Conan Rick's Investigator

Qin Zhibo thought of the time when he escaped death from Baron Samedi and had heard this ancient and taboo name before.

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, the God of a Thousand Faces.

A thousand appearances are no appearance...

Qin Zhibo only realized it at this time and remembered that Koizumi Hongzi said that the horror hunter was a servant of the "Faceless God".

The faceless god is Nyarlathotep!

He came into contact with the magic circle that summoned the terrifying hunter, which accidentally triggered the appearance of Nyarlathotep!

[Congratulations on achieving 100 Mythical Knowledge Skill Proficiency!]

The system's prompt just proves that Qin Zhibo's idea is correct.

That dark man is one of Nyarlathotep's incarnations.

Qin Zhibo turned his body and sat on the ground with his buttocks, his hands hanging limply at his sides, his empty eyes staring into the void.

At the edge of his vision, tentacle-like dead branches were already showing signs of emerging, a sign that his willpower was on the verge of collapse.

Nyarlathotep, the God of a Thousand Faces...

It is really a dangerous thing to be an enemy of such a god.

The key point is that Nyarlathotep is said to have tens of millions of incarnations, and if you are not careful, you might provoke her without knowing it.

Moreover, he had no clear means to fight against it. The dark hand that appeared when he fought against Baron Samedi last time did not help him this time.

I was being watched by the gods...

Just as Qin Zhibo was thinking about this matter over and over in his mind, trying to find a way to redeem himself, several hazy figures ran out of the dark space.

Those figures were moving at an extremely fast speed, almost skimming past the ground, accompanied by unpleasant gurgling sounds.

A gray dog head first came into view, and then other dog heads emerged from the darkness.

It's a ghoul!

Although Qin Zhibo is not in good condition now, he can still recognize the types of these monsters. They are the zombies that have not been seen for a long time!

They all have rubbery gray skin and are shaped like hunched humans. They can walk upright on two feet, but when they are faster, they run on all fours like wild beasts.

Its most striking feature is the hideous dog head.

I didn’t expect that just after sending away the King of Hell, another little ghost came!

Moreover, these little ghosts are a hundred times more difficult to deal with than the King of Hell!

It is hard to guess what the gods are thinking. They come and go as they please, but these carnivorous monsters will definitely not leave without gaining something.

Qin Zhibo struggled to get up from the ground, his nerves tense again, ready to make a final resistance without any weapons.

The dog-headed men seemed to understand that the "food" in front of them would not surrender obediently, and they all bared their teeth and moved their claws around their bodies.

But at this moment, a "gurgling" sound came from the darkness.

"Gugu-ling-"

"Gurgle, gurgle."

The zombies were stunned for a moment, looked at each other, and actually retracted their fangs that were sticking out from their lips.

They retreated to the sides, and another hazy shape emerged from the darkness.

This is probably also a ghoul.

The reason I say "probably" is because its skin is different from the slightly translucent gray rubber of other ghouls. Its skin texture is opaque and slightly rough, somewhere between flesh-colored and gray.

Its dog head is also different from the disgusting dog heads of other zombies. The upper and lower jaws of this dog head are not too protruding, and appear more restrained, and there are fewer wrinkles on the skin.

It looks like it has some human characteristics!

Looking at the information floating above his head, Qin Zhibo was even more shocked.

"Matsumoto Ryohei?!"

"Mr. Qin, I didn't expect to meet you here."

The ghoul spoke human language, and it was fluent Japanese.

"Are you really Matsumoto?"

Qin Zhibo couldn't believe it and looked him up and down.

The once elegant art museum director has turned into this image, somewhere between a human and a ghoul.

His skeleton was slightly hunched and he wore simple clothes, which made him look less disgusting than other ghouls.

"Why is this happening? You didn't leave suddenly..."

Qin Zhibo still couldn't believe the huge changes in Matsumoto Ryohei, and shook his head in disbelief.

But Matsumoto Ryohei was relieved and even smiled comfortably.

“If it was in the past, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

"But this is the real me. Whether you believe it or not, this is the fact..."

He looked around and said, "But this is the territory of demons and ghosts. It's not a good place to talk. Let's leave here first."

"Come, follow me, my friend, up there, I'll keep you safe."

Qin Zhibo thought about it and realized that he had not completed the task yet, and he still had many things to ask this old friend.

"Okay, but I need to bring others with me."

The "others" that Qin Zhibo mentioned are Hondou Eisuke and Suzuki Ayako.

He looked back and found that Hondou Eisuke was still lying there, but Suzuki Ayako had disappeared for some reason.

Qin Zhibo looked around but couldn't find Suzuki Ayako.

There was no other way, Qin Zhibo could only carry Hondou Eisuke on his back and follow the group of zombies in a certain direction.

……

Following the zombies around in the dark space, a stone staircase leading upwards appeared in front of us.

This was something Qin Zhibo had never encountered before when he explored this space.

The stairs are slightly higher than the stairs that humans usually climb, and require a long stride to climb.

Qin Zhibo found it difficult to exert force while carrying Hondou Eisuke on his back, so he could only tie the person to himself with his coat and then forcefully carry him on his back.

Originally, Matsumoto Ryohei said that he could ask two zombies to help carry it, but Qin Zhibo was a little worried.

Have you heard of what is called "beating a dog with a meat bun"?

After climbing dozens of steps, Qin Zhibo, who was almost exhausted, finally saw a ray of light.

At the top of the stairs was a hole in the ground, emitting a faint light.

Qin Zhibo thought he had returned to the cemetery behind Suzuki Villa because he came down from there. Now if he goes up again from the bottom, he should be back to the cemetery.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel fortunate that I had managed to survive a near-death experience.

But when Qin Zhibo stuck his head out of the hole, he found that it was not as simple as he had imagined.

Above the cave was not the familiar valley, but a dark green plain emitting endless faint light.

Dotted across the plain are a number of strange relics from Earth – ancient tombstones.

Ryohei Matsumoto stood next to Qin Zhibo, extending his long fingernails to introduce Qin Zhibo.

"Friends, welcome to the Dreamland." Scan the QR code to download. Hongxiu and Xiaoxiang are offering a limited-time free reading for newcomers.

Chapter 974 Too Thin, Don’t

"Dreamland?"

Qin Zhibo scanned this strange world. All he saw was an endless plain with mugwort growing in the slightly foul-smelling soil. It was dotted with crooked tombstones, broken urns, and some bizarre fragments.

In the sky emitting a gray-green glow, there were no celestial bodies or clouds to be seen. It was a strange and bizarre sight that could not be seen anywhere else on Earth.

"Yes, the Dreamland."

Ryohei Matsumoto continued to guide Qin Zhibo forward and explained.

"This is a different dimension from Earth. The physical laws on Earth don't apply here, but it also has many similarities with Earth..."

"To put it simply, this place is like a 'dream world,' but everything here is real."

"Dreams are reality."

Qin Zhibo followed Matsumoto Ryohei, passing by one cave after another.

The plain was dotted with these burrows, some spacious, some narrow, some emitting a foul odor, and some having no odor at all.

"So, am I dreaming now?"

"otherwise."

Matsumoto Ryohei shook his head. "You didn't enter this world through a dream, but entered it in your real body."

"This means that once you die here, your true self dies, and you can't return to the other world..."

As Matsumoto Ryohei was speaking, Qin Zhibo felt some movement of Hondou Eisuke on his back, as if he was about to wake up.

Qin Zhibo put the man down and slapped him on the back of the neck, making him fall into a baby-like sleep again.

Matsumoto Ryohei: "...Don't let him wake up?"

Qin Zhibo: "No, sometimes knowing too much is not a good thing."

For Hondou Eisuke, everything here was too exciting, especially the horrifying faces of these zombies.

……

Next, Matsumoto Ryohei introduced to Qin Zhibo how to enter the dreamland.

The most common way is to have a special dream, the main content of which is going down stairs.

First, go down 70 steps symbolizing "light sleep", get the gatekeeper's consent, pass through a flaming cave, and then go down 700 steps symbolizing "deep sleep", and you will reach the dreamland.

Entering the Dreamland in this way is the most common.

And when you die in a dream in this way, your body will not really die. What dies is your dream self, and you will only lose the ability to dream again.

After hearing what Matsumoto Ryohei said, Qin Zhibo remembered that he seemed to have had such a dream before.

In his dream, he had obtained the consent of the two "gatekeepers" and was about to enter the Fire Cave when he was awakened by the sudden ringing of the phone.

The second method is to allow the real body to enter the dreamland.

This method requires the use of some special spatial gaps, such as a zombie's lair or a tree hole in the forest.

This kind of spatial gap is often difficult to detect, but it is the key for the body to reach the other side of dreams.

"You and this young man must have come here through the ghoul's lair. You entered the dreamland in your real bodies."

Matsumoto Ryohei pointed at himself again and said, "I passed through a tree hole in the Aokigahara Sea of Trees and entered this world in the flesh."

Aokigahara Sea of Trees, Qin Zhibo had some impression of this place.

Aokigahara Forest is located at the foot of Mount Fuji. It is also known as the "Suicide Forest". It has been a natural cemetery since ancient times and has become a famous suicide sanctuary in modern times.

As for the reason why Matsumoto Ryohei discovered this tree hole, it can be traced back to a more distant past.

"I once told you that my father, Matsumoto Seicho, was an archaeologist who also loved literature and philosophy."

"A few years ago, my father suddenly disappeared. The police investigation was fruitless, so I had to investigate his whereabouts on my own."

"In the study at home, I discovered an early novel my father wrote called 'The Tower of Waves.'"

"The heroine in this book committed suicide in Aokigahara Sea of Trees, which made me think that my father might be there."

"At that time, I entered the forest and accidentally discovered a tree hole in the forest that could lead to this world. However, due to lack of preparation, I got lost on the way back and ran out of food and water."

"In order to survive, I had to eat the bodies of those who committed suicide to sustain my life until I could get out of the forest."

"Having survived, I opened the door to a new world... but I still didn't know that the tree hole led to a dreamland, so I kept this secret."

"Until a while ago, when I was in the hospital, I found that my craving for meat was getting stronger and stronger, and I was also experiencing various deformities in my body."