The ragged sound of breathing seemed inexplicably loud in the night, as though a monster were breathing.
A damp breath blew against his face, as if there really were some monster breathing beside him.
Ma Xiaobei, who had just sat up, suddenly went cold all over. His whole body stiffened.
The scene he had just dreamed, along with every horror he had encountered in movies, comics, and games, surged into his mind and plunged him into an abyss of fear.
What was breathing right in front of him? He really could not let his thoughts run wild. The more he thought, the more terrifying it became—and with his vivid imagination, that was especially true now.
Had a tiger escaped from the zoo and slipped into his room?
A faint, rank smell rose, but Ma Xiaobei dismissed the idea at once. That was child's play!
Could it be Qiongqi, the monster from the game he had been playing lately?
Or a Zombie? This time, a movie came to mind.
As he sank into endless terrifying speculation, the Illusion Realm around him seemed to keep changing with every detail he imagined.
Something seemed to be taking shape, drawing closer and closer. The breath blowing toward him now reeked of rot.
Damn it, stop thinking, stop thinking!
Ma Xiaobei quickly noticed what was happening—how his own imaginings were changing things.
He fought desperately to stop his thoughts from running wild, but how could he?
The mind had never obeyed anyone. The more you told yourself not to think of something, the more your thoughts strayed toward it...
And so it was now. The harder Ma Xiaobei forced himself not to think, the more distinct the image in his mind became.
*It stinks. Is that the smell of a corpse... Is there just a