Chapter 519: Professional Field

With the loud echo of a gunshot, a figure clad in a blue uniform dramatically fell to the floor. Blood began to pool around him, and for a few moments, his body twitched uncontrollably as if in its final throes of life. The entire scene seemed like a straightforward enactment of a heinous crime. The spasms of the body only added to the theatrical nature of the supposed “murder,” making it all the more evident to Heidi that she had seemingly “taken the life of a regular individual.”

Yet, Heidi stood still, her face devoid of any emotion. She focused on the subtle sounds surrounding her—the gentle rustle of the wind through the grass, the stillness that enveloped the area after the body had stilled.

Normally, such a gunshot would reverberate throughout the entire structure, alerting security and guards stationed nearby. Oddly enough, the hallway remained eerily silent post the shot, with no one rushing to the scene. It was as if the place had been deserted all along.

Resting against Heidi’s chest was a crystal pendant, which was slightly warm to the touch. This pendant was not a gift from any divine beings but was exceptionally effective in keeping Heidi’s mind sharp and unclouded. This pendant wasn’t the one her father had initially acquired from an “antique shop”. That one had crumbled during a past incident. The current pendant, emanating the same powerful energy, was a replacement from the same old shopkeeper.

After allowing a few moments to pass in silence, Heidi exhaled softly. She held a revolver, which she had recently retrieved from a hidden compartment in her suitcase, and set the suitcase down. From it, she extracted a long golden spike, a tool from her medical kit, while never taking her eyes off the body before her. “Impressive performance, but isn’t it time to stop pretending?”

The “dead” man had ceased his feigned convulsions a while ago. At Heidi’s words, he stirred and then, with surprising ease, got to his feet, showing no signs of the gunshot wound. He gazed at Heidi, the psychiatrist who had supposedly “shot” him, and asked, “When did you catch on?”

Gripping her gun and spike firmly, Heidi faced the “dream intruder” with a sense of alertness and composure. “The room only had one bed. The game was up the moment I noticed the ’empty space’ beside it.”

“Remarkable,” the invader began, a tone of mild amusement in his voice. “Few possess the acuity to detect such anomalies once they’ve been ensnared in a dream. Certainly not so promptly.” Beside him, an eerie darkness started to merge. What appeared to be shadow or smoke at first began to solidify, taking on a distinct form. “This includes many of those ‘trained psychiatrists’,” he added mockingly.

Heidi’s eyes narrowed as she focused on the shadowy apparition materializing next to him. As its form started to clarify, her reaction was immediate, her voice tinged with alarm, “Nightmare Jellyfish... a servant of Annihilation?”

The recognition seemed to solidify the creature’s presence. A jellyfish-like entity, made seemingly of swirling dust and shadows, floated beside the invader. It was tethered to his head by a dark, chain-like appendage. The creature pulsated ominously, and from its body, myriad tentacle-like structures began to sprout, stretching perilously close to Heidi.

A deep-rooted sense of dread and urgency welled up within her. She could feel her mental defenses being assailed and corroded by this insidious force. The enemy’s infiltration into her mind had been stealthy, and she realized that had she not identified the Nightmare Jellyfish when she did, she might’ve already fallen victim to its mind-altering abilities.

Without a second’s hesitation, she gripped the golden spike in her hand and plunged it into her own temple!

A sound akin to a distant thunderclap reverberated in her consciousness. Her surroundings quaked violently. The once-familiar sickroom contorted grotesquely. Walls seemed to melt, revealing layers beneath that looked disturbingly like decaying flesh. The floor resembled parched, cracked ground teeming with unsettling, squirming creatures. The Nightmare Jellyfish, caught off-guard, emitted a shrill, agonized scream as its tentacles recoiled sharply.

As her mother’s image crumbled, another figure began to take form. But before it could fully manifest, Heidi preemptively fired her weapon and dispelled another apparition.

“You’re truly underestimating your opponent, Mr. Invader,” Heidi chided, shaking her head in mild disappointment. “Did you genuinely believe such a rudimentary ruse would ensnare me? And let’s not even mention Vanna if that is who you will use next. If it were genuinely her, she’d effortlessly catch the bullet, mold it into a sphere, and fling it back at me without breaking a sweat...”

The ceaseless procession of illusions ceased.

From somewhere unseen, an exasperated, gravelly voice queried, “Why does none of this affect you?”

“Isn’t it evident?” Heidi replied coolly. “I’m well aware that I’m trapped in a contorted dream, so naturally, I’m impervious to these phantasms you’ve conjured. But I suspect that’s not what truly baffles you. Perhaps you’re astounded that I remain resolute even when confronted by the repeated deaths of loved ones inflicted by my own hand. Such a repeated traumatic scene would mentally burden most, and over time, their logical barriers might crumble, regardless of their awareness. But, Mr. Invader, I’ve undergone specialized training.”

As she elucidated her position, the seasoned psychiatrist calmly lifted her firearm, pressing its cold muzzle against her temple.

“Do you comprehend the merits of having secured both a master’s degree and a doctorate, all fully funded, from the prestigious Truth Academy, Mr. Invader?”

Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger. The deafening sound of the gunshot filled the space as she fired a bullet through her own head. However, as she momentarily faltered, another version of Heidi seamlessly emerged from her shadow.

The recurring gunshots echoed throughout the twisted room. Impossibly, her six-chambered revolver seemed to possess an infinite supply of bullets. Heidi, or perhaps her “clones”, kept firing round after round at her own temple, with each shot giving birth to another duplicate. Armed with the golden spike-shaped instruments, these replicas dispersed in various directions—into the room’s nooks and crannies, through doors, and down eerie corridors.

“You’ve made a grave error challenging me in my field of expertise, Mr. Invader,” Heidi remarked, her tone dripping with contempt as she raised the gun to her temple one final time. “And never, ever disrupt my patient sessions. I utterly detest being made to work overtime!”

The myriad of Heidi duplicates swiftly fanned out, traversing the now grotesquely altered medical facility. Their mission: to meticulously scour this infiltrated dream for any anomalies or “cognitive voids”—potential points of entry or hideaways used by the invader.

Yet, as her replicas delved deeper into the dream’s intricacies, Heidi’s expression clouded with sudden uncertainty.

“...Did he leave?”