After AFK for five years, I returned to be number one in the entire server.

Lin followed behind Liu Gui, the dirt road beneath their feet was dilapidated and full of potholes.

From a certain moment on, he stopped talking, walked with his head down, and turned his back to Lin Ye.

After passing a fork in the road, there was a missing corner in the courtyard wall on the left. Behind it stood a middle-aged man wearing dark blue overalls, revealing his lean forearms. He was in the shadows, his face turned towards Lin Ye.

At the same time, Lin also noticed an old man standing in another courtyard, with gray hair and eyes staring at him.

More and more people appeared in the village—men, women, children…

They all stood in their own yard, expressionless, staring blankly at Liu Gui and Lin Ye in the passageway.

"What are you looking at!"

Lin glared at those people, and immediately everyone took a half step back, retreating into the shadows, and stiffly retreating back into the house, closing the door behind them.

The entire village became empty again, with only two people visible at a glance.

Liu Gui led the way, passing two houses and crossing a narrow alley.

At the end of the alley was an open space overgrown with waist-high weeds, with a stone well rim peeking out from among the grass.

The well ring was low, only reaching a person's knees, and covered with black moss.

"I found something strange here yesterday, come and take a look." Liu Gui stood by the well and pointed down into it.

Lin also approached and stood on the edge of the well, looking down.

The well was very deep, with water at the bottom, and a small patch of skylight reflected on the water's surface, making it shimmer brightly.

Liu Gui stood behind him, raising his hand.

Before she even touched Lin Ye's back, Lin Ye spoke up: "Is that you, the corpse down there?"

Liu Gui suddenly froze.

"Did you find your second uncle when you went into the village?"

He wanted to say something, but no sound came out after he opened his mouth.

When he entered the village that day, it was unusually quiet.

He searched house by house, calling his second uncle's name, but no one answered.

Later, he walked to this open space and saw an old woman sitting on the edge of the well, wearing a floral short-sleeved shirt, with her back to him.

He went over and asked if he had seen an old man named Liu De.

The old woman turned her head, and he didn't see her clearly. He only remembered feeling a chill all over his body and falling into the well.

He struggled in the water for a few moments, trying to shout, but water filled his mouth, and the small patch of sky above the well became farther and farther away, smaller and smaller.

After that, his consciousness became hazy and he didn't know what he was doing.

Liu Gui stood by the well, head bowed.

His body began to fade from the edges, like ink spreading with water.

"So I'm already dead."

After saying that, he dispersed.

Lin turned around, and the next second, he appeared in a room.

The room was small, and the windows were boarded up from the inside, with a few rays of light shining through the cracks. There was a wooden bed against the wall, and a person was lying on the bed.

A man around thirty years old, wearing a gray long-sleeved shirt with the cuffs covering his wrists.

His hands were folded over his abdomen, in a neat and orderly manner, as if he had been deliberately positioned.

This is a lifeless corpse.

There was a person sitting at the table opposite the bed, with the same facial features and clothes as the person lying on the bed.

Lin also asked, "Who are you?"

"I am from Shiqiao Village, and my name is Zhao Yi."

"You're still conscious? Why did things turn out like this?"

His voice carried a chilling undertone: "I don't know either. When I was first selected by Star Abyss two years ago, things were pretty good. Back then, I was a Firefly level, which allowed me to enter other people's dreams. Every night, I could go to different dreams. Some people dreamed of falling off a cliff, some dreamed of being late for an exam, and some dreamed of their loved ones dying."

"Later I discovered that I could change other people's dreams. Everyone in the village knew about my abilities and praised me for being amazing. Some people even came to me specifically to help them dream about their wives, because their wives had run away with someone else and they wanted to see her in their dreams."

"I helped them, and then more and more people came. I helped them dream every night, and then I couldn't wake up anymore."

"I was sleeping for longer and longer periods, from a few hours to a whole day, and then a week. I could hear my wife calling me, but I couldn't open my eyes. The last time I woke up, I found myself on the ceiling, with my body underneath."

"At first I thought it was just a new way of being, but gradually I found that the phenomena that appeared in me also appeared in the people who asked me for help; they, like me, were unable to wake up."

"The first one was Elder Uncle from the village. He came to me. At that time, although I couldn't return to my body, I could still manifest. He wanted to dream about his deceased wife. After he fell asleep, he never woke up again."

"Afterwards, the scope expanded to the entire village, beyond my control. Anyone who entered the village was either pulled into a dream from which they could not wake up, or they were left behind by other spiritual entities in the village."

Lin also recalled Lin Yao: "When the game chose you, it gave you more than just abilities; your spiritual body was mutated."

"I know."

……

……

Lin Ye appeared at the village entrance, and Qin Wei's voice came through the earpiece, tinged with obvious anxiety: "Lin Ye? Lin Ye? Can you hear me?"

"receive."

There was a pause on the other end: "You've been out of contact for over ten minutes. Reinforcements are almost here. How's the situation on your end?"

"It's been resolved."

"Resolved?"

"right."

"You did a great job. If you are sure there is no danger around, please wait where you are. We will report back with more details when we return."

Half an hour later, the first to arrive was a helicopter, carrying several Moon-class members.

Afterwards, various transport vehicles and armored vehicles arrived one after another, with the Tian Shu logo printed on the vehicle doors. These were Firefly-class and Dust-class members carrying firearms, and they were forming up.

Qin Wei got out of a car and took Lin Ye into the medical vehicle. Someone checked his blood pressure and heart rate, drew a tube of blood, and scanned his pupils and magnetic field fluctuations with an instrument.

"All indicators are normal," the technician told Qin Wei.

Lin also took a car back and returned safely to Ningchuan.

That evening, in the conference room of the Ningchuan branch.

The electronic screen was lit up, displaying footage of Shiqiao Village captured by the dashcam on Lin Ye's body.

The dirt road at the village entrance and the self-built houses on both sides were all unremarkable.

During the process, Lin also wandered around the village, sometimes talking to empty houses, sometimes talking to thin air, which looked very strange.

But everyone present understood that he was talking to the mental entity trapped within a Moon-level player, something these recording devices couldn't capture.

There was a period of black screen in the footage, which was the process of Lin Ye going from the well to the dark room. They didn't know why the screen went black, and Lin Ye didn't explain it in the report. It may be a problem with the recorder.

In the scene, Lin Ye eventually enters the dark room and reaches a reconciliation with the Moon-level out-of-control individual inside.

Looking at the screen thoughtfully, Zhou Ping said to the person next to him, "Pay more attention to Lin Ye. Our branch may have more than just Pei Xiao as an ace among the younger generation."