Gates Of Unconscious Minds

I grabbed a knife from the dining table and directed it toward my throat.

But before I could do anything, a certain voice echoed in my ears.

"Emergency alert! All citizens evacuate to the city core! Do not delay.

I repeat! An echo rupture has taken place. Please evacuate immediately to the city core!"

Hearing those words, I began to run downstairs because I knew what an echo rupture could result in for the overworld.

It was not something to be taken lightly.

An echo rupture occurs when individuals like me fail to acquire Syndromes. During the Syndrome acquisition process, high-density Syndromic energy is absorbed by our bodies.

But since we fail to acquire a Syndrome, the high-density Syndromic energy has nowhere to go and remains in the Gates of Unconsci—

"Huff... huff... fuck this body."

I cursed myself. I couldn't even finish my internal monologue before running out of breath.

Just coming downstairs took a heavy toll on me, making me realize that reaching the city core was nothing more than a far-fetched dream.

I couldn't even react fast to anything.

Even when I heard the announcement, it took me an embarrassing amount of time to process and act on it.

Let alone my stamina.

Yet, I still made my way to the main door, only to realize that it was locked from the outside.

My throat felt like sandpaper, but suddenly, I heard the distant murmur of dripping water.

"Water... I need water," I murmured under my breath, following the sound into a room-sized bathroom.

Water began to gush into the tub as I twisted the faucet.

"Waste water. Save life."

As soon as the tub filled to the brim, I plunged my face into the water.

It lapped over the edges as I shoved my face deeper, my hands holding me down, sealing off any air.

In a matter of six or seven seconds, the air in my lungs ran dry.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

And then, the suffocation vanished.

I blinked. In the next instant, I found myself in a vast, empty void.

Devoid of anything.

Just an overwhelming sense of tranquility and calm.

I floated through the void toward a rather terrifying existence.

But I couldn't focus—this sensation of calm was overtaking me.

My thoughts, my vision—everything was hazy, my eyes half-closed.

'Today's the day those authors update their novels... I should hurry up and return home to read those new chapters… though I doubt Christina will get any screent—'

Suddenly, I snapped back to my senses as the overwhelming sensation vanished.

As I approached, I could finally see what lay before me.

It was a twisted mass of colossal hands—each monstrous and clawed—interwoven to form a jagged archway, pulsing with dark energy.

I stopped floating as the hands slowly unraveled, their fingers creaking and groaning as they loosened.

With a deep, ominous rumble, the gate began to open—the colossal hands shifting apart, revealing what lay beyond.

Slowly yet cautiously, I made my way inside.

However, as I passed through the doorway—if you could even call it that—I suddenly found myself trying to get out instead.

It was as if I had never intended to enter in the first place.

And the hands—those twisted, clawed things—were closing in again, sealing the exit shut.

'Just as I imagined. This place defies all the known laws of physics… space and direction are meaningless here. At least I didn't fall from above.'

I scanned my surroundings.

But I couldn't make sense of much—except for the wooden bridge in my line of sight, leading to a tree that had been sliced clean from above, leaving a flat, exposed surface.

This was really the Gates of Unconscious Minds.

At that moment, I realized something.

I had no way of reaching the city center.

And then, once again, I heard the sound of water dripping.

It struck me—entering the Gates of Unconscious Minds might actually save my life.

But entering these Gates wasn't something one could do at will.

They only appear when a person reaches the stage of extreme self-consciousness—when they enter a trance-like state.

Forcing oneself into such a state, however, could be dangerous.

It could trap a person in a default mode network, leaving them in an infinite mental loop.

This network in the brain is active when the mind is at rest. It's responsible for processing peaceful memories, reflections, and daydreaming.

'There was no better option… but still, I almost entered that state.'

Consoling myself, I gritted my teeth in frustration.

Shrugging my thoughts aside, I focused ahead and made my way toward the bridge.

'Wait... Did this fucker never even enter the Gates of Unconscious Minds once?!'

Cursing the previous owner of my body, I clenched my teeth as an overwhelming pain washed over me.

There was no way I should have been feeling this much pain.

If he had entered before, his body would have already adapted to this high-density Syndromic energy.

"Now that we're here, let's awaken my Syndrome as well. But how the fuck am I supposed to do that?!"

I whined, but a faint tension crept into my mind.

It wasn't that I didn't know how to awaken a Syndrome.

The process was crystal clear in my mind.

The real problem was…

My disabled body part.

Yep.

You heard right.

I didn't know which part of my body was disabled.

See, in this world, people are born with disabled body parts—like blind eyes or missing limbs.

But instead of being weak, their bodies work differently.

Their disabled body parts awaken Syndromes when exposed to high-density Syndromic energy.

Which makes them function in a completely new way.

A blind person at birth might start seeing beyond normal sight—detecting things across vast distances, or even through different layers of reality.

Someone with disabled arms might develop limitless strength, or some other power that lets them interact with the world in ways normal hands never could—based on the severity of their disability.

Each disabled part acts like a container.

And when filled with Syndromic energy, it allows them to use their Syndrome.

But highly dense Syndromic energy isn't something you can just find anywhere.

It only exists in a place called the Gates of Unconscious Minds.

Believed by humans to have existed before space and time.

An ultimate blessing of the gods.

But really, though?

To awaken, a person must enter these Gates and be exposed to this energy.

Without it, their body stays the same piece of shit it is, and they never gain their awakened Syndrome—because only low-concentration Syndromic energy exists in the atmosphere.

"Wait... Is my disabled part my...?"

I hesitated as an unsettling thought surfaced in my mind.

"My Dick?"