My Iyashikei Game

Chapter 975: Special Nightmares

Zhang Mingli thought love was pain because he was always forced to separate from his love. For his first love, he and his lover were separated by the distance between two hearts; for his second love, he and his lover were separated by the distance between life and death. He loved passionately, so he was in so much pain when he lost it.

The only lucky thing was he met a girl with a similar passion, and his uneven road trip had a destination.

The ninth layer collapsed. True love was too real. It was something Dream had never possessed. It was why it had placed so many traps here. It tried so many times to turn the purest love into evil, but it failed.

“You have a way to bring me away from me?!” Zhang Mingli never dared to think about these things, but Han Fei nodded.

“But I need you to cooperate with me. Are you willing to trust me?” Han Fei’s greed persona resisted the nightmare. He wanted to take away Dream’s ‘toy’ so naturally, Dream would stop him.

“Even though we don’t know each other for long, I believe I can trust you.” Zhang Mingli looked behind Han Fei. “What do you need me to do? I’ll cooperate fully!”

“Enter my persona before the nightmare disappears. You will escape from the nightmare, but your fate will get bound with mine.” Han Fei didn’t hide anything.

“No problem.”

“Don’t promise me so soon. Think about it first. I have something else to deal with anyway.” Han Fei looked at the car Xuan Xiaoxiao drove over. Three players sat inside the car. They were covered in butterfly patterns. Their expressions were vicious.

“Five players entered the ninth players. Other than Huang Yin and me, the rest is arranged by Dream! It knows Zhang Mingli’s destination is Xuan Xiaoxiao, so it had the three players stay with Xuan Xiaoxiao. That way, Zhang Mingli would never reach his destination…” Han Fei memorized the appearance of the three players. A player shivered under Han Fei’s gaze. He opened the door and tried to escape, but as he exited Xuan Xiaoxiao’s car, he was torn apart by the ghosts.

“Poor things. Dream has never treated you as one of its own. You’re just tools to it.” Han Fei’s ghost tattoo resonated with the greed abyss. A giant axe made from sin appeared. “Greed persona can’t bring three players out, but it can bring three ghosts out. Since you’re not willing to be humans, then let me turn you into ghosts.”

Eleven altars were built in the surface world over one night. There had to be players who were helping Dream. Han Fei wanted to use these players controlled by Dream to find the other traitors. The axe fell. Before the two players’ souls were consumed by the nightmare, Han Fei dragged them into the greed abyss. After knowing Lee Teng’s history, Han Fei didn’t hold his punches. To prevent loopholes, Dream would kill these people once they were exposed. It was better to be killed by Han Fei. At least they would still have their souls.

“With the souls in my custody, I can ask them many things.”

The nightmare crumbled. Zhang Mingli made his final choice. He sent his wife’s consciousness out and walked towards the greed abyss. Zhang Mingli was willing to be a part of the abyss, but Dream was not. Its toy wanted to leave, so it mobilized all the dream demons to stop this. A lot of dream demons crawled out of the nightmare. Some of them even radiated the presence of Pure Hatred.

Zhang Mingli had stayed for a long inside the nightmare. Dream dust gathered in his veins so that they were black. When he tried to leave the nightmare, the capillaries tried to pull him back to the nightmare.

Zhang Mingli and Xuan Xiaoxiao were normal people, but they wouldn’t give up on their love.

The stalemate lasted until the nightmare collapsed. Han Fei once landed in the dark world. The presence of Unmentionable came from an unknown direction. At the same time, the sound of mad laughter echoed. Dream and Mad Laughter, with partial power, fought in the dark. Nightmares exploded to reveal a broken box underneath. They appeared to be failed subjects. They were pieced together to form a twisted altar in the dark. To Han Fei’s surprise, there was someone trapped inside the altar!

Inside the black altar, the colors of the world leaked out of the person’s body. All the butterfly patterns were painted using this person’s blood.

“Who is he? Why is he trapped inside Dream’s altar?”

Han Fei tried to see the man’s face, but Mad Laughter was fighting Dream. The pain came from everywhere. Then, blood covered his eyes. When Han Fei opened his eyes again, he was already back at the hospital. The pain came from everywhere. If not for Huang Yin, Han Fei would fall to the ground already.

The butterfly pattern on Han Fei’s skin was replaced by the ghost tattoo. The butterfly pattern that couldn’t be cleansed was torn off by Mad Laughter with the skin.

“How are you so harsh to yourself?” Huang Yin didn’t even know what to say.

“It was not me who did that…” Han Fei’s soul entered the game. To prevent Dream from corrupting his soul, Mad Laughter destroyed part of his consciousness. This process was very painful.

Han Fei took a deep breath as the mist around Han Fei dispersed. He calmed down to sense the souls in his mind. Zhang Mingli and the two traitors were still there.

“Come. Let’s leave.” Han Fei was fixated on the man inside the altar. He also radiated the presence of an Unmentionable, but he was turned into a tool. “Even the weakest Singer has the ability to defend himself, so how did Dream trap this Unmentionable inside the altar?” In Han Fei’s mind, Unmentionable was the scariest ghost of the cryptic world.

Han Fei and Huang Yin exhausted several hours in the nightmare. There were already a lot of players outside the hospital. This was the first time Huang Yin entered the nightmare. Many players focused on this. If Huang Yin died in the nightmare, the morale would drop. Huang Yin was everyone’s symbol of hope. Under this situation, even if Huang Yin barely survived the nightmare, it would hurt everyone’s confidence.

The hospital door opened, and the unscathed Huang Yin walked out carrying the wounded Han Fei. In the players’ eyes, Han Fei was already very strong. Han Fei was injured, but Huang Yin was unfazed. He was so calm. The ninth layer was nothing in his eyes. Huang Yin’s confidence and strength inspired the players!

The crowd started to chant Huang Yin’s name. With a light smile, Huang Yin nodded and carried Han Fei back to the guild base.

“Quick! Bandage him!”

“Is Han Fei injured?”

A group of people surrounded Han Fei with the surface world’s most precious medicine, but Han Fei waved his hands. “My soul is wounded. These pills won’t help.” Han Fei took out Xu Qin’s dishes from his inventory. As he ate, he sensed the greed persona. After making sure the grey mist would leak into the base, he put Zhang Mingli out first. The light of the surface world shone on his skin. “Fuck! It’s so bright!”

The familiar voice echoed in the lobby. Teacher Zhang looked around. The once normalcy became heaven.

“Have I left the nightmare?” Zhang Mingli eventually noticed Han Fei and Huang Yin. He still couldn’t believe he had left the nightmare.

“Yes. I did promise you that.” Han Fei waved at Zhang Mingli. “Welcome to the Happiness Neighborhood. In the future, we’ll be family.”

“For real?” Zhang Mingli slapped himself. “But I don’t feel pain.”

“You’re dead. Professionally speaking, you’re a ghost, but I can’t sense any malice from you so I can’t tell your current level.” This was Han Fei’s first time pulling a ghost out of the nightmare. He didn’t know what kind of power Zhang Mingli retained.

“I’m a ghost? So is this hell?” Zhang Mingli asked uncertainly.

“This is Perfect Life, a healing mental world.” Huang Yin thought Teacher Zhang was a good person too.

“Are you the marketing team from hell? Fuck!” Zhang Mingli insisted he was in hell. Huang Yin and Bai Xian wasted a long time explaining everything to Zhang Mingli.

“Teacher Zhang, your wife must still be alive to meet you in the nightmare. I’ll try my best to get her to log into this game. In the future, you can live with her here.” Han Fei’s words excited Zhang Mingli. However, Han Fei added, “Dream knows that you’ve escaped. If we deal with Dream soon, it might go after your wife soon.”

“Fuck that dream!”

“Teacher Zhang, we’re all civilized people. I won’t talk in circles.” Han Fei thought back to what he saw. “As the owner of the ninth layer, do you know any secrets about Dream?”

The cleaner at Peace Street told Han Fei many things, so Zhang Mingli should know more.

“Secrets?”

“Every nightmare is like a bubble. An altar was hidden under the bubbles. A strange God is trapped there.”

“Does he have many colors on him?” Zhang Mingli seemed to remember something. “I remembered many years ago, the sky in the nightmare turned colorful. All the souls could hear a strange singing. It carried indescribable pain and despair. It was from that day that all the nightmares started to grow on their own.”

“Strange singing…” Han Fei was suddenly reminded of Fu Sheng’s third child, the injured Unmentionable, the Singer.

“If you wanted to meet the God inside the altar, keep on exploring the nightmare.” Zhang Mingli pointed at himself. “There are still many people like me inside the nightmare. If you can bring us out, you can drastically decrease Dream’s power. Its power comes from us.”

“Do you know how many layers there is?”

“No. But I know that there are a few special nightmares. They are hidden behind many layers.” Zhang Mingli slammed the table. “We don’t need to clear all the nightmares. Our goal is to kill Dream! Therefore, we only need to find the special nightmares and find its weakness!”

Teacher Zhang’s mindset aligned with Han Fei’s thoughts quickly.