Dream

At night, the moon in the sky was very bright, illuminating the surrounding land as if draped in silver frost.

On a lonely night, atop an ancient tall building, several figures stood sparsely like wild grass, their arms hanging limply.

Quietly, Arthur walked there, a trace of bewilderment in his eyes.

He seemed to have lost his senses, no longer perceiving the scene around him, moving toward an unknown distance driven only by a vague, instinctive premonition.

He passed an ancient tall building. The building was old and dilapidated, as if weathered by hundreds of years; the various facilities that had once been intact were now broken and beyond use.

Walking quietly there, the space behind Arthur began to blur.

A terrifying female ghost face emerged on the wall behind him, wearing a horrifying and mysterious smile.

She silently watched Arthur, then slowly stepped forward, extending a rotting arm as if trying to reach the person ahead.

"Got... you..." she opened a cracked, decaying mouth, her voice trembling with excitement, as if beholding a supreme delicacy, her eyes filled with greed and longing.

Sensing the faint screams and howls behind him, driven by instinct, Arthur lifted his head in confusion and looked back.

Behind him was a deep darkness, the space seemingly twisted, filled with ripples.

And in the darkness, a point of bright light gradually emerged. Under Arthur's bewildered gaze, pairs of eyes suddenly snapped open.

They were eyes full of greed and longing, from which endless negative emotions seeped out.

Chi... chi... chi...

Strange sounds came from the darkness, and a terrifying female face suddenly appeared before Arthur's eyes.

Darkness shrouded his vision, and the next moment, Arthur's consciousness plunged into darkness, no longer perceiving anything.

··········

"Another dream!"

In the room, Arthur's muttering voice sounded, a trace of bewilderment and palpitation still lingering in his eyes.

"What are those terrifying ghosts, those unfamiliar tall buildings and lands?" he murmured, a sense of unknown doubt in his heart.

Lately, Arthur had always been dreaming of strange things.

In the dreams, he saw familiar yet unfamiliar tall buildings, as if abandoned, ancient and dilapidated.

On the land, there were corpses and terrifying beasts everywhere, along with those chilling ghosts, spreading across the entire earth.

The world was filled with fear, and Arthur always wandered there alone, drifting through it as if in a dream, only ending when he died in the dream.

"This is definitely not an ordinary dream." Thinking about the content of the dream, Arthur muttered to himself, his originally dazed eyes gradually regaining clarity.

If it were just a nightmare, no matter how real or complex, it could be dismissed as a coincidence.

But dreaming the same dream for over ten consecutive days—that was something coincidence could not explain.

Moreover, the feeling of the dream was so real, as if it were not a dream but a scene he had actually experienced.

At that moment, the light outside began to rise, and a new day entered dawn.

Stretching out his arm, Arthur looked at the sky outside, and a strong premonition suddenly rose in his heart.

Everything in the dream, and the truth behind certain matters, would soon be revealed before him.

He got up and walked out the door. The fresh air rushed in, and Arthur quickly walked to the training ground in the distance, ready to begin his daily training.

He had always been a disciplined person. Although ordinary training no longer had much effect on Arthur, he still got up early every day to train, not wasting a single moment.

Half a day of training ended. Arthur felt the change in his aura and the Life Energy inside him that had barely increased, and couldn't help but feel helpless.

"This kind of ordinary training is becoming less and less effective."

Monitoring his body through the Chip at all times, Arthur looked at the progress that had hardly changed and felt quite helpless.

The effect of the Knight Breathing Technique had almost reached its limit. If he wanted to make rapid progress next, he would have to try other methods.

"Should I volunteer to go to the battlefield?"

A thought quickly flashed through Arthur's mind, then was just as quickly dismissed.

Volunteering for the battlefield was too risky for him at this stage. Unless absolutely necessary, Arthur did not want to take that path.

"I'll wait a while longer... If I still haven't found another way, then I'll apply to go to the battlefield."

Thinking this to himself, Arthur placed the longsword in his hand back on the weapon rack and left directly.

At night, the surrounding lights gradually dimmed, and an eerie silence fell.

At the table, Arthur sat quietly, pondering some matters.

In his thoughts, time passed quickly, and unknowingly, a long while had gone by.

Suddenly, a sharp cry came from outside, jolting Arthur out of his contemplation.

He instinctively wanted to turn and look toward the direction of the sound, but was horrified to find that his body was completely immobile, as if fixed by something, utterly unable to move.

"What's going on?" he thought in terror, feeling as if all the strength in his body had vanished. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move his body an inch.

From the corner of his right eye, a shadow slowly crept in, gradually revealing its true form.

A terrifying, rotting face slowly manifested within a mass of darkness, and a pair of black eyes stared at Arthur with immense desire, jealousy, and hatred.

Under Arthur's gaze, the ghost let out a chilling laugh and began walking toward him at a slow but steady pace.

A terrifying sense of crisis surged into his heart. Arthur felt a sudden chill, as if an icy force had enveloped him in an instant.

"Move, damn it!"

At this moment, staring at the horrifying ghost approaching him, Arthur strained every muscle, as if trying to squeeze out the last ounce of strength from his body.

Yet no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't shift his body even a fraction, as if some unknown force had locked him in place, rendering him immobile.

Before him, a massive claw swiftly struck Arthur's chest, leaving a gash that bled profusely.

Sensing the scent of blood, the rotting face of the terrifying ghost twisted into an expression of satisfaction and greed. It fixed its gaze on Arthur, its enormous mouth rapidly opening.

In an instant, its mouth stretched wide, wide, aiming for the top of Arthur's head, as if intending to bite his entire skull off.

Ah!!!

A sharp scream suddenly erupted.

On Arthur's body, a faint green glow slowly emerged. At the last moment, it broke him free from that paralyzed state, shoving the terrifying ghost away.

Arthur's skin flushed slightly, and the aura around him turned sharp and fierce in an instant.

This was the state of the Life Seed erupting. At the critical moment, Arthur had decisively activated the Life Seed within him, unleashing its Life Energy, and finally regained the ability to move in a flash.

Arthur felt stronger than ever before, as if an inexhaustible strength coursed through his entire body.

Without a moment's hesitation, his right hand swiftly drew the Cross Sword from his waist, and he charged straight at the ghost before him.

A flash of sword light streaked by. The terrifying ghost in front of him was cleaved in two as if it were mere air, seemingly weightless.

But even split in half, the horrific ghost appeared completely unharmed, maintaining its previous form as it slowly reassembled in the air.

"No, this isn't right!" Watching this, Arthur finally realized something was off.

"Chip, scan my surroundings and transmit the scene directly into my mind!" he commanded the Chip.

In an instant, the Chip in his mind responded quickly, feeding detailed information about his surroundings through his bodily senses into his thoughts.

The result of the transmission made Arthur's body stiffen.

Because according to the Chip's monitoring, there was no ghost around him at all. The empty room contained only one living being—himself.

"Is it an illusion?"

The thought flashed through Arthur's mind, and then he heard the terrifying ghost let out a dreadful howl, charging at him ferociously and wildly.

"Damn it!" Arthur sidestepped to dodge the attack, evading the enemy's strikes within the cramped room.

Though he was now certain it was an illusion, Arthur didn't dare gamble on the consequences of dying within it.

After all, even illusions could kill, let alone something this bizarre.

The terrifying ghost looked horrifying, but its speed was actually not too fast compared to Arthur.

As Arthur hurriedly dodged its assaults, a deep sense of unease grew heavier in his heart.

Tsk...

A faint sound of footsteps came from behind, drawing Arthur's attention.

Arthur turned to look behind him. The sight before him sent a chill down his spine.

Behind him, in the small room, faces had appeared from somewhere—countless faces, every single one rotting, grotesque beyond belief.

As if sensing Arthur's gaze, the ghosts' eyes slowly shifted, all converging on him at once. They bared a chilling, sinister smile.

Darkness engulfed his vision. Before Arthur could think further, his consciousness abruptly cut off, sinking into deep blackness.

·········

"Where... is this?"

In a hazy darkness, Arthur's consciousness gradually stirred.

Before him stretched a pitch-black space, shrouded in mist that concealed everything within.

And in this darkness, Arthur was the only light.

His entire body radiated a clear glow, crystalline and translucent, pure and untainted.

"Is this... the depths of my soul?"

As Arthur awoke, a faint ripple spread through the surrounding space. A peculiar resonance instantly made him understand his current situation.