Chapter 1 Deep Dream

As time passed, Chen Ge and the others' consciousness became increasingly blurred. Before finally falling asleep, he seemed to see a blue butterfly fluttering its wings, dancing in the air, and scattering blue, fluorescent dust.

He didn't know how long had passed before their consciousness finally awakened.

Strangely, this time they weren't separated. Everyone was gathered together, standing on a street, and in front of them was a bizarre and fantastical city.

A series of forked roads leading to unknown destinations crisscrossed, and strange buildings blocked their view. This place was like a vast maze that seemed to have no boundaries. Only by standing within it could one feel that sense of despair.

"Is this the deep dream?" Chen Ge thought in shock. The crisscrossing streets and the shifting light and shadow of the pavilions made it an infinitely strange and bizarre city.

"The end of despair." Jiang Xuan also said slowly. In the distant sky, they could see a city collapsing, with many buildings turning into dust in the storm of illusion and reality. Only two buildings were preserved.

They were a plastic surgery hospital and an amusement park, and they were merging with this dreamlike city, becoming one with it.

"Just what is this place? A hidden map within a hidden map?!" Shen Luo exclaimed, taking a few steps back as he looked at the distant street.

The boss and Da Yu also looked pale, their eyes darting to the walls on either side. They didn't know what was in these buildings, but now they could see mottled shadows on the walls.

Jiang Xuan walked to a wall and slowly reached out to touch one of the shadows. When his fingertip touched the shadow, the dark figure rippled like water.

"I think I hear cries for help." As Jiang Xuan spoke, he looked at the dense, countless black shadows on the distant street, and said in an extremely calm, but chilling voice, "These shadows may be the 'residents' of this city."

Chen Ge tried it as well. A figure seemed to appear before his eyes. It was a woman, with a raging fire burning not far in front of her, and in her arms was a child who had already lost the breath of life.

"These humanoid shadows should be fragments of memories, most likely memories that have been forgotten and discarded by humans, and are eventually piled up in this city."

Chen Ge didn't know much about the interpretation of dreams, but he knew a lot about paranormal events. The scene he had just seen was more like a memory, and combined with his own experiences, he could roughly guess the origin of these shadows.

"Lost memories, and a mission, could it be that the memories I've forgotten are also in this city?!" Chen Ge's eyes wandered over the shadows that were everywhere in the city. This mission could let him know everything, and now there were shadows that seemed to be memory fragments, which were obviously giving him hints.

To confirm what he thought, Chen Ge touched a few more shadows, and as expected, scenes appeared in his mind.

"How is it? Any gains?" Jiang Xuan asked, standing beside him. Even in this bizarre city, he remained calm, completely different from Shen Luo and the other two.

Chen Ge looked at him and pondered, "It's still not certain. I want to go inside these buildings and see if there's anything different."

If this was a city piled up with countless human dreams, then what would these buildings represent? What kind of memories could have buildings in a dream? Or were there any dangers within them?

They had to figure these things out first, otherwise, it would be very troublesome next. No one knew what they would encounter in this unpredictable city.

"Alright!"

With a Red Specter leading the way, they weren't too worried and directly entered the closest and tallest building to them.

The building had eight floors. The first few floors were fine. Although there were humanoid shadows, there weren't too many. But when they entered the fifth floor, the humanoid shadows were densely packed on the walls and floor, leaving no room to stand, making one's scalp tingle.

It was hard to imagine what the scene would be like if these humanoid shadows rushed out of the walls and floor. Perhaps they could drown them all in an instant.

Moreover, the most shocking thing about the fifth floor was that countless humanoid shadows surrounded a pitch-black door.

After Xu Yin and other Red Specters took action, countless shadows on this floor began to crawl towards that door, merging with it. The door became even more chilling, as if it had turned into a black hole for souls. Just looking at it made one feel like their soul would be sucked away.

Chen Ge immediately told Xu Yin and the others to stop. This door was too evil. It could absorb humanoid shadows and constantly strengthen itself.

Those humanoid shadows were just memory fragments, not even obsessions, but after constantly merging into this door, they actually burst out with a power comparable to a Red Specter.

Chen Ge didn't dare to try again. No one knew where the limit of this door was, and even less whether there was a more terrifying monster behind the door.

Starting from the fifth floor, the entire building became gloomy and eerie, with humanoid shadows everywhere, almost dyeing the entire building black. But now Chen Ge had a feeling that these humanoid shadows were perhaps the lowest level existences in this city, which was why they were so ubiquitous.

The sixth and seventh floors were not much different from the fifth floor, filled with humanoid shadows. They were like murals, carved into the walls, but the difference was that these humanoid shadows could rush out at any time.

Soon, they arrived at the eighth floor. Unlike the previous floors, there was only one room on this floor, a door with a ghostly blue color. In the deep dream interwoven with black and white, it appeared very special.

Moreover, there was not a single humanoid shadow on this floor, as if they had been completely expelled.

"I'll go take a look." Bai Qiulin volunteered. As a Red Specter-level ghost, he was difficult to completely eliminate. Even if there was a monster inside that surpassed him, it would be difficult to eliminate him instantly.

*Ka!*

The lock clicked, making a dull sound. Bai Qiulin paused for a moment, but there was no movement, so he slowly opened the door.

But when he saw the scene behind the door, he was stunned. Behind the door was an ordinary hall, with sofas and tiled floors. The place seemed to have been cleaned, looking spotless.

But what shouldn't have been there were the floating "human heads". There were men and women, and each human head floated in the air, each with their eyes closed, as if asleep.

"What the hell are these things? They look like human head balloons?" Shen Luo exclaimed in shock, but Chen Ge immediately covered his mouth. Looking at the floating human heads, his face was equally ugly.

"They're all obsessions!" Men Nan said for Chen Ge what he wanted to say. Those floating human heads had all reached the level of obsession, and they were even more bizarre. Although they were incomplete, they were more terrifying than ordinary obsessions.

"Obsessions trapped in the deep dream? Could they also be abandoned by the person themselves?" Chen Ge didn't dare to think too much about it. If that was true, how many obsessions would there be in this city?

This was just one building, and in this city, this building was extremely inconspicuous, but it contained dozens or hundreds of obsessions. What about the entire city?

Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Or more!

This was a terrifying number, and even Chen Ge couldn't help but feel a chill when he thought about it.