Kaan was once again in this pitch darkness. He was not someone who frequently had dreams and most of the time they would be nightmares of his mind’s twisted creatures giving him weird messages. But his dreams were like this for a few days, he didn't know the reason but he was always finding himself in this darkness until he was awakened by his phone's alarm to head to university.

The weirdness of these dreams didn't end with just that, he was aware of everything. Dreams were not supposed to be like that, you could know who you were, and you could see connections between the real world and your experiences but in dreams, you were just someone else with sometimes your memories or sometimes without them.

In this darkness, it was not like that. He was aware of himself and reality and this place felt different than a dream. It was just empty, he didn’t like the darkness and the feeling of isolation it brought along so he wandered around to find something, a reason for his mind putting him here. He found the reason or maybe the mistake of him being here on the third day of the same dream.

He came across a light source when he was wandering. The light called to him, and he answered its call without much thought because it was the only thing he found after wandering who knows how long in the darkness, he was even rather excited to finally encounter something. He ran towards it, or he thought he ran because he didn’t have a body in this darkness just the feel of it, and when he reached the light, it just remained for a few seconds but it was enough for him to see why it called him.

He saw a battlefield, he could hear the shouts and people moving in the background, fighting with creatures of the wicked but in front of him, there were just many dead bodies, both belonging to the monsters and humans, he thought they must be human as their bodies were in a state where he could not fully identify their being.

He saw a woman on the ground, he was sure she was a female human, her throat was cut by something sharp which probably was her cause of death and now she was being mauled by a monster on its fours, covered with brown fur.

It wasn’t a monster of great height; it was probably somewhere two metres, yet it was large. Its face was long and skinny, four small horns stuck out from its forehead. Its teeth were sharp and twisted and his mouth was distorted in a way which looked like a smile. Its claws were painted with the warm blood of the woman and her flesh. The monster seemed like it was having a vile pleasure mauling her body even though she was dead.

The vision remained just for seconds in front of Kaan but it was enough for him to feel the urge to puke. It was just so real; he was like next to the woman and to that monster, as he heard the flesh tear apart from her body and smelled the death hanging around the battlefield.

In the darkness, for the first time, he felt scared, felt his heart beat madly, and felt threatened by the idea of what if that monster just jumped out of that light and attacked him… But it just passed and nothing else happened. The scene reminded itself a few more times to Kaan but its effects lessened yet the feelings remained.

These events engaged Kaan’s mind even in his daily life. He wondered what was the reason, was it still a dream that he was experiencing, did he need help? He wanted to put a stop to this but when he found himself in the pitch darkness, they cried for him, they wanted him to see them, see what happened and he couldn’t just ignore them.

At the second he thought them still as a play of his mind, at the ninth, he began to think what he had seen was too real to be a dream; Kaan emotions of the vast spectrum, he saw lands where the most bloody battles were fought and great kingdoms were founded, where twisted, corrupted monsters waited in the shallow, dark forests, shores and dungeons for heroes and hunters who would come to hunt them, sometimes for just to face with their demise and sometimes for to reach the glory of making their lands more save or just collecting gold.

And sometimes he just saw just a warm home where innocent and insignificant people, who were unaware of the darkness of the world they lived in, got tested by the unforeseeable fortune of the wheel. He saw creatures of most vile and honourable, it broke his perception when he saw under the mask of sinister creatures could lay a being more honourable and merciful than some that we called humans who betrayed and butchered their own people for the sake of their own good, looks could be always deceiving.

He knew what the real evil was, he saw it. He saw how they would slip into the folks' minds, making them commit unforgivable acts towards the ones they cared about yet the worse making them believe it was for the 'good' to just kill or throw them aside when their job was done. With the realization of the acts they had committed, they would just kill themselves with the despair of an unchangeable past or go mad to continue to terrorise other's life or laugh until they die. They rarely look for revenge as they knew they were just a bug a greater being played with. And this was just one monster's doing.

How could he say all of these were just mere dreams when he experienced everything they suffered and thrived alongside them? When it was somewhere close to twenty, he believed, he wasn’t sure what he had believed but at least he believed these things had happened. But what he should do now as he believed them, why did he even experience these damned visions?

Maybe the worst thing about this vision was returning to normal. Experiencing those graphic deaths, from eaten alive to eaten inside out by some kind of parasite, and seeing people marching to battles for honour or for the warmth of the gold or just save themselves from the heaviness of promises that had been made along the way to never return alive... after experiencing these memories and many more, returning to normal life… was hard as they remained inside him, changed his mind yet he had to continue as the life went on.

So today, after a while of wandering and finding no light he thought it was going to be one of the days he was going to return without a new memory but when a red eye, which was big as a human from the image reflected in his view, appeared in front of him he knew something… weird was coming to his life as the feel of the dream changed.

It took a bit more atrocious, more complex turn yet those feelings were not directed to Kaan, it just came with the presence of the red eye. The eye looked around as if he expected more from this plane of darkness and then it stopped its search on Kaan. The moment their eyes met Kaan saw that its pupil got sharper and bigger and felt a strange force surrounding him

'What is this now?’

He thought as he tried to move away from it in the darkness but it looked like his movements were restricted so he focused on the eye to understand it.

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"This system had really given me a human like you, huh?"

A rough and dissatisfied voice echoed in the darkness as the eye checked him. Kaan felt like something was trying to delve into his mind and for the first time he felt an immense pain as if something was trying to split his head in two but it never got inside.

"It looks like you are more interesting than you look, tell me you mortal, who gave you this power?”

“What… are... you?”

Kaan was still feeling the sting of the pain and felt so exhausted as if the endurance was drained off of him. Now he was sure it was not just another memory he was going to look into.

“Whatever, in time I’ll have another look to see what you have in that small mortal mind of yours.”

It said and its eyelids closed lightly as if he was grinning.

“Listen to me you the mortal of Guardian’s world. The world you know is about the change. Your so-called apocalypse is on the edge yet you have no idea what you are about to face. I, The God Of Infernal Gate, offer you a way to survive and reach the glory of your kin as my champion. Your mind is weak, I can see it. Your chance to survive without my guidance is like an ant trying to survive in the rain. Now you, the small mortal who is unaware of the system, accept my goodwill and sign this contract to be my champion."

The entity said and a floating document appeared in the darkness shining brightly.

Kaan was trying to get a hold of what was happening right now but he quickly gathered his mind as he inspected the document. It was written in a langue he hadn’t seen before, but he could see that t was symbolic. There was not much to look at because he couldn't read anything on the paper but he could see where he should sign.

Then his eyes drifted to the red eye. It was not even looking at him now, it looked like it was sure that he would sign the contract. Well, Kaan was something that important for him, there were still many mortals he had to deal with, so why should it enquire about his thought or even allocate more time than needed for a puny being like him?

"What are you waiting for, Human? Even on the verge of the apocalypse you sure take your time, could it be you are doubting my words?”

Without giving a chance to Kaan for answer the eye suddenly appeared in front of him. The eye opened as now for the first time, fully focused on him. Kaan felt the power radiating from the being, it was strong fierce and felt nefarious. The aura radiating from the red eye was enough to put him on his knees in a breathless state.

“Now you see the greatness of my being, you human? I am a God, my offer is something you should cherish yet you making me wait.”

Now Kaan remembered, a God. He remembered a memory which came from the light, the five ‘Heroes’ in the hall of light fighting with that monster who called himself a ‘God’. That was the first time in the memories he felt like nothing. He was not even insignificant, his being was nothing in front of the absolute.

In the end, heroes were killed at the hands of the god, and their deaths were not merciful, and the god then turned his head slowly to Kaan’s side and looked at him with a wide smile, just an innocent smile from a boy fully covered in the warm blood and flesh of the blood people he just killed yet the eyes, his eyes told everything Kaan needed to know. It had also said something else but he was not able to remember it, as if it was purposely censored by his mind.

'I wonder if I would sign this if it was one month ago.'

Kaan thought to himself as he examined the empty document once again under pressure. If he thought this was a dream there wouldn’t be a backlash coming from signing the contract and if it was not and the apocalypse was real who wouldn’t like a god’s help? That is if he could read the content. And now he knew more than he should have so he just stood there because he was not going to sign it and there was nothing else to do.

At the end of the waiting, Kaan tried to raise his hand to reach the document but the pressure was so high he barely reached the paper.

"Good choice, you mortal. I’ll show you the path befitting the champion of..."

The entity's words cut in the middle with the sound of shredding paper.

Kaan shredded the paper in half and continue to shred it to pieces. Not because it was a God or because it looked down on him. In the end, it was a God, if it was saying the truth, and it could be accepted that it had the mean to look down as it was one of the most powerful, if not omnipotent, beings and could really save his life but because it was not a ‘deal’ that he didn’t accept.

It was just how he felt on the light corridor, he was nothing, just a creature in front of God, doing what it wanted from him. It was easy to see through that it was trying to make him sign the contract by oppressing him to it with his presence but who would blindly accept a contract? Not him. Also, he was sure if that ‘God’ had power over him it would make him sign that paper already, his arrogance was easy to feel, it wouldn’t ask. So there was no reason for him to accept the deal of this entity.

When Kaan shredded the paper, he felt this plane of darkness began to shake to its core. His eyes met with red eyes floating in the darkness, looking at him surprised then it quickly got shaper wickedly.

Kaan didn’t know but suddenly he began to laugh. Everything happened in this recent month, finding himself in an unending dream or maybe a nightmare, memories of other worlds, that is what he believed they are, and now facing with an entity that called himself a ‘God’. He was not even sure if he didn’t go crazy or maybe he had been crazy before all of this started. Along with his laughs, another laugh filled the darkness and suppressed until he wasn’t able to hear himself. This one was sharper and more sadistic and built up with every second.

And then the point Kaan waited had come, it roared with half anger and half amusement at this mortal who defined his deal. Kaan felt the power of voice vibrate inside of his body, trying to tear him into pieces with just the sheer power of its voice. It was fucking painful but if he could just pass with this, it was more than acceptable yet it didn’t stop with this.

Kaan saw claw-covered black scales suddenly appear in the darkness and quickly reached to him to grab his phantom body. It moved faster than his eyes could follow but an unknown force surrounding Kaan’s body blocked him from reaching. Even though the force blocked him. Kaan swore and shouted loudly as the pain of bones shattering and his body being smashed by the power of the hand clashed with the force surrounding him.

“I’ll remember this day your insolent being laughed at my presence. Don’t you dare to die before I find you to taste your flesh and hear pleas, you little worthless mortal!”

Although it shouted the God Of Infernal Gate didn’t seem that angry, it was rather a little bit intrigued by this small human who gained power before even the override of the system had taken place in this world, not the interesting one it met until now but maybe could be more. Yet this small interest didn’t stop him, he always punished those who were brave or stupid enough to defy his will.

Kaan was unaware of anything happening around him. He was shouting out loud as he felt the pressure getting stronger every time, for the first time in his life he was maybe experiencing what the people in his vision felt yet he was not even able to think that because of the pain.

“Good luck, you little human. Madness just had started you, give us a good show!.”

Was the last thing he could hear before the plane of darkness warped around him and sucked his body to void, saving him from the torture of the. And then, he found himself in his bed.

Skill [Laughing In The Face Of Gods] has been obtained! The system is waiting for action.

Now, everything was going to change, this time for all.