I created a safe zone in the nightmare world.

The gray-haired man observed the patient, and the more he observed, the more serious he became.

He had indeed seen similar "symptoms," but not in Lin Dong City.

He is not a native of Lin Dong City, nor even a native of Blue Star.

The gray-haired man, "Le Yili," arrived in Lin Dong City a month ago. He came from a very, very far place, not from this nightmare world.

"Lin Dong City originated from the Blue Star civilization, and it has only been less than two years since the entire city fell into the Nightmare World."

"Many people in Lin Dong City seem to still be hoping for rescue from the local world, or believe that one day they will be able to find a way to return to the 'real world'."

Le Yili, however, knew very well that such a thought was too naive.

Lindong City, along with neighboring Baijiang and Chongshan, may have been among the first cities on Blue Star to fall into a nightmare, but they were definitely not the only ones.

He could "see" city after city fall, until the entire planet and the entire civilization collapsed.

It has been almost two years since the fall of Lin Dong City. Perhaps by now, the entire planet Blue Star has ceased to exist, leaving only individual Blue Star cities scattered across the Nightmare Deep Sea, struggling to survive.

Why was Yue Yili so clear about this?

Because these are things that their ancient civilization experienced.

The ancient Earth civilization was similar to the Blue Star civilization, except that it had been in a nightmare for a longer period of time.

In the early days of civilization, the first group of people who fell into nightmares and "awakened" to their true situation also fantasized about one day escaping the nightmares and returning to reality.

It wasn't until the second and third batches of cities that fell into the disaster established connections with the first batch of cities that fell that the dreamers realized that reality... was about to disappear.

A city in ruins can only save itself; it must find its own way to resist the encroachment of nightmares.

And I'm prepared to live forever only in nightmares.

But how easy is it?

"The Nightmare World is rife with natural and man-made disasters, and the 'Pseudo-Real-World City' is a tempting target for many sinister forces!"

Le Yili himself was one of the first residents of the ancient civilization's fallen cities. However, in the early days, he was just an ordinary person who was confused and ignorant, without awakening or understanding the reality of the world.

It wasn't until a year and a half into the nightmare of the ancient civilization that his city was destroyed.

Luckily, Yue Yili survived and entered a top-tier nightmare town.

In the following years, he witnessed the fall of several other ancient earthen cities. Some were from the first batch, while others were from the second and third batches.

"Over the years, of the twenty or thirty cities of my ancient civilization in that nightmare world, only seven or eight are still holding on." "Many cities, after falling, have turned into scattered nightmare camps and nightmare towns, where the pressure to survive is somewhat reduced."

But it was only a little lower; it still couldn't escape the survival threshold.

Therefore, when Le Yili saw the current state of Lin Dong City and the mantis meme contamination, he had already foreseen the future.

He knows it all too well!

The Blue Star civilization is experiencing a similar catastrophe to that of their ancient civilization.

"This is a city-destroying disaster. It is said that there are even more terrifying 'world-destroying' disasters that can sweep across the entire nightmare world." The Whispering Forest, the Pale Wasteland, the Gray City... these dozens of nightmare regions together constitute a nightmare world.

Whether it's the Blue Star civilization or their ancient earth civilization, countless Dreamers, forces, and cities are trapped in a nightmare world, struggling desperately.

If we can't even escape one nightmare world, how can we talk about the future or hope?

It's just a matter of dying early or late.

"Unless... the civilization already possessed considerable strength before it was afflicted by the nightmare."

"Our ancient civilization has encountered extraterrestrial civilization teams from other nightmare worlds."

"Traveler Civilization!"

"This is a powerful civilization capable of traversing different nightmare worlds. Its technological strength and individual capabilities are extremely formidable." In a sense, compared to the Blue Star civilization and Lin Dong City, Le Yili was also an outsider from another civilization.

But he was just a person who encountered disaster, a person who was lucky but unlucky to come to this area of ​​Blue Star civilization.

"There's no going back."

Yue Yili sighed.

Even the most powerful ancient civilizations in his region lacked the means to travel across the Nightmare World.

Besides, what about him all by himself?

He was a formidable extraordinary being, but insignificant compared to the top-tier powers. And the size of those top-tier powers was as minuscule as a drop of water in the entire Nightmare Deep Sea.

Le Yili had long anticipated living out his days alone within the Blue Star civilization... if he could live that long.

Fortunately, he didn't look much different from the Earthlings, and his gray hair wasn't particularly noticeable here.

During his month-long ordeal in Lindong City, he learned the local language through various means and now speaks Daxia fluently. Le Yili's current job is as a cleaner at this hospital.

He had to admit that the living conditions of the Earthlings were much better than those of their ancient inhabitants.

However, none of these things matter in the face of nightmares and disasters.

He peered through the crack in the door again at the man bound by ropes in the ward. He had extensive experience. “This is indeed some kind of meme virus contamination. This is a method of the intelligent and bizarre. Moreover, even among the intelligent and bizarre forces, only the more powerful ones possess this kind of method.”

"Based on past experience, these patients can still be saved in the early stages, but the disease can progress very quickly. From infection to full outbreak, it may only take 5 to 7 days."

"Perhaps, at this point, the nurses and doctors in this hospital have already been contaminated, but they are still in the incubation period."

Should we give the people of Earth a heads-up?

He thought about it, then shook his head.

His identity cannot be revealed at all. Besides, what good would it do to remind him? There are probably countless carriers of the mantis virus in the entire Lin Dong City now.

Such disasters can only be prevented in advance; once the virus begins to spread, the countdown to the city's destruction begins.

Thinking of this, Le Yili sighed silently again.

Just as he was about to leave,

"Tap, tap, tap"

The sound of hurried footsteps approached, and in the blink of an eye, a group of Dreamers dressed in black trench coats filed in through the emergency exit, followed by some ordinary people in security guard uniforms.

The security guard showed his credentials, and all the doctors and nurses in the hospital cooperated.

The elites dressed in black trench coats quickly occupied the elevator entrances and corridors, sealing off the entire floor.

"What happened?"

"What department does the person in the black trench coat belong to? I have a feeling something big has happened!"

Someone muttered to themselves.

It wasn't that no one wanted to question them on the spot, but those people in black trench coats exuded an overwhelming aura of menace. When their gazes swept over them, everyone, whether they were indignant or muttering, fell silent in fear.

Some people also noticed that the waists of those black trench coats were bulging, as if they were carrying guns.

Carrying a gun in peacetime is absolutely a matter of life and death!

Unlike most ordinary people who have never "awakened" or are completely unaware of the existence of dream sufferers and nightmares, Yue Yili was perfectly clear about it. "This is... the local countermeasures bureau has noticed something is wrong? They're acting very quickly."

Le Yili secretly agreed.

He had once provided support to an ancient civilization city that had suffered a similar disaster. Compared to Lin Dong City, their city's response was much slower, and their initial measures were riddled with errors.

Naturally, the city was destroyed without any surprises, with only the high-ranking officials, the powerful, and a very few lucky individuals escaping.

"Lin Dongcheng is indeed very fast, which has given them an extra ten or twenty hours, or even a day or two, but..."

He sighed again.

This still didn't work!

The current crisis is far from being something that can be resolved in just a day or two.

At this point, the entire hospital building had been sealed off.

Director Zhou Huai'an, accompanied by a group of high-ranking officials from the Countermeasures Bureau, strode into the ward where patients with mantis venom were staying.

"Who is the attending physician?"

Director Zhou called out.

The attending physician was quickly summoned, and upon arriving there, he was somewhat dumbfounded.

He didn't recognize any of the people in Director Zhou's group.

But isn't that the hospital's director not far away? At this moment, Director Huang could only stand in a relatively far back position, nodding repeatedly in response to the instructions given by the man in the black trench coat.

The attending physician noticed that even the director of the Public Security Bureau was present, standing to the right rear of the leader.

Who exactly is that person?

The attending physician, of course, had neither the time nor the courage to think too much, and stepped forward tremblingly to answer the questions.

"This...this patient started feeling unwell about three or four hours ago, and his symptoms are..."

After understanding the basic situation, Director Zhou ordered the area to be cleared.

Soon, apart from Zhou Huai'an and the first, third, and sixth team leaders from Lin Dongcheng, only the director of the Public Security Bureau was in the ward. Even Dean Huang had to retreat outside.

"There's no mistake, this must be the virus spread by the Mantis People. Those Salvation Society guys really deserve to die!"

One of the team leaders gritted his teeth.

He stepped forward and pressed his black-gloved hand against the delirious patient. He channeled his magical power into the patient, but found nothing amiss; it was as if the patient were just an ordinary mental patient.

At other times, they might actually think that way.

But now that they know the Mantis People are eerily watching them from the east, there's no way it's all just a coincidence.

Zhou Huai'an stepped forward and restrained the patient.

His magical power surged forth continuously, while he simultaneously maximized his sensory abilities.

After a while,

"There is an unusual, extremely subtle, and cold aura inside the patient's body."

"Moreover, although this chilling aura is weak, its grade is extremely high."

Director Zhou frowned as he manipulated his own magical power to continuously eliminate this wisp of cold aura.

Half an hour later, Director Zhou withdrew his hand.

On the hospital bed, the man had long since stopped muttering. He opened his eyes, his gaze blank as if he were waking up from a dream.

Director Zhou asked the man a few questions.

The man said he had a long dream in which he transformed into a praying mantis and lived freely in a place called the Praying Mantis Kingdom. He even married a female praying mantis and later became a Praying Mantis General, reaching the pinnacle of his life as a praying mantis.

Then I woke up.

The man returned to normal after waking up from his dream.

The team leader asked, "Director Zhou, has the patient recovered?"

"Well, it seems that the mantis disease has been eradicated for now, but..."

Zhou showed no sign of joy.

"It is extremely difficult to eradicate this virus. Only extraordinary individuals have the ability to do it. Even if one is skilled, it will take at least ten minutes." At first glance, this seems to be within the acceptable range?

Those present, including the first and third captains, had already advanced to the extraordinary level. They had to thank the shop manager; now, the top forces in Lin Dong City weren't so stretched thin. But Director Zhou's expression remained grave.

"This is a virus, and it spreads. When I first came into contact with it, I sensed that chilling coldness spreading. This kind of spread does not threaten superhumans, and even powerful cultivators in the Refinement stage can be alerted and use their incantations to block it."

However, the largest group in the world today is ordinary people!

Director Zhou even strongly suspected that ordinary people could be infected without direct contact.

really,

Half an hour later, the expression on the face of the Lin Dong high-level officials became even more somber.

"The vast majority of people in the entire hospital building carry the 'cause of the disease' within them! It's just that their mantis syndrome is still in its incubation period." "Do these patients in the incubation period have the ability to continue spreading the 'virus'? And what are the transmission routes?"

"Moreover, the number of people with the underlying cause of this disease is likely far greater than just those in the hospital wards!"

The hospital has a high volume of patients.

No one can guarantee when the mantis disease started to spread.

"I'm afraid our Lin Dong City is now..."

Countless red dots appeared throughout Lin Dong City and spread rapidly.

Before long, the entire city of Lindong was already...

The whole city is ablaze with red!

Half a day later, at the Lindong Research Institute, in the laboratory.

The director of the research institute is also an extraordinary and powerful individual, Director Yi Huan.

Dean Huan wasn't a top expert before, but after entering the extraordinary realm, his brain's processing speed increased several times, and he was often able to directly use his own magical power and extraordinary talents to assist in his research.

His research on mantis viruses quickly yielded preliminary results.

"This is not a virus, at least not one that we on Earth understand as a virus; it's more appropriate to call it pollution."

"There are several ways in which mantis pollution can spread. One is being in the same space for more than 30 seconds and within a distance of no more than 30 meters. Another is direct contact or conversation, which will definitely lead to infection. And yet another is that mentioning any word related to mantises will cause pollution... Of course, this only applies to ordinary people."

"This kind of meme contamination and rule overriding is probably the power of the strange."

"Although the mantis infestation after the cover is no longer at the standard level, and theoretically an effective treatment could be developed, there isn't enough time. Because the entire process from the onset of symptoms to a complete outbreak can take only 5 to 7 days."

The time was very short!

Upon hearing this news, Zhou Ju's expression turned grave.

However, he was still mentally prepared.

The last time Baijiang City suffered a major disaster, the window of opportunity left for Baijiang City was only a few days.

Great disasters come suddenly and swiftly!

Director Zhou asked, "Is there any way for the purification agents in the safe zone to remove this pollution?"

"Yes," Dean Huan said. "We were able to produce preliminary results so quickly thanks to some of the medicines in the safe zone, especially this purification medicine."

"But a whole vial of purification potion can only remove the pollution from one person. We've tried it, and if you dilute the purification potion, the effect is far from enough. Director Zhou, you should know that this purification potion is a precious medicine, and we have a total of 294 million people in Lin Dong City!" They simply cannot afford to buy millions of purification potions.

Even if they could buy them, the safe zone couldn't possibly provide them all.

This is a precious medicine!

Dean Huan added, "Of course, according to our research, there is another method that is not really a solution."

"Find and eliminate all... the Source Entities!"

Lin Dongcheng, Countermeasures Bureau.

This was the second day after the mantis's symptoms appeared.

On the television, the presenter solemnly announced, "We have a news briefing. Recently, an infectious disease called mantis disease has been spreading. Please be aware..."

Many of the people in black trench coats looked somber.

They know the truth, and it's far more terrifying.

Meanwhile, in the conference room on the thirteenth floor.

Yue Yili also appears here.

He finally confronted the Lindong authorities, though not completely; he only said he was someone who had drifted there from elsewhere. After much thought, he decided to give the Lindong authorities a heads-up.

Because the response from Lin Dong City was swift, all the Dreamers in the city were mobilized.

"Given the decisiveness and unity of Lin Dongcheng, perhaps there is even a sliver of a chance to overcome this great disaster?"

"I've had a pretty good time in Lin Dong City. At least, the living conditions there are quite good. If Lin Dong City falls, I'll have to find refuge in a nightmare town, and the living conditions there will definitely be far worse than they are now."

"Even if we can't return to the ancient land, I just hope... Lin Dong City can survive!"

So, half an hour later.

"Yes, this virus usually takes only 5 to 7 days from the first symptoms to the outbreak. Once it breaks out, the patients become bizarre and have a stronger ability to spread and contaminate."

Wait, how come Lin Dongcheng knows it's five to seven days?

Le Yili racked his brains to recall, "There's one more thing, there should be one... no, multiple sources, or source entities, among these patients. These source entities have a stronger ability to pollute. If we eliminate them all, as long as the disease hasn't progressed to the outbreak stage, the patients can recover... but we must do it before the outbreak stage patients appear."

Director Zhou asked, "Is the source entity present within the patient, and the patient is completely unaware of it?"

Le Yili: "Yes, yes, yes."

"But there's another point: once these source entities are discovered and reveal their true forms, they will likely transform into terrifyingly powerful and bizarre supernatural beings." Source entities are extremely dangerous; only supernatural beings can deal with them.

The source body is even more difficult to find; only those who are extraordinary or a very small number of those who have reached the third level of refinement have the ability to follow the clues.

The time left for Lin Dong City was extremely short.

If we calculate based on a five-day outbreak, then the entire Lindong region now has less than four days left.

Once the pollution fully erupts, even killing the source will be futile.

"So, in other words, we need to find and eliminate all the sources of pollution within the next four days—no, three days?"

Le Yili noticed that Zhou Ju's expression was solemn but not heavy.

The disaster was terrible, but Lin Dongcheng still had confidence.

quickly,

Director Zhou then fell into a dream and arrived at the mission hall in the safe zone.

He took out his membership card.

This is a premium membership card, and the back shows the premium membership badge.

"I am posting an emergency request for assistance as a VIP member."