{Ding!}
Naya heard the strange sound ring in her head.
Her senses seemed to heighten as she made contact with the card.
Her eyes dilated, her gaze becoming sharper.
She could see clearly right through the window of the bar.
Her ears—sharper.
She could hear the meow of the cat that usually ran through the back of the bar.
Her nose caught the scent of the dried remains of the spilled alcohol on the table.
She could tell instantly that something had changed.
{Player has gotten the enhancement card: Empress}
"Player?" She looked at the notification with a raised brow.
{This card allows the user to control trends, opinions, and emotions in her favour}
{Host has unique ability: Dominance}
Naya looked at the notification that suddenly popped up in front of her.
"What is this? Some sort of magic board?" she thought, reaching out to the block-shaped font.
Her hand passed right through the screen.
It only stayed for a few minutes more, and suddenly it disappeared.
The lingering gaze of the strange young man had also disappeared along with it.
She didn't know what she had accepted.
And from that day, a lot of things had changed.
It seemed as though the world began to favour her.
It was as though she had found some sort of extreme luck.
Every business she went for, every partnership—everything was always done to favour her.
In less than a few months after her meeting with the strange man, her life made a complete turnaround.
She was a model!
She was wealthy!
She was popular!
She had lots of fans all over the world—lots of people who looked up to her.
No one knew how a bartender with no hopes for a good future rose to such a height in mere months, but she did... She knew what granted her that ability.
Naya held that card as though her life depended on it.
She thought that was all she had to do to keep things the way they were... until the first cannon event.
{It's been six months since you received the Empress card... Player will now pay tribute to *****}
That was the second time since she had received the card that she was getting a notification from the system.
She had completely forgotten the event and the man.
She buried everything away—besides, all she had to do was take care of the card.
But that strange notification...
It was the start of something worse.
That day she had her first true dream.
The room she was in changed.
The terrain changed entirely, and before she knew it, she stood facing her worst nightmare.
An amalgamation of different sorts of beasts...
The head of a human hung in the center. Attached to the head were eight legs like that of a spider, and wings akin to that of a bee.
That—it wasn't human. It wasn't animal either.
If she was to name what she had seen, there was only one word to perfectly describe it...
An abomination!
---
"So that's what cardholders are?" Caleb thought in shock as he heard Naya's story.
This was definitely not as easy as he thought.
In return for the wealth, fame, and influence, every six months, all the cardholders would be converged into what was called the "True Dream."
The cards were formed from shattered dreams of several individuals... all for their own success, and due to that, they would have to face the curses every six months.
Group X was a group in charge of retrieving the cards after the cardholders died.
Just like the strange man she had seen, there were many others like him, who would go to pass those cards to many more individuals.
A continuous cycle.
The only way to extend your time away from the True Dream was to kill other cardholders and members of Group X, thus granting you more power and more time away from the True Dream.
Going to the True Dream once was a nightmare that many of them wished to dodge.
Naya had barely survived the first time...
But the sixth month was nearing soon...
"I can't go back there again!" Naya shouted frustratedly, dragging her hair.
Caleb could understand her frustration.
The members of Group X clearly didn't tell any of them that they would be going through all that mess after taking the cards.
Leaving them to realize the weight of what they had carried.
The weight of people's crushed dreams.
Monsters formed from unfulfilled dreams, anger, and much more.
"So what do you want to do now?"
Naya looked up at Caleb, her eyes flashing with a cold glint.
"What does it look like I was going to do? What do you want me to do?... The person I'm meant to work with, he's also a cardholder... Now it's a case of who kills who first," Naya said with a cold voice.
"But his ability... I don't think I'll be able to," she gritted her teeth as she remembered the figure.
The feeling of powerlessness when she had met him.
"What am I getting myself into?" Caleb thought with a wry smile.
This definitely wasn't as simple as he had initially thought it to be.
There was a lot of politics behind the scenes.
And right now, he seemed to be at the center of it all.
"If I'm to seduce all of them to get their wealth, doesn't that mean I'll have to keep them alive as well?"
He glanced at Naya—her move from earlier.
She looked to be someone who was quite skilled and trained.
Definitely not the type of person he could escape from with his current strength.
"I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this... It's not like you can be of any help," Naya said with a cold glare in her eyes.
Caleb felt a cold shiver from her gaze, but he maintained his composure.
"Don't be too sure... If I can help you kill your target, will that be enough for you?"
Naya looked at him, raising her brows.
"How do you want to do that? Even I am not confident I can go up against his ability."
"If I tell you, then I won't be of use anymore," Caleb said with a mischievous smile.
Naya looked at him with a dangerous gaze.
"I hate anything mysterious... But I'd like to see what you can do. Help me get the cardholder, and I'll grant a request from you," Naya declared, standing from the bed.
"Are you sure you can do it? Because the next True Dream... it's in a week."