Layers Of Nightmare

At this time, the quiet Laura by William's side suddenly tapped on his shoulder and whispered in his ear,

"Take a deep breath and do a standard introduction. You might as well include your weapons choice."

William took another glance at this supportive professor. Words could not describe how thankful he was throughout her teaching for the past year; she was one of the dwindling few who spared time to teach her students multitudes of life lessons.

Laura nodded, a natural smile formed on her ruby lips. She added, "Don't forget to smile."

William could feel his heart warming up. Confidence had returned to his once gloomy eyes.

Chins up, he looked at the crowd with the best smile he could muster.

"Hello, everyone!" His tone was light, unlike before. "I'm William, second year undergrad. I hope we can get along from now on!"

Before William said anything else, the cheer from the crowd once again startled him in his wake.

A few of the loud bunch did not hesitate to shout out,

"Of course!"

"Yeah!"

"Count on us!"

And other similar words.

"Sometimes, thinking are much more excruciating than just doing it." Although William firmly believed this saying, he still did so on many occasions. Today was one of those occasions.

He was taken aback for a moment, slowly, the mess in his heart had disappeared like smoke. His smile turn natural as he said once again, "I choose a Desert Eagle and a whip-like sword as my weapons."

Although most people in the crowd nodded in approval when he mentioned the Desert Eagle, many of them was startled when he said the whip sword; many showed a visible amus.e.m.e.nt, while some murmured among themselves.

William's face turn bitter. After his short encounter with the monster, he knew full well about the limitation of the sword—almost useless in tight places and could be dangerous when it compressed. To say nothing less of the difficulties in controlling its flexible, expanded form.

"We will take him." A voice suddenly entered his ears, coming from a young man no older than him not too far away.

"Huh?" What do you mean by taking me? William thought to himself.

Before his thought resolved, another voice spoke out, "Hmph! Yeonji, remember that it was us who scouted him!"

Kang Yeonji turn his head toward the voice and smiled wryly. He said, "Alex… can you please place him in my squad? I urgently need a mid-ranger like him!"

"Hmph!" Alex snorted back, likely not intending to compromise.

Amidst the bickering of the two parties, William approached James, asking, "Hey man, what does he mean by taking me?"

James was currently having a blissful expression while enjoying the caramel custard pudding in his hand. When William called him, he quickly swallow the chunk in his mouth.

He said, "Oh, it's like this; for years, forming squads has been a common strategy among Dream Treader's Associations. It increases our chance of survival!"

"Oh…" William nodded in understanding. "That makes sense."

"Have you read through the fact sheet?" James added

"You mean the magical parchment? Yea I did, what about it?"

"Then you should know that the system rarely gave us another weapon after the first set."

"Ah, I get it! Is it similar to RPG squad?"

"Well…" James stopped for a moment. "I guess that's one way of describing it."

"Alright then, who should I join?" William asked.

"How would I know? That's for you to choose!"

"Give me some tips damit!"

Seeing the two different sides of bickering, Laura clapped twice her hand twice, then said, "Alright, let's stop it right there. William has just joined, there's still time to put things into consideration. Also, he won't need any squad before he finished his third instance anyway!"

Having heard thus, Alex and Yeonji stopped their arguments. The former donned a stern expression, while the latter scratched his head, thinking for a way to persuade William to join his squad later.

"Hear that, man?" James chuckled. "Take your time to familiarise yourself first, I'm sure you won't need to ask me by then."

"Oh well." What Laura and James said was not wrong.

There was an information within the parchment stating that every Dream Treader will definitely undergo two to three solo instances at the beginning.

Unless they used certain valuable rare items like what Alex did, no one could possibly encounter other Dream Treader in their first two to three instances.

"Hold up." William suddenly thought of something. "Can't I join your squad instead?" After all, this was the most familiar person to him, compared to anyone else here.

"Heh." James sneered. "Sorry mate, I'm something of a mid-ranger in the team myself!"

"Oh!" What a coincidence, William thought. "What's your weapon like?"

"Err... it's difficult to explain." James scratched his cheek. "It has the shape of a crossbow that connects to a gauntlet but can also transform into a curved blade… Gah!"

James fl.u.s.tered, lost for words. "It's difficult to explain without you seeing it! Just know that my weapon is a gauntlet that can fire darts and turn into a blade!"

"Alright, if you insist..." William laughed. "Sounds cool though."

"Indeed!" A smug smile formed on James' face. "It was an exclusive weapon I got after tens of instances. I'm one hundred percent positive that no similar weapons can be found in the first weapon space, heck it took a long while before I mastered it. Oh, you wouldn't believe how I finished the Nightmare instance that gave me that weapon! I have to fight a gigantic monster- oh wait, before that, I met this one s.e.xy American babe who's also a Dream Treader-"

'Ah shit…' William was very familiar with the bad habit of this friend of his; once he got hooked on a certain topic, it will take a long time speech before he stopped.

William emptied the glass of champagne in two gulps and put the glass on the table next to them. Outside, he was all smiles, but inwardly, he was pleading if anyone could come and freed him.

Thankfully, his prayer was answered. Moments later, Alex approached them, bringing with him two people he did not know.

"Good thing that you have an acquaintance here," Alex said.

"Oh, hello Alex," James greeted

"Hello James." Alex gazed at the two people in front of him. "I hope I'm not disturbing you guys."

"No, no, not at all!" William hurriedly said.

"Is that so?" Alex chuckled. "Then, I'd like to introduce you to these people, William."

Alex first gestured at the man in tight-fitting suit to his right.

The man sported the body shape of an athlete—great height and wide c.h.e.s.t. Coupled with his short pomade hair, trimmed beard, and fresh pleasant-looking face, William had labelled him as a metros.e.x.u.a.l upon glance.

Without even looking around, William could tell that most of the ladies in the vicinity, old and young, were staring at him.

"This is Sir Johnson, he is our Dream Treader's Association's current leader. If you have something you want to ask regarding the content of the parchment we gave you, you can ask him."

'Sir? Someone who got knighted?' William commended in amazement silently.

"Good to see you, William," the man said as he offered his big hand. "Alex had told me several things about you, it must have been difficult on surviving a tier 3 instance."

"Ah, Alex and Felicia saved me at the crucial moment," William said, taking the hand for a firm handshake. "Thank you for your worry."

"Nonetheless, it's great for you to be alive and well." Johnson smiled. "Unfortunately, I have not a lot of time, so do you have any questions for me before I go?"

"Yeah, a veeerry busy man he is," Alex interjected.

Johnson rolled his eyes. "Will it kill you to not humiliate me in front of the newcomers every time?"

"Wasn't it you who told me to do so?"

"And when exactly did ask you?"

"You said that you wanted to appear more friendly to the members."

"My image, Alex, my damn face!"

"It's exactly that image of yours that kept many people away!"

"Guys, guys, we're getting getting side-tracked." Another voice chimed in.

William looked at the source of the voice. It came from a lady who also accompanied Alex.

She was not an astounding beauty, nor a cute petite girl. Nonetheless, her tender smile had a certain sweetness that could make someone smiled back from ear to ear. Her long black hair stick close to her back, showing a certain healthy shine and denseness that could make hair doctors curious about her secret. Her elegance was not something that any beauty products could bring.

Both of their eyes met for a split second. But for some reason, they looked away almost at the same time right after that.

Johnson coughed once and cleared his throat, giving Alex a sharp gaze as if telling, 'This isn't over!'

He switched his attention back to the young man, who seemed to be holding back his smile. "I apologize for that, William. So, do you have any questions?

"Ah yes, I do," William replied. "About the amendments of the policy and agreement in the parchment, do we need to sign again after any change in it?"

"Of course you do!" Johnson said unhesitantly. "I get what you are worrying about, but you shouldn't! Just think of it as a special type of driver's license, I can assure you that will go wrong."

"Alright..." Though he said that, William still hesitated a little bit.

'It won't go full Murphy's law right?' he thought to himself.

"Good then. So any more questions?" Johnson asked.

"Hm…" William thought for a moment. "Can you tell me what did you get knighted for?"

To be knighted, one must have a major contribution toward national on international activity. The current Queen of England will personally gave the said person a knighthood as a symbol of their achievement.

"Oh, an interesting question!" Johnson replied in an excited tone. "The answer is pretty obvious though, it was my achievement as a Dream Treader!"

"Huh?" William was taken aback. "How can you get knighted for that? Aren't our existence-"

Without further ado, Johnson revealed a jaw-breaking truth to William. "The Queen is a Dream Treader herself!"

"Pfft-" William almost choked. "The Queen is?!"

"Hahaha, I like this reaction whenever I told someone new about this!" Johnson laughed whole-heartedly. "Don't underestimate her, everyone who has teamed up with her had always said that she's 'one hell of a granny'!"

William gasped. It never crossed his thought that a Dream Treader was actually among the top people in this world!

"Not just her, there are also several Dream Treaders among famous people around the globe!"

Johnson gave a teasing smile. "But that's a secret for now."

"That's fine." William sighed. He understood where Johnson was coming from.

At this moment, Johnson pulled back his right sleeve to reveal the Rolex watch he wore.

"Looks like I need to go." He turned around and walked away while waving a hand. "I will see you guys some other time!"

"Ah, see you again, Sir," William said as he waved back. "Thank you."

"Remember to bring back some gifts," Alex said.

Hearing the last sentence, Johnson flicked off a finger without looking back.

"Now then," Alex said, changing his attention to William. "With that person gone, let's talk about a serious stuff."

He finally gestured at the lady next to him. "Before that, let me introduce you to Madeline."

"Nice to meet you!" Both of them shoved their hand for a handshake almost at the same time.

The nearby James looking over their exchange silently letting out an "Oh-ho" while sneering.

After giving the two of them a moment, Alex said, "I'll begin explaining about your next instance."