Chapter 540: The Terror in My Heart

"This thing is called a Nightmare. It's a monster pieced together from painful memories, and it loves devouring anything that moves. The best way to survive an encounter with it is to hold your breath, shut your eyes, and play dead." Beads of sweat formed on Chen Jiuge's forehead as he read the entry from the Yellow Leather Notebook. It seemed to be his first time running into such a terrifying behemoth, too.

Its body, roughly the size of a small building, moved brazenly down the street—no, rolling was probably a better word for it.

"Nightmare? Does that mean a bad dream, or does it mean hunger?" I didn't dwell on its name. Giving it a wide berth, I waited until it was far away before daring to step out from my hiding spot.

The Deep Dream Layer was bizarre and surreal, an entirely different world unto itself. Coming here made me realize for the first time just how barren my own imagination was.

Nearly every terrifying monster born from the human subconscious had its prototype here. It was a world belonging entirely to monsters, devoid of anything remotely beautiful. Just like the permanently monochrome sky overhead, the city had only one theme: despair.

It was no wonder, really. The Deep Dream Layer formed from abandoned memories and negative emotions in the first place. Humans were peculiar creatures—they cherished beautiful things in their hearts, even snapping photos to take out and admire from time to time. Yet when it came to awful, painful, and cruel memories, they selectively forgot them, tossing them into the back of their minds to sink and settle in another world entirely.

After crossing block after block, we finally entered the Despair District, specially marked on the map.

The architecture in this area was deeply eerie, mostly black and gray, looking just like a small town gutted by a massive fire.

"Long ago, when the Black Death was rampant, people burned down one town after another to cut off the source of the plague," Chu Men said with a hint of emotion. Wearing his white lab coat, he stood just outside the district without taking a single step forward, seeming deeply reluctant to go inside.

"Could this district be made from the memories of people who were burned alive?" I was the first to step inside. Reaching out, I touched the peeling surface of the surrounding walls; they were old, cracked, and gave off an indescribable stench. "It feels so real. No wonder staying here too long blurs the line between reality and the Dream Realm."

I glanced at Ye Bing and said no more, casually prying off a flake of the wall and handing it to Chu Men. "Every building here gives off a pungent smell, almost like rotting corpses."

Without thinking much of it, Chu Men reached out with his right hand to take the flake, held it to his nose for a sniff, and quickly tossed it away. "I'm just a brain and nerve doctor, not a forensic examiner."

Staring at the black stain left on Chu Men's right hand, the corners of my mouth curved up. Hidden behind the Good and Evil Mask, though, my shift in expression was completely invisible. To the others, this was nothing more than a minor interlude.

"Come on, let's head inside and take a look." Not caring whether Chu Men was willing or not, I grabbed him and pulled him deeper into the district.

The districts in the Deep Dream Layer varied wildly in size. The Despair District covered nearly ten times the area of the Lightless District, and stepping inside felt like entering a labyrinth.

"I've brought you to the Despair District as promised. Shouldn't we discuss hunting down Target A now?" Chen Jiuge walked at the very back of the group, his cautious demeanor putting me on higher alert as well.

"Target A isn't that easy to kill. Even if you and I go all out together, our odds are sixty percent at best. What if the hunt fails and you use your familiarity with this place to escape the Dream Realm on your own, leaving me and my friends behind to bear the brunt of Target A's retaliation?" In truth, that sixty percent figure was pure bluff on my part. As far as I could tell, with just me and Chen Jiuge, our chances of killing that mysterious woman were practically zero.

"Then what do you want?" The smile on Chen Jiuge's face didn't waver, though I could hear the impatience creeping into his voice.

"Take me to find that mirror. I have to see it with my own eyes before I can leave with peace of mind and help you finish your mission. Don't be so quick to refuse—I know you must have a trump card up your sleeve. I don't need to know the exact method; I just want to see the mirror to make sure you aren't lying to me." Until I saw the mirror and verified Chen Jiuge's claim, there was no way I would cooperate with him.

"Just seeing the mirror is enough? Aren't you afraid I'll just find any random mirror to fool you?" Chen Jiuge's voice turned cold.

"You're welcome to try," I said indifferently. None of the four of us said another word as we walked through the burned-out district, each harboring a ghost in their belly.

As we pressed deeper, the stench hanging in the air grew thicker and more overwhelming. Chen Jiuge's smile slowly faded. "Fine, I agree. That place is far from safe, though. Even I don't dare go in and out of there casually. In terms of danger, it's not much easier than hunting Target A head-on."

"That's fine. We have to face it sooner or later anyway."

My calm reply drew a cold laugh from Chen Jiuge. "You really are confident. Your name is Xia Chi, right? I'll remember you."

He beckoned to Ye Bing. "Don't wander too far from me. Something else has mixed in among us. Don't run off on your own—I'll get you out of here safely."

Chen Jiuge's sudden show of goodwill toward Ye Bing baffled me a little. The one who truly cared for Ye Bing was the Hunchbacked Boy—the Plush Bear on my back. Why was an evil spirit like him still putting on an act?

My eyes flickered. Unless Ye Bing served some irreplaceable purpose.

"Hopefully I'm just overthinking it." Following behind Chen Jiuge, our group gradually ventured deeper into this district named after despair.

"Under normal circumstances, a district's mirror is kept inside its tallest building, though there are exceptions." Chen Jiuge led the rest of us deeper and deeper, not stopping until the pavement underfoot turned charred black and the surrounding houses showed signs of severe fire damage.

"As you can all see, this place is actually extremely dangerous. I don't want to deceive you and cause any unnecessary misunderstandings." Chen Jiuge pulled out the Yellow Leather Notebook and flipped to a certain page. "Target A was here once. She heavily marked this area in red to warn others and left behind a few notes. Her records are the reason I deduced we can escape the Deep Dream Layer from here."

I activated my Judging Eye and looked at the Yellow Leather Notebook. Scrawled across the page were hasty arrows and symbols outlining something, followed by a few blurry lines of handwriting.

"I spent a great deal of time deciphering these symbols and words, and I managed to piece together some intel about this district." The smile on Chen Jiuge's face had grown very faint. He was wound tight, on high alert as if danger could strike from any angle. "You've all seen the buildings in the Despair District—they look as though they were gutted by a massive fire. In fact, Target A's guess back then was pretty close to what you just said. This area gathers the agonizing memories of people who were burned alive right before they died. Burning to death is a long, desperate process. Those memories are like ugly scars left behind by raging flames; no one wants to recall them, so people always cast them into the deepest recesses of the Dream Realm. Over time, they accumulated to form this sprawling, scorched district."

"We haven't reached the deepest part yet, which is why we can't feel that pain and despair right now. As we keep moving forward, though, this district will definitely start affecting us. We may see all kinds of ugly, terrifying things, all formed from those agonizing memories."

He paused, his gaze sweeping across our faces. "You've probably noticed that there aren't any of those humanoid shadows or 'thoughts' in this area. Truth is, it's not that there aren't any—it's that the moment those things wander in here, they sink into despair and get assimilated. That's the other terrifying thing about the Despair District: it forces any soul that enters to experience true despair."

"Xia Chi, I know that as a live show streamer, you're used to all kinds of horror and thrills. Still, don't let your guard down for a second in this place. Otherwise, not only will you die, you might get the rest of us killed right along with you."

Singled out by name in Chen Jiuge's warning, I realized there was likely more to this than met the eye and listened patiently for him to finish.

"This district is shrouded in despair and agony, and it awakens the despair and agony inside everyone who enters. It will find the flaws in your character, dig up whatever you fear most deep down, and turn those unbearable memories into reality!" Chen Jiuge spoke slowly, emphasizing every word. "The stronger a person is, the less they show their fear. Once that fear—kept bottled up at the bottom of their heart for so long—becomes reality, it will turn into a catastrophe that no one can escape!"