I created the Anomaly Control Bureau

Chapter 1104, page 1099: Awakening from the Dream (4k)

The Heavenly Demon fell into deep thought:
"You know he's dead? From what you're saying, you don't recall this happening before, is that right?"

Marx and Engels replied:
"Yes."

During their rapid conversation, Qin Lan couldn't help but chime in:
What do you mean by "this time it feels a little different"?

Marx and Eng paused, then followed their instincts and said directly:

“In the past, I always felt like I was living in a memory, but this time it felt like I was dreaming.”

Qin Lan asked in confusion:
"A dream? Actually, some hypnotized people often have this feeling, especially those who are not used to it, but you are saying that this time is different from the past..."

"Logically, this situation might be because you resist my hypnosis, but I feel that you shouldn't have any resistance to my hypnosis, and I didn't feel that way when I was treating you."

What did you see?

Marx and Engels recalled:
"I can't remember the specific details anymore. It was a strange feeling, as if I wasn't receiving your treatment, but had just woken up from a dream, and it slipped away before I even realized it."

"But I also felt like someone who woke up normally, and I remembered the content of my dream a second time. I remember that I was trapped in some strange place, where there was an incredibly huge waterfall."

"Moreover, this immense size is not just physical; I can 'feel' its grandeur, and no matter where I go in my dream, I can't get close to or away from this waterfall."

"I feel like I've been trapped in it for several years, but I haven't felt panicked. It seems like I'm constantly practicing martial arts in it, which actually aligns with our goal."

"But there was nothing else that should have been there. I didn't see anyone, not even any creatures in my dreams."

Upon hearing this, Qin Lan pondered:
"What you're saying does sound like a dream, even a typical dream. There's nowhere to escape, an unusual emptiness, and a seemingly endless period of time—these are all very common elements."

Maren then said:

"Yes, and at the end, I will see the waterfall rise up and turn into a dead man's face, which is made of rocks and water, and you can barely make out its outline."

"But I inexplicably knew clearly that he was dead."

Qin Lan nodded:

"That's the nature of dreams; we don't understand the world through our real-world senses."

Apart from these, there's really nothing else in my memory worth paying attention to.

Except for what the giant said at the end.

If he wasn't mistaken, the syllable the giant uttered was "horse," and he vaguely knew that the word he was speaking was the beginning of his own name.

It was also during his speech that he was destroyed by something.

He died there.

This actually explains why his shouts went unanswered—if the deceased had heard him.

He probably didn't not want to react, but knew he would die if he spoke, which explains why the Titan only reacted to him when he decided to leave his memories.

Perhaps it was as if he knew the other person was dead, and he also knew he was about to leave.

That's why he decided to speak, because he knew such an action was meaningless; he couldn't convey any effective information to himself through language, or perhaps...

He has already conveyed a message to himself in some way.

Marx and Engels pondered for a moment and said:
"The more you talk about it, the more it feels like a dream to me."

Both Tian Yao and Qin Lan made the same judgment after hearing his description, and as he remained awake for longer, Ma En increasingly felt the same way.

While he was immersed in it, he didn't notice anything amiss, but when he left that memory and it began to crumble, the remaining parts were very similar to the dream.

And he remembered that one of the Fright Five was called Dreamman.

He was also a dead man.

Of course, the person in the dream may not be dead in his memory. If this is indeed a memory from the past, then the person in the dream should be meeting himself in a normal state.

And I shouldn't have met him in the first place.

This question is not without an answer. Perhaps I did enter some kind of martial arts training secret realm at the beginning, and this secret realm is related to the dreamer in some way.

Dreams are clearly a very suitable place to practice martial arts, especially when they are created by the dreamer. This member of the Thriller Bark is terrifyingly strong; according to Marne, he can even blur the lines between dreams and reality.

Some places, even if they are in the real world, may become a dream when he gets there.

Even during the apocalypse, he saw the corpse of the Dream Man floating in the sky, and that corpse clearly retained its terrifying nature, and even the surrounding world seemed to be trapped in a dream.

It seems reasonable that such terrifying power could create a dream that adapts to the user, and he may very well have entered such a place while learning from God Fist.

So it's very likely that this place was originally some kind of martial arts secret realm created for him, but after he entered it, it changed according to his current self.

After all, dreams are a mental world, and if this is a dream that can sense the user, it means that even if you don't say anything, you will be detected as soon as you enter it.

If that place was indeed created by the Dreamer, and he also sensed his own memories...

Then it's not so strange that he's already dead.

After all, nothing is impossible in dreams.

Qin Lan nodded:

"Your situation this time is quite interesting. I was wondering if you were trying to lie to me, but you shouldn't be able to make up such a reasonable situation."

"Just like we agreed, I will continue your treatment."

"But I won't work for you for free. Just like you said, this is a collaboration, and you also said you were willing to give corresponding compensation. That promise hasn't gone back on its word, has it?"

Marx and Engels nodded:

"Anything I can do, what do you want?"

Qin Lan did not say it directly:
"It's not the right time yet. I'll tell you at the right time, but don't worry, I'll continue to arrange hypnotherapy for you. We can continue the treatment at this time the day after tomorrow."

Clearly, she didn't want to rush things, neither for her own treatment nor for her needs.

But Marx and Engels didn't have that much time.

“I hope the treatment can be done a little faster,” Ma En continued. “Ideally, I could continue the treatment right now…”

Qin Lan interrupted:
"No, I don't plan to treat you so frequently; it won't be effective. Besides, I need to reschedule your treatments to a normal schedule from now on. I don't want you to arouse suspicion from others..."

"And I also need your treatment process to be documented."

Maren looked at her and suddenly asked:
"You want to send me underground?" She stared into Marne's eyes, seemingly expressing some kind of doubt, but also like questioning him.

“It’s not hard to guess,” Ma En said. “Before the hypnosis started, you seemed to be threatening me, saying you would send me underground, but your tone was strange, as if it were some kind of suggestion.”

"What you're trying to say isn't that if I don't agree to your demands, you'll send me to the underworld."

"Are you saying that no matter what, I have to go underground, right?"

He looked at Qin Lan calmly.

She didn't say anything.

In fact, Ma En wasn't sure if his guess was right or wrong. Even though he had tested Qin Lan before hypnotizing her, he couldn't guarantee that he was right. But now, judging from Qin Lan's reaction, it seemed that he really was right.

After a moment, she slowly said:

How did you figure that out?

Marx and Engels smiled:
"Your tone is quite clear."

To be honest, he actually cheated, because when Qin Lan mentioned underground, he immediately thought of something very interesting: her sister was currently imprisoned underground.

If their sisterly relationship has been preserved to this day, it wouldn't be surprising if she had such thoughts.

Moreover, according to the information he found out, there was no rumor in the hospital that she and Qin Luan were sisters. This might be because the relationship had been distorted by the new world, which was also Ma En's initial thought.

But now it seems that this news was simply kept hidden.

Qin Lan looked at him suspiciously:
"Then tell me, what exactly do I want you to do? What do I want you to do underground? You don't think I'm doing this just because I have nothing better to do, do you?"

Marx and Engels said innocently:

"How could I possibly know so much? This is all I can think of from what you've said. But it's not hard to imagine that what you're trying to do is definitely not something legal or compliant, otherwise you wouldn't need to take advantage of a patient like me."

"But don't worry, I won't report you..."

"After all, I'm a madman."

He smiled gently at Qin Lan.

Qin Lan frowned uncomfortably:
Have you really lost all your memories?

She was already starting to regret giving that hint. The man in front of her was completely unfathomable. She couldn't understand how a mentally ill patient with amnesia could figure out her purpose.

Marne shrugged:

"Yes, that's why I want to know what happened in the past. I'm willing to take a risk for it, and if I'm not mistaken, you were already watching me before."

"Your choice to treat me in this way some time ago was probably not entirely out of kindness."

The more Qin Lan looked at Ma En, the more terrifying she felt. If he was just faking illness, how did he manage to fool Chen Yun? And if he wasn't using equipment...

Can someone with amnesia really do such a thing?
Although she had always felt that Marn was a bit unusual, she had never had such a terrifying feeling before, and this guy didn't seem to care at all about her suspicion that he was being controlled by the devil.

You know, a normal person would definitely think that his current behavior is influenced by the devil.

Therefore, even if they have some shady secrets, they might choose to temporarily set aside their own thoughts out of fear of the devil and instead report people like Mar and Eng.

But he had absolutely no such concerns, as if he was certain he wouldn't resist, as if he knew that it was precisely because of his relationship with the devil that he was attracted to him, as if...

He knew that what he was about to do would also not be tolerated by the church.

"Are you a devil?" Qin Lan asked.

Marne looked into her eyes, as if he could see right through her soul:

"Do you believe that there really are devils in this world, or in other words, do you think that all devils are really the same thing? You have seen so many patients, you must have your own judgment."

Qin Lan pursed her lips and continued:

"Sometimes when you observe something repeatedly, you gradually lose your accurate perception of it and can't explain why."

Just as Ma En had predicted, the world revealed a flaw to Qin Lan.

Moreover, it's quite normal for her to notice the problem, because Qin Lan is not an ordinary person you can see anywhere, but rather the deputy of Reality Bender Ma En, and the sister of Reality Bender Qin Luan.

Of all the non-reality warpers, she is probably the closest to the power of reality warping.

She was practically the boundary between herself and Shenxiao.

This may also be what makes her extraordinary.

“The answer isn’t in your imagination,” Ma En continued, “nor is it in my mouth. If you want to know, you’ll probably have to see it for yourself. Nothing beats seeing it with your own eyes.”

"Of course, you may already have your own judgment, but seeing is believing."

Qin Lan suddenly asked:

Did you kill her?

Clearly, she was beginning to doubt that she was the devil.

Maren met her gaze sincerely and said:

"Are you talking about my deceased wife? No, but I want to know who killed her. To be honest, it's strange, since I didn't know her at all and certainly didn't have any feelings for her."

"Even if I were to completely let go of this now, I wouldn't feel any pain. But if she really is my deceased wife, and I were to ignore her, it's foreseeable that one day..."

“I would regret my decision now, and I don’t intend to do that.”

Qin Lan looked at him suspiciously:
"Really? How do you know it wasn't you?"

Marx and Engels said earnestly:
“I’m not sure if it was her, but if it was her you brought with you during your previous treatments, I find it hard to imagine myself killing her, and I also have a vague feeling that this isn’t the case.”

"And if I really did it, wouldn't the church have noticed?"

“Your suspicion of me probably comes from the church’s claims that they did not find the devil at the scene and have not found any trace of it for many years.”

"Perhaps they are right; they didn't find the devil simply because the devil doesn't exist."

"But if I didn't kill her, and there's no demon involved, then what happened? Who did this to her? And why did I lose all my memories?"

"I don't know, after all, I haven't seen the answer yet."

"But perhaps you also have some doubts in your mind."