Blue Sea Tideborn Cried, the Marionette Was Complete!

The alloy wall surface that his fingers touched was cold and rough, with sticky stains at the seams. Blue Sea Tideborn brought his fingers to his nose and smelled a metallic rust.

A sinking feeling settled over him, Blue Sea Tideborn quickened his pace.

The corridor was very long, much longer than a normal building should be.

After walking for about ten minutes, the floor under my feet changed from alloy to stone slabs, and then from stone slabs to some kind of damp, rotten wooden floor.

The smell in the air was changing; the metallic odor grew stronger, mixed with an indescribable, cloying sweetness of rotting meat.

Then he smelled another scent, a faint fragrance of bamboo and wood mixed with the scent of ink.

He felt a certain familiarity with the scent.

"It's the scent of that young chess master Wang Yi." Blue Sea Tideborn took a deep breath, looking at the iron gate emitting a faint light in front of him.

Half of the iron gate was leaning against the frame, and there were several deep claw marks on the door panel, as if it had been violently torn apart by some wild beast.

This reminded Blue Sea Tideborn of a scene he didn't want to recall.

Once upon a time, when he was still a new player, a nearly invincible black bear entered the Dormitory Building Dormitory Building and almost ate everything in it, including his roommates and the landlord.

The landlady was an older woman who took great care of him.

This was a gaze he would never forget for the rest of his life.

"Don't open the door! The Blue Sea Tideborn, don't open the door!"

A voice echoed within him, as if all his instincts were resisting him from opening the door. Yet, he remained expressionless and resolutely stepped forward!

He was prepared to die!

The moment he pushed open the door, Blue Sea Tideborn saw a completely different world.

It was a small room with a low, oppressive ceiling that made it hard to breathe. A few dim lamps hung on the four walls, their light barely illuminating the object in the center of the room.

Blue Sea Tideborn stood at the door, but before he even stepped inside, he was already inside the room.

The logic of the space is chaotic here, as if someone welded a door to the entire room.

Here, he saw seven corpses.

Qin Chuan, Lin Zhao, Li Wenchang, Heavenly Mechanism Elder Laoren, Baili Tu, Chen Silu, Wang Yi.

Six skeletons lay neatly on the ground, about three feet apart, arranged in an irregular hexagon.

Seven bodies lay on the stone floor, their clothes intact, without bloodstains or wounds, as if they had "died of natural causes."

Blue Sea Tideborn was not frightened, but calmly observed.

Qin Chuan's short shirt still had dried dark stains, Lin Zhao's short knife was still at his waist, Li Wenchang held a blank bamboo scroll in his hand, Wang Yi's chessboard was placed on his abdomen, Baili Tu's long spear was stuck in the crack of the floor tiles at his feet, Chen Silu's long sword was at his chest, Heavenly Mechanism Elder Secrets had an empty palm.

Their chests remained still, their eyes were grayish-white, and their pupils were dilated to the extreme.

After thinking for a moment, Blue Sea Tideborn squatted down and checked the sides of the necks of the seven people one by one.

There was no pulse, no breathing, and their skin was cold, but their joints could still move. Apart from the abnormality in their eyeballs, they didn't look like corpses that had been dead for a long time; it was more like someone had pressed the pause button on them.

He stood up, stepped back to the door, leaned against the iron gate, and looked around the entire room again.

Freddy died, burned to ashes, and said, "I can finally wake up from this dream."

If Freddy is the master of the dream, and the master of the dream dies, then the dream should end.

But the dream didn't end, and there were seven more corpses. Let's assume that Wang Yi and the others are dead... This indirectly confirms one thing.

Freddy's ability to kill simultaneously leads to the conclusion that he has clones.

Freddy isn't dead!

Blue Sea Tideborn came to a very depressing conclusion.

Although he's unwilling to admit it, this is most likely the truth.

He squatted down again, this time examining the area more closely.

The seven people each have a different pose, but each pose represents an "unfinished action".

Qin Chuan pressed his right hand against his abdomen, his five fingers spread open, with a white chess piece between them.

Lin Zhao stretched out her left hand toward Qin Chuan, her fingertips only an inch from Qin Chuan's hand.

Li Wenchang held the bamboo slip in his right hand; the slip was upside down, with the rolled edge facing down.

Wang Yi placed his hands on his abdomen, and there were three chess pieces on the chessboard, two black and one white.

Baili Tu gripped the butt of the spear in his right hand, his knuckles white, the spear tip embedded in a crack in the floor tiles.

Chen Silu's Sword of Checks and Balances was at his chest, its tip pointing towards Qin Chuan.

The Heavenly Mechanism Elder stretches his right hand towards the sky, his five fingers spread out, his palm empty.

"They seem to be conveying some message."

Blue Sea Tideborn pieced together the postures of the seven people in his mind; five people, five actions, all pointing towards Qin Chuan.

His mood inexplicably became heavier. He walked over to Qin Chuan, squatted down, pried open Qin Chuan's fingers, and took out a white piece.

The white stone felt slightly cool to the touch, with a dark pattern flowing inside.

He brought the white piece close to the light, and the dark patterns suddenly became clear; it was an endgame.

There are seven chess pieces on the board, arranged in a heptagon, with each piece corresponding to the position of one of the seven corpses on the ground.

A dark red line flows between the seven pieces, connecting them into a closed loop.

"The seven corpses are seven nodes... and the white piece is the key?"

Blue Sea Tideborn held the white pieces, his gaze shifting from Qin Chuan to Wang Yi, and then to the other five people.

Having found the initial clues, he discovered some new developments this time.

A strand of grayish-white silk thread was wrapped around the tip of Baili Tu's spear.

There is a wet ink spot on Li Wenchang's bamboo slip.

The three chess pieces on Wang Yi's chessboard are arranged in the exact same way as the remaining pieces inside the white pieces.

A speck of grayish-white powder clung to the tip of Chen Silu's sword.

The Heavenly Mechanism Elder Secrets had a very shallow circular indentation on his palm.

Blue Sea Tideborn felt a headache coming on, but he had experienced many puzzle-solving Dungeon and was quite familiar with deductive and inductive reasoning. At this moment, he squatted on the ground, closed his eyes, and arranged all the known clues in his mind to deduce an unknown answer.

First, the remaining pieces inside the white piece group consist of seven pieces, corresponding to seven corpses. The order of the remaining pieces is the same as the order in which the corpses are arranged.

Second, Wang Yi has an indentation on his palm, the same size as the white piece, which was originally in the hands of the Heavenly Mechanism Elder.

Third, Qin Chuan held the white piece between his fingers, transferring it from the Heavenly Mechanism Elder Secrets to Qin Chuan. Fourth, the others pointed to Qin Chuan, Qin Chuan was the recipient of the white piece and the center of this mystery.

"This is a sacrificial formation. Bai Zi is the core, Qin Chuan is the sacrifice, and the others are the fuel, but the formation is not yet complete... What's missing? Is it me?"

Blue Sea Tideborn opened his eyes and looked at Wang Yi.

Next, he walked to each person in turn, following the order of the remaining white pieces inside the board.

Wang Yi, Qin Chuan, Lin Zhao, Chen Silu, Heavenly Mechanism Elder, Baili Tu, Li Wenchang...

When he returned to Wang Yi's position after taking the seventh step, light patterns appeared on the floor, converging into a circle. The center of the circle cracked open, revealing a black stone. The stone's surface was engraved with the word "Dream," and its reverse side with the word "Death."

He placed the black piece next to the white piece, and the remaining white pieces rotated once, stopping on the new arrangement.

Wang Yi moved his piece to the center, changing its color from white to black, while the other six pieces around it changed their color from black to white.

On the ground, dark red light patterns appeared on Wang Yi's corpse, while gray-white light patterns appeared on the other six people, converging towards Wang Yi.

"This is indeed a ritual, and it's almost at the final stage... Wang Yi is draining the others dry. When all six are drained, Wang Yi will wake up... What will he become when he wakes up from this dream? A new nightmare?!"

Blue Sea Tideborn dared not gamble; the best course of action now was to abruptly end this "ritual."

After Wang Yi finishes inhaling the drug, something unexpected will happen, and he may die on the spot.

The black stone is an important tool; if it's embedded in the core of the formation, it will most likely forcibly interrupt the ritual, the cost of which might be being stuck here forever...

Once the ritual is interrupted, this newly emerging variable will be cut off.

He chose the third method.

He stepped into the formation and grasped Wang Yi's right hand.

Graft!

What you, Wang Yi, want to do, I want to do too!

The array's light patterns began to tremble, and Wang Yi's light patterns actually began to rotate in the opposite direction, as if he were expelling them outwards!

What was vomited out was nothing other than memories—the memories of Lin Zhao and seven others. Everything they experienced in their dreams was presented in Blue Sea Tideborn's mind!

"No no no no no!!!!"

Gradually, Blue Sea Tideborn's eyes widened as he felt all sorts of terrifying experiences replaying before his eyes, making him so scared that his gall bladder almost jumped out of his chest!

Just then, the cracks in the floor at the center of the formation closed, gray-white mist rose and condensed into a vortex, from which a voice rang out.

"How about that? Pretty surprising, right? You should really enjoy seeing your comrades die like that!"

"You win, Freddy." A sense of despair Blue Sea Tideborn.

In the dream, he was nothing more than a fish to be slaughtered.

Counterattack?

It does not exist.

How can a fish on the chopping board turn the tables and kill the Butcher?

"Yes." Freddy's voice came from all directions, his laughter carrying a tearing, visceral quality. "Now you know your situation, right? You know what's best? I can erase your memory and let you do it all over again, hahahahaha!!!"

Blue Sea Tideborn stood still, his fist clenching and unclenching. "What do you want?"

"Play!"

One word almost caused Blue Sea Tideborn's Dao heart to collapse.

Then, Freddy grinned maliciously and spoke again.

"I don't want to play anymore, you can leave!"

The moment the words left his mouth, the dream shattered!

The walls and dome collapsed, and light fell on his face, real and gentle!

The Blue Sea Tideborn suddenly brought me back to my senses!

At this moment, he was standing on the edge of the Mist Zone, holding Fixed-Course Anchor Disc in his hand, with seven people lying around him, seemingly dreaming.

Suddenly, Wang Yi groaned and murmured as he woke up.

"Wang Yi!" Blue Sea Tideborn looked over quickly, and he was now experiencing a joy of reuniting with an old friend.

Moreover, this feeling is very strong.

Because of his size, he used to feel a sense of alienation from others, and he hadn't had a conversation with someone of similar size in a long time.

Wang Yi turned his head and looked at him, asking in confusion, "Who are you?"

"Have you lost your memory? Or has that painful past been automatically blocked out?"

Blue Sea Tideborn's heart sank. He reached out and helped Wang Yi up. The latter's body was very light, like a sheet of rice paper that had been drained of ink.

"Come on, I'll take you home!" Blue Sea Tideborn carried Wang Yi on his back, not knowing how he said those words, but they just came out.

That memory made him feel the same way as all seven of them, as if he were their witness and their closest family member.

He had only taken a few steps when he felt a vibration under his feet.

Looking back, the crooked iron gate was still there!

Furthermore, a new claw mark appeared on the door frame.

Three old claw marks and one new one. A strand of grayish-white silk thread hung from the new claw marks, the other end of which stretched out from the crack in the door, dragged on the ground, and wrapped around his ankle.

A sense of sorrow rose from the bottom of my heart; it felt as if I were forever trapped in this dream.

Even now, I haven't escaped the dream.

Otherwise, how could the Fixed-Course Anchor Disc not be used?

He crouched down, his heart heavy, trying to untie the thread. A dark red button was threaded through the knot, the pattern on the button exactly the same as Freddy's metal claw gauntlet.

"It all means nothing now."

The Blue Sea Tideborn makes me want to die right now.

Never before have I felt so desperate, more helpless than my incompetent husband.

Ta-da~

The button suddenly moved slightly, as if someone had tugged at it from the other end.

Blue Sea Tideborn, his face numb, was suspended by silk threads as he walked deeper into the Mist Zone, like a marionette.

After a fish has been slammed and beaten hundreds of times, even if it is still alive, it no longer wants to run away; it is only able to move out of its biological instincts.

The Blue Sea Tideborn surged, following the silk thread. The thread passed through the gray-white mist, through the withered iron wire vines, through the mountains and forests, and finally stopped in front of a door.

How long had it been? Blue Sea Tideborn didn't know; he only felt that this journey had caused him to lose a lot.

Before me was that iron gate again, crooked, rusty, with seven claw marks on the door panel.

Blue Sea Tideborn pushed open the door. The room still contained the same seven corpses, lying back in their original positions, in the exact same postures.

Wang Yi was on his back, was gone.

Blue Sea Tideborn felt a sense of emptiness behind him and almost wanted to laugh.

He's almost gone mad.

Standing at the doorway, before even stepping inside, I was already inside the room; everything felt so familiar.

The word "meaningless" is absolutely deadly, and Freddy has been creating just that kind of thing.

The enduring pain and fear would undoubtedly have a significant negative impact on the Blue Sea Tideborn, but this did not meet Freddy's expectations.

That great being has given me a task and a target, which I must complete.

"Hehe!"

Blue Sea Tideborn heard the laughter and turned his head to look.

A person was crouching in the corner of the room, wearing a tattered striped sweater covered in burn holes, and with a face Blue Sea Tideborn.

Is there any point in doing this? No, there is none.

Blue Sea Tideborn felt as if all his strength had been drained away.

Freddy stood up and spoke in a voice as clear as the Blue Sea Tideborn: "This is a dream. From the moment you stepped into the Mist Zone, you've been in my dream."

"So, Skin Marries Bone, Shentu Yulei, Wang Dalong... are they also your dreams?" Blue Sea Tideborn asked expressionlessly.

He has been observing the battlefield there for a long time.

"It's all true, but everything changed after you entered my dream. You wanted to see a flaw, so I gave you one; you wanted to win, so I let you win; you wanted to save Wang Yi, so I let you; you wanted to get out, so I made you stand on the edge of the Mist Zone. But in the end, you'll still come back to me!"

Blue Sea Tideborn fell silent for a long time before finally asking, "I want to know, how much time have I been through?"

"Eternal!"

Of course, it can't be eternal, but in dreams there's no concept of time, and without external variables interfering, Freddy can truly keep playing with the Blue Sea Tideborn forever.

However, dreams offer no new variables, making it nearly impossible to hone techniques through dreaming, as the information within dreams is quite fixed.

I agree to everything.

"I'll agree to anything you, Xu Lang, want me to do."

"Let me out!"

The Blue Sea Tideborn wept.

If she were a girl, and she made a peace sign with both hands at this moment, the effect would definitely be quite spectacular.