Chapter 390: Where Dreams Begin

The scene here gave Yun Mu a sense of déjà vu; she reminisced briefly and soon found the reason.

When she last entered the Plague Capital game Dungeon, the scene there was extremely similar to this one.

The architectural style on both sides of the street was consistent; if nothing went wrong, this should be a city in the Heling Empire.

So, was that Wuming Shadow drawn here by the wandering souls lingering in this place?

This time, neither the Sheep Spirit nor the Wolf were by her side; Yun Mu walked along the street and soon saw rotting, foul-smelling corpses lying across the road and against the walls.

Gray rats hid in the Shadow, and the rotting corpses were already maggot-ridden, surrounded by swarms of flies and insects.

Yun Mu skirted around a puddle of unidentifiable liquid on the ground and continued forward.

In the history of Earth, the Black Death was gradually spread by rats carried on returning ships, while in the Heling Empire, those rats were the kin of the God of Plague, though at this point in time, the God of Plague had likely not been born yet.

Hm? A giant rat crawled out from the Shadow and came before Yun Mu.

"Squeak squeak!"

The giant rat let out a soft cry, then ran toward a small alley without looking back.

Seeing this, Yun Mu hurriedly followed; she had an intuition that this rat was leading the way for her.

Passing through the pitch-black alley and turning at a narrow old intersection, the giant rat's figure vanished, and in its place was that familiar Black Fog, and within the Black Fog... that which could no longer be called a Young Girl.

When she walked close to the Black Fog and saw that chaotic figure, as if stitched together by the most insane Witch, she was speechless for a moment.

The act of madly devouring souls had ultimately backfired on that Young Girl; her heterogeneous soul could no longer maintain a stable form and could only continue to twist in Chaos.

A large amount of fragmented, incoherent, and even non-human memories were mixed into the Black Fog.

When Yun Mu absorbed the memories in this Black Fog, she was dazed for a long time.

This was all thanks to her having a string of her own stable memories, which allowed her to clearly know who she was.

And those extra memories were merely things she had absorbed from others.

But the ghost before her clearly had all its memories derived from those devoured soul fragments.

Although there was no way to truly empathize, just by imagining it, Yun Mu could understand how terrible the other party's state truly was.

【You have received the memories of 【Unknown Soul lv140 (Legendary)】, your Will +5.】 The Game Panel notification popped up again; she felt like the Will attribute had been increasing a bit too much lately.

However, this didn't count as a bad thing; after all, something like Will is definitely better the more you have.

"■■■?"

【You have come?】

After the Black Fog dissipated, the Wuming Shadow regained its sanity once more.

The voice she spoke with sounded as if countless people were speaking at the same time, sounding like some kind of grand chorus from beyond the heavens.

Its language was also a hodgepodge: Elvish, Dragon Language, Ancient North Continent language, Ancient Heling Empire language, and it even contained the roars of humanoids like Fishmen and Goblins.

However, under the influence of her title, Yun Mu could still clearly discern the thoughts contained in the other party's words.

"■■■■■"

【I have forgotten how much time has passed, and my memories have been constantly fading, but that period of time spent meeting you is something that will never be extinguished no matter what.】

"■■."

【I have a premonition that the day I meet you again will come.】

"■■■■."

【I am very happy to have been able to meet you in these final moments.】

"Wait, final moments?" The previous words were fine; although she was a bit confused, it wasn't as if Yun Mu couldn't understand them.

But what did this last sentence, "final moments," mean!?

Before she could think it through, the surrounding scene became blurry once again.

"Wait, wait a moment!"

Yun Mu still wanted to ask clearly, but what was about to happen clearly would not stop because of her thoughts.

What's more, she couldn't speak at this moment.

"■■■■."

The Wuming Shadow seemed to have long anticipated her departure; as its figure gradually dissipated, the other party waved at her.

【Until we meet again.】

Before she could say anything, when Yun Mu came back to her senses, the surrounding scene had changed once again.

"Boom!!"

A scorching blast of air rushed toward her face, and a shell exploded in front of her.

In the blink of an eye, a severed arm spun and landed on the ground at her feet.

After going around in circles, she seemed to have arrived at some battlefield again.

Only, unlike before, the era seemed to have progressed from cold weapons to the stage of firearms.

Her current position was a temporarily dug trench, and that unlucky fellow who had just been blown to death... "Ahhhhh, I can't take it anymore!"

Inside the trench, a Soldier could not endure the immense pressure and, ignoring the barrage of shells outside, charged straight out of the trench.

The teammate beside him failed to pull him back in time.

"Boom!"

The Soldier's dented Steel helmet was blown into the sky by the impact, then landed beside Yun Mu.

"..."

She had heard the shouting of that Soldier just now; it was the familiar Frost Kingdom language.

In her impression, the war involving firearms that had occurred in the Frost Kingdom... was the border conflict with the Dwarf Empire fifty years ago! According to historical records, both sides were deadlocked at the border for about five years, during which the territorial boundary line constantly changed amidst mutual contention.

"Bang!!"

Another shell landed near the trench, and damp mud splashed onto her face, making Yun Mu realize that she was currently in a state with a physical body as well.

However, the surrounding Soldiers seemed not to notice her at all.

"Help, help me!"

A young man's cry for help suddenly came from outside the trench, which left Yun Mu somewhat puzzled.

With artillery fire raining down like this, could anyone still survive outside the trench? Without hesitation, she jumped straight out of the trench, and the scene that met her eyes was actually... "Ugh, ah."

A pitch-black arrow pierced the young man's chest, and opposite the young man, the familiar Black Fog enveloped a petite figure, and that figure had just lowered the longbow in her hand at this moment.

Wait, the other person's appearance?

Looking through the Black Fog, what Yun Mu saw was actually another version of herself!?

The young man whose chest was pierced by the arrow turned into soul fragments and was absorbed by the other self, and after taking the young man's soul, the other self held the longbow, didn't even glance at her, and turned to leave. No wonder she could hear the young man's voice despite the artillery fire outside; it turned out the other party was already dead, and it was just his soul crying for help. No, now is not the time to think about this.

Coming back to her senses, Yun Mu hurriedly chased after the Black Fog and reached out to touch the other self's shoulder.

Her strength was not restricted in this space, so even though artillery shells were constantly falling from the sky around her, it would not affect her.

And after touching the other self's shoulder, the familiar scene struck again, and the Black Fog shrouding the vicinity all surged into her body.

"Huh?"

The Chaos she had imagined did not appear; Yun Mu, who had already prepared herself to welcome the memory impact, was surprised to find that not a single image had surfaced in her mind.

What is this situation? 【You have received the memories of 【Unknown Ghost lv160 (Epic)】.】 Yun Mu, who was completely confused, became even more bewildered after hearing the notification from the Game Panel.

Memories, where did the memories come from? Why didn't she feel them?

And also, why is it only Epic-tier now?

Wasn't it said that the earliest Epic can be traced back to Fen Yege two thousand years ago? Could it be that ghosts don't count?

*Cough cough*, just a joke.

It's just that the earliest recorded Epic in history can be traced back to Fen Yege, and this ghost right now... is clearly of the type unknown to anyone.

But is it really unknown to anyone?

The soul of the Soldier who had gone mad and fled the trench earlier separated from his body, and when he saw the figure of the Wuming ghost holding a pitch-black longbow, he immediately retreated in terror with a face full of horror.

"The Young Girl holding a pitch-black longbow who can only be seen by those Near Death... You, you are..."

Recalling the legends circulating in his hometown, the Soldier muttered to himself subconsciously.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Realizing something, the Soldier hurriedly turned around, and after crawling up from the ground, he prepared to flee this place.

But how could a mortal soul escape the hunt of an Epic? The next second, the Wuming ghost pulled the bowstring, a pitch-black arrow flew out, and instantly pierced the Soldier's heart.

After absorbing the Soldier's soul, the Wuming ghost wearing Yun Mu's appearance turned to look at her.

"Ah, ah..." The Wuming ghost tried hard to open her mouth, but not even half a sentence could come out.

That's just great; originally only she couldn't speak, but who would have thought that now neither of them could make a sound.

Yun Mu and the Wuming ghost stared at each other; there was no help for it, she could only ponder the current situation.

Judging from the other party's performance, the Wuming ghost likely still recognized her; she couldn't analyze the specific reason either.

Could it be related to the special nature of a Chuanzhezhe again? She speculated in her heart.

Since the Wuming ghost recognized her... what was the reason she couldn't speak? Recalling the way the Wuming ghost tried to speak, Yun Mu gradually had a guess in her heart.

Could it be that she forgot how to speak?

That's right, that must be it... Everyone gradually loses their memories after dying and becoming a ghost, and they become mad. Thinking back to what the other party said during their last meeting, "the final time."

And the appearance of the Wuming ghost during their last meeting... Yun Mu had a faint guess in her heart.

Could it be that the Wuming ghost before her has no memories left except for those related to her? This also seems to explain why the Wuming ghost before her transformed into her appearance.

But why? Even if memories keep fading, when the two met earlier, the other party didn't show signs of all memories disappearing, right? Instead, she had become that appearance resembling a stitched-together body due to having too many memories.

Unless it's the speed at which memories fade!

A flash of inspiration crossed Yun Mu's mind.

Could it be that the more souls a ghost devours, the faster memories are lost?

The faster memories are lost, the more it wants to devour other souls, but the more souls it devours, the faster memories fade!

Hiss.

What kind of vicious cycle is this? It can be foreseen that as the number of souls devoured by a ghost increases, the speed at which its memories are lost becomes faster, and thus it will more madly crave souls.

But dead people aren't available every day; what will a ghost do when it can't find souls at that time? The answer is obvious.

That is to kill the living! No wonder the God of Hunting and Death in the real world has to hunt souls all day long; if souls were just left to slaughter each other like this, I'm afraid it wouldn't take long before trouble broke out.

Fortunately, soul bodies that haven't reached a certain level of strength don't have the ability to affect the real world.

Yun Mu guessed that even without the God of Hunting and Death, the vast majority of souls would eventually dissipate due to the fading of memories.

Hmm, that memories dissipate once they are completely gone is her guess; otherwise, even if memories were cleared, ghosts would still exist in the world, which is clearly unreasonable.

In that case, ghosts would have already crowded this world to the bursting point.

Then why hasn't the Wuming ghost disappeared right now, and why hasn't she taken action against the living?

The answer is already written on the paper.

That is, in the Wuming ghost's mind, all memories related to her will not dissipate due to the influence of time! That's right, that's it, it all connects!

Yun Mu cheered and celebrated in her mind excitedly; she believed she had figured everything out.

The next moment, the surrounding scene became blurry again.

Already familiar with this, Yun Mu knew that she would soon be transferred to another scene, and at that time, she would see a completely different Wuming ghost.

She had a premonition that this should be the last transfer.

"Boom—"

The deafening sound of machinery woke Yun Mu up.

As Nightfall descended, the Energy Tower standing in the center of the city began to operate.

The Supercritical Boiler emitted a low roar, and gray-black high-temperature exhaust gas was discharged from the top of the Energy Tower.

The Strong Burning Liquid, originating from the Dixia Shijie and crafted by gnome artisans, releases energy far exceeding that of coal when burned in boilers, continuously pumping water deep underground via giant water pumps.

After undergoing complex thermal conversion, the ultra-high-temperature steam extracted from underground passes through the thermal shell of the Energy Tower, following steam pipes spread throughout the city, and is fed into one Steam Hub after another to provide heating for the city streets.

As the city temperature rises, the snow accumulated on the streets during the day melts one after another.

Wait, does this look familiar? Yun Mu suddenly woke up, and upon looking up, she saw the familiar gray-black cylindrical mechanical construct in the center of the city, which was continuously emitting exhaust gases into the air.

This familiar scene, these familiar streets, could it be... She turned around to look, and a figure both familiar and strange was leaning against a neglected corner.

That was a Young Girl, with black hair, approximately fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing an old leather coat and a pair of roughly made coarse cloth trousers soaked by the melted snow water.

She lay there quietly, with no signs of life on her.

At the same time, the familiar Black Fog emerged from the depths of the alley, and behind the Black Fog, the Wuming ghost walked to the side of the corpse, holding a longbow, with dull eyes.

Yes, a corpse.

"..."

The Wuming ghost locked its gaze onto Yun Mu!

(End of this chapter)