Gacha games can't save this bizarre world.

……

Time flew by amidst the chaos, and the year drew to a close. With heavy snow falling, Christmas was just around the corner.

Although this year has brought so many changes that it can be overwhelming, life must go on. The joy of the holidays is a powerful tool for dispelling the gloom in people's hearts.

Especially at times like these, Christmas should be a time of warmth and happiness, bringing hope and empowering everyone to bravely face the harsh realities of life.

However, at that moment, Ma Long was speeding across the sea in a speedboat.

The speedboat was decorated with runes made of psionic materials to resist and shield itself from the perception of supernatural beings in the ocean.

Compared to land, the ocean is much more vast and contains more extraordinary beings.

Now that deep-sea fishing has basically stopped, those who dare to go out to sea either have some special skills or are members of various extraordinary organizations.

For example, Malone is a member of the International Criminal Police Office (ICA), a branch of UNESCO, which was formerly an agency specifically targeting transnational supernatural organizations. Now they deal with invasions from many otherworldly civilizations.

Malone's mission this time is to investigate a sanatorium on a small island. There are reports that a supernatural event has occurred there, and it's related to an extraterrestrial being...

Chapter 511 Malone's Nightmare

"Uncle Tie, what happened to Ma Long?" Zhao Hao rushed to Lao Tie's antique shop.

For Uncle Tie to call Zhao Hao for help, it must be no ordinary matter.

On the phone, Uncle Tie said that Ma Long was in trouble and asked Zhao Hao to come over, but he didn't say what happened.

In the large warehouse behind the antique shop, Uncle Tie's face was gloomy. He was already dressed in his full attire: a purple Taoist robe with various flowers, birds, and mythical beasts, a purple sash embroidered with talismans, a lotus crown on his head, a purple-gold Bagua plate in one hand, and a magic sword in the other, sitting on a grand master's chair.

Before him stood the altar he had built, which was over twenty years old.

In the middle of the altar lay Ma Long, his face ashen and his expression ferocious, his veins bulging and convulsing incessantly.

It seems that Ma Long has been affected, and Uncle Tie has temporarily suppressed him with the altar, delaying the worsening of his condition.

When Uncle Tie saw Zhao Hao arrive, he said in a deep voice, "Three days ago, Ma Long received a mission to investigate a mental hospital on an island..."

It's a fairly large island, and it's been used as a mental hospital for forty or fifty years.

Business was booming in the days following World War II, and many patients considered to have mental problems were sent here. At that time, ice pick therapy was also popular here.

This involves inserting an iron skewer above the patient's eyeballs to shred a part of the prefrontal cortex, turning them into a docile, walking corpse.

This bizarre treatment later evolved into a prefrontal lobe resection.

However, just over a month ago, communication on the island was suddenly cut off.

Local police dispatched two officers to the island, but they never returned.

Later, another team of six fully armed police officers was sent, but they still couldn't find them.

Finally, the Secret Service took over, sending two superhumans and two black-clad agents.

Unfortunately, just as the people arrived on the island, the extraordinary species outbreak brought about by the celestial convergence began.

The whole world is in complete chaos, with dozens of extraordinary battles taking place every day. The extraordinary individuals in the Mysterious Bureau are so busy they're practically fuming.

Only after Zhao Hao set up a protective barrier around the city, effectively preventing supernatural beings from appearing directly in the city, did things calm down, and then people remembered these four people.

It turned out that the four individuals' liaison and direct superior had all perished in the battle against the supernatural beings, and due to the chaos, no one was available to take over their mission. For over a month, they were completely ignored.

Their last message was three weeks ago, and the situation was very bad.

During the nearly ten days of news, the four initially just felt that something was strange about the island.

Whether it was guards, doctors, patients, or those in charge, they all claimed that communications had been cut off for a long time and supplies were running out, but they had never seen anyone land on the island.

The previous two groups of police officers seemed to have vanished into thin air.

But after all, superhumans are different. They have higher spiritual vision, more methods and knowledge, and are not so easy to fool.

They sensed something was amiss, but since everyone in the office was on assignment, their requests and reports went unanswered. They had no choice but to continue their investigation.

They eventually discovered that there were other superhumans on the island, as well as some strange areas and special underground facilities.

Later, one of the black-clad agents was killed in an accident, and they began to feel that they could not handle the situation and attempted to evacuate.

The news that came later was very bad. At first, they requested support, then they requested a retreat, and finally they claimed that one of the superhumans had undergone a bizarre mutation and killed a black-clad agent.

But the next day, the last person sent a message saying that he himself might be the one who had become mutated. He was also the one who killed people. He could no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality, and then that was it.

After all, Ma Long was a peak 5-star Black Iron player who had triggered the advancement trial.

After receiving the mission, he planned to sneak onto the island and investigate secretly.

Just a day earlier, he suddenly appeared on the banks of the Hudson River covered in blood.

Uncle Tie had been feeling uneasy for some time, sensing that something bad was about to happen. He then consulted a divination master and immediately found the unconscious Ma Long.

“His three souls have now left his body. They are not wandering outside, but have been taken away by some unknown means.” Uncle Tie looked at Ma Long, who was convulsing and struggling.

"However, an evil force is eroding his bloodline. His body is undergoing a strange transformation!"

“I used a secret technique to see him fighting a mutated, incredibly powerful monster. He was wounded in the chest, and the enemy's blood infected him…”

Zhao Hao did see that Ma Long's fingernails had become longer and sharper, like animal claws. However, each time they mutated further, it would trigger the talismans on the altar and the surrounding formations, and then be suppressed after a flash of light.

If it weren't for this altar, Malone would have already become some kind of unknown monster.

Moreover, his three souls are absent, leaving his seven spirits in charge. With benevolent souls and malevolent spirits, he will surely degenerate into a monster that only knows how to commit evil and slaughter.

Zhao Hao's eyes gleamed as he carefully examined Ma Long and his aura.

"Uncle Tie, don't worry. I roughly know about Ma Long's situation. The alien bloodline in his body isn't too serious yet; we can still suppress it. The most urgent thing is to find Ma Long's three souls, otherwise things will get worse if it goes on for too long."

If the three souls are separated from the body for a long time, their spirituality will definitely be damaged. Even if they are brought back, irreversible damage to the soul will have occurred.

At that point, unless Zhao Hao fills the void with his own artificial spirituality, making Ma Long Zhao Hao's vassal and his soul return to Zhao Hao's dream after death, there's really not much that can be done.

“I can use a secret technique to find Malone’s three souls. Uncle Tie, please protect me.”

As Zhao Hao spoke, he casually tossed down a number of items: Xiao Ruan, Wang Cai, Da Shan, and Xian He, creating another barrier.

With this lineup, even two or three bronze-level opponents wouldn't pose much of a problem.

Zhao Hao then stepped onto the altar, his body glowing with spiritual energy to resist its suppression. He sat down, placed a hand on Ma Long's head, and finally closed his eyes.

Uncle Tie doesn't know where Ma Long's three souls went. After all, it's not his major.

If it gets lost somewhere in the real world, or gets tortured and imprisoned, or even falls into the underworld, Uncle Tie has a way to help.

But Malone's three souls were trapped in a dream! Uncle Iron simply doesn't have that ability.

Following the trail of Ma Long's spiritual energy, Zhao Hao chased after his three souls and arrived in a dream world.

As soon as he arrived here, he realized something was wrong, or rather, this was the right way to go.

This is not an ordinary dream, nor even an individual's dream; it is a collective dream composed of many individuals.

To give an example, Zhao Hao's current dream is a collective dream.

The main body is Zhao Hao's own multiple dreams and spiritual world.

The countless strands of spiritual energy from players, the many players who became Zhao Hao's vassals because they needed to repair their spirituality, and the souls of players who died and entered the dream world all constituted the details of the collective dream.

This dream is a collective dream, and it's a bizarre, illogical, and absurd dream, hence the name "dreaming dream."

Every dream builder here suffers the torment and harm of this dream, experiencing its pain and despair. They lose their spirituality here, becoming material for the dream world.

At this moment, the magic mirror, which Zhao Hao had specially summoned and brought into the dream from his mind, exclaimed, "My great master, this old dream looks quite old."

Zhao Hao asked, "What do you mean?"

"Judging from the traces of the dream's construction, there are layers upon layers of structure and alterations. Judging from the methods used, at least several thousand people were involved. It's like a ruin that is constantly being built and constantly collapsing."

This is an ancient dream that was formed hundreds or thousands of years ago and has remained in some corner of the dream world.

For these conditions to be met, the initial structure of the dream needs to be sufficiently sophisticated. In other words, the instigator cannot be weak.

Secondly, over the years, people have continued to perpetuate this dream, and many victims have ultimately become trapped in it, becoming part of the dream itself.

Just like the magic mirror said, it doesn't collapse, but people keep entering this dream, eventually getting trapped in it and becoming its building materials, thus keeping the dream going.

Over thousands of years, through the construction of countless people, this dream has become so chaotic that it is beyond comprehension.

Zhao Hao looked down at the huge island below, surrounded by a murky, dark sea.

On that island stood a vast town, predominantly gray and black, with diverse architectural styles. There were spires, towers, Baroque, Gothic, modern square buildings, and medieval cathedrals…

The streets are rugged and winding, twisting and turning, sometimes wide and sometimes narrow. The buildings along the street violate common sense of mechanics and general aesthetics.

Some small houses have a larger house crookedly stacked on top of them.

Some windows even had a staircase outside, and some houses had no windows or doors...

There are some strangely shaped, dead black trees on the street corners, and some broken and bizarre statues at the intersections of the streets.

There seem to be people, or rather, things moving around, in this large town, though they may not necessarily be people.

"This godforsaken place is really refreshing." Zhao Hao pulled out a compass. "But the most important thing right now is to find Ma Long. We can't let him be affected by this delirium."

Dreams can influence people in turn. Zhao Hao knew this all too well.

Think about those players who died frequently in the game, their spirituality worn down, and were gradually replaced by Zhao Hao's artificial spirituality created in dreams, becoming his appendages!

Many strange and supernatural beings also mutate because the person who comes into contact with them has an excessively high level of spiritual insight, which in turn affects their dreams.

……

Just as Zhao Hao arrived at this unknown and eerie dream, another candidate for savior—the mad witch Farina—had already been there for quite some time.

Because he was essentially obeying orders but not official pronouncements, official intelligence channels like the Mysterious Bureau had stopped providing Zhao Hao with any information.

However, he has already built his own intelligence network through the players.

However, the player intelligence network has one drawback: it is too highly concentrated.

They often focus their discussions on fantasy games or information about people with superhuman abilities. There are some pieces of information that are available to the authorities, but players might not care about.

For example, many people in Europe have fallen into a deep sleep due to some strange ritual. Zhao Hao was unaware of this.

As mentioned before, many people attempt to become extraordinary beings amidst this extraordinary chaos, so they try every possible means of access, even resorting to dug-out tunnels.

This is naturally very dangerous, not to mention that someone is secretly plotting against us.

If anyone remembers William Worth of the Shadow Organization, who went from being a Holy Blood to a Holy Hound, they will recall a long-established organization—the Church of Holy Blood.

There are rumors that they were the ones who pioneered the earliest Western medical bloodletting therapy.