Dream Ghost

Ren'an Hospital, in the east of the city.

When Lin Ye arrived with Chen Xuan and Su Wanning, the entire inpatient building had already been cleared out. There wasn't a single patient or family member in the corridors, only a few association members in dark blue uniforms standing guard at the various entrances and exits.

"Hospitals are high-risk areas for dream creature invasions," Su Wanning explained as they walked. "Patients are in unstable mental states and have weak subconscious defenses, making them easy targets. That's why we have agreements with major hospitals; when a suspected case occurs, the hospital will cooperate with us to clear the area."

"What's the reason for clearing the area?" Lin Ye asked.

"Gas leak," Su Wanning said without changing his expression.

They went up to the sixth floor and stopped at the door of a ward at the end of the corridor. A young man, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, wearing glasses and holding a tablet computer, stood in the doorway. He saw Chen Xuan and nodded.

"Captain Chen, the situation is not good." The bespectacled man handed the tablet to Chen Xuan. "The patient's name is He Xiaohe, seven years old, and she has been hospitalized for three days due to pneumonia. She started showing abnormalities early this morning—her dream fluctuation index exceeded three times the normal value, and it is still rising."

"Intrusion level?"

"Initial assessment indicates it's at the page level, but the fluctuation curve is abnormal." The bespectacled man pointed to a line on the screen. "Look here, the peak appears every fifteen minutes, very regularly. This doesn't seem like a naturally formed dream creature; it's more like... someone is remotely controlling it."

Chen Xuan's expression turned serious. He turned to Lin Ye and asked, "What do you think?"

Lin Ye took the tablet and quickly browsed the data. He studied psychology, not clinically, but he still had basic data analysis skills. The fluctuation curve was indeed abnormal—the fluctuations of naturally formed dream creatures should be random and irregular. But the peak intervals of this line were extremely precise, occurring every fifteen minutes with an error of less than ten seconds.

"It was deliberate," Lin Ye said. "It's probably the same group of people working on the previous app."

"That's what I think too." Chen Xuan handed the tablet back to the bespectacled man. "What's the situation in the ward right now?"

"The patient's parents are inside," the bespectacled man said. "The mother has been by the bedside the whole time, and the father is in the hallway outside. The child is not very conscious and keeps talking in his sleep, shouting things like 'Don't come any closer' or 'Don't come near me.'"

Chen Xuan pushed open the door to the ward.

Lin Ye followed behind and went inside.

The ward was small, with two beds, the one by the window was empty. Lying on the bed near the door was a thin girl, pale-faced, with purple lips and her forehead covered in sweat. Her eyes were closed, but her eyeballs were moving rapidly—a typical REM sleep state, indicating she was dreaming.

A woman in her early thirties, presumably the girl's mother, sat beside the bed. She held her daughter's hand, her eyes red and swollen, but she wasn't crying. When she saw Chen Xuan and Lin Ye enter, she simply nodded without saying a word.

Su Wanning walked to the woman's side, squatted down, and said softly, "Aunt He, we're here to help Xiao He. What's about to happen might be a little... unusual, but please trust us and don't be afraid."

The woman looked into Su Wanning's eyes, remained silent for a few seconds, and then said, "As long as my daughter can be saved, I'm not afraid of anything."

Su Wanning squeezed her hand, stood up, and looked at Chen Xuan.

Chen Xuan took out the three metal pieces from his pocket and handed one to Lin Ye and one to Su Wanning.

"You and Su Wanning go in this time," he said. "I'll keep watch outside."

Lin Ye was taken aback: "Me?"

"Didn't you successfully enter a dream last night?" Chen Xuan said. "And your perception in dreams is stronger than ours. Su Wanning is experienced; she'll guide you. I'll monitor the data outside, and if there are any anomalies, I'll forcibly wake you all up."

"What if that creature is stronger than we expected?"

"Then run," Chen Xuan said bluntly. "In a dream, running isn't shameful. Losing your life is shameful."

Lin Ye took the metal plate and placed it on his right palm. The moment the mark touched the metal plate, that strange resonance occurred again.

"Are you ready?" Su Wanning walked to his side.

Lin Ye looked at the thin, small girl on the bed. She was only seven years old, her face as white as paper, her lips moving slightly as if she were saying something. Lin Ye listened intently and could barely make out a few words—

"...Mom...I'm so scared..."

He gripped the metal piece in his hand tightly.

"Ready."

All three metal plates lit up with blue light at the same time.

Lin Ye closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in an amusement park.

But this is a distorted amusement park. The horses on the carousel have their heads down, their eyes appearing as two black holes; the slides are covered in moss, emitting a damp, rotten smell; and the spokes of the Ferris wheel are entwined with dense vines, resembling a giant spider web.

The sky was gray and the sun was nowhere to be seen; there was only a thick layer of clouds that seemed to be pressing everything down.

"Is this He Xiaohe's dream?" Lin Ye asked.

"Yes." Su Wanning stood beside him, her expression wary. "A seven-year-old's dream should be colorful and bright. But this dream..." She didn't finish her sentence.

Lin Ye understood what she meant. The dream was gloomy and cold, as if something had sucked away all its color and warmth.

"Where is it?" he asked.

"Come with me to the place in your dream that you fear most," Su Wanning said.

She led Lin Ye through the twisted amusement park towards a building. In the very center of the amusement park stood a castle—or more accurately, a dismantled castle. Huge cracks ripped through the walls, and the towers leaned precariously, threatening to collapse at any moment. The castle gates were wide open, revealing a pitch-black interior, like the gaping mouth of some colossal beast.

"A fairytale castle should be a symbol of safety in a child's dream," Su Wanning said. "But in He Xiaohe's dream, it became the most terrifying place. That creature must be inside."

The two entered the castle.

The interior space was much larger than the exterior, with crisscrossing corridors resembling a maze. The walls were adorned with murals of various fairytale characters—Snow White, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood—but every single one was distorted. Snow White's mouth was drawn to the base of her ears, revealing two rows of sharp teeth; Cinderella's glass slipper had become spiked iron boots; and countless long, thin tentacles extended from beneath Little Red Riding Hood's cloak.

Lin Ye's senses extended to their fullest extent. Everything within a ten-meter radius was within his perception—the corner of the corridor, the pipes in the walls, the beams overhead. But there was no trace of that creature.

"It's hiding," Lin Ye said.

"Dream creatures all hide," Su Wanning said. "They don't like direct confrontation; they prefer to lurk in the shadows, slowly wearing down the dreamer's fear. Only when the dreamer is completely broken down will they emerge to reap the rewards."

"How do we find it?"

"Find the dreamer," Su Wanning said. "That creature must be near the dreamer. Because its purpose is to devour the dreamer's fear."

Lin Ye understood. Wherever He Xiaohe was, that creature was there too.

But his senses swept across a ten-meter radius and found no heat source resembling a human figure. Only the distorted murals and damp stone walls.

wrong.

Lin Ye stopped and closed his eyes.

He was using his senses to extend his "seeing" of everything around him, but perhaps he shouldn't just "see." Chen Xuan once said that rules are everything. In this dream, the rules are not the rules of the real world, but rather He Xiaohe's subconscious rules.

What is a seven-year-old girl most afraid of?

It's not a monster. It's not darkness.

It means "cannot find mom".

Lin Ye suddenly opened his eyes.

"The dreamer is not here," he said.

"What?"

"That creature built this playground and this castle to lure the intruders away," Lin Ye said. "It's not in the castle. It's with the Dream Master. And the Dream Master—"

He looked up at the gray sky.

"Up there."

Su Wanning followed his gaze and her expression changed.

They turned and ran.

As Lin Ye rushed out of the castle, his senses detected a faint signal. It wasn't coming from the ground, but from the sky. Above that thick layer of gray clouds, something was there.

Very small. Very light. Like a curled-up child.

"He Xiaohe!" Lin Ye pointed to the sky.

Su Wanning immediately understood. The creature wasn't hiding inside the castle; it had dragged He Xiaohe's subconscious into the sky and then used the amusement park and castle as bait to distract the intruder.

"How do we get up there?" Su Wanning asked.

Lin Ye didn't answer. He was thinking. He was thinking about the rules of this dream.

In He Xiaohe's dream, the sky was gray, and the clouds were as thick as a wall. But the clouds weren't a real wall—they represented a child's fear of being "out of reach." Out of reach of the stars, out of reach of the drifting helium balloon, out of reach of her mother's outstretched hand.

It's not that I can't reach it, it's that I'm afraid I won't be able to reach it, so I can't reach it.

"Rule analysis," Lin Ye said in a low voice.

He stretched out his hand and pointed it at the sky.

He wasn't trying to "reach." He was "commanding." Commanding the sky to make way for him.

The gray clouds began to churn.

It wasn't a tumbling motion driven by the wind, but rather like a curtain being parted by an invisible hand. A crack appeared in the center of the clouds, growing wider and wider, revealing what lay above—

A tiny girl was curled up in mid-air, her hands wrapped around her knees, her eyes tightly closed. Her body was trembling slightly, as if she were enduring great pain.

And behind her stood something.

It was a "person." Tall and thin, wearing a long black coat and a black top hat. Its face was blank—no eyes, no nose, no mouth, only a smooth, eggshell-like white surface.

But it has "expressions." Not expressions expressed through facial features, but rather messages conveyed directly to Lin Ye through consciousness:

"You've arrived."

"I've been waiting for you for so long."

Su Wanning gasped: "This isn't an ordinary page-level thing... It's conscious! It can think!"

The thing tilted its head. Although its face was blank, Lin Ye felt that it was "smiling".

It stretched out its hand, pointing one finger at Lin Ye.

Then it "said" the third message:

"You're not here to save her. You're here to die."

Lin Ye did not back down.

On the palm of his right hand, the mark was burning wildly. Not with a warm, devouring heat, but with a scorching, furious heat. It was as if something deep within his consciousness had awakened, telling him: This is not prey. This is an opponent. But this should not exist here.

"Su Wanning," Lin Ye said, "how long can you hold it off?"

Su Wanning was taken aback: "What do you want to do?"

"I'm going to save He Xiaohe," Lin Ye said. "You hold it off. Thirty seconds."

"Are you crazy? That's the page level! I'm only at the early stage of Dream Controller—"

"Twenty seconds."

Su Wanning looked into his eyes. There was no fear, no hesitation, only a chillingly calm determination in those eyes.

She gritted her teeth: "Twenty seconds. Not a second more."

Lin Ye nodded.

Then he ran away.

He wasn't running towards that thing, but towards the sky. His feet trod on the void, as if stepping on invisible stairs, rising step by step. With each step, the void beneath his feet solidified a little more—it wasn't that he was flying, but that he was "commanding" the dream to pave the way for him.

That thing moved.

It didn't chase Lin Ye, but instead pounced on Su Wanning. Its speed was unbelievable; the black coat left a trail of afterimages behind it.

Su Wanning did not retreat. Her hands moved rapidly in front of her, as if weaving something. Countless silver threads appeared in the air, intertwining into a large net, blocking the thing in front of it.

That thing hit the net.

The silver threads trembled violently, but did not break. A trickle of blood escaped from the corner of Su Wanning's mouth, but she gritted her teeth and stubbornly held on.

"Five seconds!" she shouted.

Lin Ye didn't turn around. He had already run to He Xiaohe's side. The little girl was curled up, her whole body ice-cold, as if something had sucked all her warmth away.

"He Xiaohe," Lin Ye crouched down and said softly, "Your mother is waiting for you. Wake up."

The little girl did not respond.

Lin Ye reached out and grasped her cold little hand. His senses extended along the contact and surged into the girl's consciousness—he saw it. He saw what that creature had done to her.

It didn't directly devour her fear. It "savored" it. Little by little, like licking candy, it slowly sucked away her fear. Every time she was afraid, it took a lick. Every time she cried, it took a lick. It didn't want a large meal, but a long, exquisite, ritualistic feast.

Lin Ye felt his mark vibrating. It wasn't a vibration of craving to devour, but something deeper, more primal.

anger.

It wasn't his anger. It was the anger of the mark itself.

"Eat." A voice echoed in his mind.

It wasn't the system's voice. It wasn't Chen Xuan's voice. It was an older voice, as if it came from the deepest part of a dream.

"Eat it."

Lin Ye didn't have time to think about where the voice came from. He released He Xiaohe's hand, stood up, and turned around.

Three of Su Wanning's silver threads had broken, and the remaining four were trembling violently. Her face was deathly pale, and blood was dripping from the corner of her mouth down her chin.

"Ten seconds!" Her voice was already hoarse.

The thing tilted its head again, and its blank face "looked" at Lin Ye.

It's laughing.

Lin Ye reached out his hand.

It wasn't about reaching for the object itself, but about "reaching" for He Xiaohe's dream. His perception extended beyond ten meters, surging out like a tide, covering the entire amusement park, the entire castle, and the entire hazy sky. He sensed every corner of the dream, every crack, every wound corroded by fear.

He sensed the creature's "roots".

It's not just hidden in He Xiaohe's dreams. Its "roots" have penetrated deep into He Xiaohe's subconscious, intertwined with her fears, and impossible to remove. If it were forcibly removed, He Xiaohe's subconscious would also be severely damaged; she might lose her memory, lose her emotions, or even become a person without consciousness.

But Lin Ye doesn't need to get rid of it.

He can "eat" it.

"Su Wanning, withdraw the network," he said.

"What?!"

"Withdraw the network!"

Su Wanning gritted his teeth and retracted the last few silver threads.

Once freed, the creature immediately pounced on Lin Ye. It moved with the speed of a black lightning bolt, its black coat leaving a long afterimage behind it.

Lin Ye did not dodge.

He reached out and grabbed that "hand".

The sensation was the same as the first time—not cold, not hot, but "empty." But this time, he didn't passively wait to be devoured. He actively and consciously, as if performing a precise surgery, extended his senses along the point of contact and injected them into the thing's "body."

He "saw" its structure.

It is not a complete organism. It is pieced together from countless fragments—each fragment born from the fear of a different person, forcibly bound together by some force. At its core is a black crystal, about the size of a fist, covered with densely packed runes.

That rune was exactly the same as the one I saw in the basement before.

[Rule analysis in progress—]

[Target Level: Page Level]

[Structure: Artificially synthesized, a composite of multiple sources of fear]

[Weakness: The core rune array – the thirteenth rune is the splicing point, where stress is concentrated]

[Recommendation: Use the rules to break the thirteenth rune and dismantle the aggregate structure]

Lin Ye concentrated all his senses and "stabbed" at the rune.

It wasn't a physical attack. It was an attack on the rules. It was telling the dream: that rune shouldn't exist. That rune didn't conform to the rules of this world. That rune was "wrong."

The dream accepted his command.

The rune cracked.

Then the entire core began to disintegrate.

The thing let out a silent scream—not a sound, but a sharp, piercing pain that went straight to the brain. Its body began to disintegrate, black fragments peeling off like a blanket of black snow.

Lin Ye did not let those fragments go.

He opened his hands and began to devour.

[Devouring—]

[Rule parsing successful]

[Target: Page-level artificial aggregate]

[Acquired Ability: Fear Perception (Can sense the emotional state of living beings within a 100-meter radius)]

[Gained Ability: Rule Rift (Can identify the rule weaknesses of dream creatures)]

[Fragment Evolution: Fragment → Book Page (37%)]

Fragments drifted down. The thing vanished.

He Xiaohe's dream began to rebuild. The gray sky began to clear, the distorted amusement park regained its color, and the cracks in the castle began to heal. He Xiaohe's body was no longer curled up, and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Mom..." she whispered.

Then she saw Lin Ye.

The seven-year-old girl looked at the strange man without fear. She reached out and touched Lin Ye's face.

"Big brother," she said, "are you an angel?"

Lin Ye didn't know how to answer.

Su Wanning walked over, her face pale but with a smile: "No, he's not an angel. He's a madman."

He Xiaohe smiled.

That was the first bright spot Lin Ye saw in this dream.

The three metal plates lit up with a blue light.

They returned to reality.

In the hospital room, He Xiaohe's mother held her daughter's hand, tears streaming down her face. He Xiaohe slowly opened her eyes, clear, bright, and without a trace of fear.

"Mom," she said, "I had a very, very long dream."

"It's alright now." The mother hugged her daughter tightly. "It's alright, Mom's here."

Chen Xuan put away the metal piece and glanced at Lin Ye.

"Did you use rule parsing in it?" he asked.

"Um."

"In actual combat?"

"Um."

Chen Xuan was silent for a few seconds, then patted Lin Ye on the shoulder.

"You've passed," he said. "From today onwards, you are an official Dream Enterer."

Lin Ye looked down at his right palm.

The mark had changed. It was no longer a faint, blurry trace, but a clear symbol emitting a faint blue light. The outline of an eye, with a crescent moon reflected in its pupil.

It's exactly the same as the association's logo.

But it wasn't given to him by the association.

It grew out of itself.

In the corridor, the young man with glasses stared at the data on the tablet, his expression growing increasingly grim. He hesitated for a moment, then walked over to Chen Xuan.

"Team Leader Chen, there's a situation."

"explain."

"We detected a signal the instant that creature disappeared." He handed the tablet to Chen Xuan. "It didn't come from the dream; it came from the real world. Someone is remotely monitoring that creature's movements."

"Can you locate it?"

"Yes," the bespectacled man said. "The signal source is in the west of the city, about fifteen kilometers away from here."

Chen Xuan's gaze darkened.

"Get the car ready," he said. "Let's go take a look."

He turned to look at Lin Ye.

"Didn't you want to know who made these things?"

Lin Ye didn't speak. He clenched his fist, the crescent moon mark on his palm slightly warm.

West of the city.

In a basement.

A person sat in the darkness, the last frame of the image playing on the screen in front of him—Lin Ye reached out and grabbed the aggregate.

That person smiled.

"Interesting," he said. "Really interesting."

He reached out and typed a line on the keyboard:

"First sacrifice confirmed. Code name: Sleeper. Status: Awakened."

A green reply popped up on the screen:

"Continue to observe. Prepare for the second phase."

In the darkness, the man's smile grew wider and wider.

He licked his lips.

"Lin Ye," he said softly, "you taste even better than I expected."

"Once you've fattened up a bit more... I'll come and harvest you myself."

The basement lights went out.

Only the faint light from the screen reflected a pair of greedy eyes.