Chapter 113 - 108: Final Boss

Chapter 113: Chapter 108: Final Boss

On the fifth day after the Safe Zone was upgraded to Level 3, Shi An held another recruitment fair, hiring four new employees to rotate shifts with Lina and the others.

Lina, Rune, and the other veteran employees had already been equipped with their "employee gear," the Dream-Dropping Treasure Pearl. After returning to reality, they wouldn’t stay in the Present Realm for very long. It was roughly equivalent to a standard five-day workweek in reality.

However, Shi An still hired four newcomers. He planned to adjust the employees’ schedules based on the Safe Zone’s future customer traffic.

"It’s a pity that a Dream Descender’s dream-descending time is inconsistent. When they descend and when they return can only be estimated within a rough timeframe. It’s impossible to be precise, let alone choose it independently," Shi An remarked. He wondered if the Safe Zone would ever possess the ability to interfere with the dream-descending time in the future.

Among the four veteran employees, the two total beginners, Wu Qing and Wu Yue, had already returned to the Present Realm half a day ago. Novices typically stayed for a considerably shorter duration.

Lina, who had already stepped into the Refining Stage, said, "Boss, I will definitely strive to return to the shop as soon as possible. You don’t need to persuade me; I just love working this much." She expressed her loyalty, deliberately putting on a show for the new employees.

Of course, she truly cherished this job, and her desire to return to the shop as quickly as possible was genuine. However, it wasn’t because she loved working, but rather... sleeping in the staff dormitory gave her more peace of mind than sleeping at home. At the very least, she didn’t have to worry about suddenly dropping into a nightmare mid-slumber. Waking up halfway through her sleep in the shop and returning to reality, on the other hand, wasn’t an issue at all.

"No wonder the Hair Ghost chose to sever its connection with reality and remain permanently in the Nightmare World," she thought.

"But I..." She had family. While she didn’t want to stay in reality for too long, she still had to go back and check on her parents, whose hair at the temples had already turned gray. Therefore, she didn’t dare to take any more risks.

Two days later.

Shi An gazed at the empty space in front of him, where countless shattered characters formed the Safe Zone’s interface. Both the Belief Value and the number of cleared Nightmares had increased significantly.

Nowadays, there was a considerable number of Dream Descenders stationed in the Safe Zone. Every night, during the peak hours of dream-descending, one could always see fifteen to twenty Dream Descenders lingering in the shop’s lobby. And that was just the headcount in the lobby alone.

Furthermore, the average strength of the Safe Zone’s associate members and full members continued to rise. Now, over the course of a single day, the Dream Descenders could clear at least seven or eight Nightmares with casual effort. On a good day, that number could reach over a dozen. Some of these Nightmares were repeat clears, bringing in fewer benefits.

But—

[Prompt: Total number of cleared Nightmares has exceeded 100. Safe Zone extra building slot +1.]

He now had another building he could construct, bringing his current empty slots to two.

However...

[Number of Dream Descender Guests: 145]

"The growth in new customers has been a bit slow," Shi An mused.

The vast majority of the "random passages" were now connected to the Nightmares of regular customers. The growth of new customers mostly relied on members teaming up to bring in fresh faces. Since it wasn’t suitable for Shi An to make his needs too obvious, he hadn’t set up any referral bonuses. Still, the members generally brought in newcomers on their own accord. The only issue was that, most of the time, a member’s single dream-descending session would last for several days. It had only been a week since the Safe Zone’s upgrade. It wasn’t that the efficiency was low; it was just that too little time had passed.

While he was lost in thought, Little Blood relayed a piece of good news to him: "The mission to explore Deep in the Nightmare has made progress."

In the Safe Zone’s lobby.

Lin Xiao couldn’t remember where he had traversed to. He had been exploring deeper and deeper, crossing through one Nightmare Dream Realm after another. Whenever he felt tired or exhausted, he would return to the Safe Zone to rest. In between, he would occasionally swap shifts with the Hair Ghost.

Seeing Shi An approach, the Hair Ghost reported, "For this exploration, we prioritized efficiency over drawing a map. However, we can roughly guess that we’ve passed through three Nightmare Regions."

The distance between two Dream Realms from different major Nightmare Regions was usually quite far. The area in between was a "gray fog zone," where one could easily get lost.

Lin Xiao hadn’t used any special techniques for this expedition. He had simply carried a prop that could anchor his direction to ensure he wouldn’t walk in circles, and then charged straight ahead. It wasn’t until today that he finally discovered a very unique area.

"Why is it unique?" Shi An asked.

"The surrounding Nightmares are all quite massive, akin to large-scale Nightmares," Lin Xiao explained. "Not only that, but the vast majority of these Nightmares point toward this current area. I tried to bypass it, but it was either a dead end or I ended up right back here. It feels almost like..."

"Like a checkpoint?" Shi An finished his thought.

It was like a final boss map leading to the next region. But that didn’t quite make sense. When Dream Descenders reached the required realm and accumulated enough dream-descending experience, they would naturally be dragged into the deeper layers. Pushing through checkpoints had never been necessary. So why was he facing obstacles when he wanted to head Deep in the Nightmare? Was the Nightmare really that unwelcoming to him?

Shi An wasn’t sure if a passage to the deeper layers existed at the end of this Nightmare, but he was certain of one thing.

"This place is already very far from Baijiang City, and the danger level is significantly higher. Some of the High Tier Dream Descenders might drop into this area. In that case, we can build a Watchtower in this region to expand the Safe Zone’s Customer Range.

"Speaking of which, are there other Great Xia Cities outside of Baijiang City? If Baijiang can hold its ground in the Nightmare, other cities might be able to as well. If we have a general direction and extend the Watchtowers over, we might just be able to drum up business from other cities."

Retracting his thoughts, Shi An reviewed the intelligence compiled by Lin Xiao and the Hair Ghost.

The Witchcraft Flying Eye had explored the majority of the Nightmare’s areas. It was relatively desolate there; gray fog drifted through the air, and the ground was entirely gray, with small hills scattered sparsely across the landscape.

At the end of the region lay a complex of architectural ruins. The ruins were so massive that it was difficult to gaze into their depths.

This was because a figure stood tall at the site—a giant leaning on a Great Sword. It was three to four meters tall, built like an iron tower, and entirely encased in Black Armor.

It was an anomaly.

Aside from the giant octopus Shi An had glimpsed Deep in the Nightmare a few days ago, this was the most powerful entity they had encountered.

Temporary designation: Black Armor Anomaly!

The Hair Ghost asked, "Should we issue a mission to rally the members to clear this Nightmare?"

A call to arms was not issued.

However, many powerful members still took notice of this Nightmare.

"A ruin-themed Nightmare? That sounds very unique!"

"Indeed. The more unique a Nightmare is, the higher the rewards for clearing it!"

In the lobby, three members were chatting casually, discussing some of the secret rumors they had heard.

Rumor had it that a Dream Descender once obtained a torn page Deep in the Nightmare, allowing them to learn an incredibly powerful Curse Art. They were completely reborn, eventually becoming one of the top experts in Baijiang City.

Another rumor claimed that a Dream Descender saw a miraculous architectural wonder Deep in the Nightmare, elevating their body and soul and propelling them on a path to the very peak. Legend had it that the Master of Extreme Intent, Zhu Chenying, was one of those who had witnessed such a wonder.

There was even a rumor about a Dream Descender stepping into a Treasure Land and experiencing a grand epiphany, transforming directly from an Ordinary Dream Descender into an Extraordinary being on the spot.

Although most of these legends were unreliable, there was no smoke without fire.

"Look, if a camp as miraculous as the Safe Zone can exist, then those seemingly exaggerated and bizarre rumors we’ve heard might not necessarily be fake."

It was a well-reasoned and highly logical conclusion.

The idea of clearing this Nightmare sprouted in their minds.

"However, a Nightmare like this is probably extremely dangerous as well."

Meanwhile, in the ruin-themed Nightmare.

"That Black Armor Anomaly is incredibly dangerous!"

While some members were still hesitating or just toying with the idea, those with strong initiative had already entered the ruin-themed Nightmare. Duckbill Hat and Bearded Old Wang had arrived together.

Adjusting the brim of his hat, Duckbill Hat’s eyes flickered with a brownish-red light. His pupils contracted in concentric circles as he locked his gaze on the motionless Black Armor Anomaly in the distance.

"I can see that the Black Armor Anomaly is surrounded by an overwhelmingly surging Curse Power. It’s stronger than any anomaly I’ve ever seen—far stronger! I’m afraid it’s not something we can handle!"

But since they were already there, doing absolutely nothing left a bitter taste of unwillingness in their mouths. The two men retreated for a distance.

Bearded Old Wang took out a paperman prop. The paperman expanded against the wind, transforming in the blink of an eye into an adult-sized soldier wielding a weapon. The paperman soldier marched forward step by step.

Three hundred meters.

Two hundred meters.

One hundred meters.

The Black Armor Anomaly remained leaning there, completely motionless. Yet, through his eyes—which were fused with a Curse Object—Duckbill Hat could say with absolute certainty that the Black Armor Anomaly was "alive."

The next moment, as the paperman soldier crossed the hundred-meter mark, the Black Armor Anomaly stood up.

It made just one simple movement.

It raised its Great Sword, and then swung it down.

A terrifying black sword gleam shot out, tearing the earth apart before appearing right in front of the paperman soldier in the very next instant.

BOOM!

Dust flew into the air, and shattered stones tumbled across the ground. The paperman soldier had long been swallowed by the impact.

Duckbill Hat and Bearded Old Wang both swallowed hard, their eyes filled with shock and terror. In the distance, after unleashing that single slash, the Black Armor Anomaly ignored everything else and returned to leaning on its sword as if falling into a deep slumber.

It was like a knight faithfully guarding this place until the end of time.

A knight that would slaughter any enemy who dared to offend it.

Time passed.

A third, a fourth, a fifth...

One Member Realm expert after another stepped into this Dream Realm in succession, intent on clearing it.

Inside the Safe Zone’s lobby.

Ordinary Dream Descenders couldn’t reach the ruin-themed Dream Realm, nor could they see the scenes unfolding there, but their curiosity was piqued, and heated discussions filled the air.

"Have you heard? Even Big Shot Profound Sword, one of the top experts among the members, has gone in. Big Shot Profound Sword’s mastery in Curse Arts has already reached the Peak of Mastery Level, and in more than just one discipline! It’s said that his skills are practically on par with some Captain Level experts!"

"Returning Stream Chen Baichuan, the Deputy Captain of the Countermeasures Bureau’s 12th Detachment, has gone too!"

"I just saw a Dream Descender from the Wizard’s House return. I reckon they’re going to call in the Silver-haired Witch Xi Xue. She’s the shining example of the Wizard’s House right now. She’s only been dream-descending for a month, yet she already possesses strength that surpasses many leaders of smaller organizations!"

"I also saw Instructor Jiang."

"Group Leader Song from the Countermeasures Bureau."

"And...!!"

There were also a few Dream Descenders in the lobby who weren’t very familiar with the Safe Zone. They were either newcomers who had just arrived or introverted Dream Descenders who rarely interacted with others.

At this moment, they made an astonishing realization.

"Since when did we have so many big shots in our Safe Zone?!"