Vol 18 Chapter 7-2 (1/2)

Zheng was greatly enjoying the refreshing bath. He had never rested for a moment in the past ten days. For one, he had to be aware of the surroundings at all times in case something out of the ordinary happened. And two, he continued training his Qi, Blood Energy and refining Qi. He arranged the eight flags in eight directions in the living room. So, he was tired from the lack of sleep. This bath was an opportunity to relax his mind and body.

(Need to think through our next actions. If everyone is in a dream, how can we wake up? Xuan is planning something by himself without telling me. Hope he pulls another miracle as he always did and bring the team out of this dangerous world… What was HongLu trying to say? The origin of the nightmare. What other way is there to wake up from a dream aside from physically waking the person?)

Zheng was never an intelligent type. He was at best on the same level as Kampa and Zero. Maybe a little higher in the third stage but still far, far away from Xuan and HongLu. The circumstances enclosing them was strange. Xuan kept his silence. HongLu’s words were as good as silence. Zheng had to force himself to think. Yet, he still wasn’t able to think of the answer. On a last resort, he entered the third stage and simulated HongLu’s mode of thinking. The situation became clearer in his head. He could see fractions of what might be happening but there were still parts he couldn’t figure out.

(Haven’t figure out what HongLu was trying to tell me but following his perspective that we are currently in a dream, the power levels in this world is established around a standard. What is this standard? Another key question is… with regards to time.)

Zheng pinched his hair then continued thinking.

(Time does not flow in accordance with the real world. Twenty days might have passed in reality already or maybe it is only several minutes. If the world is split into three, time in the safe dream and despair dream might not share the same rate. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have lost the girl when she fell off the window since I immediately chased after her.)

(Wait. That girl. What was her name?)

Cold sweat drenched Zheng. He jumped up from the bathtub then walked back and forth in the room. He was perturbed as though a fire was burning his body.

(How is this possible? How could I have forgotten the girl’s name? I am also forgetting how she looked like.)

A sense of fear fell upon Zheng. The situation was unsettling to begin with and now he discovered blank spaces in his memory. This inconceivable development was scarier than any enemy he could see with his eyes. He still remember what HongLu told him. The moment everyone in the team forgot about a person, that person would die. Because she no longer existed.

Zheng took several deep breaths then turned to Zero who was washing his hair. “Zero! Do you still remember the girl that vanished? What is her name? How does she look like?”

Zero hurriedly washed off the shampoo then opened his eyes, looking confused. “What vanished girl? Who?”

Zheng calmed himself and said, “The one that I kept saying had disappeared. Everyone said no one disappeared but I firmly insisted someone disappeared. I mentioned that girl. What is her name?”

Zero thought for a while before he shook his head. “Nope. You never mentioned about anyone disappearing. So I don’t know who you are talking about. We have twelve people in the team. Nine veterans and three newbies. None of us are gone.”

“We have twelve people?” Zheng immediately searched the room and yelled, “We have thirteen people! No, we have fifteen people! How did it become twelve? Xuan, Kampa, WangXia… Where is HongLu?”