Chapter 495: Leave Hope at the Door

In the dim bathroom stall, a burst of cold light from the phone screen illuminated my pale face.

The call connected. I held the Underworld Live Show Phone to my ear without saying a word.

"Is anyone there?" The voice on the other end of the line was incredibly gentle, carrying a faint hint of hope. "I'm lost. This was the only number that would go through. Is anyone there?"

She was just as gentle as she had been in the past, even though the world outside had long since changed beyond recognition.

"Ye Bing?" I said, my tone conflicted. I never thought I would receive another call from her like this.

The receiver fell silent as well. It was as if someone who had reached their absolute limit in the dark had suddenly touched a long-lost ray of sunlight. Her taut nerves instantly snapped, and I heard the sound of weeping she was desperately trying to conceal.

She must have recognized my voice.

"Where are you? I'll come find you." Standing alone in the cramped stall, the air felt like it had frozen solid. My voice came out a little hoarse.

After a long pause, Ye Bing's intermittent voice finally came through the phone. "You won't be able to find me. I don't even know when it started, but I've already lost myself..."

"Tell me what landmarks are around you. Stay right there and don't move."

"I don't know where this is, either. Don't come looking for me. I'm afraid..."

"Tell me what landmarks are around you!" My voice rose, but my gaze slowly calmed.

Neither of us spoke. After a pause of two or three seconds, Ye Bing's voice sounded from the other end. "It's a city without lights. There are intersections everywhere, and the alleys are intricately woven together. I can't see a single person."

"Are there any other unusual features?"

"Yes. On the city streets and in the walls, you can see human-shaped water stains the size of ordinary people. These stains seep into the walls, almost like human shadows embedded inside them."

Hearing Ye Bing say this, I suddenly froze. Her description actually sounded vaguely familiar!

Where had I heard it before?

A memory suddenly flashed through my mind like lightning. I remembered the start of my tenth livestream. That opening call had been from Xia Qingzhi. She had also said she was lost, and the scene she described back then was exactly the same as the one Ye Bing was describing now!

'The Deep Dream Layer?!' I thought. 'Could the unpopulated city they both mentioned be the Deep Dream Layer? Was the missing Xia Qingzhi imprisoned in the Deep Dream Layer?!'

This clue was too crucial. During the tenth livestream, I had encountered Xia Chi. He had told me a lot of baffling things, and thinking back on them now, I finally started to understand.

'After the tenth livestream ended, the underlying implication in Xia Chi's words was that he would contact me again in the future. Then, during this livestream, will we meet in a dream? But I'm entering Ye Bing's dream; they shouldn't be able to get in,' I thought. But then another doubt arose. Why would the places described by Ye Bing and Xia Qingzhi be exactly the same? Could the Shallow Dream Layer and the Middle Dream Layer be constructed based on one's own memories, while the Deep Dream Layer was shared?

"Gao Jian..." The voice from the phone interrupted my thoughts.

"What is it?" I answered casually. In that instant, it felt exactly the same as it had five years ago.

Ye Bing hesitated. After suppressing her emotions for a long time, she finally uttered her last sentence. "Don't come looking for me. The truth is, there is absolutely no way out of here."

The call disconnected. The beeping of the busy signal echoed in the stall, carrying a trace of helplessness.

"Ding!"

The call ended, and the Underworld Live Show's task message arrived in my inbox.

"Forgotten memories pile up, fermenting into this infinite, bizarre world. Here, you will see the filthiest, most cruel memories that people are most unwilling to face. Ultimately, you will sink and become a part of this ugliness."

"Think it through. If you want to come in, you must first leave hope at the door!"

"Livestream Task: Enter Ye Bing's Middle Dream Layer before midnight. Escaping the dream is considered a task success."

"Optional Task 1: Bring Ye Bing's main consciousness out of the dream. Reward: 10 points."

"Optional Task 2: Discover the Good and Evil Buddha's layout within the dream. Reward: 10 points."

"Optional Task 3: Kill a nightmare. Reward: 10 points."

"Optional Task 4: Kill a Traitor. Reward: 20 points, one Live Broadcast Immunity."

"Optional Task 5: ?????"

"Note: The Underworld Live Show's special distress call function is now activated... The first call is free; every subsequent call will cost 10 points."

After reading the task message from the Live Show, I couldn't calm down for a long time. This livestream task filled me with a deep chill.

From some overlooked corner, it felt as though a pair of eyes was constantly watching my every move.

'Because my body is injured, the livestream is arranged in a dream? But what benefit does the Underworld Live Show get from doing this?' I thought, looking at the long list of optional tasks. The second one required me to discover the Two-Faced Buddha's layout in the dream, and the fourth was to kill a Traitor. At first glance, these tasks seemed related to the Underworld Live Show, but they felt somewhat eerie. I could almost smell a conspiracy.

'Several factions fighting it out in a dream? Isn't this a bit unbelievable?'

Holding the Underworld Live Show Phone, I pushed open the door of the bathroom stall. Just as the wooden door swung open, I saw a tall, thin figure standing right in front of me.

"Doctor Chu? Didn't you go eat with the others?" I calmly slipped the phone into my pocket and frowned, sizing up the man before me. He stood facing the mirror, his eyes deep-set, but his gaze gleaming sharply.

"Finished with your call?" he asked, turning around pointedly, his tone full of amusement. "You really were in the last stall. Is that a habit of yours?"

"The last stall? A habit?" I narrowed my eyes. Suddenly, it occurred to me that during the second livestream at Xinhu High School, I had hidden in the last stall of the Laboratory Building's bathroom. And during the eleventh livestream, I had hidden in the last stall of a subway station bathroom. It was a habit I hadn't even noticed myself.

"You like to hide in the deepest parts of the dark. This shows that you are suspicious by nature and constantly shrouded by a sense of crisis. This isn't a habit an ordinary person would have." The tall, thin man slipped his hands into his lab coat pockets, a trace of an inexplicable smile on his face.

"It's just a coincidence."

I strode toward the door. As I passed the tall, thin man, he suddenly lowered his voice and said a single sentence.

"With three days as a cycle, are you going into that woman's dream to livestream tonight?"

My raised foot hung in midair. My body grew as stiff as plaster, and I slowly turned my head. "You've watched my livestreams?"

It was only then that a smile appeared on the tall, thin man's face. "What do you think?"

Standing in the doorway, a myriad of thoughts instantly surfaced in my mind. Actually, ever since the tall, thin man had changed his mind and agreed to treat Ye Bing, I'd had this suspicion.

However, in my memory, the only livestream viewer who knew a great deal about dreams didn't match this tall, thin man's profile. "Could you tell me your ID?"

"I thought you'd be able to recognize me at a glance. Haha." The tall, thin man looked at my reflection and his own in the mirror, speaking rapidly. "My name is Chu Men. My English name is Fantasy. You can also call me Memory Expert Fantasy, Dream Constructor Fantasy, or even Master Hypnotist Fantasy!"

"It really is you?"

Master Hypnotist Fantasy was someone I had encountered during the fifth livestream when I entered Huang Xue's dream. He was the one who had proposed the dream layering theory.

"Wait. During that livestream, some livestream viewers questioned your academic level, and you told them you had thirty-one years of professional experience." I cast a suspicious look at him. "But today, when Doctor Yan introduced you, he said you were only thirty-one years old. How do you explain this loophole?"

The reason I hadn't dared to say his ID earlier was precisely because of this point.

"It's nothing, really. I was born in a psychiatric hospital. My mother was a physicist suffering from severe schizophrenia and paranoia. Because of that, you could say I began my clinical medical research right from the womb. Is it a stretch to say I have thirty-one years of professional experience?" Chu Men smoothed his messy long hair, which hadn't been trimmed in a long time. "But enough about that. I've watched basically every episode of your livestreams, and there's one question I've never been able to figure out."