Dream Judgment

Back to the 'Deep Dream' starting point.

Beginning the sixteenth attempt.

Su Wen strictly followed the details he had recorded from the previous attempts, trailing the monster step by step, sticking to the right wall in an odd posture whenever it turned its head.

Carefully tailing it as it moved forward.

And so.

He obtained an achievement:

[Achievement Name: Red Light, Green Light]
[Achievement Description: Little friend, did you feel a hint of doubt when you turned around?]

Su Wen stuck to the edge of the fourth room's door.

Then, as the monster moved forward, he silently entered the room with the broken door panel.

Inside the room.

Against the dark background and blood-red filter, Su Wen saw a brown-black coffin with English characters carved on it, placed in the center of the room.

[Contact with Nightmare Source 2: Burial]
[Identification: A tombstone burying human hope, twisted by the dream into a pure black coffin.]

The lid above the coffin had already been pried open.

Su Wen could, without alerting the Deathborn Aggregate, observe the scene inside the coffin.

Inside were countless stick figures, all depicting middle school students with blank expressions.

Their eyes stared lifelessly out of the picture.

They appeared to be completely without hope.

[Contact with Nightmare Source 3: Despair]
[Identification: A drawing by a Dream Corruptor, depicting despair and numbness.]

[Contacted Nightmare Source (3/3)]
[Sub-Secondary Quest Activated: Find the Dream Corruptor]

"A side quest. So, there are indeed other dream levels."

Su Wen wouldn't open those stick figures to see what was buried.

He directly put the entire coffin into his Storage Box.

After being nourished by the Hyacinth during this period, his storage space had also increased in usable volume, so storing the coffin was no problem at all now.

After completing all of this.

Su Wen actually had some guesses as to what this terrifying dream game was alluding to.

Even if Tenth Middle School publicly claimed that it had fallen into a state of abandonment due to the outbreak of a death ruin.

But now it seemed.

The so-called cause of the death ruin was likely man-made.

"It's time to end everything."

After the coffin was moved away.

The dream seemed to reveal a black hole that couldn't heal for a moment.

[Identification: Cognitive Deficit Zone]

Without any fear, he seized this opportunity and jumped straight into the black hole.

['Deep Dream' Corruption +1]
['Deep Dream' Corruption +1]
['Deep Dream' Corruption +1]
[You have entered the core dream: Dead Zone Ground Zero]

As for why he could discover this.

During the transition from the first layer of the dream to the second layer of the dream, Su Wen left behind a total of five groups of beacons previously released from the Storage Box when escaping Schlote Heavy Industries, as a comparison.

And at the moment the 'Deep Dream' signal switched.

Only the beacon that was preset on a certain 'puppet' was disconnected, while the other beacons placed on the ground and attached to the Black Gate remained unchanged.

As a theoretical physics researcher.

Even a small change in a decimal might represent a complete change in a formula.

What's more, it was a group of lost signals.

For human civilization, the more ignorant it is, the more it believes in indescribable horrors.

Only science does not.

Su Wen had already found the 'BUG' hidden within the Dead Zone's dream alterations.

The Dead Zone Ground Zero was even more bizarre and terrifying in its imagery than the Deep Dream.

It was a schoolyard filled with countless grotesque, twisted figures drifting about.

[Identification: Abyssal Contamination %￥, Mental Disintegration #@]

There was a tree at the edge of the schoolyard.

Su Wen walked towards it:

"Looks like my objective is pretty clear."

And those twisted figures lunged at him.

[Contact with Abyssal Contamination]

[Current Mental Clarity: Immaculate]

[Contact with Abyssal Contamination]

[Current Mental Clarity: Immaculate]

He crouched beside the tree.

His hand touched the trunk, and he calmly asked:

"Want revenge?"

The scene trembled.

[Danger! Danger! Chief Player, your next actions will have unforeseen consequences on the future.]

[Please stop immediately!]

[If subsequent developments exceed the original upper limit of possibilities in the timeline,]

[Future outcomes cannot be predicted.]

(The quantum observer cannot observe himself, causing his superposition state to collapse.)

(This means that the observer himself is absolutely free.)

(Then what am I, a blank space in the space-time gap?)

Su Wen showed, for the first time, an understanding of the 'time travel' loophole.

He didn't mind.

He didn't care.

Instead, he calmly continued speaking to the Ground Zero buried beneath the tree roots:

"Pull them in. I mean 'the former teachers of Tenth Middle School'.

Since you can create a Dead Zone to harm other innocents, you should also have the ability to pull in specific people. I want the people and their souls, all of them!"

Su Wen had never been an absolutely benevolent person; he had his own sense of good and evil:

Good people, if they have a clear conscience, should live righteously!

Evil people deserve to die.

If the rules cannot punish them, then I shall be the executor!

In an instant.

The twisted figures in the entire core dream stopped, and then began to collapse continuously.

The Dead Zone also began to show signs of instability.

At the edge of the core dream in the third dream layer, the Deathborn Aggregate seemed to notice something and peered out from the shadows.

Not enough power.

Su Wen analyzed:

"Your power is suppressed by the real world and is not enough to pull living people in through the nightmare. I'll help you."

He took out the blood-soaked doll from the Storage Box.

The doll's eyes stared fixedly beyond the sky.

In an instant.

Dark golden Judgment marks solidified in the air.

They formed huge barriers that wrapped around the doll.

['Please Judge Me First' Judgement successful]

['Fair Judgment' rules: Protect the target Dream Corruptor 'Wu Shuang,' damage transfer rate 50% (highest level).

Protection successful, settlement contamination received: 1000.]

[Current Mental Clarity: Flawless]

[Secondary side quest: Locate Dream Corruptor, completed]

[Dream stability increased by 70%]

[System error: You have obtained 30% Nightmare Control Authority through resonance with the Dream Corruptor's consciousness]

[You have received the reward: Dream Imprint]

In that instant.

The scene returned to the initial 'First Layer Dream' dormitory.

Besides Su Wen, the other four figures were also pulled down, lying on his upper bunk.

A stout middle-aged man said:

"Where... is this?"

The computer screen gradually shifted into slow motion:

Su Wen understood that this was the effect of the 30% Nightmare Control Authority.

He calmly said:

"Freud pointed out that every dream can be divided into manifest and latent content: The manifest content is the dream's surface appearance, referring to what people can remember and describe, but are unwilling to recall; this is called a 'Nightmare.'

The latent content refers to the dream's essential content, its true meaning, similar to the real desires that the Nightmare obscures."

Achievement unlocked:

[Achievement Name: Freudian Dream Theory - Nightmare Essence]

[Achievement Description: This is your dream, not mine, so I am not afraid]

At this moment.

Within the deep, dark scene.

Behind him:

A dark golden scale gradually appeared.

Su Wen continued:

"The doll: 'Death,' 'Self-doubt,' 'Fear,' represent 'Wu Shuang,' who was murdered at Tenth Middle School and whose death was covered up as a disappearance.

The Deathborn Aggregate: is what she fears most, representing the 'doctors' who 'treated' her.

The bloodstained iron chair: represents the location of the 'treatment.'

The puppets: 'Numbness,' 'Inability to resist,' represent the other students.

So much evidence leads to the final conclusion:

Tenth Middle School once conducted obedience education that violated legal principles against minors in 'Room Four' using violence, and even killed Wu Shuang, who secretly hid paintings as evidence, wanting to expose everything.

This place is a prison.

Disguised as 'teachers,' acting as executioners, a prison that obliterates humanity!"

[Fair Knight - Su Wen, adjudication declaration complete]

[Conclusion matches Dream Corruptor's memory fragments]

[Judgment is accurate]

[Time Reversal initiated]

In that instant.

The scene shattered.

The four 'teachers' from Tenth Middle School, who were pulled into the game, along with Su Wen, saw the true scenes within Wu Shuang's memories.

A small, thin girl was tied to the iron chair in Room Four.

And in front of her.

Was a middle-aged man with a face full of bulging flesh.

He said fiercely:

"You think you're not sick? Increase the voltage."

As the electrical current passing through the iron chair increased.

The little girl's body involuntarily trembled from the electric shock;

"I, I am sick, I'm sorry."

She shed tears of pain.

But in the next second.

The middle-aged man in front of her continued, "You're not allowed to bring phones, yet you dare to secretly draw? You're courting death. Increase the voltage!"

With the increase in voltage levels, The little girl couldn't even speak from the pain.

Until she fell into a coma.

Then woke up.

And entered the next round of the cycle.

Su Wen watched the scene on the computer.

For the first time, he felt so calm. He was calm knowing that in this world, there were people like Professor Jiang who sacrificed themselves to create a path forward for civilization.

But he was also calm in the face of such disgusting existences before him, things that couldn't even be called 'human.'

Sometimes.

Calmness doesn't mean indifference. On the contrary, it means Su Wen's anger has exceeded the threshold for emotional release.

So.

Reason stepped forward at this moment.

He looked at the four former 'teachers' from Tenth Middle School who had been dragged into the Dead Zone game, completely at a loss.

He said with utter calmness:

"Let you experience the pain they once endured."

On the dark golden scales, equivalent weights were placed on both sides, gradually leveling:

[Fair Judgment: What you give, you shall repay (Experience the entire process of your past violence)]

At this moment.

He took out the black coffin from his Storage Box.

The coffin tilted.

Sketches flew out, transforming into students with empty eyes.

The world's background transformed into the school's playground, based on blood red and deep black.

A student with empty eyes walked up to a certain portly teacher, a knife appearing in their hand.

One stab.

"Ah!"

The fat man screamed in pain.

Unfortunately, his painful cries couldn't change the outcome.

After all, those students had already become numb during the 'healing' process.

Then.

Another stab.

That petite girl also appeared in the scene.

She tilted her head, blood still flowing from her neck.

And in front of her, there was an iron chair stained with blood, connected to a strong electric current.

The middle-aged man who had appeared in the scene was trapped in the electric chair.

He watched the others die tragically. He no longer had that fierce look. Instead, he cried and begged for mercy:

"I was wrong. I was also thinking about the school. I didn't want to do that. It was others, it was others."

Was it useful?

Wu Shuang's tears had probably long dried up, leaving only a huge Dead Zone formed from resentment.

Accompanied by the constant screams.

Su Wen remained silent.

He touched the little girl's head and said gently:

"Leave the one outside to me."

The Dead Zone scenes began to interweave.

In the second layer of Dream: 'Deep Dream'.

The Deathborn Aggregate still roamed.

And Su Wen, in the face of the monster's attack that had slowed down countless times, calmly stated:

"Abyssal Contamination wraps the souls of the dead, preventing their return to the Silver Sea. Instead, it cyclically induces the dead's fearful memories, distorting the Dream, expanding the Dead Zone, and hunting 'near-death' individuals."

[Judgment Ended]

[Verdict: Guilty]

A pure silver Judgment Spear materialized in Su Wen's hand.

He strode forward without fear.

And then...

The spear, like the Spear of Longinus, pierced the disgusting monster's head.

From beginning to end.

Pinning it to the edge of the Deep Dream.

In an instant.

Silvery light erupted from the point of impact.

Destroying all fear.

Condemnation!