Eternal Night

Chapter 888 The Second Nightmare Arrives

Wu Pifu was released after being locked up for ten minutes. He continued eating his lunch as if nothing had happened, and then, still expressionless with dead fish eyes, began to observe his surroundings.

Only kindergartens.

Outside the window, there was only a vast expanse of white nothingness, not emptiness, but nothingness itself, the kind where there was absolutely nothing.

However, everyone around, whether they were children or teachers, seemed completely unconcerned.

Nightmare composed herself, walked over with a smile, and clapped her hands, saying, "Little ones, it's time for your afternoon nap. If you're naughty, the dirty things under your bed will take you away."

"...Oh, the next one is the dirty stuff under the bed?"

Wu Pifu nodded silently, then his lips trembled as he heard a voice in Nightmare's ear: "What would happen here if I killed you right now?"

Nightmare shuddered, but a cold smile appeared on its face.

Wu Pifu remained silent, sensing the surroundings for a moment before saying, "It seems this won't work. This space is extremely restrictive for both of us. If we're deemed not human, something terrible will happen... So, you'd better not be alone, or I can kill you in less than three seconds."

Nightmare was convinced that what Wu Pifu said was true. In fact, the so-called three seconds referred to the entire process of Wu Pifu discovering it, rushing close, killing it, moving away from it, and pretending to be innocent. If it were face to face, it might not have survived for even a second.

A toddler around five years old... but he is the pinnacle of martial arts, capable of achieving divine and indestructible feats. Want to know more?

Nightmare didn't speak, but lowered its head slightly. Its body subconsciously moved closer to the children and other employees. Wu Pifu ignored it and walked past it peacefully, following the children to the nap dormitory area.

Wu Pifu wasn't in a hurry, because his companion was safe and sound, which proved that Nightmare had to defeat him, the taunting enemy, first. He was very curious about this space and also had many questions about Nightmare.

Is the nightmare inherently intelligent, or was it forcibly anchored as a human after arriving in this space, thus acquiring intelligence?

If it's not anchored to a human, then what is a nightmare?

Although Wu Pifu didn't care much about the various developments of the Gaia humans and disliked using his brain, it didn't mean he was brainless. In fact, he did care about the Gaia humans' information gathering about the Dream World, and he would generally review the newly collected information every time he returned to the Land of Redemption.

Of all this information, the most mysterious, and even less complete than the source, is only one: Nightmare!
Before the Land of Redemption existed, Nightmares were the greatest threat to all Night Watchers entering the Dream World, without exception. At that time, the greatest fear of establishing a Sanctuary was Nightmare attacks. If a Night Watcher stayed in a world without a Sanctuary for too long, Nightmares would arise in that world, or even attack from other Dream Worlds through Nightmares.

Until the Land of Redemption appeared and the weekend ended, the Nightmare seemed to have disappeared in an instant. Many Night Watchers rarely encountered Nightmares in the Dream World, or even almost never. The last Nightmare Wu Pifu encountered was a Nightmare that had been captured and modified by ancient civilizations such as the Heavenly Court. At that time, he was teleported to the Lost Lands, so he didn't really understand Nightmares.

The nightmare that appeared this time was actually a very good opportunity. It was humanoid, intelligent, and could communicate and talk. Therefore, Wu Pifu did not immediately try to kill the nightmare. Even if there were people around, he had plenty of ways to kill it. Even a toothpick or a splinter would be enough.

As I said before, the pinnacle of Chinese martial arts is the one that can withstand divine attacks and remain unscathed. Would you like to learn what it means to kill with a mere flying flower or a plucked leaf? Let alone killing, wouldn't you like to see how flying flowers and plucked leaves can shatter steel and slice through vehicles?
Wu Pifu was gathering information, trying to find out more about the Nightmare. If possible, he hoped there would be some new rules that would allow him and the Nightmare to have a truth-or-dare challenge or something...

When Nightmare revealed that there was more than one Nightmare in the Shattered Domain, Wu Pifu actually felt a sense of relief.

He wanted to see if the arrival of the second nightmare would cause further changes in this space.

Nightmare and Wu Pifu each had their own thoughts. While Nightmare was terrified, Wu Pifu walked into the bedroom with a deadpan expression and slammed the door shut. Only then did Nightmare realize that he was drenched in sweat.

(Life is truly disgusting!!)

Nightmare wore a professional smile, but inside it was in a terrible state, and the terrible mood itself made it even worse.

(Although I have absolutely no recollection of what I was like before being anchored as a life form, I at least know that existence itself is wrong! Reality is cancer! Reality plus existence is a cancer of error that keeps expanding and will completely destroy everything!!)
Nightmare, filled with the emotions unique to intelligent beings, and particularly with resentment, returned to the staff dormitory in an even worse mood. However, it then began to anticipate the scene of Wu Pifu being taken away by the dirty thing under the bed.

That would be perfect.

Wu Pifu lay on a toddler bed. As the kindergarten staff turned off the lights, the room was plunged into darkness. Then, the children's murmurs began to rise. It was nap time, after all; kids have boundless energy, and now that the teacher was gone, they were all talking. But Wu Pifu observed carefully; no one sat up or stood up from the bed, and no one got out. Every child lay obediently in bed. Rather than saying they were well-behaved, perhaps they were afraid of something…

Dirt under the bed?
Although Wu Pifu didn't remember being scared like that when he was a child, similar legends or urban tales about frightening children existed in many places and cultures, such as the Tooth Fairy, the dirty things under the bed, and the idea of ​​closing your eyes when it gets dark...

Wu Pifu sat up abruptly, and the children on the surrounding beds all looked at him. It seemed that some of them who were close to him opened their mouths as if they wanted to say something, but Wu Pifu's expressionless face clearly frightened them. The children watched cautiously as Wu Pifu got off the bed and stood by the bedside.

The room was completely silent, and Wu Pifu simply sensed the surroundings silently, without making a sound for a moment.

Suddenly, Wu Pifu felt a strange, chilling cold rapidly accumulating under the bed. Something indescribable had indeed appeared there, but the speed seemed rather slow…

Wu Pifu thought for a moment, then bent down and crawled under the bed. This immediately caused a collective gasp, and the children dared not speak, keeping the room completely silent.

As Wu Pifu crawled under the bed, he saw a white mist appear in the space beneath it. This mist seemed to come out of nowhere and expanded the space under the bed, making the originally cramped space much larger than it appeared. Wu Pifu crawled in, covering at least fifty meters, but he neither encountered any walls nor any obstacles. When he looked back, he only saw a hazy gray mist.

"I wonder if the filth under the bed was originally in this space, or if it's like a solitary confinement cell, where it appears whenever I hear it and subconsciously feel its presence?"

Wu Pifu muttered to himself, "If it's the former, then there's nothing I can do. If it's the latter... then could there be a space where you get a punch and get a truthful answer?"
Just as Wu Pifu was lost in thought, suddenly his ten fingers, which were crawling on the ground, stood up abruptly and pulled at the ground like a piece of cloth. His body moved several meters to the side, and where he had been, several indistinct limbs of mist grabbed at him and thudded to the ground. However, there were no scratches on the ground. These limbs turned into mist again when they hit the ground.

Wu Pifu watched silently. At this moment, three more limbs appeared around the spot where he was lying. However, this time he did not move away to avoid them. Instead, as the limbs grabbed at him, he slightly tilted his body, kicked one limb, and elbowed another. Only the remaining limb pulled at his arm.

With two crisp thuds, Wu Pifu shattered two of the misty limbs, but the remaining limb grabbed his shoulder, and in the next instant, a tremendous force pulled Wu Pifu and rolled him into the mist.

This power was immense, even surpassing the full strength of Wu Pifu's five-year-old body, which he could currently wield even with his indestructible divine form. The closer Wu Pifu got to the mist, the more peculiar a feeling arose within him.

Once he is drawn into the fog, he may lose his human form, or even his human senses. He will undergo unimaginable processes and changes, all of which he will no longer be able to predict...

Bang!
Wu Pifu shrugged, his arm coiling around the limb like a soft-boned snake. With a single jerk of his arm, he shattered it into mist, finally stopping the immense pulling force. He rolled around under the bed a few times, now only inches away from the impenetrable depths of the fog.

At this moment, a large number of limbs began to condense where he was lying, and these limbs all reached out to grab him.

Thud, thud, thud thud...

A series of muffled thuds erupted from under the bed.

Meanwhile, Nightmare, restless in the staff break room, was overwhelmed by a mix of emotions as a tangible living being, and also feared that Wu Pifu would kill it...

Fear? Fear of death?

What unfamiliar words!

Just then, there was a knock on the door of the staff break room. Nightmare was startled, but immediately ran to the door with a look of delight. When he opened the door, he saw a muscular, middle-aged man standing outside.

"...Why did I become a sentient being?" the muscular middle-aged man asked in a low voice, his face grim.

Nightmare One waved its hand and followed the muscular middle-aged man into the corridor. It was the time when the children were taking their afternoon nap, and there was no one in the corridor. Nightmare One was about to speak when it suddenly froze and saw that the view outside the balcony was no longer a vast expanse of white, but rather some buildings and streets.

Nightmare Number Two whispered, "I brought new rules of contamination... going home and leaving school, but him, Wu Pifu..."

“No home.”

(End of this chapter)