Chapter 1006

Seeing Zhou Mingrui looking at her, waiting for an answer, Luo Shan said with some uncertainty:

"It seems to be normal..."

She had originally thought that Zhou Mingrui wouldn't believe her judgment, because they hadn't encountered anything, hadn't bumped into anything, and Luo Fu hadn't even been rescued yet; how could she say the words "it's normal"?

Who knew, Zhou Mingrui actually nodded thoughtfully:

"I think so too."

After two seconds, Zhou Mingrui asked proactively:

"Then do we still need to look for Luo Fu?"

"I, I'll observe a bit more..." Luo Shan walked cautiously to the edge of the elevator area and poked her head inside.

Looking left and right, she felt that aside from being too quiet and having no one coming or going, there was no essential difference from the underground parts of other hospitals.

…………

Emergency center, inside the corner shadows.

Lu Mian and Franca simultaneously saw Jianna, who was wearing a nightgown, her eyes confused, not knowing what she should do.

She had been kicked out of the dream... The two, already having experience, made the judgment without distinction of who was first.

At this time, Jianna also saw Luo Fu and Lu Mianna, and her originally tense and worried heart suddenly relaxed.

Lu Mian didn't say much, used his other hand to grab Jianna's arm, and took her with him, disappearing at the edge of the shadows.

The three then returned to Room 2303, Building 5, Dechuang Garden.

Confirming the situation inside the room, Lu Mian said to Jianna:

"Everything is fine now; you can go and rest."

He had no way of knowing what "rationalized" explanation the dream image "Jianna" would have for what had just happened, so he spoke vaguely to avoid cognitive conflict.

As for the "teleportation" point, it definitely couldn't be hidden anymore; in any case, over this period of time, Zhou Mingrui had already deeply realized the existence of supernatural powers, and there were indeed many Beyonders active within the dream city.

Jianna looked at the surrounding environment in surprise and responded obediently:

"Okay."

After she entered the room and lay on the bed, Lu Mian helped close the bedroom door, turned around, and said to Franca:

"We'll return to the Dawn Hospital now; we'll communicate the process of events once we get there."

Franca didn't ask why and nodded slowly.

Using "teleportation," Lu Mian brought Franca to the green belt outside the Dawn Hospital and cast his gaze toward the emergency center, toward that building.

Seeing the building's glass shattered and parts of the walls charred black, Lu Mian then said to Franca:

"I feel that today's events are a bit of a coincidence; at the same time Zhou Mingrui came to investigate the situation at the Dawn Hospital, you actually appeared in the underground area of the Dawn Hospital.

"What exactly happened?"

Hearing the word "coincidence," Franca's emotions had a slight fluctuation.

She gathered her spirits and spoke from the time she and Jianna fell asleep and arrived at the underground of the Dawn Hospital, meeting Luo Shan, to her own guesses and the several psychological shadows they encountered afterward.

"At that time, the corridor began to collapse." Franca stopped her narration and became silent again.

Lu Mian turned his head to look at her, didn't pursue the questioning, and spoke to himself:

"It is indeed very coincidental; separated and viewed individually, whether it was Zhou Mingrui choosing to investigate the Dawn Hospital's situation tonight because of my reminder during the day and his own initiative, or Luo Shan being stimulated there to produce a psychological shadow, being cleverly influenced by the hidden lurking power using the essence of the dream, the gathering tendency of psychological shadows, and the close connection in mysticism, 'bringing' you into the underground area of the Dawn Hospital, all belong to things that are relatively clear in logic and could normally happen.

"But these two things erupting within the same time period, influencing each other, is clearly abnormal.

"And at the same time, I received a reminder from Lü Yong'an and also followed Zhou Mingrui, sneaking into the Dawn Hospital."

Franca said instinctively:

"But who could arrange Zhou Mingrui?"

"There's no need to arrange him; arranging us is enough." Lu Mian, in his "Despair Witch" state, sneered. "When Zhou Mingrui comes to investigate the Dawn Hospital is uncertain, but as long as it's discovered that he has come, the other side can be activated.

"The power lurking in or near Luo Shan's room should have already existed for a period of time; why not earlier or later, but must it exert influence on Luo Shan tonight?"

Franca was silent for a moment, as if she had finally regained her thinking ability:

"Was Lü Yong'an also arranged?"

"Not necessarily; it could also be that they discovered that I, this God's Child, had a problem and that something would happen tonight, choosing to induce me to come over, using your predicament to force me to become a true God's Child." Lu Mian recalled for a few seconds and said, "Lü Yong'an is very likely not a dream image like Green who was influenced by the 'Great Mother'; she has an external consciousness."

Speaking to this point, Lu Mian paused, his eyes cold as he whispered to himself:

"Guardian of women and children..."

…………

Inside the Dawn Hospital, the building's power supply system was not affected by the lightning strike; only the ground separating the upper and lower levels had a very obvious charred black patch, and one set of elevators had stopped operating.

Lü Yong'an walked in the corridor where the lighting wasn't very bright and arrived at a room.

At the entrance of that room was a wooden sign with five Chinese characters written on it:

"Dean's Office".

Lü Yong'an knocked on the door and entered, saying to the person beside the broken glass window:

"She still didn't choose the mother's help."

"Understood." A voice rang out.

…………

Trier, inside the luxury villa.

While observing Franca's "sleep state," Jianna told Lady Judgment, Lady Magician, and Lady Justice about what she and the others had encountered and Franca's choice.

After she finished speaking, Lady Magician nodded thoughtfully and said:

"What exactly this matter tonight wants us to obtain, and what the real purpose is, is currently still uncertain..."

Before she finished speaking, Lady Justice looked at the sleeping Franca and said:

"'Luo Beier' has left the underground area of the Dawn Hospital; we can roughly sense her and the situation around her."

Hearing this, Jianna's body suddenly swayed, as if she had lost even the strength to support herself standing straight due to the instant excessive relaxation.

Her breathing then became heavy, and she slowed down for a few seconds before saying:

"Is she okay?"

"It can't be said that she's completely okay." Lady Magician's gaze was withdrawn from the sleeping Franca.

Jianna had a realization and said with great worry:

"Yes, she held a ritual in the dream, took a shortcut to advance to Sequence 4, and became a 'Despair Witch'; afterward, I don't know how long it will take to digest the 'Despair' potion, and..."

Jianna suddenly stopped, not saying the words that followed.

What she had originally wanted to say was "And our goal is to wake Mr. Fool as soon as possible and let this dream end, which contradicts the prerequisite for Franca to survive."

In front of the Great Arcana cards, she didn't dare to say this sentence, fearing to hear a cruel answer.

Lady Justice revealed a gentle smile with a touch of playfulness:

"I can understand your feelings, but this is actually not a problem, or rather, it's not as serious as you imagine."

"Ah?" Jianna was surprised, happy, and stunned.

Lady Justice maintained the smile she had just now:

"First, 'Luo Beier's' 'Despair' potion digestion progress is very fast; she has currently completed the part of 'making herself despair,' and afterward, she just needs to find digestion opportunities for 'making others despair.' If she can summarize a more detailed acting code during this process, the speed of digestion will be even faster."

Hearing this, Jianna was stunned for a moment:

"She digested almost half of the 'Despair' potion just after advancing?

"This is about the same as Lu Mian's situation at the time, only Lu Mian quickly made two Gifted demigods despair..."

"Yes." Lady Magician agreed with a nod, feeling something in her heart. "The predicament you were in at the time and the subsequent development were themselves easy to make people be in a state of despair, and Mr. Fool's psychological shadows might contain some things that make Franca completely despair, hmm, things that make some kind of her longing or some kind of her motivation completely cut off from hope."

Jianna's eyes moved slightly:

"What a coincidence..."

Lady Justice sighed and smiled:

"That is one point; there is another reason why I said 'Luo Beier's' dream advancement matter isn't very serious, and that is that as long as we are given a little time, a few minutes of time, even if she leaves the dream now and returns to reality, she won't die; she just needs to pay some other price."

"Really?" Jianna was pleasantly surprised and unable to understand.

Lady Justice smiled:

"Limited by our abilities, there are indeed many things we still cannot do, but there are also not a few things we can do.

"The 'Sun' pathway's 'Unshadowed' can separate Beyonder characteristics, and even make the characteristics inside a Beyonder's body slowly precipitate, from high to low, and although 'Luo Beier' is a dream advancement, reality also advanced along with it; this is the fundamental reason why she cannot leave the dream before she completely digests the potion.

"That is to say, we can have Mr. 'Sun' separate the 'Despair Witch' Beyonder characteristic inside 'Luo Beier's' body in reality; I am responsible for stabilizing her mental state during this process. Once her body in reality regresses back to the 'Pain Witch' level, the problem you worry about—that leaving the dream will cause her to lose control on the spot—will no longer exist.

"Of course, such a solution will definitely leave behind some problems, some of which can even be called serious, which is why we didn't mention that it could be solved this way before, but compared to losing control and dying, they are still acceptable."

Jianna was a bit stunned listening:

Dream advancement brings about reality's advancement, and reality's regression makes the dream regress along with it?

If you can't influence the dream, you change the state of reality?

…………

In the green belt outside the Dawn Hospital, Lu Mian, hiding in the shadows, observed the situation of the building, the patients coming and going, and the emergency response personnel who had just arrived, finding no targets worth noting.

Franca, who had been silent for who knows how long, finally spoke:

"They might have already left; they might not have even arrived at the scene.

"Hmm, you can scroll through short videos; the building's glass is shattered and it was struck by lightning, so there must be many people filming videos and uploading them; perhaps there's something captured."

"Right." Lu Mian took out his phone and scrolled through local news, not letting go of a single video.

When he saw a video titled "My God, the glass is all shattered," he suddenly discovered a relatively familiar figure in the corner of the screen, at the edge of the emergency center.

That figure had golden hair, slightly messy, blue eyes, short eyebrows, a prominent beard on his face, and was wearing a black shirt.

Lu Mian's gaze instantly froze.

This is Grisha.

Peng Deng's roommate, Grisha!

(End of chapter)