Nightmare Despair

Chapter 78 Absence

Cuckoo, cuckoo…

In Wang Yuanzheng's tea room, the carved rosewood clock chimed hollowly.

At the exact moment the hour, minute, and second hands coincide at twelve o'clock, the small door on top of the clock pops open, revealing a tricolor cuckoo that calls out the time.

"Time is up."

Zhou Kai's voice was like a deadly, unpredictable voice.

The warehouse in the basement of Shangpinzhai Teahouse is easy to find.

Zhou Kai cleaved open the wall with a single sword stroke, and amidst the flying dust, several boxes of weapons hidden inside were exposed.

There were over a dozen pistols, several submachine guns, three rifles, and a pile of ammunition. Steel-core bullets, armor-piercing bullets, incendiary rounds… If it weren't for the labels on the boxes, Zhou Kai wouldn't even be able to tell which were for killing and which were for demolition.

"A bumper harvest."

Zhou Kai felt relieved and spent less than five minutes gathering the weapons and people together.

He carried the weapons case in one hand and gripped the rope tightly with the other.

"Nightmare, loading."

In an instant, the surrounding darkness seemed to come alive, transforming into a tangible, inky tide that surged toward Zhou Kai.

A violent feeling of weightlessness, an indescribable cold.

It was like an endless spinning of the world.

A more intense sense of discomfort than in previous dreams swept through my entire body.

It felt like being stuffed into a washing machine while ice cubes and glass shards were being churned at high speed.

Zhou Kai gripped the object in his hand tightly, his eyes wide open in the darkness, trying to find balance in this unbalanced dimension.

The scenery around me changed like a revolving lantern. One second I was on a crowded subway, the screeching sound of brakes piercing my eardrums; the next second I was in a gloomy forest cemetery, the damp, cold smell of mud hitting my face.

My skin was sometimes washed by the cold water, and my hair was scraped by the dry branches.

Even more bizarrely... suddenly countless fingers appeared, moving upwards from the soles of his feet, stroking his calves, thighs, waist, and back like playing the piano, finally stopping at the back of his neck.

Be patient... and then wait.

After an unknown amount of time, the warm light finally dispelled the cold darkness.

The familiar fireplace flames danced before my eyes.

Zhou Kai's tense body instantly relaxed.

He returned, back to the long-lost sanctuary.

In his hand, the rope that was more than 20 meters long is now less than 3 meters long, and the fertilizer is only one and a half pieces left.

The half-piece of fertilizer was covered with fine, gnawed marks, as if it had been eaten by a swarm of carnivorous ants, making one's scalp tingle.

The two boxes full of weapons and ammunition are now only half full, with one box completely empty.

Zhou Kai frowned and immediately brought up the props menu.

There was an anti-materiel sniper rifle and two high-powered pistols, all with full magazines, but not a single bullet was spared.

"As long as it's not a complete loss..."

Zhou Kai shook his head, and the slight displeasure in his heart vanished.

It seems there is indeed a limit to what can be brought into a nightmare, possibly related to the quantity or the distance from oneself...

The plan to drive tanks into Nightmare seems to be temporarily off the table.

As he filled the nursery with fertilizer, Zhou Kai sat before the fireplace, the flames dancing on his face. He tried to dispel the lingering chill from his body while reflecting again on the process of falling asleep.

The previous guess was correct.

The experience of entering a dream varies depending on the location.

The shelter acted as an anchor, firmly securing him to the nightmare of Soraka.

So, when he becomes so strong that he no longer needs this beginner village, can he break free from the pull of this anchor point and stay in other more meaningful nightmares?
Conversely, if you encounter unsolvable problems in other nightmares, can you actively accept the anchor's pull and return to the safe house?

"...I don't have the ability to do that kind of stupid thing yet."

The map of Soraka Town isn't even fully explored yet, so Zhou Kai doesn't dare wander into other nightmares...

If he really wants to go, he should at least wait until he gets a few level 5 skills, obtains second-tier engravings, or becomes a legendary second-realm martial artist before he has any confidence.

"Or, when a crisis arises in this nightmare that I can't solve no matter what... only then will I consider taking a gamble on another nightmare." Before long, Zhou Kai's condition had recovered to about 70-80%.

In order to escape reality as quickly as possible, this time he didn't plan to linger in the nightmare.

The exploration of that mansion in the distance can wait until tomorrow.

Today, he only wanted to wander around the shelter, hunt down a few unsuspecting monsters, add more fertilizer to the nursery, and make the fireplace fire burn brighter.

About forty minutes later, Zhou Kai was out of the nightmare.

……

In Wang Yuanzheng's office, nothing was left except for the thick bloodstains on the floor.

Although Zhou Kai didn't pack them all up and take them back to his shelter to live happily ever after and turn them into waste, at least he dragged them all into the nightmare.

"Perfect cover-up... Now, time to slip away. Get my alibi sorted out, and make this a perfect closed loop."

I went downstairs, crossed the underground parking lot, and turned into the cinema's emergency exit, a route I knew well.

Just before the movie ended, Zhou Kai plopped down in the darkest corner seat, pulled his phone out of the seat crevice with his clean fingers, and turned on the screen.

The time is displayed as follows.

【00: 31】

Movie tickets.

Surveillance video.

Mobile phone location tracking.

Each one serves as his alibi.

Together they will prove that Zhou Kai is just an audience member watching an obscure movie tonight.

This was a perfect massacre, a revenge that left no trace.

The bloodstains on the ground might remind people of mirages or nightmare invasions.

But no one would ever associate him with Zhou Kai... because on the surface, his conflict with the Wang family was nothing more than him winning against that good-for-nothing Wang Jinquan once.

Was it worth killing someone?

Right?

Zhou Kai leaned back in his chair, quietly waiting for the movie to end.

……

Around seven or eight in the morning, regular customers of the teahouse noticed that Shangpinzhai, which usually only closed during the Lunar New Year, was still closed today.

Several people called the manager, only to be met with a robotic female voice saying "out of service area."

Everyone assumed it was just a temporary closure and didn't pay much attention.

At nine o'clock, the power company personnel discovered that the teahouse had been without power all night.

Out of consideration for the Wang family's reputation, they dared not neglect the matter and immediately sent an electrician to check.

However, with the main gate locked and the phone line down, the power company staff had no choice but to give up.

At 10:30, someone ordered takeout, noting in the order notes that the delivery person should not use the main entrance, but instead use the fire escape from the underground parking lot to go upstairs.

At 11 o'clock, deliveryman Huang Lin entered Shangpinzhai Teahouse.

The strong smell of blood made him want to turn around and run away several times, but in the end he mustered up the courage to go up to the fourth floor...

He saw that the foul-smelling blood covered every corner of his field of vision.

At 11:06, Huang Lin, terrified, called the police.

"Uncle, we've contacted the regulars at the teahouse and people from the power company, and that's pretty much the situation..."

Li Jiahao's Adam's apple bobbed as he suppressed the urge to vomit and stood at the top of the stairs, quietly reporting to his uncle Li Xiangqian and his busy forensic and evidence department colleagues.

Li Xiangqian's eye twitched, and he scolded, "How many times have I told you? When you're working, you use your job title!"

After scolding Li Jiahao, Li Xiangqian himself was also visibly annoyed by the stench.

"It's all blood, and there's not a single corpse to be found... Is this another mirage?"

"It used to happen only once every two or three years, how come it's happening so suddenly this year..."

(End of this chapter)