Transformed into a heartthrob's simp, every day is a battleground.

Chapter 239 Dream Collapse

Just as Wen Yuan was about to take Yan Xun to find the doghouse, he heard the old man say in his mind—

'Don't tell Yan Xun.'

“…Huh?” Wen Yuanzheng’s words were on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them back down.

"why?"

"Are you stupid?" The old man now genuinely doubted whether Wen Yuanzheng had some kind of mental problem.

Yan Xun didn't ask anything else, except where the doghouse was. There were no other living things in the entire dream world besides them, yet a small black dog suddenly appeared. What did this mean?

“What does this mean?” Wen Yuanzheng asked.

"Damn, what an idiot," the old man thought to himself.

'What else could it be? This black dog might just be the Nightmare's consciousness within the dream.'

'It hid the blue gold in the doghouse!'

'Don't let Yan Xun find the doghouse, go there yourself!'

Fearing that Wen Yuanzheng, who wasn't quite right in the head, would immediately give up, he hastily took control of Wen Yuanzheng's body. "Wen Yuanzheng" looked at Yan Xun, "Doghouse?"

“That’s where I found it.” Wen Yuan was pointing to the corner of the wall he had just pointed to. “I didn’t see any doghouse.”

As soon as Yan Xun saw Wen Yuanzheng's pretentious posture, he knew that the old man had taken over the body.

It seems the other party also knew what he suspected, and in order to prevent himself from getting there first, he simply took control of Wen Yuanzheng's body.

But the problem is... Yan Xun looked at the old man dressed as Wen Yuanzheng with a puzzled expression—

The villa is only so big; if you want to find them, you can always find them. I don't know what need they have to hide it now.

"Alright then." Yan Xun didn't delve any deeper.

He bent down and put the little black dog on the ground. "Go play."

The little black dog glanced back at Yan Xun, barked a few times at Wen Yuanzheng, then wagged its tail and walked away.

"Is it getting ready to go back to its kennel?" Yan Xun asked deliberately. "Should we go take a look together?"

The old man naturally knew that Yan Xun had seen through his intentions. "Alright."

"Let's have a look together."

The remaining people also came into the yard. Gao Wen looked at the little black dog with surprise, "I didn't expect there to be a guard dog in this yard."

"Suckling."

"Is such a small dog capable of guarding the house?"

Qin Ke and Gu Jia knew, of course, that it was unusual for a small dog to appear here, and they immediately thought of the nightmare inside the ice wall.

It is suspected that the little black dog is the consciousness of the nightmare within this deeper dream.

The little black dog seemed to sense that the group was trying to follow it; after taking a few steps, it plopped down on the ground and refused to move.

Then he yelled at the group a few times, seemingly telling them not to follow him.

"Why don't we just kill them?" Qin Ke suddenly said.

"Continuing like this... is a bit of a waste of time."

"No!" Before Yan Xun could speak, Wen Yuanzheng objected, "What if it really is a consciousness? If we kill it, the original body will awaken."

Wen Yuanzheng stopped pretending he didn't know what a black dog was, saying, "We'll all die then."

"None of us can fight the real body inside the ice wall."

Upon hearing this, Qin Ke glanced at Wen Yuanzheng a few more times.

Wen Yuan was avoiding eye contact, worried that the man might have discovered something.

"You seem... a little different?" Qin Ke said. "I didn't think you were that smart before."

Wen Yuan in his consciousness was furious. He had just been criticizing the old man for using his body without permission. Now, upon hearing Qin Ke say that he was not smart, he was even more enraged.

They tried to push the old man's consciousness out, but found it was impossible.

Their consciousness levels are not on the same level. Once the old man is determined to take over this body, and given Wen Yuanzheng's previous "consent," Wen Yuanzheng will have no chance of taking back his body.

“There might be some misunderstanding between us,” the old man said. He found the Wen Yuan in his mind too annoying and simply blocked out his words. “But the most important thing right now is for us to find Lan Jin as soon as possible.”

"I suspect Blue Gold is hiding in its kennel."

Anyway, everyone here, except for Gawain, knows what the little black dog is, so the old man felt there was no need to hide it anymore.

Four against one, no matter how you look at it, he's the one destined to lose.

He wasn't sure who Qin Ke was, but he always felt something was off about him. Besides, although Gao Wen was simple-minded, he was quite capable in combat, so the old man didn't want to confront him head-on.

Whether the little black dog sensed danger or instinctively knew that these people had ill intentions, it barked but did not make a move when it saw them following it.

Yan Xun looked at the snarling black dog, raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, and said, "Don't look at me, I'm not going with you."

As he spoke, he actually turned around... refusing to look at the little black dog that looked like a gas cylinder.

The little black dog howled a few times, seemingly telling the others not to follow it.

Qin Ke glanced at it and then turned around, followed by Gu Jia and Gao Wen.

The old man knew that the puppy wouldn't move if the stalemate continued, and he didn't dare to use force directly. He could only turn around in frustration, wondering once again if Yan Xun had brought them to the wrong place.

Seeing that everyone had turned away and was no longer looking at him, the little black dog took a few steps back in satisfaction.

Seeing that they showed no sign of turning back, he hurriedly took off running as fast as he could.

As soon as the old man heard the noise, he immediately turned around and furtively looked in the direction where the little black dog had disappeared... Then, ignoring Yan Xun and the others, he quietly followed.

"Ignore him?" Qin Ke asked.

"I was just bluffing him," Yan Xun said.

He looked in the direction the little black dog and the old man had left, thinking, "Blue gold wouldn't be hidden in such an obvious place."

Even if the little black dog is the consciousness of Nightmare, it's impossible for it to simply hide the blue gold in the doghouse.

Although Qin Ke did not know the size of Blue Gold, it was enough to feed a creature the size of Nightmare and still have a lot left over... Blue Gold's volume or size must be beyond his imagination.

Most importantly, the old man said that this thing looks like metal after it solidifies.

None of them had ever seen Blue Gold, and Qin Ke only knew that it was the blood of some mysterious being after being injured.

Yan Xun looked at the villa in front of him, and the fast food restaurant in the distance.

Nightmare placed the undigested blue gold in the deepest part of its dream.

The nightmare's conscious form in the dream is a small black dog.

The scene presented here is a dream born from the memories of the Blue Gold Master. As the Nightmare digests and absorbs these powers, these memories also flood into the Nightmare's consciousness, thus presenting themselves.

“Go and see Wen Yuanzheng,” Yan Xun said.

"Let's see what he finds in the doghouse."

……

Although the little black dog was wary, the old man still managed to find its kennel.

Calling it a doghouse is an understatement; it's more like a cardboard box with some discarded clothes inside used as a mat.

When the little black dog saw someone following him, he bared his teeth at the person until the old man impatiently picked him up—and then he started rummaging through the cardboard box.

There is nothing inside.

The little black dog was so angry that it tried to bite the old man's hand, but it was too young to do anything.

"Impossible..." the old man muttered.

"If not here, where would it be?"

He held the little black dog up, staring at the other person's round belly, when a terrible thought suddenly popped into his head.

"What do you want to do?" Wen Yuan was shouting inside the old man's head.

"Didn't you say that if the thing inside the ice wall woke up, we would all die?"

“Yes,” the old man said, holding up the little black dog, “when He wakes up, we will all die.”

"But back then, all you had to do was get the Blue Gold, right?" He began to tempt Wen Yuanzheng in his mind. "As long as you get the Blue Gold, you can complete the mission and leave the instance."

"What do you care about a monster awakening?"

The little black dog in the old man's arms, perhaps having heard the familiar words, suddenly stopped biting and whimpered a few times, as if responding to the old man.

"Besides..." the old man continued speaking to Wen Yuanzheng in his mind, "If you eat the Blue Gold, won't you become a god?"

"By then, will you still need to fear what's inside the ice wall?"

The old man held up the little black dog in his hand and said, "You eat the blue gold first, and then no matter what happens, you won't have to worry anymore."

As the old man spoke, he handed over control of his body to Wen Yuanzheng again.

"You should strike first, before Yan Xun and the others arrive."

'If they come, you won't have a chance to complete the mission.'

Wen Yuanzheng regained his senses and looked at the little black dog he was holding in his hand—for some reason, he felt something was wrong.

He felt that the old man was lying to him, but he couldn't find the key.

Perhaps Wen Yuanzheng was agonizing over it for too long, because the old man was getting a little impatient.

'waste.'

The old man finally revealed his true feelings to Wen Yuanzheng.

'With your tendency to hesitate and overthink, you'll never accomplish anything great.'

Wen Yuanzheng felt his mind was in a mess. His reason told him that he should wait, but emotionally, he couldn't help but believe the old man's temptation.

He looked at the whimpering little black dog in his hand and was about to strike it hard when something suddenly hit him on the head.

Wen Yuanzheng cried out in pain and turned around.

He held the little black dog in one hand and looked at Yan Xun standing not far behind him. Yan Xun was tossing pebbles in his hand, which seemed to be what he had just used to hit him.

“…Brother Yan.” Wen Yuanzheng said this subconsciously.

But the old man in his head started urging him on again.

Tell him that if he doesn't decide soon, he'll have no chance at all.

"Wen Yuanzheng, aren't you curious?"

"The old man inside your body can control your body at will, but at crucial moments he needs you to take action?" Yan Xun asked.

He tossed the pebble in his hand. "Why don't we ask him what he's really up to?"

Upon hearing this, Wen Yuanzheng immediately released the restraints on the little black dog.

Yes, the old man could clearly control his body at will, but when he entered the ice crevice and was about to kill, he returned control of his body to himself.

Thinking of this, and looking at the little black dog in his hand, he became completely hesitant.

"Useless!" The old man roared in anger, instantly trying to seize control of Wen Yuanzheng's body!

He had already made up his mind. At worst, he would return his body to Wen Yuanzheng the moment Wen Yuanzheng swallowed the blue gold!

Wen Yuanzheng's body was immediately controlled by the old man again!

He then grabbed the whimpering black dog in his hand with all his might, his fingers forming claws as if he was about to disembowel it.

"Hey." Yan Xun threw another pebble.

How about I show you a magic trick?

The old man sneered, thinking to himself that Yan Xun, at a time like this, still had the leisure to joke around—

Then he watched as Yan Xun pulled a French fry from his pocket, the one he had taken from the fast food restaurant earlier.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion.

The old man watched helplessly as Yan Xun bit off a piece of the fries, his mind still reeling.

Everything has changed.

Yan Xun mischievously stuck out his tongue, showing him the half-eaten French fry on his tongue, before swallowing it in front of him.

An almost earth-shattering tremor occurred throughout the entire dream space.

The little black dog's body turned into black smoke in an instant... Then, everything in the dream shattered instantly!

The fast food restaurant, the burger shop, and even the villa and courtyard in front of us all vanished, turning into blue-gold like stardust.

And then!

boom!!

The world constructed by the dream has completely collapsed.

The monster inside the ice wall discovered that the blue gold had been taken and was fully awakened.

……

The half-fries transformed into an energy ball and entered Yan Xun's body as soon as he swallowed them.

It felt as if every blood vessel in my body had come alive at that moment.

His vision blurred, and his mind went blank.

"Let's go!" Yan Xun said to Gao Wen and Gu Jia.

Gao Wen was already holding the scattered blue gold in his hand. He was about to drag Yan Xun away before the dream collapsed when his figure suddenly disappeared into the shattered dream space.

Then there was Gu Jia, whose pocket Yan Xun had secretly slipped a pebble into beforehand.

The moment the dream vanished, the pebble revealed its true form as blue gold—everything in this dream world, except for the nightmare's consciousness, was made of blue gold.

The nightmare concealed the blue gold within the entire deep dream realm.

Gu Jia had no idea that Yan Xun had given her Blue Gold beforehand.

The moment the dream collapsed, the system assumed he had completed the hidden quest and kicked him out of the instance.

Qin Ke picked up the fallen blue-gold fragments... He looked at the metal fragments in his hand, and then at Wen Yuanzheng, who was stuffing fragments into his mouth not far away.

The moment the debris entered his body, Wen Yuanzheng felt as if he had been crushed by a hydraulic press, and a semi-transparent soul emerged from his body.

He was a completely unfamiliar middle-aged man.

The ice wall collapsed, and they were still in the ice crevice, about to be buried by it all.

Qin Ke shook his head and sighed.

"You're still too impulsive."

As he spoke, he grabbed the blue-gold fragments with one hand and embraced Yan Xun with the other. The wings on his back pierced through the disguise, allowing him to carry Yan Xun away from the collapsed ice wall.

Yan Xun felt intense pain in his body as Qin Ke pulled him away from the ice wall.

The massive wave triggered by the shattering of the ice wall completely submerged the Terror.

Yan Xun was pulled into mid-air by Qin Ke.

The monster inside the ice wall had fully awakened. Yan Xun put his arm around Qin Ke's shoulder to maintain his balance, while also taking a moment to glance at Qin Ke's wings.

"A misfortune for our family."

He said.

The angels in the Garden of Bones probably never dreamed that even the highest levels of power in the Angel Guild could betray them.

"Shh." Qin Ke made a shushing gesture.

He stuffed the blue gold fragments into his mouth.

He closed his eyes.

The moment the blue gold entered his body, his body also rapidly ruptured—slightly more than Wen Yuan's, but he too turned into a bloody mess.

He held Yan Xun with one hand, and could only make a prayer gesture with his other hand.

'Merciful Father God, I will retrieve the Blue Gold for you.'

Even at the cost of my body.