Soulless Players

October 8, 1857 - Thursday Morning

Early in the morning, Philip trudged to the university gate with a heavy step. The orange sunlight streamed through his ostensibly exhausted face.

Philip, who currently transformed into Conrad, passed through the gate and walked on the stone pathway leading to the library. When he reached the College of Medicine building, which is the closest building to the library, he noticed Sam up ahead, yawning.

As though Sam had eyes on his back, he turned around and waved at Philip.

Philip was surprised at first but realizing Sam isn't your normal Joe, he only chuckled and greeted back with a nod.

"After my duty last night, I asked some of my older colleagues about your situation," Sam said as he joined Philip's side.

Philip stopped walking and listened attentively to him.

"I have gathered two possible reasons for your failure." Sam paused for the effect. "Years ago, there was a candidate named Michael Sammers who couldn't open his doors despite passing all the prerequisites."

"His failure was caused by his Dissociative Identity Disorder, commonly called Multiple Personality Disorder. This is a condition where a person has multiple distinct personalities that will unconsciously or subconsciously come out to take control of the main body from time to time."

Sam went on to explain that this disorder is caused by unlocking a core memory of continuous sexual and physical abuse during childhood. This is then developed into creating 'alter' personalities as a response to the traumatic event.

Sam continued with excitement, "This kind of core is very rare and one of the most powerful and useful out of all the known core memories. In fact, because of this, some of the mentalists at higher levels forcibly placed themselves into abuse just to have this core."

"This is because unlike most of the cores, which only provide one ability, this core can give the mentalist a multiple set of abilities depending on the number of abnormal personalities. One can give you superhuman strength, and the other personality gives you an intellect that surpasses the 99.99% of the world's population."

Feeling that he had trekked away from the main subject, Sam coughed and resumed,

"Back to Sammer's story, what is different from him to other DID patients is that it's his alter personality that dominates his body. As for the main personality, he hid inside his space of consciousness, not wanting to appear back to reality again."

"This is where the problem comes in. When the alter joined the society and attempted to become a mentalist, he could not open the illusionary door because the main personality forbids it. Yes, the main personality doesn't want to become a mentalist and only wants to remain inside his consciousness."

Sam then looked at Philip, wondering if he was an alter like Sammers.

"There are two options for Sammers' alter to open the door. One is he can obtain consent from the main personality."

Sam's gaze went dark and continued, "Or all alters in Sammers' mind came to an agreement that it is better to kill the main personality..."

Sam's body trembled, frightened upon imagining the second option. He shook his head and quickly continued his research,

"There is also another case when a candidate had unlocked a core memory that had long ceased to exist."

"Take Alice Sansan as an example. When she was young, she unlocked the core memory of her loving older sister. This then gave her the supernatural strength to save her sister from falling off the cliff."

"However, as she grew older and more mature, she gradually forgot her sister and their loving memories together. This was partly due to maturity and learning that her sister kidnapped her, making her live her life away from his biological family."

This caused a chaotic transformation in her space of consciousness, weakening the impact of the memory on her personality. Over time, Alice's love for her sister turned into indifference. No love, no hate, just treated her as a stranger and a mere part of her childhood. Eventually, the core memory was destroyed and never to appear again."

Sam sighed and reminded Philip, "While core memories are crucial in shaping one's personality and are difficult to forget and destroy, they are not permanent. People change, and so do their personalities."

"That's why for mentalists, it is essential to protect the cores that greatly benefit them, such as a 'DID' core memory. Even though it is treatable, they would never destroy it due to its power."

Sam finally concluded his research. He turned to Philip and asked tersely, "You seem too uninterested in the subject. Have you found the reason for your failure?"

Philip went silent for a while before nodding in agreement.

Sam opened his mouth to ask but realizing that it might involve a secret, he closed them and changed the topic.

"So have you considered joining the society? Even though you're not a complete dreamwalker, you still possess the ability to placate nightmares. If you join, it will be a great help in decreasing our workload..." Sam chuckled.

Philip had previously thought about it last night and answered, "No, I think I'll pass. I no longer want to become a mentalist."

Hearing this, the corner of Sam's mouth twitched uncontrollably. He looked at Philip as if he was insane but upon realizing something, he smiled and said, "If you say so."

He then reminded, "Don't worry, just like what I said yesterday, I won't pressure you into it. But if you change your mind, you're always welcome to attend our gatherings next week."

Sam smirked and uttered, "I hope to see you again Conrad Davies."

As Sam walked away, Philip felt relieved. He knew he couldn't deceive Sam as Sam was clearly a level higher than Dreamwalker, one that had a great emotional awareness.

He was prepared to answer by saying that his circumstances won't allow him - which is true as he knew he couldn't act as Conrad's forever. He had to leave sooner or later.

However, when Sam didn't ask further as though he understood without knowing the truth, his heart could not help but warm up.

'If I had a choice, I would gladly join the society. Sam seems to be a good person.' Philip stopped as if mulling over something and continued,

'But perhaps his goodwill is only limited to the people he knows or is familiar with, just like Conrad. As for me, who is not only an imposter but also a wanted criminal, I don't think his treatment will be as warm as earlier.'

Philip laughed self-depreciatingly and stopped dwelling on it. Instead, he focused on his priority - reading and memorizing books to increase his intelligence.

***

October 8, 1857 - Thursday Afternoon

After class, Philip left the classroom with a content and proud smile on his face. He was especially glad today as unlike the past few days, where he relied on his excellent memory to survive through every class, he could now follow the lessons and understand them.

'If I continue reading every night without sleep, I might catch up on all the discussion in seven days.' Philip giggled, but there was no longer a smile on his face.

'But if I do that, I might collapse and never wake up again.'

Although Philip continues to struggle with sleepless nights due to discomfort in his main body, not sleeping is another issue. He believes that even if it's uncomfortable, once he's tired enough, he will eventually succumb to sleep, not minding about the restlessness coursing through his body.

'Or I could allocate three hours of sleep before the transformation expires for the day. With that, I will no longer feel troubled for the sleepless night.'

Philip's smile returned. He felt that this idea was good.

Shortly, Philip stopped by the pastry shop to buy a crate of milk. Upon entering, he spotted Alisha, who was previously spreading rumors of him being a terrorist, gossiping with fresh news again.

"Do you know what happens to the Evans Family? Their business is going downhill! After they were invited to the police station and had to stay for a day or two, someone bought the majority stake in McRonalds and H&E, leaving the Evans family without control of these companies."

"In addition, Ronald Evans was removed as the president of Evans Group of Companies because he had been misusing the company's assets and overvaluing net worth."

"Really? That's a big news? Do you know who was buying the stocks?" chimed an old man.

"No. But I heard it was a one-week-old start-up company!" Alisha answered, the pitch of her voice was a little bit higher than usual.

Another woman asked while glancing at the new-arrived Conrad in the shop, "How about the mall project across the street? Will it continue?"

Alisha also noticed Conrad and responded loudly enough for him to hear. "No! I heard the Evans will auction the buildings to pay for their liabilities and appease their investors, making it highly unlikely that the project would continue."