Midnight Prince: Empire of Sin

On a clearing, a rather comical scene was taking place— something that was out of the weirdest dreams or perhaps a nightmare that any human can imagine if one were to consider the contents of this scene.

Running with all the strength that he was able to muster in this soul body of his, Adam did not have to take a look behind him to know that he was still being chased by those cute monstrosities.

It was very frustrating for him, all things considered.

After all, if this were to happen in the real world, then one simple thought from him would have been enough to completely, without even a shadow of a doubt, incinerate all those imbeciles like nothing.

But in this place, he was far weaker than he was in the real world. Not only was the quantity of Dream Force he had inside of his soul body simply incomparable to the quantity of his Prana, but the fact that he was unable to use 'The World'— his most useful and used skill to date, also weakened him far more than he could have ever imagined.

'I guess I cannot just brute force my way out this time.'

Adam thought for a split second before gritting his teeth hard. His mind moved furiously as he rolled on the ground and avoided another bullet coming from those mafia teddy bears. Sadly, even with his quick reaction and the speed of his dodge, he was still slightly grazed by the bullet and was now bleeding.

'Sigh…'

Adam sighed out loud at the severity of his current situation. A part of him was furious at the circumstances that he found himself in. After all the big and small fights he went through, this was the first time he was being humiliated by beings that were far too weaker than him.

But at the same time, another part of him was cold and calculative of his current circumstance, simply analyzing and observing the environment to search for the best way to escape from this hellish and humiliating chase.

'Very well. I want the heaviest and brittlest armor possible.'

A huge headache assaulted his mind and he could feel his reserves of Dream Force drain fast but he completely ignored that feeling.

Soon, Adam was covered in what looked like a futuristic power armor, very similar to what Cecilia had worn on the day she had destroyed the Vampire near instantaneously.

This was perhaps the image of the strongest armor Adam was able to conjure in his mind and while this could not compare to what he had seen because of how weak he currently was, this was more than enough to deal with these weaklings.

'Let's test it out.'

ndαsvεl m Bang~!

Clang~!

Adam groaned ever so slightly as he felt the rebound hit him square in the guts. It was uncanny how close this world was to the real world. However, that didn't matter to him. Nothing mattered other than crushing those monstrosities.

While he had not been able to mitigate the shockwave entirely, he had at least succeeded in stopping the bullet.

'I will need to think of a counter attack later on'

He took out one of his cards from the deck of tarot cards and imagined the slowest transportation engine possible In the air, a streamlined black and red-themed motorcycle that seemed to have been specially designed for races appeared.

Adam knew that running was not a viable solution for him as he was continuously wasting energy and stamina. Jumping on the futuristic race bike, Adam immediately ignited the motor and swiftly began to drive away three or four times faster than he initially did when he was running away from those abominations.

Behind him, he could hear the cries of the anger coming from those teddy bears and plants but he ignored this yet again and focused on escaping until he could see them no more.

The first expedition of Adam in Wonderland— ended in a splendid failure.

.

.

.

A few minutes later, Adam could be seen resting in the place he had initially landed. Since he could feel that there was no danger in the surroundings, he summarized that this was some kind of safe zone in this land.

He wanted to light up a small campfire but he stopped himself from doing that right now.

'Sigh. I should have watched more shows about what to do and what to avoid in the wilderness.'

It was 2030 for fucks sake, how could he have imagined that he would one day find himself lost in the woods?

The one thing that he knew was that he should be careful of places with water bodies. After all, those were the kind of regions that many animals visited and there were bound to be predators added into the mix. Even that he wasn't entirely sure about. But since he didn't need to drink or eat, there was no need to care about it further.

"Now what to do."

Adam had to admit… he had taken the situation a little too lightly till now.

After his meeting with the White Rabbit, he should have understood that nothing in this place was as it seemed.

"Well. This is a good lesson for my future endeavors in this place."

He had taken this place as a game in easy mode when he should have considered this as a Soulsborne game where even normal mobs could kill you if you were not careful enough.

While Adam didn't mind dying and going back home, he refused to die in such a pathetic manner, like a total noob, without at least finding some mini-boss. It wasn't too much to ask, right?

Chuckling, Adam lay down on the ground and looked up at the clear skies above. Already, he could see that the sun was slowly disappearing beyond the horizon.

'Normally, things get more dangerous at night.'

At least that should have been the case in a normal environment. But it was hard to say how things would pan out in this mirror world.

'Oh?'

Perhaps things would become opposite and the land will become safer?

It was an idea worth exploring.

'In the first place, why I am in so much of a hurry?'

Adam remembered his first Soulsborne game and how he spent over 40 hours just exploring the world and strengthening himself before even facing the first mini-boss.

He knew that comparing his situation to a game was utterly stupid of him but this analogy helped him become a bit calmer.

'First I need to level up.'

The mafia teddy bears and tentacle flowers were not dangerous. Adam was sure that he could easily beat them.

"I only lack the necessary Dream Force right now."

Once he had enough Dream Force, he would be able to create more constructs and fight more smoothly without worrying about wasting too much energy.

Slowly, the sun completely disappeared beyond the horizon and night descended on these lands.

'Okay. Enough with wasting time here. Better go out and train.'

Rising up, Adam went back into a lotus position and started to focus, breathing the energy in and out.

Every moment was a good time for him to train and he needed to review his memories of up until now.

What did he do wrong during his encounter this morning?

What he could have done better during that perilous scenario? How he could have been more efficient in dealing with that situation?

And lastly, what path should he take in the future to become better and stronger at handling the threats that this land possessed?

Introspection may be a waste of time to many out there in the world but things took a drastic turn when you were equipped with a perfect memory and were thus able to analyze everything with razor precision.

'Let's go.'

At least— that was the plan.

Sadly for Adam, just as he was about to focus on his mental training— a blood red moon rose high above in the night sky…

All the sounds in the forest vanished instantly with the advent of that ominous moon. It was as if all the creatures were holding their breaths so as to not be noticed by whatever the reason was behind the appearance of that ominous celestial body.

Then, like a lie— the silence was broken by an earth shattering reverberation of a growl.

ROOOOAAR~!!!!!