New Nightmare

After the chaos subsided, the prisoners slowly got to their feet. Dozens of mechanical prison guards entered the square amid the orderly whir of hydraulic transmissions, directing the prisoners to clean up everything that had been knocked over.

In the cafeteria, Guo Huzhan sat cross-legged on the floor not far away, as still as an old monk in meditation.

Lin Xiaoxiao looked at the black rubber bullets scattered across the ground and sighed. "When immortals fight, mortals suffer. The people who fought are fine, but the prisoners who didn't are the ones truly out of luck. Hey, Guo Huzhan, isn't it said outside that you're compassionate and often do good deeds? What about all the people you dragged into this?"

Without even lifting his eyelids, Guo Huzhan said, "You're talking to me about innocent bystanders in prison? Count every person here—none of them are innocent."

"How hypocritical." Lin Xiaoxiao curled his lip.

"Also, let me make this clear." Guo Huzhan opened his eyes and glanced at Lin Xiaoxiao. "I'm not a monk. Don't use words like 'compassionate' to describe me."

With that, he closed his eyes again and carefully regulated his breathing.

He had appeared uninjured in his fight with Li Shutong, but his internal organs were actually aching badly now, as though they had been scorched by fire.

Seeing him quietly meditate, the others stopped paying attention to him. Lin Xiaoxiao gave Ye Wan a meaningful look, and an invisible force field suddenly spread around them.

Qing Chen had seen this ability earlier. When black rain fell beneath the steel dome, every drop that fell toward Ye Wan had been deflected by that force field.

Seeing Qing Chen's confusion, Lin Xiaoxiao explained with a smile, "Go ahead and talk. The sound can't get out."

Li Shutong sat beside the dining table with Big Cat in his arms, then said to Qing Chen, "This morning, I saw Lu Guangyi interrogating those people during the newcomer ceremony. That was your instruction, wasn't it?"

"It was," Qing Chen said. He knew the other man was already aware of his connection to the Qing family and knew that Lu Guangyi answered to him, so there was no point hiding it.

"Why interrogate them?" Li Shutong asked.

"I wanted to see what other forces were competing with me for the Forbidden Item." Qing Chen lied. He needed a reasonable explanation for his actions.

Li Shutong nodded. "I like your honesty. But I noticed Lu Guangyi didn't mistreat those newcomers this time. Was that your instruction too?"

"Yes," Qing Chen said.

"But as I recall, when you first came in, you didn't help the other newcomers," Li Shutong said.

"Within my means," Qing Chen replied.

Li Shutong smiled but made no comment.

If he could barely protect himself, Qing Chen would quietly watch everyone else die without helping them. That was his principle.

His life had never gone smoothly, so he had learned selfishness at an early age.

It was an attitude toward life that life itself had given him, not one he had chosen.

At that moment, Lin Xiaoxiao suddenly looked toward Guo Huzhan, who was not far away...

Qing Chen turned and saw that Guo Huzhan was still sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, but his long arms had dropped to his sides.

Using the index and middle fingers of both hands, he held his entire body up slightly off the ground.

Then, as though those four fingers were walking, he slowly crept closer to Ye Wan's force field...

The guy had clearly realized that he could not hear their conversation from where he was sitting, so he wanted to sneak closer.

Qing Chen did not know whether to laugh or cry. A burly two-meter-tall man covered in totems had been incomparably fierce in battle a moment ago, yet in the next moment, he was pretending to meditate and regulate his breathing when he was actually trying to eavesdrop on someone else's conversation.

The contrast was far too great.

Perhaps sensing everyone's gazes, Guo Huzhan calmly used his four fingers to move himself back to his original spot, as though nothing had happened.

Even Li Shutong was amused by the sight. "All right, disperse. It's a pity we didn't get to play chess today. I'm going to read."

Before leaving, Lin Xiaoxiao squatted in front of Guo Huzhan and smiled. "If you lost, then stay put and behave yourself. We really don't want to become enemies with Spades. We know it hasn't been easy for you all scraping by in the wilderness, but can you stop causing trouble for us?"

Guo Huzhan raised his eyelids. "I didn't lose to you. What are you so pleased about?"

Lin Xiaoxiao raised his brows. "You think I have no way to deal with you?"

Guo Huzhan said calmly, "Try touching a single hair on my head."

Lin Xiaoxiao looked at the other man's gleaming bald head. "...?"

Rumors really were just rumors. This Guo Huzhan was completely different from what he had heard about!

Qing Chen ignored the two as they continued bickering. He turned and went to the serving window for food, then began wolfing it down.

He had been dirt poor in the Outer World. In the two days since returning, he had eaten compressed biscuits for two days straight. There was rice, flour, and vegetables at home, but no meat. He could not afford meat.

The food here was nothing special either, but at least the synthetic meat still tasted like meat.

Qing Chen felt a little sentimental. The prison food in this world was actually better than what he normally ate in the Outer World.

As he ate with his head down, he happened to look up and suddenly discovered that nearly a quarter of the 210 cameras in Prison No. 18 had silently turned toward him.

It seemed that someone had noticed how he had found a shooting blind spot in that split second.

But he had no idea who was behind those cameras.

After Lin Xiaoxiao finished arguing with Guo Huzhan, he stood up, set Qing Chen's tray aside, then took another tray to the serving window and tapped it. He told the robot inside, "The boss said that from now on, give him real meat. Give him as much as he wants."

Qing Chen froze. "Why?"

Lin Xiaoxiao gave him a mysterious smile. "You'll find out soon enough. This may not be a good thing."

That night, while Qing Chen was brushing his teeth after returning to his cell, a wave of drowsiness suddenly washed over him. He immediately sensed that something was wrong.

But this time, he did not collapse to the floor and fall asleep as he had before. Instead, he calmly rinsed his mouth. Only after lying comfortably on his bunk did he slowly close his eyes.

The nightmare began.

In the dream, Qing Chen appeared in a desert. Two people sat atop the sand dune opposite him.

Yellow sand filled the skies of this nightmare world, and the sun was scorching.

After only a few seconds, Qing Chen felt his lips becoming dry and cracked.

One of the people opposite him pleaded, "Qing Chen, give the two of us a drink from the water in your backpack. If we don't drink soon, we'll die."

Qing Chen took off the pack on his back and opened it. Sure enough, there was a bottle of water inside.

He said nothing.

The man opposite him could no longer endure it. "We won't drink it for free. Name your price."

At that moment, a voice suddenly asked by Qing Chen's ear, "When your traveling companions are about to die of thirst, what price will you name?"

Qing Chen looked coldly at the man opposite him. "I'd let the person beside you watch you die of thirst first, then let him name his own price."

As soon as he finished speaking, the person opposite him turned into Lin Xiaoxiao, while the other slowly faded away like a bubble.

Lin Xiaoxiao said speechlessly, "Are you even human?"

"I already knew this was your nightmare, so naturally I wouldn't feel any sympathy," Qing Chen said, finding himself a comfortable place to sit.

"This is really strange." Lin Xiaoxiao sat opposite him. "You can now remain conscious and retain your memories after entering the nightmare. Then you should be able to resist the nightmare's summons too."

"Mm, I can," Qing Chen answered tersely.