Nightmare Despair

Chapter 14 Sister

Chapter 14 Sister
"Children, it's time to go to church after you finish eating..."

The nun's voice echoed in the empty restaurant, but received no response.

She shook her head helplessly, walked through the dormitory, and pushed open the heavy wooden door of the church.

The church was dimly lit, and the setting sun shone through the stained glass windows, its light fragmented and casting mottled patches of color on the floor.

Zhou Kai stood behind the nun with a cold face, looking around indifferently as if he were an observer from another dimension.

He raised his head, his gaze following the images of saints on the stained glass window, finally landing on the altar where the idols should have been enshrined.

It was empty, as if the gods had long abandoned this place.

"Evelyn, what are you doing?"

"Where has everyone gone?"

At the very front of the chapel, a little girl in a bright red dress was engrossed in doodling with crayons.

In the dim light, she shone like a streak of blood.

Zhou Kai felt a tightness in his chest as he watched this bizarre scene.

Here we go again, a dream within a dream...

What is the meaning?
Is that girl Evelyn, whom the paper doll keeps mentioning?
Unable to break free and with nowhere to escape, Zhou Kai could only patiently continue to be a spectator.

"Evelyn!"

The nun, who had been speaking softly just a moment ago, suddenly screamed and swung her fist, slamming it hard into the back of the girl's head.

Then, the girl was pinned to the table, struggling and screaming in agony.

"Grass!"

Zhou Kai's eyelids twitched. Perhaps it was his overly localized swear word that broke the logic of the dream.

The nun and the girl, who had been hurting each other, stopped abruptly, and both of their eyes turned to Zhou Kai.

Their pupils shrank into eerie blackness, churning with a venomous resentment that seemed intent on devouring him alive.

"Get lost! What are you looking at your father for?"

Zhou Kai snorted coldly and met their gazes without flinching.

Click...

The surrounding scene shattered with a crash, like a mirror being smashed by a heavy hammer.

The momentary feeling of weightlessness was like falling into an abyss.

Whoosh!

Zhou Kai, panting, suddenly opened his eyes.

The bedroom was completely dark, and the sheets beneath me were damp and cold.

Exactly the same as last night.

……

Zhou Kai turned on the bedside lamp, and a dim yellow light shone in. He sat down at his desk with a blank expression.

I turned on the computer, skillfully logged into the virtual machine, and erased the original traces through several redirects.

Some special skills that his roommate taught him in college have unexpectedly come in handy now.

Evelyn Soraka

He typed out the name.

I stumbled upon this on the Nightmare forum before, and at the time I just thought it was nonsense.

Could the name that keeps appearing in my dreams really be related to a real-life foreign actress?

Same first name, same last name.

This coincidence is hard not to make people think.

Zhou Kai's intuition told him that the nightmare was gradually revealing its mysterious veil.

Solving these mysteries may be the key to his survival.

Born in 1994...debuted with an album during high school, influenced by his parents from a young age...

He scanned the information on the screen word by word, reading it over and over again several times, but still found nothing of value.

Zhou Kai finds it funny to think about it.

In the past, staying up late at night to find a woman from your dreams in real life would have been considered a serious illness.

But now that even nightmares have become tangible, what else is impossible?

"It would be great if we could find photos of her when she was a child."

After a fruitless search, Zhou Kai kept the matter in mind, planning to find another opportunity to delve deeper into it later.

Now, he must cherish every moment of clarity of mind and turn that time into the capital to survive.

It was still early before dawn, and he was full of energy after being tempered by the furnace.

Zhou Kai also began practicing mixed martial arts and light footwork.

Light Footwork is a highly versatile skill that can be practiced alongside almost any other skill.

Highly focused attention does not conflict with each other; on the contrary, they complement each other.

For combat techniques that require agility and movement, practicing light footwork simultaneously can have a synergistic effect, exceeding the sum of its parts. [A night of highly effective coordinated practice]

[Light Steps Experience Points +7]

[Mixed Martial Arts Experience +2]

Nine experience points in total, quite a rewarding gain.

He threw the sweat-soaked sheets into the washing machine, then lay down on the bare mattress, adjusted his breathing, and entered a meditative state.

"Very efficient. If I can keep my mind clear, my strength can increase dramatically in a very short time!"

He quickly estimated that when his mind was clear, the efficiency of practicing light footwork increased more than threefold, and that of mixed martial arts nearly doubled.

There are still more than forty hours until the next forced conscription into the Nightmare.

He was absolutely certain that he could upgrade one of the skills on its own.

The other option is to break through the bottleneck directly by adding points.

"strength!"

Zhou Kai clenched his fist, and after a moment, a resolute glint flashed in his eyes, and he took new action.

When his mind was clear, his memory and manual dexterity were enhanced.

It took Zhou Kai about twenty minutes to create a simple but effective two-handed sword substitute using tape, a broom, and several mineral water bottles filled with water.

The key is to control the weight and center of gravity.

He then began practicing Soraka swordsmanship.

"The effect of practicing any single skill will drop sharply after a period of steady growth."

"For me, this growth range is roughly three to five hours."

"Whenever efficiency starts to decline, immediately switch to practicing another skill... that's the optimal solution."

Zhou Kai stood on the mattress and began to slowly and precisely swing the broom, feeling the struggle and tearing between his arm and muscle groups.

……

"Zhou Kai, come downstairs."

At eight o'clock in the morning, the phone screen lit up.

It was a message from my older sister, Zhou Qing.

Soraka's swordsmanship experience +3

After glancing at the experience panel, Zhou Kai quickly disassembled the practice sword, put the clutter away, and then got dressed and went downstairs.

At the entrance of the alleyway of the tenement building, Zhou Qing was chatting happily with a tall woman.

As soon as Zhou Kai arrived, she immediately took his hand affectionately and pulled him in front of her.

"Sui Die, this is my younger brother, isn't he handsome?"

Zhou Qing's voice was filled with undisguised pride.

Zhou Kai extended his hand and said succinctly, "Zhou Kai."

The woman named Sui Die's expression flashed with an imperceptible change, but she still symbolically shook hands with him; the touch was icy cold.

"Let's go, let's go, Sui Die is treating us to breakfast."

Zhou Qing seemed to be in a very good mood.

Seeing his sister's genuine happiness, Zhou Kai couldn't help but smile slightly.

He wasn't really good at handling these kinds of situations, so as before, he lagged behind by half a step, following not far behind his sister.

His gaze swept quickly over the two women.

Zhou Qing is about 1.65 meters tall. Her facial features are somewhat similar to Zhou Kai's, but her lines are softer and her eyes are larger. She is the kind of beauty with a lot of temperament.

Her short, jet-black hair gives her a cool and capable look.

The woman named Sui Die was almost as tall as Zhou Kai; even without her heels, she was at least 1.82 meters tall.

She appeared very thin, with a cool and aloof demeanor, exuding an indescribable air of nobility.

Zhou Kai guessed she was a model, or...

'soldier.'

'The calluses on my hands, could they be from handling a gun...?'

When his mind is clear, Zhou Kai's observation skills are as sharp as a great detective in a movie, his thoughts racing.

Zhou Kai decided to pretend he knew nothing.

Regardless of her identity, as long as she doesn't harm her own sister, it's fine.

As for whether they came for me...

Not so much.

It's only been about a week since I started experiencing nightmare symptoms.