Chapter 157
Chapter 157
Ding-dong.
The sensor bell at the entrance chimed, jolting the sleeping shopkeeper awake.
“Welcome! Sir, if you’d like–”
The shopkeeper wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and approached with a broad smile, ready to introduce his wares. Then the words died in his throat.
He had recognized the man’s uniform–the kind worn only by senior officials of the United Government.
The long black coat was neat and understated, yet it radiated an authority that made people shrink into themselves.
Every person he had ever seen dressed like that had appeared on the news. They spoke eloquently before the cameras, deciding the life and death of countless people in a few casual sentences.
And now, one of those important figures stood here in the flesh.
The shopkeeper went pale. His legs began trembling on their own, and even the stiff smile on his face became impossible to maintain.
“Sir… what brings you here?”
“I’m just a man who sells clothes…”
His lips quivered. It took everything he had to force out a smile.
His heart pounded like a drum. In the silent shop, there was nothing but his breathing and the heavy thud of his heartbeat.
The man before him adjusted his glasses and offered an amiable smile.
When he spoke, his voice was calm and gentle, as though he were catching up with an old friend.
“Relax. This is merely routine. I’m here to ask you a few questions.”
The shopkeeper swallowed and forced himself to nod.
But his thoughts strayed involuntarily to the young Anomaly Hunter he had met several days ago.
Shit. That bastard didn’t sell me out, did he?
He promised he wouldn’t report me! Then why is an official this important at my door…?
The shopkeeper was wailing inside, but his words were perfectly obedient.
“Ask me anything, sir! I’ll cooperate one hundred percent. I won’t hide a single thing!”
The man smiled. “Good.”
“I heard…” His tone shifted. “That you bought some unusual merchandise from those junk dealers?”
“You know what I mean. Goods brought in from the Fallen Zone.”
The last trace of color vanished from the shopkeeper’s face.
Drop him into a fairy tale right now, and he might have been paler than Snow White.
“It’s all right. Just tell me what you know.”
The man found a chair and sat down. He put on no airs, nor did he utter a single threat, yet everything about him was suffocating.
It was like standing at the foot of a mountain and looking up just in time to see it collapse, an endless avalanche of stone bearing down on him.
There was nowhere to run. No possibility of escape.
“I…”
The shopkeeper’s tongue tasted bitter. “I did take in some of those goods… but sir, I swear I had no idea before I bought them!”
“All my purchase records are here. If you’d like to see them, I’ll get them right now!”
He hurried behind the counter and began rummaging frantically, stammering all the while.
The seated man remained perfectly calm. He merely asked,
“Do you remember taking in an Anomaly Hunter’s combat uniform?”
“I heard it was still on display in your front window a few days ago. Why is it gone now?”
Buzz.
The shopkeeper’s mind exploded into blankness.
He raised his head stiffly and met the man’s gaze.
For those brief two seconds, it did not feel as though he were staring into a pair of eyes. It felt like a whirlpool capable of swallowing his soul and grinding it apart.
“I…”
“Sold it…”
His voice was barely louder than a mosquito. “There was… an Anomaly Hunter… He wanted the uniform…”
The man nodded and smiled.
“An Anomaly Hunter, you say? What about the payment record? May I see it?”
The shopkeeper answered in a trembling voice.
“There… isn’t one… He paid with… physical supply coins…”
A meaningful look crossed the man’s face. “What did he look like? Do you remember?”
The shopkeeper nodded repeatedly.
“Yes, yes!”
“He was young, very young! His hair wasn’t long or short, and his face… uh…”
The shopkeeper scratched his head in distress and said awkwardly, “I’m sorry, sir. I… I don’t know how to describe him…”
The man sighed.
Then, under the shopkeeper’s confused gaze, he walked closer step by step and pressed a hand onto his head.
“Never mind. I’ll take a look myself.”
…
“This is a hospital?”
“We were on a beach a moment ago. How did two steps bring us into a hospital corridor?”
“The way these spaces connect is seriously strange…”
Qin Lan clicked his tongue in wonder.
He stood in a white corridor thick with the smell of disinfectant. Portraits and biographies of several doctors hung on the wall to his left, while tightly shut doors lined the right.
Only the emergency operating room at the end of the corridor had its light on.
[This is a dream, after all. Dreams don’t obey all the tedious rules of reality.]
[Spatial structure and the laws of physics aren’t that important here.]
[You never remember how you arrived in a dream, or how you left. That’s simply how dreams work.]
Qin Lan nodded.
“I understand… But if these are other people’s memories, won’t it be incredibly difficult for me to identify what doesn’t belong?”
“I can’t see their memories. Naturally, I have no way to tell what’s real and what’s false.”
[It’s fine. I’ll help you.]
[I can do more than identify the inconsistencies. I can also help you avoid the monsters hiding here.]
[For example, there’s one inside that operating room right now, waiting to pounce on you.]
Hearing Yin Manqing’s warning, Qin Lan narrowed his eyes at the room ahead and took two small steps back.
“Uh, since we know there’s danger ahead, shouldn’t I just run the other way?”
“My stats have been nerfed pretty badly in this dream…”
[If you could avoid it, I’d tell you to.]
[But if you want to leave, you need to enter that room.]
[Do you trust me?]
Qin Lan gave a wry smile. “Honestly, not all that much…”
“But it’s not like I have another choice, right?”
[Then follow my instructions.]
[Once you’re inside, don’t act rashly. That thing will spend some time pretending before it attacks.]
[That will give me enough time to identify it.]
Yin Manqing’s voice turned grave as she warned him,
[Listen very carefully to what I say. By the time I tell you who it’s disguised as, it will already be on the verge of attacking.]
“So one moment too slow and I die?”
Qin Lan sighed helplessly. “Oh, right. I don’t die–I get trapped in a dream for decades. What an inspiring prospect.”
Just then, the operating room doors flew open.
A nurse rushed out and shouted anxiously,
“Where is the patient’s family? We need the family here!”
“The patient is crashing!”
Qin Lan raised a hand and trudged over with an utterly defeated expression.
“Right here.”
“What kind of surgery is this dangerous? Did you nick a major artery while removing hemorrhoids?”
“I’m warning you, I won’t let this go if there’s been any medical malpractice…”
“I’ve already brought down one major hospital chain. You’d better have a district chief backing you too…”