Cursed Immortality

Chapter 1202: First Memory Extraction

"This one?" Nyx’s voice contained a hint of ecstasy as she said with approval, "Good choice! It is a real memory. I guess your instincts as my Nightmare Contractor are starting to kick in!"

Jacob didn’t refute, and now that Nyx confirmed the identity of that fragment as a real memory, he began to approach it slowly.

The fragment trembled as he neared, but it didn’t react violently as if it wasn’t protected or too insignificant to be protected.

The next moment, Jacob gently extended his consciousness without using any force, as if touching something fragile.

The moment he made contact with the fragment, the world shifted, and darkness swallowed everything.

When Jacob’s vision returned, he wasn’t himself anymore and was inside the memory.

Furthermore, Jacob’s perspective was wrong and consisted only of instinctive reactions, for he wasn’t thinking but reacting with hunger, cold, and fear.

Apparently, he had turned into a smaller Void Mantis, much weaker and incomplete from its glorious Higher-God form.

At this moment, it skittered across a fractured void surface, its limbs thin, its movements erratic, and the emotions it was experiencing were something Jacob could relate to more than enough for the Void Mantis was starving!

Jacob could feel the desperation, the instinct to devour anything and everything; it was a feeling that he seemed to have forgotten, yet it was deeply etched into his mind, making this memory even more realistic.

Just as Jacob felt melancholy, something appeared, a larger entity, and it wasn’t a mantis but something else; amorphous, writhing yet powerful.

The moment it appeared, terror exploded within the smaller mantis as it froze and couldn’t move, let alone escape.

Jacob felt the helplessness and the certainty of death vividly.

At that moment, the attack came almost instantly, and it was brutal, filled with killing intent. The next moment, the smaller mantis was torn apart, then devoured, and finally consumed.

Jacob felt every fragment of it filled with pain, dissolution, and the loss of self, and then, following an unknown instinct, Jacob moved not the mantis as his consciousness surged forward.

His consciousness was trying to grab something as if refusing to let the memory complete. Nyx also remained silent and didn’t interfere, as if whatever was happening to Jacob wasn’t any more dangerous, and let him experience the way of Nightmare!

The next moment, as if fueled by Jacob’s powerful consciousness, the devouring slowed and distorted. He has successfully anchored himself inside the fragment, but not as the mantis, as something else, like something outside the cycle.

However, it wasn’t over as Jacob tried to pull something deep within the memory, but the memory resisted violently, trying to snap back into the Dreamscape and rejoin the whole.

But Jacob held on even tighter and colder, with more precision and instinct, declaring, "...Nightmare Eater!"

The very next moment, the fragment cracked, light seeping through its edges, and finally it broke free.

Jacob’s eyes snapped open, and he was back in the Dreamscape, but something had changed, and he knew what as his eyes flickered with a hint of astonishment and faint elation because in front of him, a small, faint yet real fragment floated.

Moreover, Jacob could feel that it was no longer part of the Dreamscape but a separate entity, meaning he had successfully extracted it from the Dreamscape Realm!

At that moment, Nyx’s voice came, softer than before but filled with excitement, "You did it! You have successfully extracted a memory by infiltrating a Fragmented Nightmare, and you did it all by following your own instincts."

"Fragmented Nightmare?" It was Jacob’s first time hearing about this term, and he appeared slightly confused but mostly curious.

"Oh, I forgot you are still an amateur at this. You see, the memory you have found was registered as a ’Nightmare’ within the Dreamscape by the owner, because anything associated with a Nightmare is obviously anything but good or joyous.

"But even Nightmares have categories, at least I’ve divided them into categories to make it easier for me to choose between them. There are two main categories: Dreams and Nightmares. They are further divided into branches.

"First, the Nightmare Category, which follows the fundamentals of ’aversion’, which is the opposite of the Dream Category, which follows the fundamentals of ’desires’.

"Moreover, Dreams are greatly protected by the mind because they are ’precious’ and ’important’ to the owner, while nightmares aren’t so much protected because they themselves are, in a way, dangerous. You experience it yourself once you become more proficient in Dreamscape Law.

"The first of these categories is the ’False Nightmare’ or ’False Dreams’. These Nightmares and Dreams are made with either someone’s deep aversion or deep desires to the point of creating false delusions, which leads to false nightmares and dreams.

"Oh, the ’illusions and desires’ I’ve warned to be careful of and avoid them are also the False Dreams and False Nightmares. I didn’t explain in detail because I want you to experience the Dreamscape first; it’ll be much easier to explain then.

"The second are the Fragmented Nightmares and Fragmented Dreams. These nightmares and dreams consist of true and false memories, making them worse when aversive and more joyful when associated with desires.

"Normally, Fragmented Nightmares and Fragmented Dreams are made with ’small memoires’ just like the one you just experienced. It was a Fragmented Nightmare, which was made with God’s deep aversion associated with that memory, and was very old.

"That’s why you didn’t find any protection around it and easily invaded it. But as you have experienced, it was in no way for you to snatch that memory from the Dreamscape.

"The only reason you were able to take it was that first you are the Nightmare Contractor, and have the Nightmare Eater ability, while the second reason is the Dreamscape didn’t consider that ’memory’ important and even something that should be forgotten like a blemish."

Jacob was stunned when he heard such a detailed description of the Dreamscape, and just how complex the Law of the Dreamscape was going to be!