Visdre couldn't see the future and give Mark the winning lottery numbers. But as he was sifting through their memories, he saw some lucky numbers on a fortune cookie. He figured that was the next best thing.

He kept his toy mask on as he walked home. As he passed a garbage can. He threw away the mask as he didn't plan on pretending to be a seer again. Once he was home, he got on the computer and started to brainstorm.

"I have a soul fragment in my source castle that belongs to that mortal."

Visdre focused on his source castle as he sat upon his divine throne. He twirled his fingers as the soul fragment rotated. He felt a cool sensation travel down his spine.

"This is..."

"Energy accumulation!"

"Mental energy!"

Visdre was quite excited. Merely mimicking the feeling of rotating his 'key' and getting someone to use his esteemed name. He was finally generating mental energy.

"I need to tap into my energy field!"

Visdre traced this feeling. But his energy field didn't seem to be fully there. It was foggy and vague.

"Wait a second."

"If that person chanting my esteemed name allowed them to present a soul fragment to my source castle. What would happen if I chanted the name with this body?"

Visdre soon tried this with the body. But nothing happened. That was until he tried saying the words out loud.

"Esteemed Somnus. Master and Dreamer of Worlds. I present my sou-"

The body stopped listening to his commands at a critical moment!

He heard whispers in his source castle as the cane in his hand flew away. It stopped a few meters in front of him.

"Interesting. What is happening?"

The cane shook and transformed into his other self. The version of himself he had stolen the body from! But there was a resistance in his source castle. It was as if it could tell the real from the fake. This wasn't the source castle of 'Visdre'. It was the source castle of the entity 'Somnus'.

Visdre from universe F555 had somehow set a precedent. He WAS Somnus.

So what happened?

There was no connection between the mortal body and the source castle. They were two entirely different things. The moment the cane sensed that its soul was about to become enslaved. It awoke something instinctive.

Somnus lost control of Visdre's body!

The original Visdre of F554 woke up.

They only remembered having a nightmare. Some entity had stolen their body! They soon realized this wasn't just a nightmare. It was the reality! They figured this out from the gap in their memory and from the fact that their phone had disappeared. Their computer had been reset. They had also lost their job.

Somnus continued to remain conscious in his source castle. Thanks to constructing his spiritual brain. He had an independent consciousness. He also was generating mental energy from Mark's soul fragment.

"I lost control..."

Somnus remembered this feeling.

Death.

"But I have my spiritual body. I am no longer shackled by the limits of a mortal."

"But those whisperings I heard when I almost completed using my esteemed name. There was a feeling there. I almost grasped it."

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Somnus focused on that 'feeling'.

He held out his hand and another soul fragment appeared.

"This is the soul fragment of Visdre!"

But his attention was redirected soon from this. As he saw his other soul fragment turn black.

"What happened?"

He sent a wisp of consciousness into the black soul fragment.

"I see. It seems that these fragments have two states. They are indicators of consciousness. When it is white. The person is 'awake'. When it is black, the person is 'asleep'."

"Perhaps it is also the state of alive or dead."

Somnus focused on Mark's soul fragment and saw his dream. He had won the lottery and was living lavishly. It was all a dream of course.

Somnus felt divine. He felt as if he could manipulate every aspect of the dream.

From this series of fortunate events. Somnus got a rather interesting idea.

"I can essentially bring the souls of those who use my esteemed name into this place."

Somnus felt this had a lot of potential.

"The question now is... how do I get others to use my esteemed name?"

"I can no longer control a physical body. I can however alter and completely manipulate dreams..."

"I have two anchors to the real world. These things are also the generators of the energy I use for my consciousness."

"Perhaps there is a way to upgrade these soul fragments and unlock more permissions. I just need to trick my two anchors."

Somnus started to brainstorm again. He thought about something he had seen in novels.

"A system!"

"I'll make them believe they have come in contact with a system. I'll create a game world using dreams as a foundation. I'll then have them enter this dream world whenever they sleep."

Somnus just needed to figure out how to make a system.

"System genesis... ECHO. In a sense. I must create sentience."

"I also need to create background information for this world. I'll need to create game mechanics and rules. This is a huge project."

"But what else will I do with my time?"

"My source castle is surrounded by the abyss. It is grounded in this universe. If I wish to upgrade it. I'll need to follow the inheritance. But I lack energy. I can either wait years or get more people to use my esteemed name."

Somnus knew that some would link this to the occult. So he needed to have a way for someone's soul to appear in his source castle indirectly.

"My spiritual name is basically Somnus. But what if i could create some sort of proxy name. Make it less like a prayer or chant. More like an invitation. Accepting an invitation to join the game."

"What should I call this world?"

Somnus needed a bare minimum of background info for this world. He decided to name this world 'The Celestial Cemetery'.

'There once existed 12 great gods. These gods controlled the laws of the world in harmony. That was until one god decided to steal the law of another. This started a war between the gods. There was so much destruction and the world was turned into a graveyard. A lifeless husk of what it used to be. A god by the name of Teldass reversed this situation and returned the world to its original state.'

'The gods reflected on the chaos they had created. They then decided to no longer allow combat between themselves. Instead they would choose a champion to act as an apostle. They would create a special world. Where these immortal apostles would compete for resources. The ranking of these apostles would decide the standing of the gods.'

'It was the ultimate battle.'

1.) Chaos - Cnavha (Female Form)

2.) Order - Onaiolpa (Male Form)

3.) Time - Teldass (Male Form)

4.) Energy - Etebh (Female Form)

5.) Matter - Mhodhi (Male Form)

6.) Balance - Bhymbresh (??? form)

7.) Infinite - Iukhuijhih (Male Form)

8.) Finite - Faoggi (Female Form)

9.) Nothing - Nguvhxis (??? Form)

10.) Darkness - Dolthzha (Male Form)

11.) Light - Lukhibrelb (Female Form)

12.) Space - Shuxorh (Female Form)

'The gods didn't simply create their apostles. It was like drawing a lottery. Every few million years or so. They would find a random world among the multiverse. They would then select a mortal to serve as a seedling. But things weren't so easy. This mortal would need to 'invite' others to join in the competition.'

'You needed to impress the gods to even get the chance to become an apostle. As Iukhuijhih sifted through the infinite multiverse. He found a rather interesting container. He discovered what mortals were regarding as a 'MMORPG'.'

Iukhuijhih's memories flashed and he felt enlightened. He would design this competition using the mechanics of these earthly 'games'.

The other gods became interested in his construction and the serious ranking became entertainment. The game was further refined and carried out across the multiverse until {YOU} were selected.

"This will serve as the foundation of the creation of the dream world."

Somnus knew that all of this was nonsense! These gods didn't exist. There was no apostles or game to decide the ranking. This was merely background information for the special game he was constructing. None of this would be revealed to the player either way. Unless they unlocked the information somehow.

Somnus designed an inventory. Respawning mechanics. Attribute panel. This included the name, title, class, level, hitpoints, manapoints, strength, perception, agility, vitality, and intelligence.

The title would be where you could equip the blessing of your god. But you would need to unlock it first. He also threw in some troll titles in as well for the fun of it. He wasn't taking this too seriously. The whole purpose of this was to spread around the world like a virus.

The more people that played his 'game'. The more energy he would accumulate. He would then be able to carry out the later parts of the inheritance.

Now that he had the background information behind the origin of the game. He needed to work on the system itself.