In the age of hell, the word "happiness" is more distant than anything else.

Perhaps because of this, the psyker, who was the predecessor of the dream monster, involuntarily came up with the idea of "finding happiness in the dream". It is likely that he also resisted this thought, but the more he resisted, the easier it was to sketch the appearance of this thought in the spiritual world. Coming up with the opposite idea to fight the original thought is only counterproductive, and it will only make the original thought clearer in the spiritual world. Therefore, it is easier to be reciprocated by psionic energy.

"Sometimes psionic power turns against its master." The wheelchair girl said slowly.

"Exactly." I said, "It's not necessarily good to be a psionic. ”

Hearing this, Hu Ma seemed to remember something, and his face changed slightly.

Then he shook his head, looked down at the ground, and asked, "The dream monster is right under our feet." That is, it was sealed? ”

"Yes." The wheelchair girl replied, "This is a seal set up about a century ago, not long after the Alliance was founded, by some powerful psionics who are good at sealing. ”

Speaking of which, she smiled, "Well, now, it's a popular tourist attraction that promotes a thriving local economy." ”

"This kind of hellish place can also be used as a tourist attraction?" Hu Ma asked incredulously.

"It's better to say that because of this, it can become a tourist attraction......" Her words seem to have some kind of deliberate rhyme, so that the listener can relax his mind and entrust her with all his heart, but this only makes me more wary, "For capitalists, there is nothing that cannot be used to make money." The locals made a fortune as a result, the tourists returned happy, and the seal was safe and everyone was satisfied. If it is done in the opposite direction now, it will encounter a lot of resistance. ”

"It's so weird." Hu Ma couldn't help but mutter.

"So, you're here for sightseeing, too?" I asked, examining the two men.

At first, I thought that the wheelchair girl was just "unable to stand" and "blind in both eyes", but after looking at it for a while, I noticed that she seemed to be able to move freely only with her head; And the taciturn young woman behind her is also eccentric, looking quite ordinary, but on closer inspection, it doesn't seem to be human.

I was able to anticipate the other person's next move by observing their detailed movements, and this kind of information gathering was also a basic technique for me to move outside as a Faceling. The young woman in front of her, however, barely made any small movements, and stood like a wax figure after she stopped advancing, her expression unmoving, her eyes not blinking, and she ignored the handsome face of Hu Ma. Although even normal people can see her weirdness, her sense of existence is quite weak, and even Hu Ma doesn't seem to pay attention to her. If I hadn't been habitually suspicious and observant, it would have been easy to ignore her.

Perhaps this taciturn young woman is the one who should be more noticed.

"No, we're here for a doctor in Turin." The wheelchair girl spoke amazingly.

"You too?" Hu Ma was surprised.

"Also?" The wheelchair girl repeated.

"In fact, we came to the Turin doctor to treat my hands and feet." I took over, "And he's my companion." ”

"As it happens, so do we." The wheelchair girl smiled, "Since an accident, I have only been able to travel in a wheelchair. I heard that the doctors in Turin were good at treating disabilities, so I came to visit. ”

It turns out that the doctors of Turin really know how to treat disabilities? Or is it just an excuse for her? It's rude to be suspicious of someone I'm meeting for the first time, but given that these two people are already suspicious, and the situation in the town isn't optimistic, I can't help but think so.

Huma told her that the doctor in Turin was not here. Hearing this, she said regretfully, "Really? It seems that we have fallen short. ”

Then, she comforted herself, as if to comfort us, "But that's a suspicious doctor, maybe it's better not to see him." ”

"The Turin doctor should have left Sabbature." Hu Ma said.

"Not necessarily." The wheelchair girl shook her head, "I think he might still be in the town." ”

"Why?" Hu Ma said curiously.

"Intuition." The wheelchair girl smiled mysteriously, then turned to look at me, "We are all patients, why don't you take the opportunity to be a real tourist and go around the town together?" ”

"No need." Although I would have liked to do the same to observe these two people more, since she took the initiative, I would have to refuse.

Then I turned to Hu Ma and said, "Let's go." ”

Hu Ma seemed a little moved, but when he saw that I refused, he followed my decision.

By the time we got back to the Fugu Hotel, it was already late in the evening.

We went out for a while after dinner. Although I had little interest in sightseeing in this town, which was likely to have withered cultists, Hu Ma seemed to be interested in sightseeing, but it was difficult to leave my side, so I cooperated with him.

After a short time together, I developed some affection for flax. He reminds me of Naoto Inoue in some places, such as the same righteousness in his heart, and the same immaturity for certain things; Unlike Naoto Inoue, his attitude is more sunny, and he does not have such a complicated or even gloomy mind. Of course, the fact that Inoue Naoto will become what he is now is also related to his life circumstances, and if Hu Ma is allowed to go through the same situation, he is likely to become a gloomy and complicated person. But at least the flax is still pure, and in my opinion, there is nothing wrong with that.

*

At eight or nine o'clock in the evening, we returned to the Fugu Hotel and got ready for bed.

"The braised beef for dinner is really delicious." Before the lights went out, he sighed, "I don't know if there will be tomorrow." "This guesthouse offers three meals and the menu varies every day of the week.

"Perhaps."

"You say, is the seal of the dream monster really safe?" He seemed a little restless about sleeping, "Are we going to be dragged into a nightmare all of a sudden?" ”

"Of course not."

As a result, flax's words became prophecies.

*

As I said before, even if you don't count the side effects of the Blood Sacrifice Ritual, the way it affects my psychic mind is real.

That's the power of dreams.

Regardless of what the concept of dream is in the world of my hometown, at least in this world, the essence of dreams is the projection of the human mind in the abstract universe, and it is something that is semi-independent of the human mind.

In a sense, "dreams" can also be seen as the "objective world" that really exists. Because it doesn't just exist in the inner part of the mind, I don't need to ask about my inspiration to have a direct impact on it. If I dream, then a psyker who knows the magic of dreams will be able to tamper with my ready-made dreams. While it is not possible to implant certain ideas directly into my dreams as you would with other people – because I have to be asked for inspiration at the stage of implanting the ideas – there are other things that can be tried.

But only if I dream.

If I don't dream, not even a psyker can force me to turn into a dream; After a period of self-training, I rarely dreamed.

Taking a step back, even if I do happen to be dreaming, I can immediately realize that I am dreaming (just like the last time I had a dream about the past) and immediately recognize whether it was my own dream or someone else's.

And at the moment, I seem to be caught up in someone else's dream.

*

When I woke up, I immediately realized that I hadn't really woken up.

Without saying a word, I sat up and looked around.

Although it was dark, I could make a faint difference: it was still a room at the Fugu Hotel, and even the double room where Hu Ma and I were staying.

I reached for the lamp on the bed, and as I stretched out, I suddenly felt something wrong with my body, not only weaker than usual, but also not right, as if it wasn't my body. But instead of panicking, I turned on the lamp first.

The surroundings immediately became bright, and the bed on the other end of the bedboard was empty. Hu Ma didn't know where he had gone, and the quilt and sheets looked quite messy.

I got out of bed and walked over to the fitting mirror in the corner of my room to check my body.

At this glance, my mind felt like I had been electrocuted.

What is reflected in the mirror is neither the body I am accustomed to, nor the strange body of other people.

But it should only exist in my previous life, as a copy editor of a magazine, I strayed into the scene of the criminal transaction, and was finally shot, my body at the age of twenty-four!

Even the same black and green plaid shirt, the same black trousers, and the same brown sneakers as when he was shot......

I regrouped my thoughts: calm down, this is a dream.

It is not surprising that the posture of a person in a dream is even different from that of the real world. The question is not why I became this posture, but why I was dragged into other people's dreams.

Is it because I happened to have a dream in the Fugu Hotel, and there happened to be a dream warlock who had bad intentions for me, and then he happened to seize the opportunity of my dreaming and connected my dreams to other people's dreams?

This is too low, so it's better to consider another possibility: there is a problem with the seal of Rest Town, and the power of the dream monster has come to the outside world, and it just dragged me into the dream - no, this possibility is also very low. Although if it was a monster with the power of a terrifying dream, it was indeed possible to drag me into a dream without dreaming, but the seal of Rest Town had been operating normally for a hundred years, how could it be that something was wrong today?

Let's solve the most pressing problem at hand.

It's embarrassing to say, at this time, my twenty-four-year-old body in my previous life is far less strong than my eighteen-year-old body in this life.

And I also noticed that I seemed to have forgotten all my martial arts techniques. It's the same feeling as "forgetting to put pen to paper", feeling like you should know, but you can't remember it anyway. In this respect alone, I have been reset to the same conditions as I did in my previous life, twenty-four years ago.

But there's no need to be nervous, since I've known from the beginning that "dreams" are my shortcomings, I won't be unprepared.

Because it's a dream, I'm able to do things that I can't do in reality. For example, through long-term self-hypnosis, a "doppelganger" is separated in a dream; or dreaming in a dream to dive into a "dream within a dream"; Or in the dream to distinguish who is the real person and who is the person in the dream......

Even after losing my "strong body" and "combat experience" in a dream, I have carefully trained the technique of forcibly retrieving it.

I breathed deeply, then closed my eyes and imagined a switch in my mind.

On one side of the switch is "the current state" and on the other side is the "original state". At this point, all I have to do is force the switch back. This process must not be dragged into the mud and water, it must be completed with full concentration and in one go.

One, two, three......

A finger appeared in the imagination, pointed at the switch, and pressed it.

At this moment, I felt my muscular strength return, and the martial arts skills returned to my mind, as if I had finally remembered how to write a word that I had forgotten how to write, and then wrote it neatly on paper, which was extremely painful.

I breathed a long sigh of relief, although I just said that there was no need to be nervous, but the situation just now, which was even weaker than when I was disabled, really made me pinch a cold sweat.

The body is still in the same form as it was when it was twenty-four, but as long as the strength returns, there is no need to worry about such minor problems.

At that moment, the door of the guest room was slammed.

I immediately looked back and didn't know who was banging on the door, it was extremely loud, and it was not so much a knock on the door as it was attacking the door with the momentum of smashing the door. There is no doubt that this uninvited guest did not come with good intentions and knew that I was here. At this time, I can't rule out the possibility that this is a "nightmare of dream monsters", and if so, then I am afraid that it may not even be a human.

Late at night in the hotel, a lonely guest room, a partner who doesn't know where to go, and a sudden and fierce slamming of the door......

Putting these elements together, it's like a horror movie.

I shouted in the direction of the door, "Who? ”

Hearing my voice, the comer didn't say a word, and the momentum of slamming the door became even more violent.

Two seconds later, the door slammed open, and a bloodied man stumbled into the room. After stopping his progress, he circled left and right, and then locked his gaze on my body.

And I could see his face by the light of the lamp, what kind of face was this? It didn't look like a living person at all, his face was covered with wounds, the flesh was turned out, and he was in a state of severe decay, and he could even see maggots churning in the wounds. His eyes were cloudy and bloodshot, blood was running from his mouth, and his fingernails were worn out.

It's a living dead!

His pause lasted only a second, followed by a gut-wrenching roar. It wasn't like the aggressive roar of a beast, but it was like it was suffering from inhuman pain. Then, at once, he lunged at me, trying to bite at my flesh.

Despite his ferocity, his movements were too straight and I easily avoided his pounce.

Then he stepped back to his desk, picked up a travel brochure from the table, and tore off a page of paper. When the living dead pounced again, I grabbed the paper and slashed at his throat.

Paper is fragile, but because it is small, it can cut through the skin. There are many people who have their fingers cut off by the edge of a page in their daily lives, and some well-trained killers can even kill people with paper.

Proper angle, enough speed.

As long as these two conditions are met, even fragile paper can become a weapon of killing.

Under my attack, the paper instantly sliced into the throat of the living dead, severing his neck muscles, carotid arteries, respiratory tract, and so on. But the paper was not a blade that could be used to decapitate, and it ended up stuck in the middle of his neck bone.

The next moment, my slap hit him in the face.

His head was knocked out of the way.