Helping each other with countless me.

Chapter 535 Thank you, Ao

"The bad news is, this is really a ghost story, because all those girls had dreams today, and they were all beautiful dreams."

Anti-Ghost Stories Bureau Headquarters.

A meeting was held.

The reason is simple: this is the first time such a strange tale has been encountered on an artificial island.

The so-called artificial island is actually the place where Li Zhongren is located.

As mentioned earlier, in order to combat the spread of ghost stories, each town in this world is like an isolated island, and the artificial island is such a man-made isolated island.

It was built by an Eastern empire.

The reason is also very simple.

As the birthplace of ghost stories, Japan is said to have eight million ghost stories, yet strangely, people and ghost stories can coexist.

In order to learn from and study their experience.

Artificial islands have emerged as a result.

Most of the people here are from Japan, such as Ryoko and Reiko, whose names alone tell you they are from Japan. However, the management, especially the Anti-Ghost Stories Bureau, are all from the Eastern Empire.

In a sense, this place is like an experimental site.

Now, the experimental site has yielded its first major experimental result.

A ghost story that can evade all detection methods of the Anti-Ghost Story Bureau.

Such strange tales must be dealt with forcefully and sealed away; otherwise, if they grow too large, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Fortunately, the artificial island possesses the world's most advanced seal.

Nothing—whether it's a ghost story, a person, or even information—can leave this place without permission.

This is also one of Tanya's concerns.

She was born and raised here, and she has a deep affection for this island. But as a member of the Anti-Ghost Stories Bureau, she knows that this place is actually an experimental site. If some powerful ghost stories are born based on the special physique of the Japanese, the entire island may pay the price.

Now, the ghost stories have arrived.
After activating the highest level of alarm through special means, the entire artificial island was placed under complete lockdown.

Then, the high-ranking officials of the Eastern Empire sent people over.

A group of highly trained anti-ghost stories personnel.

Its purpose is to capture that undiscoverable, mysterious tale hidden in people's dreams.

"So, what's the good news?"

"The good news is that our experiment has yielded good results. It proves that the Japanese can indeed create ghost stories. We should increase investment in such artificial islands and build more of them. The future will be a time of great competition, a time of ghost stories. Only by mastering, researching, understanding and having enough ghost stories can we avoid falling behind."

"But the problem is, how are you going to catch this ghost story?"

"As the captain of the Anti-Ghost Stories Bureau's combat brigade on the artificial island, and also the guardian of the entire artificial island's combat power," Tanya asked.

"We have failed to find him by any means, and even the clues in his dreams prove that he is a mythical creature born with intelligence. How are you going to catch him?"

"Captain Tanya."

The envoy from the Empire took a deep breath.

"As someone born on an artificial island, don't you know that the artificial island possesses a massive barrier?"

"I know, what next?"

"And then? Of course, the circle shrinks."

The people from the Empire smiled. No matter where he was hiding, as long as he was born into this circle, once we actively shrink the circle, he was destined to have nowhere to escape.

"Is there such a thing?"

"Of course, this is top secret."

"What about the people living on this island? If I remember correctly, this barrier can't transmit any ghost stories, not even human signals or light signals. It's a completely independent and isolated black box!"

"Now that it's shrunk, what will happen to the people living in it?"

"They will be brought together."

The imperial side explained.

"But rest assured, we won't do anything outrageous. Once the entire barrier shrinks to a certain size, everyone will be gathered together, and then we will activate the large-scale monster extermination technique contained within the barrier!"

"You know this technique; it only targets supernatural tales, not people."

"When everyone is awake, when no one is dreaming, then that ghost can only hide somewhere. Even if it hides in someone else's body, it's useless. The large-scale ghost extermination technique ignores the human body. At that time, it will either die or walk into the golden coffin we have made for it!"

"I understand."

Tanya nodded.

Hearing about the Empire's plan, she felt less nervous. Yes, as a supernatural tale that relies on dreams, when everyone is gathered together, whoever falls asleep becomes the subject of the tale. When everyone is awake, you can no longer hide in a dream. Without a dream, facing a large-scale tale-erasing technique, your fate is already sealed.
"I can only say, as expected of an empire."

The woman in the white robe sighed.

"When they arrested me, there wasn't such a well-developed plan yet."

Yes, the woman in the white robe is also a ghost story, and a particularly vicious one at that, a death ghost story.

Anyone whose real name she knows will be marked.

Once marked, there is no escaping her pursuit; there is no escape, no matter where you go.

At that time, the Eastern Empire also spent a huge amount of resources to take it over, and then through special means, it contracted it to Tanya, making it Tanya's guardian to manage the artificial island.

Of course, the woman in the white robe could no longer use her own abilities; her powers had been completely sealed. Now, she was merely used as Tanya's energy pack, making it easier for Tanya to control the supernatural weapons on her body.

In short, prepare for battle.

The woman in the white robe took a deep breath.

"As fellow ghost stories, I feel that this one will definitely not surrender easily."
-
In the sky, Li Zhongren, concealed, silently watched all of this.

The barrier surrounding the entire artificial island began to shrink, and everyone was gathered together. Of course, there were a very few who refused to obey, but the empire didn't care. As the barrier contracted, these people were ground into bloody pulp.

Finally, the hundreds of thousands of people living in this town were all gathered in a huge square.

This is right in the center of town. Ever since this square came into being, everyone has been curious about why there is so many huge squares.

Now I know, this place is specifically used for this purpose.

A dense crowd gathered together, some standing, some sitting, talking to each other while gazing at the enormous wall of light around them.

This is a super barrier unique to the Empire: the Wall of Sighs.

This is an absolute defensive barrier.

Several streamlined silver shuttles, their surfaces covered with complex rune circuits, hovered in the sky above the plaza. These were the exclusive vehicles of the Imperial Anti-Strange Tales Bureau, the "Nightmare Exorcists."

"Initiate the 'Clean Source' procedure."

The envoy's voice resounded throughout the square through the amplification array, carrying an undeniable authority.

"Step 1: Memory Erasure Technique - Wide Area Silence."

"Objective: To eliminate all recent memory traces of 'pleasant dreams,' 'abnormal sleep,' and related events in all individuals, ensuring a clear and stable state of consciousness, and creating a pure environment for the disinfection procedure."

An uproar erupted in the square; fear instantly replaced confusion.

Erasing memories? That's more unsettling than simply gathering them together.

Tens of thousands of people became agitated, and pushing, shoving, and crying began to spread.

"quiet!"

Tanya's voice boomed like thunder, carrying the pressure of her being a guardian, and temporarily suppressed the chaos.

Her face was equally pale. As a local, she understood better than the imperial envoy what this meant: countless ordinary days, and perhaps even precious private moments, would be ruthlessly erased. The woman in white sighed silently beside her, golden runic chains faintly visible beneath her white robes.

"Om!!"

Before people could react, a blinding white light simultaneously shone from the bottom of the hovering Nightmare Exorcism Ship, and countless slender beams of light, each containing powerful spiritual energy, were precisely projected downwards, like a huge net of light covering the entire square.

The beam of light was not a physical attack, but rather acted directly on the mental level.

Large-scale memory erasure technique - Wide-area silencing - activated!
Hundreds of thousands of people were struck simultaneously as if by an invisible giant hammer!

Intense dizziness and a splitting headache swept over everyone.

Countless fragments of last night's dreams—those hazy sweetness, fleeting peace, and strange visions—were wildly stirred, pulled, and peeled away by an invisible force.

It's like someone roughly erasing a specific color from a canvas with an eraser, leaving behind messy blank spaces and blurred marks.

"Well!"

"what!"

"my head!"

...The painful groans merged into a suffocating tide.

People crouch down or fall down, their eyes instantly losing focus. As their memories are forcibly erased, a powerful mental shock rages through their consciousness like a storm.

"It's now!"

Hidden in the air, Li Zhongren clearly "senses" the massive and chaotic mental storm below. Hundreds of thousands of consciousnesses are violently shaken and their defenses are collapsing under the violent effect of the cleansing technique, like fragile candles exposed to the storm. The deliberately created "clear" environment has not yet been established. Instead, due to the brutality of the cleansing technique, everyone's mental barriers have dropped to an unprecedented low.

This is the moment he's been waiting for!
"A collective dream, a thousand souls sharing a pillow!"

This was the ability he gained after invading the dreams of several people and absorbing enough supernatural energy. It was a group skill, and its range wasn't large, at most ten football fields. But compared to an artificial island, it was still too small. Unfortunately, he didn't expect the Empire to make such a decision.
"All I can say is, when the time is right, everything works in your favor, haha."

"Li Zhongren's core consciousness erupted with unprecedented light. He no longer cautiously infiltrated a single dream, but instead transformed his powerful will into an invisible giant net. Following the chaotic mental storm, it spread like mercury across the ground and instantly invaded the hundreds of thousands of minds below that were blurred with pain and completely defenseless!"

A strange, indescribable resonance spread across the square.

The painful groans that had filled the air just a second ago came to an abrupt halt.

Hundreds of thousands of people, regardless of gender or age, whether standing, sitting, or lying down, at the same instant, their bodies completely relaxed, their heads slightly lowered or tilted back, their eyes empty, and their breathing became long and synchronized.

Everyone, enter a dream!

An unprecedented, vast dream, constructed by hundreds of thousands of consciousnesses, was born with a roar inside the Wailing Wall of the real world!

in a dream
The sky remained the same gray sky shrouded in a barrier of light.

The massive, golden Wailing Wall still stands tall, cold, hard, and exuding an aura of despair and isolation. It feels closer than reality, almost pressing down on everyone.

Tens of thousands of "people" are densely packed in the same square, looking up at the seemingly unchanging wall of light. The boundless sense of oppression is like a real tide, engulfing every consciousness. Fear, suffocation, despair, imprisonment... all the negative emotions of everyone are infinitely amplified, intertwined and resonate in this shared dream.

In the center of the square, Li Zhongren's figure slowly materialized.

He is no longer in human form, but has become the embodiment of this overwhelming negative emotion and the massive collective will!
The focus of hundreds of thousands of eyes, the shared desire to "break free" and "escape," surged toward him like a raging torrent.

He opened his arms.

A faint, grayish-white mist emanated from each "person" in the square—it was the fear and repression of the Wailing Wall that had accumulated in their hearts.

Countless wisps of mist, like rivers flowing into the sea, frantically converged into his raised hand. The grayish-white mist burst forth with dazzling light as it gathered and compressed, its form rapidly changing. It was no longer mist, but condensed, forged, and quenched!
"A rocket launcher!"

"What the hell?"

Looking at this thing, even Li Zhongren himself was somewhat surprised. Dreams are unrestricted, but the repression of hundreds of thousands of people ultimately coalesced into an RPG. It just goes to show how deeply modern weaponry has permeated people's minds.
real world.

The square was deathly silent; hundreds of thousands of people stood motionless like statues, with only the sound of even, eerie breathing.

The people from the Anti-Ghost Stories Bureau were stunned.

"what happened?"

The imperial envoy's expression changed drastically as he sensed an incomprehensible and terrifying mental fluctuation in the center of the square, far exceeding any individual ghost story.

"Extermination Technique! Immediately activate the large-scale extermination technique for ghost stories!"

The runes on the Nightmare Exorcism Ship instantly turned a blinding crimson, and destructive energy began to condense—a pure energy shockwave powerful enough to instantly purify even the most powerful supernatural tales!

Dream world.

Li Zhongren grabbed the RPG formed from the dream energy of hundreds of thousands of people, and in a flash, he left the dream world and came to the real world.

His appearance was exactly the same as in his dream.

He seemed like a refined gentleman.

A suit, a cape, a top hat, and a mask.

Of course, the most important thing is the RPG rocket on his shoulder during the disaster relief!
"Ahem, thank you."

Li Zhongren raised his head and looked directly at the Imperial envoy and the guardian Tanya on the airship.

"boom!!"

The RPG was launched.

There was no earth-shattering sound, only a tooth-grinding "sizzle" as if space itself were being shattered.

Under the collective "gaze" of hundreds of thousands of consciousnesses, the Wailing Wall, which incorporated the empire's highest technology and was touted as an absolute defense, was blasted open, leaving a hole.
(End of this chapter)