Chapter 158: Poor Sleep is the Beginning of Despair
This was the worst sleep Chu Hengkong had ever had since he could remember.
As soon as he fell asleep, he was thrown into a dream. At first, he thought he had left the institute and entered the outside world. All he saw was an impenetrable darkness, dancing wildly like countless mad shadows. Those shadows pounced on him, passing through his body. He could do nothing, like a child terrified but unable to move during sleep paralysis. He could only watch in the darkness, watching as the shadows passed through his body, evoking memories he didn't want to recall.
Long ago, when he lived in Mr. Chu's house, when he was struggling to make a living in the United States, and then when he first joined the family... those childhood anxieties and fears were drawn out by the shadow, forming an indistinct ghost that flickered before his eyes. He could clearly sense the passage of time, knowing that a minute had passed when he closed his eyes, an hour, three hours...
But he didn't know when this dream would end, or whether he would sink forever into a dark, murky quagmire. A fear that shouldn't have existed was "created" in the process, sapping his spirit and edge, and invisible malice whispered to him.
——All hearts should face fear.
Darkness swirls with malice, memories gradually distorted, and the faces of familiar people flash before his eyes, unable to distinguish whether they are distorted memories or delusions caused by extreme pressure. Time passes at an exceptionally slow pace, and Chu Hengkong suffocates in the darkness of the nightmare. After 7 hours and 37 minutes, the dark dream suddenly disappears.
Chu Hengkong finally awoke from his dream, feeling several times more exhausted than before he fell asleep. But the suffocating feeling didn't disappear, but instead grew stronger. A strong sense of restraint followed. When he opened his eyes, he was still in a dark, utter darkness. He struggled fiercely, trying to escape this bottomless nightmare.
"Hey...Akong, it's you!"
From the depths of his nightmare came his partner's voice, strangely enough, it was tinged with shyness. Chu Hengkong broke out in a cold sweat, straining his neck to look towards the source of the voice!
He saw the red face close at hand.
His vision gradually adjusted to the environment, and the belated truth reached his mind. He curled up like a toddler, nestled in his partner's arms. The source of the restraint was Ji Huaisu's arms, and the dark color after waking up was actually her black vest.
So you feel like you can’t see anything clearly.
So you feel like you can't breathe.
Because until that moment, he had been buried in the warm and soft mountains.
"You were pushing me just now." Ji Huaisu's eyes moved downwards, "and you were poking..."
The awkwardness of the atmosphere reached its limit at this moment.
The ability to think is cruelly destroyed by reality.
Human language ability is not yet mature enough to be used in such extreme environments.
Chu Hengkong closed his eyes and began to pretend to be dead.
·
Five minutes later.
"Akong~ I didn't expect you to have such a cute side~~"
Miss Knight lay on her side on the bed, grinning and poking someone in the spine. Chu Hengkong followed through on his strategy of feigning death, his back to his partner, motionless, pretending to be a rock. Unfortunately, Miss Knight was superior in terms of recovery ability after a blow. Ji Huaisu rolled her eyes and grabbed his cheek.
"Who can't sleep late at night and comes to sleep with Sister Huaisu~"
"Please be kind and kill me with one blow." Chu Hengkong said in a flat voice.
"Xiaokong is shy!" Ji Huaisu gloated in a low voice.
"You're only one year older than me, so please don't act like an elder..." Chu Hengkong sighed, "And Miss Ji, don't you think your reaction was wrong? You're the one being taken advantage of, you're being harassed. What you should be doing now is getting furious and cornering me and beating me instead of teasing me!"
"We've been through so many life and death situations, this little thing is nothing." The blonde lady said nonchalantly.
Chu Hengkong felt alert: "Miss Ji, I need to remind you that being a comrade doesn't mean I can get close to you casually——"
Ji Huaisu hugged him from behind and said with a smile: "I only do this to you."
“…”
Someone, who was about to take advantage of the situation, had his words forced back into his throat. He stiffened, feeling uncomfortable, and decided to continue playing dead, trying to become a silent stone.
"What happened last night?" Ji Huaisu patted his chest.
Chu Hengkong was silent for a while: "...Tell me the truth, what was my state last night?"
"It's nothing serious actually..." The girl's eyes wandered.
"Please."
Ji Huaisu pursed his lips and said awkwardly, "...You looked like you were going to rape me."
All of a sudden, the man in her arms became as hard as a piece of steel. All the muscles in his body were tense, as if they were shrinking deep inside his body due to self-blame. Ji Huaisu rubbed his cheek to make the man relax: "Don't be like this, I know it's not your fault."
"I lost control at that time. It's my fault." Chu Hengkong said, "From now on, keep your distance from me—"
"Don't be silly." Ji Huaisu gently bumped the back of his head. "What's the reason? Your spine won't have sexual desire for me, even though you do."
"I don't."
"Who was poking me just now?"
"Can we please skip this topic?" Chu Hengkong sighed deeply, struggling to explain the whole thing. His partner seemed determined to get to the bottom of it, so he decided to explain things in the simplest way possible.
"To put it simply, Qingxia kissed me."
At this moment, the atmosphere in the room suddenly changed.
A temperature colder than the sunless wilderness descended upon the small guest room without warning. Vander's tentacles stirred slightly within his sleeping bag. Just as he was about to awaken, the sudden chill froze him, forcibly plunging him back into a deep slumber. The arms around someone suddenly tightened, like two iron hoops. The previously soft, warm embrace now felt like an icy harbor. The female knight's call was as terrifying as the breath of an ancient dragon.
"What did you say?"
Chu Hengkong broke out in a cold sweat: "Miss Ji, calm down, this is not the point."
"This is the key point! Explain it to me clearly!" Ji Huaisu looked ferocious.
"You said before that you are not the housekeeper's wife?"
"That was yesterday's Ji Huaisu. The one talking to you is today's Ji Huaisu."
"You're no longer being reasonable, you know that!"
Ji Huaisu began to grit his teeth: "Stop talking nonsense and tell me! What did you do with her afterwards?"
"Your assumption is wrong. I was forced!" Chu Hengkong tried to prove himself, "I was the one who was knocked to the ground!!"
Ji Huaisu was startled when she heard this. She realized that she had been pursued by Doom during that time, and there was no reason for that evil demon to let go of someone who could help her fight. It was conceivable that Akong must have also been affected by Doom. That unfortunate experience had left him exhausted and nearly dying, so much so that by the final battle he had no strength left to participate.
So, what exactly happened to Akong at that time?
For a killer with such high self-esteem and strong will, what kind of misfortune could make him so miserable?
Qingxia's eerie, sinister smile flashed through Ji Huaisu's mind, and a bizarre hypothesis suddenly occurred to her. Her voice trembled, "Akong, could it be that you... you were invaded by a centaur?!"
Chu Hengkong took a deep, deep breath.
He turned over and hit the blonde's head hard, "What on earth have you been thinking about all day!!!"
“Ah, it hurts…”
It took a full ten minutes to explain the situation to the clueless Miss Ji, and it took them another while to sort out the final threads of the Jinye City chaos. After recounting all this, even Chu Hengkong felt exhausted. Ji Huaisu sat cross-legged on the bed, swaying from side to side.
"How can I put it? This inexplicable feeling... I want to beat her up, but I also want to thank her..."
"Do you understand me now?" Chu Hengkong covered his forehead. "Last night's loss of control started from my heart. I suspect it was because of that blood."
"But Qingxia doesn't look that perverted, right?" Ji Huaisu questioned, "I don't think she wants to fuck me."
"If you don't behave yourself, I'll complain to Youyou when we get home."
Ji Huaisu was not afraid at all: "Go find him and see who has more leverage."
"You really are..."
After a long discussion, no one could come to a conclusion on the issue, and the discussion ended in vain. Chu Hengkong packed up his things and woke the comatose Fander. The Eye Demon was in no better condition than he was.
"I had a nightmare all night," said Vander. "It felt like a lifetime."
"You also dreamed of endless darkness?"
"Don't let me remember...ah..."
Vander lay on the ground and howled for a while, then wiped his eyes. "Honestly, man, I can't take it anymore. If this happens every night, I'll go crazy without any help from the outsiders."
"You can try staying up all night." Ji Huaisu offered a very innovative opinion, "I didn't sleep the whole night last night."
"Can you go without sleep for three days? Ten days? Twenty days?" Fander asked repeatedly, "The people here must have a solution. That son of a bitch Chongming definitely knows, but he deliberately didn't tell me."
Chongming knew it as expected. He was waiting for the three of them in the reception room, and laughed at the two depressed people.
"Hey! Looks like you slept well last night!"
"If you don't say something useful, I'll hypnotize you," said Vander. It looked like it was going crazy.
"Your eyeball friends aren't very friendly." Chongming clicked his ears, "What you experienced last night was the friendliest local specialty, the 'nightmare' caused by Vansalar's resurrection.
The dreams of this land are completely controlled by Vansalar. As long as you fall asleep, you will inevitably enter a nightmare... and it is a nightmare that keeps getting worse! "
Chongming counted on his fingers one by one. "For the first three days, you will wander in darkness. From the fourth day on, your dreaded past will transform into tangible nightmares in reality, tormenting your spirit. From the seventh day on, even nonexistent fears will be created, and you will experience the fear of those who died in the war... And if you hold out until the tenth day without going mad, then the Nightmare Lord Vansalar will applaud your courage and personally weave the most terrible dream for you!"
"So we still have two days." Ji Huaisu said.
"Unfortunately, you've already spent two nights in the cave. Now it's your fourth day at the border of the Heavenly Prison!" Chongming laughed. "Get ready, newbies! From now on, the very thing you fear could appear before your very eyes at any moment, and everyone will be able to see it."
"I don't think even in times of war, people would be strong enough to survive in this kind of environment." Chu Hengkong narrowed his eyes. "The expeditionary force back then was able to defeat Fansalar, so they must have had corresponding means."
"You're smarter than you look." Chongming stood up and put on his cloak. "Yes, there are rare safe zones in the Despair Wilderness, and our next stop is the entrance to the safe zone.
You're so lucky, today happens to be a full moon! Bring all your stories, it's time to get the newlyweds' gift package!
(End of this chapter)
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