All this time, what he had come into contact with was no more than the tip of the Nightmare’s iceberg.
Zhou Kai knew this perfectly well.
The first few times, he hadn’t survived more than a few minutes.
After activating [Home] and [Hearth], he had holed up like a groundhog.
Even his longest run had only lasted a little over two hours in the dream.
As an unlucky bastard chosen by the Nightmare, he had seen far too little horror.
Far less than the natives who had died here.
They had burned monsters, planted strange plants, and exhausted every possible means to survive… They were his predecessors.
They had died, or turned into monsters.
Could Zhou Kai live longer than they had?
If he relied only on fumbling his way forward, the answer was no.
Zhou Kai knew that he had to wring every last drop from his only two advantages if he wanted to struggle on.
First, everything the natives had left behind.
Second, his own unique effort and sweat…
……
[Your fatigue has vanished]
After sitting beside the hearth for a while, the fatigue accumulated in reality was licked clean by the flames.
Warmth wrapped around his body. In a daze, Zhou Kai felt that this forced conscription didn’t seem all that different from entering the dream of his own accord…
But the dialogue box that lingered in his vision reminded him that tonight would absolutely not be easy.
[For the next twelve hours, you will be unable to leave the Nightmare]
[The residents of Soraka Town are gradually becoming aware of your existence]
[When you stand still, the darkness will devour your shadow]
“Becoming aware… of my existence?”
The prompt from [Home] made Zhou Kai suck in a cold breath. A chill that even the flames of the hearth could not dispel began spreading from his heart.
He chewed over the implications of those lines, and knew very clearly that it was time for him to get his ass out there and work.
He lowered his head and glanced at the hearth. Its fuel durability had thirteen minutes remaining.
Deep breath.
Zhou Kai took the oil lamp and that rust-covered two-handed sword out of his inventory.
Now that he had reached the entry level in Soraka Swordsmanship, the heavy axe could temporarily retire.
Whether in attack range or destructive power, the axe was a notch below this greatsword.
Gripping the hilt, he swung it silently twice, then lowered his body, bent his waist, and rested the not-so-sharp portion on his shoulder.
The posture made him look like a coiled venomous snake, ready to spring out with a fatal strike at any moment.
Everything in the basement nursery was as usual. The Moonlight Orchids were growing well, and the fertility in the soil looked like it could hold out for a while longer.
Tonight, Zhou Kai’s first objective was very clear.
“First, thoroughly search this house.”
He tightened his grip on the hilt. The leather wrapped around it provided rough, reliable friction.
It did more to calm his uneasy heart than the smooth axe handle had.
He stepped onto the staircase leading to the second floor.
The oil lamp at his waist gave off a dim yellow light. There was barely any fuel left…
If necessary, he would not hesitate to feed it with general experience points.
The feeble light struggled to push back the darkness, allowing Zhou Kai to see the scene within three to five meters around him.
The wooden staircase leading upward was narrow and empty. The carpet that had once covered it had long since rotted away, leaving only a thick layer of dust.
With every step he took, the decayed wood groaned, and dust scattered through the column of light.
After turning a corner, Zhou Kai reached the second floor.
There was a landing about one-third the size of the living room, with three tightly shut doors around it.
There should have been a chandelier hanging from the center of the ceiling, but now only a black hole more than a meter in diameter remained.
Above the hole was the attic, accessible by the retractable ladder in the corner.
Everything was the same as when he had seen it last time. Nothing had changed.
Carrying the greatsword, Zhou Kai held his breath, crouched low, and crept to the door of the master bedroom. He reached out and grasped the brass doorknob.
The doorknob was covered in verdigris. It looked as if it would crumble into powder at the slightest touch.
He slowly applied force. The doorknob turned halfway, then suddenly jammed.
“Locked?”
He rubbed away the rust on it with his thumb, revealing a keyhole that had been completely blocked.
“Too bad. I’m not in the mood for puzzle games.”
The key was most likely somewhere in this house, but he had never found it, and he had even less time to look for it now.
Zhou Kai braced himself against the door. Ignoring the resistance, he put strength into his muscles and continued twisting hard.
Click!
With a crisp sound, the doorknob, along with the lock cylinder inside, was forcibly twisted off by him, then pulled clean out of the door.
The wooden door itself was not sturdy. If he hadn’t been afraid of making too much noise, he would have chosen to kick it open directly.
He pushed the door open.
The faint light slowly probed into the room like tentacles.
Zhou Kai’s gaze moved with the light.
He swept his eyes left and right.
Just as he was about to step inside, his gaze suddenly froze.
A bolt of lightning exploded outside the window, illuminating the small town for an instant.
Light poured in through the bedroom window and intersected with the glow of the oil lamp.
And on the tall silk screen before the window, the silhouette of a thin, elongated figure was starkly reflected.
Zhou Kai instinctively turned sideways, using his body to block the oil lamp’s light. His eyes narrowed into slits as he stared fixedly at that shadow.
Soon, the lightning vanished, and the figure sank into the darkness as well.
Huff!
He held his breath, estimating just how conspicuous his dim oil lamp would be in the black night.
Zhou Kai held the sword in both hands and approached step by step.
The screen’s colors had already faded, and the patterns on it were blurry. It slowly enlarged in his vision, until even the grime on the wood was visible in every detail.
Zhou Kai abruptly took a step forward and circled around to a position where he could see behind the screen.
However…
“Empty?”
There was nothing behind the screen.
The discovery made Zhou Kai’s heart instantly clench.
Because…
If there was no one behind the screen, then the thing that had cast that shadow just now had either already moved to another corner of the room—such as right behind him.
Or it was…
Zhou Kai’s gaze slowly shifted toward the pitch-black glass window. From outside came the faint pitter-patter of raindrops striking against it.
“Outside the window!”
He remembered that when he had run into this building, he had vaguely seen a platform outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the master bedroom on the second floor, one that a person could stand on.
It should be an open-air balcony.
So, should he go closer and take a look?
Or continue cowering inside this building, waiting to die like a coward?
The oil lamp’s fuel was about to run out, and the nursery’s fertilizer also needed replenishing.
Cold and ill omen would soon make it impossible for him to move an inch.
The prompt from [Home] had been obvious enough.
Perhaps only when [Home] itself was in a “living” state—“burning,” “growing,” and the like—would it be valued by the [Territory Law], and thus be qualified to shelter him.
It wouldn’t be long before this house “died”…
When that time came, this place would be no different from the ruined house he had been in during his first dream.
In this Nightmare, he was still far from the point where he could afford to be comfortable!
Zhou Kai hardened his heart and made his decision.
He was already far stronger than before. He had the capital to take one risk!
Step. Step. Step.
Zhou Kai walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window.
The oil lamp’s light fully illuminated the entire window.
Pat. Pat.
A pair of slender yet enormous hands gently pressed against the glass.
“Hee, haha.”
Through a layer of greasy grime, a pair of eyes with pupils as tiny as wheat awns met Zhou Kai’s gaze.