Chapter 796: Exposed

What is this thing?

After glancing at the black-gold beetles that had crawled onto humans' foreheads and settled there motionless, then at the beetles climbing up his own pant leg, Leon's skin prickled with goosebumps, and he couldn't help asking:

"These bugs…"

"These bugs are my insurance for this operation."

Seeing Leon's disgusted expression, the tall, thin man couldn't help but flash a malicious smile—the first time he'd smiled since meeting Leon—and replied:

"Their name is 'Brain-Eating Demon Beetles.' They devour the target's brain outright, completely preventing the target from dreaming, and then reproduce endlessly after consuming the brain."

"???"

"Think about it—the Nightmare King's biggest problem isn't he can move endlessly within human dreams?"

Seeing Leon's eyes widen suddenly, the director of the Scorpio Division spoke slowly:

"But dreams still require a brain to exist. Whenever it enters someone's dream, I'll have the Brain-Eating Demon Beetles devour that person's brain—and the Nightmare King will be forced out of the dream."

"Even more simply: if we just devour everyone's brain who's having nightmares ahead of time, we won't have to worry about it descending and making the entire kingdom suffer nightmares."

"…"

So people without brains can't dream—so to avoid nightmares for the rest of their lives, we just preemptively eat all the brains, right?

You're a fucking genius.

After his cheek twitched slightly, Leon decisively extended his finger and poked the black-gold beetle crawling toward his head.

【Name: Dream-Eating Strange Beetle (Dream-Eating, Fission)】

【Appearance: A peculiar beetle of the order Coleoptera, family Anthicidae, genus Cetonia, with a lacquer-like black carapace and brilliant golden elytra; its abdomen bears a pattern resembling a screaming human face, roughly the size of an adult male's thumbnail】

【Ability: Consume dreams, split and reproduce】

【Cost: An anomaly usable only once. After issuing a command to the mother beetle, the user signs an irrevocable contract—their entire future dream life will serve as sustenance for the Dream-Eating Strange Beetle's mother beetle】

【File: Developed by the second director of the Cleanup Bureau's Scorpio Division, who fed the corpse of the Dream Realm deity "The Fallen Dreamer" to breed this special beetle. It possesses the unique ability to consume the dreams of living beings and can reproduce nearly endlessly so long as any human still dreams.】

【Four hundred years ago, two Dream-Eating Strange Beetle larvae were stolen from the Scorpio Division's storage. Within thirty-two hours, they reproduced nearly a hundred million times, consuming one-fifteenth of the world's dreams that day—and continued splitting rapidly.】

【To resolve this anomaly Shikong event, the Cleanup Bureau was forced to mobilize extensively… causing massive destruction… impose restrictions… receive emergency calls… forcibly activate… carry…】

【Evaluation: The natural enemy of Dream Realm beings, the anomaly the Nightmare King most desires to destroy. If you collect all mother and larval beetles and deliver them to the Dream Realm to the Nightmare King, he will bow his head to you for a hundred years.】

【Contamination Level: 60. 】

"…"

Fuck, so it was just a bluff! You scared the shit out of me!

After reading the 【Dream-Eating Strange Beetle】 file, Leon exhaled deeply, loosening his grip on the 【Desire-Dream Invader】. Noticing his movement, the tall, thin man snorted with amusement and said mockingly:

"Scared of having your brain eaten? If you're afraid, just ask me—I'll recall the Brain-Eating Demon Beetles and spare your brain."

"…"

This guy is such a pain…

Watching the tall, thin man whose eyes gleamed with mischief, clearly deriving great pleasure from teasing him, Leon's cheek twitched again, then he quietly closed his mouth. Fine… let him play his games. Though his mouth is foul, he did bring an anomaly specifically designed for the Dream Realm. Just this one item makes him MVP of this operation. As long as no one in the kingdom gets hurt, a few insults don't matter.

…

Huh… this kid's ability might not be simple at all…

Watching Leon poke the beetle on his shoulder, then exhale and pretend not to hear him, the director of the Scorpio Division narrowed his eyes.

According to the anomaly log submitted by that bitch, Leon Ryan's core anomaly as a Level-3 Cleanup Agent is called 【Forced Information Acquisition】, allowing him to forcibly extract partial information from anomalies through touch.

When touching weaker anomalies, the information retrieved is comprehensive—but the stronger the anomaly, the less information he can obtain, sometimes none at all. A decent auxiliary ability, nothing more.

But the 【Dream-Eating Strange Beetle】 I just revealed, despite its limitations—no direct lethality, only effective against Dream Realm beings, usable only once—has a very low serial number: 057.

Yet its inherent rank is anything but low. Without crossing the True God threshold, you cannot even command the mother beetle—it's a genuine True God-level anomaly.

Yet this kid only poked it once—and his tense body instantly relaxed. If I'm right, he must have used his ability to extract the 【Dream-Eating Strange Beetle】's data and saw through my lie about the "Brain-Eating Demon Beetles."

He can casually obtain information from a True God-level anomaly with a single touch—his 【Forced Information Acquisition】 ability is far higher in rank than that bitch reported!

"What's wrong?"

Noticing the tall, thin man had turned to stare at him, Leon blinked warily but politely asked:

"Mr. Edward, do you have a question for me?"

"…"

Of course I have questions. Many.

Studying Leon's eyes, he noticed the boy's gaze had grown slightly friendlier than before. The tall, thin man paused, suspecting Leon had already learned the cost of using the 【Dream-Eating Strange Beetle】—hence his changed attitude.

All things considered, this kid's anomaly has extremely high rank. Though still young, lacking caution, and unable to hide his emotions, he seems promising…

No—he's already impressive now!

After reviewing Leon's record, the tall, thin man was surprised to realize the Nightmare's words weren't entirely nonsense.

For one, this kid joined the Cleanup Bureau only two months ago, yet already has a contamination level among the upper half of Level-3 agents. With another month or two of training, he'll likely reach the Level-2 threshold.

He also has records of single-handedly eliminating a Holy Spirit, exposing the Aquarius Director's conspiracy, and surviving the Director's attempt to kill him. For a rookie, this is beyond exceptional!

After reassessing Leon's "value," the director of the Scorpio Division fell silent for a moment, then rubbed his stiff face, patted Leon's shoulder with calm composure, and spoke with slightly warmer tone:

"Nothing… I just realized the Nightmare had a point. For a Cleanup Agent, what matters most isn't current strength—it's the courage to face powerful enemies."

"You knew you might be eternally enslaved by the Nightmare King, yet still chose to stand beside me. That's truly remarkable. My earlier remark calling you a liability was excessive."

"…"

?????

(End of Chapter)