True fear

A hoarse, gloomy voice rang out, becoming even more shrill and terrifying under the amplification of the child's already somewhat shrill tone.

You killed me... You'll pay with your life!

Along with these deadly words came a sudden tightening of the grip on the hands.

Lin Yu was standing in the water when a body that had already Drowning was choking him, causing him to suffocate.

Furthermore, the boy's body was still increasing the force of his arm, seemingly trying to push Lin Yu into the water—this was precisely the cause of the boy's death that Lin Yu had just analyzed and deduced.

This is a form of "Sympathetic Revenge" from the dead!

In folk legends and horror stories, drowned people are often portrayed as having the attributes of "Revenge" and "drag others down with them."

Its appearance as an element of "Nightmare" at this moment is perfectly fitting...

But...

"Hehe..."

Even with his throat being gripped, Lin Yu still managed a smile—a disdainful, mocking smile.

"What a... unsurprisingly frightening scene."

If the Jump Cut and time skipping just now were ingenious designs that even amazed Lin Yu, then the part where the corpse in front of him had come back to life and was choking him...

That would be a completely predictable, clichéd, vulgar, mediocre, and utterly common "Jump Scary" design.

However, once "fright" becomes predictable and loses its "startling" element, the "fright" effect will naturally fail.

Lin Yu was not "surprised" at all, because this plot was not only cliché, but he had even "induced" it out.

He lured the God of Shadows, causing Him to manipulate the corpse before Him to attack him.

After all...

Although the God of Shadows may be very talented at creating "Nightmare," to the point that Lin Yu thinks that if He were to make horror films, He might become a great horror film Director and create a very impressive, landmark horror film.

However, the God of Shadows isn't making a horror movie; he's creating a "Nightmare."

This means that its primary purpose and goal is never how to present the best "performance", how to design the best and most advanced "scenes" in an objective sense, or how to create the best atmosphere.

What He truly cared about was how to torment Lin Yu, or rather, how to torment the "Xia Yue" character played by Lin Yu, plunging this sole audience member into despair and endless fear.

This means that... Lin Yu can also, in turn, mislead and influence the God of Shadows through his own reactions and actions.

If it's a deliberate act of manipulation that goes unintentionally, it can even cause the God of Shadows to "make a mistake."

Just like the corpse choking itself before them, it was a "Error" committed by the God of Shadows at Lin Yu's instigation.

Objectively speaking, if a truly excellent horror film Director were to direct this, they would never have inserted such a scene right after the previous shot and performance design.

But judging from Lin Yu's performance just now... the best way to make this girl, who is currently overcoming her inner demons and deep-seated fears, completely succumb to Nightmare is to give her even greater stimulation when she actively approaches her fears.

For example... a corpse that suddenly sprang up.

But unfortunately... Lin Yu did it on purpose.

"Mediocre! Utterly mediocre! Terriblely mediocre!"

Lin Yu struggled to overcome the difficulty of having his throat choked, squeezing out derogatory and malicious comments through gritted teeth.

You... underestimated... me!

"This kind of stimulation... will not make me... fear again, it will only make me... more... resolute!"

Lin Yu said without any fear.

Even though the sound of him being choked was intermittent, his tone remained unwavering, and he continued to face the little boy directly in front of him.

"And... there's no 'fear' in your 'Authority' —I now fully understand why..."

You... don't... understand... fear!

As Lin Yu spoke, he felt the pressure on his hands lessen considerably.

Perhaps sensing the complete absence of gloom in his heart, or perhaps Lin Yu's words had caught the attention of this Nightmare creator...

The "Goddess of Shadow, Pain, and Nightmare," who had been observing all of this from above, now spoke with Lin Yu once again.

In this Nightmare, He used the corpse of the little boy before Him to pose a question to Lin Yu.

"Why?"

The voice of the God of Nightmare came from the corpse's mouth.

Although his hands were still gripping Lin Yu tightly, making it difficult for him to breathe, they had reached a point where Lin Yu could speak.

"Huff... huff..."

After taking two deep breaths, Lin Yu looked at the God of Nightmare before him and chuckled softly.

"Why... why are you asking why?"

Lin Yu countered with a question.

Although he was the one being strangled, Lin Yu, as a mortal facing Deity, displayed extreme arrogance, as if he were the more noble one.

This is also the most brilliant touch in the underlying character of "Zhu Ming".

She was kind, gentle, despicable, cruel, indifferent, and intelligent—this complex girl possessed many, even contradictory, qualities. But the most prominent of all these qualities, at least the one that Lin Yu chose to express most vividly... was actually "arrogance."

Arrogance as a "Beast Master"!

He arrogantly posed a question to the Deity.

Are you wondering... why I'm not afraid?

The God of Shadows noticed Lin Yu's arrogance, but he was not angry.

"I'm not curious why you're not afraid, I'm curious... why you say I 'don't understand fear'," the God of Shadows asked. "Although I do not possess 'fear' in my Authority, and I yearn to possess 'fear'... I have only just missed it—and the reason I missed it was simply because 'fear' had not yet taken shape at that time."

"Is that so? Then it seems the threshold for wielding 'Authority' isn't as high as I imagined," Lin Yu paused, "Of course, it's also possible that you're... deceiving yourself."

"Hmm, self-deception is more likely... What you call 'passing by'," Lin Yu with even more disdain, "Is probably just because you have no idea how far you really are from 'fear'."

The God of Shadows seemed somewhat annoyed by Lin Yu's mockery—a dark color appeared in the unfocused pupils of the corpse before him, quickly filling its entire eye.

"You think... you understand Authority better than 'Deity'?"

His chilling voice rang out, and the entire pond became deep, viscous, and icy, as if it had instantly transformed from an artificial landscape pond in a school into some kind of bottomless Abyss!

Lin Yu looked at the corpse before him, then at the God of Shadows, and shook his head slightly.

"No, I just feel that I understand 'fear' better than you do."

"Because... you completely misunderstand what I'm afraid of—I admit, it's quite impressive to dig up experiences I've hidden deep in my Memory, experiences I've even forgotten myself."

"After all, perhaps due to some kind of primitive human mechanism called 'Post-Traumatic Self-Protection,' my Memory of these things are indeed somewhat hazy."

"This is indeed an experience that could be my 'Nightmare'... but that's only because you hold the Authority the 'Nightmare'."

"You don't understand my Nightmare —you don't know what I'm truly afraid of."

"That makes sense... After all, you are a high and mighty being, perhaps you have created many 'Nightmare,' and those Nightmare have created a lot of 'fear'... But you yourself haven't experienced your own 'fear' for a long time, so you wouldn't understand."

"Do you think this Memory I've hidden and tried to Oblivion is because I 'killed' someone, thus triggering my instinctive fear?"

"This is a very reasonable explanation—a little girl who 'accidentally' killed her classmate, or rather, killed her classmate in a moment of impulse, should naturally be in a state of panic and fear, and should naturally begin to blame herself and be afraid of the consequences."

"I should be afraid of going to jail, afraid that the dead will become vengeful spirits and take revenge on me, afraid of legal responsibility, afraid of being scolded by my parents... At the same time, I should suffer from my own conscience and be afraid of being tormented by it."

"But... this is just a 'mediocre' conclusion that anyone could reach. You, as Deity, also thought so and used that as a basis for your deductions, allowing this corpse to actually strangle me," Lin Yu said, then patted the slender, pale, and swollen arm of the drowned corpse with a mocking tone, shaking his head. "This kind of fright is not only low-level, but it also has absolutely nothing to do with my fear."

Hearing Lin Yu's words, the God of Shadows' anger subsided, and he revealed an expression of interest on the corpse's face— Lin Yu also noticed that the little boy's corpse's face was becoming more and more like the God of Shadows he had just seen.

So, what exactly is your 'fear'?

Lin Yu lowered his eyes and saw the dark water of the pond. The ripples made his reflection on the surface of the water appear distorted and blurry.

I fear myself... and the world.

"What I fear is discovering that after committing murder, I broke an absolute 'taboo' within those Social Conditioning without feeling any guilt whatsoever—this made me, at least as a child at the time, feel a collapse of some kind of sense of Order —the almost 'desolate' pain brought about by the disappearance of all restrictions left me feeling lost... I fear this kind of loss where there are paths in all directions."

"At the same time, I also fear this world, this world where 'death' exists—because I suddenly realize that life is so fragile, death is so easy, and I can even create it."

"And at the same time... it is so irreversible—you see, even if I kill the murderer who killed that poor little dog, its death cannot be reversed."

"This makes me feel... fearful and sad."