Mirage

"Usually, no."

Ding San said it with a worried expression.

Before she had even finished speaking, she had already pulled open the door and darted inside first.

Huang Zhang and Li Xiangqian exchanged a glance, then hurried in after her.

"What about the surveillance footage? Can't you pull it up?" Huang Zhang still couldn't make heads or tails of their grave expressions, so he asked casually.

Li Xiangqian glanced at him.

He lowered his voice. "It's bizarre. All the surveillance records nearby, including footage of this bus, have been completely wiped. That's why I suspect it's the thing Third Sister mentioned."

The thing.

Huang Zhang clicked his tongue.

These local guys like Ding San sure kept things from outsiders like them.

So far, aside from knowing that Ding San's personality was as contradictory as a madman's and that she might have fought underground boxing in Southeast Asia, Huang Zhang knew even less about her than he did about that kid named Zhou Kai.

He paced around the bus, bored out of his mind.

After two laps, he started feeling tired, so he plopped down in the last row.

His hand reached over to the armrest beside him without thinking.

Hm?

Huang Zhang froze.

He frowned in surprise, rubbing his fingers back and forth over the cold metal armrest several times.

Why was this steel pipe... flat?

He unlocked his phone, and the bright beam of its flashlight shot out.

The light fell on the armrest. Part of what had been a perfectly round steel pipe had been crushed into an oval, and the width of the dent was almost exactly the same as his palm.

Someone had squeezed it flat?

This was an old-fashioned bus, built so sturdily it could pass for an armored vehicle. The armrest's steel pipe was a good three fingers thick.

What kind of person could have such freakish hand strength?

"Maybe I'm reading too much into it..."

Huang Zhang laughed at himself, thinking his guess was absurdly ridiculous.

How could any normal person knead a solid steel pipe like putty?

That would take a terrifying grip...

Besides, if someone really had that kind of strength, why would they be riding the bus?

Ding San noticed the light on his side and turned around. "Find anything?"

Huang Zhang shook his head and turned off the flashlight. "Nothing."

He changed the subject and asked bluntly, "What exactly is that Mirage?"

Li Xiangqian's phone beam shone straight down at the floor. The metal reflected its ghastly white light, making everyone's faces look sinister and distorted.

A suffocating silence settled over the bus.

After a long while, Ding San let out a heavy sigh. "If it really is that thing..."

"It means an unregistered Nightmare Walker died in a nightmare."

"Huang Zhang, I suggest you make sure Number Seven... is still alive."

Huang Zhang looked up in astonishment.

Ding San still hadn't explained what the "Mirage" actually was, but for some reason, the moment she uttered the word, Huang Zhang felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet, raising goosebumps all over him.

Whatever it was, it could doom every last one of them.

"You still think he's a Walker... Fine. I'll go check on him at daybreak."

Huang Zhang tamped down the inexplicable dread rising in his heart and nodded.

In the end, the strange bus had provided no further clues.

The suspected appearance of the "Mirage" had been like a reflection of flowers in a mirror or the moon in water, leaving no evidence they could track.

But Ding San still trusted her beastlike instincts and gave Li Xiangqian an order. "Old Li, step up the patrols... Nights on West Mountain are only going to get more dangerous."

Li Xiangqian had always trusted Ding San's judgment. He gave a light cough and replied, "I'll write up a report as soon as I get back."

At three in the morning, Xishan City had fallen completely silent.

Ding San and the others planned to head back to the police station, grab some breakfast, and then call it a night.

Days and nights turned upside down like this had become second nature to them—and to frontline officers like Li Xiangqian.

A habit?

How could anyone ever get used to hell?

They could only do their best and leave the rest to fate...

Meanwhile, at Chu Siwen's home, Ye Zi received a text from Ding San.

She stared at the screen in silence for a moment, then opened an encrypted folder.

The folder was named "Mirage." She opened one of the documents and typed a note: Suspected sighting.

She opened the other documents and flipped through them. Every so often, her gaze drifted past the laptop screen to Park Hyo-yoon, dozing beside the bed, and the pale-faced girl lying on it. Her struggle in the dream clearly wasn't going well.

[Mirage: Nightmare Monster]

[Cause of appearance: Unknown. Early theories held that it was a Pictograph Martial Artist who had gone mad while cultivating. Recent research favors another possibility: a Nightmare Walker who died in a nightmare.]

[Note: When a patient with Nightmare Syndrome dies, the most common signs in reality are organ failure, cardiac arrest, and so on. When a Nightmare Walker dies, their body disappears completely from the real world.]

[Whether the "Mirage" is connected to the spread of Nightmare Syndrome remains to be confirmed.]

[Character: Zhou Kai]

[Status: Erosion, Clear-Headed]

[Skills: Comprehensive Combat lv3 (0/50), Light Footwork lv3 (10/50), Soraka Swordsmanship lv2 (5/25), Occultism lv1 (0/15), Falcon Strike Technique Lv1 (8/15)]

[Items: Residence Permit, Blood-Stained Axe, Morning Star's Journal (Part Three, Part Two), Moonlight Orchid Seed (Full), Moonlight Orchid Amulet (Worn)]

[Universal Experience Points: 16]

Zhou Kai had already woken from the nightmare.

He'd held out through the final stretch without anything going wrong.

He had practiced steadily in the Sanctuary, and several of his skills had improved a little.

Splash!

Cold water washed over his face.

The bone-chilling cold instantly pulled him out of the lingering discomfort of the dream, and the Clear-Headed effect made him even more alert.

He glanced at his reflection, which looked no different than usual, then grabbed a towel and roughly wiped his face.

Bracing both hands on the rust-covered washbasin, Zhou Kai breathed deeply, his chest heaving.

The man in the mirror had become more solidly muscled, with noticeably broader shoulders.

His features seemed to have been recarved with a chisel, sharp and stern.

His real-world martial arts training and his life-and-death battles in the Nightmare World were driving him to grow stronger at an astonishing rate.

Aside from the agony of being torn apart by the carriage, which seemed to linger in his nerve endings and constantly remind him of the nightmare's despair...

He was really, really...

Fine. Nothing was wrong.

Clang!

Zhou Kai punched the rusted metal washbasin, making a dull thud.

He lowered his head, then raised it again. Most of the coldness and ferocity had faded from his eyes.

In their place was a blazing light.

"No matter what, I made it through tonight. Now I have a full seven days to recover."

"Every day, every night, I'm getting stronger."

"Someday, the so-called Nightmare won't be a source of despair for me anymore!"

Thinking about the future lifted Zhou Kai's spirits. His mind was soon packed with everything he had to do next.

He needed a new weapon and had to find new crops he could plant in the Nursery.

He had to get in touch with his university classmate across the ocean and make money, so he could live more comfortably in the real world and funnel more support into the Nightmare World.

"Steady progress. Make haste slowly."

Zhou Kai stretched his limbs, letting the last traces of the nightmare's chill roll out of his body.

For the first time in a long while, he felt safe. He lay down on the bed.

Senior Brother Chen Ping had been right. Martial arts training required a balance between tension and relaxation.

The same was true of everything.

Physical exhaustion was easy to shake off, but the mind could snap if kept wound too tight.

He needed a good sleep and a hearty meal, to let the color and warmth of real life counter the cold and torment of the dream.

Lying in bed, Zhou Kai's thoughts drifted for a while before he quickly fell into a deep sleep.

It was a wonderfully restful sleep.