Nightmare Assault

“Something did happen,” Jiang Cheng answered shamelessly.

Fatty licked his lips and asked with a cunning smile. “Doctor, can you give me more details?”

“She asked me about the piece of newspaper.” Jiang Cheng shrugged. “When she realised I was too good for her, she went back on her words and demanded the paper back.”

Fatty was confused. Then, he blinked and whispered, “What happened after that?”

Jiang Cheng looked at Fatty. He didn’t say much, but his eyes relayed a lot of information. Fatty’s throat moved. He suddenly had a bad feeling.

“I told her you snatched the paper from me.” Jiang Cheng leaned back in the chair and looked at Fatty. “Remember to come up with a story to go with that, or else you’ll find her very hard to deal with when we run into her next.”

“Doctor,” Fatty’s cheeks shook. “Don’t you think there’s a reason why you’re an orphan?” They ended the conversation soon after. The conversation was not a joyful one, especially on Fatty’s part. This was visible from Fatty’s reaction following that.

After breakfast, Jiang Cheng sat at the office table to work. He pulled out the records of a few patients and called their families to ask for their updates. However, sounds like banging or chopping would always come from Jiang Cheng’s end. Fatty was preparing fish and cutting meat extremely loudly. However, those who didn’t know would assume Jiang Cheng was dismembering a body.

Jiang Cheng had no choice but to ask Fatty to have a chat during lunch. Jiang Cheng planned to try to seek reconciliation with Fatty over the dining table. His plan was to lavish praises on Fatty. However, once the dishes were served, the fire within Jiang Cheng dwindled. Fatty split every dish ‘fairly’ into halves.

For example, the chili fried chickens. Jiang Cheng’s dish was filled with chilies and Fatty’s dish had all the chickens. The same went for the sweet and sour fish. Fatty had the fish body and Jiang Cheng had the fish head.

Jiang Cheng ate a few bites and finally couldn’t resist the urge to reach his chopsticks towards Fatty’s bowl. To his surprise, Fatty silently slid all the meat into his mouth and silently chewed on them. Jiang Cheng stared at Fatty’s chubby cheeks and his mouth flooded with saliva.

“Fatty,” Jiang Cheng commented with passion, “I remember you were once a sous-chef at Huang He Restaurant, right? Your cooking skill is amazing. I’m sure if you stayed at that post, you’d be the main chef eventually.”

“Doctor, you got it wrong.” Fatty didn’t even look at him. “I was a cleaner at Huang He Restaurant. I was responsible for cleaning the toilet.”

Soon…

“I’m full.” Fatty stood up and cleared away the table. “I still need to wash the dishes.” Fatty carried his plates and returned to the kitchen. A few seconds later, the sound of plates clinging could be heard.

Jiang Cheng looked down and saw the half of sweet and sour fish Fatty had left in his bowl.

After lunch, Jiang Cheng went upstairs to rest. After all, he just exited the nightmare realm. He exhausted a lot of energy. After clearing three nightmare missions, he started to gain a sense of the taboos or the rules…

First, there was a different world behind each door. These worlds were real in a way. They were like pieces of history plucked out from a period in time by the hand of God. No matter what they did, they could not change the story’s ending, only the process.

Second, the nightmare realm had its own rewards and punishments system. The punishment system was the ghost. Jiang Cheng cared more about the rewards.

So far, he knew that one would be able to obtain a piece of blank paper if one managed to clear the mission as the only surviving traveller. Based on what he had learned, this paper could defend against the attack of the ghosts. Of course, this effect was not permanent. Once it was used, the paper would disappear.

This information was revealed to him by Xu Wen. She survived the ghost’s attack with this blank paper.

With this in mind, Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes. He was reminded of Chen Xiaomeng. In the Qian Family’s abandoned home, Chen Xiaomeng managed to escape from the ghost despite being locked inside the closet. That could not be explained by pure luck. She probably used the paper.

That would explain why Jiang Cheng managed to find a clue item, the family portrait, but not the white paper when he searched her body later.

From their interactions in the first mission, Chen Xiaomeng was an expert at killing her own teammates. If Jiang Cheng were not in her team, she would have another reward in the bag. She was much stronger than Xu Wen so naturally she would have more blank papers.

Jiang Cheng decided to attempt the mission alone because he wanted to try to see if he could score the paper himself. However, Lee Lu intercepted the reward. Jiang Cheng was not arrogant enough to plan to kill his other teammates, but he could search their bodies for some good stuff. Chen Xiaomeng was the best example.

Unfortunately, he was too late, or the piece of blank paper would be his.

Third, and this was a point that still confused Jiang Cheng, the connection between the newspaper and the blank paper in terms of them being mission rewards. Nevertheless, he could tell that the blank paper was more useful than the newspaper. After all, the blank paper could save lives.

However, to say the blank paper was unanimously better than the newspaper would be false. This was because they served wildly different purposes. The blank paper was used to save lives while the newspaper recorded clues about the missions.

For example, if one had to choose, for an average person, the chance of one surviving might be higher if one chose the newspaper. After all, the blank paper’s protection was not permanent. If they couldn’t find their way out of the mission through analysis and clues, they would eventually be murdered. And their endings would be more painful than death.

For normal travellers, the blank paper could only delay the inevitable. They would have to die in the end as well.

However, for experienced travellers like Lee Lu and Chen Xiaomeng, the situation was not the same.