I created a safe zone in the nightmare world.

The sudden appearance of the scene made Shi An's gaze sharpen.

This appears to be an underground parking lot, where various cars, including luxury vehicles, can be seen.

At this moment, the entire parking lot was too quiet, and the light was dim, with many lights flickering like candles in the wind.

A middle-aged man staggered out of the shadows, took a few steps, and finally collapsed to the ground, powerless.

Blood, crimson blood, spread all the way to the unseen shadows.

"This is?"

Shi An felt unfamiliar with the middle-aged man in the picture, both in terms of his physique and appearance.

But this scene couldn't have appeared out of nowhere.

"Um?!"

Shi An's gaze was focused on the middle-aged man's blood-soaked palm, where a huge pair of scissors seemed to be connected to the flesh and blood, hanging limply.

It's the Cursed Dream Item: Shadow Giant Scissors!

"So, the middle-aged man is the guy in the black suit I saw in the nightmare world, and he's dead?"

"The safe zone clearly changed his fate and helped him through his nightmare, but he still died!!"

Shi An found it hard to accept.

The scene appeared abruptly and disappeared just as quickly; once again, the shimmering river surface was bathed in sunlight.

When the wind blew, Shi An felt cold, a cold that went straight to her bones.

He forced himself to calm down and kept replaying the image that had suddenly flashed before his eyes.

"Only a few hours have passed since he left the nightmare world. In such a short time, the middle-aged man is unlikely to fall back into the nightmare, especially since the scene just now looked very much like the real world!"

It doesn't have that eerie, ominous feeling of a nightmare world.

However, since this is reality, a reality that should be peaceful, tranquil, and harmonious, the middle-aged man still died.

He survived countless nightmares, only to collapse in the real world that should have been safe.

Shi An was both angry and worried.

He should have thought of this much earlier.

"If the Dream Fallen exist, and if they possess extraordinary power, how can the real world remain peaceful forever?"

The calm is only on the surface; undercurrents are surging.

He had subconsciously overlooked this point all along!

The middle-aged man died in reality.

How did he die? Was he killed by someone else, or...?

"Besides man-made disasters like the Dream Fallers, are there other natural disasters in the real world?"

This is merely an unfounded inference by Shi An.

However, if the dangers caused by those who have fallen into dreams can be concealed, then other dangers can certainly be concealed as well. The reason the real world can remain peaceful is that there are organizations restraining the undercurrents beneath the surface.

Shi An looked southeast.

An inexplicable intuition told him that the underground parking lot in the picture was located in that direction and not far from him.

All around, children, couples, and the elderly remained cheerful and relaxed.

But Shi An and the others seemed to be in two different worlds.

After considering it for a while, he made a decision: "Let's go take a look."

It's not that we actually want to go to that underground parking lot.

But now that he knew the general location and that something was going on, he couldn't stay in the small park any longer.

He wanted to verify something.

Riding his electric scooter, Shi An sped along at breakneck speed.

His gaze swept across the surroundings: old buses, dark alleyways, bridge arches piled with garbage...

He wondered if these places might harbor dangers that are difficult for ordinary people to detect.

He seems to see danger in everything he looks at now.

suddenly,

Shi An squeezed the brake lever, blocking the road ahead, where a crowd of onlookers had gathered in circles.

"Watching the excitement is definitely in the nature of the Chinese."

There seemed to be a cordon in the distance, but there were too many onlookers, and Shi An couldn't squeeze to the front.

He patted the man in front of him on the shoulder and asked, "Hey buddy, what's going on here? Why are so many people gathered around?"

"Hey, what else could it be? It's just that a tram caught fire and exploded in the underground parking garage."

The man speaking looked utterly dismayed. "I heard the impact is quite widespread. The entire underground parking lot is now closed to everyone, but many residents are worried their cars might also catch fire. What a mess..."

The older brother was talkative, but Shi An didn't hear what he said after that.

Underground parking lot, lockdown, accident, danger...

The scene reappeared in my mind.

My intuition, though seemingly unseen, is pointing me right in front of me.

Shi An's gaze passed over the crowd of onlookers and over the cordoned-off police line. He seemed to see deep inside the underground parking garage, where the lights flickered erratically, and there lay there powerless, already dead, a middle-aged man.

His dreams—safe zones, nightmares, visitors… these were indeed more than just dreams.

Dreams and reality intertwine.

Shi An remembered that while there were no strange tales or legends in his past memories, there were quite a few similar disasters.

Car accidents, fires, suicides, explosions...

Of these incidents, how many were genuine accidents and how many were not?

He was unclear about it, and he didn't have the ability to figure it out at the moment.

Having confirmed some of his suspicions, Shi An didn't linger and quickly returned to his rented room.

It was still early, but Shi An wasn't in the mood for fun, and dared not wander around outside.

after all,

"There are also some dangers in the real world that I may not be aware of at all."

After lunch, Shi An decided to start exercising. Exercise might not be useful, but it's unlikely that it's completely useless either; at least, having a good physique would allow him to run faster in dangerous situations.

Time ticked by slowly as we waited, much more difficult than when we were waiting for game updates and maintenance.

at last,

At a certain point.

"Ding!"

"Notice: The safe zone has been upgraded. Current rank: Level 1."

"Hint: The probability of safe zones appearing randomly in the nightmare world will be greatly increased."

"Tip: The safe zone environment has been improved."

"Note: You have permission to directly open the portal."

A series of prompts appeared in my mind.

After the upgrade, Shi An felt a stronger connection between himself and the safe zone.

and……

"A huge improvement! The probability of 'refreshing visitors' that I need most has indeed increased significantly."

Although he had expected it, he only felt relieved after seeing the actual result.

In addition,

"Permission to open the portal?"

After studying it for a while, Shi An discovered that this was an ability that allowed him to open the gates of the safe zone no matter where he was.

In this way, even if he is plagued by nightmares and falls into a dangerous world, he can open a passage back to the loyal safe zone on his own.

Security has been greatly improved!

Shi An drew the curtains, preparing to lie down in bed and drift off to sleep.

Suddenly, another possibility occurred to him, and his breathing became rapid.

"Is it possible that opening the door isn't limited to the nightmare world?"

Shi An was unable to attempt to open the door in the nightmare world.

But in reality...

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and opened them again, trying to grasp the inexplicable feeling, until at a certain moment, he reached out...

"Splash!"

His hand moved as if stirring water, causing ripples in the space in front of him, and white mist spread outwards in circles.

A large gate, shrouded in white mist, suddenly appeared in Shi An's bedroom.

Inside the door, the colors of a dream unfold—vibrant, somber, and bizarre.

He actually opened the door!

Not in a dream, but in reality!

Shi An took a deep breath and stepped into it, as if crossing the surface of water, crossing the boundary between reality and dreams. His simple clothes disappeared in the stream of light, his facial features became sharper, and a silver-gray coat was draped over his shoulders, with sun and moon pendants tinkling.

Shi An returned to his safe zone.