Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Judgment of Dreams

Back to the starting point of the "Deep Dream."
Initiating the sixteenth attempt.

Su Wen strictly followed the details recorded in previous runs, trailing the monster inch by inch. Whenever it turned its head, he pressed himself against the right-side wall in an awkward posture.
He followed cautiously as the monster moved forward.
Thus.
He earned an achievement:
[Achievement Name: One, Two, Three, Red Light, Green Light]
[Achievement Description: Little one, did you feel a hint of doubt when you turned your head?]

Su Wen pressed himself against the doorframe of the fourth room.
Then, as the monster proceeded, he slipped silently into the room with the broken door panel.
Inside.
Against a backdrop of darkness and blood-red filters, Su Wen saw a dark-brown coffin carved with English characters placed in the center of the room.
[Contacted Source of Nightmare 2: Burial]
[Appraisal: A tombstone that buries human hope, transformed into a pitch-black coffin under the distortion of the dream.]

The lid of the coffin had already been pried open.
Su Wen could observe the scene inside without alarming the Death-Born Amalgam.
Inside lay countless sketches, the protagonists of which were all expressionless middle-school students.
They stared blankly at what lay beyond the frame.
They looked as if they had no hope left.
[Contacted Source of Nightmare 3: Despair]
[Appraisal: Drawings by the one who sank into the dream, depicting what despair and numbness truly are.]
[Contacted Source of Nightmare (3/3)]
[Sub-quest unlocked: Find the Dream-Sinker]

"A sub-quest. It seems there truly are other dream layers."
Su Wen did not bother to flip through the sketches to see what else was buried there.
He placed the entire coffin into his storage box.
Having been nourished by the Hyacinth for some time, his storage space had increased in usable volume, and fitting the coffin inside was no problem at all.
After completing all this, Su Wen already had some guesses about what this horrific dream game was metaphorically representing.
Even if the Tenth Middle School publicly claimed that the school was abandoned due to an outbreak of Death Relics.
It now appeared that the so-called cause of the Death Relics was, in all likelihood, man-made.

"It is time to end everything."
After the coffin was moved, the dream seemed to reveal a black hole that could not heal for a split second.
[Appraisal: Cognitive Deficit Zone]
Without fear, he seized the opportunity and jumped directly into the black hole.
[‘Deep Dream’ Corruption +1]
[‘Deep Dream’ Corruption +1]
[‘Deep Dream’ Corruption +1]
[You have entered the Core Dream: Death Zone Ground Zero]

As for how he discovered this.
During the transition from the first dream layer to the second, Su Wen had left behind five sets of beacons—the same ones he used when escaping Schlot Industrial—placed in his storage box to serve as a control.
And the moment the ‘Deep Dream’ signal switched, only the beacon preset on a certain ‘puppet’ lost connection, while the others, placed on the ground or stuck to the black door, remained unchanged.
As a researcher in theoretical physics.
A change in a single decimal point could represent the complete transformation of a formula.
Not to mention the loss of an entire set of signals.
For human civilization.
The more ignorant one is, the more one believes in unspeakable horrors.
Only science does not.
Su Wen had found the ‘bug’ hidden in the dream shifts of the Death Zone.

The Death Zone Ground Zero was even more eerie and terrifying than the ‘Deep Dream.’
This was a playground where countless weird, twisted figures drifted.
[Appraisal: %￥Abyssal Pollution, #@Cognitive Collapse]
There was a tree at the edge of the playground.
Su Wen walked toward it:
"It seems my goal is very clear."
The twisted figures lunged at him.
[Contacted Abyssal Pollution]
[Current Mental Clarity: Flawless]
[Contacted Abyssal Pollution]
[Current Mental Clarity: Flawless]
He crouched beside the tree.
Touching the trunk, he asked calmly:
"Do you want revenge?"
The scene trembled.
[Danger! Danger! Your next action as the Chief Player will have unpredictable consequences for the future.]
[Please stop immediately!]

[If subsequent developments exceed the upper limit of the timeline's original possibilities]
[The future outcome will be unpredictable.]
(A quantum observer cannot observe itself, causing its own superposition state to collapse.)
(This means the observer themselves is absolutely free.)
(Then what am I? A void in the space-time rift?)

For the first time, Su Wen showed awareness of the flaws in ‘space-time travel.’
He did not mind.
Nor did he care.
Instead, he calmly continued speaking to the Ground Zero buried at the base of the tree roots:
"Pull them in. I am referring to the 'former teachers of the Tenth Middle School.' Since you can create a Death Zone to kill other innocent people, you should have the same ability to pull in specific individuals. I want the people and their souls—all of them!"

Su Wen was never an absolutely kind person; he had his own code of good and evil:
A good person, if their conscience is clear, should live with their head held high!
An evil person deserves to die.
If the law cannot punish them, I will kill them myself!

In an instant.
All the twisted figures in the core dream stopped, then began to collapse continuously.
The Death Zone also began to show signs of instability.
At the edge of the third dream layer—the core dream—the Death-Born Amalgam seemed to have discovered something and peered in from the shadows.
The power was not enough.
Su Wen analyzed: "Your power is suppressed by the physical world and is not yet enough to pull living people in through the nightmare. I will help you."
He took the blood-stained doll out of his storage box.
The doll’s eyes stared fixedly at the sky beyond.
In an instant.
Dark golden adjudication seals condensed in the air.
They formed massive barriers that wrapped around the doll.
[‘Please Judge Me First’ check successful]
[‘Fair Judgment’ ruling: Protecting the target, Dream-Sinker ‘Wu Shuang’; damage transfer magnitude 50% (maximum energy level). Protection successful, incurred 1000 corruption.]
[Current Mental Clarity: Flawless]
[Sub-quest: Find the Dream-Sinker, completed]
[Dream stability increased by 70%]
[System Error: You have gained 30% nightmare control authority through the Dream-Sinker’s consciousness resonance.]
[You have received a reward: Dream Brand]

In an instant.
The scene returned to the dormitory of the original ‘First Dream Layer.’
Besides Su Wen, four other figures were dragged down and lay on his upper bunk.
A fat, middle-aged man said:
"Where... is this?"
The computer screen gradually switched to slow-motion mode.
Su Wen understood that the 30% nightmare control authority was taking effect.
He said calmly:
"Freud pointed out that every dream can be divided into manifest and latent content: the manifest content is the surface imagery of the dream, which refers to the content that people can remember and describe but are unwilling to recall, known as ‘nightmares.’ The latent content refers to the essential meaning of the dream, the true intent, similar to the real desires masked by the nightmare."

Achievement obtained:
[Achievement Name: Freudian Dream Theory—The Nature of Nightmares]
[Achievement Description: This is your dream, not mine; therefore, I feel no fear.]

At this moment.
Within the deep, dark scene.
Behind him:
Dark golden scales gradually emerged.
Su Wen continued:
"The doll: ‘Death,’ ‘Self-Doubt,’ and ‘Fear’ represent ‘Wu Shuang,’ who was murdered at the Tenth Middle School and whose death was covered up as a disappearance.
The Death-Born Amalgam: This is what she fears most, representing the ‘doctors’ who ‘treated’ her.
The blood-stained iron chair: Represents the location of the ‘treatment.’
The puppets: ‘Numbness’ and ‘Inability to Resist’ represent the other students.
So much evidence points to the final conclusion:
The Tenth Middle School once used violence in ‘Room Four’ to carry out obedience education that violated the bottom line of the law against minors, and even killed Wu Shuang, who hid her drawings as evidence and wanted to expose everything.
This place is a prison.
A prison that uses ‘teachers’ as a front to act as executioners, erasing humanity!"

[Knight of Justice - Su Wen, the verdict is declared concluded]
[The conclusion matches the memory fragments of the Dream-Sinker]
[Verdict is correct]
[Time flashback initiated]

In an instant.
The scene shattered.
The four ‘teachers’ of the former Tenth Middle School who had been dragged into the game saw, along with Su Wen, the scenes that truly belonged to Wu Shuang’s memories.
A thin little girl was tied to the iron chair in Room Four.
And in front of her.
Was a middle-aged man with a bloated face.
He said viciously:
"You think you aren't sick? Increase the voltage."
As the electrical current passing through the iron chair increased.
The little girl’s body trembled uncontrollably from the shock.
"I, I am sick, I’m sorry."
She shed tears of agony.
But the next second.
The middle-aged man in front of her continued: "We don't allow you to have phones, yet you dared to draw in secret; you’re asking for death. Increase the voltage!"
As the level of electricity increased.
The little girl was in so much pain she couldn't even speak.
Until she fell unconscious.
Then woke up.
And entered the next cycle.

Su Wen watched the scene on the computer.
For the first time, he felt calm—he felt calm regarding the existence of people like Professor Jiang, who sacrificed themselves to create a path forward for civilization.
But he felt calm regarding the disgusting existence in front of him, something that could not even be called ‘human.’
Sometimes.
Calmness does not mean one does not care; on the contrary, it means Su Wen’s anger had exceeded the threshold of what could be vented through emotion.
So.
Rationality stepped forward at this moment.
He looked at the four former ‘teachers’ of the Tenth Middle School who were at a loss after being dragged into the Death Zone game.
He said with absolute calm:
"Let you experience the pain they once went through."
Matching chips were placed on both sides of the dark golden scales, and they gradually leveled:
[Fair Judgment: What you have given, you shall repay (Experience the entire process of the violence you inflicted)]

At this moment.
He took the black coffin out of his storage box.
The coffin tipped over.
Sketch after sketch flew out, turning into students with hollow eyes from the drawings.
The world’s background changed into a school playground based on blood-red and deep black.
A hollow-eyed student walked up to a bloated teacher and tore his right arm directly off.
"Ah!"
He screamed in agony.
Unfortunately, his cries of pain could not change the outcome.
After all, those students had long since become numb during the ‘healing’ process.
Next to be torn off was the left arm.
Then, the legs.
The thin little girl also appeared in the world.
She tilted her head, blood still flowing from her neck.
And in front of her was the iron chair, conducting high-voltage current and stained with blood.
The middle-aged man who had appeared in the footage was trapped in the electric chair.
Seeing the others die a miserable death, he lost his ferocity and instead cried and begged for mercy:
"I was wrong, I did it for the sake of the school, I didn't kill you."
Is it useful?
Wu Shuang’s tears had likely dried long ago, leaving only the massive Death Zone formed by her resentment.
Accompanied by the constant sound of screaming.
Su Wen was silent.
He patted the little girl’s head and said gently:
"Leave the one outside to me."

The scenes of the Death Zone began to interweave.
In the second dream layer: the ‘Deep Dream.’
The Death-Born Amalgam was still wandering.
And Su Wen, amidst the monster’s lunging movements which had slowed down countless times, stated calmly:
"Abyssal pollution entangles the souls of the dead, refusing to let them return to the Silver Sea, instead cycling to induce the fearful memories of the dead, distorting the dream, expanding the Death Zone, and hunting the ‘near-dead.’"
[Judgment concluded]
[Charges confirmed]

A spear of pure silver adjudication condensed and was held in Su Wen’s hand.
He walked forward without fear.
And then.
The spear pierced into the head of the disgusting monster as if it were the Spear of Longinus.
From head to tail.
He pinned it to the edge of the dream.
In an instant.
Silver light burst forth from a single point.
Destroying all fear completely.
[Conviction]!