Dream Travel

Chapter 210 Releasing Animals
"Let me make this clear first, I'm very reasonable. If anyone is dissatisfied, you can say so directly, and I will release you." Bai Mu looked at the phantoms formed from these fragments of consciousness and said, "I'm very reasonable."

His weapon case isn't a real "Ten Thousand Souls Banner," and the more souls inside, the stronger he becomes.

Therefore, he doesn't have a great need for the collected spiritual fragments, especially since these soul fragments aren't particularly special.

This statement is also related to the current situation of these soul fragments.

They were 'victims' in a way, but Bai Mu was still willing to give them a chance.

"I have grievances."

"I'll fill you up when I have time." He glanced at Lucyella, telling her to shut up. He dealt with bad women with heavy blows; trying to run away? No way.

"Hmph." With a cold snort, Luciela had no further objections.

The remaining twenty-five phantoms had different expressions; some were demons, some were humans, and some were modified creatures.

“Hehehe, I think things are fine as they are now,” one of the demons said.

He was a demon who offended other demons, and then he was tricked by his own people and sent to certain people as a commodity. After being turned into a condensed ghost, he was harvested by the White Curtain.

Even if he's dead now, at least he's not completely dead. But if he's released, he'll most likely be dead.

Even if there aren't many opportunities to come out again?

"At least my traces won't completely disappear." The demon seemed casual: "As long as they don't disappear, there will always be a chance."

Bai Mu nodded and looked at the others.

After a while, when no one spoke, Bai Mu said first, "Those who want to deceive me, step forward first."

Of the twenty-five phantoms, sixteen took a step forward: nine were humans and seven were some kind of modified creatures.

The fact that the two demons were not among them surprised Bai Mu.

Noticing Bai Mu's gaze, the two demons chuckled. Although they came from a demon gang, as natural-born 'extraordinary' beings, they possessed knowledge that was difficult for humans to access.

Furthermore, given that the White Curtain had previously used them as cannon fodder, they knew that in their current situation, it would be difficult not to pledge their loyalty.

As long as they cannot escape their current predicament, they will be completely controlled by others, just like some great demons whose true names have been discovered.

Therefore, they have no reason to think about deceiving Bai Mu at this moment.

But they won't warn the other 'kind' of this, and sure enough, we'll soon see some fun.

"We'll talk about the rest later. You guys make up your reasons first."

Bai Mu sat atop the weapon crate, chuckling as he watched the gloomy-faced phantoms.

He shouldn't be angry in this situation; Lucy and Ella even tried to lie to him before.

"Tell me in detail how you want to lie to me and why you want to lie to me. I'm quite curious."

He gave these fragments of consciousness a choice: keep them and keep them in the box, or release them if they didn't want to stay.

"Five minutes, I'll start talking in five minutes. If you don't want to talk, I'll just release you."

Bai Mu picked up the white screen to collect and read the downloaded novel; five minutes was a very short time.

"Those who are willing to express their opinions, please take a step forward."

The few people who had undergone the transformation didn't move. Bai Mu stared at them for a while: "Do you want to die?"

"..." They didn't speak. Bai Mu nodded, extracted their mental fragments from the weapon box, and released them.

Thinking of something, he put on sunglasses with dream-eroding properties, and surprisingly, he could directly see the fragments of his mind.

Although they are called fragments, they are actually in the form of 'ghosts'. The craftsman explained to him that there is not much difference between soul fragments and spirit fragments.

The reason for the different names lies in the amount of soul content.

The few fragments of spirit quickly dissipated in the current environment, and that small amount of soul was not enough to fully contain the spirit of the two modified humans.

Before the mental fragments completely dissipated, Bai Mu conducted another test, attempting to merge several mental fragments together... but failed.

The merged fragments of spirit dissipated even faster, and neither side gained strength.

His idea of ​​synthesizing the fragments of his mind could no longer proceed. He took off his sunglasses, and Bai Mu looked at the remaining nine phantoms: "Alright, it's your turn."

"What other reason could there be? We just want to survive."

One of the phantoms spoke up, saying that they were not good people in the first place, and that no one had ever said that the victim was necessarily innocent.

There are also many vicious and ruthless individuals among them. They are naturally unwilling to be controlled by others, so when faced with the white curtain, they thought of testing it first.

The test requires a lie, but the white curtain didn't follow the script at all, directly shattering the plan.

"Don't want to die? Fine, you can keep it." Bai Mu nodded. There was nothing more to say to someone like that; he'd just use them until they died.

He doesn't summon these phantoms most of the time, only when necessary.

As an adult, he really couldn't have it all at this point.

"what about you?"

“I don’t plan to live anymore,” one of them said. “I have no regrets in my life, so you can keep me if you want, or throw me away if you don’t.”

"What's the reason?"

"I've avenged my great grudge." The man who spoke seemed indifferent. He was a loner to begin with, and after avenging his great grudge, he was captured, or rather, he surrendered voluntarily.

Everything should have been over, but before his execution, he was switched and sent to a strange place where he underwent a painful transformation, becoming a condensed ghost.

He went from being a death row inmate to a 'commodity,' but without any further processing, thus preserving his ego.

"Okay, you can stay too. You'll be sleeping most of the time here anyway."

Bai Mu looked at the others and learned a lot of information from them, which gave him a certain understanding of these mental fragments.

In summary, of the twenty-five fragments of the mind, apart from the seven fragments of the cyborgs that were released, and a few normal ones, the rest are all villains.

According to the information provided by the remaining cyborgs, the released fragments of spirit were 'death warriors'.

They receive brainwashing education from a young age, and in the process, they are also reformed to become loyal weapons of the organization.

As for why the remaining two cyborgs are different, it's because they were recruited later in life; specifically, they were involuntarily sent to the alternate dream world to be used as materials.

Those seven cyborgs did so entirely voluntarily. After becoming condensed ghosts, they were sent back to their original organizations to continue serving them and contributing their talents.

After learning these things, Bai Mu felt that the price of his head was about to increase again.

However, Bai Mu said that these illegal bounties were not a big problem, since they were illegal and the number of bounties would not affect his activities in the open.

Anyone who acts rashly in broad daylight is attacking innocent civilians, and his act of killing in self-defense is justifiable. As for a legal bounty... he hasn't done anything heinous in reality, so there's no reason for him to be subject to such a legal bounty.

Ultimately, the White Curtain retained sixteen of the twenty-five fragments of the spirit.

"Are you wasting your time?" Luciela, who hadn't been unsummoned by the white curtain, sat in the passenger seat.

"What waste? This is called selection."

"Hehehe, it's because you're not good enough, isn't it?" Luciela laughed lightly. "I can't maintain so many illusions at once, so I need to select them."

"If you know the answer, don't talk nonsense. Get off the bus."

"Huh? What do you want to do?"

"I'll hit you." Bai Mu rubbed his fists together. "Let me see how strong you are now."

“I haven’t changed.” Luciela glanced at the white curtain. After being ‘contained’ by this guy, the only time she became stronger was when she ate her own corpse. After that, she hasn’t changed at all.

The reasons White Curtain is giving now are flimsy.

"I will provide you with demonic energy."

“It’s because you’ve gotten stronger.” Luciela glanced at the white curtain, her gaze settling on the weapon case. “What form do you need me to use?”

"Of course it's awakening."

Bai Mu took the Dream Eater Greatsword out of the weapon case, his eyes turned silver, and Luciela's body underwent a dramatic change, instantly reverting to her awakened form.

With the support of Bai Mu's demonic energy, her awakened form is stronger, but her appearance still makes Bai Mu somewhat uncomfortable.

Its body shape is okay, a bit deformed, but at least it has a human-shaped torso. It's just that the head is really uninteresting.

"Has it started?" Luciela's eyes were fixed on the white screen.

"start--"

The instant Bai Mu finished speaking, Luciela acted, striking almost instantly, her massive claws slamming Bai Mu into the ground.

She cannot generate any real hostility or intention to attack the White Curtain, but that does not prevent her from maintaining this state. As long as the White Curtain is temporarily unblocked, she can take action without delay.

So be it, she was ambushed. The fact that she didn't bite back at the person who beheaded her shows she still has feelings for them.

Beneath the sharp claws, Bai Mu held the Dream Eater Greatsword in one hand, his eyes having turned from silver to gold.

"?" Luciela stared wide-eyed at the suppressed White Curtain. She didn't intend to kill White Curtain, but breaking a few of its bones was still within her reach.

But Bai Mu actually withstood her attack. Although he struggled to raise his arm, he managed to block it.

The white curtain, which had withstood the pressure, gave her a provocative smile.

Luciela's face was filled with savagery as she nimbly swept her tail across the room, its sharp jaws wide open; she was serious.

The white curtain of demonic energy erupted, deflecting Luciela's downward-pressing arm. The Dream Eater Greatsword parried to the side, using the force of the tail's lash to retreat.

With the Spirit Pivot in hand, he fired a barrage of shots at the other tail that was lashing out, the lightning-infused shotgun attack causing the tail to twitch uncontrollably.

Lucyella roared furiously, her claws snapping together as she lunged at the white curtain.

With all escape routes blocked, the white curtain surged forward, lunging into Luciela's abdomen. On her stomach, a sharp mouth opened, its menacing teeth snapping down at him.

This terrifying catgirl with many mouths doesn't have many weaknesses; no matter what angle you attack from, you're likely to be countered by her ever-present sharp mouth.

Facing the biting maw, Bai Mu raised the Spirit Pivot, and green lightning rapidly gathered, unleashing a lightning ball with a diameter of over two meters.

"Ugh—ah!" The enraged Luciela was blasted into the air and crashed to the ground, where she began to convulse. Although she was physically strong, she still couldn't recover quickly from the attack of lightning.

But her attacks didn't stop; she could still launch attacks from any part of her body that could move, especially her two flexible tails.

However, the white curtain was too small a target, and its speed was too fast, which prevented her attacks from achieving their intended effect.

When two sides are evenly matched, size can be an advantage or a disadvantage.

The white curtain is small and may not be able to withstand an attack from a large opponent, but for large beings, their attacks are difficult to hit.

Even the strongest attack is ineffective if it fails to hit the target.

Lucy was panting heavily after being repeatedly attacked from above and below the white curtain, her strength seemingly boundless; it was pure rage.

While White Curtain continued to search for an opening, Luciela, enraged, suddenly deactivated her awakening, reverted to human form, grabbed White Curtain's weapon case, and slammed it down on him.

The heavy weapon case and the Dream Eater Greatsword collided, and the ground beneath White Curtain's feet shattered due to the immense force.

"That's enough." Seeing that Lucy was getting impatient, Bai Mu immediately called a halt.

But Luciela didn't stop. After parrying twice, White Curtain stopped indulging her and blocked the weapon box that was thrown at her again.

Ling Shu's gun barrel spewed out scattered lightning, and the intense electric shock restricted her movements.

The berserk catgirl tried to break free, but Bai Mu reached out and pressed her to the ground. Bai Mu patted her face and said, "I said it's okay!"

“…What’s wrong with you?” Luciela struggled a little, somewhat unwilling to give up.

If it were the previous White Curtain, without imposing any restrictions on her, a one-on-one battle would never have reached this level.

Especially with the support of Bai Mu's demonic energy, she possessed such strength that she could definitely have achieved a triple kill when she was ambushed back then.

But only a short time has passed, and even with the extra demonic energy supporting her, she can no longer defeat Bai Mu.

"I've gotten stronger, and it seems pretty good so far." Bai Mu released his hands from Luciela's body, looking pleased.

Although this mist enhancement did not double his strength, his foundation was already quite strong. Even if it was only half as much, it would still be much better than when his physical strength was doubled before.

Moreover, this upgrade wasn't just half; he guessed correctly, the greater the impact within the dream world, the more mist he would acquire.

Helping Marius deliver packages...that's the right thing to do.

"Is it related to the Otherworldly Dream?" Luciela immediately thought of the Otherworldly Dream.

She didn't know whether Bai Mu was getting stronger or not, but such a significant increase at once was highly unusual.

"Otherwise, why would I be so keen on finding Yi Meng?" Bai Mu didn't deny it, and Lucy Ella was tempted, but Bai Mu dispelled her little thoughts.

"Don't overthink it. It's a personal ability, and it has nothing to do with you."

"As long as your demonic energy becomes stronger, that's fine." Luciela stood up. The demonic energy support from the white curtain had disappeared, but the lingering feeling still made her savor the experience.

She felt that if Bai Mu's demonic aura were stronger, her awakened form could change further, and what would her state above the Abyss would be like?

She wanted to test the power of those who surpassed the Abyss.

(End of this chapter)