Eternal Night

Chapter 893 Attack
The third nightmare has finally arrived!
Nightmare Number One and Nightmare Number Two wiped away their tears as they looked at Nightmare Number Three, who was completely bewildered.

The manifestation of Nightmare Number Three is a long-haired, black-stockinged career woman who looks quite pretty, but her completely bewildered expression makes her look rather eerie or comical.

"I'm here...? And the rules I brought are: spring outing, amusement park, overnight stay, and Wu Pifu doesn't have a room... wait, why are you all looking at me like I've seen a ghost?"

Nightmare Number One and Number Two were on the verge of tears. They looked at each other and saw in each other's eyes a resolute determination to kill Number Three.

Of course, this was their first time becoming life and human, but they still carried the mission of nightmares in essence, so they didn't take action for the time being. Instead, they began to tell Nightmare Number Three about the special nature of this space and its strange and terrifying aspects.

"...Wait, what's wrong with you two? Have you been reverse-contaminated? What the hell is going on?"

Nightmare Number Three roared loudly, his face filled with disbelief.

Nightmare Number One and Nightmare Number Two quickly covered her mouth. Nightmare Number One said seriously, "Keep your voice down. If this space is treated as a non-human, it will explode immediately, literally."

Nightmare Number Two immediately added, "You're new here. You'll know how scared you are after you've been here for a night."

"Fear? What's that?" Nightmare Number Three looked completely bewildered. In fact, besides being bewildered, she could hardly make any other expression.

Number One and Number Two immediately revealed schadenfreude and pride at arriving first.

"No, what are you so proud of?" Number Three was even more confused, especially with the emergence of emotions, which left her at a loss.

On the other side, Wu Pifu also noticed the expansion of this space. It was no longer just a few blocks, but almost half a city, or even the entire city.

The first nightmare could only manifest as the size of a kindergarten, the second nightmare manifested as several city blocks, and the third nightmare expanded to the size of half a city to a city. This phenomenon is quite interesting.

It's not that the three nightmares are vastly different in strength. According to Wu Pifu's conversation with them, the nightmares wandering in the Shattered Domain, according to the Gaia humans' classification, are all level seven or eight nightmares, belonging to the "synapse" level of nothingness. Their strength is not judged by the dream world's system because it depends on the concentration of pollution, but in general, their "strength" is about the same.

The reason why the three nightmares have such different ranges of changes to this space is because of the way their pollution fills the gaps in this space. The pollution of the first nightmare is needed to form this space, the second nightmare has spare pollution to expand the space, and the third nightmare has even more spare pollution, which is why this sense of hierarchy is formed.

Compared to him, who was born human and had the nightmare instinct to know that he had to play the role of a human to enter this place, other outsiders were fine if they were human, but if they were non-human or alien, although they would be anchored as human, their ferocious nature would not change. Those who came in and started causing trouble would almost certainly die as soon as they showed their faces.

This space felt to Wu Pifu like a strange, surreal variation of his own "I Am Just a Common Man" theory.

Fortunately, the addition of the three Nightmares so far only expands the scope and does not add any other rules.

"...It's not that we don't want to add rules that are beneficial to us, it's just that your special nature is too powerful and stable. It's difficult for our pollution concentration alone to change its underlying structure. Perhaps more than ten synaptic-level nightmares could do it, but the entire Shattered Domain probably doesn't have that many synaptic nightmares. It would take at least 0.3 levels to reach that many."

These were indeed questions, but Nightmare Number One and Number Two generously excluded them from the Q&A. Of course, questions about the negative nature of the subject were not allowed, so Wu Pifu did not ask them either.

According to Nightmare, Nightmares only truly increase in the Zero Point Three level dream world. This is why the core ability of the Zero Point Three originators is to hide themselves through self-closing. Because from Zero Point Three onwards, the concentration of pollution, or rather the exchange ratio between nothingness and reality, is more suitable for the existence of Nightmares.

In short, Wu Pifu spent the whole day chatting and joking with Nightmare. On one hand, Wu Pifu asked some questions that didn't touch on the core issues in order to understand Nightmare and the dream world. On the other hand, Nightmare Number One and Number Two actually started asking about human matters, but none of them touched on the core issues. They were just about how to manage emotions, how to treat people, and how to have fun.

Nightmare Number Three was still confused. For the first time, it felt its own self and emotions as a living being, which made it feel terrible. However, this novel feeling of self was completely different from the feeling when it was a nightmare. While it felt terrible, it was also filled with a strange sense of sensation.

To put it simply, it is following the same path as No. 1 and No. 2, slowly but irreversibly transforming from nightmare cognition to cognition of individual life.

The day passed just like that, and no new outsiders appeared throughout the afternoon. But the fact that eight outsiders had already died was alarming enough. In addition to some being mangled to pieces, there were also some symbols of the dead outsiders still standing in the town, which had caused panic among everyone in the town.

Indeed, the number of people in this space has increased due to the rise of nightmares, and their information is gradually becoming more complete, including their own worldviews, identities, and life memories. "...But you must be careful."

Nightmare Number One said to Wu Pifu, "Not all outsiders will be exposed immediately. Although most outsiders will subconsciously think that this is an illusion, a strange tale of rules, or a fantasy space or some other bizarre space, this is not it. That's why they die instantly. However, there are definitely some cautious outsiders who will lie in wait and gradually explore this place. The scariest thing is that if they find out that you and I are the core, they will try to kill us, because if either of us dies, this space will be dispelled."

(They...are becoming increasingly afraid of death.)
Wu Pifu didn't say those words aloud; he simply nodded to indicate that he understood.

Nightmare Number Two, sensing that Wu Pifu hadn't grasped the gravity of the situation, immediately warned, "Be careful! Although this space belongs to the fifth category of existence, it's not without its limitations. At least we remember that Transcendent-level beings can unleash a small portion of their extraordinary power here. While Origin-level beings can't utilize their special abilities here, they will immediately know most of the rules due to their closed information loop and infinite cycle. As for higher-level beings..."

Nightmare didn't continue, and Wu Pifu didn't ask any more questions.

Although the two sides have reached a tacit understanding and are cooperating, they both know that they are absolute enemies with no possibility of reconciliation. This is just a quiet period before the final battle.

As Wu Pifu watched the dwindling number of parents and children at the kindergarten gate, he waved to the three nightmares and said, "I'm going out for a bit. I'll be back after eight o'clock to help you clean up the strange things in the kindergarten."

The three nightmares remained silent, watching Wu Pifu walk out of the kindergarten alone.

After a long pause, Nightmare Number Three muttered, "He's a pretty nice guy."

Nightmare Number One immediately agreed, saying, "Yes, he's a good person. He keeps his promises. It's great to have an opponent like him."

Nightmare Number Two chimed in, "At least until the very last moment, we don't have to worry about him pulling any tricks... I mean, the rules for the spring outing are a piece of crap, you're throwing us into a fire!"

Nightmare Number Three stubbornly retorted, "How would I know what's going on here... At most, I'll answer a few more questions and get him to clean up our place too..."

Nightmare Number One said in a tone of exasperation, "That's all we know. If he digs it all out, aren't we just waiting to die? I'm telling you..."

The three nightmares started bickering, completely unaware of just how bizarre their current state and thoughts were.

On the other side, Wu Pifu walked out of the kindergarten. He looked around and randomly chose a quiet street to walk down.

Because of the strange phenomena exposed by the outsiders during the day, three blocks were sealed off, with a large number of police, armed police, and even soldiers patrolling and guarding them. In contrast, apart from these three blocks, the neighboring blocks became sparsely populated. Now, before it is even completely dark, there are no pedestrians here. Ordinary people have fled and are hiding. The government may even be preparing to organize a relocation operation.

As Wu Pifu walked into the deserted street, and then turned into an even more secluded alley, the person he was waiting for finally arrived.

This was a strong, muscular man dressed in simple construction worker's clothes. He was nearly 1.8 meters tall and had a fierce face. As soon as Wu Pifu stepped into the alley, he immediately strode forward and rushed into the alley as well, blocking the entrance.

Having lured him out, Wu Pifu naturally had no intention of running away. He turned to the muscular man and said, "You're very perceptive. Are you also from the martial arts lineage? Zhenwu? Or something else? Can we communicate?"

Unexpectedly, the muscular man only revealed a ferocious smile and said, "This space is a super treasure! It even annihilated the avatar of the high-level being I brought in. What a treasure! If I get it, I can roam freely throughout this vast world... Come on, hand over control of this space, and I'll spare your life."

Wu Pifu was slightly taken aback, and he shook his head with a wry smile.

In the next instant, the strong man took a step and covered ten meters, then stabbed a small knife toward Wu Pifu's temple.

He... never intended to spare Wu Pifu's life from the very beginning!

Then, the tip of the knife was pinched between two little fingers.

(End of this chapter)