Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 30 A Moment of Peace Between Dust and Pages

The first rays of morning sunlight streamed through the specially reinforced portholes of the dormitory, splitting into fine, warm beams that gently fell upon Bai Yu's face.

He slowly opened his eyes, and those eyes, which always carried too many heavy memories, were now filled with a rare drowsiness and tranquility.

The noise and laughter from last night's dinner with his teammates still seemed to echo in his ears: the aroma of the barbecue, Mo Fei's deafening voice, Lan Ce's rare relaxed吐槽 (tu cao, a type of humorous commentary), and Captain An Mu's faint smile hidden beneath his serious face... These scenes, full of the warmth of everyday life, were like the warmest tide, washing over the barren wasteland of his heart that had long been accustomed to coldness and death.

Bai Yu sat quietly on the bed for a moment, savoring this hard-won peace.

He did not get up immediately, but closed his eyes and focused his mind on his body.

That soul, which had once been on the verge of collapse due to the forced liberation of Hei Yan, was now enveloped by a warm and sorrowful power. Awan's obsession was like the gentlest bandage, smoothing out those hideous cracks one by one.

Although this cannot cure his problem, it does relieve him of the excruciating pain that could cause him to "collapse" at any moment.

Bai Yu threw off the covers and got out of bed, stepping barefoot onto the cold alloy floor as she walked towards the wardrobe.

On this rare holiday, he didn't want to wear that uniform that symbolized battle and responsibility anymore. He carefully selected each piece of neatly ironed clothing, his fingertips tracing its edges.

Finally, he chose a soft, off-white turtleneck sweater. The sweater's texture was delicate, and the neckline perfectly accentuated his long neck and slightly pale jawline. For his lower body, he paired it with well-tailored dark gray casual trousers. The fabric had a subtle drape, ensuring comfort without appearing too casual. Finally, he selected a pair of spotless white sneakers.

When he stood in front of the dressing mirror, the young man in the mirror shed the sharpness and fatigue of an ace investigator, and looked more like a clean-cut and slightly melancholic senior from the literature department.

This refreshing feeling, so different from the cold and austere atmosphere of the Investigation Bureau, made him feel a long-lost sense of relaxation.

After a quick wash, Bai Yu didn't go to the cafeteria, but went straight to another place.

The Nightmare Investigation Bureau's library.

That was almost the place in the entire headquarters where he felt most at ease, apart from his own dormitory.

After passing through corridors constructed of cold alloy, Bai Yu finally arrived at a huge wooden double door.

He reached out and gently pushed open the heavy door.

"Om-"

After a barely perceptible sound, all the noise of the outside world was completely shut out. A grand, solemn world, filled with tranquility, slowly unfolded before him.

The enormous dome is so high that its top is invisible. Sunlight streams down through special filtered skylights, forming straight beams of light that project tiny particles into the air.

The towering bookshelves resembled a silent steel forest, arranged in perfect unison, stretching to the horizon. The air was filled with the distinctive leather scent of books.

It's so quiet here that you can hear your own heartbeat.

This place is a "sanctuary" for many investigators, a last refuge where they mend their shattered spirits after a bloody battle with madness and death.

Bai Yu took a deep breath, feeling the familiar scent, and the lines on his face softened involuntarily. He didn't go to the areas where confidential files and nightmare analysis data were stored, but instead skillfully navigated through several huge bookshelf sections and headed straight for the deepest corner.

Literature and Fantasy Section.

He slowed his pace, stretched out his long, slender fingers, and gently ran his fingertips along the spines of the books.

Whether smooth or rough, each book is like an independent little world, waiting to be opened.

He enjoys the selection process, which in itself is a form of silent healing.

Finally, his finger stopped on a thick book with a dark blue cover featuring a huge, abandoned starship.

The book is titled "Stars at the Edge of the World".

Bai Yu pulled the book off the shelf and found a single sofa by the window to sit down.

The sunlight streamed through the porthole behind him, casting a warm golden hue on his shoulders and the open pages of his book.

He turned to the first page of the book.

This is a story about a solitary explorer. The protagonist is an archaeologist who pilots a small spaceship through long-forgotten cosmic routes, searching for the remnants left behind by extinct intelligent civilizations, and attempting to decipher the traces of their past existence from broken starships, abandoned space stations, and silent colonies.

The story begins with the protagonist discovering the wreckage of a legendary "Leviathan"-class ecoship. This starship, enormous like a small planet, once carried an entire civilization on interstellar journeys spanning tens of thousands of years. Now, however, it floats silently in the void, like a skeleton gnawed clean by cosmic storms. All the lights on its hull are off, and only deathly white noise fills the communication channels.

The protagonist enters this ship of death alone. He wanders through the vast, deserted ruins of cities, and through once vibrant but now barren ecological parks. His only task is to hack into the remaining data terminals and read the logs left by the long-deceased crew, attempting to piece together the final, tragic tale of this civilization from the hopes, confusion, arguments, and despair.

Bai Yu was completely engrossed in reading it.

He seemed to see himself in that figure. Wasn't that lonely explorer himself?
Aren't those death starships floating between reality and nightmares just nightmare events filled with death traps?

What he had to do was also to decipher the only way out from those broken and indistinguishable "rules"—those "logs" belonging to the nightmare—and piece together the truth of the whole tragedy.

The protagonist reads in his journal that the civilization's ultimate destruction did not stem from war or disaster, but from their encounter with an "existence" that could not be understood, observed, or defined.

That "existence" had no form, no will; it merely "passed by" the starship. But its very "passing by" negated the "logic" of that civilization's existence from the root, causing their society, their technology, and even their very existence to disintegrate silently and ultimately vanish into nothingness.

Upon seeing this, Bai Yu's breath hitched slightly.

He thought of the eternally silent ruins.

Yes, that's the feeling.

That feeling of insignificance and powerlessness when faced with an incomprehensible higher-dimensional existence, where all meaning is stripped away.

It turns out that others have also pondered the same question and put their thoughts into writing.

This resonance that transcended time and space brought Bai Yu a strange sense of comfort. He was no longer the lonely traveler burdened with a terrifying secret. At least for this moment, in the world of this book, he had found a "companion" who could understand him.

"Ha... How naive, just fear piled up with words. The real 'unknown' is far grander and more beautiful than these barren imaginations."

Hei Yan's voice quietly resounded deep within his consciousness, carrying a hint of connoisseur's commentary.

"Shut up and read your book," Bai Yu thought to herself, without any politeness.

"..."

Hei Yan seemed taken aback by his unusually tough attitude and actually fell silent.

He seemed to tacitly agree that, in this quiet moment that belonged only to Baiyu, he, as a proper "guest," should not make any unnecessary noise.

A smile, unnoticed even by himself, appeared on Bai Yu's lips.

He became completely absorbed. He followed in the protagonist's footsteps, exploring the silent stellar remains, feeling sorry for the passing of those vibrant souls in the journal, and admiring the protagonist's unwavering commitment to the mission of "interpretation" even in solitude.

Time slipped away quietly with the rustling of turning pages.

Outside the window, the angle of the sunlight changed imperceptibly. The straight white beam of light gradually tilted, softened, and finally transformed into a warm and languid orange hue, like spilled honey slowly spreading across the entire library floor.

Bai Yu was completely unaware of the passage of time. He only felt that his heart, which had become somewhat numb and hardened from experiencing too many battles and deaths, was being gradually soothed by the stories in the book and this moment of peace.

He felt he was no longer the vessel holding shattered souls, no longer the investigator dancing with demons. At this moment, he was just an ordinary young man, a reader lost in the vastness of the stars.

This pure self, stripped of all identity and responsibility, is what he desires most.

When he finally looked up from the book, he was awakened by a slight rumbling sound in his stomach.

He then noticed that the sky outside the window was already tinged with a magnificent sunset, and the automatic sensor lights in the library had quietly turned on, emitting a soft glow.

He actually sat there quietly for the entire afternoon.

Bai Yu stretched lazily, her bones creaking with satisfaction. The weariness that had lingered between her brows seemed to have been mostly dispelled by this afternoon of immersive reading.

He carefully closed the book, "Starlight at the Edge of the World," which had brought him comfort all afternoon, then stood up and returned it to its original place on the bookshelf.

After doing all this, he didn't rush to leave.

He simply stood quietly among the tall bookshelves, watching the last rays of the setting sun shine through the porthole, refracting into a dazzling, star-like brilliance on the swirling dust particles in the air.

Such peace is only temporary.

Perhaps tomorrow, or perhaps the next moment, the piercing alarm will sound again, pulling him back to that reality filled with madness and death.

But at least he had this moment.

He had a moment of peace that belonged only to him, a peace he found amidst the dust and pages of the book.

And that's enough.

It was enough to sustain him to face the next endless darkness.

(End of this chapter)