Nightmare Despair

Chapter 17 A chance encounter?

"Hello?"

Zhou Kai frowned and tapped twice on the counter.

"Oh, oh, oh! I'm here!"

The little girl suddenly woke up with a start, her hands went limp, and her upper body almost fell down.

Her cheeks flushed red, and she said awkwardly, "You're paying the bill, right... Which table?"

Zhou Kai said calmly, "B6."

"Aren't you supposed to get off work at 11:30? It's only a little past 10, how come you're so sleepy..."

The girl wore a stainless steel name tag on her chest, and her name was Chu Siwen.

Chu Siwen looked embarrassed: "Sorry, sorry... I'm just too sleepy."

"Please don't report me... I'm so sorry!"

She caught a glimpse of her supervisor not far away out of the corner of her eye, and was so frightened that she clasped her hands together and bowed repeatedly to Zhou Kai.

Zhou Kai certainly wouldn't do such a thing, so he nodded and said, "No, let's settle the bill."

"Okay... B6, that's two hundred and nineteen in total, cash or QR code?"

"Scan code."

With a "beep," Zhou Kai paid the money and turned to find Lu Yan.

Just then, a figure brushed past him, and the scent of gardenias wafted over him.

Zhou Kai subconsciously glanced at it again.

The woman was looking at him too.

Through their elegant half-rimmed glasses, their gazes met in mid-air.

Zhou Kai was certain that this was a stranger. He was momentarily stunned by the impeccable face, but quickly looked away.

But what about that woman?

She didn't leave. Instead, she leaned back in her chair, tapping her fingers on her arm to the beat, staring at Zhou Kai with the look of a cat watching a clumsy hamster.

With his mind clear and his senses sharpened, Zhou Kai felt as if the woman's gaze had a quality, making the hairs on the back of his head stand on end.

"Xiao Kai... Xiao Kai."

Lu Yan suddenly hugged Zhou Kai's arm from behind and mumbled indistinctly, "This lousy restaurant is freezing cold, I'm going home."

Zhou Kai knew she couldn't walk on her own, so he let her hang on him.

"Okay, I'll take a taxi to send you back."

"Don't vomit on me."

Zhou Kai gave a warning.

Lu Yan grumbled, "How much are your tattered clothes worth? I'll pay for them if you get them dirty..."

The two of them, arm in arm, walked past the woman again.

This time, the woman didn't cast a probing glance; she simply looked down at her fingernails.

Zhou Kai helped Lu Yan and pressed the elevator button for the downstairs elevator.

A few disjointed words drifted out from behind the half-open fire door of the emergency exit.

One of the voices belonged to the girl at the front desk named Chu Siwen.

Her voice was full of grievance: "...I even suspect someone is stabbing me with voodoo dolls..."

"Two nights in a row, the exact same nightmare."

"I can't sleep well every night, and I'm so tired during the day, what should I do..."

Zhou Kai's expression froze instantly.

He turned back subconsciously.

The woman wearing half-rimmed glasses had half her face facing him through the lenses.

'It's because I have no dreams.'

Zhou Kai's pupils suddenly contracted.

He understood everything in an instant.

'Hurry up and get out of here before you get stuck.'

……

What exactly is the purpose of the Dreamless Organization?
Is someone who is also being chased by nightmares also being targeted by Wumeng?
Zhou Kai increasingly felt that reality was like a net that was tightening more and more.

After going downstairs, I hailed a taxi.

Zhou Kai said softly.

"Driver, to the Android community."

A dozen minutes later, the taxi stopped at the east gate of an old residential area in the city center.

The middle-aged driver, whose hairline was receding, glanced in the rearview mirror, whistled, and greasyly remarked, "Young man, this girl looks really plump." Zhou Kai's eyes turned cold, and he didn't bother with any more words: "Get lost!"

In a daze, the driver felt an unusual, cold aura rising from Zhou Kai.

He chuckled and stepped on the gas, the car shooting off.

Zhou Kai carried Lu Yan upstairs.

It seems like my older sister hasn't been living with Lu Yan for several months now.

Lu Yan now lives alone.

As before, Lu Yan might have forgotten the door lock code, but the Zhou siblings definitely remembered it.

He opened the door, threw Lu Yan onto the sofa, and pulled a thin blanket over her.

Zhou Kai sat directly on the cold floor and closed his eyes to meditate.

It's a little past eleven o'clock now, and there's still some time before we enter the nightmare.

He was already very tired, so he didn't plan to do anything extra... of course, referring to practicing skills.

……

Less than an hour passed quickly, and Zhou Kai opened his eyes when his phone alarm vibrated with a faint electric shock.

This electric shock is said to affect the lifespan of mobile phone keyboards, but several brands stubbornly insist on using it.

Zhou Kai used one of them.

Zhou Kai glanced at Lu Yan, who was fast asleep, and said softly.

"Loading into a nightmare."

Compared to the times I experienced it at home, this time the process of entering the nightmare was exceptionally painful.

Consciousness was roughly ripped from the body, like being hung on an anchor, and repeatedly whipped in a thick, tar-like fog.

Each time it was about to land, it was pulled high into the sky by an invisible force.

The world is spinning.

This dizzying process lasted for a long time, and Zhou Kai felt a warmth on his back as he sensed the familiar fireplace light.

While keeping your eyes open, open them again.

The thick fog around them suddenly dissipated.

Welcome back! The Moonshine Orchid is sprouting new buds in the nursery.

The nursery's dialog box pierced through several meters of soil and floated to Zhou Kai's side.

Under the glow of the fire and the dim, silvery light, Zhou Kai's fatigue and discomfort began to slowly dissipate.

The fuel in the fireplace will last for another thirty-seven minutes.

This time, Zhou Kai doesn't plan to use it all at once...

During the forced conscription tomorrow night, a few minutes of light might come in very handy.

Five minutes later, Zhou Kai had almost recovered.

The erosion progress hasn't changed much. It seems that after recovering one life, we'll need some serious materials to continue eroding.

There was an uneasy feeling emanating from the window of the study, so Zhou Kai did not approach rashly.

The second floor and the areas above it are not the time to explore yet.

Zhou Kai went down to the basement and took a look.

The red door did not appear, and the basement was eerily quiet.

The Moonlit Orchid buds, emitting a faint silvery glow, slowly grow in the soil.

It seems that it will be a long time before it matures.

The hole blocked by debris looked normal; at least for now, nothing would crawl out of it.

"Tomorrow night... we must survive!"

Zhou Kai clenched his fists and returned to the fireplace.

"Escape the nightmare!"

……

However, the moment Zhou Kai returned to reality... he suffocated.

Something was gripping his neck tightly!
The throat bones rattled, and the feeling of suffocation was deadly enough.

Zhou Kai's expression twisted for a moment, but the next second, he used all his strength to forcefully wedge his hands into the gap between his neck and the iron clamps.

click!
There was a crisp sound.

Zhou Kai suddenly opened his eyes.

He was standing in an extremely awkward position, looking down at Lu Yan on the sofa.

And those hands, somehow, had already been raised and were suspended in mid-air.

(End of this chapter)