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Chapter 986: My Home

Huang Yin put his shirt back on and pointed at the television. “There are many homes like this one in the city. They are demon factories. To create the puppet players, Dream uses special medicine to draw memories out of the players’ minds and then recreate the players’ friends and families to harm the players.”

“So, were you trying to use the demon house to recreate your mother from your memory?” Han Fei knew about Huang Yin’s past and could understand him.

“I am already a dream demon. My memory and past can’t be changed.” Huang Yin was different from other players. He was tortured and transformed by Butterfly a long time ago. He was even stronger than a normal dream demon. Huang Yin stood up to switch off the television. As the screen switched off, the house returned to normal. The black hair and eyes receded.

“The surface world is in chaos now. All the players suspect that you’ve died in the nightmare. I’m here mainly to bring you out.” Han Fei leaned against the wall to study the wallpaper.

“I can’t leave. There’s no exit. We can’t clear this nightmare either because it is not a person’s dream. Dream made this place from everyone’s nightmare.” Huang Yin frowned. “We’ve become each other’s nightmare. People are not helping each other but dragging each other into deeper despair.”

“Aren’t the players trapped in Xin Lu Ninth Hospital? If we can wake them up, this world should collapse, right?” Han Fei didn’t think the 11th layer was so complicated.

“I’ve tried that. It won’t work.” Huang Yin shook his head. “There are not only expert players trapped here but normal players killed in other nightmares. Their consciousness was sent here to be the foundation for this situation. In other words, as Dream continues to kill the other players, the more real this city will be until everyone here thinks that this is the real world.” Huang Yin extended two fingers. “There are only two choices for the players here. Either they become the foundation to uphold the city or become a dream demon and help Dream.”

“In other words, the players killed by Dream can still be revived?” Based on what Huang Yin said, Han Fei believed that these players could be turned into ghosts, and that was good news for Han Fei.

“I guess you can see it that way…” Huang Yin smiled sadly. He looked into Han Fei’s eyes. The despair-filled eyes always had light. Han Fei was not an optimistic person. He merely had spent too much time in despair so he could find hope in it.

“I’ve released the Unmentionable trapped inside Dream’s altar. Nightmare’s rules can’t bind me anymore. This layer is like a giant cake for me. Everything is incredibly delicious.” Han Fei raised Rest in Peace. “I can store the players’ memory in Rest in Peace. I can take away special dream demons with greed abyss. If they’re strong, I’ll have my neighbors eat them.”

“You’re surely not wasting any bit.” Huang Yin relaxed slightly. “The expert players are now trapped in Xin Lu Ninth Hospital. But the place is like a prison, and the real nightmare factory is somewhere else.”

“Let’s visit the hospital first.”

Huang Yin led the road, and the two of them took a taxi to Xin Lu Ninth Hospital.

The surrounding buildings were dark. Only the hospital was lit up. Doctors and nurses walked through the corridor.

“The doctors are responsible for ‘treatment’ and the nurses are there to assist. The players will be visited by fake families and they will soon suspect that they’re actually in the real world.” Huang Yin led Han Fei to examine the hospital’s whole treatment process. They even saw a player being successfully ‘treated’ and exited the hospital. He left with the accompaniment of his fake family. They moved into the house with the moving black hair and eyes on the wall. His body and personality slowly mutated. Eventually, he would become a slave to Dream.

“If Dream is a ghost, and the players are humans, then this layer is like a small cryptic world.” Han Fei looked at the player and connected all the clues. “Dream wants to create a new black box. The black box is not yet ready, but it is almost done with a new cryptic world. There has to be a connection between the two. Is the inside of the black box the source of the cryptic world?”

But Han Fei didn’t get it. The cryptic world was immense, but the black box was small enough to fit inside a living human’s head. The similarity between the two was that they were both born in despair. No one had reached the end of the cryptic world, and no one had fully opened the black box.

“Will I touch the side of the black box when I reach the end of the cryptic world? The world is like a box. I want to open it but actually, I’m already inside the box.”

“Why are you suddenly so philosophical? Did you gain new points in intelligence?” Huang Yin pulled Han Fei to the side. “What you need to do now is not to open the box but to release the players from the hospital prison. I’ll bring you to the factory. Only by destroying the factory that all the players can escape.”

Destroying this layer would heavily injure Dream. After politely requesting the driver to leave the car, Huang Yin and Han Fei drove into the old city. The dream demon factory was not an actual factory. It existed in people’s everyday life. When the negative emotions became thick enough, the people who slept would attract the dream demons. The sleepers would see scary things coming out of their beds, dressers, and even carpets. However, they couldn’t scream for help. They could only watch as the demons slowly crawled into their bodies.

From the outsiders’ perspective, the dream demons crawled out of the sleepers’ bodies. The demons sucked on their negative emotions and became more twisted. When the demons reached a certain level, they would have a permanent influence on the surroundings. Even if another person took the bed the sleeper slept in, they would have the same nightmare. If this were not changed, the house would be taken over by dirty things.

Huang Yin led Han Fei to the dirtiest part of the city. This was the 11th layer’s dream demon factory. It was a building Han Fei was very familiar with.

“Are you sure we’re at the right place?” Han Fei exited the car. He looked at the building before him. He thought the dream demon factory would be at places like a morgue, cemetery, or so on. But he was wrong.

“Yes, I’m sure.” Huang Yin parked the car and followed Han Fei to the building. “Actually, I’m curious too. Why would the factory be at your home?” The gate of the old neighborhood was pushed open. Han Fei looked at the apartment where he called home. The resentment of the entire Xin Lu was gathered there like a black storm.

“I’ve been living here since my graduation. Even though I haven’t run into anything happy, I’ve never suffered any nightmares!” Han Fei was confused. His neighborhood was actually the dream demon factory!

“Perhaps even you didn’t realize this.” Huang Yin patted Han Fei’s shoulders. “Remember that you always have other friends and me. Don’t keep things to yourself.”

“What? You should know what kind of person I am. Normally, I’d say anything that’s on my mind. No one will give me a chance to keep things to myself.” Han Fei thought back to his past. No matter whether it was after or before he gained the black box, he was in deep despair. At least there was no other person like him in the city.

“In any case, Dream sure knows how to pick the location. I didn’t believe it when I first came here, but I can confirm your house has the deepest resentment.” Huang Yin walked forward. The temperature dropped. The presence of despair swallowed everything. However, every tenant was asleep. No one noticed the dream demons crawling outside their windows.

“All the demons are being attracted by something. They gather the negative emotions from the city and then bring them here to sacrifice them for something. Then, the thing radiates despair to help the dream demons grow faster.” Huang Yin turned to Han Fei. “What are you hiding in your house?”

“How would I know?” Other celebrities would hide their affairs at home but there was definitely not the case with Han Fei.

“In any case, we need to destroy that thing.” Huang Yin hid his presence and used Dream’s power to hide Han Fei. “We’ll get up together.”

They worked together perfectly and entered the corridor.

Despair inside the apartment was solidified. Dark fog floated on the corridor. The citizens here were either crazy or on the way to going mad. The tenants mumbled scary things in their sleep. Some were laughing while sleepwalking.

Han Fei returned to his home after avoiding all his neighbors. Han Fei looked at the familiar door. He had never been so nervous.

Han Fei held the doorknob, and then he remembered one thing. “Wait. I don’t have the key.”

“Let me!” Huang Yin looked around. After making sure they were alone, he took a deep breath and kicked down the door.

Huang Yin and Han Fei looked into the room. The gaming hub, the size of a coffin, was placed in the room. Dead people crowded around the gaming hub.