Deep Dream

"It looked like he couldn't alert that disgusting thing."

His current extraordinary abilities strongly countered the domain of death, but their use was limited. He could only avoid its edge for now.

Reloading, he opened the dormitory door.

He returned to the narrow, dark doorway.

This time,

after unlocking it, he chose to gently push the door open and leave in the direction away from the Deathborn Aggregate.

The corridor was pitch-black as well.

Su Wen was certain that if he weren't playing this on a computer and able to force the brightness several times higher, experiencing it in person would be no different from an elephant felt by blind men.

Left, then left.

Second room: The door was locked.

Third room: The door was locked.

He continued forward.

Fourth room: The doorknob was creaking.

Su Wen felt like he was about to alert that monster again.

He hurriedly slowed his movements and entered the room.

Inside was a metal chair covered in bloodstains, as if the blood had yet to dry.

There was also a torn page of notes, apparently part of the same notebook:

Seeing a doctor hurts so much.

I don't want to be sick.

The handwriting was crooked and uneven.

It looked like

it had been written under extreme pain.

'Deep Dream' corruption +1 (currently 4 points)

Su Wen couldn't get much information from it.

When he turned around,

in the darkness,

that massive monster was also preparing to squeeze through the doorway, its two hollow black eyes fixed on him.

Fortunately, Su Wen possessed the Extraordinary Trait—Fear Resistance—and was unaffected. Someone with a weak heart would probably have passed out from that alone.

There was definitely no way to run now.

He picked up the bloodstained iron chair, swung it wide, and smashed it hard into the Deathborn Aggregate's head.

The monster seemed to let out a silent howl of pain.

But the next second, it lunged at him even more viciously.

You have died!!

Reload?

He chose to reload.

This time,

Su Wen entered the fourth room, grabbed the note, then raised the iron chair and prepared to smash the window.

You have reached the edge of the dream.

Insufficient energy level.

Unable to destroy.

It was an area restriction.

There wasn't even an overworld.

What a garbage game.

He silently cursed.

Watching that terrifying, enormous figure spy on him from the shadows,

he then chose to reload again.

This time,

he had already gathered the information from the fourth room.

It seemed he needed to change his strategy.

There were currently four known locations where he could gain 'Deep Dream' corruption.

But because of the reload, he could not obtain the corruption from the fourth room without entering it. His current accumulated value was three points.

It was also unclear whether entering the deep dream would lead to a bad ending.

At the end of the corridor was a pure black door. Su Wen tried pushing it open.

Strength assessment passed.

The door is slowly opening.

An even more horrifying sight appeared beyond the door.

In the extremely dark environment, he could make out corpses kneeling on the ground. None of them had human heads; in their place were puppet heads from some terrifying performance.

First, he silently closed the black door behind him.

Then he began counting them one by one.

Ten.

Eleven.

There were eleven puppets half-kneeling on the ground, their bodies fitted with crudely assembled parts.

Blood tears streamed from every replaced puppet head. Their mouths, painted on with oil paint, were all stretched at precisely the same angle, revealing identical smiles carved from the same mold.

Appraisal: Corpse Puppet. A mindless death servant stitched together from corpses. Acts according to orders. Abnormal factor. Fragment of Abyssal Contamination.

At that moment,

all the puppets stared at him without blinking.

The next second,

those disgusting things all rose to their feet and charged at him.

"Come on, let's give it a try."

As the Chief Player who had participated in many games, he didn't believe this trash could be more elite than the assassins who had previously attacked the Duke of Bavaria.

Su Wen stepped back, grabbed the arm of the nearest puppet, and hurled it directly into the second one.

The impact smashed both corpses into mangled pieces.

A trace of profound darkness rose across his vision.

'Deep Dream' corruption +1 (currently 4 points)

Contact with these twisted things increased corruption?

Su Wen thought as he dodged,

Possibly, but I still haven't completely figured it out.

He now had a rough idea.

To verify whether his reasoning was correct,

Su Wen, as a theoretical physics researcher, decided to grab another puppet and test it again.

He dodged the attack.

As a Tier 1 Transcendent, losing to these brainless, disgusting things that weren't even Tier 1 would be rather embarrassing.

Su Wen grabbed a Corpse Puppet by the shoulder.

It did not trigger Deep Dream corruption.

He then attempted a further action.

His arm and waist exerted force at the same time.

Back suplex!

As that corpse was smashed into a bloody mess against the wall,

his vision also seemed to sink deeper, like a dream descending into a more profound layer.

'Deep Dream' corruption +1 (currently 5 points)

Deep Dream Transition Mechanism triggered.

World-level contamination +50.

A deeper darkness enveloped you.

Amid the deeper darkness, an abnormal blood-red hue appeared in his vision.

It was still that same black room.

But the Corpse Puppets that had originally been there had all disappeared.

Only a note remained:

8-14: They were all cured. Cured forever.

8-15: Only I remain.

8-16: If I become like them, does that count as being cured?

Appraisal: A torn diary page, identical to the ones found before.

At this moment,

he heard faint sounds coming from outside the door.

He quietly pushed it open.

Then he saw the Deathborn Aggregate in the corridor, tearing apart a Corpse Puppet in its hands.

It was attaching the puppet's components to its own body.

Then it casually tossed the remaining useless parts onto the ground.

The floor was covered in shattered corpse fragments and spreading blood.

It looked terrifying and revolting.

But the Deathborn Aggregate's movements were now very slow.

And there was only one path.

Su Wen could only choose to tail it from behind.

The next second,

that monster suddenly turned around.

It grabbed Su Wen tightly.

Reload.

Su Wen's hand speed was still quite fast.

He didn't know whether the monster's movement pattern was fixed or whether it had discovered him.

He could only use his life to test it through reloads.

The feeling was somewhat like when he had previously tried to obtain the Knowledge Secret Treasure from three thousand years in the future.

Third death.

Eighth death.

Fifteenth death.

"Turning kills occurred at 3.78 seconds, 5.62 seconds, and 12.8 seconds—three fixed timing points. And from the latest death, I can conclude that I can't stay behind it. I have to stick to the right wall."

Su Wen tested with his life in a rigorous manner.

Reload.

The scene returned to the point after 'Deep Dream' had begun.

Darkness and blood-red hues enveloped everything.

He was about to reach the location corresponding to the previous fourth room within the deep dream.

But that also meant

the Fair Knight was about to gather the final evidence

and deliver the judgment that would end everything!