Long Night

All this time, what he had encountered was only the tip of the Nightmare iceberg.

Zhou Kai knew that full well.

In those first few encounters, he hadn't survived more than a few minutes.

By the time he'd activated [Home] and [Fireplace], he'd been cowering like a burrowing rodent.

His longest run had lasted only a little over two hours in the dream.

As an unlucky soul chosen by the Nightmare, he'd seen far too little horror.

Nowhere near as much as the natives who had died here.

They had burned monsters, planted strange plants, and tried every possible way to survive... They were his predecessors.

They had died, or turned into monsters.

Could Zhou Kai survive longer than they had?

If he had to figure everything out on his own, the answer was no.

Zhou Kai knew he had to wring every last drop out of the only two advantages he had if he hoped to struggle on.

First, everything the natives had left behind.

Second, the effort and sweat that were uniquely his own...

[Fatigue has disappeared]

After sitting by the fireplace for a while, the flames licked away the exhaustion that had built up in reality.

Warmth enveloped his body. In his daze, Zhou Kai felt that this forced summons didn't seem much different from entering the dream willingly...

But the dialogue box that lingered in his vision reminded him that tonight would be anything but easy.

[You will be unable to leave the Nightmare for twelve hours]

[The residents of Soraka Town are gradually becoming aware of your existence]

[If you stand still, the darkness will devour your shadow]

"Becoming aware... of my existence?"

The prompt from [Home] made Zhou Kai suck in a sharp breath. A chill that even the fireplace couldn't dispel began spreading from his heart.

He mulled over the implications of those lines. He knew very well that he needed to get out there and get to work.

He glanced down at the fireplace. It had thirteen minutes of fuel durability left.

He took a deep breath.

Zhou Kai took an oil lamp and the Rusty Two-Handed Sword from his inventory.

Now that he'd begun learning Soraka Swordsmanship, his heavy axe could be put away for a while.

The axe fell short of this greatsword in both reach and destructive power.

He gripped the hilt and silently swung the sword twice. Then he lowered his stance, bent at the waist, and rested its not-so-sharp edge on his shoulder.

In this pose, he resembled a coiled viper, ready to strike with a deadly blow at any moment.

Everything in the basement Nursery was as usual. The Moonlight Orchid was thriving, and the soil looked like it could sustain its fertility for a while longer.

Tonight, Zhou Kai's first target was clear.

"I'll search this whole house thoroughly first."

He tightened his grip on the hilt. The leather wrapped around it provided a rough, reliable hold.

It did more to calm his restless heart than the smooth handle of his axe.

He set foot on the stairs leading to the second floor.

The oil lamp at his waist gave off a dim yellow glow, and its fuel was nearly gone...

If necessary, he wouldn't hesitate to feed it Universal Experience Points.

The feeble light struggled to push back the darkness, allowing Zhou Kai to see a few meters around him.

The wooden staircase leading up was narrow and empty. The original carpet had long since rotted away, leaving only a thick layer of dust.

With each step, the rotten wood groaned, and dust swirled through the beam of light.

After rounding a bend, Zhou Kai reached the second floor.

A landing about a third the size of a living room lay before him, with three closed doors around it.

A chandelier should have hung from the center of the ceiling, but now there was only a black hole more than a meter across.

The attic lay above the hole, accessible by a folding ladder in the corner.

Everything was just as he'd seen it last time. Nothing had changed.

With the greatsword over his shoulder, Zhou Kai held his breath and crept to the master bedroom door. He reached for the brass doorknob.

The knob was covered in verdigris. It looked as though it would crumble to dust at the lightest touch.

He slowly applied pressure. The knob turned halfway, then suddenly jammed.

"Locked?"

He rubbed the rust away with his thumb, revealing a blocked keyhole.

"Too bad. I don't feel like playing a puzzle game."

The key was probably somewhere in the house, but he hadn't found it, and now he had no time to look.

Zhou Kai braced himself against the door, ignored the jam, and strained as he kept twisting.

Click!

With a sharp crack, he wrenched the doorknob and the lock cylinder inside it right off the door.

The wooden door was flimsy to begin with. If he hadn't been worried about making too much noise, he would have kicked it open.

He pushed the door open.

The faint light crept slowly into the room like a tentacle.

Zhou Kai's gaze followed it.

He looked from side to side.

Just as he was about to step inside, his gaze suddenly froze.

A bolt of lightning exploded outside, illuminating the town for an instant.

Light poured through the bedroom window and mingled with the glow of the oil lamp.

And there, unmistakably reflected on a tall silk screen in front of the window, was the shadow of a lanky figure.

Zhou Kai instinctively turned sideways, blocking the oil lamp with his body. He narrowed his eyes to slits and stared fixedly at the shadow.

Soon, the lightning vanished, and the figure disappeared into the darkness.

Whoosh!

He held his breath, estimating just how conspicuous his dim oil lamp must be in the night.

Holding the sword in both hands, Zhou Kai approached step by step.

The screen's colors had faded, and its patterns were indistinct. It slowly grew larger in his vision, until every speck of grime on the wood was clearly visible.

Zhou Kai suddenly took a step forward, circling around to see what lay behind the screen.

But...

"Empty?"

There was nothing behind the screen.

The discovery made Zhou Kai's heart clench.

Because...

If no one was behind the screen, then whatever had cast that shadow had either moved to another corner of the room—perhaps right behind him.

Or it was...

Zhou Kai slowly shifted his gaze to the pitch-black glass window. Outside, he could faintly hear raindrops pattering against it.

"Right outside the window!"

He remembered that when he'd run into the building, he'd caught a glimpse of a platform outside the second-floor master bedroom's floor-to-ceiling window.

It must have been an open-air balcony.

So, should he go and take a closer look?

Or should he keep cowering in this building like a coward and wait to die?

The oil lamp was nearly out of fuel, and the Nursery needed more fertilizer.

The cold and the sense of foreboding would soon make it impossible for him to move.

[Home]'s warning had been clear enough.

Perhaps [Home] would only be recognized by [Territory Law] and gain the right to shelter him while it itself remained in states of "burning" and "growing"—states of being "alive."

It wouldn't be long before this house "died"...

By then, it would be no different from the ruined house he'd entered during his first dream.

He was still a long way from being able to relax in this Nightmare!

Zhou Kai steeled himself and made a decision.

He was far stronger than he'd been before. He could afford to take a risk!

Step, step, step.

Zhou Kai walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window.

The oil lamp fully illuminated the entire window.

Tap. Tap.

A pair of slender, enormous hands gently pressed against the glass.

"Hee, haha."

Through a layer of greasy grime, a pair of eyes with pupils as tiny as wheat awns met Zhou Kai's gaze.