Chapter 1624: Dream Escalation
Although he called him brother-in-law, Young Master Mo didn't treat Scarface Glasses particularly well. However, with that connection, the two of them were indeed more reliable than other temporary player alliances—though that reliability was strictly limited to their mutual relationship.
After a brief rest, Chi Xian prepared to sleep.
He patted Xu Huo on the shoulder. "Brother, my safety is in your hands."
"Don't worry." Xu Huo nodded in agreement.
Scarface Glasses and Tong Qi also prepared themselves for sleep.
Tong Qi trusted Xu Huo and the others completely. Without a word, he crawled into his own sleeping bag and began snoring loudly, leaving only the breathing valve on his protective mask exposed.
Inside the mall, there were still people who had fallen asleep and not woken up. Some had been asleep for over twelve hours.
Today was already the fourth day. Aside from the Zone 013 residents who had slept themselves to death, the players themselves had undergone some changes. Unlike the first two days, when waking up felt like having had high-quality rest, some people now showed signs of fatigue on their faces.
Under normal circumstances, dreaming non-stop after falling asleep meant insufficient rest. The gradually abnormal lengthening of sleep time indicated that this condition was worsening. For example, the person who kept planting trees in their dream had been working non-stop from the moment they entered the dream.
The players had prepared their monitors, but no players had gone missing during the day. Those who had gone out and returned couldn't tolerate the overly quiet atmosphere inside the mall, so they gathered in small groups to play cards.
In less than three hours, Chi Xian woke up with a dark face.
Xu Huo tossed him a bottle of water. "Looks like you had a nightmare."
Chi Xian shot a glare at Young Master Mo with visible anger, but quickly withdrew his gaze and regained a calm expression.
Seeing that he didn't intend to elaborate, Xu Huo didn't press. After Scarface Glasses and Tong Qi woke up one after another, he said he wanted to go out for some fresh air.
The players who had gone out in the morning had mostly returned. Probably finding no clues in the city, no one else went out after that.
However, when Xu Huo went out, two players followed him at a distance. They didn't deliberately hide their tracks, nor did they approach to greet him.
Xu Huo just wandered nearby for a bit and returned to the mall in about ten minutes.
During this time, two more players woke up. Aside from being somewhat lethargic, there was nothing special about them. But their condition was clearly off to anyone paying attention, so with the help of other players, they underwent a simple physical examination.
Since the players had all been infected with fungal poison to some degree upon entering, the blood test results still showed mild poisoning.
"Probably just too tired," the beautiful female player said. "With high mental tension during the day and constant dreaming at night, it's like never really resting. It's normal to be in bad shape."
Those two players weren't stupid. After a while, they came to consult Xu Huo.
Since he was the only Mental Super Evolver here, and they had previously agreed on mutual benefit and cooperation, after the two B-rank players died, everyone had been frightened by Xu Huo's dominance and methods. Worried about losing bargaining chips, they had concealed some clues they considered important.
At times like this, everyone being the same brought peace of mind; being different was what was terrifying.
The Buzz Cut player recounted his dream in detail to Xu Huo, explaining his mindset during the scene transitions in the dream. After finishing, he added, "I'm not a good person, but I don't kill indiscriminately either. Does this Instance really have such high demands on players?"
"Not necessarily," Xu Huo said. "It's just that the Instance has screening conditions, and we just don't know what they are."
The so-called tendency toward kindness was merely a guess.
Game Instances might have such hidden requirements, but this Instance had likely been influenced by Dr. Wu. Whether it still followed the original rules was uncertain.
Similarly, Xu Huo's train loop dreams were more or less the same. He felt that repeatedly returning to the ticket counter was meant to change the fate of those people on the tracks, but there were too many uncertain conditions, so he failed every time.
He had come here for Dr. Wu, and this dream seemed very much in line with Dr. Wu's style. But the problem was that he didn't know what the Instance or Dr. Wu required. If he couldn't find a breakthrough in the dream, he risked sleeping to death or disappearing like Zhao Qing.
The Buzz Cut player and his companion had dark clouds hanging over their faces. They looked at Xu Huo with suspicion but ultimately said nothing more and left silently.
"Those two won't cause trouble, will they?" Tong Qi whispered. "What if they strike while we're asleep?"
"Let's wait another two days and see," Xu Huo said. If those two went missing next, it would at least indicate something.
In the afternoon, he entered the shelter again and returned to that dream.
This time, the dream's content had expanded. The entire station had doubled in size, with more passengers coming and going. Moreover, an additional stop had been added between his station and the main terminal. To reach the main terminal now would take an hour, and a round trip would take two hours.
The departure time on his ticket hadn't changed, but the train he was supposed to take didn't arrive half an hour early. The schedule indicated it would arrive in fifteen minutes, and another train had already left ahead of it.
Xu Huo knew this stage wouldn't be easy to pass, but he hadn't expected the difficulty to suddenly increase. His respawn point was half an hour before departure, which was no longer enough time to reach the main terminal.
Although his involvement in the entire train incident was likely crucial, time was also a vital factor. To achieve a change in the past, he would have to manipulate time.
Thinking about what kind of result Dr. Wu might need, he stepped onto the arriving train.
The total number of people on the train was still 126. The slight difference was that the driver was now a tall, strong man with combat experience. Xu Huo suffered a loss the first time he entered the driver's cabin. The man was assertive, locked the cabin door, and was determined to capture him alive.
Realizing that this man would never give up until he caught him, Xu Huo took a couple of punches, got tied up, and managed to warn the driver about the people on the tracks before reaching the incident site. This time, the driver was competent enough to stop the train before running anyone over. However, when a group of thugs broke in and started a fight, the crowd jostled and bumped into the control lever.
The train lurched forward and ran over the first of the group of five.
The process and outcome were almost comical.
The second time, Xu Huo claimed that his family had come to say goodbye and showed a farewell text message. After contacting the main terminal in advance, the driver discovered the tied-up people earlier. With the main terminal's personnel rescuing them first, the train proceeded normally.
But this time, someone still committed suicide.
The third time, the driver chose to sacrifice one person on another track, but it didn't change the final result.
Three attempts made it even clearer to Xu Huo that breaking the deadlock would require manipulating time.