Nightmare Assault

Going into the nightmare was not an isolated incident. Fatty knew that too. He only survived the mission because he stuck with Jiang Cheng. He might not be as lucky next time.

Fatty looked awkward after he was exposed. Jiang Cheng searched his body and found nothing special. He let Fatty go and switched on the light above them. Fatty leaned against the wall. As he rubbed his arm, he studied Jiang Cheng’s office.

“Brother,” Fatty saw the patient’s records on the table and asked Jiang Cheng, “Are you… a doctor?”

“Yes.”

“In what field?”

Jiang Cheng walked to the office table and sat down, “The field of resentment.”

Fatty bubbled his saliva like he wanted to say something, but he still shut up in the end. Based on Jiang Cheng’s requirement, he sat down across from him. The couch was old. The leather was cracked. The back could be pushed down easily to turn the couch into a bed. Sometimes, Jiang Cheng would direct his patients to lie there and help them relax.

After some questions, Fatty revealed that his name was Wang Fugui. He had done many jobs, the most recent job being the driver of a long-distance transportation truck. Due to some reasons, he quit. His house was in the Swan City, not far away from the Banyan City.

Fatty said it was his first time entering the nightmare world. Jiang Cheng asked why he was so neatly dressed and knew to carry an umbrella with him. That was not how a normal person would dress when they went to bed.

Fatty scratched his head and admitted that he got into a big fight due to a recent salary issue with his boss. Then, he was chased out of the employee hostel. He had no money for a hotel stay, so he decided to sleep overnight in a small garden, but…

Jiang Cheng knew that Fatty wanted to say he also had no idea why he would suddenly appear at that place.

“Did you cross through a door too?”

“Yes.” Fatty nodded as his face paled. “The door appeared on the wall of the garden, but I remembered there was not a door there.”

It was similar to Jiang Cheng’s experience. Everyone came to the dream realm through a door that didn’t exist, but the difference was the location of the doors.

Jiang Cheng glanced at the time. It was dawn. He turned to Fatty and said officiously, “You can stay here until morning, but after that, you have to leave.”

Fatty looked at Jiang Cheng with puppy eyes. Jiang Cheng didn’t change his mind. He ignored Fatty after that. He sat down and took out the folded piece of paper from his pocket. He spread it out on the table. Fatty stretched his neck to look. In the end, he ran over to the other side of the table to see clearly.

It was an article from a newspaper. The paper was yellow. Most of it was blurry. Jiang Cheng turned it around and saw a clear printed line: The Case of the Torture Mansion has been solved. The family of devils fell into the lake and died.

It contained details about the case.

The family was a group of Satanists. The father pretended to be a tour bus driver and tricked many innocent passengers into his home in the forest. One of the daughters pretended to be a tour guide, while the other daughter fished for victims on the internet. The mother controlled the big picture. They trapped and tortured the victims at the bungalow. In just a month, the local police had received many reports of missing people. One of them was a pair of twins.

Eventually, the police followed the trail of the missing people and found the hidden bungalow in the forest. However, the family managed to escape and carried with them three victims.

Late at night, they drove the bus and escaped through a narrow, small path. Due to days of storm, part of the path had been washed away. The bus skidded off the road and fell into the river by the roadside.

When they were found, the family of four and three victims had already drowned.

This would appear to be the truth of the nightmare mission. However, there was more than that that caught Jiang Cheng’s attention. The article featured a picture of one of the victims. It should be released by the police. The picture mentioned that this victim couldn’t be identified. The police hoped that anyone who had any clues would contact the police.

From the picture, the victim was tall and muscular. The face had been blurred off. He wore a black collar. The picture also showed a few of his effects. Fatty’s eyes moved down. He was startled when he saw a pocket watch. Then, he became agitated, “Doctor, this is…”

Jiang Cheng didn’t allow him to continue. “It does look like Man Li.”

The newspaper was dated 1st June 2006. It happened 14 years ago. Man Li… died in the past. No wonder the police couldn’t find anything about him.

“In other words… Every dream realm mission is real?! The door sends us to the past to experience certain people’s experiences?” Fatty gasped.

Jiang Cheng thought about it, “It’s possible, but this is just one incident. We’ve just experienced one nightmare to form any conclusions.

“Plus, there’s one thing that you got wrong.” Jiang Cheng folded the paper and told Fatty, “Even if the door really did send us back into the past, the experience we had was the tragedy experienced by the victims or another nightmare.”

Fatty thought about it and agreed with Jiang Cheng. Since people called the place the dream realm, each mission would put the players in life-threatening danger. Sister Nuan and Man Li had cleared a few missions, but they still died.

“Doctor,” Fatty’s lips trembled, “Do you remember the water puddles everywhere around the house?”

Jiang Cheng nodded. “The family died from drowning, so even after they became ghosts, they retained water.”

Fatty nodded with a pale face. Then, his eyes stared at the paper in Jiang Cheng’s hands.

Seeing Jiang Cheng’s alert face, Fatty quickly explained, “Doctor, don’t get me wrong. I just want to know where you got this newspaper.”

Jiang Cheng shrugged. “Chen Xiaomeng gave it to me.”

“Her?” Fatty was instantly suspicious. “Doctor, I might not be as clever as you, but I’m not that dumb. She’d rather burn this than give it to you.”