Chapter 501: It's Here

The Plush Bear that had sunk to the bottom of the bathtub breached the surface. It didn't float up completely—instead, it rose like a baby slowly standing up.

It seemed to stand upright, with only its crooked head resting on the water.

"This is too bizarre," I muttered. I knew this was a Dream Realm, but the scene before my eyes felt incredibly real. "I only stuffed its belly with white rice. Its head should still be full of cotton or other stuffing. It clearly sank earlier, so how could it float back up? When did it even surface?"

I didn't dare blink, keeping my eyes locked on the bathroom.

"Streamer, why did you suddenly stop talking?"

"Getting some serious peeping tom vibes here. So thrilling!"

"Pay attention to the Streamer's eyes. Look at that perverted stare."

Socrates Paradox: "Streamer, what are you looking at? Is there a problem with the plush toy in the bathroom?"

I was holding the Live Show Phone, so the livestream viewers couldn't see anything outside the closet. "This game started forty minutes ago," I whispered. "I just looked at the bathtub in the bathroom. The Plush Bear that sank earlier has somehow popped its head above the water."

Teletubbies Died of Murder tipped the Super Thriller Live Broadcast Room 1 Yuanbao: "I want to see! I want to see!"

Jiangcheng Old Driver: "Curious here too."

Since this was a live broadcast after all, I always tried to satisfy the livestream viewers' requests whenever possible.

"It's pretty dark out there, but I'll give it a try." I pushed the crack in the closet doors a little wider and held the Underworld Live Show Phone out, just enough to expose the lens. "Can you see anything?"

I waited patiently for the livestream viewers' comments to roll in. Suddenly, my ears twitched—I heard the sound of sloshing water.

The dead silence of the apartment shattered. I narrowed my eyes, peering toward the source of the noise—the bathroom.

"I made sure to tighten the faucet. That sound isn't natural."

Using my Judging Eye, I stared closely at the bathtub in the deepest part of the bathroom.

The lighting was too dim. I couldn't tell if the water's surface was rippling or if the Plush Bear itself was moving.

In the deepest part of the shadows, it felt as if something had woken up.

The sound of the water grew louder. What shocked me even more was that the Plush Bear was continuing to rise from the bottom of the tub.

Its ugly head completely breached the surface. The spots I had haphazardly stitched up with red thread had burst open. The moldy, rotting cotton wadding inside soaked up the bathwater, turning into a sticky black mush. The few strands of red thread mixed in looked exactly like blood streaks. It was a horrifying sight.

"Looks like the scene of a car crash."

I watched in silence. As time ticked by, the majority of the Plush Bear's body rose above the water.

"Good lord. I stuffed its belly full of white rice, so how is it floating up?" I murmured. "Did this toy actually come to life? Or did something unclean in this apartment crawl inside its body?" The faint sloshing of the water acted like an invisible hand in the dead silence, plucking at my nerves and keeping me in a state of high tension.

Another five minutes passed. The Plush Bear's entire body was now floating on the surface. There was no one else in the bathroom, and the bathtub held nothing more than a pool of stagnant water.

And yet, that Plush Bear—its body covered in slashes from a knife—was just bobbing up and down on the surface.

Its body shifted as if someone were manipulating it. Those two black button eyes stared askew at a specific spot.

I didn't dare breathe too loudly. My Judging Eye remained fixed on the Plush Bear as it bobbed along with the water's currents. Slowly, the head drooping against its chest began to turn, and that ugly, chilling face aimed directly at where I was hiding.

Those black button eyes seemed to spot me instantly!

"Clatter!"

A sharp sound suddenly rang out. The fruit knife wedged into the Plush Bear's neck slipped free from the torn fabric and dropped into the tub.

Startled, I quickly pulled my gaze back.

"Did it see me?" My racing heartbeat finally began to settle. "To think I'd be scared stiff by a pair of button eyes. This Dream Realm is definitely not normal!"

Pulling the Underworld Live Show Phone back inside, I gently pulled the closet doors shut, leaving only a sliver of a gap for myself to peek through.

"There's still over an hour left before the game ends. At this rate, things are going to spiral out of control." There were no Primal Destiny Divine Fiends interfering with this broadcast. By using the Paulownia Mulberry Talisman, I should have entered Ye Bing's Shallow Dream Layer. Yet everything I was experiencing right now didn't seem to have anything to do with Ye Bing.

"Did something go wrong again? Did I enter the wrong Dream Realm entirely?" Honestly, it didn't really matter whether it was Ye Bing's dream or not. My real fear was that I hadn't entered a Shallow Dream Layer at all, but rather a Middle Dream Layer—a place where even killing myself wouldn't wake me up!

"Probably not." At this point, I could only console myself with those words. Once my nerves steadied, I looked through the crack in the doors to check on the situation outside.

"Why did it get darker again?" After spacing out for just a second, I looked out again to find that the already dim living room had grown pitch-black. That ancient television set seemed to be malfunctioning.

The screen flickered, going completely black one second and then displaying black-and-white static the next. The flashing cold light cast an incredibly eerie glow across the living room.

"I really can't imagine a five- or six-year-old kid playing through this game over and over again in an environment like this. Even a normal adult would be driven insane." Hiding in the closet, I could roughly guess the dream owner's state of mind at the time: fear, panic, unease, and a tiny sliver of anticipation.

My gaze shifted from the living room over to the bathroom.

Within the deep gloom, something seemed to have subtly changed.

"Something's wrong! Something is missing." My eyes went wide, staring straight at the calm, perfectly still water in the bathtub!

"Where did the Plush Bear go?!"

An indescribable wave of terror instantly engulfed me. I subconsciously shrank back, my eyes immediately sweeping my own surroundings.

Nothing new had appeared inside the narrow closet. I couldn't help but tightly hug the moldy quilt next to me. I curled up into a ball, my gaze turning even sharper.

"Did the toy sink back down?" I widened my eyes, peeking out through the gap. I waited until the TV flashed back to its black-and-white static, finally using that faint burst of light to get a clear look at the bathroom.

At the very back of the bathroom, the water-filled tub rippled slightly. And on the floor not far from it lay a clear, wet drag mark!

As for that ugly Plush Bear covered in knife slashes—it was currently sprawled right in the bathroom doorway!

It had moved!

A sudden chill seemed to seep into the air. I held my breath, keeping my Judging Eye locked onto it without blinking.

"Did it crawl out of the tub on its own?" My gaze slowly shifted, eventually freezing on the Plush Bear's mangled left arm. A mess of red thread was tangled around its paw—and clutched within that tangled thread was the sharp fruit knife.

My heart gave a heavy thump. Thinking back to the steps of the game, when I first found the Plush Bear, I had told it, "I found you," and then plunged the fruit knife into its neck.

Now it had crawled out. It was coming to find me. Was it going to plunge that knife into my body, too?

This Dream Realm game was absolutely packed with traps. My face instantly turned grim.

"Is this really a Shallow Dream Layer? Why does it feel like the pressure here is even heavier than the nightmare controlled by the Primal Destiny Divine Fiends?" Right as my thoughts ran wild, the only source of light in the living room—that old television set—went black once more.

The apartment plunged into total darkness. I couldn't see a thing.

"I get the feeling... something is moving in the dark." In this absolute pitch-blackness, even my Judging Eye seemed useless. I was relying entirely on instinct. "No. If I play this game to the very end, something terrible is going to happen. Since I can't even confirm whether this is a Shallow Dream Layer or a Middle Dream Layer, I absolutely cannot risk it."

Dying in a Shallow Dream Layer simply meant waking up in the real world. But if I was killed in a Middle Dream Layer, my consciousness would likely be exiled into a Deep Dream Layer.

"I can't drag this out any longer. I need to end this game right now, before things go completely wrong." Recalling the method for forcibly aborting the game, I picked up the glass of water resting by my leg and took a mouthful of saltwater.

It was incredibly bitter and salty; I almost spat it right back out. But to end the game, I forced myself to endure it. Gripping the Underworld Live Show Phone in one hand and holding the glass in the other, I leaned forward against the closet doors, waiting for my chance.