Chapter 892: Friends Who Share Nightmares Together

892. Friends Who Share Nightmares Together

"...Where is this?"

Lin Ye forced his eyes open, still not fully conscious.

"...Hospital bed... the Dream World... is this the Dream World?"

Lin Ye climbed up from the cold floor. His surroundings were dark and somewhat chilly.

This was a narrow, sealed space. In the center stood a metal ladder, its top reaching near the ceiling where a square wooden door was set.

Two other people lay beside Lin Ye, with some supplies stacked in the corner of the space.

"...What is this place? My head hurts."

Scarlatti sat up, rubbing her head, looking at Lin Ye with some confusion.

"You're awake... that potion, it didn't taste half bad."

Lin Ye recalled the taste of that grayish-green potion once more.

"Ah... so this is your Dream World... How come I've become an ordinary person?"

Scarlatti was a bit tense. It had been a long time since she'd been in such a vulnerable state.

"Did you do this on purpose?"

Lin Ye wasn't sure of Scarlatti's intentions. This was his nightmare world, after all. Once you entered, you might never get out.

"Uh... should I not have come?"

Scarlatti didn't understand what Lin Ye meant. She still hadn't figured out the current situation.

"If you didn't do it on purpose, then all I can say is that you've come at a bad time. This is a nightmare connected to the Civilization Tower, and it might be somewhat dangerous."

Lin Ye tugged at his collar. It seemed to be getting colder in here.

"...That Civilization Tower?"

Scarlatti looked at Lin Ye with a pitiful expression.

As if begging Lin Ye to deny it.

"That's right, that rather famous Civilization Tower. Places that troublesome probably don't share names, do they?"

Lin Ye didn't respond to Scarlatti's expectations.

"...Believe me, I just wanted to come say hello. I have absolutely no desire to get involved in this kind of troublesome business."

Scarlatti sighed. She naturally knew what the Civilization Tower was. This wasn't something she should be participating in.

"But you're already in here. Now you can only work with me to find a way to end this nightmare."

Lin Ye wasn't sure if this was what that young girl had meant by "nice weather." He could only hope that Scarlatti would be more reliable than Mia.

"You're right. Do you know what the current situation is?"

Scarlatti tightened her black overcoat. Beneath it, she wore only a thin black evening gown. Outside, she never needed to worry about the insulation properties of her clothing, but it was different here.

"I don't know. Last time I left, I was near some Ruins, and the temperature wasn't this low."

Beside the ladder, there was a running electric heater. Even so, the ambient temperature was below freezing.

Lin Ye walked over to the heater and discovered it wasn't plugged into a power source. Instead, it was connected to some sort of battery-like energy cube.

"Supplies are limited here. If we don't go out to gather more, we might not survive the night."

Little Guardian was organizing the supplies. She was still wearing that light orange one-piece dress, shivering uncontrollably.

Of the three, only Lin Ye's clothing provided any real warmth. He took off the Sacrificial Night gown and tossed it to Little Guardian.

"If it's safe to move around outside, I can go collect supplies. But I'll need a weapon."

Scarlatti wanted to go out and find some food, preferably to cook up a pot of hot soup.

"I'll go instead. Little Guardian has almost no combat ability. You stay here and watch the place."

Now that they had all become ordinary people, Lin Ye wasn't about to let two young women go out to search for supplies.

"There are some tools here that can be used as weapons."

Little Guardian pushed over a dark toolbox.

The toolbox only contained some common tools. Lin Ye picked out a crowbar and climbed to the top of the ladder.

"Be careful. We don't know what the situation is like out there yet."

Scarlatti cautioned.

As soon as Lin Ye approached the wooden door, he felt a wave of biting cold. He carefully pushed it open a crack, but immediately shut it again. Outside was even colder than he had imagined.

"No good. It's too cold out there. If I go out like this, I won't last long at all."

Lin Ye retreated back beside the heater and took the Sacrificial Night gown that Little Guardian handed to him.

"You can take my coat too. That should let you last longer. We can stay by the heater to keep warm."

Scarlatti took off her overcoat and gave it to Lin Ye. Without supplies, they wouldn't last long, so they had to find a way to go out and search for them.

"Alright, I'll go give it a try. Hopefully I won't have to carry the heater out with me while searching for supplies."

That electric heater weighed over ten pounds. Carrying it around would drain a lot of energy.

Lin Ye put on both coats, climbed back up the ladder, and pushed open the wooden door.

A blast of cold air rushed into the space. Above the wooden door was a carpet that wasn't too thick. Beyond it was a fully enclosed room, completely empty of people.

Lin Ye climbed out of the Underground Space, then closed the wooden door and covered it back up with the carpet.

'This seems to be an office.'

Lin Ye carefully inspected the office. He discovered that all the supplies in it had been cleared out. They were likely the same supplies stored in the basement.

The office had no windows, so Lin Ye couldn't tell where this place was.

Just as Lin Ye was inspecting the office, faint footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the door.

The footsteps were extremely rapid and dense, not sounding like anything a human could produce.

Lin Ye didn't act rashly. He minimized his presence as much as possible and even held his breath.

The footsteps passed by the door, then gradually faded into the distance. Only after they had completely disappeared did Lin Ye approach the door, unlock it, and push it open a crack.

Beyond the door was a Metal Corridor, cluttered with all sorts of debris. Metal doors lined both sides of the corridor, some of which stood wide open.

Lin Ye carefully stepped into the corridor and closed the door behind him. He picked up a plastic bag from the floor and stuffed some usable clutter into it.

'The heater needs a battery. I don't know how much charge that one has left. At the very least, I need to find another battery to bring back.'

Lin Ye moved through the corridor with light footsteps. The surrounding rooms were also offices. The office diagonally across had its door wide open. He pressed himself against the wall and glanced inside. That office had also been cleaned out, with not a single usable item in it.

'It seems someone has already searched this place. Or perhaps, something else has.'

Lin Ye quickly noticed that all the offices with open doors had been stripped of their supplies, leaving only some useless debris behind.

Fortunately, the door locks here were the type Lin Ye was familiar with. He found a piece of Wire in one of the offices and began trying to pick the lock of the office across the way.

Soon his hands were frozen stiff, but he still managed to force the lock open.