The moment the world shattered, countless lights spread out from the cracks. It seemed as if he was surrounded by a pitch-black sea, where large fragments of stars were scattered, densely covering the distant horizon.
The sea water chased him, coming from all directions.
Under a pressure that felt like drowning, Bai Yi struggled to surface, the light shining on his eyelids.
He slowly opened his eyes, waking up.
The glaring light shone on his face through the gap in the curtains, and beneath him was the soft touch unique to a bed.
The wall clock on the opposite wall made a ‘ding’ sound, its two hands forming a straight line.
— It was exactly six in the morning.
Bai Yi lay on the bed, his gaze unfocused, continuing to space out. Like a machine that had suddenly lost its connection and was stuck, he could fall back asleep at any moment.
It wasn’t until five minutes later that his blurry eyes finally focused, and his whole body, as if fully charged, suddenly sat up straight, “coming to life.”
The next second, he stretched out his arms and let out a long yawn, his messy hair trembling with his movement, and those eyes that had just focused half-closed again. He looked like he was running low on battery and was about to go back to sleep.“The same dream has been going on for seven days now…”
A thought flashed through his mind, and he let out a drawn-out sigh.
“So—boring—”
Dreaming was an experience that everyone had, but to enter different dreamscapes every night, to remain absolutely conscious, and to remember every detail clearly after waking up…such a special experience was not something everyone got to have.
For Bai Yi, however, this had been his daily life.
Ever since he could remember, it had always been like this.
Every night after falling asleep, he would uncontrollably plunge into various dreams, facing all sorts of strange beginnings.
Most of the time, he dreamed of a deep sea, where the water was as thick as ink, and around him were constantly falling fragments of stars. The pressure, so real it was suffocating, always gave him the illusion of drowning, until he struggled to wake up from the nightmare with all his might.
At other times, he would dream of various scenes, playing a certain role in them. Sometimes he was just delivering a letter for someone, sometimes he might be in mortal danger, needing to make the right choice in a very short time.
The duration of these dreams varied. The longest one repeated the same dream for half a month, the shortest one changed every day.
After many years of trial and summary, Bai Yi was not without gains. He found that as long as he immersed himself in the role, according to his own speculation, tried to do things that were in line with the role’s wishes, the same dream often wouldn’t last a few days before it completely disappeared from his side.
But if he seriously violated the role’s wishes, then he would continue to repeat this dream day and night.
The longest time, a dream repeated for three months.
It was simply…like being possessed by an evil spirit.
The dream last night, was the seventh repetition.
The moment he entered the dream, what appeared in front of Bai Yi was a glaring crime scene.
As far as the eye could see, there were two fresh corpses and a freshly baked murderer.
And he, like a ghost hovering in the sky, silently overlooked all this.
Then, he watched as the little boy who walked down the stairs was frightened by the scene in front of him, directly fell on the stairs, and made a piercing noise.
And the murderer was quickly alarmed by the noise made by the little boy, turned around to look at him for the first time, and was about to add another fresh corpse to the ground.
— All this was too much to take in, like a cutscene in a game playing out in front of Bai Yi’s eyes, until his vision blurred and he found himself already in the body of the little boy, becoming the role that was about to be a cannon fodder.
Facing a pair of eyes full of murderous intent, Bai Yi didn’t hesitate, immediately unfocused his gaze, stumbled and touched the wall to get up, his face showing the bewildered and innocent look unique to children, “…Is it Dr. Filte?”
The other party, as he expected, was stunned for a second, and then responded–temporarily stopping the action in his hands.
All the lies were so fluent, Bai Yi’s fast-running brain allowed him to make the most advantageous choice in an instant–to play a blind child, and actively give this murderer who might kill him at any time a reasonable identity, reducing the other party’s vigilance.
Even in his speech, he deliberately guided the other party’s interest in talking.
The parents who died tragically, the child who knew nothing and saw the enemy as a friend, the closed environment that had not been visited by guests for a long time and was likely to be undisturbed in the future… He actively offered the murderer in front of him enough material for a wonderful script, and a stage without anyone’s interference…
The fact proved that such a small trick was indeed effective.
Perhaps some people had a bad factor in their nature that liked to tear up others’ beauty, appreciate others’ tragedy, and get pleasure from it. Even if this time to watch the drama was likely to increase the risk for himself.
Perhaps…this was also one of the important reasons why so many villains died of talking too much.
And a young, weak and blind child, what threat did he pose? Even if killed a little later, it’s not a big deal.
In this way, K was gradually led on, relaxing his vigilance towards Bai Yi. With a certain perverse mentality, he dealt with the bodies while conversing with the boy in front of him as “Dr. Filte”, even feeling a bit regretful about having to kill such an obedient and sensible prey.
This process was enough for Bai Yi to roughly figure out his character, while also using the corner of his eye to subtly familiarize himself with the surroundings. For example, where there were handy tools, where there were suitable escape routes, where there were key props that could help a child overcome an adult…
The strong sleeping pills stored under the reception desk were his unexpected joy.
— Although the dream world was different from reality, and the types and packaging of the drugs were also different, just by opening the bottle and taking a sniff, Bai Yi was able to determine from his long-standing experience that this was a drug with a strong sedative effect.
— Although finding such strange drugs at the hotel’s reception desk was a bit off…it was hard not to suspect that this was a black shop.
Then, Bai Yi tasted it himself.
Three minutes later, he started to feel dizzy.
Five seconds later, this weak body fell directly to the ground.
This sudden “drop dead” even scared “K”, who thought that a colleague had unknowingly infiltrated the hotel, and he immediately gripped his weapon, doubting and suspecting until the last second of the dream shattering.
But Bai Yi successfully used the first opportunity to enter the dream to find a key prop that could break the situation, and estimated the effect and approximate onset time himself.
By converting between the physique of a child and an adult, he roughly knew how long the same dose would take to work on another person.
The next night, when he opened his eyes again on the familiar steps, Bai Yi already had a complete plan in his mind.
This time, with early preparation, he deceived “K”’s eyes with more perfect acting skills. Then, he focused all his attention on observing this “Dr. Filte”, without diverting too much attention to observe the surroundings.
And he made his first tentative counter-kill.
This rash attempt failed as expected.
Then came the second time, the third time.
Failure after failure, each time closer to success…
The power gap between a child and an adult was not easily bridged, especially when he had not fully grasped the other party’s mind, and every step was perfectly responsive, as long as a slight flaw was exposed to arouse the other party’s suspicion, there was absolutely no room for resistance.
But his goal had been achieved.
With the information collected from the dreams time and time again, the murderer’s personality model established in Bai Yi’s mind became more and more perfect, and the previous failures of counter-killing also provided him with more ample experience.
Until the fifth time he entered the dream…
This time, everything was under Bai Yi’s control.
How to make people relax their vigilance, how to make the other party’s every step follow your guidance…When you understand this person’s character enough, it’s not a difficult thing.
From the moment he woke up from the dream, every word Bai Yi said, every step he took, his expression and tone, and even the position he stood in, were all considered.
The moment he opened his mouth, he knew what the other party would say next, just as this time in the dream when he handed out that glass of milk, he was sure that the other party would definitely not refuse. This was when his vigilance was at its lowest.
After a successful experience, on the sixth day, the seventh day, when Bai Yi woke up in the same dream again, facing the same opening, it was simply like holding a clearance guide to brush the copy, without any difficulty.
In order not to be so boring, to add a little difficulty to himself, he didn’t even completely copy the guide from the last time…
Even so, when you know enough about a person, and the other person knows nothing about you, it’s not difficult to design a trap for them to step into. Just as a prey that has been killed once by a trap, it’s not difficult to kill a second or third time.
In this way, Bai Yi completed a triple kill.
— It was not an escape, but a counter-kill.
— He could feel the deep pleasure from the bottom of his heart of the role he was playing. Each time deeper than the last.
But Bai Yi went from being initially enthusiastic to now being bored. It was like repeatedly solving a puzzle with a known answer, or eating the same snack over and over again.
Even if he changed the way he ate, he couldn’t help but get tired of it.
“Hey, this level should be satisfying enough.”
Standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, he gently splashed cold water on his face, Bai Yi looked up at the mirror on the wall.
The boy in the mirror was thin and tall, wearing a large white short-sleeved shirt, his black hair was messy, a few strands of hair on his forehead were wet by the splashed water droplets, revealing his dark eyes, and there were faint and unnoticeable dark circles around them.
Bai Yi yawned, and the deep black eyes in the mirror suddenly became misty. He murmured, as if speaking to the regret in the dream that may or may not exist, or the “reason” that made him fall into the dream behind all these nightmares, he said,
“— At least bring some fresher dreams.”
He didn’t expect a response, however…
The splashed water hit the mirror, flowing around, making the person in the mirror extremely blurry due to the water flow.
The next second, the water flowing around suddenly became orderly, forming one blurry and distorted text after another on the mirror, like an old TV screen flickering with static, presenting a poor signal reception.
Bai Yi suddenly widened his eyes.
“What is this…”
[System energy is full, nightmare game officially online.]
As the first line of text disappeared, another line of text emerged.
[Detected the only beta player, already bound.]
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