Blue Star.
Xiao Lan woke up from her dream in a panic and didn't dare go back to sleep, terrified of returning to that cycle of death.
She leaned against the headboard, pulling the quilt up to her chin. She gripped the corner of the blanket with one hand while using the other to open her phone.
The only light in the room came from the phone screen. The ceiling light in her bedroom had broken a few days ago, and she hadn't bothered to change the bulb. Now she regretted it, feeling for the first time how much she feared the dark.
She turned the phone's brightness to the maximum, the white light from the screen illuminating the ceiling.
She didn't dare close her eyes. Every time her eyelids grew heavy, she pinched her thigh hard, grimacing in pain to shake off the sleepiness.
She held out like this until dawn.
Sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the curtains. Xiao Lan heard the breakfast shop downstairs open its rolling shutters, the rustle of the street cleaner's broom, and the sound of passing cars.
The daylight brought a greater sense of security. She slowly slid down the bed, letting the sun fall on her face. It was warm and seemed to dispel the chill from her dream.
She let out a long breath, constantly reassuring herself. “It was just a dream,” “Everyone has nightmares,” “It's fine”...
Just as she had managed to calm herself down, she opened her phone, and the short-form video platform automatically refreshed its home page.
The first video was of a girl with no makeup facing the camera. Her eyes were dark-circled, her lips were chapped, and her voice was hoarse.
“Everyone, I had a terrifying nightmare last night. It was so scary.”
The girl cried in front of the camera, tears streaming down her face.
She described her nightmare from the previous night—floating in darkness, unable to breathe, dying repeatedly dozens of times.
Xiao Lan froze, her heart pounding. Wasn't this exactly her dream?!
She dragged the video progress bar back to the beginning and watched it again.
There was no mistake. She and the girl in the video had the exact same nightmare!
Darkness, suffocation, repeated death, and a luminous celestial body that grew closer with every death.
There were many comments in the video's comment section.
“Me too! I had that dream too. Not just me, my roommate too!”
“Still troubled by nightmares? I recommend taking XXXX. Personally tested, it works great for anxiety!”
“To the person above selling health supplements: get lost.”
“Oh my god, I thought I was the only one sucked into that dark, mysterious place last night. I didn't expect so many sisters to be sucked in too~”
Xiao Lan grew more terrified as she read. She exited the video, switched back to the search page, and typed in the words “nightmare.”
The information that popped up was like an avalanche, with countless posts discussing the matter.
Seeing so many people suffering from the same pain actually helped Xiao Lan's anxiety subside.
The issue had begun to ferment in the early hours of the morning, and by noon, it had reached the top of the trending searches.
Too many people were affected. Many had gone insane; those who could post their grievances online were generally the ones with stronger mental resilience.
According to preliminary statistics, residents in every city on Blue Star had experienced the same nightmare.
However, no patterns could be found regarding age, gender, profession, or region.
Blue Star officials quickly launched an investigation.
For such an incomprehensible anomaly, the first suspect was naturally 《Deep Red Continent》.
It hadn't been long since players had gone mad after logging off, so official vigilance toward the game was still at its highest level.
The Investigation Group tallied the pre-sleep activities of all involved residents, trying to find a commonality.
However, the results of the preliminary investigation left them confused.
The mass occurrence of nightmares had no direct connection to 《Deep Red Continent》.
The number of closed beta players was limited, and among the residents having nightmares, none were players. They were all ordinary people who just watched videos or played games before bed.
They had no gaming pods and had never entered the Deep Red Continent. The commonality among the victims seemed to be hidden at a deeper level, beyond the reach of current investigative methods.
Experts online called the phenomenon “Nightmare Sickness,” an infectious mental illness.
An expert spouted nonsense with a straight face: “When a person experiences extreme psychological trauma and confides in others, they may transmit that trauma. For example, when you describe in detail the feeling of a wooden splinter piercing under your fingernail...”
The authorities couldn't find any trigger for the nightmares; Nightmare Sickness had simply appeared out of thin air.
Worse still, the sickness spread too fast for the authorities to react.
The medical system was quickly overwhelmed, and long lines formed outside the psychiatric departments of major hospitals.
Xiao Lan was crouching in her bedroom when a friend sent her a message, inviting her to go see a psychiatrist together.
Xiao Lan refused without hesitation. For a poor person like her, minor illnesses were to be endured, and major ones were to be ignored.
“Going to the hospital for treatment isn't nearly as good as looking at the fine physiques of handsome guys.”
She opened her phone; Ever-Crying Vine’s stream was still going.
Rate on N.U.
