Dream Ghost

Lin Ye did not turn around.

He stood before the enormous container, gazing at the woman suspended within. Her expression was serene, as if she were in a dream from which she would never awaken. But on her chest, the gray mark resembled a scar that had healed too long, devoid of any life.

"What's her name?" Lin Ye asked.

"Shen Yutong." Gu Yan's voice came from behind. "Twenty-eight years old, elementary school teacher. She likes to draw and has a cat named 'Nian Gao' (Rice Cake). She did that app test because one of her students kept having nightmares, and she wanted to help that child."

Lin Ye's fingers pressed against the container wall, the cold sensation spreading from his fingertips to his palm.

"How was she chosen?"

"She wasn't chosen." Gu Yan walked to Lin Ye's side and stood in front of another container. "She was 'matched.' The fragments aren't randomly attached; they choose the most 'suitable' person. Shen Yutong's subconscious structure, her sensitivity to fear, even her personality—everything about her perfectly matches the requirements of the second fragment. So she was chosen."

"And the first one?"

Gu Yan pointed to another container in the corner of the space. Inside was also a woman, in her forties, with short hair and a serene face.

"Zhao Min, 36 years old, a senior executive at a company. The holder of the first fragment," Gu Yan said. "She was 'harvested' five months ago. Her body is still alive, but her consciousness has completely disappeared."

Lin Ye turned around and looked at Gu Yan.

"And you?"

"I am the fourth piece," Gu Yan said. "Three years ago, I was found by the Dream Weavers. They gave me two choices: offer up the fragment, or die."

"You chose to give."

"I chose to live," Gu Yan corrected. "By sacrificing the fragment, I won't die. I'll just become an ordinary person. I don't think that's bad—I won't have nightmares anymore, I won't have to face those monsters anymore, and I won't have to watch my companions die in front of me anymore."

"But you regret it."

A flicker of emotion crossed Gu Yan's eyes.

How did you know?

"Because you're here now," Lin Ye said. "If you didn't regret it, you wouldn't have come looking for me."

Gu Yan remained silent for a few seconds.

"After giving up the fragments, I became an ordinary person," he said. "I had no extended senses, no rules to analyze, and I could no longer enter dreams. I thought I could finally live a normal life. But then I discovered something."

"What is it?"

"The Dream Weavers didn't use the fragments to repair the seal." Gu Yan's voice became very low. "They stored the fragments... away. All the fragments—the seven fragments from the past three thousand years, except for yours and Chen Xuan's, are in their hands."

Lin Ye frowned.

Why?

"Because they don't want to repair the seal." Gu Yan looked at him. "They want to open it."

The space was silent for a few seconds. The fluorescent lights hummed, like some kind of low-frequency buzzing.

"Didn't you say they were filling the cracks in the seal with human fear?" Lin Ye asked.

"That's a lie," Gu Yan said. "They are indeed filling the cracks, but they are not reinforcing the seal. They are 'diluting' the seal—using human fear to neutralize the rules of the seal. Each time it is filled, the seal weakens a little. When the seal is weakened to a certain extent, they can use the fragments as keys to completely open it."

What will happen after the seal is broken?

"The 'Primal Fear' will awaken," Gu Yan said. "It's not a creature, not an entity. It's a... rule. A rule older than dreams, more primal than fear. Three thousand years ago, the earliest dreamers joined forces to shatter it, sealing it in the deepest part of the Dream Continent. But if it awakens again, it will devour the consciousness of all humanity—not kill, but devour. Everyone will become an empty shell, like them."

Gu Yan pointed to those containers.

Lin Ye looked at the black substances suspended in the liquid.

"What about these dream creatures? What are they?"

"They're 'feed'," Gu Yan said. "Dreamweaver uses human fear to create them, and then lets them erode ordinary people. Each erosion generates more fear, and that more fear is used to create even more creatures. It's a self-circulating system. And all the fear eventually flows to the seal—to dilute it, to weaken it."

"What about Chen Xuan? Why did he go to the Dream Continent?"

"He thought he was going to rescue his daughter," Gu Yan said. "But his daughter wasn't in the Dream Continent at all. She was in a deep sleep in the medical center at the association headquarters. The Dream Weavers lured him into the Dream Continent with a false clue."

"What's the point of bringing it in?"

"Because he is the fifth fragment." Gu Yan looked at Lin Ye. "Chen Xuan is the holder of the fifth fragment. But he has never known it. His abilities, his talent, the speed at which he became a Dream Weaver—all of it comes from that fragment. The Dream Weaver Society needs his fragment. If he enters the Dream Continent and is 'harvested' there, the fragment will directly merge into the seal without needing any transformation."

Lin Ye clenched his fists.

"So this is a trap."

"It was from the very beginning," Gu Yan said. "From the moment you started testing that app, from the moment you were marked as the third sacrifice, from the moment Chen Xuan received that false clue—everything was designed by the Dream Weavers. They need seven fragments to break the seal. They've already obtained four—the first, second, sixth, and seventh. The sixth and seventh are from hundreds of years ago; they collected them long ago. You're the third, Gu Yan is the fourth, and Chen Xuan is the fifth."

"You said you offered up the fragments."

"I gave it up," Gu Yan said. "But they didn't use my fragment to repair the seal; instead, they stored it away. So, strictly speaking, I am the 'original holder' of the fourth fragment, but the fragment itself is still in the hands of the Dream Weavers."

Lin Ye remained silent for a long time.

The fluorescent lights hummed overhead. A black substance churned slowly in a container, as if in a dream.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Lin Ye asked.

"Because I need you to do me a favor," Gu Yan said.

"What kind of help?"

"Help me get my fragments back."

Lin Ye looked at him.

"You just said that after giving up the fragments, you became an ordinary person. But now you can use your senses to extend and track me, and you can stand here and talk to me. You are not an ordinary person."

Gu Yan's lips curled up slightly, but it wasn't a smile; it was a bitter curve.

"I am indeed an ordinary person," he said. "I have no extended senses. I have no rule-based analysis. I cannot enter dreams."

"So how did you follow me that night?"

"It wasn't me," Gu Yan said. "It was 'him'."

"Who?"

Gu Yan did not answer. He reached out and pressed his hand to his chest.

"Do you know what it feels like to have a fragment removed?" he asked.

Lin Ye shook his head.

"It's like there's a hole in your body," Gu Yan said. "Not a physical hole, but a hole in your consciousness. You're used to using your senses to 'see' the world, used to moving freely in dreams, used to that... feeling of control over everything. Suddenly, everything is gone. You become an ordinary person, but your brain still remembers those abilities. It will constantly 'try' to use them, and then find that it can't use anything. That feeling... is worse than death."

He lowered his hand.

"But then, I started to hear sounds."

What was that sound?

"It wasn't something I heard with my ears." Gu Yan pointed to his head. "It was here. A voice, very soft, very distant, as if coming from a very, very deep place. It told me that my fragments weren't destroyed, that they were still there. It was still waiting for me."

"Did that voice come from 'Primal Fear'?"

"I don't know," Gu Yan said. "Maybe. Maybe not. But it taught me one thing—there's some kind of connection between the fragment and its holder, and even if it's taken away, that connection isn't completely severed. As long as the fragment remains, I can borrow its power. Not a complete restoration, but...borrowing. Each time I borrow, it consumes my life force. That night, when I followed you, I used my perception extension, and the price was..."

He rolled up his sleeves.

His forearm had an abnormal grayish-white skin, as if the blood hadn't been circulating for a long time.

"Three days," he said. "Each time I borrow it, my body ages by three days. If I borrow it a few more times, my organs will start to fail."

Lin Ye looked at the grayish-white skin without saying a word.

"So you need me to help you get the pieces back," he said.

"Yes." Gu Yan lowered his sleeve. "Your ability is to devour. If you can devour my fragments—not destroy them, but 'extract' them—and then return them to me, I can recover. And you will also gain the power of the fourth fragment."

"Why can't you take it yourself?"

"Because I can't enter the Dream Continent," Gu Yan said. "The fragment is in the Forbidden Layer, Third Seal of the Dream Continent. That's the core stronghold of the Dream Weavers, and only Dream Weavers and above can reliably enter. I'm just an ordinary person now, so I can't get in."

"I can't get in either. I'm only at the peak of the Dream Enterer realm."

"Do you have the anchor point Chen Xuan provided?"

Lin Ye paused for a moment, then took out the black metal piece from his pocket.

"This isn't an emergency communicator," Gu Yan glanced at it. "This is an anchor point. It's different from the one Chen Xuan gave you. His was black, which means he already knew you'd need to enter the Dream Continent. The black anchor point is specially made; it can carry an ordinary person in."

Lin Ye looked down at the black metal piece.

The "emergency communicator" that Chen Xuan mentioned before leaving was actually the key to enter the Dream Continent.

he knows.

He always knew.

"You still haven't answered my question." Lin Ye looked up. "Are you a member of the Dream Weaver Society or not?"

Gu Yan remained silent for a few seconds.

"I joined them to get this information," he said. "But I've never done anything for them. My body is in their hands, but my consciousness... is still here."

"Your body is in their hands?"

"That's right," Gu Yan said. "Do you think the person standing in front of you is a 'person'? I am a projection of consciousness. My body is in a stronghold of the Dream Weavers, and they control me. I can project my consciousness briefly, but every time I do, my body suffers a backlash."

He extended his hand. Lin Ye took it.

The texture was strange. It wasn't cold, nor was it hot, but rather a "semi-transparent" feeling—like holding a shaped ball of air.

"I don't have much time left," Gu Yan said. "This projection can last for about ten more minutes. I need your answer."

Lin Ye released his grip.

"What do you need me to do?"

"Three days later, midnight, Dream Continent, Misty Coast," Gu Yan said. "I'll be waiting for you there. Take Chen Xuan's anchor point, and Su Wanning too. Her ability to identify debris will be very useful in the Dream Continent."

"Is Su Wanning going too?"

"She's already on her way," Gu Yan said. "She's gone to find Chen Xuan."

Lin Ye's heart sank.

"What?"

"She got a silver anchor from Old Zhou at the 'Old Times' café," Gu Yan said. "She thought she was going to find Chen Xuan, but in reality, she was also being guided by the Dream Weavers. The silver anchor isn't an ordinary anchor; it will lead her to the third seal—the Dream Weavers want to use her to blackmail Chen Xuan."

Lin Ye turned and left.

"Wait a minute," Gu Yan called out to him.

Lin Ye turned around.

"It's too late for you to go now," Gu Yan said. "She's already entered the Dream Continent. The only thing you can do is arrive at the Misty Coast three days from now. I will take you to find her."

How do I know you're telling the truth?

"You can't know," Gu Yan said, "but you have no other choice."

His figure began to become transparent, as if something was slowly erasing it from the edges.

"My time is up," he said. "Three days from now, Misty Coast. Remember, take the anchor point."

His figure disappeared completely.

Lin Ye was left alone in the space, along with the black substance floating in the containers.

He stood in front of the enormous container, looking at the woman inside.

Shen Yutong. Elementary school teacher. Likes to draw. Owns a cat named "Nian Gao" (Rice Cake).

She wanted to help a student who was having nightmares, and then she lost everything.

Lin Ye removed his hand from the container wall and turned to walk towards the exit.

The black anchor in his palm was slightly warm.

Three days.

He only has three days.

When Lin Ye walked out of the crematorium, it was almost dawn.

The eastern sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn, and the city's outline gradually became clear in the morning light.

He took out his phone and sent a message to Su Wanning:

"Where are you?"

No reply.

He dialed her number again.

The number you dialed is currently switched off.

Lin Ye put away his phone, stood in front of the crematorium gate, and looked at the distant horizon.

Su Wanning entered the Dream Continent. Chen Xuan was also there. Gu Yan's fragments were in the third seal. The Dream Weaver Society was preparing to open the seal.

But he only had three days.

Three days later, he was going to a place he had never been before and to face things he had never faced before.

Lin Ye gripped the black anchor point in his palm.

He didn't go home.

He went to the association headquarters.

The dream creatures left behind by Chen Xuan are still in the training room.

Lin Ye walked to the front of the biological storage facility and opened the door.

A dozen or so book-sized creatures wriggled, rolled, and roared inside.

He went inside.

The door closed behind him.

Outside the training room, a line of data popped up on the monitoring screen:

[Fragment Level: Page (67%) → Page (68%)...]

The numbers are jumping slowly.

In the training room, Lin Ye stood in the darkness, facing a group of hungry dream creatures.

The crescent-shaped eye mark on his palm was glowing.

He began to devour.