Shadow Fang

Mo Fei lay on the bed, thinking for quite a while.

He had dreamed about Black Dragons many times before, including plenty of terrifying nightmares, but none had ever felt as vivid, as real as this one. It had even muddled his sense of whether he was human or dragon.

When he became Murphys, he had completely forgotten his real-world identity for the first time. All he wanted was to burn everything to ash with dragonfire and slaughter those tiny mortals who dared offend him...

When he realized he was actually human, he had even felt a trace of disappointment, a sense of disparity.

Of course, he could have classified the strange dream as some subconscious mischief, or as his mind reflecting his real-life predicament through a dream.

Yet Mo Fei felt that this time was probably not so simple.

The him in the dream had seemed like another person—or rather, another dragon. It felt unfamiliar, yet strangely familiar. Murphys... that was right, that guy who existed only in the game, the character he had always played.

It had been too vivid, too alive, too evil and arrogant to be explained away as subconsciousness. When Mo Fei saw those crimson eyes beyond the window, he knew perfectly well that he and the other party were not the same person. That was absolutely not some reflection of his own mind.

That was a living, breathing evil Black Dragon.

Could a character in the game really have gained a soul, even begun affecting his real-life self in reverse?

For a moment, he found such an absurd speculation—the kind found only in science-fiction films—hard to accept. That was too ridiculous.

But then again, Skyworld itself was an extremely bizarre game. Wasn't fully immersive virtual gaming something that existed only in science-fiction novels to begin with?

No, he had to figure out what was going on. Otherwise, Mo Fei had a feeling he was about to run into serious trouble.

If this was an isolated case, it could be explained by his own unstable mental state, or perhaps some supernatural incident. But if it was not an isolated case, then the game was clearly the problem.

He decided to ask around on the forums.

He quickly got out of bed, went over to his computer, and opened the forum.

Because Skyworld was so popular, it had countless forums and message boards. But Mo Fei's favorite was still the game's official Sky Universe forum. The reason was simple: visitors had to log in with their game account and password, and their in-game ID would be displayed directly when they posted. That meant there would not be random people stirring up trouble and muddying the waters.

Mo Fei logged into the forum and immediately searched old posts for information about dreams, but found nothing he wanted. Most of the results were strategy guides and intel related to the Emerald Dream, completely unrelated to what he was looking for.

After thinking about it, he figured ordinary people probably would not make a post about something like this. It would be better to ask someone directly, so Mo Fei entered one of his usual favorite sections—Boss Bar.

Only players with boss Monster Templates could enter that section. It was essentially a VIP area.

System notification: Murphys (World Tier boss) entered the bar.

Nika Blackhorn (Tauren Druid/quest boss): Welcome, welcome.

Lindwan (Rebel Knight/elite): Holy crap, it's a legend.

Fishtron (Murloc Lord/skeleton boss): Welcome, welcome.

Long Aotian (Blue Whelp/elite): Bro Long, you advanced again? A World Tier boss? Awesome!

Lagrios (Flame Demon Lord/disaster boss): Mo Fei, it's only been a few days and you've become a World Tier boss. Impressive. By the way, shouldn't you be streaming? What are you doing browsing the forum?

Murphys (Black Dragon Lord/World Tier boss): I've run into some strange things lately and wanted to talk to someone. Have any of you ever dreamed about your own characters?

Lagrios (Flame Demon Lord/disaster boss): Of course I have. Just yesterday, I had a nightmare that two hero players led a bunch of adventurers into my home dungeon to kill me. No matter how nicely I talked, they wouldn't listen. They insisted on killing me, so in the end, I got mad and self-destructed, taking them down with me... Fuck, it scared the hell out of me. That's my livelihood. Good thing it was only a dream.

Nika Blackhorn (Tauren Druid/quest boss): I've had them too. I often dream about turning into a bird and flying through the sky.

Broken Tooth (Deep-Sea Great White Shark/rare elite): Sometimes I dream that I'm filming movies. Have you seen Jaws? I was the lead actor in it, and the director even coached me through my scenes.

Mo Fei listened to everyone share their dreams, but did not gain much from it. Those dreams were all quite ordinary. You dreamed about what occupied your mind during the day; everyone had probably experienced that.

Murphys (Black Dragon Lord/World Tier boss): Let me put it more specifically. Have you ever dreamed that you became someone else, became your in-game character—and that in real life, that character was no longer you, doing things you would never do, while you completely forgot who you were?

Lagrios (Flame Demon Lord/disaster boss): What exactly did you dream about, Mo Fei?

Mo Fei roughly described his dream, especially the part where his sense of self had become confused. Everyone was somewhat surprised.

Nika Blackhorn (Tauren Druid/quest boss): I've never had a dream that strange. Mine are always vague.

Fishtron (Murloc Lord/skeleton boss): That sounds pretty interesting, but I've never had a dream like that.

Most of the replies were like that. Mo Fei was a little disappointed. Could he really be the only one who had experienced this?

Suddenly, someone sent him a private message.

Shadow Fang (rare elite): Add my QQ. I have something to tell you. My QQ is ********.

Hm? Who was this? Mo Fei found the ID somewhat unfamiliar. After considering it, he decided to hear what the other person had to say and added the QQ account.

The other person's QQ avatar was a black panther, and the name was Shadow Fang.

Shadow Fang: "I've actually had similar dreams, and it wasn't just dreams, either. I didn't want to say anything at first, but it sounds like you've encountered something similar to what I did."

Murphys: "Tell me."

Shadow Fang: "The Monster Template I played back then was a beast-type black panther. You should know that beast-type monsters are the most dangerous and hardcore to play. It's basically a jungle battle royale."

Murphys: "I know."

Mo Fei understood that perfectly well. Other monsters at least had their own monster factions to rely on, but beast-type monsters were all lone-wolf players. Even beasts of different species would attack and kill each other, and with adventurers and other monsters as enemies too, it was extremely thrilling to play.

Moreover, beasts were troublesome to control, and that applied to most non-humanoid monsters.

Of course, beasts also had one advantage: their early-game attributes were relatively high, and most of them could restore health by Devouring flesh and blood.

Shadow Fang: "When I first started playing a black panther, I kept dying. After dying enough times, I summed up some experience. The key was that I had to change my way of thinking. I couldn't use human thinking to be a beast; I had to use beast thinking to be a beast.

"Later, I decided to immerse myself completely in my game character and face the world with the mindset of a beast. I became extremely vigilant. I missed no movement, no matter how slight. I stopped trusting anyone and wandered alone in the shadows, only striking to hunt when I was absolutely certain. I became good at observing, hiding, and waiting, as well as cold-blooded and decisive. In reality, I'm actually a very cheerful person, but during that period, my whole personality became gloomy. Even my family said I was becoming neurotic.

"Some people even said my eyes made me look like a killer.

"Maybe so. But to play this game well, I went all in. I kept hunting, kept fighting, gaining experience, Devouring my prey. I also enjoyed that feeling of returning to my primal instincts.

"Later, I successfully advanced and became a rare elite. I could have my own name, so I called myself 'Shadow Fang.'

"Many people learned about me. Hunters in particular all came wanting to capture me as a pet. I had more and more enemies, but I didn't care. No matter how high-level those adventurers were or how good their equipment was, their thinking had not changed at all. They still treated this like an ordinary game. But I had already fully adapted to the black panther's body and abilities, becoming a true 'hunter.' I walked through the darkness, patiently lurking and decisively ambushing. I became more and more adept, and eventually, they all died by my hand.

"During that time, I started dreaming often that I had become a black panther, that I had become 'Shadow Fang.'

"At first, I didn't pay much attention to it, until those changes began affecting reality. I started liking fish, medium-rare steak, sleeping during the day and working at night, and my energy became especially vigorous.

"I still didn't think too much of it at the time, until one night, I woke up in the middle of the night and found myself standing in front of the refrigerator, holding a box of chilled fresh meat. I had eaten more than half of the raw meat inside. A full kilogram of raw meat..."

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