Date- 28 Mar 2321
Time- 6:40
Location- Way Beyond, Madame Web’s Unknown underground safe house
“Woah, what’s that smell?” Flower thief yelled, smelling the foul smell in the air as he entered the safe house.
“100 sweaty men crammed into a tiny safe house. You tell me.” Shota answered Flower Thief sarcastically.
“Well, then we better get started. Flower thief, go ahead and summon your nightmare beast. Let’s get started..” Gray Fur ordered.
“I have already summoned it.” With his words, a water mask floating in the air. Became visible to the three.
“Isn’t that beast a little too small and chibi to be a nightmare beast? Aren’t they supposed to be big and scary? Hence the name nightmare beast.” Shota was disappointed by the appearance of Ocean Mask. It did not look like the rumors about the nightmare beasts. Unlike the nightmare beasts with a haunting appearance enough to scare a grown man into shitting his pants, this Ocean mask gave Shota the impression of a soft toy. If not for the eerie air surrounding it, Shota would not believe it was a Nightmare beast.
“After you see what it is capable of, you will change your opinion. Senior Shota, haven’t you heard the saying not to judge a book by its cover.” Ocean Mask was not a Nightmare beast. Instead, it is an Empty beast. A creature from the fairy tale of this card world. It was a famous lore that many thought that the Empty beast was just a monster from a fairy tale, and the myth surrounding it was unreal.
The people in the safehouse would panic if they heard that their boss was sending a creature from myth for their extraction. Therefore to keep the Card apprentices in line and unsuspecting of the motives of their leader, Sansa concocted a lie that Ocean Mask was a nightmare beast with the ability to open a teleportation gate in its mouth. And now it was up to Gray Fur and Flower Thief to maintain Madame Web’s lies.
“I believe you. So how does it work?” Asked Shota curiously as it was his first time seeing a unique nightmare beast like the Ocean mask.
Nightmare beasts are beasts born from the fear of the host. Since they are the spawn of their host’s fear, their appearance is as hideous as the thing that breeds apprehension in its host. Like its ugly appearance, the Nightmare beast has bizarre supernatural powers unique to them. The method of extracting energy from one’s fear and breeding a nightmare beast card is called Fear Breeding. Side effects include losing fear towards the thing that conjures enough fear to create the nightmare beast card. Sometimes one’s nightmare beast card can be their fate ingredient.
“Why don’t I demonstrate it to you? Senior Shota, please bring a volunteer to try the teleportation door in this beast’s mouth.” When Shota’s curiosity asked more about the Ocean mask and its abilities, Flower Thief averted his questions saying that a demonstration is worth more than 1000 words.
“Sure. Codename Tree frog, you go first. And show the others how it’s done.” Shota randomly yelled a name and asked him to try the teleportation ability of the nightmare beast in front of them.
“Yes, senior Shota” the rookie card emperor did not hesitate and walked towards the ocean mask.
As the Tree frog neared the ocean mask, Flower Thief advised, ” Do not resist.”
“Huh,” Tree Frog nodded and waited for Ocean Mask to do its thing. He did not have to wait long as soon the Ocean mask opened its mouth, and a suction force directly pulled him into its mouth. With that, he vanished from the safe house.
*gasp* seeing the ocean mask swallow tree frog, everybody gasped in shock. Not waiting for them to come to their senses, Flower thief asked, “Who’s next?”
Seeing everyone hesitate and not coming forward to go next, Flower Thief asked, ” What’s wrong?”
“We are waiting for him to come back.” One of the Card Emperors gathered his courage and answered. His voice was shaky because what he said pointed out that he did not trust the words of Madame Web.
“He cannot come back. This is a one-way door. If you go in from here, it teleports you to a predetermined position.” Flower Thief pointed out that what they were waiting for was not possible.
“Gasp” hearing Flower thief’s explanation, the crowd grew suspicious.
“Hey, I don’t blame you guys. If I saw somebody swallowed by a weird creature, I would also be worried. Let’s clear your doubts, shall we? How about one of you close to Tree Frog call him and check up on him? That should calm all your nerves, right. ” Gray Fur came forward to decrease the tension in the crowd.
“No need for that Tree Frog had already contacted me informing me that he has teleported safely and sound to another safe house near the border of the southern and central region.” One of the card emperors in the crowd announced, and walking out of the crowd, he added, “I will go next.”
Following the example of that Card emperor one by one, everyone let the Ocean Mask swallow them. Thinking that it would teleport them to another safe house out of the way beyond.
…
Inside the stomach space of Ocean mask,
“Where am I?” Tree Frog asked in confusion, not knowing what had just transpired.
“Hello buddy, I am Sniper. What’s your codename?” Sniper introduced himself to the guy that appeared in the stomach of Ocean Mask.
“Hi, my codename is Tree Frog, and where are we? Why is it so crammed in here?” Tree Frog polity introduced himself, following Sniper’s lead. And asked why the four of them were crammed in such a narrow space.
“Tree Frog, enough questions. just do as I say, and you will be fine.” Sniper grinned as he asked Tree frog to call one of his friends back at the Safehouse in Way beyond informing him of his safe arrival. And warned him not to try any funny business.
Overpowered by three card emperors, Tree Frog had no choice and did as they said. Getting what they wanted from Tree Frog, Sniper murdered Tree Frog and waited for the next pery, and then the next. If the prey were a false demigod, Sansa would assist by erasing the memory and turning them into brain-dead idiots. Having killed his prey, Sniper and his two comrades would collect the head as a trophy and incinerate the rest of the body. This continued until all the survivors of the Way beyond mission were killed and had their heads collected as trophies.
