Lying on the sofa bed in the living room, Fatty tossed and turned.

He was tired, especially tired, but he just couldn't fall asleep.

This mission was a brand new experience for both Jiangcheng and Fatty, and Fatty felt that the doctor had changed during this mission.

A very subtle change.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it seemed... he had become more humane.

He had never doubted that the doctor was a good person. The doctor had simply buried the kindness in his heart too deep.

The first time he met him, he felt that the doctor was very reliable. He seemed unapproachable, but Fatty understood.

It was a means, not an end.

To survive in the Nightmare, it was necessary.

But the only thing that made him a little uncomfortable was that since leaving this mission, he felt that the doctor had become much more distant from him.

He turned his head and looked at the bedroom door.

The door was closed.

Inside and outside the door, it was as if they were two different worlds.

...

On the mattress, a figure lay flat.

Jiangcheng was the same as Fatty.

He couldn't fall asleep at all.

His body was soaking wet and trembling uncontrollably. He gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the sound of his breathing, his heart beating like a drum.

Veins bulged on his forehead, and his eyes were bloodshot.

He tremblingly raised his left hand, tearing off the wet towel wrapped around it. A door vaguely appeared on the palm of his hand.

Even more bizarre, this door was actually alive!

He could even... feel the heartbeat of this door.

An unprecedentedly strange feeling fermented in his heart. According to what that smiling man said, this door was a gift for him.

But in Jiangcheng's eyes, this door was more like a curse.

Moreover, he had a deeper premonition that after possessing this door, his life would soon usher in a change.

The face of a middle-aged man appeared in his mind.

The middle-aged man beside Xia Meng.

As a reward for the last mission, the middle-aged man had answered some of his questions about the Nightmare.

Previously, he was wondering about this matter. It was one thing to be dragged into the Nightmare without knowing it, but why were there people like Xia Meng who actively entered the Nightmare and kept刷 (shua - repeatedly challenging) it using clues?

It was like刷副本 (shua fuben - grinding instances) in a game.

This couldn't simply be explained by wanting to save one's life or find clues.

The middle-aged man explained that the Nightmare was a deformed and twisted history, or rather, a projection of real history in the shadows.

This history had been stripped of light and beauty, leaving behind only regrets, blood, and brutality... and those ghosts were the products of the Nightmare.

Each twisted history was an independent Nightmare, and each Nightmare would give birth to corresponding ghosts.

And these ghosts... were the greatest benefit.

Jiangcheng looked at the door in his hand, and the guess in his heart seemed to be gradually becoming a reality.

But now, he had an even more pressing problem.

Slowly turning his head, he looked at the wall not far away.

His vision seemed to be able to penetrate the wall and see the person behind it.

Fatty...

Or rather, Wang Fugui.

What was his background?

Just a short time ago, he had actually opened the closing bronze door with brute force. If it weren't for him, his situation would not have been optimistic.

His suspicion of Fatty had been around for a long time, and... had never subsided.

He was just waiting.

Waiting for the other party to reveal his true colors.

There were too many suspicious points about him, making it difficult for him not to be suspicious.

The first time he entered the Nightmare, he was fully armed, and even brought a huge umbrella.

Even more bizarre, he actually followed him back to his studio.

This even violated the rules of the Nightmare.

After the mission ended, they should have gone back to their respective homes. Why could he follow him?

Fatty's explanation for this was that he just felt close to him, and he was thinking that it would be great if he could follow him, and as a result, his wish really came true.

Lucky Fatty.

A treasure boy.

At that time, Jiangcheng knew that this person was definitely not simple.

But then, what made him even more puzzled, and even felt incomprehensible, was that he also had a inexplicable sense of closeness to Fatty.

This was incredible to him.

He couldn't muster any interest in most people. Work was just work, and had nothing to do with emotions.

Keeping Fatty by his side, he also had his own plans. He wanted to see what this Fatty wanted to do, so as to dig out him, or the person behind him who sent him.

But after so long, he still couldn't confirm Fatty's purpose.

Because he didn't have any substantial actions.

This Fatty was simple and silly, so simple that it couldn't be described as simple, in Jiangcheng's words, he was just an idiot, and this idiot was very kind.

As his understanding of the Nightmare deepened, he once suspected that Fatty was sent by the Deep Red, the Night Watcher, or even the forces represented by Xia Meng.

An undercover agent by his side.

But no matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem like it.

Those people didn't seem like they valued friendship.

But Fatty was different. He valued these things very much. Even this cowardly man was willing to risk his life with the dangerous elements in the副本 (fuben - instance) for a NPC because the other party had helped him before.

This was very normal in his eyes, because the other party had helped him before.

But now this problem could not be delayed any longer, it had to be solved.

Because he felt that this Fatty was changing him in a very strange way, imperceptibly.

And what was even more bizarre was that he actually had the power to resist the door.

The black-clothed man Wu had already given him a hard lesson on how terrifying that power was.

That guy... was different from all the ghosts he had encountered. If Jiangcheng had to describe it, he was no longer in the category of ghosts.

In the world behind that door, he was a creator-like existence.

Jiangcheng suspected that this was the real reason why Fatty was undercover by his side.

He was waiting, and the people behind him were also waiting.

Waiting... for the appearance of the door.

This was their real purpose.

What they wanted... was the door.

Of course, there was also a tiny possibility that Fatty was really an ordinary person, just... a not-so-ordinary ordinary person.

Jiangcheng was very willing to believe this.

He was just a special constitution, just like choosing a character in a game and adding skill points. Fatty's skill points were all added to his lucky talent.

Except for being a little stupid, Jiangcheng didn't dislike him at all.

Reaching out his right hand, he took out his phone from his pocket. Jiangcheng was silent for a moment, but still sent a message that had been edited long ago.

And Fatty, who was curled up on the sofa bed outside, seemed to sense something. First he shivered, then he turned over and wrapped the quilt around himself even tighter.

Xu Yi, Liu Guo, Jiao Tai Lang, Wan Yuanning, Hua Luo, Chu Jiu... faces flashed through his mind, and Fatty couldn't help but secretly wipe away a tear.

Everyone was trying their best to survive, and even in the face of despair, everyone did not give up hope.

In the soil of despair, flowers of hope can still bloom.