Layers Of Nightmare

Having finished his breakfast and taking a bath, William took his wallet and key and put them in his pocket. He looked at his phone screen, which showed 11.09 a.m. before putting them in his pocket as well.

As the day was a bit cold for him, William put on jeans, a plain white t-shirt, and his leather jacket on top of it. Lastly, he walked onto the mirror on the wall above the table. A face of a fair-skinned man with slightly slanted eyes and sharp chin stared back at him.

William put on his glasses and used his hand to fix his black hair with a single swerve from front to back, nothing else. After all, his hair was spiky and short, a comb was never a part of his life.

Somehow, walking to the front door had traumatized him a bit. He looked behind him warily as he opened the door. Nevertheless, the warm sunshine passing through the balcony gave him a sense of security and relief.

William took a deep breath and said to himself, "Come on you can't be like this!"

With his chin up, he walked out of the door and locked it. When he saw that the elevator worked like usual, he could not help feeling elated. The elevator door opened shortly upon which he boarded onto the ground floor.

Perhaps it was due to the extreme ordeal he went through, William felt grateful on every tiny things as he arrived outside the building. The peaceful city, sunshine falling on his skin, people's chatters, the wonderful smell of soil... To be alive and living at the moment.

Unknowingly, a smile formed on his lips. Although William was not so tall nor jaw-droppingly handsome, some passing girls would stole a glance or two to see his smile at that moment.

'Shall I take a walk?' William could have take a tram to the university, but as it was still quite early, he decided to walk.

Around 30 minutes later, William arrived at the front gate of the university, slightly perspiring from the long walk.

It will take him another five minutes or so to go to cafetaria, which was right at the centre of the campus. This alone showed how wide the university was; there were some buildings that even William never entered yet.

The cafeteria itself was not limited to a single large hall, rather, it has its own separate building consisting of three floors. Ground floor was where the food court and stalls were. Above that was a bar and dessert stalls. And finally, the top floor was what the students called the 'entertainment floor'; it has all kinds of gaming room and small theatres for leisure activities.

Obviously, William understood what Alex meant by 'cafeteria'—it was the ground floor of the compartment. Regardless, the building itself was pretty wide, William thought that he might need to search Professor Alex around for a while, which was one of the reasons why he came early.

However, his worry was unnecessary as he saw Alex sat on a bench near the building entrance while eating a sushi roll.

Seeing that someone was approaching, Alex put aside his phone and looked up. He swallowed the sushi piece in his mouth and said, "Oh, you arrived quite early. Hold up, I will finish this real quick."

"Sure, take your time," William said with a smile. Although he was filled with anxiety, waiting for another minute or two would not hurt. After all, he did arrived early.

Both of them passed the moment in silence. William stood politely by the side and pulled his phone out to study.

Alex took a peek at William, then his eyes fell on the screen full of text. "You still have the mood to study after what you went through?" he chuckled.

"Uh…" William stared at the man, not knowing what to say. Just like what Alex said, he was not inclined to study either. But he had his reason…

"Exam is close, sir. I am an international student, my parents won't be able to support me further if I fail a single subject." (A/N: most universities will have international students pay twice or more the local student's fee)

While William gave a reply, Alex finished the last sushi piece and chugged down some water from his bottle.

He let out a "phew" and said, "So, money is it?"

"Indeed." William nodded then added, "And a degree of course."

"You don't have to worry about those anymore."

"I'm sorry?" William asked incredulously.

"Now that you are one of us, the government will cover any funding you require, but of course, in moderation. As for your degree…" Alex opened a browser on his phone upon which he typed a link. After the page loaded, he gave it to William. "Here, skim through this."

"Huh?" William was getting more and more confused. Nonetheless, he read it as he was told.

It was a standard NCBI research journal article about a newly discovered neuron signaling pathway. As the article was not long, William finished skimming it in three minutes.

"Done, what about it?" William could not find anything relevant to their current conversation in it.

William gave the phone back to Alex.

"Now," Alex said as he scoured through the journal. "Tell me how the researchers used their method that lead to their discovery."

"???" William went speechless. He had heard correctly when Alex said "skim"; it was impossible for any person to remember such details by only reading once quickly. "Sir, please don't jok-"

His word was cut-off mid sentence as an image formed in his brain—the exact copy of the research paper itself! Surely, even someone with photographic memory will not be capable of such a feat.

William 'read' through the journal in his mind, finally finding what Alex asked. "They used a structural approach from observing dopamine recept-"

"Okay, you can stop." Alex put his phone back in his pocket and smiled. "Now you know why it won't be difficult to get your Bachelor right?"

"Why that thing is… how... " William slurred, there were too many questions that his brain could not keep up.

"Those who went to tread the Nightmares will have a drastic improvement with their brain," Alex replied. "This is just a small part of what you need to know."

Alex stood up, face to face with William in all seriousness. "There are still many things that you need to learn to survive your next instances."