"Yeah, I do. Does it play music as well?"

"Yes, it has a small port where you can connect an earphone. Or you can get a wireless one."

" I see." Rake mused to himself as he saw the similar yet different technology. So similar yet so different. 

The device in his hand was sturdy. It was made to last a long long time. 

In a world with nightmare creatures 'planned obsolescence' seemed to not be popular among the people. 

The communicator was also quite thick. It has a touch screen, but it also has some buttons. Probably to ensure that it works even when the touch screen becomes unusable due to any small damage.

…

Rake got a small pair of wireless earphones. Its design was also a bit weird. 

It was completely metallic. It had clips attached, and lastly, it didn't just stand over his ear. It had an adjustable ring that covered the base of his ear and stuck itself onto his ears very nicely. 

A small appendage of sorts enters the ear. It was also pretty strong and made of metal. 

Overall, it seemed like no matter how fast he moved, the earpieces wouldn't fall off. Nor would it block the sound from his surroundings. 

He loved the design. 

"Do you like it?"

"Yes, it's perfect. I want some more sound devices. Jonathan, send them to my house. I'll check them out later. Make them the best quality as well."

Rake quickly set up the earpieces onto his ears and started to listen to whatever music he could find. 

He found a nice channel that played good-quality songs. 

He observed the tone and type of the songs to be quite different from the ones he used to listen to. 

These weren't compressed. He could differentiate all the tunes from one another. And it felt like honey to his ears. 

{AN: compressed and uncompressed music sound different. Look them up. They sound much better than the compressed ones. They are also much much larger. Like 70mb for one 3-minute song. I love listening to them. But it's hard to download them these days. Sigh…}

Rake was satisfied. He kept walking. This time without Jonathan. 

"I'm going to just check around the area for a bit. I want to see the outskirts. No need to worry. I'll be back in a couple of hours. No need to look for me. Bye."

Saying that he vanished from the eyes of Jonathan. 

Rake moved so fast that they couldn't see him, much less catch up to him. He was gone. 

'Now, time to see the condition of the outskirts. Sigh, I am not looking forward to this. But I must.'

Hyping himself up, Rake went towards the place that he had wanted to visit the most even before entering this world. He wanted to see how the unluckiest in this world lived. 

He had to.

**

AN: Well, what do you guys think? 

Was the partition alright? Did the transition from the past to the present feel awkward?

Why do you think he wants to go to the outskirts?

What happened when he touched the inside of the shard with his essence?

Feel free to speculate. Also, I'll reply and correct you if it gets too out of pocket. I'll also realize whether I misled you guys and need to change some parts of the chapter. 

I wonder whether you guys want longer chapters. Or are you guys bored? 

Anyway, I hope you guys liked it. Thanks a lot for reading. I hope you have a great day.

Byeeee.