Chapter 22: Dreams Invade Reality
Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Dreams Invade Reality
The other girls also began to recount their experiences in low voices, their stories largely the same.
Fang Chen’s frown deepened the more he listened, but he still managed to catch a few clues. This didn’t seem to be an independent dream in the traditional sense, but rather a constructed shared space. It was similar to his Time Stop Domain. Furthermore, the girls had entered the dream at different times, could perceive each other’s presence, and the background was the actual school campus, not a fictional setting!
Liu Rui picked up the thread. "Later on, a girl from Class Seven whom I know, named Tian Menglian, was the last one to be pulled into that space."
Fang Chen’s eyes narrowed. "Class Seven? The class where the explosion happened?"
The girls nodded vigorously.
"She... she was very brave and exceptionally strong," Liu Rui continued. "When that beast was... assaulting her, she struggled desperately and managed to tear off his mask!"
"And then?" Fang Chen pressed immediately. "Did you see his face?"
It was Wang Lu who answered, gritting her teeth in frustration and helplessness. "It was useless! Even with the mask torn off, we couldn’t see his face at all. It looked like it was covered by a thick layer of fog!"
Another girl, Zhang Jing, chimed in. "Moreover, that person seemed to be getting more and more proficient in controlling his Superpower. His abuse towards us... also intensified! Later, he even created more monsters in that space. There were those Ghost Shadows from before that could phase through walls to hunt us down, and some... dog-like monsters specifically made to chase us. It seemed like he was enjoying the thrill of watching us flee in panic!"
Wang Lu sighed, seemingly unwilling to recall that memory.
Liu Rui forced herself to swallow her humiliation and spoke again. "Later... that person’s mastery over his Superpower seemed to improve once again. He... he transformed into a massive, bizarre, greasy monster with dozens of tentacles!" She took a deep breath, using almost all her strength just to force the words out. "He... he used those disgusting tentacles to wrap up all dozen of us girls, and then... he just... brazenly..."
Even with her relatively cheerful personality, Liu Rui could not bring herself to continue. The girls huddled together, breaking into tears once more.
"Tentacles? What a fucking beast!" Fang Chen cursed inwardly. He offered a few words of comfort out loud before he began to organize the clues he had gathered so far.
"Dreams, pretty girls, Tian Menglian from Class Seven..." Fang Chen quickly sorted through the information. Suddenly, he asked, "Have you noticed any bugs appearing around you over the past two days?"
Zou Shuyao paused, taken aback. "Bugs?"
"Yes, like bees, butterflies, or other insects lingering around you in an unusual manner?"
The girls exchanged glances and nodded one after another.
"Yes! Yesterday afternoon, a butterfly kept flying around me, and I couldn’t shoo it away."
"I found a ladybug on the cuff of my school uniform this morning..."
Wang Lu suddenly remembered something, her face turning pale. "Ah! I remember now! When I went to the restroom this morning, I saw a rat squatting motionless under the stall door! I didn’t pay much attention at first, but then I felt something was off. I reached out to shoo it away, but it wasn’t afraid at all, nor did it run!"
"Could it be that these bugs are the medium used to pull us into the dream?" Zou Shuyao asked.
Fang Chen didn’t answer directly, his eyes turning cold. "Is that so..."
Hearing this, Xia Chu asked in confusion, "But Chen, there were bugs around me yesterday and today too, and you even swatted them away. Why wasn’t I pulled into the dream?"
Wang Lu looked at Xia Chu, her tone complicated. "That’s because he’s afraid of you."
"Afraid of me?"
"Yeah," Wang Lu nodded. "My desk mate, Melin, also slept on her desk for a while, and she was completely fine. I’m guessing that beast is wary of her status as the young lady of the Leng family, afraid of being investigated and retaliated against afterward. Similarly, he’s also wary of the Xia family, not to mention you have the class monitor as your boyfriend... He must be terrified of the unbearable consequences he’d face if he dared to lay a finger on you."
Xia Chu looked at Fang Chen, a hint of lingering fear dawning on her. "Is... is that it?"
Fang Chen said in a deep voice, "A rat? In the girls’ restroom? If so, those bugs and animals are most likely the work of a third Superpower User."
"A third one?" Liu Rui was puzzled.
Fang Chen nodded. "One who caused the explosion for some unknown reason, one who can pull people into dreams to assault them, and another who should be able to control animals, and very likely... share their vision for voyeurism."
The girls instantly understood, expressions of extreme disgust appearing on their faces.
"PAH! What kind of filthy scumbags are they? Can’t they use their Superpowers for something proper instead of doing all this despicable, underhanded trash!"
Xia Chu asked anxiously, "Then how do we find them? The Superpower Bureau strictly protects the ability information of all Awakened. It’s said that they only use ID numbers internally, not even knowing their real names!"
"That is indeed the case," Fang Chen admitted, but then he changed the subject. "However, there’s another angle we can exploit."
"What angle?"
"Side effects!" Fang Chen explained. "Every Superpower has side effects, just to varying degrees. There are only eleven Superpower Users in our entire school, and the highest awakened level is only Tier 3. Their side effects absolutely won’t be small. As long as we can find..."
However, before he could finish his sentence—
A drastic change occurred!
The originally bright sky instantly turned as dim as dusk!
"AHHH—!"
Terrified screams erupted across the entire school!
Immediately after, Zou Shuyao pointed at the teaching building, letting out a heart-wrenching shriek. "Look... is-isn’t that the shadowy monster?! AHHH!"
The group looked in the direction she was pointing, their hearts almost stopping!
There, in the third-floor corridor and by the shattered windows, several twisted, faceless, black, ghost-like monsters had suddenly appeared! Their figures drifted erratically along the hallway, and new ones were even slowly seeping out of the scorched walls like water!
"Look... look there, that tentacle monster is there too!" Liu Rui’s voice trembled uncontrollably as she pointed even higher.
In the shadows of the upper floors, the massive, greasy silhouette of a creature waving dozens of nauseating tentacles loomed faintly!
"Have we... have we entered the dream again?!" one of the girls cried out in despair.
As soon as she said this, the girls who had experienced the nightmare were instantly scared stiff. They even forgot to run, perhaps knowing deep down that fleeing in the dream was utterly pointless.
Fang Chen looked up at this apocalyptic scene, a look of shock crossing his face.
"No... we aren’t being pulled into a dream."
Xia Chu gripped his sleeve tightly, her voice quivering. "Chen, then... then what is this?"
Fang Chen stared at the teaching building, enunciating every word.
"It’s most likely the side effect of that Dream Superpower User manifesting. The dream... is beginning to invade reality!"