Chapter 653: Nightmare’s Descent

These words left Xia Chong dumbfounded as she stared at Lu Xin.

She felt her mind couldn’t keep up.

In this world, known as the Nightmare of God, she had witnessed the most powerful Ability User she’d ever seen.

Moreover, this Ability User was the strongest in existence.

If a man like him entered the Research Institute, what rank could he possibly hold as an Investigator?

Would he be nothing more than a subject of inquiry?

Yet now, this supreme Ability User—possessing near-omnipotence—wore an expression of despair, pleading for Qinggang’s Single Soldier Captain to kill him, even claiming that a Single Soldier could do it.

What has this world become?

Who truly is the abnormal one?

……

……

As Xia Chong teetered on the brink of madness, Lu Xin fell silent, quietly staring at Number Two.

“Are you insane?”

After a long pause, he finally spoke, “You want me to kill you?”

“Yes.”

Number Two turned to face Lu Xin; his pale, bewildered face showed a hint of excitement as he said:

“Number Nine, I won’t die—I will be reborn within this nightmare. After living so long, all I’ve ever wanted was to escape it, but gradually, hope faded. Perhaps I’ll never break free from this nightmare…”

“Maybe the only way to free myself is through death.”

“But no one else can kill me—only you can, Number Nine. You’ve done it before…”

“……”

If he had been joking at first, now no one doubted the truth of his words.

Even Lu Xin and Xia Chong could sense the thrill in his voice.

He even grabbed Lu Xin’s collar with both hands, pleading as he fixed his gaze on him.

“I can’t.”

Lu Xin broke free from his grip, his expression troubled. “I won’t hurt you.”

“This…”

Number Two’s thin lips trembled for a moment as he weakly released his hold on Lu Xin’s collar.

After a long while, he looked up at Lu Xin and whispered, “Number Nine, you’ve really changed—you’re starting to look more human.”

Those words stirred something deep within Lu Xin.

He couldn’t help but stare at Number Two for a long moment before saying, “You don’t seem to have changed much.”

“I never had a chance to change.”

Number Two murmured, “I should have known all along. When the Orphanage Director abandoned me, it proved I was incurable. He said that every child in the Orphanage had their problems, and though he tried to fix us, he claimed the only one he needed to apologize to was me—because of my issues, he could do nothing but apologize…”

“The Director…”

Lu Xin remained silent, choosing not to bring up the Orphanage Director in front of Number Two.

One had to admit that Number Two might be right.

In the Orphanage, every child had their own issues—like Number Two, desperate to escape the nightmare—or…

……

……

Lost in these thoughts, they exchanged a heavy, wordless gloom.

Lu Xin sank into silence, his refusal plain to see.

Number Two sensed his rejection; the spark of excitement in Lu Xin’s eyes gradually faded…

From afar, strange murmurs began to echo.

Lu Xin snapped to attention and turned his head.

In that topsy-turvy, fragmented world, a surge of mental turbulence was rolling in from afar.

It seemed the entire surrounding world was affected.

Standing on the bridge, they heard faint creaks as if the very earth trembled.

Or perhaps it wasn’t the earth itself, but something deep within it slowly awakening.

“What is that?”

Lu Xin quickly looked to Number Two.

“Oh, it’s this very nightmare awakening…”

Number Two, as if accustomed to it, said, “The nightmare is never static. It flows like a vortex—sometimes speeding up, sometimes slowing down. In short, everyone who enters gets swept up in its current.”

“Is this the true horror you spoke of within the nightmare?”

Lu Xin rapidly grasped his meaning and asked urgently.

“Yes.”

Number Two lifted his pale face and said, “Number Nine, you’re as clever as ever…”

“Is now really the time for this discussion?”

At that moment, Xia Chong couldn’t help but shout, “What in the world is that thing?”

As she spoke, she struggled to lift her foot.

That’s when Lu Xin realized his foot was beginning to merge with the bridge.

It was as if the bridge had turned into a mass of mucus, as though the world itself sought to devour them.

He hurried to pull his foot free, glancing up at the twisted, changing world around him. He wanted to speak, but the surging mental turbulence instantly swallowed him, Xia Chong, and Number Two.

“Buzz…buzz…”

An indescribable mix of auditory hallucinations and visions flooded his mind.

In that moment, Lu Xin felt as if ten thousand voices clashed in his head, a hundred thousand thoughts surging through his blood vessels, filling every sensory corner of his brain.

The sensation was beyond description—like a gush of red liquid instantly pouring into clear water.

It was as if every fine detail of his body was isolated and meticulously scanned.

A staggering sense of weightlessness overwhelmed him.

Lu Xin felt as if he had suddenly plummeted into a deep abyss, or perhaps arrived under a starry sky.

His emotional consciousness dissolved into complete chaos.

Yet simultaneously, his rational mind was abruptly stripped away.

It was as if he had leapt from the sea’s surface, looking down into its profound depths, all while sensing his own body.

Within that sea of thought, he felt himself instantaneously fragmented.

Every desire, emotion, memory, and trait was dismantled like precise mechanical parts, displayed piece by piece before him.

He could observe himself objectively, with startling clarity.

From that utterly detached perspective, he saw himself entirely—and in doing so, understood himself like never before…

…

“Buzz…buzz…”

The mental turbulence around him continued to surge, merging with his rationality.

At one point, even his logical mind could no longer discern whether the chaotic storm was simply turbulence or an overwhelming flood of knowledge and perception, drowning his reason like a tide—such was the power of this high-level phenomenon.

The moment he encountered it, he was transformed—inside and out.

…Then, he suddenly recalled Number Two’s description.

Everyone who enters this world experiences a moment of gratitude, even exhilaration.

Soon after, they face the true terror of this world.

It turns out that the sensation that excites them is this very feeling.

It’s as if they view the world from a divine perspective, even scrutinizing themselves.

Truly, an unimaginable, utterly unexperienced sensation…

But if that is exhilaration, then what is fear?

“Swish…”

A piercing, sharp sound flashed by his ears, indescribably acute.

Like a sword slicing past, the world around him fell eerily silent.

Lu Xin suddenly opened his eyes to see Xia Chong standing there in a daze.

Her calf was already submerged in the bridge’s concrete, yet she remained oblivious.

Her eyes were clouded with bewilderment, her small mouth slightly agape, as if a strange mental force had overtaken her.

Even her mental power was surging at an astonishing pace, like a spring slowly bursting forth.

Lu Xin instantly recognized the problem.

Both he and Xia Chong were being tainted by the Nightmare of God…

This high-level corruption was inducing changes on a mental plane.

As a qualified specialist in Special Pollution Cleanup, he knew exactly what worsening contamination meant…

“No…”

At the first sign of awareness, he instinctively shouted.

But before Lu Xin could utter another word, a deafening boom resounded—the bridge suddenly snapped in half, and an indescribable weightlessness overtook him, Xia Chong, and Number Two as they plunged into the river below.

Below, countless excited faces raised their hands high.

It was as if they eagerly awaited their entry.

“Watch out!”

Lu Xin shouted, harnessing his sister’s strength. With agile movements, he clutched a nearby bridge pier with one hand and grabbed Xia Chong with the other. Just as he reached out toward Number Two, he noticed that Number Two’s falling body had suddenly vanished.

In the next moment, he found himself sitting on a fractured pier, quietly gazing into the distance:

“It’s no use, Number Nine. This place is a massive vortex—from which no one can escape.”

“Everyone will be assimilated, trapped in this world forever…”

“So, you really aren’t considering killing me?”

“……”

Lu Xin forcefully pulled Xia Chong onto the pier and shouted angrily, “Shut up.”

“Oh.”

Number Two looked at Lu Xin blankly, then silently bowed his head.

“Crunch…”

At that very moment, the changes around them intensified dramatically.

A sensation of being top-heavy washed over them as the world flipped upside down.

Initially, Lu Xin was holding onto Xia Chong to prevent her from falling, but in that brief inversion, she tumbled onto him. He grunted from the impact, instinctively clutching her, when he saw countless figures falling from above.

They were the people from the river beneath the bridge—like innumerable raindrops suspended in mid-air.

Their faces contorted in pain or twisted pleasure as they flailed helplessly, suspended in the air.

Some, caught between agony and cruel excitement, reached out toward Lu Xin and Xia Chong—as if trying to steal their strength to escape the current, or perhaps simply irked that they hadn’t joined the mass…

“What on earth is this cursed thing?”

Even Lu Xin, without any family aid, was helpless in the face of such bizarre transformations.

He nearly allowed them all to latch onto him.

But then the world abruptly shifted once again; countless flames began to rain down.

It was the very ‘sun’ they had just passed—flung here by the world’s inversion.

Countless flames scorched past them, and many struggling figures in mid-air were consumed by the fire…

……

……

Lu Xin and Xia Chong felt as though this world was ravaging and tormenting them, completely beyond their control.

Number Two, still by his side, remained calm and composed, repeating his words:

“The power of the Nightmare of God is irresistible…”

“Number Nine, even you cannot oppose it…”

“So, why not just kill me…?”

“Would you kill me?”