“Old Huang, is it that serious? You call that nearly dying at Number Seven’s hands?”
In a villa on the outskirts of Xishan City, a beautiful woman in fitted combat attire, wearing black half-rim glasses, curled her lip and made no attempt to hide her mockery of the restless man on the sofa.
“A sickly weakling who’s about to die, and he still managed to push you this far. If word of this gets out, how are those officials supposed to keep working with us?”
Huang Zhang, the man who had been tailing Zhou Kai, flushed crimson. “What if the intel was wrong? That kid looked perfectly healthy to me. He was even stronger than I am.”
“Third Sister, why don’t we… remove him from the target list?”
Ding San stood tall and straight, her expression cold and severe.
Leaning against the water dispenser, she shook her head decisively. “No. Raise his attention level. Classify him as a 【Walker】 and continue surveillance!”
“A Walker? Him? A student who just graduated!”
Several people around them cried out in shock at the same time.
“He’s just an ordinary college student…”
Ding San stretched lazily, outlining astonishing curves. “Has he been to the hospital recently?”
Huang Zhang answered at once, “Not that we observed.”
Ding San shrugged. “Oh… then maybe he really is a formidable character. Not only did he obtain an ‘identity proof,’ he also activated some kind of special structure. You all know what it’s like on the first day those monsters become Walkers. Which one of them doesn’t wake up covered in wounds, like they’ve been taken apart and put back together again?”
Everyone fell silent.
They truly could not imagine how a weakling who had only just graduated, who had barely passed even his four years of college PE classes, could survive that kind of nightmare where nine out of ten died.
According to the official records of the Red Star Republic’s Anomalous Affairs Processing Bureau, Nightmares had appeared several centuries ago, and after the year 2000, the number of infected had risen year after year.
This year alone, within the city, the number of people suspected to have died from Nightmare disease had already exceeded three hundred.
And among these people…
Those who could find an “identity proof” such as a nameplate, room card, armband, driver’s license, or badge before their lives were completely eroded by the Nightmare, then activate a “special structure” such as a bonfire, incense burner, nursery, or shrine, establishing a foothold in the Nightmare world and becoming a so-called 【Nightmare Walker】…
There was not a single one.
Of course, the situation differed from city to city.
Huang Zhang froze.
If he also accepted Ding San’s judgment, then the fact that Zhou Kai had taken him down so easily would become perfectly natural, nothing to be ashamed of.
After all, someone who could survive a place like that having some skill was only normal.
But… he just felt that something was wrong.
There were always things more important than his own pride.
What if Number Seven wasn’t one?
To force an innocent ordinary person into this muddy water, to make him come into contact with that real and cruel world beneath the surface…
That seemed a bit…
In the end, Huang Zhang still shook his head. “Third Sister, all these inferences of yours are built on the premise that he really is infected with Nightmare disease.”
“What if he really did just happen to come across that website and click in for a look?”
Ding San’s gaze turned cold. In a few strides, she rushed up to Huang Zhang, seized him by the collar, and yanked him forward.
She said icily, “Detective Huang, I advise you to take this matter seriously.”
“The latest official research report says… the spread of Nightmares is very likely connected to Walkers.”
“Even if not for anything else, think of your daughter.”
Ding San let go and flung Huang Zhang back onto the sofa as if throwing away trash.
“If you don’t want more people to die silently in their dreams like your daughter did, then get serious!”
“Don’t forget what kind of resolve you had when you joined ‘Dreamless’!”
Huang Zhang fell silent, his whole body looking as though his spine had been pulled out.
The young man beside them hurried forward to smooth things over. “Come on, Third Sister, we’re all on the same side… there’s no need to say something that harsh.”
Ding San glared at him fiercely, then looked toward the girl sitting cross-legged on the floor not far away, surrounded by snack bags and drink bottles.
“Yezi, report Number Seven’s information to the Anomalous Affairs Bureau and apply for surveillance authorization.”
“The moment any abnormality appears, coordinate and take control immediately!”
The girl called Yezi did not even raise her head, merely flashing an “OK” gesture.
“I’ll do it after I finish this game.”
The circle of adults around her immediately widened their eyes.
Yezi seemed to sense everyone’s gaze and curled her lip somewhat disdainfully. “Anyway, even without the approval documents, aren’t we still monitoring him all the same? What’s the rush?”
……
“What a pity. In the short term, I probably can’t rely on selling things from the Nightmare to make money.”
“Using experience points to turn something into gold isn’t realistic either… I don’t have nearly enough experience points, and it would stand out too much.”
The excitement on Zhou Kai’s face gradually cooled, and his thoughts swiftly became clear.
He decided to temporarily give up on profiting through trading items. For the near future, he had to keep a low profile.
The reason was none other than that organization: 【Dreamless】.
After being followed once, Zhou Kai was certain he had caught the attention of this mysterious organization.
Out of natural caution, he felt that he could not easily expose his trump cards, much less have any dealings with an organization like this.
“If those people can dig up my IP and home address, then they can definitely listen in on my phone and monitor my bank account.”
Looking up information online and chatting were still fine; Zhou Kai had plenty of ways to avoid leaving traces.
But once money transactions were involved, there were far too many places where he could slip up…
This could be done, but it had to be considered carefully.
“I can only shelve it for now. The urgent priority is making sure I can survive in the long run.”
Inside the quiet rented room, the ticking of the clock was clearly audible.
The instant the hands crossed midnight, it also meant that Zhou Kai was less than forty-eight hours away from the next time the Nightmare would forcibly conscript him.
In today’s Nightmare exploration, he had to make new progress.
And so, before entering the Nightmare, Zhou Kai found a wad of toilet paper and soaked it with water.
He took several shriveled seeds from the glass jar and carefully placed them on the damp paper.
Then he silently recited in his heart, “Add points.”
【You have spent 1 general experience point. The shriveled seeds have been upgraded.】
White light flashed over the surface of the seeds, and they visibly became much fuller, as if awakening from a deep sleep.
Zhou Kai put the damp paper ball wrapped around the seeds into a sealed sample bag and tucked it close against his body.
“This should do. Hopefully I won’t need to spend extra points to force them to sprout.”
Sometimes, aside from improving oneself, external objects were also worth relying on.
Although what had happened in the study had frightened Zhou Kai badly, he still firmly believed that the words on that sheet of letter paper definitely concealed important information.
Among them, the line “plants can ward off something” especially concerned Zhou Kai.
Perhaps this special kind of plant could make those monsters unwilling to approach.
“Load Nightmare!”
At 12:09 a.m., Zhou Kai lay on the bed and slowly closed his eyes.
A layer of moisture quickly rose over his dry clothes, even condensing into cold beads of dew on the surface of his skin.
His breathing was steady, but his body temperature was dropping sharply.
The sheet beneath him once again began to spread with rings of icy water stains.
……
【Welcome back. The hearth fire is burning strong.】
Zhou Kai opened his eyes in front of the fireplace. The bone-piercing chill that came when entering the Nightmare was soon dispelled by the orange-red firelight.
The heat of the flames roasted his cheeks until they felt hot. Zhou Kai paused in place for a few seconds, easing the day’s fatigue.
With a thought, his hands grew heavy, and the sharp short-handled axe and the oil lamp appeared in his left and right hands at the same time.
The flashlight he had brought from home last time was nothing but a piece of scrap iron in this world.
Click. Click.
Zhou Kai set down the oil lamp and, unwilling to give up, pressed the switch a few more times. The flashlight still showed no reaction.
“Looks like the physical laws of this world really are different from reality… What a pain.”
Helpless, Zhou Kai could only toss the flashlight aside and relight the oil lamp.
The fuel inside the oil lamp could burn for another twenty minutes or so. Though it was not exactly reassuring, it was enough for the time being.
Zhou Kai carried the oil lamp in one hand and the axe in the other as he walked toward the slanted stairway leading down to the basement.
It was pitch-black there, exuding a cold, eerie air.
It had been on Zhou Kai’s mind for a long time.