Fear of food

Chapter 155 Corning City

Although both are dream-contaminated areas, Kangning City, which has entered the second stage, and Changle City, which is still in the first stage, are significantly different.

The first layer of dreams in both cities is similar, almost a one-to-one replica of the entire city covered in pollution.

However, the second dream presented a significant difference.

The second layer of dreams in Chang Le City consists of scattered, small, independent dreams.

The second dream world of Corning City, like the first dream world, directly and completely constructs a city.

At first glance, it seems to be a replica of the first dream.

This is because the residents of Corning City have come to regard the first dream as reality, working and living in it every day, sleeping and dreaming there, and naturally they will enter the second dream.

The dreams of so many people appeared together in the second dream world, and eventually the dreams connected to each other, becoming a large public dream.

It can be said that the formation of the first layer of dreams is similar in principle, only the process is repeated.

However, not everything that people dream about is realistic.

Many dreams are often distorted, including dreams of things that would never happen in reality, or dreams of things that do not exist in reality.

The deeper a person sleeps, the more blurred their memory becomes, and the more outlandish their dreams become.

This phenomenon is not very obvious in the first layer of the dream, but it becomes very serious in the second layer!

A dream within a dream is essentially sleeping again after falling asleep. A person's consciousness falls into a deep sleep, memories become blurred, and the dream constructed deviates more and more from the memories.

Since everyone's deviations are in different directions, piecing together their dreams will naturally create a sense of incongruity.

This resulted in the second dream world they jointly constructed appearing bizarre and abstract.

For example, some people walking on the street leave countless afterimages with their legs, as if they have mastered the art of elusive footwork. However, upon closer inspection, it is found that their speed is not faster than others.

Some people are like they were made of pixelated blocks, with square heads and bodies.

Some people are as thin as paper, as if they came from an anime.

There were also all sorts of strange costumes, some dressed in night clothes, some dressed as Batman or Spider-Man, and some riding dogs...

Not only the people, but also the buildings on the street are bizarre and varied, with styles ranging from cyberpunk to post-apocalyptic, World War II, fantasy, and more.

As Chen Qi passed by a car parked on the side of the road, a line of text appeared next to the door handle: Press F to enter the vehicle.
"Is this car owner suffering from memory loss?"

The entire second dream is like forcibly piecing together unrelated puzzle pieces, with all sorts of bizarre art styles intruding.

If the first layer of the dream is based entirely on reality, the second layer is where everyone uses their imagination on the basis of reality, and then mixes together the imaginations of these millions of people.

However abstract this world may be, it has little to do with Chen Qi; he only needs to achieve his own goals.

"This second layer of dream should enhance the abilities of the nightmare parasite even more."

"But it doesn't matter, I've been buffed anyway..."

Chen Qi himself is also a Nightmare Parasite. When the enemy strengthens, he also strengthens, which means neither side strengthens.

His crimson domain spread out, directly covering an area of ​​several kilometers in radius.

Originally, his domain wasn't this large, but after continuous ability upgrades, it could now cover an area of ​​about one kilometer in radius.

Upon entering the dream again, the dream was enhanced, and its scope was further expanded.

With such a vast area covered, Chen Qi found it much easier to locate the source of pollution.

Before long, many sources of pollution were discovered.

However, no S-level pollution sources or other domain-level parasites were found, and the source of the pollution was not located.

All the parasites he could find were family members, and Chen Qi couldn't be bothered to deal with them.

"They're hiding it well; it seems they're deliberately avoiding me to buy time."

It is foreseeable that top experts from the Nightmare Clan will arrive in Kangning City to provide support. The parasites in Kangning City only need to hold off Chen Qi and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

Dreams are the perfect place to hide.

Dreams have many layers, and the deeper layers are individual fragments of dreams. It is not an easy task for Chen Qi to find the source of pollution that the Nightmare Clan has deliberately hidden.

Chen Qi didn't know which layer of the dream they were hiding in.

If Chen Qi were to simply hide in some deep, advanced dream realm without any information, it would take him forever to find it.

The Nightmare Clan has hidden all its parasites, along with S-level contaminants, away.

After thinking carefully for a moment, Chen Qi retreated directly to the first layer of the dream, and then entered the interlayer world from the first layer of the dream.

"No matter how well a person hides inside a dream, their body can only be hidden in the interlayered world."

"However, here, without the bonus from the dream world, my domain will shrink to a radius of one kilometer, thus reducing the search area."

The reduced search efficiency and extended search time allowed the Nightmare Clan to achieve their goal of stalling for time.

However, Chen Qi had no choice; spending more time would at least guarantee a stable result.

Searching randomly in the dream world is like playing a lottery; you never know when it will end.

"The Nightmare Clan's response can be summarized into two scenarios."

"Either we gather everyone together and hide in one place, where the chances of being discovered are smaller. If I do discover you, you'll go all out and fight me head-on."

"Either scatter and hide in different places, which will increase the chances of me finding them, but also prevent me from catching them all at once."

Chen Qi activated his domain, rapidly traversing the interlayered world, as if exploring a map in a game, constantly dispelling the map's shadows.

He made sure his domain reached every corner of the mezzanine world...

After searching for over an hour, Chen Qi suddenly stopped in his tracks: "So they really chose to stick together?"

He discovered an area where hundreds of Nightmare Parasites had gathered!
And they're all at the domain level!
Only Corning City could have such a large number of parasites.

Having determined the location of these parasites in the interlayer world, Chen Qi could, of course, launch an attack on them directly from there.

In that case, all the parasites would wake up and engage in a direct battle with Chen Qi in the interlayered world.

When everyone loses the boost from the dream world, Chen Qi's abilities as a Pagan become exceptionally powerful.

But Chen Qi searched everywhere and couldn't find his father.

This made his heart sink slightly, knowing that these nightmare parasites were still wary of him. Chen Qi pondered for a moment, gritted his teeth, and chose to take direct action rather than continue searching for his father!
He can continue exploring the interlayered world to see if he can find his father's body.

But that would take even longer.

Although he had already ordered the government to surround Corning City to delay the arrival of Nightmare Clan reinforcements, he also knew that with the government's limited manpower of ability users, it would be impossible to truly seal off Corning City.

It would be better to strike first and take control of all these hundreds of parasites.

Even if the Nightmare Clan uses his father to negotiate with him later, he will have more leverage.

With that in mind, Chen Qi no longer hesitated. The safe house descended from the sky, directly enveloping more than two hundred domain-level parasites!
The Nightmare Clan is also cunning. Even if more than two hundred people are packed together, they still take up a lot of space. So they chose a tall building and scattered these parasites in the same location on different floors, cramming so many people into the building with the least amount of space.

But this also makes it easier for Chen Qi's safe house to cover them all!

Under the cover of the safe house, the high-rise buildings in the mezzanine world are merely projections of reality and dreams. Therefore, once one enters the safe house, they are affected by the rules of the safe house and immediately vanish into thin air.

The parasites hidden inside the building were shrunk by the rules and fell from the sky one by one, like rain.

As soon as Chen Qi made his move, all the parasites immediately became aware of it and woke up in alarm.

But they didn't panic at all, as if they had been prepared to deal with this situation long ago. They got up immediately after falling to the ground and assumed a fighting stance.

One of the leading second-generation Nightmare Parasites spoke first, threatening:

"Chen Qi, your father is still in our hands. If you don't want anything to happen to him, you'd better not make any rash moves."

He didn't say anything like "surrender without resistance," knowing that Chen Qi would never agree.

Therefore, the only advice was to prevent Chen Qi from making any rash moves, in order to buy time.

But Chen Qi ignored them completely. The scene inside the safe house changed and shifted, and silently, he sent the group of more than two hundred parasites directly into the haunted house.

In an instant, a multitude of ghostly figures engulfed the group of parasites.

The second-generation Nightmare Clan member roared, "If anything happens to us, your father won't survive either!"

However, Chen Qi had already made up his mind and was not so easily swayed.

He remained unmoved, controlling the haunted house to its fullest extent, unleashing all the ghosts and monsters to ensure the group of Nightmare Clan tourists had a great time.

Monroe and a group of amusement park employees also got busy, constantly moving those temporarily mentally unstable parasites out of the haunted house and sending them to facilities such as roller coasters, pirate ships, drop towers, and extreme rafting to help them regain their senses.

Some of the bolder parasites can barely maintain their sanity after being tormented by the haunted house; these are generally third-generation and second-generation Nightmare Clan parasites.

In response to these parasites, Chen Qi personally sent them onto the Ferris wheel to begin their transformation.

It takes about an hour to convert them into employees.

Chen Qi didn't really want to waste this time, but he also knew that given how stubborn the Nightmare Clan was, he wouldn't be able to get any information out of them without using this tactic.

Taking advantage of the safe house, Chen Qi swiftly wiped out the group of Nightmare Clan parasites.

However, he didn't kill any of them, whether they were the ones he had chosen to become employees or those who weren't sent onto the Ferris wheel; he spared their lives.

Because he knew that most of these people were converted from official ability users, and he had promised Peanut in advance that he would spare their lives if conditions allowed.

Chen Qi put away the safe house. Before the Ferris wheel was successfully transformed, he had no way to obtain any information from these parasites, so he could only continue to explore the interlayered world aimlessly.

During this process, he finally detected the presence of two Class S pollution sources!
Both of these Class S pollution sources are protected by two or three parasites.

"It seems that the Nightmare Clan has adopted a combination of two methods."

They concentrated most of the people, but still left a small group with the S-level pollution source, scattered and hidden in various corners.

Upon discovering the parasite, Chen Qi showed no mercy, subduing it and locking it in the safe house.

During this time, the "bus," the source of pollution inside the safe house, remained completely calm and did not make any noise.

As for the two S-level pollution sources discovered, Chen Qi traced them back to his dream and found that one of them did not match the scene in his safe house.

The other one wasn't an amusement park ride either; in the dream, it appeared as a giant inflatable doll at the entrance of a shopping mall—a teddy bear.

This wasn't actually a perfect fit for Chen Qi's safe house, but after a moment's thought, Chen Qi still chose to have the safe house absorb him.

He needs to improve his own strength as soon as possible and can't be too picky.

If you absolutely must find one that fits perfectly like the previous rides, then you'll have to look for it in amusement parks or similar settings.

Not only do you need an amusement park, but you also need to reach an S-level dream realm. With these multiple requirements, it's very difficult to meet them.

"An inflatable teddy bear will do; even if it's not an amusement park ride, it's still a nice decoration."

After Chen Qi successfully absorbed the teddy bear, he immediately felt that the safe house had been upgraded again.

Although this wasn't a qualitative leap in ability and the improvement was limited, it was still noticeable.

To Chen Qi's even greater surprise, the connection between the safe house and the bus also became closer.

"With the improvements made to the safe house, we've taken another step closer to eliminating the bus as a source of pollution!"

Chen Qi's spirits lifted. If he could absorb another Class S pollution source, his safe house should be able to directly absorb a bus!

His dream-stealing abilities will also undergo their third qualitative change.

However, when Chen Qi started to try out the teddy bear's effects, he was unexpectedly given a pleasant surprise!
In the amusement park where everything is shrunk, the giant inflatable teddy bear looks many times larger than it does in the outside world.

In the amusement park, the teddy bear came to life, becoming a giant bear that could tear the earth apart with a single slap.

Chen Qi felt as if he were seeing a monster from a tokusatsu movie!

Unexpectedly, the teddy bear became the strongest fighter in the safe house.

Chen Qi tried to have Huang Jihai, who was cleaning, spar with the teddy bear, but Huang was quickly knocked into the ground by the teddy bear.

"Strong!"

Time passed, and the Ferris wheel, which had been spinning continuously, finally came to a stop.

The parasites among them, like Marilyn Monroe and others, were eventually transformed into amusement park employees.

At this point, without Chen Qi even asking, a group of people lined up and came to him to inform on him.

“Take it one by one. First, tell me where my father is, and then mark the location of the pollution source in Corning City.”

(End of this chapter)