Chapter 551: Deja Vu

My expression didn't change, and neither did my movements. I casually slipped the phone back into my pocket as if I hadn't received a text at all.

Xia Chi had heard the chime too, but he just smiled and didn't ask.

I was more than happy to play dumb. Following behind him, I mulled the situation over.

That text confirmed three things: first, Xia Chi was indeed a Traitor; second, the Live Show's staff were constantly monitoring my stream; third, the Live Show had zero tolerance for Traitors, going so far as to text me directly with orders to kill him.

Ultimately, though, it was an optional task. The initiative lay with me; the choice was entirely mine to make.

The Good and Evil Asura Mask concealed my face, so I didn't have to worry about Xia Chi reading my expression. Even if he could, so what? It wouldn't affect me much. Judging by everything he'd done so far, Xia Chi was trying hard to win me over and recruit me to their side.

"Why are you here?" I finally asked. We had walked past two street blocks before I managed to formulate the question.

"I actually spend most of my time here." Xia Chi's smile turned bitter. He unbuttoned his suit jacket, revealing his chest and a continuously bleeding plum blossom-shaped wound. "I haven't cured the Plum Blossom Gu Poison yet. I have to stay in the Deep Dream Layer most of the time. Returning to reality only accelerates the drain on my life."

"Is there no cure for the Plum Blossom Gu?" I slowed my pace. "Then how did you show up during the murder game broadcast? You looked perfectly normal then. I couldn't tell you were poisoned at all."

Xia Chi waved a hand dismissively. "I don't know if I'm even allowed to tell you. Just follow me. When we meet that person, she'll explain everything."

"That person? Do you mean Xiao A?" I stared at his back. His outfit was strikingly similar to the mysterious woman I'd seen earlier, and a guess formed in my mind.

"You'll see when we get there," Xia Chi said. Just then, a second disturbance flared up in my Liver Aperture. The cracks along it multiplied, and a pale green halo radiated outward from within.

The surrounding district instantly erupted into chaos. Terrifying 'thoughts' swarmed out of the nearby buildings, and pitch-black humanoid monsters scuttled out to crawl along the ground on all fours. Their numbers multiplied rapidly, sending a chill down my spine.

"You really get quite a 'welcome' everywhere you go, Gao Jian." Seeing both ends of the street completely blocked, Xia Chi sighed in resignation and pulled the token from his pocket again. It was small enough to fit completely in his palm, making it impossible for me to read whatever was carved into it. He simply raised it high. None of the monsters dared to approach as he forcibly led me out of the district.

Once we were safe, he put the token away and made a show of wiping sweat from his forehead. "I've watched your broadcasts so many times, and every single time, I'm amazed by your ability to stir up trouble. You're completely favored by death and disaster."

"I'll take that as a compliment." I pretended not to understand while checking my Liver Aperture internally. Four or five cracks now crisscrossed the Dream Silkworm, making it look as if it would shatter at any moment.

"What was that green light earlier? Mind telling me?" Xia Chi asked, chatting as casually as if we were old friends. "In the Deep Dream Layer, green—symbolizing vitality and hope—is quite rare. After all, this is the Land of Abandonment. It's built entirely from discarded memories."

My reaction was the exact opposite. I threw him a sidelong glance, my brow already furrowed beneath my mask. "Personal item. I'll tell you if there's a chance later."

"Fair enough." Shrugging it off and walking ahead, Xia Chi quickly forgot the episode. He didn't say another word about the Underworld Live Show, choosing instead to regale me with amusing anecdotes about the Deep Dream Layer—or at least, things he personally considered amusing.

Crossing ten blocks, Xia Chi led me back to the outskirts of the Lightless District. The thoughts and nightmares had long since scattered.

Approaching, I saw a man in a patchwork robe sitting on a chair at the edge of the district. He wasn't particularly tall, and a hood obscured most of his face, leaving only a pointed chin and extremely thin lips exposed.

"Who is he?" Contrary to my expectations, the person Xia Chi had brought me to meet wasn't Xiao A. Though the hood covered his face, his build was unmistakably male.

"I brought him. He's the one Xiao A and I chose." As Xia Chi spoke to the robed man, his voice unconsciously dropped, tinged with a hint of fear.

"You only have two votes anyway. I still don't agree with your plan. The risk is too high." The man spoke in a falsetto, sounding incredibly bizarre. "Tell him to get lost. Better yet, just kill him and eliminate the threat permanently. It's much more reliable for us to handle that matter ourselves."

The moment the robed man spoke, Xia Chi realized things were going south. He gave a slight bow, grabbed me, and backed away. "I understand what you mean."

Xia Chi didn't dare speak to me again until we were completely out of the Lightless District. "Things are a bit complicated, but we still need to see Xiao A first."

"Who was that guy? A former Streamer for the Live Show?" I really didn't appreciate the man's tone, but I could faintly sense a highly dangerous aura coming off him. My intuition screamed that if we clashed, I would undoubtedly be the one to die.

"He's a madman. You could say he single-handedly destroyed the Underworld Live Show's branch in the Deep Dream Layer." Xia Chi patted my shoulder. "Don't worry too much, though. That guy is heavily injured. Barring any special circumstances, he won't attack on a whim."

"What a weird guy." I shook my head. Since entering the Deep Dream Layer, I hadn't seen a single normal lifeform. People or objects, everything here was thoroughly bizarre.

"Let's go. Time to meet Xiao A."

As we left the Lightless District, I glanced back a few times. For a fleeting second, that robed man had given me a strange sense of familiarity, but I couldn't recall ever meeting a man with such a pointed chin and paper-thin lips.

Xia Chi led me on a seemingly aimless wander through the Deep Dream Layer for a long time. Only when massive swarms of thoughts flooded out of the buildings to begin their final hunt did he raise his token to clear a path, leading me toward the final destination of this dream journey.

After walking in a massive circle, I returned to the entrance of that nineteen-story high-rise.

"The Clock Tower." I craned my neck to look up, surprised to be back here. By now, I was certain that the mysterious woman in the Paper Doll Mask was Xiao A.

"You've been here?" Xia Chi was slightly surprised. "There is indeed a massive clock at the very top of this building, and it affects the flow of time in the Deep Dream Layer. It represents the pinnacle of distortion and the ultimate end of forgetting."

"The pinnacle of distortion and the ultimate end of forgetting? What does that mean?" I asked, confused.

Xia Chi laughed awkwardly. "Actually, I don't really get it either. It's just something Xiao A said. Come on, let's go inside. Once we see her, a lot of questions can be answered."

I followed Xia Chi into the high-rise. As we walked, gorged thoughts occasionally flew back with satisfied expressions on their faces. They were extremely hostile toward me, yet they acted incredibly affectionate around Xia Chi.

The specific scene was rather horrifying: a sunny, shy young man surrounded by an ever-growing swarm of flying human heads.

We climbed all the way to the eighteenth floor in one breath. The rooms and walls on this floor were entirely black. When I had first come here, the replaced Chu Men had told me that black was the most terrible color in the Dream Realm.

"Don't worry. The things locked in these rooms won't be let out." Xia Chi casually drove away the thoughts swarming around us and led me up to the top floor. "A, I brought him to you."

I looked in the direction he called out to. A tall, slender silhouette stood amidst piles of discarded items. Wearing a Paper Doll Mask, she didn't even turn around, completely engrossed in whatever she was looking at.

'I knew it. She really is Xiao A, the hundred-point bounty target.' Keeping quiet, I followed Xia Chi toward the woman, picking our way through the discarded items to stand a few meters away from her.

This was my first time examining her from so close. She was gorgeous and radiated a unique aura. Even with the Paper Doll Mask hiding her face, an inadvertent movement was enough to make her the center of attention and captivate the mind.

"Why is she the only one wearing a Paper Doll Mask?" I nudged Xia Chi. "Neither you nor the guy we just met were wearing one. Does the Paper Doll Mask have some special significance?" But to my surprise, Xia Chi kept his head down, not daring to utter a single word in response.

Seeing him so guarded, I realized I might have completely misunderstood the relationship between the two of them.

The air seemed to freeze. No one spoke. After a few minutes, Target A finally turned around. She shot me an indifferent glance and picked up the object she had been staring at.

It was a battered little music box, barely the size of a palm and covered in dust.

She acted as if Xia Chi and I weren't even there. Flipping open the lid of the music box, she plucked out crisp, resonant notes. The melody was soothing, pure, and lingering—like an unsullied poem, or a radiant beam of sunlight.

"Why would something so beautiful be discarded? Why insist on forgetting a melody you find so moving?" Xiao A twisted the winding key and rested the music box on the high-rise's railing. She watched the two tiny figurines dance inside it before suddenly walking over to me. After a long silence, she spoke slowly. "When you wear a mask for too long, it grows into your face. Taking it off requires tearing muscle and ripping bone. In the end, when you finally want to look at the world through innocent eyes, you realize you can't do it anymore."

Those words gave me a sense of deja vu. I took a step back, standing directly across from her. Both of us were wearing masks; neither could see the other's expression.