Chapter 1: Welcome to the Safe Zone

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Welcome to the Safe Zone

"Old He is missing!"

Across the low table, his old classmate Lu Fan lowered his voice, his expression grave.

Shi An’s hand, reaching for a grilled kidney skewer, froze in mid-air.

He, Old He, and Lu Fan had all been roommates in college. He was closest with Hajilu, and naturally, he was good friends with Old He as well.

The last time they’d chatted, Old He had mentioned he was about to get a promotion and a raise, and was planning to treat them all to a meal in a few days.

’How long has it been? And now Old He’s missing?’

"You’re not kidding, are you?"

When Shi An saw that Old Lu didn’t use the opportunity to snatch the last kidney skewer, he was already pretty much convinced.

Lu Fan said, "Would I joke about something like this? At first, I thought Old He was just having a Nightmare because of stress."

"A Nightmare?"

Lu Fan took a deep breath, as if recalling something. "Old He told me about his dream. In it, a Butcher completely wrapped in bandages was dragging a massive, meter-long cleaver, walking toward him step by step."

"At first, it just seemed like a normal Nightmare, nothing to worry about. But then, on the second, third, and fourth days, Old He had the same dream. The only difference was that the Bandage Butcher was getting closer each time. No matter how Old He tried to run, that Butcher would always be right behind him."

"Then, Old He got slashed by the Butcher. He woke up with a start, only to find his arm dripping with blood—in the exact spot where the Butcher had wounded him in the Nightmare!"

"After that, Old He vanished. No one’s been able to contact him since yesterday. I went to his apartment to check, but I couldn’t find a single trace of him. Old He... something must have happened to him!"

A grown man missing for almost two days—it was definitely not right.

However, Shi An analyzed the situation rationally. "Why do you think his disappearance is connected to the Nightmare? Maybe something happened in his real life that caused a lot of stress, and that’s why he had recurring Nightmares. His disappearance is more likely related to that ’stress’."

’That was definitely the most likely explanation. This was a modern society; there was no such thing as gods and ghosts. One had to trust science.’

"You have a point, but..."

Lu Fan paused, his eyes losing focus as he stared at the distant glow of the charcoal grill. After a moment, he snapped back to reality. "But the problem is, I’ve started having Nightmares too."

He hadn’t actually believed Old He’s story about the Nightmare. He’d just thought there might be something wrong with Old He’s mental state.

Not until he had a terrifyingly, unbelievably real Nightmare of his own.

"It was like it actually happened," he said. "I can still recall every detail of the dream. That’s the most unsettling part."

’It’s true,’ Shi An thought. ’The details of a normal dream usually become hazy after waking up.’

Shi An frowned. "But isn’t it possible you just had a Nightmare because you’ve been overthinking what happened to Old He?"

Old Lu gave a wry smile. "Maybe."

He had also considered that he might just be paranoid and overthinking things. He had come to see Shi An mainly to vent his anxiety.

After a round of skewers and beer, a lot of his anxiety had indeed faded.

Lu Fan said, "You’re right. Maybe we’ll hear from Old He tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep tonight. You should head back, too. You have work in the morning."

They’d gotten the skewers at a place downstairs from Hajilu’s apartment.

Since Shi An had to ride his bike home, he hadn’t drunk any alcohol.

Riding his little electric scooter at its top speed of 25 km/h, Shi An soon arrived back at his small rented apartment.

’A Nightmare?’

Shi An mulled it over, then opened his laptop and searched for things like "what to do about nightmares." He sifted through the results, hoping to find something out of the ordinary.

But the internet was quiet. There wasn’t a single rumor about anything supernatural.

’Just as I thought. I guess I should have expected this.’

Shi An wasn’t a local. It had been a week since he’d awakened the memories of his past life.

Ever since awakening his memories, Shi An had been exploring this world, dreaming of finding things like Cultivation, Superpowers, Gao Wu, Contracted Pet Beasts, or real-life games.

In the end, he came to one conclusion:

Before he’d transmigrated, he was a wage slave. After transmigrating, he was still a wage slave.

’What a waste of a transmigration!’

’Not only are there no strange incidents online, but movies, games, and novels completely lack suspense and horror genres. The imagination in all kinds of media is just so poor.’

This was clearly a peaceful, stable, and cozy slice-of-life world.

Shi An felt like the whole world deserved a PG-13 rating.

’Well, things are what they are. I should just go to sleep. No need to scare myself.’

’When I wake up tomorrow, it’ll just be another ordinary day.’

Shi An changed into his pajamas, washed up, turned off the light, sat on his bed, pulled the covers over himself, and lay down.

He closed his eyes.

Sleepiness washed over him like a tide. In just two or three seconds...

"WHOOSH—!"

His whole body sank as if his bed had turned to water. He felt like he was plunging into the deep sea, falling and falling until he broke through the vast boundary of the dreamscape.

After a long moment, his feet landed on a solid floor.

Shi An opened his eyes again.

The first thing he saw was peeling paint and a ceiling covered in alarming cracks. The wooden bar in front of him was rotting, and the stench of mold assaulted his nostrils. Farther away, huge glass windows were caked with dust and bloodstains, covered in a spiderweb of fractures.

Rubble and wood splinters were scattered everywhere. The tables and chairs were so broken it would be impossible to find a matching set, and the shelves were all askew.

This place seemed to have been a small shop once, but now it was dilapidated and decaying, filled with a silence as profound as a tomb.