Chapter 24

Chapter 24

After just one night, everyone’s temper had visibly worsened.

When Shen Xiao accidentally dropped her chopsticks on the floor, Ying Jian frowned and snapped, asking if she couldn’t even hold a pair of chopsticks properly.

Shen Xiao had a temper of her own, and the two of them immediately fell into an argument.

Influenced by their friction, the atmosphere among the Players grew noticeably tense. Ning Shuo slammed his hand on the table, his voice ringing out: “Oppressed citizens, we cannot go on like this!”

The room fell silent instantly. Ning Shuo continued with fervor: “We must resist! We must fight against the damned monsters in this mist!”

“After breakfast, the six of us will split into three groups to investigate the Townspeople, the organs, and the Notary Office. Ning Wang!” Ning Shuo said solemnly, “You come with me to find the Notary Office!”

Under the leadership of Ning Shuo-whose “Detective” persona was cringey enough to make one’s toes curl but surprisingly effective-the internal conflict was temporarily suppressed.

Ning Wang stepped outside with Ning Shuo. “Do you have any ideas about the Notary Office?” Ning Wang asked.

Ning Shuo answered frankly, “None at all.”

He then smiled. “But you have some thoughts, don’t you?”

Ning Wang opened his mouth but didn’t refute him.

Ning Shuo kicked a pebble on the road. “All day, I’ve had the feeling you’ve been wanting to say something but held back. If it were just a hunch about the Murderer, you wouldn’t be this hesitant.”

“We only have two tasks: resolve the insomnia and find the Notary Office to make an Accusation against the Murderer. The former is halfway done, since the main quest only requires us to solve the Dreamweaver’s Troubles. Once the troubles are dealt with, all that’s left is finding the Notary Office.”

“Where exactly is this Notary Office that makes you look so hesitant and afraid to speak?”

Ning Shuo added curiously, “After all, this is the first time I’ve seen Xie Ning look so indecisive.”

It was no wonder Ning Shuo, acting as the Detective, had insisted on looking for the Notary Office.

He had simply been looking for an opportunity to speak with Ning Wang in private.

Ning Wang said, “There is a bridge in town.”

“That stone arch bridge?” Ning Shuo recalled. “I noticed it when we arrived yesterday. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it.”

“The bridge itself isn’t special,” Ning Wang said. “The water is.”

Ning Wang explained that after the hypnosis session yesterday, he had gone to comfort the child. While crossing the arch bridge, he had greeted a Townsperson.

He had caught an accidental glimpse of the water beneath the bridge and suddenly realized the Townsperson’s face looked wrong.

…From the side, the reflection was entirely the face of the Dreamweaver.

Ning Wang had been suspicious at the time. On his way back, he waited on the bridge for a while until another Townsperson passed by. He struck up a conversation to observe them, but that time, he found nothing wrong with the water.

Ning Wang didn’t think he had seen it wrong, but he couldn’t figure out why a Townsperson’s reflection in the water would sometimes look like the Dreamweaver.

After Ning Wang finished his detailed explanation, Ning Shuo speculated, “Was it because of the dusk?”

Ning Wang shook his head. “My round trip took less than an hour. The sunset glow was still there.”

In other words, time wasn’t necessarily the deciding factor?

As they stood on the arch bridge discussing the matter, they didn’t notice someone approaching from behind.

Ning Shuo was suddenly pulled aside by Ning Wang just as a gust of wind whistled past his head. Ning Shuo turned to see a Townsperson pulling back a hoe, spitting on the ground toward them. “Get out of the way!”

Ning Wang was about to snap back, but Ning Shuo held him back.

Once the Townsperson was far off, Ning Wang couldn’t suppress his irritation. “Why didn’t you let me-”

“Do you feel very irritable right now?”

Ning Wang froze. He instinctively wanted to deny it, but the words wouldn’t come out.

Ning Shuo said in a low voice, “I’m very agitated too. Just now, I actually wanted to curse that man directly, or grab his hoe and hit him back.”

“After this one night, everyone has suddenly become incredibly short-tempered.””
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“footnotes
Ning Wang looked around the rest of the town, observing the townspeople who had come out for their morning labor.

Unlike the friendly and kind demeanor they had shown when they first met yesterday, there were dark circles under their eyes now, and everyone was visibly agitated.

Ning Wang frowned and pulled Ning Shuo along to the homes of those NPCs.

Shen Xiao and Sui Chunsheng were the ones tasked with gathering information from the NPCs.

As they approached Xiao Hong’s house, they saw several people arguing from a distance.

Sui Chunsheng was usually the elegant type, yet even he was seen now with veins bulging on his forehead from anger.

Ning Wang pulled Shen Xiao and Sui Chunsheng away. Ning Shuo suppressed a strange surge of emotion, apologized to Xiao Hong, and then led the group away.

Shen Xiao was fuming. “Why didn’t you let us finish the argument with her?!”

Ning Shuo asked in a heavy voice, “Why did you need to argue with her in the first place?”

“She…”

Shen Xiao’s tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed.

They had come to find the NPC for information; why had they started fighting with her?

Shen Xiao tried to recall the reason she had started arguing with Xiao Hong, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t remember.

Her face turned pale. “How did we…”

Sui Chunsheng had also calmed down, though his expression remained grim. “Is it because we didn’t sleep well last night?”

Ning Shuo nodded. “Ever since the Dreamweaver died, all the townspeople have started losing sleep.”

Shen Xiao asked, “Why? Is there some kind of necessary connection?”

Ning Wang said, “We’ll find out if we go check the town library.”

Shen Xiao looked at him, about to snap back with ‘why should we listen to you,’ but the words died in her throat as she realized she was becoming inexplicably irritable again.

Sui Chunsheng pressed a hand on her shoulder, signaling her to calm down before speaking. “I saw the library yesterday. There are librarians guarding it. If we don’t lure them away, what just happened might repeat itself.”

Ning Wang replied, “We don’t need to confront them.”

Sui Chunsheng joked, “How are we going to get in without confronting them? Fly in?”

As it turned out, that was exactly what happened.

Sui Chunsheng was the last one Ning Wang carried inside. Upon landing, he said in a daze, “So… Lightness Skill really does exist in this world…”

The library was also built in a courtyard house layout. The librarians stood guard at the main gate, but the rooms where the books were kept were not locked.

The group rummaged through a pile of mostly useless books until finally, Ning Shuo said, “Found it.”

The reason Dreamville was called Dreamville was that the people in this town never had nightmares.

The townspeople worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, sleeping on time and never staying up late.

They were always smiling and kind to others, appearing to be a perfect town.

Until one day, several outsiders arrived.

Ning Shuo muttered, “Dreamville?”

Ning Wang added, “That’s a strange name for a town.”

There was very little description of the town, and they couldn’t find anything more. Shen Xiao frowned. “Strange, why are there so many psychology books here?”

Ning Shuo picked one up at random.

Although the title was related to law, it actually discussed a murder case involving a psychiatric patient.

Another mention of mental illness.

Recalling the traces of mental illness that had appeared more or less in the dreams of all five players, Ning Shuo frowned and asked Ning Wang, “Did anyone with mental health issues appear in your dream?”

Ning Wang replied, “Yes.”

And it just happened to be that Dog Emperor.

In Xie Ning’s story, the Emperor had coveted the Xie Family’s wealth, but in Ning Wang’s dream, he had become someone with a mental disorder.

Sui Chunsheng frowned. “So, the entire town is mentally ill? The Dreamweaver used hypnosis and beautiful dreams to soothe them, which is why the town became ‘Dreamville.’ Once they stop having those sweet dreams, their minds relapse, and they might even commit murder?”