Chapter 334: Nightmare Law (Seeking Monthly Votes)

Tristan Psychological Clinic.

Tristan is in his forties, wears glasses, has slightly graying hair, and is a psychologist—well, the ordinary kind.

Due to certain indescribable reasons, this world long ago developed a discipline dedicated to studying human psychology and classified mental illness as a specialized medical category.

It is said that it originally stemmed from that great founder of modern medicine, the Green Forest Earl—Aaron Sotos!

Under the gas lamp, Tristan first took off his glasses, rubbed his eye sockets, then put them back on, and flipped through a research report on the cure rate of Ice Pick Therapy.

After reading other literature, he used a gold fountain pen filled with ink to begin writing a thesis: "More hidden and dangerous than physiological diseases are psychological diseases... According to the author's long-term investigation reports, the following conclusion can be drawn—out of every ten people in a big city, one gentleman or lady suffers from depression, and three are plagued by negative emotions such as mild mysophobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and mania..."

"To put it broadly, in fact, most people have more or less psychological illnesses, which requires more psychologists, but the development of psychology in Invis is still in a relatively primitive and backward stage..."

Suddenly, he yawned, feeling a wave of sleepiness wash over him, his eyelids feeling as if they were weighted with lead, and he fell into a deep sleep just like that.

That news headline was strikingly—'Unknown disease breaks out from the dock area, patients fall into nightmares and cannot wake up, named "Nightmare Disease"!'

After admiring the night view for a while, Tristan slowly pulled the curtains shut and returned to his desk, preparing to continue writing his thesis.

Liliyat held a paper bag containing bread and butter and entered a rented apartment.

Octopus-like tentacles spread wantonly; what was on them were not suction cups, but individual eyeballs.

"Why am I sure it's seawater? I just know... As soon as I saw that water, I associated it with seawater, as well as seaweed, shellfish... and... some indescribable, gargantuan behemoth!"

He saw Danni's description:

"Doctor... I don't know how to describe it, I'm going crazy..."

"That is far more terrifying than a 'Ghost Ship'!"

She saw Aaron sitting on the sofa reading a newspaper and couldn't help but complain: "Ever since we arrived in Xiaduoen, we haven't seen the sun."

In reality, Liliyat and Vernon did not dare to lower their guard in the slightest.

He is a local of Xiaduoen and has been settled here ever since he returned from his studies.

Tristan opened his eyes, only to find himself in the middle of a pitch-black deep sea, with only a faint light above his head.

"How about... we run away quickly! Even if it's to the colonies, it's better than here."

Liliyat and Vernon looked at the headline Aaron was pointing to and were struck with horror.

"Tomorrow will be good weather."

"Come to think of it... that night we clearly saw a ship enter the harbor, but it disappeared the next day... Could it be—a 'Ghost Ship'?"

And his body was constantly sinking, sinking... about to be submerged by the darkness of the deep sea...

Not knowing how long he had been sinking, Tristan suddenly saw a shipwreck.

It was pitch black all over, seemingly in the mast style of ancient times, and the hull was covered with a large number of algae and shellfish organisms.

Tristan brewed himself a cup of coffee, pulled back the curtains, and admired the lighthouse not far away and the light upon it.

That is something beyond human imagination! Terror from the deep sea!

"Ah!!!"

Writing to this point, Tristan opened the medical records again to provide more information support.

Gurgle! Gurgle!

A string of bubbles appeared, rising rapidly.

Aaron spread the newspaper out on the table and pointed to a news item: "Look!"

"Just looking at the description of this case, the patient is already in a state of severe delirium and could almost be sent to a mental hospital."

"I can be certain this isn't some damn work stress; I have always been happy... until that day, the night the navigator Flam drowned in his own bed..."

Doren and his daughter followed his advice and rented an apartment in Xiaduoen to take refuge, and he also stayed here according to the revelation of the divination.

"Another cloudy day!"

All three of them had communed with the terror from the deep sea that night, so naturally, they knew that something terrible was likely to happen in Xiaduoen.

"A contagious 'Nightmare', or a Sleep Curse?" Vernon mused: "I seem to have seen it in ancient texts... spreading and infecting far and wide, this is the power of a 'Law'!"

"It's hell, how did he drown in his sleep? The scene of seawater constantly bubbling from his mouth and nose, soaking the bedsheets, has become my eternal nightmare..."

"Every night, I have the same nightmare, dreaming of a pitch-black deep sea... My body is constantly sinking, sinking... pressure, suffocation... wuwu..."

Vernon walked out from the adjacent room holding a cup of coffee and asked curiously.

Aaron did not put down the newspaper, but just smiled.

"Real case... Danni (surname withheld)... 28 years old, Secretary at the Port Authority, self-reported suffering from auditory hallucinations and nightmares, recently showing a tendency to develop visual hallucinations... Suspected to be caused by excessive work stress and sudden stimulation, sedative-type psychiatric medication has been prescribed..."

As a 'psychologist', Tristan was once very curious about 'lucid dreaming' and had even researched it, mastering some techniques of psychological suggestion.

Endless pressure fell upon Tristan, making him feel oppressed, desperate, and fearful!

As a son of the sea, he often went into the sea when he was young and swam in the seawater, yet he had never felt the terror of the ocean as he did now!

"This is a nightmare, this is a nightmare, wake up, wake up!"

The sound of the ocean and the slightly fishy sea breeze were his favorite environment for falling asleep.

But this feeling of knowing one is dreaming yet being unable to wake up despite using every means brings an even deeper despair!

"This weather is somewhat abnormal."

His body was trembling slightly; after all, he and his daughter had not even opened the Fourth Primordial Substance, so how could they dare to get involved in the vortex of the Sixth Primordial Substance?

At this moment, Vernon finally put down the pride of an Invis citizen and broke his bottom line for the sake of survival.

As for the true form of that behemoth, it exceeded the limits of human understanding and could not be described in normal language at all.

Behind the hull, the outline of some gargantuan object vaguely emerged...

"Hmm, this power should perhaps be named—'Nightmare Law'!" Aaron said pointedly: "The eruption of the Mysterious in the Mortal World is often related to the Dream Realm and the Ages... We have also been here for a while, so... April is almost over."

"Yes, April is about to pass." Vernon's face was full of worry.

(End of chapter)