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

Chapter 82 Trust Game Under the Rules

The eerie words, a mixture of five voices, echoed clearly in the SUV, carrying the triumphant joy of the victors. The strange figure on the phone screen slowly raised a phantom finger made of data streams, pointing directly at Bai Yu.

The moment the countdown reached zero, the air inside the carriage seemed to be sucked out and frozen to the extreme.

The Nightmare's accusations pierced the team's fragile nerves. Instead of launching a direct attack, it chose to sow discord, attempting to let fear and suspicion take root among them, thus causing its own downfall.

Mo Fei's face, which was taut with anger, twitched suddenly. His burly body tensed up instinctively, and his eyes flashed like lightning. However, he wasn't looking at Bai Yu, but rather scanning every corner of the carriage warily, as if trying to find the "superfluous person" hiding in the shadows.

Lan Ce's forehead was covered in a fine layer of cold sweat, but his eyes behind his glasses were unusually bright as he stared intently at the spliced ​​face on the phone screen, his brain racing, trying to find a logical flaw in it.

Lu Yueqi's body trembled slightly with fear, but she did not scream. Instead, she instinctively moved closer to Bai Yu, seeking trust and protection from her instincts.

Bai Yu's face was as pale as paper, but his eyes were clear and unwavering.

He didn't look at the dark figure pointing at him, but quickly scanned his teammates' faces, taking in the fleeting worry and trust in their eyes.

He knew that the greatest danger now was not the Nightmare's identification, but the collapse of trust within their own ranks.

"Quiet!" An Mu's voice, like a booming bell, instantly shattered the deathly silence in the carriage.

His eyes, like those of a hawk, swept over each team member, finally settling on Bai Yu, his gaze filled with unwavering trust and determination.

“Bai Yu is not superfluous,” An Mu said, each word distinct and powerful. “We are a team; no one is superfluous. This is a trap set by the Nightmare; it wants us to kill each other. Now, everyone, listen to my command!”

His words were like a shot in the arm, instantly stabilizing the morale of the troops.

Mo Fei's tense body relaxed a little, Lan Ce's eyes became more focused, and Lu Yueqi tightly gripped Bai Yu's clothes, suppressing all her fear in her heart.

"Lan Ce, analyze the rules, especially the definition of 'redundant person'!" An Mu quickly issued the order. "The rules of the Nightmare are often full of word games and logical traps. Bai Yu, you will cooperate with Lan Ce to analyze the rules from their essence. Mo Fei, check all the items in the car that could be used by the Nightmare and look for so-called 'traces'. Lu Yueqi, as the dreamer, sense any abnormal fluctuations in the surrounding spiritual energy and tell me immediately if there are any minor changes."

"Yes!" the three responded in unison, and the tense atmosphere in the carriage instantly transformed into tense yet orderly action.

Lan Ce immediately focused his attention on the phone screen. The words "He... is that... superfluous person" made of blood-red liquid seemed to him to be countless streams of data waiting to be deciphered.

Behind his thick, black-rimmed glasses, his eyes gleamed with rationality.

“The Nightmare’s accusation itself is the biggest misleading part.” Lan Ce spoke rapidly and meticulously. “It accuses Bai Yu not because Bai Yu is truly ‘redundant,’ but because Bai Yu is the core of the team and the rule interpreter. If Bai Yu is deemed ‘redundant,’ the team will fall into chaos and be unable to do anything. This is a typical ‘decapitation tactic,’ achieving its goal by dismantling the command system.”

“That’s right.” Bai Yu continued, her voice slightly weak, but her mind exceptionally clear. “The rules of Nightmare are often self-consistent, but its ‘identification’ is full of subjective malice. The definition of ‘superfluous person’ is itself worth examining. Does it really refer to one of us? Or is it to an ‘existence’ in this space that doesn’t belong to us?”

Mo Fei had already begun his work. Although his burly frame appeared somewhat clumsy in the cramped carriage, his movements were exceptionally careful. He meticulously examined every corner of the carriage with his hands covered in rough knuckles.

He noticed the marks left by the nightmare: the gaps between the seats, below the dashboard, the reading lights on the ceiling, and even the edges of the center console screen. He knew that the "traces" left by the nightmare might not just be illusions, but could also be some kind of physical change.

Lu Yueqi closed her eyes.

Her petite body swayed slightly with the jolting of the carriage, but she remained highly focused. She could feel the suffocating oppression inside the carriage, as well as a mixture of earth, grass, and some indescribable, fishy stench.

She tried to extend her senses outward, but the sticky feeling of isolation made it impossible for her to move an inch.

“It’s so stuffy here.” Lu Yueqi’s voice was a little hoarse. “It’s like being trapped under a huge glass dome. I can’t feel the air moving outside, and I can’t hear any sound. There’s only… only a very faint sound, like a heartbeat, coming from under the car.”

"Heartbeat?" Lan Ce suddenly raised his head, a glint of light flashing in his eyes. "Mo Fei, check the undercarriage!"

Mo Fei immediately understood. He leaned out of the car window and shone his flashlight under the car. However, the undercarriage was perfectly normal, with nothing unusual about it.

"No!" Bai Yu's voice suddenly rang out, his deep eyes snapping open, his gaze filled with seriousness. "It's not the chassis! Lu Yueqi, the 'heartbeat' you sensed is more like the pulsation of some kind of... structure, isn't it?"

Lu Yueqi suddenly opened her eyes, a hint of fear on her face: "Yes! That's the feeling! It's very slow, very heavy, like...like a living, huge thing is pulsating beneath our feet!"

"Damn it!" An Mu's face instantly turned ugly. "It turned the entire off-road vehicle into part of its body!"

“No, Captain.” Lancer’s voice rang out again. He pushed up his glasses, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “It’s not the car. It’s this ‘domain.’ It’s trapping us in a miniature ‘ecosystem.’ We might not be in a car right now, but inside this nightmare!”

"So, the so-called 'superfluous person' doesn't refer to us, but rather to the 'core' of this nightmare, or rather, an 'alien' that doesn't belong to this 'ecosystem'!" Bai Yu's eyes sharpened instantly, his thoughts perfectly aligned with Lan Ce's at that moment. "It pulls us into its 'body,' then designates one of us as 'superfluous,' so that we'll waste time searching for a 'superfluous person' that doesn't even exist, or, in a way, kill each other!"

"So, where is that 'foreign object'?" An Mu asked in a deep voice.

Just then, Mo Fei's voice came from the roof of the car: "Captain! I've found something!"

It turned out that when Mo Fei was inspecting the car roof, he discovered a tiny crack on the edge of the sunroof that was almost invisible to the naked eye. He tried to touch it with his finger, but felt a cold, sticky sensation. He gently scraped it with his fingernail, and a small piece of a black resin-like substance peeled off from the crack.

"What is this?" Mo Fei handed the black substance to An Mu.

Lance immediately took it and used his portable miniature analyzer to perform the test. A series of data quickly appeared on the screen.

“The high concentration of residual mental pollution has subtle similarities to the energy fluctuations of the ‘Tower’ we encountered in ‘Eden,’ but it also has a strong… ‘adhesive’ and ‘fusion’ characteristic!” Lan Ce’s tone was tinged with doubt. “This thing is more like some kind of ‘adhesive,’ forcibly connecting this area together!”

“Adhesive…” Bai Yu’s eyes suddenly narrowed, and a thought flashed through his mind like lightning. “I understand! Qin Yixuan’s ‘Paradise’ is essentially a clumsy imitation of the ‘Tower’s’ concept of ‘collection’ and ‘assimilation’. And this Nightmare, its ‘adhesive’ and ‘fusion’ properties may also be some kind of similar power!”

"So, the essence of this nightmare is some kind of 'parasite'!" An Mu's eyes sharpened instantly. "It parasitizes a larger being, and then uses this 'adhesive' to forcibly pull us into its 'body' to play a 'game' it has constructed!"

"Then, that 'foreign object' is itself!" Lu Yueqi suddenly spoke, her voice exceptionally clear. "It is the real 'superfluous one' in this 'ecosystem'! It doesn't belong here!"

“That’s right!” Bai Yu’s face revealed a cold smile. “It integrates itself into this space, yet it contradicts itself by setting the rule of ‘finding extra people.’ This is its biggest logical flaw!”

“So what we need to do is not to find out who among us is ‘redundant,’ but to find it itself!” Lance’s eyes were filled with excitement. “Its existence is the biggest ‘trace’!”

"But it has no physical form, so how can it attack?" Mo Fei asked.

"It has a physical form!" Bai Yu suddenly pointed to the distorted, spliced ​​face on the phone screen. "That face is the manifestation of it forcibly merging all of our 'concepts' together! It disguises itself as us, trying to confuse people! That face is its 'anchor'! It is that 'foreign object'!"

"Rule Three!" Lan Ce's voice rang out again, and he looked sharply at An Mu. "No looking directly at the reflective mirror! This is how it protects itself! It's afraid we'll see through its disguised 'anchor points' through the mirror!"

“So what we need to do is break this ‘anchor’!” A resolute glint flashed in An Mu’s eyes. “Mo Fei! Lan Ce! Concentrate all your energy and attack the phone screen!”

"Understood!" Mo Fei and Lan Ce replied in unison.

"Wait!" Bai Yu's voice rang out again. He looked at the distorted face on the phone screen, a rational glint in his eyes. "It spliced ​​together all our facial features to confuse us. But at the same time, it exposed itself. Its 'true form' is that 'superfluous' part that doesn't belong to anyone!"

He pointed sharply to the center of the spliced ​​face, where a vortex of indistinct shadows was visible.

"There! That's its core! That's the 'foreign object'!"

An Mu understood instantly. The Nightmare was trying to protect itself with chaos, but Bai Yu saw through its true nature. "Lan Ce, lock energy! Mo Fei, charge!" An Mu quickly issued the commands.

Lan Ce immediately mobilized all his mental energy, focusing the detector's energy field onto the vortex that Bai Yu had pointed out on the phone screen. The red dot representing the Nightmare energy fluctuations on the screen was instantly framed by a blue aiming box.

Mo Fei suddenly drew his high-frequency battle axe from his waist. Instead of swinging it, he slammed the axe blade onto the roof of the car. He concentrated all his strength into the axe blade, which instantly burst forth with dazzling blue lightning and emitted a low "humming" sound, which was the high-frequency energy vibrating at high speed.

"Lu Yueqi!" Bai Yu suddenly turned to look at her, "Use your perception to interfere with its 'adhesion'! Make cracks appear in its structure!"

Lu Yueqi took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and sent her keen perception—a trait unique to dreamers—surging towards the phone screen like a tidal wave.

She could feel the sticky "adhesive" being forcibly torn apart by her senses, and the structure began to become unstable.

"Now!" An Mu shouted sharply.

Mo Fei roared, his muscles tensing instantly, and he slammed his battle axe down hard on the phone screen!
"boom--!"

A deafening roar exploded inside the carriage! The terrifying energy contained in the high-frequency tomahawk instantly struck the locked vortex on the phone screen.

The phone screen suddenly burst into a blinding white light, followed by a shrill scream from the face, and its body, made of data streams, began to tremble violently!

"No...this is impossible! How could you...see through me..."

The nightmare's screams, a mixture of five voices, echoed through the carriage, filled with disbelief, fear, and resentment.

As the nightmare's "anchor point" collapsed, the entire off-road vehicle began to shake violently!

The unchanging country roads outside the car window began to crumble inch by inch, like a torn curtain!
"The domain is crumbling!" Lanze's eyes gleamed with excitement. "It can no longer maintain this domain!"

"Everyone, protect yourselves!" An Mu roared in a deep voice. He gripped the steering wheel tightly and instantly activated his "Iron Wall Royal Authority" domain. The entire carriage was enveloped in golden light, resisting the enormous impact of the domain's collapse.

Mo Fei used his body to tightly protect Lu Yueqi and Bai Yu. His burly body remained as still as a rock despite the violent tremors.

Bai Yu closed his eyes. He could feel the "adhesive" belonging to the Nightmare rapidly dissipating, and the surrounding space began to return to normal.

"boom!"

With a loud crash, the SUV burst out of the collapsed area and returned to the sunlit country road.

Anmu slammed on the brakes, and after a screeching sound, the car came to a steady stop on the side of the road.

The carriage was in a mess, but everyone was safe and sound.

"We...successfully?" Lu Yueqi's voice trembled with disbelief.

An Mu released the "Iron Wall Royal Authority" domain, and a rare smile of relaxation appeared on his resolute face.

He turned his head and looked at his teammates behind him, his eyes filled with satisfaction.

"We succeeded," he said in a deep voice. "A beautiful counterattack, my players."

Mo Fei slapped his thigh and let out a deafening laugh: "Hahahaha! I knew it! Those Nightmare bastards only know how to play these fancy tricks! They're all paper tigers in the face of absolute power and wisdom!"

Lan Ce adjusted his glasses, a reserved smile on his face: "According to my calculations, the success rate of this mission was theoretically close to zero the moment the Nightmare identified Bai Yu as 'the superfluous person.' But it was precisely because of the team's trust and cooperation that this situation was reversed."

Bai Yu slowly raised his head, looking at the pastoral scenery outside the car window that looked incredibly real under the sunlight, a complex light flashing in his eyes.

“It’s not dead,” he said softly.

Everyone's smiles froze instantly.

"What do you mean?" An Mu's expression instantly turned serious.

“That black ‘adhesive’ was only dispersed, not completely destroyed.” Bai Yu’s eyes deepened. “It integrated itself into this space, and when the domain was broken, it only temporarily returned to its ‘original form.’ It’s like a parasite; as long as there’s a host, it can make a comeback.”

“Host?” Lan Ce’s brows furrowed deeply. “You mean, it’s parasitizing something in this area?”

“No.” Bai Yu shook his head and gently touched the car window. “It’s parasitic on… concepts.”

He paused, a hint of coldness flashing in his eyes.

"It parasitizes the concept of 'redundancy'."

A suffocating silence fell over the carriage once again.

"So, as long as there are still people in this world who think it's 'redundant,' it can reappear?" Mo Fei's voice carried a hint of disbelief.

“That’s right.” Bai Yu nodded. “It feeds on ‘surplus’ and lives on ‘being excluded’. It hides itself in the deepest subconscious of human society, waiting for the next opportunity to be ‘summoned’.”

"This...this is simply unsolvable!" Lu Yueqi's voice carried a hint of despair.

“No, it’s not unsolvable.” Bai Yu’s eyes gleamed with determination. “It has a weakness. Its weakness is that it cannot understand ‘inclusivity’.”

"Tolerance?" A hint of doubt flashed in An Mu's eyes.

“Yes. It tried to undermine us by creating ‘redundancy,’ but it underestimated humanity’s ‘tolerance’ and ‘trust.’” Bai Yu’s lips curled into a faint smile. “It cannot understand that even if there is ‘redundancy,’ it does not mean that it should be ‘excluded.’ It cannot understand that even if there are differences, they can still be ‘accepted.’ It cannot understand that the reason we were able to defeat it was not because we found ‘redundant people,’ but because we refused to acknowledge the existence of ‘redundant people.’”

He turned his head and looked at his teammates, his eyes filled with warmth.

"We are a team. No one is superfluous."

A relieved smile appeared on Anmu's face. He started the engine, and the SUV drove forward again.

“Lan Ce, record the characteristics of this Nightmare, especially the two key points of ‘parasitic concept’ and ‘embracing weaknesses.’ Mo Fei, submit a detailed tactical report after you get back, emphasizing the importance of team cohesion under extreme pressure.” An Mu’s voice was calm and powerful. “Bai Yu, you deserve great credit for this mission. But you must rest well after you get back. Your soul needs more time to heal.”

The SUV continued its journey along the country roads, sunlight streaming through the windows onto everyone. Although the crisis was not completely over, the team's morale was higher than ever before.

No matter what "redundancy" or "exclusion" they may face in the future, as long as they trust and tolerate each other, they can overcome everything.

The distant mountains shimmered with emerald green light under the sunlight, as if welcoming the heroes who had just emerged from the darkness.

A joyful picnic awaits them.

(End of this chapter)