'What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck?!'
When Sunny was leaving Dan Heng to go to his room, he had decided to glimpse into his soul out of curiosity. What he saw caused him to pale — not because his soul was weird, but because there was something in there that didn't belong.
Wrapped around Dan Heng's normal, yet radiant Soul Core, was a strange worm-like creature. It was attached to it like a parasite, as Sunny faintly saw a trickle of Essence being absorbed by it.
'Does he even know…?'
In the end, cautious as always, Sunny deigned to not tell Dan Heng about the parasite in his soul, which he certainly deserved to be aware of. The problem was that Sunny didn't know if the parasite was sentient, and what it would do if he informed Dan Heng about it. Nor did he know if it would actually harm him.
So, keeping the disturbing encounter in his mind, he had used Shadow Step to retreat to his room… which brought along another strange encounter.
Sunny blinked as he saw a sealed box placed next to his bed. His memory was perfect, so he knew for a fact that he never placed that there.
'Huh.'
Out of curiosity, he walked over to the strangely durable box, and quickly cut it open with the Moonlight Shard.
'…What?'
Sunny stared at the items within, then looked back to the side of the box. There was an emblem of a sword piercing an anvil — Valor.
Sunny's pupils dilated. Had he been caught?
Within the box was a pile of Awakened Soul Shards — around three hundred of them. This was the reward for whoever won the Dream Tournament. Naturally, the victor was Sunny himself, but nobody was supposed to know that.
There was a reason that he hadn't tried to get the rest of his rewards. Leaving a paper trail would easily connect his identity to Mongrel, whether it was the 'fake' one, or the genuine Stellaron Hunter.
As Sunny inwardly panicked at the idea of possibly being on the run due to his identity as an intergalactic war criminal, he glimpsed a piece of paper among the Soul Shards. Picking it up and unfolding it, he read:
"Stop using that character, idiot. You're turning up the difficulty too much."
Sunny tilted his head.
Was this person… telling him to be careful?
At the very least, they didn't seem outwardly hostile. Even so, that could simply mean that they had an agenda that didn't include selling him out.
Or maybe they did plan on selling him out.
If it was Sunny, he would have probably looked for a way to extort Mongrel. Why sell someone out if he could benefit from the knowledge of their identity?
In the end, with no leads to work on, he decided to simply become more vigilant. If he brought it up with the others, they may ask questions that would put him in a tight spot. And Sunny didn't like tight spots. He was claustrophobic!
Metaphorically, of course.
Sunny sighed. Summoning the Cruel Sight, he impaled the note on it's blade before activating the [Dark Mirror] enchantments. A moment later, there was nothing left besides a small pile of ash.
Once he dismissed the weapon, Sunny stared blankly at his wall, before humming:
"I guess it's about that time…"
A few seconds later, he was sprawled out on the floor, fast asleep.