The red-haired Yu Jin was taken away.
The Special Response Squad dragged him away like livestock. Their only mercy was applying a simple bandage to his wounds before dragging him off, preventing him from bleeding to death.
Yet their actions didn't seem like humanitarian aid in the slightest. It was more like making sure the criminal wouldn't find release before facing legal judgment.
Once the red-haired Yu Jin lost consciousness, Yu Jin lost his vision of the alley. Fortunately, because his other personality was unconscious, the agonizing pain he had shared also faded away.
His mobility fully restored, he pressed the elevator button, dashed out of the building, and stopped by the side of the road. From a distance, he watched the eerie Special Response Squad drag the red-haired Yu Jin away.
Ironically, the “hero” who had executed the criminal was dragged along the ground, while the criminal's corpse was carefully carried by two men, who went to great lengths to avoid bumping it as if protecting a piece of vital evidence.
This bizarre sight filled Yu Jin with a mixture of absurdity and rage.
He desperately wanted to go up and argue, but he knew he couldn't. The Haicheng of today was no longer the Haicheng of reality.
This was a dream.
A Nightmare Disaster that had likely descended because the Disciples of Eternal Night's plan had succeeded.
He wasn't sure who the Subject of this Nightmare Disaster was, but he was certain that he wasn't the Dream Core.
Because the Haicheng in his heart had never looked like this.
Standing by the roadside, he carefully observed the passing pedestrians. He found that cold indifference was written all over everyone's face.
Pedestrians hurried past, their eyes showing no smiles, no kindness—only coldness, only vigilance.
It was as if everyone held a grudge against the world, indiscriminately guarding themselves against everyone else.
This silent wariness was deeply suffocating.
Yu Jin finally understood that the needle-like sensation on his back at the hospital had come precisely from these wary gazes.
Only, these gazes didn't just come from the passing pedestrians; they also came from...
Yu Jin lifted his head and looked at the nearest streetlight.
Hanging high beneath the streetlight was a surveillance camera. Inside its lens, a bulging, bloodshot eyeball was wildly scanning every passing citizen.
Noticing Yu Jin's gaze, the camera suddenly snapped toward him. The eyeball strained against the optic nerve behind it, staring intently at Yu Jin as if desperate to find some sign of criminal intent.
And it wasn't just this one. The moment Yu Jin made eye contact with the eyeball, every camera along the entire street turned toward him. Countless eyeballs locked their gazes on him, their eerie stares weaving into an airtight web that trapped him inside, leaving him unable to breathe.
Yu Jin felt like he was suffocating.
Decisively closing his eyes, he lowered his head, refusing to look at the cameras' eyes any longer. Instead, he stared at his toes and the path beneath him, hurrying after the direction the red-haired Yu Jin had been taken.
He needed to know where the red-haired Yu Jin was being taken to ensure his safety.
As he followed secretly, Yu Jin took the opportunity to re-examine the city. But the more he observed, the more startled he became.
The Haicheng before him had become bizarre beyond comprehension.
Along the way, he witnessed far too many absurdities.
At an intersection he had passed earlier, a student on a bicycle had rear-ended a car that braked suddenly and fell to the ground.
The driver of the car got out, without casting even a single glance of concern toward the rear of his vehicle. With a dark expression, he simply called his insurance company, hailed a taxi, and left immediately.
None of the pedestrians nearby stepped forward to help either. Instead, they carefully circumvented the student as if avoiding a plague.
The student on the ground was strange too. While clutching his leg and wailing, his eyes darted around warily, seemingly terrified that someone might actually come to help him up.
Most bizarrely, every camera at the intersection turned toward this spot. Countless eyeballs stared unblinkingly at the scene of the accident. Their bloodshot, gruesome appearance didn't look like they were recording a crime scene, but rather eagerly anticipating a new crime.
Yu Jin glanced at it, not daring to meddle, and quietly walked past.
Next, he encountered a brazen thief.
A skinny man wearing a mask deliberately bumped into a pedestrian. Right in front of the victim, he fished out the pedestrian's phone from their bag.
The pedestrian was petrified but offered no resistance. He just watched, allowing the masked man to “steal” his phone.
Even after the masked man ran off, the victim didn't call out for help. Instead, with a panicked expression, he rushed into the nearest phone booth and dialed the emergency services.
Yu Jin deliberately stopped and edged closer to the phone booth to listen to the conversation inside. He heard the victim's exact words to the police:
“Citizen XXX requesting assistance. I request the Bureau's Special Assistance Squad to help retrieve my phone.”
What kind of department was the Special Assistance Squad?
Yu Jin racked his brain, but he couldn't recall the Bureau having such a department.
But he soon realized what this special department was used for.
The Special Assistance Squad arrived quickly; they must have been patrolling nearby. Like the Special Response Squad, they also had a six-person setup.
They wore uniforms. Unlike the white, dawn-inspired uniforms of the Bureau, theirs were a gradient of grey—a color palette reminiscent of the twilight hour before the first light of day.
A slogan was printed on the sleeve of their uniforms:
“Within scope of authority, assist according to the law.”
The moment he saw those words, Yu Jin found it inexplicably laughable.
Since when did lending a helping hand require legal authority and jurisdiction?
But he didn't dare to laugh, as his brief pause had already drawn the attention of the surrounding cameras.
Quickly lowering his head, he walked on, tracking the scene only with his peripheral vision.
After understanding what had happened, the Special Assistance Squad submitted a report to their superiors. Yet by the time Yu Jin lost sight of them, none of the six had even begun to pursue the thief who had “stolen” the phone.
How absurd.
Even a minor issue like this required a report.
This could only happen in a dream.
Yu Jin didn't know what expression to make.
Many similar absurdities occurred afterward, each of them making one laugh out of sheer exasperation. But the more one laughed, the more the amusement died away.
Having gained some understanding of this dream version of Haicheng, Yu Jin stopped paying attention to his surroundings and simply followed in silence.
After following them for a while, he realized that the Special Response Squad was actually dragging the red-haired Yu Jin toward the Day Prison.
!!!
He couldn't believe it.
What kind of place was the Day Prison? It was the ultimate prison where the most heinous criminals and Nightmare creatures were locked away!
Those imprisoned inside were all high-profile felons who had caused severe harm to Haicheng or human society, or unstable elements that posed significant potential threats.
The red-haired Yu Jin had merely killed the wanted Xia Jie. Even in this dream, Xia Jie was still a wanted fugitive, so why was he being sent to the Day Prison?
And what on earth was this crime of Replacing Evil with Good?
The things he had seen along the way filled Yu Jin with a profound sense of bizarre unease, but he had no time to ponder it. Right now, his most urgent priority was to find out what the punishment for Replacing Evil with Good actually was.
If it was just imprisonment, that wouldn't be too bad.
At the very least, while the Day Prison was harsh, safety was guaranteed. Once the red-haired Yu Jin was locked inside, Yu Jin would only need to find a place to keep himself safe and wait for the real Special Response Squad to arrive.
But what if this crime carried a punishment worse than mere imprisonment...
Watching the gates of the Day Prison open and close in the distance, and seeing the red-haired Yu Jin's figure disappear inside the ultimate prison, Yu Jin's heart tightened.
He was not only worrying about the red-haired Yu Jin, but also pondering a single question:
Exactly when had this dream begun?
...
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