Rivers of the Night - Chapter 10: Teacher Fern

Notice: This story contains R18+ themes, including violence, sensual and sexual content, blood-related addiction, and dark psychological elements. Reader discretion advised.I died in a library, crushed under centuries of forgotten knowledge. Fitting.Now I’ve woken up in a coffin, starving, undead, and very much not human.They call me a Fledgling—a bottom-feeder vampire barely above a ghoul. I’m weak, hunted, and tethered to a world straight out of a cursed tabletop campaign. It’s a classic fantasy realm—elves, knights, guilds, and dungeons—but twisted by a dark, rotting magic. The moon shines red, the gods are silent, and every town smells like fear.To make matters worse, I’ve been bound to a LitRPG system called the Blood Codex.Level up by draining blood.Unlock skills by embracing your monstrous nature.Resist Corruption... or don’t.There's no prophecy. No chosen one nonsense. No noble title. Just fangs, rot, and whatever I can steal, trick, or kill to survive.But the deeper I sink into this world’s underbelly, the more I realize something is watching me through the system. The rules are breaking. Dungeon bosses are going mad. Entire towns are disappearing.And I think I’m supposed to fix it… or maybe finish the job.

Within the dream of the dreamer, the one who was dreamed of awoke.

… Borges

“I exist in the sunlight, the wind, between the heavens and the earth, and also in dreams.”

One night, Yu Hao, a college student who was at his wits’ end had an unexpected encounter with a mysterious visitor – “General” – who had dream travelled. He led Yu Hao in solving the countless riddles that abounded in the realm of the conscious, and lit up the fire beacons on the meandering Great Wall.

Thereafter, the darkness retreated, the sun rose, and when the long night was thoroughly lit up, the him who existed in reality was reborn.

The black dragon that roared, the lighthouse and demonic eye on the coastline, the rain forest before Chichén Itzá, the fierce beasts that wreaked havoc in the Colosseum…the bizarre projection of reality in one’s consciousness reflected the hidden place that the sunlight in reality couldn’t touch – the innumerable sins of the human heart.

The journey of seizing dreams continues, and one can only hope that the sun will continue illuminating the human heart.

…

Fire beacons on the Great Wall were lit up to signal a border invasion.

- Description from Novelupdates

Beings that create and control monsters and demons, beings that build and reign over malicious labyrinths, the chosen individuals to possess an overwhelming Unique Skill… They are the Demon Lords.

“You want me to go on an impossible journey, sacrifice everything, and risk my own life for a mere 1,000 gold? Hell no!”Lukas never really had anything going in his previous life. When he found himself transmigrated into a new world, he had hoped the soft and gentle touch of a hot milf would mark the beginning of a lavish lifestyle befitting a king.Instead, he quickly learned that he was just some random extra. Worse than that, this extra was only known by everyone as the “Divine Simp,” someone who would do whatever the gods asked.“Divine Simp? Fuck that!”Refusing such a pitiful existence, Lukas decides to take this new life in his own hands. Instead of waiting for some lavish life to fall in his lap, he would create one for himself.How?Well, the gods seem to love him. They shower him with quests, thinking that he will just take them for free. Little do they know... that old extra is dead and gone now.The Divine Simp has become the Divine Extortionist: someone who can obtain the greatest rewards for completing the easiest tasks.