Forbidden Nightmare

Chapter 156: Forbidden Dream - Final Devouring

Amidst a series of bumps and shakes, Li Nanke slowly opened his eyes.

Through the car windows and windshield, the tall buildings along the street were rapidly receding.

The streets were littered with fallen leaves and weeds, with scattered car wreckage lying on their sides. The glass curtain walls of the buildings along the road were shattered, and the concrete was cracked and peeling, revealing mottled and rusted steel frames.

The off-road vehicle sped past, the wind blew up the tattered newspapers, and the tires rustled as they rolled over the dead yellow leaves.

Looking to the end of the sight, the sky is covered with a faint blood-red hue, as pure as a drop of blood in a pool of clear water.

Li Nanke's eyes narrowed, and he turned his head to look at the man in the driver's seat.

A young man in a black windbreaker was humming along with the in-car music while he put one hand on the steering wheel and held a piece of dogtail grass in his mouth.

Seeing Li Nanke waking up, he grinned: "Awake? You must be exhausted from collecting blood taxes these days. We will reach our destination soon. Once we find the survivors, we can call it a day and go home."

The man showed a mouthful of white teeth when he smiled. The sharp and slender tiger teeth on the sides of his lips were particularly eye-catching, like the fangs of an animal.

Blood tax... This guy's teeth don't look like those of a normal human.

As soon as the man finished speaking, a synchronization prompt appeared.

[Dream - 'End Devouring' (Part 1)]

[Dream details: Before the red fog appeared, the undead were humanoid weapons created by humans. They used their powerful strength to fight against the terrible monsters from the outside world.]

[Now, the red fog blocks the land, isolating all monsters from the outside world... But this does not mean that the red fog land is safe and beautiful. 】

[The power of the undead comes from a mysterious technology called "Biological Organ Regenerative Parasite". As long as the heart is not damaged, no matter how much trauma they suffer, they can be reborn and restored to their original state. 】

[However, this powerful power does not come without a price. ]

[The undead need to constantly devour human blood to get rid of the torment of thirst, otherwise they will turn into crazy and terrifying fallen ghosts. ]

[In the isolated red fog land, the undead united to form a temporary government to fight against the fallen ghosts and levy a blood tax on the survivors. ]

[For the few surviving humans, regularly donating their blood has become the only way to survive. Otherwise, the fallen ghosts ravaging the red fog land will ruthlessly devour every drop of their blood until they are squeezed into mummies and torn into pieces.]

[In this world full of danger and despair, as a member of the 'Undead', you are lucky, but also unfortunate...]

The terrifying monsters from the outside world, the land isolated from the world by the red fog, the biological organ regeneration parasites...

Blood tax, undead, survivors, fallen ghosts...

Li Nanke noticed that the name of the dream was "Final Devouring" (Part 1).

If there is a previous part, there will naturally be a next part. He speculated that this was most likely due to the relationship between the twin taboos.

"Could it be that one forbidden object represents the first part, and the other forbidden object represents the second part?"

After reading the bloody text detailing the dream, Li Nanke turned his head and looked at the back seat of the car.

The back seat had been folded down, and the trunk and the back seat area were connected into one piece, with two weapons placed diagonally, one was his 'Thunder Judgment Greatsword', and the other was the long-handled weapon of the man named Chris - an axe gun.

Next to the weapons, in addition to a pile of miscellaneous items, there was also a bulging bag.

As the vehicle bumped along, the bag made a crisp sound similar to the collision of gemstones agate.

That was the blood tax that Li Nanke and Chris had accumulated, and that needed to be handed over to the interim government...

The related memories are revived bit by bit.

His name is Ryan, and he is now an unofficial "undead". Like the human survivors, he needs to pay a blood tax to the provisional government.

Human survivors can provide their own blood, while civilian undead need to hand in an object called "blood tear crystal" as a substitute for human blood.

For the undead, this strange object has the same effect as human blood, eliminating symptoms of thirst and allowing the undead to maintain a normal state.

But most of the blood tear crystals are found in dangerous areas full of fallen ghosts. Collecting enough blood tear crystals caused Ryan to "die" several times, and one time he almost injured his heart and died.

As the price of his atomized rebirth, Ryan also lost a lot of his memories...

"arrive."

The SUV stopped in a deserted neighborhood, where most of the buildings along the street were dilapidated, low-rise houses.

Chris stopped the car and said, "It should be in this area. Let's split up and search carefully. If we find any survivors, we will notify them immediately..."

"Also, be careful not to reveal your appearance. If you encounter an official undead, stop your actions and retreat immediately."

Li Nanke nodded and took the walkie-talkie handed to him by the other party.

After going through many dangers, the two finally collected enough blood-tear crystals to pay as blood tax, but they only collected enough.

As undead, they need human blood to maintain their normal state. The two are already very thirsty, but they cannot use the blood tear crystals as blood tax, and they don't want to go to the dangerous area full of fallen demons.

Chris heard that there seemed to be lone human survivors in the area, so he thought of coming here to look for game.

Li Nanke was about to open the car door and get out, but was stopped by Chris.

"You... you've died so many times, you must have forgotten a lot." Chris looked at him with pity and sadness. He pulled two masks from the back seat that looked like simple gas masks, the kind that completely covered the mouth and nose. "I asked you to write a diary, but you didn't. Now you don't even remember to wear a purification mask."

"Who would write a diary if they were serious?" Li Nanke joked in Ryan's tone.

He followed Chris's example, put on a mask, and got out of the car with his weapon.

Chris repeated several instructions and the two began to search separately.

When the search officially began, the synchronous prompt sound sounded again.

[Nightmare, this dream is a camp killing mode! ]

[The current dream has the following camps: Humans, Undead, Fallen Ghosts]

[Faction Killing Mode: Every time you kill a nightmare from a different camp, you can increase your camp's points by 1, and you can extract equipment, props or cost points from the dead! ]

[Whenever a nightmare dies in your camp, your camp's points will be reduced by 1.]

[When the dream ends, if the camp is ranked last in points, all members of the camp will be killed! If the camp is ranked second in points, the members will not be affected! If the camp is ranked first in points, members will receive different rewards based on their respective kill counts! ]

[Key Node 72: Join the interim government formed by the Undead within hours, become a member of the official Undead team, and officially join the 'Undead' camp! ]

Li Nanke's pupils suddenly shrank, and then he took a deep breath.

"Faction killing mode... The first key point is to let me officially join the undead camp within three days." Li Nanke had already made physical and mental preparations for the multiplayer mode after the "reincarnation" function was activated, but he did not expect to encounter the extremely bloody faction killing mode for the first time.

According to the information he got from the Deep Dream World, the mortality rate in the camp killing mode is very high, and there is a camp point ranking that is related to life and death. The last-placed camp will launch a killing spree at all costs.

Because no matter if one person dies at the hands of other nightmares or at the hands of indigenous monsters in the dream, as long as one person in the camp dies, one point will be deducted, causing the ranking to drop.

Once one person in this camp dies, they must kill someone from another camp to restore their ranking.

Otherwise, if we fall behind other camps in points, the scythe of death will be hanging around our necks!

This dream not only faces the threat of indigenous monsters, but also has to guard against the butcher knives wielded by nightmares from other camps.

Li Nanke searched the area carefully and found that the low-rise houses seemed to have been abandoned for a long time and there was no sign of recent habitation.

After searching for more than half an hour, no signs of human survivors were found.

Chris on the other end of the intercom also found nothing.

"Chris, have you been deceived? If there are really survivors, they would not stay in the buffer zone near the fallen ghosts."

The intercom rustled and Chris's voice came: "You don't understand. The most dangerous place is the safest place. If you have to draw a large bag of blood every two months, you will try to get as far away from the safe zone as possible."

Li Nanke thought for a moment and said, "So it seems that the Provisional Government is more terrifying to humans than fallen ghosts?"

"Of course, they are simply a group of vampires who eat people without leaving any bones! Not only do they suck the blood of human survivors, they also don't spare our kind. They use all means to oppress and exploit us. Every time we pay the blood tax, we have to go deep into the fallen ghost area. It's like dancing on the edge of a knife. We may pay the price of our lives at any time..."

Finally, Chris concluded: "They all deserve to be hanged from lampposts."

Li Nanke climbed into a private house and saw a thick layer of dust on the floor. There was not even a footprint. He changed his target and said casually, "Chris... have you ever thought about not paying the blood tax?"

"Of course I haven't thought about it, but I only dare to think about it, not do it... If we don't pay the blood tax, those cold-blooded guys will drive us out of the safe zone."

Li Nanke walked slowly forward, stopping from time to time to listen carefully to the movements around him.

As he walked, he said, "There is actually a way for us to avoid paying the blood tax and no longer be oppressed by them in the future."

"any solution?"

"If you can't beat them, then join them... Since we can't resist, why don't we join the official Undead and go from being the one being oppressed and exploited to being the one oppressing and exploiting others."

After these words were spoken, there was silence on the other end of the intercom for a long time.

"You should write more in your diary in the future." After a while, Chris's words came faintly, "We just participated in the official test of the undead half a year ago, and you were not selected again."

Li Nanke was choked. It turned out that both of them wanted to become official immortals. Chris's resentful complaints just now were purely out of sour grapes.

"You said I wasn't chosen, but you were?"

"…Forget it. I won't attack you. If it weren't for you, I would be sitting in the office of the Provisional Government drinking tea now."

"Oh, I forgot everything. You can make it up as you like."

Li Nanke was about to continue inquiring about joining the official undead when his ears suddenly moved and he heard a suppressed breathing sound coming from the second floor of the house next to him.

The suppressed breathing sounded very rapid and the other party was very nervous.

"It's a human... No, there's another one."

Li Nanke raised his eyebrows, exerted force on his feet and jumped high.

He smashed the glass window and the curtains with his sword, then broke into the second floor of the house.

In the bedroom, a man huddled in the corner was obviously stunned. His face turned pale and his eyes were filled with fear.

"Ordinary person." Li Nanke only needs to take a glance and can roughly judge from details such as skin, pores, muscle contours, whether the other person has physical strength beyond that of ordinary people, and what kind of person he is.

Simple acting and deception will never deceive his eyes.

Then he looked at the woman who was sleeping on the bed with her eyes closed.

The woman had rare pale hair, a beautiful face but ragged clothes, and a pair of bare white feet.

"The physical strength is far beyond that of an ordinary person. She looks like an undead... No." Li Nanke turned to the frightened man and said, "Who is this woman?"

This place is the edge of the buffer zone, and is very close to the area where the fallen ghosts are located. The fallen ghosts emit invisible and colorless miasma all the time.

The miasma has little effect on ordinary humans, but it is very deadly to the undead. It will cause the undead to quickly transform into fallen ghosts without having to go through the erosion of thirst.

The official name of the purification mask is "Anti-miasma Covering Equipment", which was developed to protect the undead from the miasma released by fallen demons.

The undead must wear purification masks in the buffer zone, but this woman was not wearing a mask.

"Don't, don't suck my blood... Please don't suck my blood." The man was holding a tattered backpack in his arms. As if he had received a great fright, his eyes were dazed and confused, and he kept repeating this sentence.

The man had a pale face, dry yellow hair, and his nails were covered with vertical stripes. If you look closely when he opens his mouth to speak, you can see that his tongue is swollen and there are many ulcers in his mouth.

This is a symptom related to long-term hemorrhagic anemia.

Seeing that the other party was a little mentally ill, Li Nanke took off his purification mask and said in a slow tone: "I am not an undead, you don't have to be afraid... Tell me who this woman is."

His act of taking off the mask was to prove that he was not affected by the miasma and was not an undead.

"Let me see your teeth."

After seeing that Li Nanke had no blood-sucking fangs, the man finally calmed down a little, but there was still fear in his eyes.

"I don't know who she is. I just found her unconscious in the ruins yesterday... We are all surviving humans. We need to help each other. You are very powerful. Can you take me away from here to a safer place?"

He has been in a coma since yesterday...that rules out the possibility that it was some other nightmare.

"Sorry, I'm afraid that's not possible." Li Nanke shook his head and said into the intercom: "Chris, come here, I found a survivor."

He put on the purification mask again, walked to the bed, put the tip of the sword against the woman's chest, and pried open her mouth, but did not see any sharp tiger teeth.

Li Nanke slapped the other person's face as hard as he could: "Wake up... wake up."

The white-haired woman's eyelids trembled, and she slowly opened her eyes. Her blank gaze took a long time to focus on Li Nanke's face.

She stared blankly for a long time, and finally smiled with a sense of relief.

"Heir of the Divine Skeleton, I finally found you..."

(End of this chapter)