I created a safe zone in the nightmare world.

Chapter 92 Choosing Five Out of Seven (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Safe zone, store manager's office.

Even now, Shi An still felt a chill, and her hands and feet were icy cold.

He had never had a clear understanding of the actual crisis in Baijiang City. Because at least the overall environment was still stable, and he had his bodyguard, Mingyi, protecting him, so even if he encountered any danger, he could break through the situation with force.

but----

"Baijiang City has fallen into a sea of ​​nightmares!"

"I've heard Lao Yao and Lao Song talk about this before. Nightmares invading reality have different levels of impact. The invasion I encountered before was the most basic level. Nightmares don't stay in reality forever, but there are also permanent nightmares and expanding nightmares."

"As the nightmare expands and continues to encroach on every inch of the real world, if it continues for a long time, that area may fall completely into the nightmare and become a part of it."

"Rumor has it that an entire building and a whole village in Baijiang were once swallowed up by nightmares and disappeared from reality."

Shi An had previously harbored paranoia, wondering if the nightmares would intensify and eventually spiral out of control, engulfing the entire city of Baijiang.

In retrospect, his paranoia was mild.

It's not just about whether it will be swallowed up.

Baijiang was swallowed up long ago!

The Great Xia Dynasty might perish!

"No, calm down, calm down, things may not be at their worst yet."

Shi An's long-sealed memories have been unlocked.

He remembered that it was about a year ago when he was a senior in college.

On that day, the sky changed.

Solar eclipse! The sky collapses! The earth caves in! The city crumbles!

The entire city of Baijiang was shrouded in endless gray fog, as if it were in the most desperate hellish apocalypse.

The catastrophe lasted for a very short time.

Even though he had broken through his mental block at that time, Shi An didn't remember much about the situation.

Back then, he was just an ordinary person through and through.

The entire city of Baijiang was not swallowed up little by little, but bitten off in one go and plunged into the sea of ​​nightmares.

The city as a whole.

Disasters happen quickly, and they disappear just as quickly.

With the mind-altering effect in place, the entire city of Baijiang seemed as if nothing had ever happened.

Besides, people will never leave Baijiang City again, nor will they ever think about things outside the city.

"The bad news is that nightmares are everywhere in Baijiang City. Nightmares are crashing and pounding like waves, which is why the number of nightmare invasion disasters in Baijiang has increased exponentially in the past year."

"The only slightly good news is that Baijiang has been swallowed up, but not completely digested. Baijiang City can still be considered a semblance of reality," able to resist the rules of the nightmare world to some extent, though it's unclear how long it can do so.

Shi An recalled.

"Baijiang City belongs to Tiannan Province of the Great Xia Dynasty. Before the city collapsed, there seemed to be some rumors circulating online." At the time, I didn't pay much attention, after all, things online are a mix of truth and falsehood, and with the advent of AI, it's even harder to distinguish between real and fake videos.

"Now that I think about it, the city-fall disaster probably didn't just happen in Baijiang. The question is, has the entire Great Xia, the entire Blue Star, been swallowed by the nightmare, or has the nightmare only swallowed a few or a few dozen cities?"

Shi An is unaware.

He then wondered, "In Baijiang City, do those who have fallen into dreams, like Longniu, understand the situation of the 'City in the Mist'?"

He speculated that Longniu was 99% certain.

It's not just Long Niu; people like Jiang Peng and Xuan Jian, who are close associates of large organizations and hold considerable power, probably also know this secret.

But ordinary people, and even the vast majority of those who fall into dreams—including pre-control experts like Fa Gui—would not know this.

It should be kept secret.

If ordinary people knew that Baekgang was a city shrouded in fog, the entire city would instantly fall into panic.

Panic and the fact that everyone knows about the nightmare could exacerbate its invasion, making an already critical situation even worse.

Shi An's expression was grave.

After learning about this, Bai Jiang is now seen by him as a large ship that could sink at any moment.

He used to think that if the sky fell, the tall people would hold it up.

However, Baijiang is an isolated city, and the highest mountain and the longest river are probably only accessible to a few people, such as the master of the Jiyi Pavilion and the director of the Countermeasures Bureau.

No reinforcements!

He was probably one of the tallest people in the store!

He did indeed have a safe zone to rely on, so even if the entire Baijiang City sank, he could still remain detached and at ease.

However, he is human.

If Baijiang sinks, he will be nothing more than a lonely ghost.

Not to mention that by then there won't be many more dreamers to work for you, just talking about people, people are social animals. If the roots die and the tree rots, how can a lonely fallen leaf survive alone?

"Troublesome! Troublesome!"

Shi An suddenly felt immense pressure, as if a thousand eerie creatures were chasing him from behind.

I'm only starting to study now because I have an exam tomorrow, and I don't have a single chapter saved up for the book to go on sale tomorrow. I've never felt this much pressure before!

After all, he was just a newbie and an ordinary store manager, yet he had to take on the responsibility of managing the three districts and six counties of Baijiang, which had a population of three thousand!

This burden is too heavy!

However, "Baijiang City was able to hold out for a year and a half after it was swallowed up before, so there's no reason to say that I'll sink just as I'm starting to manage the safe zone."

"Old Baijiang, you'd better hold on a little longer and give us some time to develop."

"There's no use worrying now that things have come to this."

He was too weak.

Let's develop first!

The nightmare of ancient villages has already been solved.

Shi An brought up the prompt message that popped up when tackling the Nightmare mode.

"Ding!"

"Notification: You have led the completion of the Core-level Nightmare: Ancient Village," gaining 1000 Faith Points.

Hint: You can choose five of the following seven options as your loot.

Core-level nightmare!

Sure enough, after completing the Ancient Village Nightmare strategy, the rewards were a whole level higher than those of the Polluted Spring Nightmare.

Shi An looked at it carefully.

-

"Option 1: The Cursed Item Raven's Whistle (Rare)"

"Description: This cursed object possesses the power to emit a shrill sound and impact the mind."

"Option ②: Blueprint Spell Power Tester (Special)"

"Description: A facility that can test the amount of magical power. This facility can be connected to various safe zone buildings."

"Note: This blueprint can be entered into the Alchemy Workshop, and can be manufactured indefinitely as long as there are enough materials."

Option 3: 5 membership cards

Note: Omitted.

Option 4: Safe Zone Employee Contract Slot x1

"Note: This can increase the maximum number of employee contracts in a safe zone."

This reward —

"Brilliant!"

Is it because it absorbed the essence of nightmares?

"Option 5: The Cursed Dream Object: Mask of Night Shadows (Excellent)"

"Description: Possesses the power to manipulate shadows and condense energy into the body. Difficult for ordinary people and ordinary dreamers to use."

Shi An's eyes widened.

An exceptional-grade cursed artifact!

He had heard of it, but this was the first time he had ever seen it.

Judging from the description alone, it doesn't necessarily seem much stronger than a rare-grade cursed item.

However, he knew all too well that the gap between the two must be enormous.

"While ordinary Dreamers might not be able to use the Mask of Nightshade directly," I can!

Shi An has already defaulted to taking this trophy.

.——

Option 6: Special Building - Hotel

"Note: A special building, the inn, can be directly placed." The inn offers a relatively pleasant living environment and provides buffs such as "Sleep Aid," "Calm Mind," and "Slow Recovery of Status."

This one is good too!

It seems to be an upgraded version of the original lounge.

Putting aside the benefits, at the very least, the hotel is definitely bigger than a mere lounge.

The safe zone is currently facing problems of limited space and poor accommodation conditions. Even if this hotel doesn't have any special effects, Shi An would still choose to build it.

"Option 7: Special Building Blueprints - Watchtower (3/3)"

"Note 01: This building can be constructed outside the safe zone and does not occupy a building slot in the safe zone itself. This blueprint can be used to build a maximum of three watchtowers."

"Note 02: Observation towers do not possess absolute defensive capabilities, but they still retain considerable defensive strength and resistance to erosion. Furthermore, once an observation tower is built, the safe zone's field of vision and area for attracting visitors will extend forward from that observation tower."

Construction requirements: ————

"This building!"

Although the building was not marked with a rank, Shi An knew that this watchtower was SSR.

He was unsure whether the area for attracting customers would continue to expand after the safe zone was upgraded to LV3.

If not, then we'll have to build watchtowers, extending them deep into the nightmare zone to expand its influence.

Even if upgrading to LV3 would increase the range of random searches for Dreamers, Shi An still believed that the watchtower was crucial, considering that Baijiang was already an isolated city.

「选2、4、5、6、7！」

While Shi An had some free time and began preparing for the safe zone upgrade—

The dreamers are still busy.

At this moment, the Countermeasures Bureau's assault and strategy teams dispersed into small groups of two to three people, and quickly rushed to the surrounding nightmares.

The Countermeasures Bureau had already gathered intelligence on the surrounding Brother Meng.

Even though nightmares may change, this relatively new information can still serve as a very good reference.

They advanced very quickly, making rapid progress.

A strong and efficient squad can take down a nightmare in less than an hour.

Besides the assault team and the strategy team, Xuanjian, Xixue, Taozi, and a large number of civilian dreamers are also going all out to conquer the nightmare.

The former, even without reward, would not hesitate to tackle nightmares.

The latter, they received payment—the Countermeasures Bureau had already issued the relevant commission in the safe zone.

Even without payment, most civilian dreamers would still lend a hand. After this operation, they had already realized that the Countermeasures Bureau's actions were related to the disaster situation in Baijiang City.

No problem, just get to work.

Shi An didn't pay special attention to the situation of the dreamers, but he could still hear the prompts about nightmare strategies from time to time.

"Hint: You have taken the lead in tackling a nightmare, your Faith value has increased by 30."

"hint:----"

"hint:----"

Belief value is rising!

Choose your spoils!

After the fierce battle, Shi An's faith value had dropped to 610 points, but now, after a series of gains, his faith value has soared to 1880 points.

This far exceeds what is needed for the safe zone upgrade.

"However, it's not that many."

"Now that we know another use for belief points, we can't afford to use them all up. We should always keep at least a few hundred belief points as a backup, otherwise we'll feel too insecure."

Shi An cut outside, into the field of vision of the sorcerer's flying eye.

At this moment, one of the nightmares was conquered, but he did not hear any notification sound.

I also had many nightmares just now.

It was a bit of a disappointment, but it was something he had expected.

Indeed, only nightmares connected to safe zones are considered as being led by him. As for whether he actually led or played a role, well, that's not important. He's responsible for opening the door, the Dreamers are responsible for conquering it, and everyone has a bright future.

With everyone's concerted efforts, the Countermeasures Bureau exceeded its mission objectives this time.

The nightmare for the entire ancient village area has been completely swept away.

At this moment, the gray fog of nightmares had dissipated, and in many of the nightmarish skies and earth, glass-like cracks could still be seen.

The nightmare is shattering.

Some people who were trapped in nightmares didn't even have time to run back to the safe zone before they returned to reality along with the shattering of the nightmare.

Even if they run back to the safe zone, and their nightmare is completely overthrown and shattered, they have a premonition that they will soon return to reality.

Outside the safe zone, one nightmare scene after another disappeared.

As darkness fell completely, the white fog once again enveloped the safe zone.

Exhausted dreamers return to reality.

Shi An also pressed the button to upgrade the security zone.

He returned to his rented room and drew back the curtains.

At this time, the morning light was faint, and the sky above Baijiang City was half dark and half bright.

Like the city's uncertain future.