Back to the starting point of "Deep Dream."
The sixteenth attempt began.
Su Wen strictly followed the details recorded in the previous attempts, trailing behind the monster bit by bit. Whenever it turned around, he pressed himself against the wall on the right in a strange pose.
When the monster moved forward, he followed carefully.
As a result—
He earned an achievement:
Achievement Name: One, Two, Three, Wooden Man Achievement Description: Little one, when you turn around, do you feel even a trace of doubt?
Su Wen pressed himself against the doorway of the fourth room.
Then, while the monster moved forward, he silently slipped into the room with the broken door.
Inside the room—
Against the dark backdrop and blood-red filter, Su Wen saw a brownish-black coffin carved with English letters placed in the center of the room.
Contacted Nightmare Source 2: Burial Appraisal: A tombstone that buried humanity's hope, twisted by the dream into a pitch-black coffin
The lid above the coffin had already been scratched open.
Without alerting the Deathborn Aggregate—
Su Wen could observe the scene inside the coffin.
Countless simple sketches were arranged inside, their subjects all expressionless middle school students.
They stared blankly beyond the drawings.
They looked as though they had no hope left at all.
Contacted Nightmare Source 3: Despair Appraisal: Drawings by the Dream Corruptor, depicting what despair and numbness truly were Nightmare Sources Contacted (3/3) Secondary Side Quest Activated: Find the Dream Corruptor
"A side quest. It seems there really are other dream layers."
Su Wen had no intention of looking through what those simple sketches had buried.
He directly placed the entire coffin into the Storage Box.
After being nourished by the hyacinth for some time, his Storage Space had expanded as well. It could now easily hold the coffin.
After finishing all this—
Su Wen had already formed some guesses about what this terrifying nightmare game was implying.
Even though Tenth Middle School publicly claimed that a death relic outbreak had caused it to be abandoned—
It now seemed—
The so-called cause of the death relic was most likely man-made.
"It's time to end this."
After the coffin was moved away—
A black hole that seemed impossible to heal appeared in the dream for an instant.
Appraisal: Cognitive Deficit Zone
Without the slightest fear, he seized the 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 how he had discovered this—
During the transition from the first dream layer to the second—
Su Wen had left behind five sets of beacons that he had previously released while escaping Schlote Heavy Industries, all stored in the Storage Box as comparisons.
And at the exact moment the "Deep Dream" signal switched—
Only the beacon preset on a certain "puppet" lost contact, while the other beacons placed on the ground and attached to the black door remained unchanged.
As a theoretical physics researcher—
Even a decimal-point change could signify an entirely different formula.
Much less the loss of an entire signal group.
For human civilization—
The more ignorant people were, the more they believed in indescribable horrors.
Science alone did not.
Su Wen had found the "BUG" hidden within the Dead Zone's dream changes.
Compared to "Deep Dream," Dead Zone Ground Zero was even stranger and more horrifying.
This was a playground filled with countless strange, twisted human silhouettes drifting through the air.
Appraisal: %￥Abyssal Contamination, #@Thought Collapse
There was a tree beside the playground.
Su Wen walked toward it.
"It seems my target is clear."
The twisted silhouettes lunged at him as well.
Contacted Abyssal Contamination Current Mental Clarity: Flawless Contacted Abyssal Contamination Current Mental Clarity: Flawless
He crouched beside the tree.
Touching the trunk, he calmly asked:
"Do you want revenge?"
The scene trembled.
Danger! Danger! Chief Player, your next actions will have unpredictable effects on the future! Please stop immediately! If subsequent developments exceed the upper limit of possibilities originally present in the timeline— The future outcome cannot be predicted.
(A quantum observer cannot observe itself, causing its own superposition state to collapse.)
(This means the observer itself is absolutely free.)
(Then what am I? A blank space in the gaps of time and space?)
For the first time, Su Wen displayed an understanding of the loophole in "Time Travel."
He did not mind.
Nor did he 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 the Dead Zone and prepare to kill other innocent people, you should have the same ability to bring in specific groups. I want their bodies and souls, all of them!"
Su Wen had never been an absolutely kind person. He had his own sense of good and evil.
Good people, if their conscience was clear, should live openly and honorably!
Evil people deserved to die.
If the rules could not punish them, then he would act as their executioner!
In an instant—
All the twisted silhouettes in the Core Dream froze, then began to collapse continuously.
The Dead Zone also began to show signs of instability.
At the edge of the Core Dream on the third dream layer—
As if it had discovered something, the Deathborn Aggregate peered over from within its phantom form.
Its power was still not enough.
Su Wen analyzed calmly:
"Your power is being suppressed by the Current World. It isn't enough to pull living people in through nightmares. I'll help you."
He took the blood-dripping doll from the Storage Box.
The doll's eyes stared fixedly beyond the sky.
In an instant—
Dark-gold judgment seals condensed in the air.
They formed enormous barriers, one after another, wrapping around the doll.
"Please Judge Me First" Judgment Successful "Fair Judgment" Ruling: Protect target Dream Corruptor "Wu Shuang"; damage transfer rate 50% (maximum level). Protection successful. Pollution endured in settlement: 1000. Current Mental Clarity: Flawless Secondary Side Quest: Find the Dream Corruptor, completed. Dream Stability increased by 70%. System Error: Through consciousness resonance with the Dream Corruptor, you have gained 30% Nightmare Control Authority. You have obtained reward: Dream Imprint
In an instant—
The scene returned to the dormitory in the initial "first dream layer."
Other than Su Wen, four additional figures had also been pulled down and were lying on the bunk above him.
A fat middle-aged man said:
"Where... is this?"
The computer screen gradually shifted into slow motion.
Su Wen understood that this was the effect of his 30% Nightmare Control Authority.
He calmly said:
"Freud pointed out that every dream can be divided into manifest content and latent content. Manifest content is the superficial imagery of a dream, referring to the things people can remember and describe, yet are unwilling to recall—the things called 'nightmares.'
"Latent content refers to the essential content of a dream, its true meaning, similar to the real desires concealed by nightmares."
Achievement Obtained: Achievement Name: Freudian Dream Theory - Nightmare Essence Achievement Description: This is your dream, not mine. So I do not feel afraid.
At this moment—
Within the deep darkness—
Behind him—
A dark-gold scale gradually emerged.
Su Wen continued:
"The doll: 'death,' 'self-doubt,' and 'fear' represented Wu Shuang, who was murdered at Tenth Middle School and whose death was covered up as a disappearance.
"The Deathborn Aggregate was what she feared most. It represented the 'doctors' who 'treated' her.
"The bloodstained iron chair represented the location of that 'treatment.'
"The puppets: 'numbness' and 'inability to resist' represented the other students.
"So much evidence led to the final conclusion:
"Tenth Middle School once used Room Four to conduct obedience training on minors through violence, violating the bottom line of the law. They even killed Wu Shuang, who had secretly hidden drawings as evidence and wanted to expose everything.
"This place was a prison.
"A prison that hid behind the identity of 'teachers,' serving as executioners and erasing humanity!"
Fair Knight—Su Wen, Judgment Declaration Complete Conclusion matches the Dream Corruptor's Memory Fragments Judgment correct Time Reversal Initiated
In an instant—
The scene shattered.
The four former "teachers" of Tenth Middle School who had been dragged into the game, along with Su Wen, saw the scenes truly contained within Wu Shuang's memories.
A small, thin girl was tied to the iron chair in Room Four.
Standing before her—
Was a fleshy-faced middle-aged man.
He snarled viciously:
"You think you're not sick? Increase the voltage."
As the electric current flowing through the iron chair increased—
The little girl's body instantly began trembling uncontrollably from the shock.
"I-I'm sick. I'm sorry."
Tears of pain streamed down her face.
But in the next second—
The middle-aged man in front of her continued, "We told you not to bring phones, yet you still dared to draw in secret. You're courting death. Increase the voltage!"
As the voltage level rose.
The little girl was in so much pain that she could not even speak.
Until she passed out.
Then woke up.
Only to enter the next cycle.
Su Wen watched the footage on the computer.
For the first time, he felt so calm—calm because there were people in this world like Professor Jiang, who sacrificed themselves to forge a path forward for civilization.
Yet he was also calm before these utterly revolting, filthy things that could not even be called "human."
Sometimes.
Calmness did not mean indifference. On the contrary, it meant that Su Wen's anger had exceeded the threshold at which emotions could be vented.
Therefore.
Reason stepped forward at that moment.
He looked at the four former "teachers" of Tenth Middle School, who had been dragged into the death domain game and were at a loss.
Then said with absolute calm:
"Let yourselves experience the pain they once endured."
Equal stakes were placed on both sides of the dark golden scales, which gradually balanced:
Fair Judgment: What you inflicted, you shall repay. (Experience the entire process of the violence you once committed.)
At that moment.
He took the black coffin from the Storage Box.
The coffin tipped over.
One sketch after another fluttered out, transforming into students from the drawings, each with vacant eyes.
The backdrop became a school playground drenched in blood-red and deep black.
A vacant-eyed student walked up to an obese teacher, a knife appearing in their hand.
One slash.
"Aah!"
The fat man screamed in agony,
But unfortunately, pained shrieks could not change the outcome.
After all, those students had long since become numb during the "treatment."
Then.
Another slash.
The petite girl also appeared in the scene.
Her head was tilted, blood still flowing from her neck.
Before her stood a bloodstained iron chair connected to a powerful electric current.
The middle-aged man from the footage was trapped in the electric chair.
Watching the others die miserably, he had lost all his viciousness. Instead, he wept bitterly and begged for mercy:
"I was wrong! I was thinking of the school too. It wasn't what I wanted to do—it was the others, it was the others!"
Would that help?
Wu Shuang's tears had probably dried up long ago, leaving only an enormous death domain formed from resentment.
Amid the unceasing screams.
Su Wen remained silent.
He stroked the little girl's head and said gently:
"I'll handle the one outside."
The scenes within the death domain began to overlap.
Within the second layer of the dream, "Deep Dream."
The Deathborn Aggregate was still wandering.
And amid the monster's pouncing motion, slowed countless times over, Su Wen calmly stated:
"Abyssal Contamination carries the souls of the dead, denying them their return to the Silver Sea. Instead, it repeatedly triggers the dead's fearful memories, distorts dreams, expands death domains, and hunts 'those near death.'"
Judgment complete Guilty
A pure silver spear of judgment continuously solidified in Su Wen's hand.
Without the slightest fear, he walked forward.
Then.
Like the Spear of Longinus, the spear pierced the disgusting monster's head.
From head to tail.
It nailed it to the edge of the dream.
In an instant.
Silver light burst forth from a single point.
Destroying every last trace of fear.
Sinbreaker!
Before you continue