The Otherworld?

The next moment, a vertical slit opened in the black sun.

It was like a demon opening its eye to gaze upon this world.

With the appearance of the black sun, everything in the Otherworld grew darker, even beginning to distort.

It seemed to radiate not sunlight, but endless shadows.

Su Chen stared into that black eye, his mind beginning to drift.

Just then, the wind picked up.

Countless banks of smog rolled like waves, surging forward.

The wind chilled Su Chen's sweat-soaked back, snapping him out of his daze.

He hurriedly averted his gaze.

At the same time, the countless goats beside him, which had been quietly nibbling at grass roots, raised their heads and looked forward in unison.

At the end of the road, a black figure gradually emerged.

Upon closer inspection, its body looked like that of an eight-year-old child.

Yet a pair of enormous goat horns grew from its head.

They looked grotesquely out of proportion.

By then, the waves of smog, stained black by the sun, had surged up to the shadowy figure.

The figure spread its arms, and the smog flowed like rivers emptying into the sea.

It merged directly into the figure's body.

As the mist poured in, the shadowy figure grew more solid.

Watching this, Su Chen couldn't help frowning.

This world was far too bizarre.

Everything that happened defied his understanding.

After a long while, the waves of smog gradually dispersed.

The smog throughout the Goat Enclosure seemed to have thinned.

Then the shadowy figure moved. It reached out with its right hand, picked a nearby goat, and patted its head.

The goat seemed to have received some extraordinary reward.

An excited expression appeared on its face.

Then the goat turned around and approached Su Chen along the path with short, quick steps.

As it drew closer, Su Chen could make out its demonic pupils.

Reflected in them was his own face, drenched in anxious sweat.

Suddenly, a lion's roar resounded through heaven and earth.

Su Chen's eyes flew open.

A sky full of stars greeted him.

He scrambled upright, gasping for breath.

The dream had been so real that he was dazed for a moment.

It took him a long while to calm his pounding heart.

"Why did I have a dream like that? Did it mean something?"

He muttered under his breath.

After thinking it over for a long time, Su Chen came up with a rough theory.

He based it on the information recorded in the rules.

"It" was attracted to light and would emerge from shadows.

Its temperament was like a child's.

The horned shadow he had seen at the end of his dream might have been "its" true form.

Then there was the scene of the figure devouring the smog stained black by the sun.

Perhaps "it" could draw some mysterious power from the Otherworld.

That would also explain why "it" kept growing stronger, even gradually beginning to warp the rules.

As for the Otherworld, if the smog stained by that black sun could increase "its" strength...

Didn't that suggest the Otherworld might have existed before "it," rather than being a space "it" had created?

"It" might have fallen into the Otherworld by accident and been corrupted, becoming what it was now.

If that was true, then this Zoo was even more dangerous than he had thought!

After all, he had actually been dragged into the Otherworld in his dream!

It seemed he had to escape as soon as possible.

Su Chen took out his phone to check the time and found it was still a little too early.

So he simply took out the rules he had on him and began studying them to pass the time.

The real reason was that he didn't dare sleep again.

What if he got dragged into the Otherworld once more?

Meanwhile, the viewers in Dragon Country's livestream were rather puzzled.

"Why did Su Chen look so frightened after waking up just now? Did he have a nightmare?"

"Maybe, but what I'm curious about is that he wasn't this scared even when he faced all those dangers during the day. What on earth did he dream about?"

"Did you hear what he whispered just now? There might be some hidden secret here."

"You people from Dragon Country are such cowards. A dream was enough to scare him like that? We from Sakura Country would never be so spineless!"

"Right, you wouldn't. Your chosen one died ages ago, after all. He never even got the chance to experience the rest!"

The viewers in the livestream had no idea what Su Chen had dreamed about.

If they had seen that scene too, they certainly wouldn't have been so relaxed.

Inside the Zoo.

The night deepened.

Suddenly, a strange sound caught Su Chen's attention.

A clip-clop came from the deserted road in the distance.

It sounded like an animal's hooves striking the stone paving.

Something abruptly occurred to Su Chen, and he turned around in alarm.

He saw a goat approaching from the pitch-black end of the road-a snow-white goat without a single hair of another color.

In the moonlight, the goat looked almost holy.

Its elegant steps struck the bluestone slabs with crisp clicks.

But to Su Chen, they sounded like pounding drums.

"Why has a goat actually shown up? Was what I saw in the dream real?"

He was utterly shocked!

Before long, the goat reached him.

It lifted its head and looked at Su Chen.

Meeting its gaze, Su Chen thought he could see a hint of mockery in its eyes.

Am I still dreaming? How could a goat have a mocking look in its eyes?

Su Chen's mind was full of questions.

The man and the goat remained at a standstill for a long time.

Finally, the goat turned and walked into the Lion Enclosure.

The moment it stepped through the gate, its body began swelling rapidly.

An instant later, it became a White Lion.

A White Lion that held its head high, brimming with majesty.

The sight left Su Chen reeling again.

Goats could actually turn into White Lions!

Just then, something stirred in Su Chen's mind, and he remembered something important.

Based on what he had experienced during the day...

When there were five White Lions in the Lion Enclosure, it lost its purifying effect.

Now that the goat had become a White Lion, didn't that mean the Lion Enclosure had temporarily lost its effect?

"Holy shit, 'it' has way too many tricks!"

Su Chen was utterly speechless.

But complaints aside, he moved swiftly.

Knowing he couldn't stay here for long, he hurried off toward the Aquarium.

On the way, Su Chen checked the time on his phone: 12:29.

Fortunately, the timing was just right.

There were no streetlights along the road, leaving it very dark.

Su Chen could only stumble forward by the dim moonlight.

Suddenly, he noticed some figures among the distant trees.

Su Chen focused his gaze and looked carefully, discovering a group of people in work uniforms.

Judging by their build, the person closest to him looked a little like Iron Pakistan's chosen one.

Looks like those chosen ones weren't all wiped out. Some survived, but they've all put on black work uniforms. It looks like they have no chance of escaping the Zoo now.

I'd better avoid attracting their attention so nothing else goes wrong.

That was what Su Chen thought.

Then he crouched low and used the holly by the roadside as cover, making it safely through that stretch of road.

He didn't attract the attention of anyone in the woods.

Before long, Su Chen reached the Aquarium.

He checked the time again, confirming that it was past half past midnight.

He pushed open the doors and walked inside.