Chapter 1 Murder

With a bang, the figure in the blue uniform fell to the ground, blood slowly spreading from beneath him. The body, its heart ruptured, twitched violently a few times, then gradually became still.

The scene was like a cold-blooded murder, even the corpse's twitching after it fell seeming to reinforce the element of "murder," reinforcing Heidi's impression that she had "just killed an ordinary person."

Yet Heidi simply watched everything expressionlessly. As the corpse fell and twitched, she listened intently to every rustle and stir around her. Under normal circumstances, the gunshot would have echoed throughout the entire building, and the security personnel and church guardians stationed in the facility would have been alarmed. But the truth was that after the gunshot, the corridor remained silent. No one appeared, as if the facility were already empty.

The amethyst pendant hanging on her chest continued to emit a faint heat. A blessing that did not belong to the Four Gods but was remarkably effective was constantly maintaining Heidi's mental clarity. This pendant was not the original one her father had first brought back from that "antique shop." That pendant had been depleted and shattered during the previous Black Sun incident. The pendant she wore now was a "gift" the antique shop owner had given her father the second time. As it turned out, it still possessed the same incredible power as the first pendant.

After a moment of silence, Heidi breathed a sigh of relief. She held the revolver she had just taken from the hidden compartment of her briefcase in one hand. With the other, she placed the briefcase on the ground and took out a long golden cone (one of her medical tools), while her eyes remained fixed on the corpse on the ground.

"Good acting, but can you stop now?" The "corpse" had already stopped twitching. After Heidi spoke, he finally moved, then got up as if nothing had happened, ignoring the horrifying gunshot wound in his chest, and turned to look at the psychiatrist who had just "killed" him.

"I'm curious when you noticed," Heidi said, holding the gun in one hand and the golden cone tightly in the other, watching the "dream intruder" before her with vigilance and composure.

"There's only one bed in this ward. So, when I was lying on the 'empty bed' next to the bed, this confrontation began!"

"How interesting… few people can detect such discrepancies after falling into a dream, at least not so quickly," the intruder said leisurely. In the air beside him, some dark, hazy shadows or smoke seemed to be gradually emerging and condensing into tangible beings, including those so-called psychiatrists who have undergone professional training.

Heidi frowned as she looked at him. The hazy shadow beside him finally revealed the outline of something, and her expression changed instantly. "A Dust Jellyfish… a Nihilist? The moment she recognized that ball of shadow, its originally blurred outline immediately became clear. A 'jellyfish' that seemed to be condensed from smoke was floating in mid-air, connected to the intruder's skull by a dark chain.

This dangerous demonic creature was swelling and wriggling, its surface covered in countless tentacle-like structures, which had already spread very close to Heidi. A huge sense of crisis exploded in her heart. Heidi sensed the erosion and destruction taking place in her spiritual world. The enemy's attack was secretive and insidious and had already happened. If her intuition hadn't suddenly warned her, allowing her to recognize the outline of the Dust Jellyfish in this dream, she would have been spiritually parasitized by the Dust Jellyfish by the time she realized it.

In the next instant, she didn't hesitate at all. She raised the sharp golden cone in her hand and stabbed it into her temple without hesitation.

The next second, a dull thunder-like roar exploded in her mind. Everything in her vision began to tremble and shake violently. The seemingly normal ward instantly began to deform and distort. The walls melted like wax, revealing the disgusting truth inside, like withered flesh. The floor was like scorched earth, covered in terrifying ravines and unclean, wriggling things.

The Dust Jellyfish, with its countless tentacles extended, seemed to have been severely injured. It suddenly let out a piercing howl, and all its tentacles contracted violently.

Then... the Nihilist disguised as a civil servant and the symbiotic Dust Jellyfish disappeared from Heidi's sight like mist. However, Heidi did not relax at all. She still held the gun and the golden cone tightly, vigilantly watching for any inconsistencies in the environment, while quickly checking her mental state, because she knew that the dream intruder had not been defeated, not even left. The dream showed no signs of shattering or dissipating.

The knowledge she had learned while studying at the Truth Academy floated into her mind. Dust Jellyfish... a branch of the Abyssal Demons... with smoke-like amorphous bodies and all sorts of dangerous and strange supernatural powers, especially good at attacking the victim's spirit and perception. Summoners who have symbiosis with this demon can use mental damage spells, or directly extract the energy of the Abyssal Demon and fire it as a corrosive missile...

Compared to most Abyssal Demons, the Dust Jellyfish's main body is not strong, but its strange supernatural powers make it one of the most dangerous Abyssal Demons. In many cases, you don't even have time to attack their fragile main body before you miss the opportunity to resist due to mental trauma, and those cunning cultists who have symbiosis with Dust Jellyfish will consciously amplify the "characteristics" of the Abyssal Demon, making them even more troublesome.

The heat emanating from the amethyst pendant on her chest became more and more obvious. Heidi could feel that certain malicious "components" in this dream were still constantly trying to erode and destroy her spirit, but the power released by the pendant was protecting her and constantly disintegrating the intrusions, while maintaining her sobriety.

In the stalemate between this erosion and protection, a new sense of crisis suddenly rose in her heart. Heidi instantly followed this feeling and raised her gun. However, the figure that emerged from the air made her stop the moment she aimed. Maurice appeared there, looking at her with a look of astonishment.

"Heidi?" the familiar figure said confusedly and with concern. "What's going on? Are you trapped in a nightmare?"

"Yeah," Heidi nodded and pulled the trigger without hesitation, saying as she fired, "I don't know what's going on either. A Nihilist interfered with my hypnotherapy, but I remember that even Dust Jellyfish don't have the ability to control the dream realm."

The muzzle flashed, booming loudly. The figure of her father was shot, an incredulous expression on his face. He staggered twice and fell backward, but the next second, another figure appeared where her father had fallen, a gentle old woman with a look of concern on her face, her mother! "Heidi, what are you doing? Why are you…"

"I'm treating a patient," Heidi said casually as she pulled the trigger.

Her mother's figure fell, but immediately afterward, an exceptionally tall figure appeared in her vision. This time, the figure only had time to condense a few outlines of Vanna, and Heidi had already fired a shot in advance. Another phantom fell!

"You're not even trying," Heidi shook her head. "How could such a simple trick work? What's more, there's Vanna. If it were really her, she would just grab the bullet with her hand and crush it into a ball and throw it back."

"Those constantly appearing figures finally stopped, but an angry, low voice suddenly came from who knows where. "Why are you unaffected?"

"I already know this is a twisted dream, so of course I won't believe these phantoms you created," Heidi said calmly. "Of course, I guess that's not what you're surprised about. You're surprised that my mind is unmoved. After all, even if an ordinary person knows in advance that these are all illusions, if they constantly see familiar faces dying in front of them, and they're the ones doing it, this process will accumulate huge mental pressure and eventually impact their rationality... This has nothing to do with whether or not they're awake…"

"But unfortunately, I've received some training," the psychiatrist said as she slowly raised the muzzle of the gun and held it against her temple.

"Do you know the value of a joint master's and doctoral degree with a full scholarship from the Truth Academy, Mr. Intruder?"

"Bang."

The trigger was pulled, the gun fired, and Heidi shot a hole through her head without hesitation. As her figure swayed, another Heidi walked out from beside her in an instant. Bang, bang, bang, continuous gunshots rang out. The revolver, which could originally only hold six bullets, fired continuously, as if the bullets were endless. Heidi continuously pulled the trigger against her temple, and one after another "personality clone" began to walk out from beside her, holding golden cones in their hands and heading towards every corner of the nightmare-twisted ward, towards the door, towards the corridor outside.

"You shouldn't have provoked me in my area of expertise, Mr. Intruder," Heidi slowly raised her head and pulled the trigger one last time against her head. "You shouldn't have made trouble when I was treating a patient. I really, really, really don't like working overtime."

Dozens of personality clones quickly dispersed, scattering throughout the transformed medical facility, beginning to search for any suspicious clues in this invaded dream, looking for cognitive voids on the edges of the dream that might be intrusion paths and hiding places.

However, as the personality clones moved, Heidi suddenly frowned. "Gone?"