A clap of thunder exploded in Yu Jin's mind. He threw himself against the window, staring down toward the street once more.
The thick smoke still hadn't dissipated, dense enough to suffocate a person.
The explosions had been going on for a while, but even now, not a single member of the Special Response Squad had withdrawn from the smoke.
Had they all been blown to pieces?
No, the sound of shouting was clearly still coming from the smoke.
But if they weren't fighting or taking cover, what were they all doing staying inside?
Just to let Xia Jie escape?!
Yu Jin's brow furrowed tightly. He felt an unspeakable bizarreness about everything happening before him.
Just a moment ago, he had been wondering if he would get a chance to kill Xia Jie with his own hands. Then, Xia Jie actually did escape from the thick smoke, completely unnoticed by anyone but him.
Since a viewpoint from upstairs could see that suspicious figure, what about the people on other floors? How could not a single person shout out a warning or report it to the Bureau?
Looking up and down, he found the onlookers still idly watching the spectacle. Their emotions were entirely flat, as stable as could be.
Only at this moment did Yu Jin realize that running into Xia Jie again had been far too convenient. It was so seamless it felt like a one-man show staged solely for him.
He stuck his head out the window and glanced up and down. The onlookers around the hospital were still just spectating, apparently completely oblivious to what had just occurred around the haze.
Yu Jin's heart hammered harder as a sense of wrongness grew. The clamor from above and below and the thunderous din from the front courtyard made it impossible for him to focus. Searing with tension, he kept half his attention on the fierce duel in the alley while rushing toward the quieter depths of the hospital.
He needed a quiet place to think—to figure out exactly what was going on.
Soon, he found an empty conference room, the deep corridor absorbing most of the ambient noise.
His mind had been racing the entire way, and a few theories had already begun to form. Yet they were too hazy—like trying to peer at the truth through a thick veil, unable to make out the full picture.
Yu Jin couldn't seem to tear that veil away, not until he pushed open the conference room door and realized someone was already inside.
!!!
“Why are you here??”
Yu Jin stood frozen, his mind flooded with confusion.
The man squatting in front of Yu Jin, clutching a wad of toilet paper, was even more dumbfounded than Yu Jin. He shuddered, as if he had just lost something precious, and then said in a mix of rage and embarrassment:
“Just a little more, just a little more! I was just about to succeed, but your interruption ruined everything, and now I have to start all over again! This is ridiculous! What is wrong with you? Couldn't you see there was someone in here?!”
Yu Jin stood stiffly at the doorway, his mind a complete blank.
Seeing that Yu Jin was just standing there and wouldn't leave, the toilet paper guy got so anxious he lost his momentum. He hissed and cursed:
“Out of so many stalls, you didn't use any of them and had to squeeze into mine? Are you insane? Get out, get out, get out of here. If you don't leave right now, I'm calling the police!”
Excuse me, by calling the police, do you mean calling the Bureau?
Sorry to break it to you, but I am from the Bureau.
These two thoughts flashed absurdly through Yu Jin's mind. His cheek twitched, and he snapped back to his senses in an instant.
He first took a step back to look at the sign on the door again. After confirming that he had indeed found a conference room and not a restroom, his expression instantly turned grave.
That veil seemed about to be pierced.
After all, this wasn't the psychiatric ward on the forty-sixth floor. No matter how much of a free spirit this psychiatric patient was, there was no way he should have ended up here.
Even if he had seized the chance when the ward was empty to escape the forty-sixth floor, how could it be such a coincidence that he ended up on the exact same floor?
Yu Jin had stopped on this floor completely at random out of necessity. Even if it really were such a crazy coincidence, could it possibly be so precise that the man just happened to be in the very conference room Yu Jin chose to enter?
No. This was obviously wrong.
And all of these anomalies piled together sparked a bold, yet highly unwelcome hypothesis in Yu Jin's mind.
To test his theory, Yu Jin shifted his focus back to the battle in the alleyway.
Xia Jie was drenched in blood. His entire left arm was utterly ruined, his shoulder blade shattered, with only a few shreds of flesh and skin holding the deformed limb to his shoulder.
Red-haired Yu Jin wasn't faring any better.
His body was covered in deep gashes, his flesh torn open.
In particular, a massive gash on the back of his neck stretched all the way down to his upper back. Any deeper and it would have sent him straight to the Court of Yama.
If the tentacles at the back of his head hadn't acted like a needle and thread to stitch up the wound, Xia Jie might have been the only one left standing.
Red-haired Yu Jin panted heavily, coughing up bloody froth as he waited for a chance to recover his stamina.
Even so, the look he directed at Xia Jie was still filled with disdain.
Seizing the brief lull as the two faced off, Yu Jin spoke in a low, heavy voice:
“Aren't you afraid?”
This question wasn't meant for himself, but for Xia Jie.
Xia Jie's face was horribly contorted. The puncture wound beneath his jaw made his voice rattle like a broken bellows:
“Fear? You should be the one who's afraid, you stupid pig. If we keep fighting, you will be the only one who dies. But don't worry, I will thoroughly savor your terror, and let it accompany you all the way to hell.”
Yu Jin's expression didn't flicker. He simply continued in a calm, eerie tone:
“The first time I died, bone blades grew from my wrists. The second time I died, tentacles crawled all over my face. Death did not kill me; instead, it only made me stronger. If that is the case, Xia Jie, what makes you think you can kill me this time? Even if I die, when I appear before you for the fourth time... won't you be afraid?”
!!!
Xia Jie's entire body shuddered, his pupils shrinking as a flash of shock and suspicion appeared on his face.
Obviously, he had taken these words to heart.
An unkillable, vengeful ghost was indeed a nightmare to deal with. But he couldn't understand—why couldn't the guy be killed? What gave him the right to be immortal?
“Who on earth are you?!”
Xia Jie was ruthless, not stupid.
Taking action when success is possible is calculating; pushing forward when it's impossible is just plain stupid.
He didn't consider himself a fool. Faced with a futile effort, he immediately wanted to pull back, his venomous gaze darting around as he looked for an escape route.
Seeing this, a wave of profound realization—and shock—washed over Yu Jin.
His hypothesis had been proven correct.
This was not reality.
This was clearly a dream!
He had somehow fallen into a dream once more!
The proof was everywhere.
Xia Jie had never interacted with him in reality, so it was naturally impossible for him to know what kind of interaction the dream-Xia Jie had with him during the second Nightmare Disaster on Qingniao Street.
Even the dream version of Xia Jie back then wouldn't have known what Yu Jin had experienced during those two delusional deaths.
Only he himself knew about those two deaths!
So when red-haired Yu Jin brought up the question and the opponent reacted to it, it proved that the Xia Jie before him wasn't the real Xia Jie at all. It was “him”!
Of course, the Xia Jie in the alleyway couldn't actually be Yu Jin, but that didn't mean he wasn't Yu Jin's projection within the dream.
Yu Jin realized he had projected Xia Jie once more!
And this also explained why he had run into the patient from the forty-sixth floor in a random conference room on a middle floor.
The man hadn't escaped and wandered down here; Yu Jin had simply dreamed him up.
So, a Nightmare Disaster had begun anyway?
Had the Disciples of Eternal Night succeeded?!
Yu Jin looked back at the patient before him, asking in a low tone that sounded almost like he was talking to himself.
“Do you know that this is a dream?”
The man clutching the toilet paper was about to lose his mind. The psycho who had pushed open his stall door not only wouldn't leave, but was actually asking if this was a dream.
Of course it was a dream!
This was a literal fucking nightmare!
If this weren't a nightmare, I would've sucked it back in already!
The toilet paper guy's face turned the color of pig liver, filled with grief and indignation.
“What on earth do you want?!”
Yu Jin's brow furrowed as he fell into deep thought. “I want to confirm whose dream this is.”
?
Who else could it be?
You came to steal my stall! How could it possibly be your nightmare?
“Of course it's mine! Mine!!!”
The toilet paper guy screamed hysterically, pointing a trembling finger at himself.
“It's my dream, alright?! Can you please just get the fuck out?!”
Yu Jin's expression darkened, and he drew his gun.
“Are you sure it's your dream?”
The moment the toilet paper guy stared down the barrel of the gun, his eyes cleared right up.
He froze, then delivered two savage slaps to his own face. Only when he felt the stinging heat on his cheeks did he realize that with this much pain... it probably wasn't a dream?
But if it wasn't a dream, who in their right mind would pull a gun to hijack a toilet stall in real life?!
Was there no basic decency left in restrooms anymore?!
This guy really is a fucking lunatic!
For a moment, a wave of profound sorrow washed over him. He tried to hold it in, failed, and burst into hysterical, tearful sobs, crying like a baby.
“Why? I was clearly here first!”
“......”
...
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