Fear of food

Chapter 136 Upgrading the Safe House

Seeing the menacing wooden horse and toad, Chen Qi was immediately reminded of the scene when he ate jianbing guozi (a type of Chinese crepe).

This is similar to the food protection mechanism of high-end foods, indicating that dream pollution sources also have the ability to save themselves.

Faced with the Trojan horse and the army of toads, the best way is definitely to hide in the safe house. However, the safe house is currently focused on swallowing up the pirate ship, so it's uncertain whether it can provide him with protection.

There is no precedent to follow in this situation, because other dream thieves steal dream fragments in a matter of moments.

It's unclear whether what Chen Qi stole can be considered a fragment of a dream, since the pirate ship is essentially a high-level source of pollution.

Whether it works or not, he had to try it anyway. Chen Qi lowered his body and crawled into his safe house.

Upon entering the safe house, the rules took effect, and his size rapidly shrank.

Chen Qi lay on the ground and buried himself in the plastic ball, but found that the rocking horses and toads were still heading straight for him.

"Sure enough, the safe houses have lost their protective function."

Chen Qi quickly got up, not too panicked. He knew that no matter what, he was on the Nightmare Clan's territory and nothing could possibly happen to him.

"How so? Menglong."

Chen Qi walked to the slide next to him: "Give me some leverage."

"Try using your exclusive dream in battle. I'll assist you," Menglong reminded him. "Your exclusive dream serves more than just as a safe house; it's also the most suitable battlefield for us."

Chen Qi was slightly taken aback. Because of the information he received from the official sources, he had a preconceived notion that the safe house was simply a safe haven. But according to Meng Long, the future development direction should be to deploy the safe house in combat.

Turning the safe house into your own battlefield and using your home-field advantage to defeat the enemy is the right direction for development.

"I am the owner of the safe house. Everything here should be at my disposal. I should have complete control over this small space!"

Boom!

Just then, a loud bang was heard, and the pirate ship above seemed to finally be unable to resist and was taken into Chen Qi's amusement park.

The pirate ship, which was already smaller than before, shrank even further once it entered the amusement park due to the rules.

At the same time, a tornado-like cyclone descended from the sky, pouring into Chen Qi's amusement park from the outside, its target being the pirate ship that had not yet landed.

The pirate ship was sucked into the cyclone and floated in mid-air, spinning continuously.

The amusement park's suction on the pirate ship suddenly intensified, fighting against the cyclone as both sides scrambled for the ship.

Chen Qi looked up and followed the source of the cyclone, discovering that a crack had appeared where the pirate ship had been, and the cyclone was emerging from the crack.

Chen Qi observed that his amusement park was not only trying to steal the pirate ship, but also wanted the cyclone, constantly sucking it into the amusement park.

The vortexes that flowed into the pirate ship gave it a more substantial feel, making its colors brighter and its details more exquisite...

"This is……"

"It is absorbing the energy of external dream sources. The dream sources in the dream are only a small part of the whole," Menglong explained.

Chen Qi suddenly realized that this was the same as when he broke through the illusion before.

In the illusion of the Jinghai Medical College laboratory, he ate the "stick insect," the source of pollution in the illusion, but that was only a part of the whole source of pollution.

The original source of the pollution, Golden Fried Rice, remained in the laboratory in reality. Only after he left the illusion and ate the fried rice did he completely consume the Class A pollution source.

The situation is similar now; the "pirate ship" he saw in the advanced dream was actually just the tip of the pollution source.

The real source of pollution is still in reality.

However, unlike others, Chen Qi does not need to go to the real world to seize the remaining source of pollution; he can extract it directly in the dream!

Clearly, in the dream pollution zone, the source of pollution is closely connected to the dream, and it can be plundered simply by being in the dream.

Currently, Chen Qi's amusement park has a clear advantage; all that's needed is time.

Give him more time, and he'll have a sure thing about taking control of this high-level pollution source.

However, by this time, the Trojan horses and giant toads were already close by.

beep, beep...

With a thunderous roar, the wooden horse rushed into Chen Qi's amusement park.

The rocking horse runs faster, while the toad still has some distance to go.

Once inside the amusement park, the rules came into effect, and all the rocking horses shrunk in size.

However, now that Chen Qi has shrunk in size, it doesn't make much difference to him.

With a wave of his hand, Chen Qi caused a torrent of water to gush forth from the bathtub-sized pool in the very center of the amusement park.

The water surged toward the group of wooden horses with the force to pierce through gold and split rocks.

The surging waves were like a slap in the face, slamming the entire group of rocking horses against the amusement park fence.

Many Trojan horses broke apart, some with severed heads or legs, and others were completely decapitated.

Chen Qi controlled the water flow and slapped the wooden horses that entered later, as well as those that had managed to survive, until they were all smashed to pieces.

In just a few moments, the entire Trojan horse horde was wiped out!

"So strong!"

Chen Qi was amazed. He knew that he was currently only a superhuman who had never eaten any high-grade food, yet he already had such strong combat power!

At the same time, the alien eaters were pitifully weak, no different from ordinary people, and had no fighting ability whatsoever.

But Chen Qi knew that this was also because he and Menglong had begun to merge.

Without Menglong's assistance, he absolutely could not have manipulated the water flow in the dream so smoothly at this stage.

Moreover, despite his apparent strength, he has a fatal flaw: he only possesses such formidable combat power within his own safe house.

He could only unleash his full potential on his own small plot of land. And bringing the enemy into the safe house was no easy task.

Especially if the other party is intentionally resistant.

After the water was pumped out, the water level in the amusement park rose instantly, submerging the entire park, and the plastic balls on the ground floated up.

After this defensive battle, the pirate ship above the amusement park began to slowly descend.

Clearly, in the battle against the cyclone, Chen Qi's amusement park has gradually established a winning position.

At this moment, the toad army from the rear finally arrived, albeit belatedly.

They jumped directly into the amusement park, their size shrinking as they went, and began swimming there.

When Chen Qi was about to use the same trick again to kill them on the fence, he found that this method no longer worked on them.

These toads originally lived in water and were excellent swimmers. They could quickly dodge the crashing waves and nimbly dive into the water, moving swiftly underwater to approach Chen Qi.

Seeing this, Chen Qi pointed his finger forward, and in an instant, all the water seemed to freeze. The next moment, the water in the amusement park rose from the ground, forming a stream, and the toads were trapped in the stream, struggling to break free.

Before they could break free of control, under Chen Qi's command, the water flowed like a train, carrying a group of toads, and rushed into the slide.

Whizzing……

The toad that was at the front quickly got into position and appeared at the entrance of the slide.

Then start sliding down from the top of the slide.

During this process, the slide seemed to extend infinitely, as if you could never reach the bottom.

After it, other frogs entered the slide one after another, sliding down continuously, but never reaching the bottom.

The downward potential energy continued to increase until, at a certain moment, Chen Qi suddenly withdrew the water flow.

Without water to act as a "lubricant," the friction between the frogs and the slide immediately intensified, producing a screeching sound, and even wisps of smoke could be seen rising, as if they were about to catch fire from the friction.

Chen Qi was also reaching his limit. He had already extended the slide to its maximum within his capabilities, and finally could no longer hold on...

Bang bang bang!
A series of crashing sounds rang out as toads tumbled down the slide like tattered sacks, crashing heavily to the ground.

Some were charred black all over, some were even half-burnt to ashes, and even the best ones were dazed and confused, unable to fight.

Chen Qi felt a wave of exhaustion and collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

The water on the ground receded like a tide, returning to the bathtub-like pool, and the slide, which had seemed to have been infinitely elevated, returned to normal.

"So, this is the true fighting style of the Dream Thief..."

Chen Qi was not at peace. Although the battle he had just fought was not difficult for him, it had shown him the potential of using the Dream Thief's abilities.

With Menglong's help, he essentially got a taste of the mature combat style of a high-level Dream Thief.

"Only by leveraging the power of the safe house and mastering its entirety can the Dream Thief unleash his true potential."

"The items in the safe house have enormous potential that can be explored!"

Chen Qi had only been to Mirror's safe house before, but it was clear that Mirror's development of safe houses was very rudimentary.

His toilet safe house clearly has two "miracle appliances"—a toilet and a bathroom—as well as a sink, but none of them seem to be used for anything.

Chen Qi lay quietly in the plastic ball. He had dealt with the swarm of Trojan horses and the army of toads, and no new enemies were coming. He could now observe the changes in the pirate ship with peace of mind.

With a loud bang, the pirate ship landed safely.

To Chen Qi's surprise, the pirate ship landed directly where the swing had originally been.

They crushed and covered the swing!
"Was this...an accident or inevitable?"

After a moment's thought, Chen Qi realized that this was an upgrade!

The pirate ship replaced the swing, which was an upgrade.

Upon closer inspection, pirate ships and swings do indeed share some similarities.

As a result, Chen Qi's amusement park still only has three attractions: a pirate ship, a slide, and a pool.

Chen Qi estimated that the pool and slide might be replaced and upgraded in the future.

After all, these two facilities are too rudimentary and have limited potential.

"So this is the direction for improving my safe house, this is the way to improve my Dream Thief abilities..."

At this point, Chen Qi had figured out the path to improve his abilities.

To put it simply, it involves using safe houses to absorb the sources of pollution in advanced dreams, adding various entertainment facilities to one's own amusement park, and thus transforming the park.

This renovation could involve upgrading existing amusement facilities or adding new ones.

Although it's only an upgrade at the moment, Chen Qi believes that new amusement facilities will definitely be added later, because he can sense that the amusement park has the potential to expand.

There is absolutely no need to expand if we keep the existing three rides.

"From now on, I will be the owner of the amusement park, and I will use all kinds of amusement facilities to fight against the enemy!"

Chen Qi imagined it for a moment and found it quite interesting; compared to his ability as a pagan, it had many more variations.

The moment the pirate ship landed, the tug-of-war between Chen Qi's amusement park and the cyclone ended, turning into a one-sided takeover by the amusement park.

More and more energy was continuously drawn from the cracks and poured into the pirate ship.

After a long while, the crack in the air was finally drained, and no more drops could be drawn out. It then closed automatically.

Meanwhile, the pirate ship took root firmly in Chen Qi's safe house, becoming completely integrated with it, and was able to operate normally with its energy supply.

"Success!"

Chen Qi's heart leaped with excitement. He had finally taken his first step as a Dream Thief and completed his first ability upgrade!
For the other dream thieves, this was tantamount to stealing the first piece of the dream.

But for Chen Qi, it meant he directly acquired a complete medium-sized amusement facility.

At the same time, he also received feedback from it; the feeling of weakness in his body disappeared instantly, and he felt full of energy, as if his body had become stronger and more powerful.

He had a similar experience when he first ate a high-end jianbing guozi, but he clearly felt that the improvement in his body this time was more obvious than before!

But... this is a dream.

Has his body been enhanced in reality?
Chen Qi quickly got the answer from the two Nightmare Strategists: his physical body would also be strengthened in reality, but the improvement would not be significant.

The physical enhancements gained by dream thieves are mainly reflected in dreams, making them stronger and more agile. In reality, only about 20-30% of the effect remains.

This also aligns with the characteristics of nightmare parasites, who are far more powerful in dreams than in reality.

but……

Chen Qi closed his eyes and felt a vague sense of familiarity.

"My food detection ability is back?"

"No, it shouldn't be called food detection capability now; it should be called 'contamination detection capability'!"

It seems that the ability to detect pollution is not unique to him as a Pagan, but rather one of his basic abilities as a power user.

With this ability, it will be much easier for him to find advanced sources of pollution in his dreams!

"Open your eyes and look." Menglong's voice rang in Chen Qi's mind.

Chen Qi was slightly taken aback. He opened his eyes and his pupils dilated when he saw the bright red halo around him within a three-meter radius.

"This is... a domain!"

“That’s right,” Menglong laughed. “There’s no such thing as pollution detection capability; that’s just the rudimentary form of the field.”

Chen Qi suddenly realized... It turned out that his previous food detection ability was not his own ability, but a rudimentary form of a domain that was born after the Nightmare Eater parasitized him!
(End of this chapter)