Chapter 28: Deep Dream
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"It seems I cannot disturb this disgusting thing."
His current transcendent abilities provided a strong restraint against the Dead Zone, but their use was limited, forcing him to temporarily avoid a direct confrontation.
[Reloading save, after opening the dormitory door]
He returned to the narrow, dark doorway.
This time, after unlocking it, he chose to push the door open gently, moving away from the location of the Birth-Death Composite.
The corridor was pitch black.
Su Wen was certain that if he weren't playing on a computer where he could force the brightness up several times, experiencing this in real life would be no different from a blind man feeling an elephant.
To the left, to the left.
Second room: [Door locked]
Third room: [Door locked]
He continued forward.
Fourth room: [The doorknob is creaking and rattling]
Su Wen felt he was about to disturb that monster again.
He hurried to slow his movements and entered the room.
Inside sat a metal chair stained with blood, the blood appearing as if it hadn't yet dried.
On it lay a torn page, also part of a notebook:
[Seeing the doctor, it's so painful]
[I don't want to be sick]
The handwriting was shaky and crooked.
It looked as if it had been written under conditions of extreme agony.
['Deep Dream' corruption +1 (currently 4 points)]
Su Wen couldn't glean much more information.
He turned his head.
In the darkness, that massive monster was also preparing to crawl into the room, its two hollow, cavernous eye sockets staring fixedly at him.
Fortunately, Su Wen possessed the transcendent trait "Fear Resistance" and remained unaffected; if someone with a weak heart were in his place, they would have likely collapsed on the spot.
There was no way to run now.
He picked up the blood-stained iron stool and, with a full swing, smashed it hard against the head of the Birth-Death Composite.
The monster let out a silent roar as if in pain.
But the next second, it lunged at him even more viciously.
[You have died!!]
[Would you like to reload?]
He chose to reload.
This time, Su Wen entered the fourth room, grabbed the note, and then raised the iron stool, intending to smash the room's window.
[Touching the edge of the dream]
[Insufficient energy level]
[Unable to destroy]
It was a regional restriction.
It didn't even have an open world.
Trash game.
He cursed under his breath.
Watching that terrifying, massive figure peeping at him from the shadows, he chose to reload once more.
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He had already gathered the information from the fourth room.
It seemed he needed to change his strategy.
There were currently four known locations where one could obtain "Deep Dream" corruption.
However, because of the save-reloading, he chose not to enter the fourth room and thus could not obtain the corruption there; his current accumulated value was three points.
Whether entering the deep dream would lead to a bad ending was also unclear.
At the end of the corridor was a pure black door. Su Wen tentatively pushed it open and entered.
[Strength check passed]
[The door is slowly opening]
The room revealed a more ghastly scene.
In the extremely dark environment, he could see corpses kneeling on the ground one after another. None of the corpses had human heads; in their place were the heads of puppets from a horror show.
He first silently closed the black door behind him.
Then he began to count them one by one.
...
Ten.
Eleven.
There were eleven puppets kneeling on the ground, their bodies embedded with spliced parts.
The replaced puppet heads were weeping blood, and their painted mouths were stretched to just the right angle, revealing the exact same hollow smile.
[Identification: Corpse-Splicing Puppet. Constructed from stitched-together corpses, thoughtless undead servants, acting on command. Abnormal factor: Fragments of Abyssal contamination.]
At this moment, all the puppets were staring fixedly at him.
The next second, those disgusting things stood up one by one and charged toward him.
"Come on, let's see what you've got."
As a lead player who had participated in many games, he didn't believe this trash could be more elite than the assassins who had previously attacked the Duke of Bavaria.
Su Wen stepped back, first grabbing the arm of the nearest puppet and throwing it directly into the second puppet.
The impact left both corpses in a fragmented, shattered state.
A touch of deep darkness surged on his screen.
['Deep Dream' corruption +1 (currently 4 points)]
"Does contact with these twisted things increase corruption?"
Su Wen pondered while dodging, "That might be true, but I haven't fully figured it out yet."
He now had a general idea.
To verify if his hypothesis was correct, Su Wen, a researcher in theoretical physics, decided to grab another puppet to test it.
He dodged an attack.
As a first-rank transcendent, it would be a bit embarrassing to lose to these brainless, sub-first-rank disgusting things.
Su Wen grabbed the shoulder of a Corpse-Splicing Puppet.
It didn't trigger Deep Dream corruption.
He then attempted a further action.
His arm and waist exerted force simultaneously.
Back body drop!
As that corpse became a bloody mess against the wall, his screen seemed to sink into a deeper layer, like falling into a dream.
['Deep Dream' corruption +1 (currently 5 points)]
[Triggered Deep Dream transition mechanism]
[World level contamination increased by +50]
[A deeper, more profound darkness envelops you]
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The screen now contained a hint of abnormal blood-red within the deeper darkness.
It was still the same black room as before.
But the Corpse-Splicing Puppets that had been there were gone.
Only a note remained:
[8-14: They have all been cured, cured forever]
[8-15: Only I am left]
[8-16: Is being like them considered being cured?]
[Identification: Torn page from a diary, same as the one found previously]
At this moment, he heard faint sounds coming from outside the door.
He quietly pushed the door open.
He then saw the Birth-Death Composite in the corridor, tearing apart a Corpse-Splicing Puppet with its hands.
It installed the components from the puppet onto its own body.
Then, it tossed the remaining useless parts onto the ground.
The floor was covered in broken corpse remains and spreading bloodstains.
It looked extremely terrifying and disgusting.
But the Birth-Death Composite was moving very slowly now.
And there was only one path left.
Su Wen could only choose to tail it from behind.
The next second, the monster suddenly turned around.
It grabbed Su Wen firmly.
[Reload Save]
Su Wen’s reaction speed was still very fast.
He didn't know if the monster’s movement pattern was fixed or if it had discovered him.
He could only use his life to test it by reloading.
This feeling was somewhat like his previous attempt to obtain the secret archive of knowledge from three thousand years in the future.
...
Third death.
...
Eighth death.
...
Fifteenth death.
"A jump-scare occurs at 3.78 seconds, 5.62 seconds, and 12.8 seconds; these are three fixed time nodes. And from the latest death, I can conclude that 'I cannot follow directly behind; I must hug the right wall.'"
Su Wen tested it with his life, maintaining a rigorous attitude.
[Reload Save]
The screen returned to the position after the "Deep Dream" began.
Dark blood-red enveloped everything.
He was about to reach the location within the Deep Dream corresponding to the previous fourth room.
But this also meant that the Justiciar was about to start collecting the final evidence.
To complete the verdict that would end everything!
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