The tall and thin yin owl man on the other side muttered softly to himself, and Shirley instantly controlled the urge to smash the dog.

She reacted immediately, and her observation and disguise skills from childhood to the college meeting made her expression instantly impeccable, while looking at the middle-aged man opposite, she loosened the chain of the dog slightly, and looked puzzled and a little nervous: "What's wrong?" ”

The yin owl man on the opposite side flattened his brows when he heard this, and waved his hand at Shirley: "Don't be nervous, compatriot, we don't know all the laws of this nameless dream, and it's normal to have a slight deviation when entering the dream, but it's just ......"

The other party paused when he said this, and a question gradually appeared in his eyes when he looked at Shirley: "I didn't expect a young compatriot like you to appear here, is it really okay for you to enter the dream of the Nameless like this?" ”

"The connection with the darkness has nothing to do with age," Shirley immediately shook the pitch-black and sturdy chain in her hand, and the dog next to her immediately let out a tame low roar, "I'm a veteran summoner, don't be deceived by my appearance." ”

“…… Okay, it's my rudeness," the Annihilation Cultist on the other side seemed to dispel the doubts in his heart, a stiff smile appeared on his gloomy face, and then he raised his head, looked at the surrounding situation, and his gaze quickly fell on the "dividing line" not far away, his expression thoughtful, "Eroding the boundary...... As luck would have it, it looks like we're not far from that 'wall'. ”

Seeing that the other party's attention shifted to other places, Shirley suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, and then noticed the strange words "erosion boundary" and "wall" that the other party inadvertently mentioned, she controlled the expression on her face, silently wrote down these words, and then casually mentioned while continuing to play her acting skills that she had not used for a long time but were still skillful: "This boundary is spreading wildly outward just now, and to be honest, it is quite scary." ”

"You're catching up with the erosion zone expanding?" The Gloom Man raised an eyebrow, "Ah, that sounds unlucky—but as the Nameless Dream continues to grow, it will always become more and more like this, and according to the 'Preachers', the corruption and collapse of this dream is destined to happen, so we need to find the wall of silence as soon as possible...... Don't waste time. ”

As he spoke, the Annihilation Cultist raised his right hand slightly, and a pitch-black chain appeared in the air beside him, and the smoke and dust at the end of the chain condensed into a half-rotten "Death Bird" made of bones and shadows.

The ghostly demon let out a sharp and unpleasant chirp as soon as it appeared, and then flapped its tattered bone wings and flew into the air, as if sensing what breath was flowing in the dream, and after a while, it landed on the shoulder of its master, and it didn't know how the chaotic demon had communicated with his "master", who quickly determined a general direction and looked up into the depths of the forest: "Go this way first." ”

Shirley didn't say a word, and took Ah Dog to honestly follow the tall and thin cultist, and walked towards the depths of the forest with the other party.

But underneath the calm exterior, her brain was already spinning - she was thinking about the other party's purpose, thinking about how to inquire about something without arousing his suspicion, thinking about how she should behave more like a normal annihilation cultist, and also thinking about what posture she should use to deal with this guy in the first place if she failed in disguise.

She felt her mind quickly become nimble—as if all sorts of ideas had come back to her mind after finally not having to think about the lethargic letters and numbers.

She carefully controlled the distance between herself and the cultist—

It can't be too close, too close to cause vigilance and suspicion.

You can't get too far away, you can't get a dog away from you - you have to make sure that the other party is within your dog's range.

"My name is Sarah, what's your name?" After a few seconds of silence, Shirley casually made up a name for herself and asked.

Growing up in the slums, she is familiar with this kind of little lie.

"Richard," said the cultist who walked in front of him without looking back, "the Lord has given us a shortcut to the 'essence,' and names are not important things, young compatriots. ”

"Oh...... You're right, I'll just ask casually," Shirley nodded quickly, and then asked as if inadvertently, "Are there a lot of people 'coming in' this time?" ”

"We are joined by a dozen other church brothers and sisters, from different city-states - but I don't know the specifics, the saints above arrange everything, and I, like you, am just carrying out the orders of the messenger."

“…… Hey, they saw that I was young and didn't tell me anything, so they let me in and find out," Shirley muttered casually, complaining in a sincere tone, "And I just came in and encountered the expansion of the erosion zone, and today is too unlucky—thanks to the Holy Lord's protection." ”

The cultist, who called himself Richard, glanced back slightly, and there seemed to be no suspicion in his expression at all.

After all, the Shadow Hound walking with this girl is the most powerful "proof of identity" - the only people in this world who can live with the Shadow Demon are the Annihilation Cultists, and as long as this identity is clear, then this must be a "fellow citizen".

At most, he is a compatriot with little experience and a lot of problems.

And after realizing this, Shirley's own courage also became a little bigger.

She began to use her "young and inexperienced" identity impression to ask one question after another from time to time.

Ah Gou's slightly puzzled voice sounded in her heart: "Shirley, why do I feel that you seem to be quite excited?" ”

"Nonsense, can you not be excited if you want to make a meritorious service!" Shirley quietly tugged at the cultist in front of her, muttering to Ah Dog in her heart, "It's useful to flicker two more sentences, and the captain will definitely reward me when I go back—maybe I won't have to memorize the words for the next two days...... Dog, dog, you said I was going to catch a job back, can I use it to top my math homework? ”

"How do you arrest people back in your dreams?"

"Ah...... Well, I forgot about this stubble. ”

……

In the depths of the block, vines and giant trees that seem to have grown and spread out of a dream world entwined and covered every building in sight, turning the entire neighborhood into a silent and gloomy eerie forest.

Dull vines cling to the nearby walls, tiny thorns entangle the lampposts of the street lamps, towering trees block the passages leading to the alleys, tree canopies cover the roofs of buildings, and branches crisscrossing the trees directly through the dead buildings, as if they merge directly into the solid concrete walls, presenting a strange scene of merging and twisting symbiosis with the buildings in the city.

And in this strange and dead scene, the footsteps of Duncan and Alice are particularly abrupt, and even ...... It was as if a tearing discordant noise in this "pervasive dream" echoed in the deserted streets.

Duncan's brow furrowed, his gaze sweeping the lifeless street in front of him.

The sky was obscured by the towering canopy of trees, whether it was the "sunlight" that permeated the sea outside the city-state, or the cold glow of the creation of the world that loomed in the night, all of which were blocked by the luxuriant vegetation above the neighborhood at the moment, giving the street an unsettling dim atmosphere, in which he and Alice had not seen a single figure along the way.

This is certainly not normal.

There is a curfew in the city after dark, but even on the streets of the curfew, you should be able to see the patrolling church guards.

But there was no one—not only was there no one on the street, but Duncan and Alice didn't see anyone in the houses as they passed by some of the houses facing the street.

Even if the lights were on in those houses, it even looked like there were people moving in the living room a moment ago.

"There's no one to see in the 'forested' neighborhood, including on the pavement and inside the buildings," Duncan said, turning to the puppet's head in Alice's arms, "as if everyone had disappeared, just like you." ”

"Like us?" Lucrecia's voice came from the puppet's mouth, sounding slightly distorted, "Do you mean...... The whole city has been transferred to this 'dream'? ”

"It's hard to say, but at least the places where Alice and I walked are gone," Duncan shook his head, "You didn't meet anyone else over there who came into the dream from the real world?" ”

"No," Lucrecia replied at once, "I'm still walking with this elf who calls herself 'Shireen,' and I haven't met anyone along the way. ”

Duncan listened quietly, then turned to Alice, "Can you see the 'line' around here?" ”

"No," Alice shook her head, "I didn't see it all the way." ”

Duncan nodded with a deep face.

The spirit thread can't hide from Alice's eyes, no matter how clever the concealment technique is, as long as the "person" is still in the real world, Alice will see those "threads" floating in the air, and now even this puppet says that she has found nothing...... That can only show that, at least within the confines of these abnormal streets, "people" are indeed gone.

This is not what happened to the elven girl of Taran El or Poran.

Although it seems that the incident is still related to the "Dream of the Nameless", it is clear that it ...... The scale and power of this dream this time has grown to an unbelievable level.

Duncan looked up in the dim darkness toward the center of the mutant neighborhood.

Suddenly, a shadow in the dim darkness caught his eye.

It was a structure that snaked and undulated from building to building, as if it were a giant vine, or some part of a structure extending from some kind of exposed root system.

It lay dormant in the darkness, as silent as everything around it, but somehow......

Duncan always felt that the huge "vine" was something different.

(End of chapter)