Chapter 108 - 103: Nightmares Should Be Steamrolled

Chapter 108: Chapter 103: Nightmares Should Be Steamrolled

Captain Xia still didn’t think the Safe Zone camp could change the bigger picture.

But,

"A safe haven, member access, a miraculous Training Ground, and now even cushy lodging... Fucking hell, it’s so damn enviable!"

Even if the Safe Zone couldn’t affect the bigger picture, its members were living way too well!

For other people, a Fallen Dream was perilous and fraught with danger.

For Safe Zone members, a Fallen Dream was a chance to enjoy life.

And now they could even get a good! night’s! sleep! in the Nightmare World!

Xia Yuxiu was so envious and jealous he could have gnashed his teeth to dust.

"Hmph! Decadent! Utterly decadent!"

"How can you become strong by just enjoying life instead of tempering yourselves through hardship?"

"I’m leaving, I’m leaving."

...

Safe Zone, Inn.

Xi Xue changed into her pajamas and sank into the soft bed, letting out a groan of pure comfort.

"Ahhh, this is the life~!"

"We cleared three Nightmares today. Now we can take a bath, rest up, get some sleep, and then get right back to it when we wake up!"

Their efficiency at clearing Nightmares was very high.

Of course, neither of them went in to clear them alone.

Both Xi Xue and Peaches were capable of solo-clearing ordinary Nightmares, but going solo was not only high-risk with a low margin for error, it was also inconvenient for using items like the Witchcraft Flying Eye, and the clear speed was slower.

Soloing a Nightmare was to prove one’s ability. Once proven, it was time to focus on efficiency.

So, Xi Xue grouped up with Peaches and one other teammate to clear Nightmares one after another.

Clearing Nightmares not only earned them a large amount of Dream Dust, Curse Objects, and various Materials, but it also helped them advance their own stages.

Clearing Nightmares yielded significant rewards.

They hadn’t returned to the real world, but they still received the feedback a few hours later.

The two of them had achieved a more thorough Refinement of their Curse Objects. It wouldn’t be long before they could prepare for the Fusion of their second Lifebound Curse Object.

And now, they didn’t need to ’waste time’ by returning to the real world. They could stay in the Nightmare World and grind like crazy, boosting their efficiency even further.

"And that’s not all!" Peaches said. "This inn seems to speed up our stamina and energy recovery. I estimate we’ll be almost fully recovered after about four hours of sleep."

They were exhausted right now.

Under normal circumstances, it would be common for them to sleep like the dead for ten or twelve hours straight.

When they said clearing Nightmares and fighting abominations was ’easy,’ they only meant the risk was low. The actual process was still arduous, and they could only let down their guard once they were back in the Safe Zone.

This was also why they hadn’t cleared a large number of Nightmares in the past.

But now...

Peaches declared she was sleeping even more soundly than in the real world!

"After all, in the real world, we always have to be on guard against accidentally falling into a Nightmare while we sleep. It’s never a truly restful sleep. But here in the Nightmare World, we don’t have that worry."

This inn is just... so amazing~!

...

Wizard’s House.

The Third Seat, Ms. Luo, saw that her two students had been in their Fallen Dream for a full day and night with no sign of returning.

She sighed. "Those two are working too hard. Even though the Safe Zone is free from the intrusion of abominations, still..."

The thought that the two girls had been going for 24 hours without rest, either clearing Nightmares or battling it out in the Training Ground, made her heart ache.

’But according to my divination, my own Fallen Dream is due in the next day or two. This time, I don’t know how long I’ll be in the Nightmare World.’

Once a Transcendent like her entered a Fallen Dream, the duration was measured in days, half-months, or even whole months.

It was true wilderness survival in the Nightmare World, with no hope of sleeping in a soft bed at home again.

...

Shi An had no worries about sleeping; he slept in the Manager’s Office now.

But he found that even without sleep, he was still full of energy.

’It’s probably because I don’t have the pressure of clearing Nightmares.’

’Aside from the very first dream, I’ve never really set foot in the Nightmare World proper.’

But he didn’t need to.

He could advance his stage just by training.

He could earn Curse Objects without lifting a finger.

What he, Manager Shi, needed to do wasn’t to risk his life, but to steadily build and develop the Safe Zone, bringing more Dream Descenders into this big family.

So, after getting off work, Shi An asked Hajilu out to eat.

’It doesn’t seem like that long ago since I last saw Old Lu.’

Just two weeks, a little over two weeks.

They had kept in touch online during that time.

Hajilu had seemed very busy lately and was only free today.

But compared to their last meeting, Shi An felt as if a lifetime had passed.

The last time they met, he had been just an unremarkable corporate drone.

And now,

he was Manager Shi, a man who had experienced a Nightmare invading reality, cleared countless Nightmares, slain abominations head-on, and gone through so much more.

Life was truly a journey.

In the real world, however, he was still just Shi An, the unremarkable worker.

Soon, Lu Fan arrived.

Shi An’s eyes narrowed. "Hajilu, you’ve been holding out on me. You secretly went and started working out, didn’t you?"

Compared to their last meeting, Hajilu was clearly much more built. The muscles on his exposed arms were well-defined.

"Hahaha, I can’t believe you noticed."

Lu Fan roared with laughter.

Why had he turned down Hajian the last time he asked to meet?

Was it because he was too busy? No! He just wanted to wait until his workout results were obvious so he could show off in front of his good buddy.

All that time he’d spent gritting his teeth and pushing through his workouts, getting back up even when he collapsed from exhaustion, hadn’t been in vain.

As long as he could show off in front of his bro, all the hard work was worth it.

But,

"Huh?"

Lu Fan’s laughter died in his throat. He suddenly realized that Hajian... seemed... looked... well, he looked a lot more built, too!

Hajian was wearing looser clothes, so they didn’t show off his muscle definition.

But as his best bud and roommate of four years, how could he not tell?

"You’ve been secretly working out too!"

"Wait, ’too’? You don’t mean...?"

Something occurred to Lu Fan. He scrutinized Shi An, but for the life of him, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

Besides being noticeably more built, Anzi didn’t seem to have undergone the change he was imagining.

But Shi An could see it.

At first glance, Hajilu didn’t have that cold, gloomy aura about him.

—During the Borrowing Stage, a Dream Descender’s Curse Object is external, and the cold aura on their body is very obvious. But after reaching the Fusion Stage, the Dream Descender integrates the Curse Object into their body, making it difficult for others to detect anything.

Hajilu was clearly a Dream Descender at the Fusion Stage or beyond.

Shi An was certain because his perception was now incredibly sharp, and he could still detect the faintest trace of a Curse Object on Hajilu.

"Hajilu, you... you’ve had a Fallen Dream? Right around the time we got skewers last time?"

"Huh? Wha?"

Lu Fan didn’t expect Shi An to be so direct.

’Is a Fallen Dream something you can just talk about openly?’

But Shi An’s perspective had changed.

Before, his thinking was similar to that of people like Old Song: Dream Descenders were just a group of unfortunate people who could be slain by a Nightmare at any moment.

It was a good thing for Hajilu to have no contact with Nightmares.

But now, Baijiang was in a precarious situation. The Nightmare World was dangerous, but was the real world any less so?

Shi An had originally planned to wait until the Safe Zone had more members, then pretend to be a member himself and bring Hajilu on board.

He never expected that,

"Hajilu, you with your honest face, you went and secretly had a Fallen Dream."

"You’re no better, Hajian."

Soon, Shi An learned about Hajilu’s experience.

"Your older sister is an expert at the Countermeasures Bureau?"

"Well, I did get by thanks to my sister’s connections, but I’m now a pretty decent Senior Dream Descender, a ’half-step expert’ myself. But you on the other hand..."

He had a backer, which was why his life was relatively easy.

But what about Anzi? Though he seemed all smiles and jokes on the surface, he must have suffered a lot during this time.

Shi An sighed softly.

Though Hajilu was all smiles and jokes, he must have had it rough.

The story Shi An fabricated for himself was that he was working as an agent for the Countermeasures Bureau and later got caught up in a Nightmare invasion incident.

Over time, he had a Fallen Dream.

This wasn’t entirely a fabrication, but the truth—if one ignored his identity as the Manager. He was planning to report his status as a Dream Descender to the Bureau in a while anyway. It was a logical step, and he could even get an extra subsidy.

For instance, Zhang Yuning from his team was also a Dream Descender.

The two chatted for a while. During their conversation, Shi An mentioned the Safe Zone from the perspective of an Ordinary Dream Descender.

He definitely couldn’t reveal his identity as the Manager, so he could only encourage Hajilu to work hard to get a membership.

Fortunately, Hajilu had already heard about the Safe Zone, so Shi An didn’t need to describe it in detail.

"Hey, Old Lu, don’t you go and get yourself killed! You still owe me a few meals."

Shi An called out before they parted ways.

"You too... The hell?!"

Lu Fan turned around just in time to see Shi An vanish before his eyes.

Damn it!

...

Before Shi An, the world transformed. Wisps of gray fog drifted between heaven and earth.

’Is this... my second Fallen Dream? No, this is my first official one.’

Shi An elongated his shadow, peering out from it to look at himself.

He was now wearing a black overcoat, and his appearance was different from both his ’real-world self’ and his ’Manager’ self.

It suited the identity of an unremarkable yet somewhat handsome Dream Descender.

He looked around again.

One, two, three, four, five... There were a full thirteen Dream Descenders here.

These Dream Descenders were also gradually coming to their senses.

"Oh no, there are so many people here?!"

"With this many people, it must be a large-scale Nightmare!"

"We’re doomed! We’re doomed!"

"What’s a large-scale Nightmare?"

Shi An felt a sense of deja vu.

Back then, Profound Sword and his group must have been just as terrified and tense when they first encountered a large-scale Nightmare.

But for him, Manager Shi, a large-scale Nightmare?

Excellent!

He loved difficult Nightmares like this.

This Nightmare might just drop some valuable blueprints, or even an employee.

As for how to clear the Nightmare?

Shi An never cleared Nightmares. He only knew how to steamroll them.

He was about to calm everyone down when someone suddenly spoke up. "A large-scale Nightmare is dangerous, but it’s not like we don’t have a chance. First, we need to find out if there’s an entrance to the Safe Zone in this Nightmare. Second... and then..."

"You’re asking what the Safe Zone is? Good question. Let me tell you all about it."

This new batch of Dream Descenders from the Safe Zone was way too proactive. Shi An couldn’t get a word in edgewise, feeling like a complete outsider.