Chapter 107: The Second Nightmare

Mu Cheng let out a furious roar, his voice edging toward a breakdown.

He wasn't breaking down out of fear of the monster before him. He had killed nightmare creatures in the Real World and had even personally captured the unrememberable entity.

What he truly feared was the Nightmare World itself—a nightmare you could never escape once it got its hold on you!

Right then, the Headless One standing between them suddenly moved. The ears on its torso twitched as if locking onto a target before it abruptly wheeled around and charged straight at Mu Cheng.

Driven mad by panic, Mu Cheng was in no mood to indulge the Headless One. Seeing the creature charge, he wordlessly raised his right arm. His wrist instantly snapped back, revealing the silver barrels of a Gatling gun.

"Get lost!"

Rat-tat-tat...

Deafening gunfire erupted. Before the Headless One could even draw near, the hail of bullets mercilessly tore it to shreds.

After dealing with the monster, he aimed his weapon back at Su Mu. "Su Mu! You're the one who dragged me into the Nightmare World! You have a way out, don't you? Tell me!"

Su Mu pushed up his Tinted Glasses, a thrilled smile hanging on his pale face. "That's the expression! Hahaha... You always looked down on Nightmare Apostles, yet you're utterly pathetic now that you're in the Nightmare World. Wonderful! Simply wonderful! I'm truly curious—what does it feel like to suddenly become the kind of person you once despised?"

"I'll fucking kill you!" Mu Cheng roared. His reason was almost entirely burned away by fury, but before he could strike, Headless Ones charged out from the depths of the forest one after another. A quick glance revealed no fewer than a hundred of them, with an endless stream still surging out from behind.

The ears covering their bodies twitched in excitement, flushing a faint red as the creatures hurled themselves at Mu Cheng with complete disregard for their own lives.

"Get lost! Get away! You monsters!"

All six cyborgs opened fire at once. Gunfire roared, and Headless Ones fell in droves. Bizarrely, though, their numbers didn't dwindle. Instead, the louder the gunfire rang out, the more monsters appeared.

'Is it the noise?'

Su Mu had roughly figured out the Headless Ones' behavioral pattern. From his vantage point, he could see several Headless Ones greedily devouring the noise Mu Cheng made. Visible vortices of vibrating air formed over the ears on their bodies.

As these vortices appeared, the supposedly deafening gunfire grew increasingly faint. By the time the noise reached Su Mu's ears, the gunshots were quieter than the stamp of a foot.

It seemed these Headless Ones fed on sound. That was why everything here was dead silent—any noise at all would draw them out.

It wasn't a difficult pattern to spot, but unfortunately, Mu Cheng's abrupt plunge into the Nightmare World had already stripped him of his reason.

Mu Cheng fired like a madman, but there were simply too many Headless Ones, and their vitality was absurdly tenacious. Lacking heads, they seemed to have no fatal weak points. Unless they were torn completely to shreds, a few bullets were rarely enough to put them down.

Soon, several Headless Ones pounced onto the cyborgs. They excitedly hammered at the cyborgs' metal plating, producing massive clanging noises that were quickly devoured. Bizarrely, the Headless Ones that consumed large amounts of sound actually began to grow in size!

The enlarged Headless Ones struck with even greater physical strength, which in turn produced even louder noises against the cyborgs. The two factors formed a bizarre positive feedback loop.

In stark contrast to Mu Cheng's wretched state, Su Mu looked entirely at ease as he quietly enjoyed the show from the sidelines. Since he wasn't making a peep, he naturally didn't attract the Headless Ones' attention.

Originally, he had planned to slip into the Shadow Space and let the Nightmare World whittle down Mu Cheng's strength. Now, it seemed that wouldn't be necessary.

Aside from Su Mu, Zhao Yongqiang—who had entered with him—was also completely ignored. Because Zhao Yongqiang was still under hypnosis, he stood blankly in place, not moving a muscle without Su Mu's orders.

Mu Cheng's strength was formidable. Even with so many Headless Ones, they struggled to breach his Mithril Alloy. However, as the monsters devoured more and more sound, the outcome of the battle was no longer set in stone.

Watching the besieged Mu Cheng, Su Mu began to feel a bit bored. He silently walked off toward the depths of the forest.

"Su Mu! Don't even think about running!" Mu Cheng erupted in an angry roar. The six cyborgs pushed their power to the absolute limit and recklessly charged at Su Mu, completely ignoring the pile of Headless Ones clinging to them.

He raised his barrels to gun Su Mu down, but only a string of empty clicks echoed from his arm. He was out of ammo.

Flustered and furious, he had no choice but to give chase on foot. Five of the cyborgs pooled their strength to hold back the army of Headless Ones, while the remaining cyborg broke out of the encirclement.

He was a Silver tier powerhouse, after all. Even in a cyborg body, the explosive speed he unleashed was far beyond anything Su Mu could match.

The distance between them rapidly shrank. Just then, Su Mu abruptly stopped in his tracks. He went as stiff as a board, standing perfectly still and even holding his breath.

Though Mu Cheng was suspicious, his furious mind couldn't be bothered to care. He continued his mad sprint, the Mithril Alloy plating his body letting out heavy, continuous clanks.

Suddenly, his vision went dark. A massive shadow engulfed him, and when he looked up, he was horrified to find a Headless One over ten meters tall excitedly 'listening' to him.

A gargantuan hand covered in ears descended from the sky, grabbing viciously at Mu Cheng.

Mu Cheng paled in terror. He evaded the strike with a diving roll, but since he was covered entirely in metal, the noise of a single tumble was simply too loud. The ten-meter-tall Headless One barely paused before snatching at him again.

He scrambled and rolled, dodging frantically. Even though the Mithril Alloy was extremely hard and difficult to break, it could still deform under immense force.

The more he dodged, the greater the commotion he caused. Before long, many more smaller Headless Ones appeared in the forest and surged forward to mob him.

Panic seized Mu Cheng. What the hell was going on?!

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Su Mu standing perfectly unharmed off to the side. Su Mu even gave him a friendly wave, gesturing for him to keep up the good work.

'Bastard!'

'Why is this bastard perfectly fine!?'

'Wait, I must have missed something. Think carefully. How did those lowly Nightmare Apostles survive their nightmares time and again?'

'These Headless Ones have no heads, yet their bodies are covered in ears. Ears?!'

'I get it. It's sound!'

'As long as I don't make any noise, I won't provoke these monsters into attacking.'

Thinking this, Mu Cheng abruptly skidded to a halt. However, things didn't go as he hoped; the Headless Ones in hot pursuit had already latched onto his noise. By stopping, he had essentially thrown himself right into their net.

The sprinting Headless Ones slammed into his metal shell one after another, creating massive clangs. They hammered away excitedly and indiscriminately, constantly generating more noise.

Watching this unfold, Mu Cheng almost exploded with rage. 'You damn monsters, get lost!' He wasn't afraid of these smaller Headless Ones; the real issue was that the ten-meter-tall Headless One was already following the noise right toward him.