Chapter 809

It's coming!

In the instant the fog giant embraced the sixth nightmare, attempting to squeeze in, though no clear omen appeared, everyone within the nightmare world still sensed the presence of the Nightmare King nearly simultaneously.

If one had to describe it, this sudden, strange sensation in the heart was like a rabbit grazing and spotting the shadow of a falcon falling upon the ground, or like drifting on a small boat across the open sea and seeing a vast dark shadow drawing ever closer beneath the water.

Even though no real danger had yet materialized, merely the faintest whisper of dread was enough to make the heart sink abruptly.

If the Nightmare King arrived first, I'm afraid I won't make it in time to save him…

Feeling the surrounding drizzle suddenly come alive, as if welcoming something, the Director of Scorpio, standing atop a smoke-choked city tower, frowned slightly and directly raised his hand to snap the neck of the pale doll beside him.

"Crack!"

With a sharp snap of breaking bone, a thin woman among the crowd blocking the gate, desperate to flee, let out a scream—her frail, pustule-scarred neck tilting sideways at the same moment as the pale doll's.

But strangely, though her neck had been abruptly broken, the thin woman did not die; instead, she hunched her shoulders to brace her head and bolted toward another group of people with sickly complexions.

Unfortunately, before she could take two steps, a slender sword still dripping blood pierced clean through her chest, slamming her to the ground and pinning her there utterly.

With her death, the city tower beneath the Director of Scorpio began to twist eerily.

The terrified crowd scattering in all directions; the black-robed doctors with peculiar bird-beak masks shouting loudly; the soldiers behind wooden barricades jabbing at those trying to break through with long poles;

The blackened corpses piled haphazardly, the filthy streets littered with the dead; and beyond the city walls, the cremation grounds where white smoke rolled endlessly, having burned countless bodies of the plague-dead…

This city, being dragged into death by plague, all trembled and twisted like a reflection on a lake's surface after a stone is cast in.

The next layer of nightmare should be the desert of the Dune Worms, right?

After killing the plague girl who "guarded" this layer of nightmare and temporarily breaking the nightmare known as "Dead Plague City," the weary Director of Scorpio squinted at the dim, scorching dream beneath the dead city, sighed regretfully, then stepped into the endless desert below with his last hope.

After learning that Li Ang had voluntarily leapt into the dream, I immediately pushed downward at full speed, piercing through three layers of nightmare, trying to reach him as soon as possible—but I was still one step too late.

Unlike myself, who must kill the nightmare of each world to escape the nightmare, the Nightmare King, as master of nightmares, can move freely through all nightmares at will.

Therefore, the instant it touched the sixth nightmare, it had already located Li Ang's position and could travel unimpeded, arriving at his nightmare in an instant.

And facing the Nightmare King, doubly strengthened by the Dream Realm and the Fallen Soul Abyss, fighting on his home turf, even I without the Star Palace's blessing would face a grueling battle.

With Li Ang's level-three clearance officer strength, no matter how many trump cards he had, he'd shatter at the first touch—the Nightmare King could crush him as easily as squashing a bug.

What a pity, such a promising talent… sigh… this is also the fate of a clearance officer.

…

After recalling everything Li Ang had done, the Director of Scorpio sighed again.

The more obsessive and risk-seeking clearance officers tend to harbor greater potential and grow stronger faster; there was even a record of one rising from nothing to become a branch director within five years.

Unfortunately, the more outstanding these talents are, the more likely they are to act irrationally due to intense emotions, perishing early in missions incompatible with their anomaly affinities—very few survive in the end.

Yet someone like Li Ang, who is emotionally intense yet still maintains reason and calm—if he proceeds steadily, training for another ten or twenty years—his future potential is boundless.

But that damn woman Olivia completely failed in her duty as director, letting a level-three clearance officer get involved in a god-tier mission—what a…

After shaking his head with a grim expression, the deeply regretful Director of Scorpio swung his slender sword, slicing open the outer wall of the dim dream, and stepped willingly into the endless desert of the Dune Worms.

"Boom!"

As the Director of Scorpio left the damp, chilly, rain-lashed Dead Plague City and entered the desert beneath a blazing sun, waves of heat so intense they could cook a man rolled over him, instantly drying every drop of moisture from his body.

Once he adjusted to the temperature shift and surveyed the surroundings through the heat-distorted horizon, a familiar figure instantly came into view.

That was… Li Ang?!

Seeing Li Ang, on a dune over ten miles away, fleeing desperately with the Snow Woman on his back, and behind him the gray fog giant taking form, the Director of Scorpio's eyes widened in shock.

Damn it! Why here, in the vastest endless desert? Too far away!

Upon spotting Li Ang and the Nightmare King, the Director of Scorpio activated some anomaly—his tall, slender frame collapsed backward, his shadow stretching impossibly long, spreading over a thousand meters in an instant until it was abruptly cut off by a deep, sunken sand pit.

Then, his infinitely stretched shadow snapped back violently; when he rose again, he had instantly crossed a kilometer and stood before the massive sand pit.

Hurry! Maybe it's not too late!

Ignoring the sand clinging to his body, the Director of Scorpio was about to activate another anomaly and continue moving toward Li Ang—when he suddenly realized: both the gray fog giant and Li Ang had vanished. The dune ten miles away held nothing at all.

It was a desert mirage…

Gazing at the empty dune in the distance, the Director of Scorpio's expression darkened completely.

This phenomenon, similar to a mirage, like the plague zones of the Dead Plague City or the deep mountains of the Wind Snow Range, is a "feature" of the endless desert nightmare.

Specifically, it stems from the shed scales of the Dune Worms, whose dream-refracted light show the viewer their deepest desire, luring them toward it.

But once deceived by the desert mirage, one loses water continuously while moving, eventually collapsing and dying in the boundless sea of sand, becoming a desiccated corpse buried under dunes—though the vision seen is not false, it can never be truly reached.

"Huh…"

Disappointed, the Director of Scorpio exhaled, turned back toward his path, and reactivated his travel anomaly.

Let it be a mirage…

Judging from the environment around Li Ang in the mirage, he must be within the endless desert—but this desert, named "endless," is the largest of the six nightmares, bigger than the other five combined; I'm already too late to reach him.

Since I can't save him, I might as well use the desert mirage to witness his final moments—this is my duty as a clearance officer, a tribute to a brave colleague.

With this thought, the Director of Scorpio stretched his shadow once more, returning to the spot where he had entered the endless desert, and gazed solemnly toward the location of the mirage—yet…

"Huh?"

Seeing Li Ang in the mirage punch the Nightmare King's toe, then twist his face in agony alongside the gray fog giant as they both screamed in unison, the Director of Scorpio's eyes bulged wide, nearly popping from their sockets.

"Huh???????"