After the Little Crybaby Enters the Nightmare Cycle

Chi Nan didn’t hesitate at all. He kept his words short and simple. “Redeem it.”

[The dream making system has confirmed the sleepwalker Chi Nan’s choice. The wishing wall will open in five minutes. Please go with the staff member immediately.]

Chi Nan replied, “Yes.”

Just as the staff member was coming forward to lead the way for Chi Nan and everyone was looking enviously at him, the system once again made a dinging sound.

[Please wait a moment., The wish exchange will be completed by the dream maker without needing to go to the wishing wall.]

The system suddenly corrected it.

On the side, Old Yu frowned and questioned it. “What’s going on? Isn’t the wish request made at the wishing wall? Why did it suddenly change? This is against the rules, right?”

The system responded. [It is special treatment for a special case.]

Hei Cha was afraid that Chi Nan would be tricked and spoke in an old father’s tone. “Special circumstances? Why don’t you expand on this?”

[The dream maker has the highest authority to determine the location and form of the wish exchange.]

Hei Cha, “……”

He just wanted to complain about the dream maker flip-flopping when Chi Nan spoke politely. “Is this dream maker the designer of You Yu’s Dream?”

System: [Yes.]

Chi Nan suddenly became interested. He had long wanted to meet the dream maker who witnessed the truth of the event that year.

The system added: [Please rest assured that the result of the wish exchange won’t change no matter what form it takes.]

[Please go with the staff member to the dream maker’s meeting room.]

Hei Cha just wanted to say something but Chi Nan comforted him, “It should be fine. I happen to be curious about the dream maker.”

Hei Cha had to swallow down his words of worry. “Then I’ll wait for you here.”

Chi Nan’s eyelashes trembled. “Okay, I should be able to see you when I get back.”

“I’m really looking forward to it…” He muttered as he turned around. For a moment, the corners of his lips seemed to rise.

Under the guidance of the staff member, Chi Nan left the banquet hall. The entire journey was quiet except for the footsteps of the guide, his heartbeat and their breathing sounds.

After walking for almost 10 minutes, the footsteps in front of Chi Nan suddenly stopped. It was followed by the sound of the door card being recognized.

“The dream maker is waiting in the meeting room. Please go in.”

Chi Nan nodded slightly in the direction of the voice and walked into the meeting room. He had only entered the room for less than half a second when the door behind him suddenly slammed shut. There was no sound inside the room. He could only hear his own breathing and it was completely different from someone waiting here.

The temperature inside the room was much lower than outside. After standing there for less than three minutes, the tips of his fingers started to become cold.

“Hello, is there anyone?” He had just finished speaking when a familiar melody played in the room. Chi Nan was slightly surprised. This was the song he had heard in the fire. It was graceful, slow and a bit gloomy. “Hello?”

Chi Nan waited for a while but there was no response apart from the music. He walked following the source of the sound. As he got closer, the calming notes suddenly became hypnotic.

Chi Nan uncontrollably felt sleepy, like he was sitting in the war and receiving the system mission the night before entering the Nightmare World. The sound was close at hand and he could touch the instrument if he just slightly reached out…

Chi Nan’s eyes were suddenly covered by a pair of gloved hands. It was like the prank ‘guess who I am’ despite the other person knowing he was blind.

Chi Nan’s body instinctively became tense. The other person lowered his head and laughed in Chi Nan’s ear. “Sleep first. Once you wake up, your wish will be achieved.”

“This is a lullaby.”

The man’s words were full of compulsion. The next moment, Chi Nan lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.

It wasn’t known how long he slept. Once Chi Nan woke up, the music in the room had stopped and there was something cool on his face that exuded a sweet herbal smell. He raised his hand and touched it. His eyes were covered with bandages.

Chi Nan instinctively wanted to pull them away but his hand was immediately caught. Fortunately, the other person was wearing gloves. Chi Nan didn’t shed tears due to the unexpected skin contact.

“Don’t move. I’ll take it off for you.” The man’s voice was very good but his hands were cold. The fingers wrapped under the soft cloth were like ice cubes.

The moment Chi Nan tried to open his mouth, the man pressed a finger on his lips. “Shh. The process of redeeming the wish should be quiet and pious.”

Then he took Chi Nan’s wrist and motioned for Chi Nan to follow.

Chi Nan couldn’t help shaking at the cold temperature. The other person gave a short laugh before pulling him two steps forward.

“Okay, it is here.” He motioned for Chi Nan to stop but he didn’t release Chi Nan’s hand. Rather, he leaned even closer. “Before restoring your vision, I will give you one final reminder.”

His voice was low and there was a playful, sadistic air to it that made people uneasy.

“In many cases, fear comes from our eyes. Are you sure you want to restore your vision?”

Chi Nan replied firmly, “I am sure.”

The other person laughed in a seemingly good mood. “I’m looking forward to it.”

He finally released Chi Nan’s wrist and raised a hand to untie the bandages on Chi Nan’s face.

Chi Nan instinctively held his breath and his whole body became tense.

The other person sensed the subtle change in his emotions and deliberately slowed down his hand movements, peeling off the gauze layer by layer. Every second felt as long as a century for Chi Nan.

His eyelashes trembled slightly as the last layer of gauze fell off Chi Nan’s face. His eyes weren’t open but he could feel two dim lights through his eyelids. The disappeared body parts had returned to his face again. His eyelashes trembled nonstop as Chi Nan raised a hand to touch his eyes, cautiously confirming it.

“Open your eyes and make sure.” The other person’s voice rang in his ears. “Has your desire been redeemed as you wished?”

Chi Nan’s eyelids twitched. He took a deep breath and slowly and reverently tried to open his eyelids…

It had only been opened a crack when rich and warm colors rushed from all directions, filling the endless nothingness in his cognition.

Chi Nan closed his eyes again in fear. A moment later, he tried to open them again. This time, it was much smoother. He gradually adapted to the soft light in the room, as well as the colors and pictures laid out in his line of sight.

In front of him was a full-length mirror taller than a person. The young man in the mirror was sickly pale and his eyes shone green under the light. His tearful eyes were like two crystal stones deep in the bottom of an abyss lake.

They weren’t the eyes that a human should have.

At almost the same moment that Chi Nan saw himself, the tears condensed into beads rolled down and wet the two teardrop moles under the corners of his eyes.

Behind Chi Nan was a tall man in uniform. The upper half of his face was covered by a bronze ghostly mask and only his eyes were exposed. At this moment, he looked at Chi Nan through the mirror and he couldn’t hide the surprise that flashed through his eyes.

The air was still and frozen as the eyes of the two people met for the first time. A moment later, the other person’s thin lips curved. “Unexpectedly, your eyes look like this.”

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he couldn’t believe that human eyes could be born with this color. This was a color that didn’t belong in the world. It made people feel uneasy but due to curiosity, they couldn’t look away. Was it because this was an evil spirit who robbed people of their bodies?

What a pleasant surprise.

The dream maker raised his eyebrow behind the mask and stared directly at Chi Nan with interest.

It was only then that Chi Nan realized he was crying. He habitually wanted to take out a handkerchief but the dream maker handed him a tissue first, asking with a smile, “Why are you crying?”

“Thank you.” Chi Nan took the tissue and wiped away his tears. “It’s nothing. Crying is a habit.”

Chi Nan continued to ask, “Excuse me, are you the dream maker of You Yu’s Dream?”

The dream maker nodded. He turned away from the mirror, opened the refrigerator, took out a can of Coke and handed it to Chi Nan. Chi Nan confirmed that it was sugar-free Coke and opened the can. After taking a big sip, he frowned and the tears that had finally stopped rolled down again.

Sweet… it was sweet…

He looked at the can packaging in a strange manner. The package showed it was Coke but there were no bubbles in his mouth. Even the taste wasn’t right. It tasted like… the medicine Aunt Mei previously gave him.

The dream maker smiled at him. “Don’t mind this. It is a joke.”

Chi Nan, “……”

“How do you know everything that happened that year?” Chi Nan asked.

The dream maker shrugged. “There is almost nothing I don’t know. You can understand it like this. In the instance world, the dream maker has the perspective of a god. What else do you want to know? As a sleepwalker who has passed the instance perfectly the first time, I can grant you the right to ask unlimited questions.”

He added another sentence. “Of course, whether I answer properly depends on my mood.”

“……” Chi Nan was too lazy to go around in circles with the dream maker who didn’t talk well. He asked in a straightforward manner, “Was the villa in You Yu’s Dream 100% accurately restored?”

He asked this question because he didn’t find the Crying Boy painting in the villa.

The dream maker’s action of pouring himself some alcohol noticeably paused. Then he stared coldly at Chi Nan before smiling. “Of course, my dream is always a perfect representation. I won’t make mistakes in the details.”

Chi Nan was a bit disappointed but before he could ask anything else, the dream maker directly stopped him. “I don’t like others questioning my professionalism. Next question.”

Chi Nan had no choice. “I can make another wish, right?”

The dream maker replied, “Of course. As long as you aren’t cleared by the dream world, you can stay here and make unlimited wishes. The system will give you the corresponding notifications later.”

He laughed. “Can you spoil me first? What is your next wish?”

Chi Nan thought about it. Any dream maker would know so he didn’t need to hide it. “Stop my tears.”

The dream maker slightly raised an eyebrow and looked over with interest. “That is very interesting. There was once a person who looked exactly like you who never shed tears. You are the other way around.”

“You should guess who I’m talking about, right?” The dream maker spoke casually while adding ice to his wine.

Chi Nan wasn’t too surprised. The dream maker said he could open a god’s perspective so he should know that Chi Nan wasn’t the original owner of this body. However, how much did the other side know about himself…?

The dream maker seemed to guess what Chi Nan was thinking and answered lightly, “Don’t worry, I just understand the story in the instance. I have no interest in the sleepwalker’s past.”

“But.” He raised his eyes to look at Chi Nan calmly. “For those who can pass my instance perfectly, I might pay more attention to them in the future.”

“Then my next instance will be designed by you?”

The dream maker shrugged. “I can’t say for sure. It is random. There are hundreds of dream makers in this Nightmare World so who knows?”

He took a sip of the strong wine.

Chi Nan drank the fake Coke in his hand and his eyelashes were a bit heavy from being wet. “Can I ask you something else?”

“Say it.” The dream maker leaned against the sofa and faced Chi Nan in a slightly condescending manner.

Chi Nan stared directly at him. “My favorability is exactly 500. You assigned it to me deliberately. Why?”

The favorability for saving You Yu was +454. This was deliberately tailored for him by the dream maker.

The dream maker smiled. “The system should’ve told you that apart from the basic rules, the dream maker can assign favorability to the sleepwalker according to the mood. As for why the score is just right…”

He paused deliberately, his eyes staring deeply through the mask at Chi Nan. Chi Nan noticed that the dream maker’s eyes were completely black. At this moment, the eyes stared at him like he was prey and there was a bit of red, like a danger warning. “You know, it is only when you open your eyes and see this Nightmare World that you can enjoy the fear I created.”

After all, a lot of the fear came from what people could see.

Chi Nan looked back at him and nodded. “Then thank you for the hospitality.”

Then he flattened the Coke can and threw it in the trash bin.