Chapter 153: A Nightmare Full of Living People

Past rows of towering coconut palms, Su Mu spotted a sturdy, ancient wall in the distance. Its gray stone was heavily weathered. Soldiers in silver armor patrolled the battlements, and the massive gate below was built from thick timber reinforced with iron bands and nails.

"Leader, the Sea Kingdom is just ahead," the escorting soldier said respectfully.

None of the other soldiers or the two fishermen reacted to the strange title, acting as if it were perfectly natural.

"Holy shit!" Yang Dongqing exclaimed, hurrying closer to whisper, "When did you hypnotize all of them?"

Su Mu shot him a glance and ignored the question. Although these fishermen and soldiers were humans in a nightmare, they were essentially ordinary people. With his current strength, hypnotizing them was trivial.

He studied the small kingdom before him. Calling it a kingdom was a stretch—it was basically just an island town.

He didn't rush forward blindly. Instead, he probed the hypnotized soldier for information.

"What is the population of the Sea Kingdom?"

"Over a hundred thousand," the soldier replied respectfully.

"How do you treat outsiders? Are there any traps inside?" Su Mu didn't believe people in a nightmare would truly be friendly. Tingting's nightmare and the Ear Beast's nightmare were proof enough of that.

His first instinct was that the soldier was lying, intending to lure him and Yang Dongqing inside before springing a trap.

But the soldier's answer defied his expectations.

"Outsiders are very welcome. The King is extremely friendly toward them, and some capable outsiders even serve as officials in the Sea Kingdom."

Su Mu frowned slightly. Friendliness aside, what was this about serving as officials? If all outsiders were Nightmare Apostles, they couldn't possibly stay in the Sea Kingdom for long. Even if they failed to break the dream, they would automatically wake up from the nightmare after ten days to half a month.

"What were you originally planning to do?"

The soldier answered honestly, "We intended to take you to register, Leader, and then for an audience with the King. The King personally receives all outsiders. Capable outsiders are rewarded with official posts and women. Even those without abilities are granted houses and women."

"Su Mu, are you sure the hypnosis actually worked? Isn't this a little too ridiculous? This is a nightmare? It sounds more like a sweet dream! You just walk in and they hand you women." Yang Dongqing was dumbfounded. The soldier's words had nearly shattered his preconceived notions of the Nightmare World.

The corners of Su Mu's lips curled up slightly. Sometimes, unseen dangers were far more terrifying than obvious ones.

"You mentioned earlier that Sea Stones can repel the undead sirens. What exactly is a Sea Stone?"

"Sea Stones are stones blessed by the King, granting them the power to ward off sea monsters," the soldier explained, pulling a white cobblestone from beneath his armor.

Su Mu took the cobblestone and examined it closely. A crystalline blue light flared behind his Tinted Glasses as he poured his invisible mental energy into the object. A moment later, he withdrew his energy and frowned.

He hadn't discovered anything unusual about the Sea Stone. His mental senses told him it was just an ordinary rock.

Was the power imbued within it on such a high level that he simply couldn't see through it?

Operating on that theory, Su Mu directly opened the God's Eye between his brows to take a closer look. The answer remained the same. It was just an ordinary stone.

Things were getting more and more interesting. An overly welcoming King, and an ordinary rock that could somehow repel sea monsters.

"Let's go." He strode toward the gates of the Sea Kingdom.

Stepping through the gates, he was greeted by a network of narrow, winding streets paved with cobblestones. The streets were lined with wooden houses, their pointed roofs covered in tiles.

Numerous dark-skinned pedestrians strolled through the streets. Some chatted loudly, while others lingered at street stalls, haggling with the vendors.

The atmosphere was incredibly peaceful, the people living and working in contentment. It made this island town feel like an isolated utopia.

An inexplicable chill washed over Yang Dongqing. He eyed the surrounding pedestrians warily and muttered, "I feel like there's something wrong with them. This is the Nightmare World—how can there be so many living people here? I've read horror stories about this exact kind of setup. In these seemingly peaceful towns, not a single person is actually alive. They're all ghosts in disguise!"

Su Mu shook his head. "No, they really are living people."

He had already swept the area with his mental energy, confirming that these people were flesh-and-blood humans.

"There's no rule saying living people can't exist in the Nightmare World. People dream up all sorts of weird things. When a dream becomes reality, the people in that dream naturally become living people too."

"Could this just be an isolated island, and the nightmare monsters are those undead sirens in the sea? Does that mean we can return to reality just by killing the sea monsters?" Yang Dongqing asked, excitement bleeding into his tone. If everything was exactly as he deduced, this would be far too easy.

He might not be able to kill the sea monsters himself, but Su Mu certainly could. They just needed to stand on the shore, lure the sea monsters onto land, and pick them off one by one. Eventually, they'd wipe them out entirely.

Spurred by this thought, Yang Dongqing began to lay out his confident deduction. "I think I've figured out the theme of this dream. This is most likely a child's dream, because everything here feels exactly like a fairy tale. Kind fishermen live on an isolated island, relying on the sea for their livelihood, but evil sea monsters frequently attack them. Finally, a brave warrior leads the fishermen to victory over the sea monsters.

"Or, it could be a fisherman's dream. Someone who goes out to fish every day and grew up listening to stories about sea monsters, naturally spawning a nightmare like this."

"Mhm. Great deduction. Next time, don't deduce anything," Su Mu said flatly.

He ignored Yang Dongqing's dissatisfaction and continued to carefully observe the town. He noticed three interesting details. First, the people here dressed in very revealing clothing—especially the women, who walked the streets with only their vital areas covered.

Second, there were no elderly people. At least, he hadn't seen a single old person yet. In fact, he hadn't even spotted anyone middle-aged.

Third was the era itself. This didn't seem to be a modern dream, as there wasn't a single piece of modern infrastructure on the streets.

The arrival of the two men drew the attention of the passing pedestrians. They cast curious or guarded glances, carefully sizing up the two outsiders.

Led by the soldier, they soon arrived at a building resembling an administrative hall and completed their basic registration. At that moment, a neatly dressed man in luxurious clothing with a thin mustache approached them. He introduced himself as the magistrate of the Sea Kingdom.

"Honored guests, His Majesty the King requests your presence."

Yang Dongqing was briefly stunned. Su Mu had hypnotized their escort earlier, so the soldier definitely hadn't tipped off the King. How did the King already know about them right after they registered?

Su Mu smiled politely. "I've also been looking forward to meeting His Majesty, the King of the Sea Kingdom."

The magistrate smiled and nodded, then led them to a horse-drawn carriage that headed straight for the King's castle.