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Chapter 225 Nightmare Center
"Wow, that's amazing!" Gu Zhaoning was dumbfounded.

No, this can't even be described as amazing! Su Xingwan was stunned by this scene. Could superpowers really be this strong? But the popular clips she watched online all seemed more like magic tricks that didn't require any special techniques.

The spear she made herself and the gun she had gone through so much trouble to get her now seemed like a joke.

Moreover, the monster that had tormented her for almost a year was destroyed in the blink of an eye. So what about the pain and despair she had experienced?
Su Xingwan was speechless for a moment.

“Not this one.” Chen Xuan frowned.

Only Lin Qing heard his muttering to himself, "What does that mean?"

“It’s not a shadow demon. With this little bit of spiritual energy, it wouldn’t even be good enough to be a low-level demon outside.” Chen Xuan looked up at the gloomy sky. “Besides, the nightmare shows no signs of ending. We need to keep looking.”

Lin Qing turned around and asked, "Su Xingwan, do you encounter multiple monsters at the same time in your dreams?"

"Uh... I haven't noticed. Often, just one is enough to make me wish I were dead," the other person replied.

"It's alright, just keep looking." Chen Xuan glanced at the car that had been cut into parts, a thought suddenly striking him. "Do you know how to steal cars?"

"Stealing sounds awful!" Lin Qing said, dissatisfied. "That's called technical intrusion!"

"Okay, so you can hack into a car, right?"

"It depends on how many electronic components it has."

Chen Xuan chose a tram, skillfully smashed the side window with a punch, and unlocked the door from the inside. "Try this one."

Lin Qing removed the cover from the driver's seat, found the hardware interface, connected it to the system, and started the car in a few seconds.

"Get in the car," Chen Xuan said to the other two. "We'll search as we drive."

Faced with their series of highly professional actions, Gu Zhaoning became somewhat insecure. "Dr. Chen... what did you do before?"

"Working at a fast food restaurant."

"Ah...I see."

"Oh, I see!" Su Xingwan sighed, rubbing her forehead. It's true that working on the street can expose you to a lot of miscellaneous things, but that doesn't include stealing cars, okay? Her friend has a very good personality and upbringing, but he's been too well protected by his family.

Lin Qing drove aimlessly along the city's main streets, while Chen Xuan continued to use the Heavenly Cloud Technique to scan the spiritual energy reactions of the demons. By that evening, they had dealt with at least four monsters.

"I wish I had your abilities," Su Xingwan exclaimed. "I could kill monsters one by one, two by two, and even nightmares would be this satisfying!"

Seeing Chen Xuan eliminate the monsters that terrified her one by one, her long-suppressed emotions were finally released.

"I told you Dr. Chen was reliable, didn't I?" Gu Zhaoning said proudly.

It's very reliable... although it has nothing to do with medical skills.

"Do you think we're really dreaming?" Lin Qing asked Chen Xuan in a low voice.

"You also feel something's not right?" Chen Xuan asked back.

"Yes, theoretically speaking, it's too abnormal."

"for example?"

“For example, the surrounding things are too realistic.” Lin Qing rubbed the steering wheel and expressed her opinion. “Take this car for example. I had Xiao Lü check the onboard system and found that it is a fully functional entity. Even the parts we can’t see, such as the battery temperature control and the motor power distribution unit, are all working normally. I don’t think a 17-year-old high school student can be so knowledgeable about a pure electric car.”

At this point, she glanced back at the two people who were still teasing each other. "Even if she could perfectly replicate a car in her dream, she couldn't possibly represent the entire city. Touch, smell, and sight are all electrical signals, but the human brain can't store such a massive amount of data."

“It’s not just her… even my memory backup chip couldn’t store that much data. It would need at least a massive supercomputing system to simulate a real city.” Chen Xuan nodded. “I think so too.”

At first, I didn't notice it when I was in the small room in the stadium, but once I stepped out of the building and into the bustling yet desolate urban environment, the sense of incongruity became apparent. The more realistic the dream, the stronger the sense of incongruity.

"Have we really traveled to another world?"

“That’s not the case. The navigation isn’t working, and the phone map can’t read it either, which means there isn’t a single satellite in the sky.” Chen Xuan shook his head. “It looks boundless, but it definitely has boundaries. Also, what’s connected to us is indeed the Smoke Soul Pillar, and the demons are truly attached to it, so our original bodies are most likely still lying on the floor of the room.”

He actually had a vague guess in his mind, but whether it was right or wrong could only be confirmed after the originator of the nightmare was eliminated. "You turn right and drive east. I feel a very strong signal."

"How far?"

"More than ten kilometers away."

Lin Qing was somewhat surprised, "You can see enemies that far away using your mental cultivation technique?"

"How could that be? Two kilometers is about right." Chen Xuan said truthfully. "Actually, the mental detection method is similar to ultrasonic detection, except that it tracks the fluctuations of spiritual energy. Although I can't see the demons two kilometers away, I can sense a strong spiritual energy reaction from the east."

"The difference between actively probing and passively receiving... Doesn't that mean the other party's spiritual energy is incredibly vast?" Lin Qing asked, slightly excited.

"Why do you seem so happy?"

"I've let you show off all you wanted before, now I want to test the weapon system too." She curled the corners of her lips. "I'll show you what futuristic technology looks like in a bit!"

However, when they drove to the easternmost part of Shanghai, they were all dumbfounded.

"What...what kind of monster is this?" Su Xingwan murmured incredulously, pressing her face against the window. "I've never seen anything like it before!"

“This is it…” Chen Xuan said solemnly, “The root of your recurring nightmares.”

A gigantic spider was perched atop a cluster of buildings, so large it nearly covered half the horizon! Bathed in moonlight, its undulating back resembled a mountain range, and a single folded leg was comparable in size to a dozen or so train carriages! Its head and torso were even larger, enough to fit seven or eight skyscrapers over a hundred stories high. A person standing at its feet would probably be shorter than a single hair on one of its legs.

The more Chen Xuan observed the details, the more goosebumps appeared on his back. Faced with such a terrifying monster, he was even experiencing megalophobia. "So... can your futuristic technology handle it?"

"Forget what I said before," Lin Qing's lips twitched. "I'm a warrior, not a walking arsenal. Why does it feel like Xiao Shuyue tricked me?"

Chen Xuan deeply agreed.

Shadow demons are rare, and not troublesome to deal with at all? Look at what Liu Shuyue is saying! Even if it lay there and let him fight for nothing, he doubted whether he could completely destroy it with the Heavenly Thunder Token before his spiritual energy was exhausted.

After all, the size difference between the two is just too great!
Perhaps the Demon-Slaying Sword is suitable for eliminating such a large demon, but its last ability slot is for being able to sleep a lot, and it is unwilling to waste its life on such a thing.

Just then, azure lightning crackled below the Shadow Demon's abdomen!
Suddenly the streetlights dimmed and crackled, and the lights in the surrounding buildings flickered on and off, as if the city's electricity supply was being affected.

Chen Xuan was startled. In the instant the electricity flashed, he discovered dozens of points of light within his perception range, with features exactly the same as the humanoid monster from before!
The problem is that they didn't get close at all; it's as if they appeared out of thin air!
The nearest point of light was less than ten meters in front of them!
The high beams suddenly illuminated a dark figure standing in the middle of the road—

"Holy crap!" Lin Qing suddenly swerved the steering wheel, slammed on the brakes, and then floored the accelerator, sending the car drifting several meters before narrowly avoiding a collision. "What's going on? Where did this monster come from?"

"It's the Shadow Demons summoning them!" Chen Xuan immediately understood the true origin of the monsters—why, despite their large numbers, they only appeared one by one in front of Su Xingwan. The Shadow Demons wanted to torment her, instill fear and dread, but also prevent her from falling into despair too soon. The longer she lived, the more power the demons could draw from their parasitism.

However, the fact that the other party still chose to summon a large number of humanoid monsters to block them when it discovered the inexplicable threat, instead of dealing with them personally, shows that at least one thing is true, just as Liu Shuyue believed: the Shadow Demon itself does not have much combat ability!
"Where are we now?" Chen Xuan shouted to the back seat.

"W-what?" The two girls, still stunned by the sudden lane change, were still somewhat dazed.

"What place in Shanghai does this correspond to?" he repeated.

Su Xingwan was the first to react, "It should be... Dongcheng Power Generation Area! That's right, this is the Asia-Pacific Nuclear Power Plant!"

(End of this chapter)