Chapter 514: This Is His Dream

Frantic, he searched the orphanage like a madman, but found nothing.

The infirmary, the kitchen, the Rehabilitation Area—Ye Bing was nowhere to be found. His beautiful eyes were bloodshot. A high fever blurred his vision, and his frail body ran wildly on pure instinct.

"A tragedy living in heaven." I wore the Good and Evil Mask, watching everything unfold. The boy's physical condition was terrible. I was terrified his Dream Realm would end just like this, and I waited, hoping he would deliver a twist.

In despair, the boy sat at the main entrance of Heaven's Gate, staring up at the large characters on the sign. Dizzy and weak, he finally made a decision.

He dragged himself back to his room and yanked the tattered Plush Bear out from under his bed.

"One last thing. Help me kill Teacher Hu, and we'll be together forever. I'll play games with you, and I will never, ever throw you away again."

The Plush Bear on the floor didn't react. The boy repeated his plea over and over again until the zipper on the toy's back finally slid open. Lines of bloody text surfaced: "Forever and ever? Forever and ever!"

I couldn't clearly make out the words that followed. It seemed the Plush Bear laid out further conditions, and the boy agreed to all of them. He likely sensed his days were numbered and just wanted to rid Ye Bing of her troubles once and for all.

"I accept every condition. Go now. Finish the final task."

After the Hunchbacked Boy spoke, the bloody writing on the floor suddenly blurred together, eventually shifting into two words: "Worth it?"

That was exactly what I wanted to ask. Beneath my mask, I studied the boy closely. He had done so much for Ye Bing without her even knowing, meaning his sacrifices were destined to go completely unrewarded.

The boy nodded, as if thinking back to the first time he met Ye Bing and the small promise they shared.

The zipper snapped shut. The gore flowed back into the Plush Bear's body, and it crawled out of the dorm room, vanishing into the night.

Not long after, chaos erupted outside. People cried out: "Someone jumped! Someone jumped!"

Hearing the commotion, the Hunchbacked Boy stumbled outside. When he looked toward the Rehabilitation Area, a smear of scarlet overtook his beautiful eyes.

A crimson flower had bloomed across the hard concrete ground. Teacher Hu lay upon it, his face twisted in a hideous expression.

But that wasn't the most terrifying part. The hands all over Teacher Hu's face, the top of his head, and the rest of his body had been completely chopped off and were nowhere to be seen.

"All of his hands chopped off? Thrown from the roof of the Rehabilitation Area? I suppose that counts as a form of atonement." I reserved my judgment on Teacher Hu as a person. If tried by the law, his crimes might not have warranted a death sentence, but for the Hunchbacked Boy, even a death like this wasn't enough to satisfy his hatred!

"Where's Ye Bing?" The Hunchbacked Boy didn't waste much time staring at Teacher Hu. He dragged his sick body downstairs and found Ye Bing in a corner of the crowd.

Her aura was icy; no matter where she went, she always stood out.

"Was Teacher Hu with you just now?" The Hunchbacked Boy was incredibly weak. His skin was burning up, and he swayed as he walked.

"He told me to go to the Rehabilitation Area with him to grab something, but then he left on his own," Ye Bing said, enunciating every word. She was perfectly calm, having avoided his clutches.

"That's good."

"Are you sick? Hurry back and rest."

In a rare display, a trace of concern flashed across Ye Bing's face. The Hunchbacked Boy shook his head. "Do you still remember the promise we made? That when I was ready to leave this place, I would give you a special gift?"

"You're leaving Heaven's Gate?" When Ye Bing first heard him mention it, she had assumed he was joking. "Where else can you even go? This is the only place that will take us in."

"Don't worry about it. Either way, I've decided to leave." The Hunchbacked Boy forced an ugly smile. "Remember our promise. I'm going to give you a special gift, but you can't let anyone else see it. This gift can grant you three wishes. After I'm gone, if anyone bullies you, you can use it to protect yourself."

Police officers pushed their way into the orphanage. Ye Bing was the last person Teacher Hu had interacted with before his death, so the authorities naturally sought her out.

"Ye Bing! I hid the gift in that place only the two of us know about. You have to go find it! Don't leave it waiting!" The Hunchbacked Boy was shoved aside by the adults. No one paid any attention to the sickly, scrawny kid.

"This Dream Realm is probably about to end." I hid in the distance, observing the situation. The Hunchbacked Boy's body had reached its absolute limit; he couldn't hold on much longer.

The entire orphanage was in an uproar over Teacher Hu's fatal plunge, leaving the Hunchbacked Boy completely ignored by the crowd. He ran back to his dorm room, pushed the door open, and was stunned to find the Plush Bear lying on his bed.

The zipper on the toy's back was wide open, and a severed hand tumbled out from within.

"You finished all three tasks. I'll keep my end of the promise." The boy wasn't the least bit afraid that the severed hand would draw the police's attention. He pulled a pair of scissors and a needle and thread from beneath his bed. Cradling the Plush Bear, which was still oozing blood, he left the dorm and headed toward the school building.

"What is he doing?" The boy was still burning with fever. Was he heading to the school building to find the director?

I trailed far behind him, watching as the boy dragged the Plush Bear all the way to the third floor. Struggling with all his might, he shifted a ladder into place and hauled the toy up to the roof.

"The roof? This was the place the Hunchbacked Boy and Ye Bing had agreed upon. Is he here to hide the gift?" I waited three or four minutes before following him up the ladder. As soon as I peeked over the ledge, I saw the little boy gripping the iron railing, swaying unsteadily as he climbed on top of the storage shed.

"This isn't right." I had initially assumed the gift the boy meant for Ye Bing was the Plush Bear itself, as his description had heavily implied it. But reality proved otherwise.

The boy unzipped the back of the Plush Bear and reached inside, scooping out the stuffing, the white rice, and all the congealed blood. Once it was completely hollowed out, he took his scissors and cut a massive slit into it. Picking up his needle and red thread, he whispered to the Plush Bear, "Let's follow the agreement. From now on, I'll be the ghost, and you go hide..."

My eyes went wide. "Hide and seek? He's actually going to play One-Man Hide and Seek with the Plush Bear right now? No, wait! What exactly was the agreement between him and the Plush Bear?"

While my mind raced, the boy lifted the Plush Bear's empty pelt and squeezed himself inside!

Gore and the stench of rot smothered his face. Raising the needle and red thread, his trembling hands sewed the massive slit shut from the inside, and then he pulled the zipper closed.

"Wh-what is he doing?"

A moment later, the Hunchbacked Boy's voice echoed out from within the plush toy: "One... two... three..."

He counted painstakingly slowly, exactly like the countdown before a game of hide and seek.

Once he reached ten, his voice abruptly cut off. A hand reached out from within the Plush Bear and yanked the zipper down. The Hunchbacked Boy crawled out of the toy, a hysterical smile plastered across his face.

"His expression is so bizarre." I secretly studied the Hunchbacked Boy's face. He had the same familiar features, yet he gave off an entirely foreign aura—as if a different soul had taken over his body!

"Knowing the Hunchbacked Boy's personality, he would never smile so brazenly." I stared intensely at his face. The biggest change was in his eyes—they were no longer clean and clear, but filled with greed and cunning.

"Could this be the true meaning of One-Man Hide and Seek?" The evil spirit the boy had summoned had attached itself to the Plush Bear. It agreed to help the boy complete three tasks, and then they would swap roles! The little boy would become the ghost, and the entity inside the toy would become human!

'The loser becomes the ghost, the winner becomes human. That's the most basic rule of hide and seek.' I drew in a sharp breath at the thought. "I am never, ever playing a game like hide and seek after dark or on a livestream again."

The Hunchbacked Boy's entire demeanor had radically shifted. He kicked the ragged Plush Bear, tossing it into the center of the storage shed's roof—a spot no one else knew about except for Ye Bing.

"From now on, I am you. When you catch me again, I'll give your body back."

The Hunchbacked Boy left with a smile. I watched his swaying figure walk right out the gates of Heaven's Gate, eventually vanishing into the edges of the Dream Realm.

The sky grew even darker. After a long while, the Plush Bear lying on the roof finally propped up its mangled body. It sat there, staring quietly back at me.

Its black button eyes now looked incredibly pure, as clear as pristine alpine lakes.

"So the master of this Dream Realm really was you all along!"