Huff!
Zhang Chen suddenly sat up in bed, gasping heavily.
Just a second ago, his child-sized body had been cut open by a scalpel. The small intestine below his navel was being slowly wound out by a doctor using some gear-shaped device. That sensation, piercing straight into his heart with no pain dulled whatsoever, made two drops of cold sweat trickle down Zhang Chen's forehead.
The room's lighting had fully returned by now, while Wang Yizhi sat upright on a wooden chair beside the large bed, her completely blackened eyes fixed on the startled Zhang Chen.
"Did something happen?" Wang Yizhi noticed that something was off about Zhang Chen.
"Nothing... There were some side effects from being too anxious to restore my soul during deep sleep." Zhang Chen did not tell Wang Yizhi about the scenes that had happened in the Dreamscape.
"Mm, it's about time. Jia Xin will probably start moving soon."
At Wang Yizhi's reminder, Zhang Chen looked at the time on his wristwatch. There were exactly ten minutes left until the expected 2:00 a.m. At the same time, he clasped his hands together, feeling the pulse of cells throughout his body. Unexpectedly, he was brimming with energy.
"The timing of my escape from the Dreamscape was perfect; my body completely recovered through that bizarre Dreamscape; the Faceless Man's true body appeared in that strange, inescapable Dreamscape, along with the story described within it. What was this mysterious Faceless Man trying to tell me by linking all these things together? Why did he want to kill me, yet help my body recover?"
"Wait... Was this guy really trying to kill me from the very beginning?"
Zhang Chen realized something extremely important and began using the final ten minutes to sort through the memories in his mind once more.