Chapter 112 - 107: Member Count, 30!

Chapter 112: Chapter 107: Member Count, 30!

Inside Training Room 1, several areas were already pitted and uneven, showing blood-red signs of corrosion.

Little Blood had already reverted to its endearingly silly appearance. It scratched its head, attempting to gloss over the damage.

「Prompt: Consume 1,300 Dream Dust to repair the damaged training room?」

Repair, repair, repair!

"However, the training room is truly getting less and less durable."

When Shi An initially built the training room, he wasn’t after the building’s buffs. He purely wanted a place for himself and his employees to test their strength. He just hadn’t expected the training room’s buffs to be exceptionally powerful, quickly making it the most popular spot in the Safe Zone.

"The next batch of Belief Value I save up should be spent on upgrading the training room."

...

Shi An thought about the ’perfect state’ mentioned in the earlier prompt and gave it a try.

Indeed, Blood Hand Seal’s three major Skills had all reached their limits and could no longer be improved. Or rather, they could no longer be improved simply by relying on cheats. An opportunity, or something else entirely, was needed.

"Blood Hand Seal’s current strength can roughly be confirmed to be above the Peak of Third Refinements Realm and Captain Level powerhouses, but... it’s definitely still far from the Extraordinary Realm."

Shi An had never seen a powerhouse at the Peak of Third Refinements Realm.

However, compared to the Second Refining Realm and First Refinement Realm, the fundamental improvement of the Third Refinements Realm lay in having one or two more Lifebound Curse Objects. Their own Curse Power limits had increased, and their Curse Power output had improved. But the difference in Curse Power Value between the Third Refinements Realm and the First Refinement Realm was actually only a few times.

The formidable strength of Captain Level powerhouses did not lie in their three Lifebound Curse Objects, but in their years of skill Cultivation and their Curse Art attainments that had reached the Peak of Perfection.

Compared to them, Blood Hand Seal’s Skill and technique attainments were slightly inferior—but after all, Blood Hand Seal had also been undergoing long-term Cultivation inside the training room. Its attainment in each Skill could be considered the Peak of Mastery Level, just a step away from the Peak of Perfection.

But Blood Hand Seal’s stats were undoubtedly much higher than those of Third Refinements Realm powerhouses. It held a crushing advantage in terms of raw stats.

After all, it was a ghost employee that Shi An had nurtured by pouring in 900 points of Power of Faith. It was only reasonable for its stats to be a bit higher. Previously, a mere 200 points of Power of Faith had nearly cleaved a Nightmare apart.

"In terms of realm, Blood Hand Seal might be comparable to the Peak of Third Refinements Realm. The next step is undoubtedly breaking through to the Extraordinary Realm!

"Extraordinary, Extraordinary... All Dream Descenders—High Tier Dream Descenders—are striving toward becoming Extraordinary."

Dream Descenders were constantly being hunted by Nightmares, always having to guard against falling below the execution threshold.

At the same time, when Dream Descenders used Curse Objects, they had to endure the devastation of side effects. Even for Refining Stage powerhouses, who had completed the Refinement of their Lifebound Curse Objects and could use them freely without side effects, the process of refining a second or third Lifebound Curse Object still subjected them to erosive influences.

The process of Dream Descenders growing stronger was a continuous consumption of their own Life Force. Even for powerhouses like those at the Captain Level who had reached the peak of Dream Descenders, though they could indeed use Curse Objects and Curse Arts at will, the Life Force they had previously consumed could not be replenished.

Unless they underwent a transformation and advanced into an Extraordinary Life.

"But how does one break through to Extraordinary?"

Shi An had absolutely no idea.

"It looks like I’ll need to find a way to obtain the breakthrough method for the Extraordinary Realm in the coming period," he mused. "Well, there’s no need to rush. It’s said that Captain Level powerhouses have all been stuck at the Peak of Third Refinements Realm for a long time. To cross the massive threshold of Extraordinary, one definitely needs a lot of preparation."

...

Over the next few days, the Safe Zone operated smoothly and methodically.

During this time, Shi An consumed 1,000 points of Power of Faith to upgrade the Training Ground to ’Training Ground (Ordinary Level 2)’.

The Training Ground’s buff effects remained the same, but the number of training rooms expanded from five to ten. The area of a single training room had also expanded significantly.

The Dream Descenders rejoiced.

With ten training rooms, they had a much higher chance of getting to use one. Previously, Dream Descenders would team up in groups of three or four at most to rent a training room. Now, with the expanded rooms, they could even pool together in groups of five or six, or even six or seven.

It wasn’t that they lacked the money to cover the usage fees; pooling together with multiple people simply allowed them to secure a usage slot much faster.

"The training rooms were expanded, yet the Manager surprisingly didn’t raise the prices! The Manager is truly... I could cry!"

Of course, Shi An didn’t need to raise the prices.

As the Dream Descenders’ strength improved, their speed in conquering Nightmares would increase, and his Safe Zone’s profits would rise accordingly. Once the Dream Descenders earned money, they would be even more willing to spend it inside the Safe Zone. It was a win-win situation all around.

For example, over the past few days, a new trend had been circulating within the Safe Zone...

...

"Renting a Dream-Dropping Treasure Pearl, then going to the inn to book a room and sleeping soundly for over ten hours? What kind of move is this?"

Jiang Peng visited the Safe Zone again after many days, only to find that it had drastically changed. He had just heard about the ’new trend in the Safe Zone’ from a colleague.

He was genuinely dumbfounded at first, but he quickly understood it.

"That’s right. We Dream Descenders can’t truly fall asleep at all. When we rest, we’re always half-asleep and half-awake, so we can be instantly alert at the slightest sign of trouble."

Jiang Peng had gone through the same thing in his early years. At first, he would often jolt awake from his dreams. Later on, he only engaged in shallow sleep, opening his eyes from time to time to check his surroundings and see if he was still in his familiar bed.

He was now used to this kind of life. However, he had several colleagues, including his older brother, who died because they couldn’t adapt to the Fallen Dream rhythm in time—either they slept too deeply and accidentally died after a Fallen Dream, or they couldn’t sleep at all, failed to recover their energy, and died in a Fallen Dream.

He had gotten used to it.

Including death.

Now, hearing about this ’new trend’ actually made him somewhat astonished.

"Times have changed." He looked at the inn in the distance, murmuring softly, "I hope this change can last. I hope..."

...

On the other side, the fully prepared Deputy Captain of the Sixth Detachment, Long Niu, also used a team-up item to enter a Fallen Dream together with a senior Refining Stage member from the bureau.

"According to the judgment of several analysts in the bureau, the Member Card can most likely only open a passage in the Shallow Area."

Long Niu also believed in this speculation. But, what if?

He still held a glimmer of hope in his heart, and this Fallen Dream was his chance to test it.

SPLASH!

Long Niu plunged into the deep layers of the Nightmare. Gray fog swirled all around, and dilapidated high-rise buildings stood in great numbers amidst the mist. It looked like a weathered, deathly still doomsday city.

The bizarre shadows in the gray fog were the only lives in this place. There were Ghost Shadows as tall as ordinary people, Ghost Shadows two or three meters high, and even more massive, incomparably terrifying giant Ghost Shadows.

Even gazing at them from afar brought an immense sense of oppression.

But Long Niu was not unfamiliar with such a scene.

He simply quickly observed his surroundings with his teammate, concealed their tracks, and then took a deep breath to activate the Member Card.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

A faint guiding line appeared!

"It worked!" Long Niu was both expectant and nervous.

Half an hour later, he finally found the Safe Zone.

The good news was that Long Niu could enter it. The bad news was that his teammate could not, and couldn’t even see the Safe Zone’s existence.

"This might be a restriction of the deep layers," he thought. "Even so, the membership still holds tremendous value.

"But in this case, whether the Captains can find the Safe Zone all depends on fate."

...

Shi An was well aware of the fact that Long Niu had opened a Nightmare Passage to the deep layers. However, he pondered, "Is the prerequisite for building a Watchtower to clear out the ghosts in the surrounding area?"

This was equivalent to conquering a Nightmare.

It was just that the deep layer Nightmares were no longer fragmented pieces, but rather like a real, incomparably vast world. Ghosts wandered within this world. Some powerful ghosts occupied certain areas, acting like bosses.

Taking advantage of this passage, Shi An launched a Witchcraft Flying Eye.

He controlled the Witchcraft Flying Eye to explore this massive Nightmare, seeing the more dangerous areas Deep in the Nightmare with his own eyes for the very first time.

"This area is just like an abandoned Baijiang City, and even the most ordinary monster inside seems to be a Ghost Level entity!

"Many ghosts don’t seem to be restricted by rules either. They wander aimlessly, tracking the scent of the living."

Higher-level ghosts were subject to some restrictions, but even so...

Shi An saw that on the roof of a distant building, a ghost resembling a giant octopus was entrenched. It used the building as a nest and seemed to be slumbering.

Shi An continuously zoomed in the Witchcraft Flying Eye’s line of sight.

Suddenly, one of the giant octopus’s tentacles split open to reveal an eye. The bizarre eye occupied the Witchcraft Flying Eye’s entire field of vision.

The next moment—BANG!

Shi An lost all of his outside vision, his heart still going THUMP THUMP THUMP.

"Holy crap!

"What Level of ghost is this? Extraordinary? A higher-tier Extraordinary?

"So, the deep layers of a Nightmare are actually this terrifying?"

Even for a Second Refining Realm powerhouse like Long Niu, trying to survive Deep in the Nightmare was extremely arduous!

There was far too much danger here!

Some dangers were instant-death even for Captain Level powerhouses.

At this moment, Long Niu and his teammate were carefully navigating through the ruins.

They were highly experienced. Experience was their reliance for survival.

Of course, the danger level of deep layer Nightmares varied. Last time, Long Niu had used a special method to drop into a Shallow Nightmare; this time, his Fallen Dream had dumped him even deeper.

This was a reasonable backlash.

...

There was no opportunity to build a Watchtower for the time being, but the Safe Zone continued to develop forward.

「Dream Descender ’Returning Stream’ has become a Safe Zone member.」

「Dream Descender ’Cheng Ping’ has become a Safe Zone member.」

Shi An took a glance.

The competition among Dream Descenders in the Safe Zone was fiercely intense, and more and more experts were saving up enough Contribution Points to apply for a membership status.

[Number of Member Cards Issued: 30]!

Even excluding employees like Lina and Wu Qing, the Safe Zone now had a full twenty-four members.

These were all powerhouses.

The vast majority of them had already stepped into the Refining Stage, and each possessed Curse Arts with no low attainment. There were also a few who stood in a league of their own within the Refining Stage.

This force already surpassed the combined combat power of the joint team from the previous crusade against the Ancient Village Nightmare.

"Baijiang City is indeed in a perilous situation, and my Safe Zone doesn’t currently possess truly high-end combat power, but...

"If I cultivate three hundred, or three thousand powerful members, how will the ghosts cope then?"

Shi An still held dozens of Member Cards in his hand.