Chapter 166

Chapter 166

Li Fufeng realized he was dreaming.

His consciousness seemed to float in an ocean, while also drifting among the layered clouds in the sky. Vaguely, he felt as if he had broken through the membrane of reality, continuously falling deeper into the nightmare while countless noises rang in his ears.

It was like hearing the mumbling of countless people speaking simultaneously in the dream.

When he emerged from his dazed state and opened his eyes within the dream, he found himself on a chaotic street, surrounded by all kinds of voices from the crowd.

Around him were faces with Western features. Looking at their lip movements, they were speaking foreign languages that he shouldn’t have understood, yet strangely he comprehended everything perfectly, as the sounds were automatically translated into familiar language in his ears.

“Oh my God! Is what’s on the news true?”

“The end of the world? You must be joking!”

“I don’t believe it! That geologist must have made it all up, this has to be some kind of prank show...”

Before Li Fufeng could process what was happening, his ears were already picking up the strongest voices around him. As he stood there confused, looking at the debating crowd, his mind still echoing with “Who am I? Where am I? What’s happening?”, someone grabbed him forcefully and shook his shoulders.

“Sean, are you alright? Stop spacing out. Don’t tell me you’re shocked silly by the news?”

“Huh?” Li Fufeng snapped back to reality and looked at the person pulling him with concern. It was a girl who appeared to be sixteen or seventeen, with Western facial features, shining brown hair, and a few freckles on her nose. She was waving her hand in front of his eyes repeatedly, “Snap out of it, Sean!”

“...I’m fine,” Li Fufeng responded instinctively. As soon as he spoke, he realized he was using the language of Yao Country and worried she might not understand. “I was just too shocked by that news you mentioned...”

He left his sentence hanging, instinctively gathering information.

However, the girl showed no signs of confusion at his language, as if Li Fufeng was speaking in her most familiar tongue. She naturally continued, “Yeah, that news is too much! I always knew the media was no good, but I never thought they’d use the end of the world as clickbait...”

The brown-haired girl cursed a few times and complained. “Ice caps melting in three months and a great flood covering the whole world? What ridiculous rumors are these? Aren’t those just cliché doomsday predictions from hundreds of years ago? I don’t believe it at all!”

After these few minutes of adjustment, Li Fufeng finally recovered from his initial confusion and shock. He realized this was probably similar to the Sword Realm he had encountered before, and he might be experiencing another similar extraordinary event.

However, what he wasn’t sure about was whether this was just an illusory dream or a real alternate world?

He clearly remembered falling asleep in his bed at home not long ago, which made this seem more like a strange dream.

But could a dream be so logical and create such a real world?

His gaze swept across the distinctive architecture in the distance, the crowded streets, the diverse faces of people, their expressions, and the girl walking and talking with him... Could such a real world really just be a dream?

Unless there was another eccentric like Pei Hefeng, the Lord of the Heavenly Capital, who could vividly create all things and beings within a dream. But such powerful figures must be rare, right?

At this thought, Li Fufeng’s mind suddenly paused.

A title he had heard earlier that day suddenly popped into his mind – the White King.

After experiencing similar confusion, shock, and misunderstandings as Li Fufeng, and finding no immediate way to leave, they had no choice but to accept the trial missions.

What they didn’t know was that each of their missions was no less challenging than Li Fufeng’s trial, and all their “Nightmare Worlds” faced doomsday, just in different forms.

–Even though they possessed extraordinary powers, and the dream’s weak spiritual energy didn’t prevent their use, their powers were far too insignificant in the face of world-ending disasters.

Outside the dream, someone asked in surprise, “Lord White King, can these people really complete the missions you’ve issued with their abilities?”

As soon as these words were spoken, Adams quickly added:

“I’m not questioning the difficulty of your missions, but rather that the people I selected might lack sufficient ability – you may have overestimated them!”

Saying this, the little boy’s face showed shame, clearly expressing “I’ve failed your trust by not selecting the most capable people.”

“I never expected them to complete the missions anyway,” Bai Yi smiled and said casually.

“From the beginning, putting them into doomsday-themed nightmare instances was meant to let them experience defeat~”

Ordinary people originally had no chance to enter the Nightmare World – something even the former Bai Xin couldn’t achieve.

But Bai Yi, who had completely mastered all system permissions and held a special identity connected to all Nightmare Worlds, accomplished this.

He first uploaded everyone’s consciousness to the Web of Thoughts, establishing connections with himself. After entering the dream, he brought their consciousness into that deep sea filled with world fragments in the dream. Then using the upgraded system to carefully screen nightmare instance fragments, he deployed these people one by one, writing nightmare trial mission backgrounds and instances for them... This series of operations led to the current situation–

The “Nightmare Game” that originally had only him as an “internal tester” now had hundreds more “internal testers.”

However, while Bai Yi’s missions came from the lingering regrets of the deceased in nightmare instances, the trial missions for Li Fufeng and others were written by Bai Yi himself, intended specifically as “trials” for them.

Therefore, he never intended for these people to complete the missions, but rather wanted to see what qualities they would display during the trials.

“...Well, I suppose it could barely count as Human Screening Project version 2.0?” Bai Yi said.

His consciousness drifted and undulated in the dark deep sea among countless stellar fragments, finally surfacing. Under the light of two slowly rising great stars, he looked down.

Li Fufeng, Liu Ningshuang, Samuel... scene after scene from the nightmare instances appeared before him, as if he was simultaneously watching the trial processes of hundreds of selected participants.

Adams, who could enter here because he originated from a nightmare fragment instance, also gradually materialized beside him. He heard the youth instruct. “As usual, remember to record those you think are worth cultivating.”

“As for me...” Bai Yi tilted his head, “it’s time to create new scripts in new nightmare fragment instances.”

As his words fell, he plunged rapidly into the sea.

[Hope Resonance] activated again, the points on his panel quickly decreased, while in the depths of the ocean, far in the distance, starlight blazed brilliantly as a stellar fragment welcomed his arrival.