Chapter 400: 400 I Sell Myself

"Then you're… actually not bad…"

Facing Li Ang, who had not only successfully escaped the dream with a 3-vs-1 advantage but also dragged the Snow Woman out along with it, the Scorpio Director, after offering a dry compliment, seemed to feel embarrassed that he himself had been trapped by the nightmare, and quickly added with flickering, dog-like eyes:

"Hmm… I'm almost done too, but these six nightmares refuse to face me head-on.

Their job seems to be to hold me back, so they keep fleeing through all six dream layers; every time I catch and kill one, the other five team up to revive it…

So just wait outside for a bit—I'm moving slowly through this nightmare, slower than they are. I need to think of a way to corral them all together first."

So your problem is you can fight them, but you can't catch those nightmares?

After hearing the Scorpio Director's words, Li Ang paused briefly, then turned to look at the Snow Woman behind him.

The Snow Woman, though now a damaged version—having lost her core ability to suppress memories and even weakened her power to summon snow and wind—was still a Nightmare Messenger endowed with authority by the Nightmare King, capable of moving freely within nightmares.

So if she could open a passage…

"Give up now!"

Seeing through Li Ang's plan at a glance, the Snow Woman, lying on the ground, lifted her long neck and glared at him with cold, beautiful eyes full of hatred:

"Damn human! Don't forget what you've done to me! I will never help you!"

"…"

Come on… logically speaking, I didn't do anything that extreme, did I? You were the one who came after me—why does it feel like I kidnapped a maiden?

Facing the Snow Woman's bitter, resentful gaze behind him and the Scorpio Director's increasingly strange stare ahead, Li Ang, feeling his reputation unjustly damaged, couldn't help but protest:

"Wait—I didn't destroy your nightmare core. Aside from dragging you out of the dream, what else did I even do?"

"You've already done all this—what else do you plan to do to me?"

Recalling the painful experience of being dragged screaming from her dream, and her nightmare now utterly corrupted by that strange little tune, rendered as good as useless, the unfortunate Snow Woman was suddenly overcome with grief.

…

Although nightmares are masters of nightmares, unlike humans, they cannot create new dreams every night. Most nightmares' dreamscapes are singular and fixed—the very dream that gave birth to them, where they were born, grew, and will ultimately perish.

For a nightmare, this bonded dream holds importance comparable to a harbor for a ship, a homeland for a wanderer—its significance is incomparable, its bond tighter than that between plant roots and earth.

Being forcibly dragged out of one's bonded nightmare is, for a nightmare, no different from being woken abruptly, stripped naked, and thrown onto the street.

And this damned human didn't just drag her out—he completely corrupted her bonded nightmare. It wasn't enough to strip her naked and dump her on the street; he even picked up a brush and painted a row of wiggling little turtles all over her body! The ultimate humiliation for a nightmare!

"So just give up already!"

Looking at the hateful human who had destroyed everything she had—and indirectly caused her to be "expelled from the Nightmare Ranks"—the Snow Woman, eyes red-rimmed, tilted her chin defiantly and swore:

"Even if I'm roasted alive by tomorrow's sun—or killed right now—I will never lift a finger to help you!"

"…"

Fine…

Seeing the Snow Woman's glare, as if she wanted to devour him alive, Li Ang abandoned any thought of swaying her. He reached out, tapped his cufflink, and withdrew a black snake-skin scroll, a demonic hide scroll etched with grotesque patterns, and a sharp knife.

Ding, Li Ang Lyne activated 【Unfair Snake Pact】 and initiated a transaction.

Transaction item: 【Demon's Register】

Transaction target: The Snow Woman before him.

Transaction content: Herself.

"Mmm…"

After slicing his arm with the knife, Li Ang, gritting his teeth against the pain, pressed the wound against the 【Unfair Snake Pact】. Dark red blood was violently drawn out and swiftly absorbed into the snake-skin scroll.

What… what is he doing?

Sensing something was wrong, the Snow Woman on the ground gasped in alarm. Just as she opened her mouth to demand an explanation, she felt a sudden, heavy weight settle on her chest—the demonic hide scroll, which Li Ang had extracted earlier, had somehow appeared there.

"???"

Realizing she had inexplicably lost ownership of herself, and sensing a faint, eerie connection to Li Ang through the snake-skin scroll now glowing with eerie red light after swallowing so much blood, the Snow Woman was struck with utter horror.

"You! What did you do to me?!"

"Nothing."

After wrapping his arm with the 【Infected Blood Band】 to heal the wound he'd made himself, Li Ang, still pale, cut the climbing rope binding the sleeping bag and ordered:

"Get up. Time to work."

"??!"

As Li Ang spoke, the Snow Woman, in sheer terror, discovered that no matter how fiercely her mind resisted, her body obeyed—she sprang cleanly out of the sleeping bag.

Following Li Ang's instructions, she silently linked into the nightmare world jointly sustained by the other six nightmares and began searching for the trapped Scorpio Director's location.

No! No! No!!!!!!

…

What the hell—there's an anomaly like this?

Watching the Snow Woman, whose face was clearly filled with resistance yet who could only obey Li Ang's orders as she searched the nightmare world, the Scorpio Director gaped in shock, his dog-like mouth hanging open.

Even though the Snow Woman appeared severely wounded, had left her own nightmare world, and was now weaker than an ordinary human, her inherent "status" and "weight" remained unchanged—she was still at Level One Cleaner tier.

Yet Li Ang, a Level Three Cleaner, had merely sacrificed some blood to forcibly suppress her will and override her, gaining control over a being far superior to himself… Is this snake-skin scroll not a bit too "overpowered"?

After studying Li Ang's snake-skin scroll for a moment, the Scorpio Director, unable to contain his confusion, seized the moment as the Snow Woman opened the nightmare gateway and asked his question.

After hearing his question, Li Ang shook his head and replied with a slightly complex expression:

"It's not quite that overpowered… I mean, this item has severe limitations—it's not as absurd as you think, and it's actually quite fair.

Nightmare beings, strictly speaking, have no souls—they're merely aggregates of memory and fantasy. In human terms, they're closer to 'objects' than 'people,' which is why they can be directly exchanged.

As for why I can override her level… it's not just blood I used to complete the transaction. The demonic hide scroll on her chest matters too.

That item is called 【Demon's Register】—an anomaly worth 42 Li Ang Points. In value, it exceeds the Snow Woman herself. My cost was substantial."