Chapter 207: Forced Dream Invasion

The world around began to turn upside down, like a massive screen flickering incessantly.

Lu Xin felt himself being dragged downward by that hand clutching his leg, creating a sensation of the world tilting on its axis.

As the surrounding scenes shifted constantly, he alternated between feeling he was still in this hotel room and feeling transported to another world entirely. It was like someone on the verge of sleep, slipping unconsciously into the Dream Realm one moment, then rousing awake the next.

“Is a Dreamweaver targeting me?”

Lu Xin’s expression remained calm, even bordering on unhurried as he pondered this first.

He glanced around first, confirming there were no other sufficiently powerful Sources of Contamination or Ability Users affecting him.

Only then did he confirm the real problem stemmed from the hand extending from Xiao Yuan’s body.

……

“This powerful residue… must be the Dreamweaver-type ability left within Xiao Yuan. It seems it sensed that Xiao Yuan had reached a crucial stage in fulfilling the dream’s suggestion when it was abruptly stopped by external means. Therefore, this power automatically emerged, attempting to drag me into the dream as well?”

Lu Xin’s thought process unfolded with remarkable clarity; his analysis was deliberate and highly efficient.

Having grasped the logical cause in his mind, he bent down and reached towards the hand clamped onto his leg.

Although he wasn’t as adept as Little Sister at tearing things apart, he figured he could probably handle this hand.

“Hum!”

Just as Lu Xin was about to grasp the hand, it vanished completely.

The surrounding flickering disappeared simultaneously, and Lu Xin felt an abrupt return to the Real World.

He was still in the hotel room. Xiao Yuan lay collapsed on the floor, while the female secretary hugged her leg, sobbing uncontrollably.

The Bodyguards outside the door had rushed to the entrance. Only after the secretary collapsed did they see the gun in Lu Xin’s hand. This startled them immensely; they hurriedly pulled Submachine Guns out from behind their jackets and opened fire at him.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

A barrage of bullets flew towards Lu Xin.

Lu Xin frowned. At this moment, he had the opportunity to dodge or return fire with his own gun.

Yet he remained motionless, allowing the bullets to strike his body.

The bullets passed clean through him, leaving numerous bloody holes. Unimaginable agony surged through him.

Lu Xin felt his Life force rapidly draining away with his blood; his body lost even the strength to stand.

But just as he was about to collapse, he tilted his head down slightly and looked at his body.

Looking deliberately at his torso, he discovered there were no bullet holes, and the pain vanished instantly.

He was dreaming now…

……

When he had tried to pull that pale hand, its disappearance wasn’t real.

Instead, at that exact moment, it had finally succeeded in dragging him into the dream.

A dream built upon a realistic environment.

So, how does one shatter such a dream…

…Before the thought could fully form, Lu Xin suddenly saw Xiao Yuan, whom he had been pinning down underfoot. Xiao Yuan’s entire body contorted grotesquely. Despite his back being stepped on, Xiao Yuan somehow flipped over. The muscles on his face twisted horribly as he opened a maw bristling with fangs and sank them viciously into Lu Xin’s calf. Xiao Yuan’s eyes stared straight at Lu Xin, gleaming with a menacing light.

This sudden grotesque spectacle nearly provoked Lu Xin to shoot him on impulse.

But Lu Xin still refrained. He simply frowned, looking down silently at Xiao Yuan biting his shin, neither speaking nor smiling.

As if embarrassed under Lu Xin’s unwavering gaze, Xiao Yuan slowly loosened his bite and slumped back into his previous prone position.

……

“Is this the ‘Forced Dream Invasion’ of the Dreamweaver type?”

Lu Xin mused silently, surveying his surroundings.

He didn’t rush to move, knowing that against a Dreamweaver, haste often led to vulnerability.

The first principle when facing a Dreamweaver: Never rush to believe.

Any Reality one accepts could very well be the Dreamweaver’s form of attack.

Conversely, while in a state of disbelief, the force of the attack weakens to its minimum.

……

Maintaining his cool, Lu Xin continued his quiet observation.

At first glance, the surroundings seemed utterly real. But scrutinizing the details, he saw hazy shadows and indistinct light everywhere.

Such unreal light and shadow could only be noticed when deliberately observed.

Otherwise, they were utterly undetectable.

Moreover, the closer one looked then, the clearer their consciousness would become.

After cramming information on Dreamweaver-type Ability Users overnight, Lu Xin naturally knew they possessed an ability called “Forced Dream Invasion.”

The core power of Dreamweavers lay in manipulating human dreams.

But this dream manipulation came in two forms.

One occurred when people were asleep, silently infiltrating the dreamer’s mind.

In such cases, the sleeper couldn’t perceive the dream’s unreality at all.

The other was Forced Dream Invasion, whose effects depended on the contest between the Dreamweaver’s and the target’s Will.

Those with weak Will remained unable to discern the dream’s authenticity.

Those with strong Will might retain partial awareness, swiftly detecting flaws and waking up.

Lu Xin fit exactly into the latter scenario. Though forcibly pulled into a dream, he maintained his Will and rapidly uncovered the dream’s falseness. By this point, a consciously recognized fake dream could hardly trap him.

His experienced time within the dream was far longer than in Reality.

The Dream Realm and Reality do not share the same time flow.

Typically, the time dilation matched whatever attack the Dreamweaver used against the forcibly dream-invaded target.

For instance, when the Dreamweaver manifested Bodyguards charging in to spray Lu Xin with gunfire, the duration required for that attack defined the dream’s timeframe.

In Reality, less than a second might have passed.

Normally, first-stage Dreamweavers could only extend time within dreams, not accelerate it.

……

Watching the hazy light and shadow fade around him signaled his impending escape from the dream.

Just then, Lu Xin heard a faint, drifting laugh. A slight dizziness washed over him.

This laughter seemed to carry peculiar power.

Following the sound, Lu Xin spotted a ghastly pale hand slowly emerging from the wall beside him. Then came a head hung low with disheveled hair, followed by a white-cloaked torso—all gradually pulling free from the wall.

It hung its head, hair cascading to obscure its face. Only a resonant, echoing giggle was audible.

“This is the manifestation of that Dreamweaver’s residual Psychic Energy?”

Lu Xin recalled the hand that initially dragged him into the dream—clearly belonging to this entity.

So, would destroying it eliminate this force?

As this thought crossed his mind, Lu Xin slid a Black Bullet into the Revolver’s cylinder.

This Special Bullet was precisely what he’d requisitioned to counter the Dreamweaver.

Securing the cylinder, Lu Xin slowly raised the gun.

“Hehe…”

But instantly, more laughter echoed.

Lu Xin witnessed another pale hand stretch from the adjacent wall, another figure “growing” out of it.

Identical to the first—disheveled hair and white dress.

Then from the television screen, the ceiling, the bathroom’s glass partition, even the headboard—one after another, white specters emerged like sprouting mushrooms. They proliferated across the room, all cackling in unison.

……

Their interwoven, chaotic mirth assaulted Lu Xin from every direction, targeting his mind.

With only one Special Bullet, Lu Xin had no clue which specter to target.

Yet their unrelenting cacophony enveloped the entire room.

At the laughter’s epicenter, Lu Xin’s mind suddenly flooded with scenes—indistinguishable as genuine or false.

These fleeting visions consumed every corner of his awareness.

Some resembled windows, others flickered like lamps; some stretched into endless corridors.

It was as if fragments of countless worlds erupted within him, seizing his sight.

“Subconscious Dream Invasion?”

Lu Xin recalled the dossier’s description.

Subconscious Dream Invasion represented advanced mastery by Dreamweavers, yet still fell under Forced Dream Invasion.

It worked by provoking the target’s subconscious, compelling them to construct their own dreamworld.

Such internally fabricated dreams proved the most difficult to shatter.

And they inevitably drew from the target’s most buried memories and deepest secrets—areas easiest to provoke emotional collapse…

Before Lu Xin’s time, rumor held that the Special Clean-up Department screened candidates for recruitment this very way.

Directly probing a Mental Aberrant’s subconscious assessed their risk of Loss of Control.

……

“What place…”

Lu Xin felt a brief confusion as these seemingly unowned images surfaced deep within his mind.

His personal Will yet remained robust; escape was still possible.

But the images exerted an inexplicable pull.

Watching them accelerated his heartbeat, ignited strange excitement, and ignited deep yearning.

Thus, instead of resisting their emergence, he unconsciously yearned to pursue them.

This created an unnatural smoothness felt by the Dreamweaver’s lingering Shadow. Subconscious invasion should have been arduous—individuals instinctively resisted when their subconscious breached.

Yet now, it sensed Lu Xin’s abnormal cooperation, constructing the dream world faster than imagined.

“Voom…”

Within Lu Xin’s vision, the images grew clearer and larger. Splintered fragments reassembled.

Suddenly, all elements fused with a soft mental swirl. A brand-new world materialized.

As if abruptly awakened, Lu Xin snapped open his eyes.

He then found himself in an uncanny environment—a corridor.

Roughly two meters tall and one meter wide, the passage felt oppressively confined. Concealed white lights overhead illuminated surroundings strewn with bizarre instruments and assorted surgical tools.

White tiled walls displayed absolutely no patterns or hues.

This entire corridor bore an unnervingly sterile Pallor.

“Ding ding ding…”

Deep within the corridor, a rhythmic hammer striking an iron chisel echoed.

“Zzzzzzt…”

The indistinct sizzle of electric discharge followed.

“Sssschlick…”

A sound reminiscent of sharp blades slicing through flesh ensued.

And woven beneath—feeble moans, distant as starved ghosts… faint shrieks seemingly from light-years away…