CH 73

[Marie’s pupils were dilated. Fear lingered within them as she recalled everything from that time.

“In the beginning, Morris was someone very popular…”

A grey scene of memories began to appear.

A blond boy was always smiling, his body always as if it was filled with sunshine. He was without a doubt beloved by many girls because of this.

He also liked to help others, including help those who were being bullied.

No matter how strong the bullies were, he wouldn’t be afraid.

Annie, the girl with long blonde hair, fell in love with Morris, but Fen, her current suitor, was jealous.

Fen was a school bully. He always led a large group of people to bully others, asked for money in exchange for protection, and now, he even started to bring a group of people to bully Morris, who was weak.

“Wu!” Fen hit Morris in the cheek, causing him to fall to the ground.

There was a group of gangsters all around him. They all had clubs in their hands as they beat him up.

Morris fought back fiercely at first, but as time passed, he became exhausted and gradually pushed by the wind. Fen soon knocked him to the ground.

The few students who Morris had originally protected ran away from him with cowardly expressions. They seemed indifferent, and had no intentions to help him.

Of course Morris saw their actions. The only brightness in the grey-white scene, his blue eyes, also began to dim.

Morris turned his head without speaking a word and started fighting again, making his attacks even more fierce.

Even if someone hit him just once, he would fight back until death. It didn’t matter how many other people hit him with clubs; he would never switch targets.

His reckless way of fighting clearly frightened the other people. They gradually became unwilling to step forward.

But in the end, the blond boy was hit on the head with a club, and he fell heavily to the ground, unconscious.

The scene became distorted and transformed back to reality.

Karina looked at Marie with a horrified expression and supported the unsteady girl. Looking worried, she said: “What’s wrong with you, Marie? Why haven’t I ever heard of this Morris? Has he bullied you, ma?”

When Marie heard her words, she shook her head vigorously. Her lips trembled, and she said: “No, that’s not—we killed him.”

— From <<Nightmare>>

“This church has two steeple towers and a total of three floors. Except for the tallest dome, the only other feature here is the bell within the left tower. Just like in the movie, it’s easy to identify, so we can be certain that that’s where we’re heading towards now. We’re walking toward the top of the left tower, which should be on the third floor. There will be a hallway there after a moment, which should be the place mentioned in the story!” The white-haired man calmly analyzed the layout, but the speed at which his feet moved didn’t decrease in the slightest. “If—the boss doesn’t engage in anything.”

Honglonglong—

The sound of bricks collapsing and falling sounded from underneath the stairs. The white-haired man looked toward it and couldn’t help but utter a curse—shit.

People really couldn’t speak nonsense!

The stairs of this tower were an upward spiral, so there were many steps that they needed to take. Even if their pace was very fast, it wasn’t easy for them to reach the third floor quickly.

And now, the few steps they had just walked on had collapsed. The rate of collapse was very fast.

If they maintained their current speed, then they would obviously be crushed along with those stairs.

“Damn it! When did we get trapped within a dream?” The thin, heavily armed man was confused.

The white-haired man took out a flight prop and said coolly” “I don’t think we’re trapped in a dream, but in an hallucination. It’s just that for us, these hallucinations can become real very easily. Let’s go! Go up with flight props!”

Hearing that, everyone who had been caught in an unexplainable panic and didn’t know what they should do seemed to have found the backbones within their hearts. They were relieved, and they all took out their flight props.

Everyone quickly activated their props, and for a short time, the light from their various props shone within the darkness of the tower.

“Jiejiejie—What interesting people, bird people, ma?” A low, hoarse voice sounded again. There wasn’t much anger in it; it was more of a playful and cheerful tone as if the owner was watching ants struggle.

The white-haired man unfurled the white wings behind him and quickly flew to the top of the tower.

Behind him, the other reincarnators flew up. Some used flying boots, while some were wearing wings.

""

In the next moment after they flew up, the originally solid staircase collapsed, releasing a dense cloud of smoke.

The smoke drifted toward theme extremely fast. A reincarnator who wasn’t flying fast enough was caught in the rising smoke and instantly screamed.

They fortunately activated one of the protective props they carried with them, and after using a large number of those props, they barely maintained their life.

But even so, after finally escaping death, they were covered in bruises and their combat effectiveness was vastly reduced.

This reincarnator was reincarnated using the enhancement system. They were originally the player on their team with the highest resistance, but it seems the enhancement didn’t play any role in this weird hallucination. They could only rely on various props to save their lives.

The white-haired man frowned and looked back at the team of just five people behind him. He couldn’t help but let out some of his restlessness into his voice: “Hurry! As long as we can get the props, we’ll win!”

Everyone obediently accelerated to their max speeds, so the speed of their flight wasn’t slow.

But they soon discovered that they couldn’t fly to the tower. The tower wasn’t too tall, but it was as if they were simply spinning around in place.

The white-haired man took the lead and flew to the front of the group to guide everyone. He appeared calm, but he knew within his heart that if they couldn’t escape quickly, then death would be the only thing that awaited them.

They were still in an hallucination. Morris shouldn’t be able to completely limit their abilities in reality for the time being.

But once someone becomes unable to control their inner fears and completely gives in, Morris can pull them into a dream. Then, no matter how powerful that person is in reality, they will be eliminated by this strangely powerful boss, and they will once again become a newcomer who is entering the reincarnation space for the first time, lacking any special abilities.

After all, if they weren’t strong enough, they truly couldn’t control their own subconsciousness and would let their subconsciousness follow its own instructions.

""

Unfortunately, this boss’s ability could penetrate into their subconsciousness and bring forth their greatest fears—that all of their abilities are worthless in the dream.

He thought it was a dream at first, but as time passed, he realized that the boss hadn’t done anything in front of them for a long time, but was instead trying to kill them through various environmental changes. He understood that it wasn’t that the boss didn’t want to appear before them, but that their willpower wasn’t weak enough for them to be pulled in to a dream at any point.

The white-haired man focused the power within his body toward his eyes and began to scan the darkness around him.

This was one of his skills – The Eye of Truth. There was a 5% chance that he could see through all illusions and darkness, finding only the truth.

This skill had actually been ignored by him because it wasn’t very useful. Not even mentioning the low chance of it working, it also consumed a lot of power.

But now they were in a desperate situation and he had no choice but to make one final attempt.

Although they hadn’t entered a dream, this hallucination alone was enough to wipe them out.

It could only be said that this world was too hostile to the reincarnators.

If they were natives, they would have a psychological breakdown because of their weak willpower at most. But for them, they would be killed, so they couldn’t handle too much!

Honglong—

The thunder rumbled, and the loud noise was particularly noticeable from within the quiet tower.

It was raining outside.

The scorched man appeared at the top of the church’s tower. He looked up at the raining sky, and his blue eyes turned to the high school building that was in the middle of town.

Did his Zhou Yu bring an umbrella, ma?

In the next instant, there was no longer a figure at the top of the tower.

~~~

[Captain, here!]

The world in front of the white-haired man’s eyes suddenly opened up, and Milo’s voice reached his ears.

The illusion was broken!

“Come with me! Go this way!” The white-haired man immediately turned back and led the group behind him into a dark corner.

Kacha—

A sound came as if something broke, and everyone finally escaped from the endless darkness.

What caught all of their eyes was a long hallway.

The originally opulent decorations inside the covered hallway had become dulled and dirty. Even the wooden floorboards under their feet were covered in many stains of unknown origin, and they appeared grim and desolate.

Milo, who had dyed red hair, was standing on the other side of the hallway, and was beckoning eagerly to the white-haired man.

Her once neat clothes were stained with blood. There were even some chaotic slashes and tears in them, as if someone had cut them with a knife.

But that kind of injury couldn’t make the girl frown. She was still smiling, holding a rustic cane in her petite and delicate hand.

“Captain! We got it!”

There was a sculpture of a snake head on top of the cane. The snake head was carved very delicately, and the grim eyes appeared as if it was looking coldly at anyone who looked at the cane. The long body of the snake was wrapped around the cane. It gave off a very ominous feeling when people looked at it.

There was no doubt that this was Samael’s Staff.

Zhou Yu walked along the somewhat muddy asphalt road, holding an umbrella and staring blankly at the trees lining the street to the left.

Winter had come very early this year. It made the long-standing trees on the side of the street a bit uncomfortable to look at. The trees who hadn’t lost their leaves throughout the year now had a few bare branches exposed.

It made the remote and old town even more grim.

“May God grant us eternal peace~”

The sound of singing from the church choir appeared in the distance, divine and beautiful.

Zhou Yu stepped through a puddle of water under his feet expressionlessly, wishing he could plug his ears.

He had been really upset recently. He couldn’t stand seeing others happy, nor did he want to be happy himself.

That kind of feeling was very wrong, but ever since Morris left, he had begun to fall into that strange feeling. It was like he was a puppy who was abandoned by his owner and was starting to complain about himself.

Such a metaphor made Zhou Yu feel even more upset, and then he remembered the speculation from that morning.

He doubted that Morris had left him on purpose, but that fight two weeks ago truly made him worry.

In fact, if Morris appeared in front of him now, he might beat him fiercely to vent his anger—for those two weeks of misery.

However, his possessiveness of Morris did go beyond the limits of a friendship, which wasn’t good.

Especially in this small town where homosexuality was considered sinful.

Di wu—Di wu—

Zhou Yu heard the siren of a police car and couldn’t help but glance over.

A police car with red and blue lights was parked in front of a house.

It was a small three-story building with exquisite decorations. Even the lawn outside of the front door was well-maintained. The wealth of the family was clear to the eye.

It was a stark contrast to the poverty of Zhou Yu’s family.

Zhou Yu blinked a bit, then stood on the opposite side of the street to observe.

He recognized the owner of this house—Annie’s family.

As the people from the police car entered the house, an ambulance followed behind and many medical personnel quickly entered.

Soon, several medical personnel carried out a stretcher.

Zhou Yu’s eyesight was excellent. He recognized the identity of the blonde girl on the stretcher—Annie.

Annie was in a very bad condition. On top of the stretcher, her arms were covered in fresh scratches, and blood was spilling everywhere. It was particularly shocking against her white and delicate skin.

“No, wuwu, no, my child. She’s so young, how could she? How could it—wuwu!” A mature and gorgeous woman looked at Annie atop the stretcher. She was crying bitterly and was about to faint.

A man with a beer belly stood beside her, dressed like someone successful. He supported the grieving woman and whispered something in her ear.

Zhou Yu was far away. Coupled with the sound of the rain around him, he couldn’t hear the too-quiet words. He could only see the woman’s originally sorrowful expression change, as if her hope had been rekindled.

“You’re right. Emily. Emily can save my Annie! She can!”

Zhou Yu frowned, mouthing and repeating the name.

Emily?

Morris’s mother? She was still in this town?