Chapter 15 - 12: The Countermeasures Bureau’s Speculation

Chapter 15: Chapter 12: The Countermeasures Bureau’s Speculation

Shi An vigorously rubbed the Blood Hand Seal’s head. The Blood Hand Seal waved its stubby arms, yelling, "YAH! YAH!" Unfortunately, it couldn’t resist the Manager’s authority.

Whether the Blood Hand Seal had suffered the classic "weakened after purification" trope, Shi An wasn’t sure yet, but he thought its current appearance wasn’t bad. After all, it was his employee, and he would be spending a lot of time with it in the future. If his number one employee were a hideous monster constantly dripping with blood... Shi An would feel deeply disgusted. He was an ordinary person, after all.

Moreover, after contracting his number one employee, Shi An received additional information.

[Employee: Blood Hand Seal]

[Abilities: Blood Hand Brand, Blood Concealment Body]

[Note: Consume 100 Belief Value to upgrade one of the abilities.]

He could allocate points to upgrade the Blood Hand Seal. However, doing so required a massive amount of Belief Value. So the question was: if evolving and upgrading an employee required him, the boss, to pay out of his own pocket, why did he still have to pay a salary?

"YAH! YAH!" The Blood Hand Seal reached out a hand, staring straight at him.

Shi An was stunned for a moment. "Alright, you actually know how to ask for your salary. Not bad, not bad at all." At the very least, its intelligence was quite good! What else could he do? Of course, he had to pay up.

A glimmer of light emerged from Shi An’s fingertip and sank into the Blood Hand Seal’s body. It narrowed its eyes, looking extremely comfortable. When Shi An petted it again, it no longer had any objections—not even regarding the nickname he gave it.

"From now on, you’ll be called Little Blood. When I’m not around, I’ll leave the Safe Zone in your care," Shi An instructed.

The problem that had troubled Shi An the most was this: if he didn’t enter the dream and wasn’t in the Safe Zone, would a lucky Dream Descender who stumbled upon the Safe Zone still be unable to enter? After all, without his "invitation," or if the Safe Zone wasn’t officially open for business, the entry mechanism might simply not trigger. But Shi An couldn’t stay in the Safe Zone forever.

He was a person living in the Present Realm. Putting aside long-term concerns, even as the grand master of the Safe Zone, he was still getting headaches over money. Even a master had to bow down to reality and earn his daily bread.

"The supervisor already seemed very dissatisfied when I asked for time off today. If I ask for leave again, I’ll probably be brutally fired," he sighed. "This is just too hard."

But now, Little Blood could watch the shop in his place. After giving the Blood Hand Seal its final instructions, Shi An’s entire being detached from the Safe Zone and returned to the Present Realm.

...

Elsewhere.

"You conquered a Nightmare? Xi Xue, as expected of you. You didn’t disgrace your teacher’s name. Disgrace? Hardly! You can count on one hand the number of Dream Descenders who have conquered a Nightmare while only in the Fusion Stage. What’s more, our Xi Xue only fell into a Nightmare about half a month ago. Her future is truly promising."

"I’m very smart, after all!" Xi Xue beamed. "But it wasn’t solely my achievement. There was also the Manager. The Manager is definitely a top-tier expert."

"A Dream Descender codenamed ’Manager’? That’s a first for me. But it’s quite normal; Dream Descenders lose their lives in the Nightmare World all the time, and new experts rise up just as often."

Not to look too far afield, their very own Wizard’s House junior, Xi Xue, possessed boundless potential. This potential referred to her ability to develop and undergo Fusion with a Dream Curse Object, naturally encompassing her personal qualities as well. And now, it seemed Xi Xue’s luck wasn’t bad, either. The organization began to hold even greater expectations for her.

...

"Are you saying that you conquered a Nightmare?"

Inside the Countermeasures Bureau, Old Yao was also reporting the fact that he had conquered a Nightmare. He belonged to the Bureau’s Third Dream-Extinguishing Squad and was one of their core operatives. Of course, he was merely a very ordinary one among those core operatives. His captain looked incredibly shocked.

"Don’t misunderstand," the captain said. "It’s just that this matter is truly surprising. The last time your captain here conquered a Nightmare was... well, a long time ago. Thinking back, it feels like ages have passed."

Old Yao remained speechless. After listening to his captain reminisce for quite a while, he had no choice but to interrupt. "Although we conquered the Nightmare, the two of us were purely carried to victory. The ones who truly played a decisive role were that Manager and the rookie from the Wizard’s House."

He detailed the entire process of conquering the Nightmare. This was also a rule of the Countermeasures Bureau. Dream Descenders could keep their personal abilities and Dream Curse Objects a secret, without having to disclose everything. However, details about the Nightmare World—especially the method of conquering it—had to be compiled and filed in the archives after the Nightmare ended. The conquest methods were especially crucial; only by integrating a sufficient amount of information would the Dream Descenders’ chances of conquering Nightmares continue to grow. Naturally, the Countermeasures Bureau would also give specific rewards to Dream Descenders who provided valuable conquest methods.

Old Yao’s conquest process didn’t offer much reference value. It relied purely on the personal abilities of the Dream Descender from the Wizard’s House, as well as the Manager’s Safe Zone completely blocking out the eerie entities and dangers.

After hearing this, the captain’s expression grew much more serious. He stroked his chin. "I’ve heard a bit about the rookie from the Wizard’s House. She’s the newly accepted student of their Third Seat. It’s not surprising she performed so well.

"But this ’Manager’? This Safe Zone is highly likely to be a unique and powerful Dream Curse Object. The Manager relied on this Curse Object to carve out a special space within the Dream Realm. He uses this space to shelter Dream Descenders and resist the Dream Realm’s intrusions."

He was, after all, highly experienced and knowledgeable. He easily offered a hypothesis for something that had completely shattered Old Yao’s worldview. It wasn’t actually that strange. It could simply be viewed as a specialized domain.

What the captain was more curious about was exactly how powerful of an eerie invasion this "Manager’s" domain could withstand. To dare crown it with the word "Safe" showed extreme confidence. Safety and Nightmares are fundamentally contradictory. Even if this Manager’s Safe Zone domain could shelter other Dream Descenders, what about the Manager himself? Fighting against a Nightmare and maintaining a Dream Curse Object was inherently difficult. It drained massive amounts of energy and required a hefty price to be paid. If the price was so steep, how could it truly be considered "safe"?

Despite these thoughts, the captain also heard the deep gratitude and reverence in Old Yao’s words. This Manager was indeed a person of noble character. He provided shelter free of charge. He saved people at critical moments. He treated loot like dirt. Even as a captain of the Countermeasures Bureau, he felt ashamed of his own inferiority by comparison.

The only thing he found regrettable was one point: "It would be great if we could recruit this Manager into the Bureau."

But this Manager seemed to have popped out of thin air. Not a single top-tier Dream Descender in his mind matched this profile. If fate allowed them to meet in the future, he would try recruiting him then.

...

"ACHOO."

Shi An woke up from his dream and rubbed the tip of his nose. "An ordinary person’s body is still too fragile. I wonder if I’d still catch a cold if I became a Dream Descender?

"No, being a Dream Descender probably wouldn’t help either. Just considering the side effects of using Curse Objects, most Dream Descenders might actually be weaker than ordinary people."

Shi An felt that his current problem remained figuring out how to use a Dream Curse Object. It wouldn’t be hard for him to get his hands on a Curse Object right now; the difficult part was using it safely with minimal side effects. What he wanted even more was a completely harmless way to use one. However, given the entire system of Dream Descenders, Shi An highly doubted that a side-effect-free method of growing stronger even existed.

As he pondered this, a WeChat notification suddenly chimed. Shi An glanced at it and finally realized an even more important matter.

"If I don’t go to work soon, I’m going to get fired," he groaned. "Dream Descender Cultivation is certainly important, but without money, I won’t even be able to survive."

If he didn’t go to work, he wouldn’t be able to pay his rent in two months! But if he had to work a day job before opening his shop, and still had to work a day job after opening his shop, didn’t that mean he opened the shop for nothing?

Just as Shi An was debating whether or not he should reply to his supervisor, the doorbell suddenly rang.