Chapter 1

Beneath the luxurious sofa lay a thick fur rug. The fireplace not far away was a dark void, as if filled with the ashes left from burnt wood.

Night had already taken over the world. They shouldn't have been able to see so clearly, but the crystal chandelier overhead was still lit, refracting light that fragmented the visitors.

This villa still had electricity.

"Let's look around first," the burly man said, withdrawing his gaze from the chandelier. "Let's stick together, don't separate."

Soon they discovered a large amount of food in the refrigerator in the dining room, including vegetables, rice, noodles, meat, and even some snacks. A basket of eggs was placed in the innermost part.

It looked very fresh, as if it had been put in an hour ago.

But according to the dust on the ground, that was impossible.

The focus of everyone was obviously not here. The burly man looked at the food, his face without surprise. After a long while, he said, "At least we won't starve to death."

The sound of rushing water came from behind. Jiang Cheng turned his head and realized that the woman with a mole beside her lips had turned on the faucet, and clean water was flowing out.

She turned off the faucet and turned to look at the others, and said slowly, "Looks like we won't die of thirst either."

Then they found a large amount of firewood in a remote small room that looked like a storage room.

The firewood was stacked one pile after another, neatly arranged.

The second floor was the living area, with a master bedroom, a study, and two small bedrooms. In addition, there was a locked room at the end.

It could be seen that both the burly man and the woman were interested in the locked room, but they both tacitly did not propose to break the door and go in to take a look.

The staircase leading to the third floor was locked by a black iron door. The burly man shook it, but the door didn't move.

The group retreated to the living room on the first floor.

Everyone had spent most of the day in this world, especially after experiencing a car accident and a long journey. They were cold and hungry.

The burly man suggested that he take the middle-aged man to fetch firewood to make a fire, while the woman, Jiang Cheng, and the fatty would cook. The remaining innocent girl and the male clerk would clean the house.

Jiang Cheng stared at the table full of ingredients, lost in confusion. The woman sneered and ignored him.

Fortunately, the fatty was a cook, proficient in both knife skills and cooking. Before long, fragrant dishes were brought up, and he thoughtfully fried an egg for everyone.

The area near the sofa in the living room had been cleaned up. Everyone sat around the closet, holding bowls and eating.

The fire in the closet was burning brightly, making crackling sounds.

After dinner, everyone gathered together to discuss this mission.

But after discussing it, it almost turned into a quarrel between the burly man and the woman. This was unavoidable, after all, the mission had just begun, there were very few clues, and these two were the most vocal.

Judging from their practiced manner, they had obviously succeeded in several missions before.

The night deepened.

The burly man insisted that everyone sleep in the living room, but the woman insisted that everyone should sleep in the bedroom on the second floor, arguing that there might be clues there.

In the end, the two broke up unhappily. The innocent girl chose to be with the woman, and the two walked towards the stairs. Just as they were about to reach the stairs, the male clerk suddenly ran over.

Jiang Cheng guessed that the burly man's two slaps had left a psychological shadow on him.

In this way, the burly man, the middle-aged balding man, Jiang Cheng, and the fatty stayed in the living room overnight, while the other three went to the bedroom upstairs.

"Idiots!" The burly man muttered, looking at the backs of the departing people.

There was not so much attention to sleeping in the living room. The rest were men, a total of three long sofas, one for each person, just enough for one person to keep watch.

The burly man said that he would take the first shift, then took out a pocket watch from his pocket, opened the watch cover, and placed it on the small table in the middle.

"It's about 10 pm now, and it will be dawn at 6 am, a total of 8 hours. There are exactly 4 people here, each guarding for 2 hours, so that everyone can have enough time to rest."

The burly man was about to continue speaking when he saw the fatty staring at the pocket watch on the table with a strange look.

"No need to look, the time is not accurate," he paused, and explained, "The time of all clocks brought into the dream world will be disrupted. Its only function now is to keep time."

The time displayed on the pocket watch was 4:18, which was obviously inconsistent with the real situation.

Since Jiang Cheng and the fatty were both newcomers, the burly man said a few more words, telling them that it was normal for things that violated scientific common sense to appear in the dream world.

What they needed to do was to find clues hidden behind the anomalies through various anomalies, and then crack the mission and leave the dream world.

Jiang Cheng raised his hand. The burly man looked at him and asked, "Do you have something to say?"

"Since you have already escaped from the dream world, why would you come back?"

"Because the dream world only has 0 times and countless times. As long as you have opened that door, it will always be with you until you die. By the way," the burly man seemed to have thought of something, "The full name of the dream world is Nightmare Realm."

"Realm?"

"That's right, it's like a barrier wall separating reality and illusion. No matter how badly you are injured in the dream world, as long as you have a breath left, you will return to reality unscathed after the mission," he smiled wryly, "Isn't this name very appropriate?"

"Then how can we completely get rid of this Nightmare Realm?" It was the balding middle-aged man who spoke, his voice hoarse, giving people an uncomfortable feeling.

The burly man glanced at him and said, "Don't ask such stupid questions. You are not a newcomer, you should understand that this question is like we cannot figure out what time point this world we are in is at, this is an unsolvable problem."

The middle-aged man looked gloomy and stopped talking.

Jiang Cheng raised his hand for the second time.

The burly man looked at him rather helplessly, "Just ask what you want to ask, no need to raise your hand."

"It should be sometime between the end of March and mid-September 2006," Jiang Cheng said very seriously.

The burly man was stunned. The middle-aged man who had lowered his head was also stunned. The fatty also stared at Jiang Cheng suspiciously, not knowing what he was up to.

"How do you know?" the burly man asked.

Jiang Cheng unhurriedly took out a small bag from his pocket and handed it to a position closer to the others. Everyone saw clearly that it was a bag of Da Jiyuan small bread (a type of snack bread).

Jiang Cheng turned the bread bag over and pointed to a line of small characters on it: Production date: March 18, 2006. Shelf life: 6 months.

Then, in full view of everyone, he tore open the bag, tore off a piece of bread and stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it for a while, and then swallowed it with a straight neck. After thinking about it, he said, "The taste is good, and it is very soft and not damp. Considering that it is stored in a refrigerator, I think the predicted date may be further advanced."