Since ancient times, dreams have been regarded as a repository of the unconscious, a storage of information that transcends time. Therefore, people have sought answers to complex problems through the medium of dreams, encountered beings of high status whom they should not treat lightly, and attempted to explore the past and future beyond the constraints of time.
Dreams are treasures.
Familiar yet difficult to control, they are treasures that become even more tempting the closer they are.
Naturally, there was no reason for humans to refrain from meddling, and they have long strived to intervene in dreams through extensive research. In this process, people discovered that inhaling certain substances could grant them the ability to use divination in dreams, and realized that through specific ritual actions, they could lower their defenses to become susceptible to evil spirit possession. They also recognized that if they performed certain rituals in specific locations and then fell asleep, they could turn their dreams into nightmares and maintain awareness within them.
Research.
Endless research.
Countless studies yielded results.
Divination.
Channeling.
Lucid dreaming.
Nightmare transformation.
Curses mediated through dreams.
Meditation methods using dreams.
Ways to travel the surface of the collective unconscious.
Revolutionary memory techniques that employed dreams like a record-keeping repository.
The more dreams were researched, the more fruitful the outcomes became, and scholars became obsessed with them, continuing a cycle of discontinuation and resurgence even into modern times, eventually producing a tangible fruit in the future.
Dream monitoring.
Obsession with human dreams, combined with magically advanced scientific technologies that exploded in development, and the unique investment in geniuses due to the special circumstances of World War III—all of this culminated in the birth of technology capable of monitoring dreams.
What’s more astonishing is that this dream-monitoring technology was not created by the military or national agencies.
It was developed by a company with the clunky name SLL (Sleep Learning Lab).
Andrew W. Brown, a distinguished scientist known as Dr. Hypnopedia or The Sleep, was a strange character whose obsessive behavior towards sleep led people to mockingly call him Dr. Sheep or Dr. Shit.
Dr. Andrew, who had struggled with childhood obesity, had not been able to sleep properly from a young age. As is typical of those who gain weight, he snored heavily and suffered greatly from sleep apnea. Not being able to enjoy deep sleep was a given, and even shallow sleep eluded him.
He would awaken from the sound of his own snoring, and the feeling of someone suddenly choking him would startle him awake. Additionally, due to his family’s financial struggles, he lived in a cramped, poorly soundproofed, and filthy apartment, where neighbors would come and complain about his loud snoring.
Naturally, Dr. Andrew made every effort to ensure a peaceful sleep.
He tried to lose weight, changed the height of his pillow, kept warm, and even took baths before sleep.
He thought that perhaps drinking alcohol before sleeping would improve his situation, so he befriended popular kids at school to obtain strong drinks. He even tried drugs before falling asleep, illustrating the extent of his obsession with proper sleep.
However, all those attempts ended in failure.
Perhaps due to his lifelong obesity, his weight wasn’t easily shed, and being from a poor family meant he could only afford high-calorie, easy-to-fatten junk food. Thus, dieting remained a distant dream.
Changing the height of the pillow proved somewhat effective. Raising it too much would cause neck pain, while lowering it too much would cause his tongue to fall back and worsen his sleep apnea; finding the right height was quite a challenge, yet he managed to succeed.
However, even this slight improvement didn’t drastically enhance his sleep.
Keeping warm and bathing before bed yielded similar results.
Then how about alcohol and drugs?
“I once said that no matter how much alcohol I drank or how many pills I took, I couldn’t sleep properly. I found that sleeping pills worked later, but they were too expensive, so I just gave up.”
Dr. Andrew made all these attempts, only to fail in achieving better sleep.
Consequently, his obsession grew more intense, and to escape a future where he might perish due to nerve stress from lack of sleep or high blood pressure from sleep apnea, he desperately focused on his studies, ultimately receiving a full scholarship to a prestigious university.
Having gained admission to a prestigious university, he even secured sponsorship to attend graduate school, where he focused on studying the effects of energy on nerves and brainwaves, eventually earning his doctorate.
He delved deeply into the relationship between energy and sleep, leading to a groundbreaking discovery that could change the world.
He discovered the ability to somewhat control dreams using energy and pharmaceuticals.
Filled with enthusiasm over this century’s discovery, he dove deeper into research, soliciting sponsorships and investments to establish a company for serious research. Along the way, a plethora of results emerged, each one highly coveted by the military and government.
Technologies that analyzed brainwaves generated during dreaming to extract text.
Technologies that could transform brainwave data from implanted chip subjects into videos.
Technologies that helped people achieve deep sleep while allowing information from machines to manifest in their dreams.
Technologies that forcibly induced sleep hallucinations using minute quantities of drugs.
Additionally, technologies that eliminated sleep disorders by merely installing simple programs on chips embedded in people’s heads.
Each one was horrifically enticing.
So enticing that one might want to kidnap or assassinate him!
Naturally, the end for Dr. Andrew was not a happy one.
Having boldly disclosed that he had created sleep-learning machines, he was abducted by the American government to work in a military facility. There, under strict surveillance, he had no choice but to fulfill the endless demands of the state.
He was trapped in his research lab like a prisoner in a jail, only conducting research, and while his sleep-learning machines flew off the shelves, he remained locked away, festering without enjoying or properly utilizing the wealth he had accumulated.
Rebellion?
Impossible.
For he had a chip implanted in his head.
Taking his own life?
That too was a mere dream beyond reach.
Surrounded by highly skilled doctors, even if he succeeded in dying peacefully, there were countless scientists ready to turn his brain into a mundane mess.
It was for this reason that he fell into a deep depression, unable to enjoy a proper life, yet he had no choice but to quietly continue researching. At the very least, it was far better to conduct his research with his physical body than to become just another soulless brain hooked up to electrodes like a computer.
But even this miserable life of Dr. Andrew finally came to an end when a mercenary, commissioned to assassinate him, appeared before him.
This was none other than Park Jinseong, a mercenary who had gained fame as a Shaman.
“Tsk. If only he had utilized his genius for magic instead of science.”
Jinseong recalled the face of Dr. Andrew he had seen before he rewound time.
Sunken eyelids.
Hair mostly fallen out due to stress.
A gaunt visage reminiscent of a skull.
Hands and feet that trembled from excessive stress.
Eyes that echoed the vacant stare of a dead fish.
He was the embodiment of someone living in torment, unable to die.
Initially startled at seeing Jinseong burst into his top-secret lab, Dr. Andrew rejoiced at hearing that all the soldiers, doctors, and scientists who had watched over him had been killed, but he mourned for the demise of the other scientists who had been used solely as research slaves, like himself.
He switched between emotions like an actor, expressing highs and lows endlessly before finally saying to Jinseong:
“You said you came to kill me? Thank you. Truly, thank you.”
Then, he showered Jinseong with all kinds of gifts.
How to access the storage devices in the research institute, what the passwords were.
The existence of the safe he had created for his slush fund, how to access it, and what the passwords were.
He even disclosed the flaws in the sleep-learning machines he had worked on, encouraging Jinseong to publicize that information and short-sell, claiming it could lead to a large fortune.
He shared everything he had with Jinseong without reservation.
And finally, he gave Jinseong something he would cherish the most.
“And… while I have been trapped here, I have created a magic related to sleep. I made this while contemplating sleep magic, and it may be useful to you.”
A sleep-related magic.
A spell created by a genius who had lived only for sleep and ultimately met a tragic end due to astonishing achievements.
A spell using mediums, coordinates, pure energy, and immense mental power to snoop on or intervene in others’ dreams.
Jinseong was greatly astonished at receiving that spell.
It was so intricately crafted that it was hard to believe a non-shaman had made it.
Thus, he truly lamented that he had to kill Andrew, and even though Andrew urged him to do so, he could not bring himself to execute him. However, in the end, he granted the genius who created such an outstanding spell a painless death, and as a mark of respect, he burned Andrew’s corpse at that spot and scattered the ashes in his hometown.
One death.
One achievement.
In a world after World War III, it was not an extraordinary event.
The only special thing about it was that it was a spell, and that only Jinseong knew of it.
“Sz—uhhhhhh—uh—uhhhhh”
And now, that spell was in use.
Using the mana extracted from the warrior in Japan as the material.
