Chapter 95: Night of Fear

Ding Mo was startled!

Time Stop activated instantly. This book was first published on Tiantiankan Novel Library, ᴛᴛᴋ. ᴛᴡ, offering you an error-free and orderly reading experience.

But he was still a step too slow; the spear tip had already pierced Qin Yifei's eyeball!

Blood blossomed, glowing crimson under the light of the oil lamp—Ding Mo had hung it on the wall nearby when he moved the table over to block the door earlier.

Ding Mo quickly pushed Qin Yifei away, then, after a moment's thought, snatched the iron spear from the hands of "Zhou Lan" before Time Stop ended.

This thing was too dangerous; he could not let it remain in "Zhou Lan's" hands.

The next second, Time Stop ended.

With a "clang," Ding Mo threw the iron spear aside and focused on bracing the door panel.

Hearing the sound, Jiang Liuxue looked over as if triggered, and she couldn't help but be terrified upon seeing the iron spear.

At the same time, Ding Mo's expression was incomparably grave.

His "Time Stop" had been exhausted. For the next hour, he would have no room for error!

Bang!

Zhou Lan... no, the Guaishou formerly known as "Zhou Lan," was still frantically ramming the door!

Only now, without the aid of the iron spear, she could not pose a threat for the time being.

However, it was still a long way until dawn!

Could they hold out? Ding Mo looked at Qin Yifei, who was lying on the ground wailing while clutching his eye, and Jiang Liuxue, who was slumped powerlessly to the side,

while he silently braced the door.

The situation could not be worse...

One had to know that they still had a "Dream Curse" on them that could erupt at any time, which they hadn't dealt with yet.

After the Curse erupted, it had taken Zhu Dechang directly and turned Zhou Lan into a twisted-minded undead Guaishou.

What about them? What would happen when the Curse on them erupted?

That's right, Ding Mo realized at this moment—

Compared to dealing with the Zhou Lan outside the room, breaking the Dream Curse was perhaps more important!

"... Hmm?" While thinking, Ding Mo suddenly discovered that the sound of the door being rammed had disappeared!

"She left? Gave up?"

Ding Mo found it somewhat hard to believe and listened carefully to the sounds outside the room.

"..."

There was no movement at all; outside was as deathly silent as the previous few nights.

"Zhou Lan" seemed to have truly left.

"What is she doing?" Ding Mo had an ominous premonition.

But time was tight now; since she had left for the moment, Ding Mo had no time to worry about her.

Right now, breaking the Dream Curse was the priority!

At this moment, Qin Yifei finally recovered a bit; he groaned in pain and went to the bathroom to wash his wound.

Emergency wound treatment could be considered a required course for Polluters.

Listening to the sound of running water and the bone-deep wailing coming from the bathroom, Ding Mo left the door and came before Jiang Liuxue.

But seeing her slumped against the wall, her face pale, her eyes looking at the iron spear in the distance with fear, and her shoulders trembling slightly,

Ding Mo sighed. He didn't ask any questions, but instead picked her up and placed her on the bed nearby.

"Hiss, ah..."

Looking at "Zhu Dechang," who kept making strange noises under the ceiling, Ding Mo sat by the bed and began to ponder once again.

At this time, only half the night had passed.

After taking a sip of water, Ding Mo found his mind seemed to be growing chaotic, likely due to overuse.

"... Hold on!" Ding Mo rubbed his temples forcefully, forcing his thoughts to function.

"Clues to break the Dream Curse... clues to break the Dream Curse..."

Ding Mo did not believe it was impossible to think of a countermeasure, because by today, enough people had already died or mutated due to the Curse.

The information was already sufficient; he just hadn't found the key point within it yet!

In fact, when Ding Mo had spent some time in the Isolation Zone reviewing Task files, he had once asked himself:

What should one do if one day they encountered an unsolvable Curse?

When he realized this point back then, Ding Mo had been very dejected.

Because no one, including the Typewriter, could tell them whether they would encounter such a situation.

This kind of certain-death situation!

But, after deducing it, Ding Mo had arrived at a factual conclusion he believed in.

That was, there is no such thing as an unsolvable Curse in the world!

Existence implies being perceived, which implies having weaknesses.

An "unsolvable Curse" is like an "absolutely smooth, defect-free circle" in physics;

both are things that cannot exist, or rather, things "whose existence has no meaning."

Of course, this conclusion might just be Ding Mo's self-consolation.

But regardless, he believed in this conclusion!

There must be a key point to break the Dream Curse!

In the quiet night, Ding Mo began to review from the beginning, reviewing the death experiences of each deceased person after the Dream Curse appeared.

The first victim: Xiao Yong.

He was once a surgeon. After nightfall, he was hanged by his own intestines. According to his roommate at the time, Zhu Dechang, before Xiao Yong died, he seemed to be extremely terrified of the "tank-top Zhou Lan" mentioned by Jiang Liuxue in the dream.

The second victim: Xiong Lihui.

A former security guard, he was buried alive after ignoring the Abbot's warnings and entering the so-called "Guangming Baodian." He was plunged into extreme terror before his death!

Next are the mutated Zhu Dechang and Zhou Lan.

The former appeared to die from an outbreak of Pollution on his body, but in reality, his death was almost identical to the method described in the dream; it can be concluded that he died from the "Dream Curse."

In other words, the "Dream Curse" detonated a hidden danger that had likely been lurking within Zhu Dechang for a long time.

Otherwise, someone who had survived 4 Tasks could not have just dropped dead like that, without even a chance to struggle.

As for Zhou Lan, this woman's jealousy was almost self-evident. She hated and feared beautiful members of her own kind.

That's it!

Ding Mo suddenly raised his head, a sharp glint erupting in his eyes.

Is it because of some kind of emotion... is it "fear"?

Xiao Yong feared people wearing tank tops, Xiong Lihui feared being buried alive, and Zhu Dechang was likely always fearing that the Pollution on his body would be the death of him!

After being cursed, their "fears" all came true!

It could be said that the "fear" hidden deep within their hearts came to life and killed their masters!

If that is the case... Ding Mo looked toward the side at Qin Yifei, who had emerged from the restroom at some unknown point and was sitting on a chair, wailing in a low voice.

He asked, "Qin Yifei, I have something to ask you."

Qin Yifei grunted, and it was only after Ding Mo raised his volume and shouted a few times that he replied in a hoarse voice:

"What is it."

"You," Ding Mo recalled the method of death Jiang Liuxue mentioned, where Qin Yifei's skin was stuffed with filth in the dream,

and asked while saying: "Are you very afraid of being dirty?"

"What? No."

"... Then, is there anything you fear when you bathe? Or do you have any issues with your skin and pores?" Ding Mo inquired from various angles, wanting to verify his hypothesis.

"Huh?" Qin Yifei covered his eyes with one hand, scratched his back upon hearing this, and looked bewildered.

These questions seemed to have left him stunned.

Neither of them? Ding Mo began to feel somewhat agitated.

Could it be that I thought wrong? Is it not because of "fear"?

Could it be because of... their former Identity?

Xiao Yong was a surgeon, so he was killed by his own eviscerated organs... no, that's not right, and what does Xiong Lihui being a former security guard have to do with being buried?

Moreover, judging by Zhu Dechang's attire and speech, he was likely some boss or a wealthy man, and his method of death was also unrelated to his Identity.

After turning it over in his mind, Ding Mo's attention returned to the "fear" hypothesis.

It must be that the questions I asked were wrong... Ding Mo then spoke up again:

"Then Qin Yifei, is there anything black that you are particularly afraid of?"

Black? Qin Yifei did not understand; he did not know why Ding Mo was still fixated on idle chatter at a time like this,

but he still replied quickly: "Actually, there is. I'm quite afraid of sesame seeds."

Sesame seeds!? Upon hearing this, Ding Mo was pleasantly surprised and hurriedly continued to press him.

"Ah, yes," Qin Yifei said, scratching his head:

"Actually, when I was a kid, I liked to go to the street to find magazines to read. Because they would serialize some interesting little stories.

"I had a particularly deep impression at the time; there was a story in one magazine about a boy born with large pores. His mother felt very sad about this, and then one day she heard of a folk remedy—that bathing in sesame seeds could cure it."

When Qin Yifei said this, a trace of fear and disgust appeared on his face:

"But as a result, during the bath, a large amount of sesame seeds became embedded in his pores and couldn't be cleared out, and the boy was forced to pick them out one by one with a toothpick.

"I already have a bit of trypophobia, and that story scared me so much back then that I didn't dare to bathe for a week, until later my dad broke my leg... Ding Mo?"

When he said this, he saw Ding Mo suddenly turn around and look at Jiang Liuxue.

Ding Mo had just wanted to ask about her "fear"—he already had some inkling regarding the method to break the curse.

But as soon as he turned his head, he saw Jiang Liuxue, for some reason, roll over and about to fall off the bed,

and under the bed, an "iron spear" was embedded in the floor!

Only a nondescript spear tip was exposed, pointing directly at the face of Jiang Liuxue, who was falling toward it!