Chapter 555: The Curtain Rises

Under the shocked gazes of the others, a pair of blue butterfly wings over a dozen meters long unfurled from my back.

Dream dust cascaded down, painting pale blue streaks of light that danced through the air like a galaxy falling from the horizon.

Here in the Deep Dream Layer, the perpetually monotonous sky shifted in hue for the first time. Against the stark black and white, the dazzling blue wings gently beat, stirring up a soft breeze.

"What is that?" Xia Chi murmured unconsciously, his eyes wide, his sharp, angular face etched with shock.

"Butterfly wings. To think he actually harbors a fully mature Dream Wing Gu. Even the Underworld Live Show doesn't possess such a marvel." Xiao A's voice drifted out, ethereal and hollow. She seemed to be answering Xia Chi, yet also murmuring to herself. "A complication in the plan. This little butterfly is going to escape."

"It's not too late to stop him, is it?"

"No Streamer who passes the exam is easy to deal with. We underestimated him."

While they spoke, I finished communing with the Dream Wing Gu. Having broken free of its cocoon, it was now fully mature. Its power had reached its absolute peak, granting it the ability to freely traverse the Dream Realm and reality.

"Time to leave." I cast a backward glance at Xiao A and Xia Chi, my mind made up. "I have no desire to make enemies of you, but I suggest you don't cross the line. I might not have the power to threaten you here in the Dream Realm, but I can use every clue available to track down your physical bodies in reality. Look out for yourselves, Traitors."

Stepping back along the half-finger-wide rebar, I slowly picked up speed and vaulted right off the edge of the dozen-story building!

"Dream Wings!"

Scattered dream dust blanketed a hundred-meter radius. The massive butterfly wings beat furiously, propelling me ever higher into the stark black-and-white sky.

"We're just going to watch him leave?"

"What else can we do?" Xiao A stared toward the edge of the building from behind her Paper Doll Mask. "Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? A butterfly in a tropical rainforest flaps its wings, and two weeks later, it triggers a tornado on the coast."

"I've heard of it," Xia Chi said, finally snapping out of his shock. His expression was grim. He had always believed he'd executed everything perfectly, only to get played in the very end.

"And now, this butterfly has begun to flap its wings," Xiao A said meaningfully. "I'll send you out of the Dream Realm right now. Something massive is going to happen in reality. Remember, don't act recklessly. To us, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests."

With that, she headed down the tower alone. The rooftop was left completely empty, save for a familiar melody echoing from a music box.

A butterfly had flapped its wings deep in the Dream Realm, and an unprecedented storm was about to sweep through the reality outside!

My vision shifted constantly as I kept a close eye on everything happening back on that building. It was only when I saw Xia Chi and Xiao A both leave that I finally let out a sigh of relief.

The Traitors hadn't chosen to completely sever ties with me. The current situation hadn't crossed either of our bottom lines, resulting in an outcome everyone could accept.

With the dream dust clinging to my body, time slowly lost its meaning. I had no idea how much time passed until the stark black-and-white sky finally began to change.

The massive butterfly wings on my back seemed to exhaust the last of their power, suddenly shattering into a sky full of blue motes of light.

Stripped of my wings, I plummeted from the sky as the Dream Wing Gu dropped me.

I screamed frantically, but no one answered. Just as I was about to hit the ground, the entire landscape around me shattered into pieces.

My eyes snapped open, and I woke with a violent jolt.

"Streamer! You're finally awake?"

A familiar voice rang out right beside me. I whipped my head around to see Chu Men, clad in his white lab coat, standing guard next to me. Comically enough, we were currently hiding in the canopy of a tree. When I jolted upright just a second ago, I had almost kicked him right off the branch.

"What's going on?" I asked, not even taking the time to check my own condition.

"You're asking me what's going on? I should be asking you!" Chu Men didn't elaborate right away. Instead, he exchanged a secret signal with me. He only breathed a sigh of relief after seeing my correct response. "After the two of us bolted from the orphanage, you started acting extremely bizarre. You gave off this vibe like someone was chasing you. You acted as if you were clutching onto something, and as soon as we ran into this wasteland, you just suddenly passed out."

"Passed out? No, I must have fallen asleep. A nightmare forcibly dragged me into the Deep Dream Layer." Simply put, the Middle Dream Layer was akin to dreaming within a dream—a phenomenon some people experienced in real life, making it incredibly difficult to wake up. The Deep Dream Layer was even more terrifying, acting as a dream within a dream within a dream. The only reason I had managed to wake up this time was entirely thanks to the Dream Wing Gu.

At that thought, I looked inward at my Liver Aperture. The Dream Wing Gu had doubled in size, and the patterns on its wings had grown even more profound and mysterious. Right now, however, it was in terrible shape. It was utterly listless, meaning it would likely be out of commission for a very long time.

"You entered the Deep Dream Layer?! No way! Hurry up and tell me, what was it like? For me, the Deep Dream Layer was just something that theoretically should exist! Oh, man, we are definitely having a long chat about this once we're back in reality."

Seeing Chu Men's frantic enthusiasm and hearing his familiar manner of speaking, I was finally certain—this was the real Chu Men.

The one who had died back there must have been the nightmare from Ye Bing's dream. This guy was the genuine article. He hadn't entered the Deep Dream Layer at all, but had remained here in the Middle Dream Layer the entire time.

"Let's head back to the orphanage first. I already killed the nightmare, so it should be safe there for now." I checked my belongings. Everything was still on me, and I hadn't even lost the Plush Bear strapped to my back. Breathing a sigh of relief, I waved Chu Men off and jumped down from the tree.

"Old Chu, why the hell did you stash me up in a tree?"

"According to my research on dreams, it made me look like a seasoned professional."

...

By the time we returned to Heaven's Gate, the thick fog had long since cleared. The teachers and children had all vanished without a trace, leaving the orphanage completely empty.

"Maybe this is what Ye Bing's original Middle Dream Layer was supposed to look like. She's withdrawn and proud, and her dream reflects that." We searched every corner of the property but found no sign of her. Now I could be certain that Chen Jiuge had lied. That mirror at the end of the Despair District wasn't actually an exit.

"I remember that after Chen Jiuge placed the talismans on Ye Bing, he stuck an extra blue Way-Guiding Talisman on her forehead. Could it be because of that?" None of the Streamers could ever be underestimated. Countless life-or-death trials had forged them into the most cunning, insidious, and terrifying people in this city.

After a long search, Chu Men and I finally found Ye Bing's memory node in the director's office. It was exactly in this room that Elder Chen had first given her the name 'Ye Bing.'

Without any nightmare interfering with us, Chu Men and I seamlessly transitioned back into Ye Bing's Shallow Dream Layer the moment we pushed open the office door.

Interestingly enough, Ye Bing's Shallow Dream Layer turned out to be that exact same rainy night from five years ago. It was the night I was framed, when she had refused to step forward and vouch for me.

"I never thought that incident would become such a sore spot for her." I had tried numerous locations before finally tracking down the memory node of this Shallow Dream Layer. It was just an ordinary police lounge, but standing right here offered a perfect view of the police cruiser taking me away.

I pushed the door open, and Chu Men and I walked through side by side as the world shattered into fragments behind us.

...

My eyes fluttered open. Before my pupils could even focus, my nostrils flared as I suddenly caught the faint metallic stench of blood.

'Blood?' It was as if my brain had been struck by lightning. I snapped wide awake and jerked upright on the hospital bed. I quickly scanned my surroundings—I was right back in Ye Bing's special care ward.

"We're finally back!"

Time flowed differently in the Dream Realm; the sky outside still hadn't brightened yet. I glanced at the other two beds. Ye Bing remained unconscious, and her complexion looked awful. Chu Men's eyes were squeezed shut, but his breathing was perfectly even—he was likely just in a deep, normal sleep.

"What a shame. I couldn't bring Ye Bing back." I tore my gaze away from her face and stretched my stiff limbs. I was just about to get out of bed when I caught that faint, lingering scent of blood again. 'What's going on? To make sure we wouldn't be disturbed, the ward door was locked from the inside. No one from the outside could possibly get in.'

Using the nightstand for support, I pushed myself to my feet. I activated my Judging Eye, and it didn't take long to spot the anomaly.

Fresh blood was seeping into the room from under the door!

'Is someone out there?' I whipped off my mask and dashed over to the door. Pressing myself against it, I peered out through the small window pane.

There, lying in a pool of blood in the pitch-black hospital corridor, was a Daoist dressed in a coarse linen robe with a black cloth blindfolding his eyes.

"Blind Liu?!"