Translator: CinderTL
Lying on the sofa bed in the living room, Fatty tossed and turned.
He was exhausted, utterly drained, yet sleep eluded him.
This mission was a completely new experience for both Jiang Cheng and Fatty. Moreover, Fatty felt that the Doctor had undergone a subtle change during this mission.
A very delicate change.
He couldn't quite put it into words, but it seemed the Doctor had become a bit more humane.
He had never doubted that the Doctor was a good person; it was just that the Doctor had buried his kindness too deep within.
From the moment he first met the Doctor, he felt that the Doctor was extremely reliable. Though he appeared aloof, Fatty understood.
It was a means, not an end.
To survive in the Nightmare, it was necessary.
Yet, the only thing that made him somewhat uncomfortable was that after leaving this mission, he felt the Doctor had distanced himself from him.
He turned his head, looking at the bedroom door.
The door was closed.
Inside and outside the door, it felt like two different worlds.
On the mattress, a figure lay flat.
Jiang Cheng was just like Fatty.
Unable to sleep at all.
He was drenched, his body trembling uncontrollably. He clenched his teeth, trying to suppress the sound of his heavy breathing, his heart pounding like a drum.
Veins bulged at his temples, his eyes bloodshot.
With a trembling left hand, he pulled off the wet towel wrapped around it. On his palm, the faint outline of a door began to appear.
What was even more bizarre was that this door seemed to be alive!
He could even... feel the door's heartbeat.
An unprecedented sense of strangeness fermented in his heart. According to what the benevolent face had said, this door was a gift for him.
But to Jiang Cheng, this door felt more like a curse.
Moreover, he had a deeper premonition that after obtaining this door, his life was about to change.
An image of a middle-aged man appeared in his mind.
The man who had been by Xia Meng's side.
As a reward for the last mission, the middle-aged man had answered some of his questions about the Nightmare.
One of them was: What exactly could one gain by entering the Nightmare? He had been puzzled by this before. Being dragged into the Nightmare unknowingly was one thing, but why would people like Xia Meng actively enter the Nightmare and use clues to repeatedly go through it?
It was like grinding dungeons in a game.
This couldn't simply be explained by the need to preserve the Lifeline Note or the clues.
The middle-aged man's explanation was that the Nightmare was a distorted and twisted history, or rather, a projection of real history in the shadows.
This history had been stripped of light and beauty, leaving only regret, bloodshed, and brutality. And those Ghosts were the products born from the Nightmare.
Each twisted segment of history was an independent Nightmare, and each Nightmare would give birth to its corresponding Ghost.
And these Ghosts were the greatest benefits.
Jiang Cheng looked at the door on his hand, feeling that his speculations were gradually becoming reality.
But now, he had an even more pressing issue.
Slowly turning his head, he looked at the wall not far away.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the wall, seeing the person behind it.
Fatty, or rather, Wang Fugui.
What was his true background? Not long ago, he had actually managed to force open the Bronze Door that was about to close, relying solely on brute strength. Without him, Jiang Cheng's situation would have been dire.
His suspicions about Fatty had been long-standing and had never faded.
He was just waiting.
Waiting for Fatty to slip up.
There were too many suspicious points about him, making it hard not to doubt him.
The first time he entered the Nightmare, he was fully armed, even carrying a huge umbrella.
What was even stranger was that he actually followed him back to his studio.
This even seemed to defy the rules of the Nightmare.
After the mission ended, everyone was supposed to go their separate ways, so why could he follow him? Fatty's explanation was that he simply felt a sense of familiarity and wished he could follow him, and somehow, that wish came true.
Lucky Fatty.
A treasure of a boy.
At that moment, Jiang Cheng knew that this person was definitely not simple.
But what puzzled him even more, to the point of being incomprehensible, was that he also felt an inexplicable sense of closeness to Fatty.
This was unbelievable to him.
He had no interest in most people, and his work was just work, devoid of any emotional attachment.
Keeping Fatty by his side was also part of his plan. He wanted to see what Fatty was up to, to uncover him, or the person behind him who sent him.
But after all this time, he still couldn't confirm Fatty's intentions.
Because Fatty hadn't taken any substantial action.
This Fatty was simple-minded, not just naive, but as Jiang Cheng put it, he was a bit of a fool, and this fool had a very kind heart.
As his understanding of the Nightmare deepened, he once suspected that Fatty might have been sent by Crimson, the Night Watcher, or even the faction represented by Xia Meng.
A spy by his side.
But no matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem to fit.
Those people didn't seem like the type to value relationships.
But Fatty was different. He placed great importance on these things, and this cowardly man was even willing to risk his life for an NPC in the dungeon.
To him, this was normal because that NPC had once helped him.
But now, this issue couldn't be delayed any longer. It had to be resolved.
Because he could feel that Fatty was subtly changing him in a very peculiar way.
And what was even stranger was that Fatty actually had the power to resist the Gate.
How terrifying that power was, Black-Clothed Wu had already given him a harsh lesson.
That guy was unlike any Ghost he had ever encountered. If Jiang Cheng had to describe him, he was no longer in the realm of Ghosts.
In the world behind that Gate, he was like a creator.
Jiang Cheng suspected that these were the real reasons Fatty was spying on him.
He was waiting, and the person behind him was also waiting.
Waiting for the Gate to appear.
That was their true goal.
What they wanted was the Gate.
Of course, there was also a tiny possibility that Fatty was just an ordinary person, albeit an unordinary ordinary person.
Jiang Cheng was very willing to believe this.
He was just special in his constitution, like choosing character stats in a game, Fatty's skill points were all in luck.
Apart from being a bit slow, Jiang Cheng didn't dislike him at all.
Reaching out with his right hand, Jiang Cheng pulled out his phone from his pocket. After a moment of silence, he sent a pre-written message.
Meanwhile, Fatty, curled up on the sofa bed outside, seemed to sense something. He shivered first, then turned over, wrapping the blanket tighter around himself.
Chen Yi, Liu Guo, Banana Wolf, Wan Yuanning, Hua Luo, Chu Jiu—their faces flashed through Fatty's mind, and he couldn't help but secretly wipe away a tear.
Everyone was doing their best to survive. Even in the face of despair, no one gave up hope.
In the soil of despair, flowers of hope can still bloom.
(End of the Chapter)
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