Cursed Immortality

Chapter 1206: Primary Nightmare: The Hunting Ground

The moment Jacob touched the Primary Nightmare, his vision went blank, but he wasn’t concerned because he was too familiar with this procedure.

When his vision returned, he found himself within a vast void that seemed to stretch endlessly, and after devouring so many fragmented memoires of Whiteness, he knew this was the Universal Void, Whiteness’s birthplace.

However, this Jacob seemed slightly surprised because, unlike the fragmented spaces of the Void he had seen before, this place seemed complete, structured, functioning, and on top of that, real.

Lastly, what surprised Jacob even more was that this place was filled with unique lifeforms of the Universal Void, the Zodiac Beasts.

These Zodiac Beasts have countless forms, and many have been seen in Whiteness’s fragmented nightmares and dreams, either hunting him or being hunted by him.

However, here there weren’t one or two, but many: some were massive, drifting like living continents; others were small, erratic, and predatory.

At that moment, Jacob felt the difference between a Fragmented Nightmare and a Primary Nightmare instantly, just as Nyx had warned him about; this wasn’t a memory fragment but a scenario or a preserved event of Whiteness’s life.

Suddenly, Jacob looked down, and a hint of morbid realization dawned on him, ’...I see.’

Apparently, Jacob wasn’t the Void Mantis; Whiteness, instead, he was a seemingly insignificant, low-ranking Zodiac Beast, with a thin, weak physique barely holding form.

Furthermore, he could feel that this Zodiac Beast held no intelligence or authority, just the primary instinct of Zodiac Beasts, similar to what he had seen within Whiteness’s memories.

But Jacob’s consciousness remained intact and hidden, buried beneath this ’role’ granted to him by Whiteness’s subconsciousness, just as before, and he didn’t dare to careless ’act’, at least not until he figured out his ’role’.

Nyx had already given him some profound knowledge about Dreamscape once he grasped the First Concept of the Dreamscape Law. Now that he was within his first primary nightmare, he wanted to see how far he could go without Nyx’s help.

Moreover, only by figuring out the Dreamscape by himself did Jacob seem to comprehend the Law of Dreamscape more quickly.

Right now, in his current ’role’, Jacob knew he was probably a background entity, a disposable existence in this ’event’, because he didn’t belong here, and, almost instinctively, Whiteness’s consciousness was trying to get rid of him.

According to Nyx, no matter how meticulous Jacob became or how he sealed Whiteness, Dreamscape Realm remained like a window into Whiteness’s soul, so it would always try to protect Whiteness no matter what.

That’s why Jacob had experienced gruesome Nightmares and tempting Dreams to break away his will or create an opening to alter the core of Whiteness’s Dreamscape.

This time, it wasn’t any different, as he had become an insignificant character in this nightmare, and Jacob would already have thought of myriad ways to find himself on the verge of death or forced to reveal his ’identity’.

Even though this was his greatest restriction, he had also learned that this could also be his greatest protection.

Once Jacob accepted his ’role’, he started looking around at his surroundings to figure out what kind of Nightmare this was going to be, and found himself in a region that was not chaotic... not entirely.

Because it felt and seemed organized like a domain, especially when he saw thousands of Zodiac Beasts moving in patterns, or those standing like him who were just standing there motionlessly.

There wasn’t any intelligent coordination; it was directed behavior because, at the center, something ruled. Even though Jacob didn’t look directly, he felt it. A presence, heavy and watchful, on top of that, it seemed to have a commanding authority over ’him’.

’...So that’s a ’special’ Zodiac Beast?’ He thought with a hint of cold realization.

After going through countless Fragmented Nightmares and Fragmented Dreams of Whiteness, Jacob may not have learned anything significant, but he sure learned many new things about the Zodiac Beasts, which should’ve been impossible without properly ’existing’ within the Universal Void.

Although Immortika had once told Jacob that Zodiac Beasts were wonders of the Universal Void, as they were mindless entities, and seemed to crave the beings of Zodiac Plains or just the Zodiac Plains in their entirety.

It wasn’t entirely true as Immortika had only described them to their most primitive forms, or the Cursed Book simply didn’t bother to explain properly, or couldn’t.

Anyhow, after experiencing an ’insignificant’ part of Whiteness’s life, Jacob learned that the Zodiac Beasts were born with pure instincts with no intellect, even Whiteness had been born as such.

But they can’t remain completely ’mindless’ or without any ’intellect’ because in the Universal Void, which was inherently unruly, one can’t survive on pure instincts unless they were born powerful.

Although Jacob still has no idea how those Zodiac Beasts were born, he knows not every Zodiac Beast was born equal; there were either predators or prey.

In fact, under special circumstances, a newly born Zodiac Beast can be a Legendary King, as he had personally witnessed in a Fragmented Nightmare of Whiteness.

But it was also true that most of the Zodiac Beasts were born as Common Rank entities, just like the Void Mantis, because of his noble yet accursed lineage as a Fantastic Insect.

That’s why, to survive from those natural-born predators among the Zodiac Beasts, they start to develop basic intellect, and as they grow, they become intelligent because they want to survive.

Jacob began calling such Zodiac Beasts with intellect ’special’ because they had evolved beyond instinct and were developing intelligence.

Moreover, these special Zodiac Beasts can also gain power to control and command weaker beasts, so they could use them, or position them not out of dominance but for survival, like a shield, or they can create a system or territory to scare away other powerful Zodiac Beasts or hunt them.

That’s why seeing that special Zodiac Beast in the center, and then all those Zodiac Beasts circling around it or protecting it just like himself, Jacob understood instantly.

’Could this be the ’antagonist’ of this Primary Nightmare?’ Jacob thought with a hint of uncertainty.

He wasn’t calling that special Zodiac Beast because he considered it evil, but to Whiteness, this could be the source of the Nightmare!