Chapter 132: Another World
After discussing, Qiu Ren and Suri found a mutual goal to work on together.
Suri dreamed of going back to the previous material world for revenge, but due to the current situation of the Army, she must prioritize survival.
And yet, as Alaina grew gradually, Suri realized that maybe she could… think about something other than survival.
Qiu Ren… Qiu Ren’s goal might be the goal of all humans living in this material world.
There was a research topic in the nightmare major Qiu Ren was studying, which showed that the percentage of Nightmare Seeds… among the Dream Seeds arriving in this world had increased in recent years.
A lot of experts that researched nightmares made up a bunch of strange reasons, like recent Dream Dungeons had too many violent elements, leading to the appearance of more Nightmare Dungeons.
However, there was finally a conclusion today with the information brought by the Army.
The Nightmare Dungeons that landed in the real world weren’t because of any violent elements at all. Instead, someone was throwing Nightmare Dungeons to this world.
Once Qiu Ren published this information, there might not be a great chance of uniting mankind, but it was still enough to prepare countries in the world for war.
But for now, the Army was still the biggest threat to the whole world. If Qiu Ren wanted to go to another material world, he must subdue the Army first.
So…
“If you want revenge, you’ll have to give your body and heart to me.”
Qiu Ren’s request made Suri’s expression change. He then took out a knife and slashed his palm gently. The blood on the knife made Suri feel that this wasn’t a simple contract.
“I’ll also give all of me to you in return.”
Looking at the blood oozing out of Qiu Ren’s palm, Suri’s surprised expression lasted for a while. But she soon calmed down. “Even with this contract, I can’t get all of you.”
Suri looked behind him. If Qiu Ren really wanted to keep his promise and give her his everything, the most important premise was that he needed to terminate his contract with Tapir, Lian… and Dark Side. Then, Suri could be considered to have all of Qiu Ren.
“Are you backing down because of this? I thought you’d try to fight for it with your personality…”
Qiu Ren’s way to prod Suri into doing this didn’t work. Suri only smiled as she also slashed her palm, but the blood that oozed out was black…
“Of course I would, but when you sign a contract with me, you’ll also have to share the erosion from the Shadow Beasts with me. Can you stand it?”
Suri was the other half of this Nightmare Dungeon. Once Qiu Ren signed the contract, he would be able to further increase his control over the Nightmare Dungeon of the Army.
However, the price was to bear the pollution from the Shadow Beasts…
Tapir wanted to stop Qiu Ren from signing this contract, but the shining Alaina on the side gradually purified the black blood that oozed out of Suri’s palm.
What Alaina meant was already clear: she could contain the pollution from the Shadow Beasts. Qiu Ren could sign the contract with her sister at ease.
“I don’t need to. My goal has always been controlling the Shadow Beasts.”
Qiu Ren put the wound on his palm together with that on Suri’s palm.
The black and scarlet blood blended and mixed together. At this moment, Qiu Ren felt that kind of suffocating pain again, but the erosion from the Shadow Beasts gradually disappeared under Alaina’s control.
“Don’t worry… This terrible feeling will disappear within a short time.”
Qiu Ren collected himself from the negative state brought by the Shadow Beasts… and said to Suri, who had been tortured by the Shadow Beasts.
However, Suri didn’t answer Qiu Ren. She was gazing behind Qiu Ren. The master of the Training Academy, Alma, who had been missing before, was standing behind Qiu Ren with a weapon she usually used.
“You got to this point after all.”
Alma held the gun in her hands, and the struggle between a loving mother and an executioner in her voice made Qiu Ren realize that the situation was awful.
In this Romantic Movie Universe, the power of everyone in the Army had been suppressed to a normal level. Only Alma and Alaina still had their full power.
Alaina didn’t have any combat strength at all, but this master of the Training Academy… was extraordinarily destructive.
She was now gazing at Suri like she was hesitating… if she should eliminate Suri.
“You…” Suri didn’t know why Alma… would show up in front of them with a weapon right now.
The master of the Training Academy had been taking good care of Suri and her sister since Suri could remember, including the forty years they wandered in the outland.
In Suri’s mind, Alma was almost like her grandma.
“I don’t want to tell you my ident.i.ty so quickly either. I thought after you came to this material world, you’d fight with the creators in this world for a decade or even a bit longer… I’ve never thought you would choose to compromise so quickly.”
Alma rubbed the gun in her hands with her fingertips. She seemed to be frustrated about how she should deal with the changes in front of her as well.
“What… do you mean?” Suri’s face was full of unwillingness to believe what was happening.
Alaina continued to eat chips very calmly, as if this had nothing to do with her.
Qiu Ren also wanted to eat Alaina’s chips as he listened, but since this was such a serious occasion, he could only cooperate with Suri. He made an astonished face, like saying, “How could this be?”
“It’s not a coincidence… that we were exiled here. The seniors have already been preying on this new material world since a very, very long time ago.”
Alma was still struggling with what she should do with the sisters. While she adjusted her mood, she clarified the deeper truth to Suri. “You came to this material world… as ‘nightmare weapons’ for weakening the power here. However, the seniors don’t want this place to turn into a wasteland completely eroded by nightmares. My top mission is to restrict the expansion and invasion of you and the Shadow Beasts on the premise that you weaken the power of this world.”
Alma’s words made Qiu Ren stare at Alaina. The strategy of repelling the tiger to devour the wolves was indeed clever.
Nightmare Seeds that were full of Shadow Beasts were great sources of pollution in any world. So, that material world directly threw the Level SS Nightmare Seed of the Army to Qiu Ren’s world.
Then, they could deal with the pollution problem of the Nightmare Seed of the Army and rely on the nightmare erosion from the Army… to devour the creatures in Qiu Ren’s world at the same time.
However, that material world didn’t want the Army to become too strong, or the Army would turn against them and attack them.
So, Alma… purposely gave Qiu Ren a chance—Alaina.
Qiu Ren was still wondering how Herring had abducted Alaina, who was the core mother of the Army, to him back then.
It seemed that Alma did something secretly to allow Herring to run into such an important person like Alaina just by pa.s.sing a corridor during the invasion.
She did this to restrict the expansion of the Army. If Qiu Ren didn’t abduct Alaina back then and hence didn’t organize the Alaina Cup, Commander Risor’s plan to unite the other Lords of Nightmare to fight against the creators would have been succeeded easily.
Qiu Ren couldn’t be sure… what the world would be like by then either.
And now, things had taken a huge turn: the Army chose to work with the creators in this world.
This was also something that the so-called “seniors” Alma mentioned didn’t want to see. All they wanted was the endless war between the Army and the humans in this world. As a result, the strength of both sides would be depleted.
“So, what are you going to do now? Are you eliminating Suri or Alaina?”
Qiu Ren found a bandage and twined it around the wound on his palm. Meanwhile, Tapir was already standing next to Qiu Ren.
The two Lords of Nightmare contracted with Qiu Ren could both release their full power in this Nightmare Dungeon.
“Neither. What I need to do is to return to the original world to report this.” Alma told them her next step very honestly. “But this also means that I won’t have any value anymore. My memory will definitely be deleted, and my personality will be reset when I get back.”
Alma said as she continued staring at Alaina, who was eating chips, “However, there are many memories and feelings in my character that I don’t want to forget… Perhaps it suits me more to be a retired old lady who has two granddaughters at home.”
Alaina even wanted to call her “grandma” when she heard this, but Suri grabbed her shoulder and stopped her sister from running to this dangerous woman.
At this moment, Suri’s gaze at Alma had completely changed.
Traitors were people she hated the most her entire life. She was betrayed once forty years ago, and her children were all dragged into the whirlpool of nightmares.
She had already been fooled once by Qiu Ren just then. And now, she found that the “family” who had been around her for so many years was a spy sent by her enemy. This gave Suri pain that made her doubt her life.
“I’ve told you everything I know. I don’t expect you to believe me again. I just… want relief.”
Alma could understand Suri’s att.i.tude. However, Qiu Ren noticed that Alma always looked at Tapir from time to time, as if she was asking Tapir, “When are you going to confess?”
“Do you… still have ways to return to your original material world?”
Qiu Ren didn’t really care about the love-hate relationship between them. He was more interested in the fact that Alma seemed to have ways of going back to the previous material world.
“I have ways for just a single dream consciousness… However, if the whole seed of the Army wants to go back, a large number of Creation Points will be needed to support it. You need to have enough control over the Army as well, Mr. Creator.”
Alma saw through Qiu Ren’s thoughts at first glance. “Of course, I can also send your consciousness to that material world and plant it into ‘your’ body in that parallel world, like having a… dream in a dream?”
Parallel world… That material world was indeed related to the world Qiu Ren lived in.
“What… What about my consciousness in that parallel world?”
Qiu Ren had already transmigrated once. He didn’t mind transmigrating the second time.
“It broke a while ago. The cause of death was that your dream collapsed… Ever since you signed a contract with Alaina, I’ve been watching you, you in this world and you in the other material world,” Alma said, “If you go there now, maybe you can… reincarnate in the dead body? This should be how you say it with your vocabulary.”
Good Lord… Should Qiu Ren say that he was worthy of being the ultimate destination of his fate in the parallel world?
He found that he hadn’t been able to live over thirty years old in all three worlds.
Qiu Ren died at 27 in the original world, and the original owner of his body in this world even died more miserably of a dream collapse at 18. It seemed that he probably died of a dream collapse as well… in the third world.
“Can you send me there now?” Qiu Ren was really curious about what the other material world looked like.
“Anytime.”
Alma loaded the weapon in her hand, as if saying, “I just need to shoot you with this Life-Restarting Gun, and you’ll be able to experience your life in the parallel world!”
The sound of her loading the weapon made Qiu Ren a bit scared, but Tapir and Suri surprisingly didn’t stop Qiu Ren’s dangerous move.
“Shouldn’t you normally be persuading me not to go?” Qiu Ren was now going to run in the enemy’s territory by himself.
“Will you… listen if I persuade you?” Tapir said as she smoked the silver cigarette in her hand, “You want the truth… I can’t stop you… but I’ll tie a safety rope… on your body. If something happens… I’ll pull you back immediately.”
“I have the same thought as this woman. Besides, I can know the changes in that d.a.m.n world through your perspective.”
Suri completely treated Qiu Ren as a “detector.” She wanted to throw him into that material world to check out the situation first.
Their att.i.tudes rendered Qiu Ren a bit speechless. He heaved a long sigh and said to Alma, “Looks like I can only go check it out first. I wonder how I’m doing in the parallel world.”
“His life is much more ordinary than yours right now… He never drags himself into a dangerous situation surrounded by so many Lords of Nightmare.” Alma made a small joke.
You think I want that?
While Qiu Ren wanted to complain, Alma had already pointed the Life-Restarting Gun in her hand at Qiu Ren and pulled the trigger.
At this moment, Qiu Ren only felt like the world in front of his eyes was spinning. He was shrouded in darkness. An extremely long time seemed to have pa.s.sed when someone’s anxious shouts kept ringing in his ears.
“Brother! Don’t scare me!! I’ll never ask you to come out to buy c.o.ke in such heavy rain next time. Hey! Wake up!”
Who?
Qiu Ren gradually recovered from the dizziness. Soon, the sound of heavy rain falling on the ground surged into Qiu Ren’s ears… The first thing that caught his eyes was the light of a grocery store sign, followed by a girl who kept shouting at Qiu Ren.
“You…”
Qiu Ren froze for a while. He didn’t ask such a dumb question as “Who are you?” Instead, he sat up with that person’s help.
Then, Qiu Ren realized he was lying on the roadside. The pain in his forehead reminded him that the head of this body had hit firmly on the ground just then.
“Say something!” The girl patted Qiu Ren’s face with her hand. “You didn’t become dumb, did you? I’ll be honest with you. I can only support Mom and Dad when I grow up. I can’t take care of a r.e.t.a.r.ded brother.”
“Who’s r.e.t.a.r.ded?” Qiu Ren slapped the girl’s hand away. After the girl saw that Qiu Ren could still speak and slap her, she shouted in excitement while hitting his shoulder…
“Great, your brain isn’t damaged! Let’s go home quickly. Mom and Dad are probably worried to death.”
Hearing this, Qiu Ren kind of figured out who this girl was. She should be Qiu Ren’s sister in this world.
Unfortunately, your brother didn’t just damage his brain; he’s already gone. The one in front of you right now… is just a Lord of Nightmare that’s going to bring a disaster to this world.