Conscription

On his first night after moving into the Night Watcher Safe House, Lu Yuan did not sleep peacefully.

Even though he had already crossed the threshold of [Forbidden Studies], the exhaustion rising from the depths of his soul still clung to him like a shadow.

The moment he closed his eyes, a damp sea breeze laden with fishy stench rushed into his face.

Splash—

Icy waves slapped against his ankles.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes.

It was still that familiar, despair-inducing Black Sea, still that ghastly pale moon hanging high in the sky.

But Lu Yuan suddenly realized that something seemed different this time. The sensation of his feet being nailed to the beach had vanished.

In its place was a weak yet genuine sense of control.

"I can move?"

Lu Yuan tried to lift his foot and took a step back.

The gritty friction of sand beneath his feet felt incomparably real.

The wave crashed into empty space, leaving only a patch of white foam where he had been standing.

Rather than dwell on why he could suddenly move, Lu Yuan immediately turned around and headed deeper into the island.

Lu Yuan had no intention of letting this chance slip away. Right now, he only wanted to figure out where exactly this place was.

As he ventured farther in, Lu Yuan discovered that this was a silent, lifeless island.

By the moonlight, he could see a raised stretch of high ground in the distance.

There were obvious traces of artificial excavation there. Several broken stone pillars stood amid the wild grass, with what seemed to be some intricate formation engraved between them.

The direction of those lines...

Lu Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

Those twisted patterns, like tangled blood vessels, instantly reminded him of the parchment scroll locked deep inside a drawer.

"Something very similar?"

He did not dare approach too closely.

His intuition told him that, with his current level of Sanity, insisting on reading that formation would most likely bring about unimaginable consequences.

After shifting his gaze away, Lu Yuan finally noticed that countless shadowy figures stood scattered along the long coastline.

They were like forgotten statues, facing the sea and standing ramrod straight, allowing the icy waves to batter them—even submerge their heads—without moving in the slightest.

"Are these... other Strange Dream infected?"

Lu Yuan counted them. There were at least dozens within his field of vision.

This number made Lu Yuan frown, because it was far too few! Although he did not know what had become of the Iron Whale.

At the very least, it was certain that the crew aboard the Iron Whale had all been infected. That alone was already a considerable number.

Not to mention ordinary people like Lausen, who had been infected by accident.

So what exactly were the conditions for Strange Dream infection?

What Lu Yuan also could not understand was why he could move.

Was it because his Sanity was not high enough? Or because he had not stepped into the supernatural?

Lu Yuan had no intention of touching those figures.

In this Eerie dream, any unnecessary action might draw unwanted attention.

Following what seemed to be a path trampled out by people, Lu Yuan felt his way toward the inner part of the island.

A few small wooden cabins built against the mountain were scattered along the roadside.

Their doors were tightly shut, their windows pitch-black. Lu Yuan tried pushing one, but it would not budge.

It seemed some force was constantly restricting Lu Yuan's actions.

With no other option, Lu Yuan decisively gave up on exploring the rooms. What he needed to do now was gather as much information as possible.

After all, whether he would still be able to move the next time he came to this dream was anyone's guess.

At the end of the cabins, a bottomless mine shaft appeared starkly on the mountain wall.

Chill air continuously seeped from the deep, dark entrance.

Faintly, Lu Yuan seemed to hear a low roar from deep within the cave, as well as...

"Thump, thump, thump."

The sound of a gigantic heart beating.

As the sound rang out, the entire island began to quake violently.

The sea instantly boiled, and that locked-on sense of danger descended once more.

"Damn it, run!"

Lu Yuan turned and ran without the slightest hesitation.

"Whew—!"

Lu Yuan bolted upright from his bed, gasping for breath.

The cramped bedroom was deathly silent, save for the tick-tock of the clock hanging on the wall.

[You observed something strange.]

[Sanity II: +5, 25/47 (Experience)]

It had dropped a little more.

Lu Yuan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. The sound of that beating heart seemed to still linger against his eardrums, pounding hard enough to make his head ache.

"47..."

He glanced at the time. It was five in the morning.

Since he was awake, there was no way he could fall asleep again.

Lu Yuan rolled out of bed, his mouth dry and parched. He picked up the cup on the table, walked into the washroom, and turned on the tap.

"Psh—"

A stream of Dark Red liquid burst out.

Immediately afterward, an indescribable fishy stench exploded through the cramped space.

It was not the smell of a sewer, but rather... the smell of thousands upon thousands of dead fish fermenting in an enclosed space.

"What the hell is this?"

Lu Yuan swiftly shut off the tap and stepped back.

He looked at the murky pool of liquid in the sink. Several broken, translucent scales even floated in the Dark Red water.

[Severely Polluted Water Source]

[Analysis: Contains high concentrations of Deep Sea organism fluids and decayed tissue. Drinking it will result in acute mutation.]

[Shed Keratinous Scales]

[Analysis: Worthless metabolic waste.]

Ash-gray words flickered across his retina, coldly proclaiming reality.

Lu Yuan's expression darkened.

Yesterday, it had merely been somewhat murky. Today, it had turned directly into corpse water?

This meant the Source of Pollution had erupted overnight, and on an astonishing scale.

Had Grim Port's entire water supply system been paralyzed overnight?

"This is very bad."

Lu Yuan stared at the tap, his gaze gloomy.

As a Doctor, he knew better than anyone what water contamination meant.

Plague, mutation, panic... this port would become vulnerable in an instant.

Just as he was considering whether to purify some water with Holy Water for an emergency supply, hurried footsteps sounded in the hallway outside.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Doctor Lu! Are you awake?"

It was Mary's voice.

Lu Yuan frowned and walked over to open the door.

Mary stood outside. Even her heavy trench coat could not conceal the chill clinging to her entire body.

Her complexion was terrible, and she held an official document stamped with a wax seal in her hand.

"Something happened."

Mary did not waste words. The moment she entered, she said, "City Hall went into chaos last night. The water across the entire city has been contaminated, and those lords in the Noble District are frantically putting pressure on the Viscount."

"So?" Lu Yuan leaned against the doorframe. "Shouldn't this be City Hall's business?"

"Everyone at City Hall is dead."

Mary gave a cold laugh. "The team they sent to investigate the water source never came back. That place has now lost contact."

"After assessment, this is most likely an Eerie incident or a large-scale mutation event. Conventional forces can't handle it. The Night Watcher has to take over."

She slapped the official document in her hand onto the table.

"This is an Emergency Conscription Order issued by the Viscount. Lu Yuan, your name is on it too."