“Continue!”
Yu Jin's expression remained cold, but anyone could see the fury pooling in his eyes.
“The Bureau began a city-wide manhunt, and that was when you and Tang Yaoting arrived.
You threw yourselves into the ruins, weeping and wailing over the mangled remains of every single colleague. You found that blood-stained notebook and finally uncovered the truth of last night's Nightmare Disaster.
The disappearance of Special Response Squad 6 was Xia Jie's doing!
When facing the investigation of the Post-Disaster Investigation Team, this incredibly arrogant murderer actually detailed his entire modus operandi.
He said he designed the plan to pretend to be an innocent child, leading all the agents from the Special Response Squad who entered the dream into his bedroom to surround and slaughter them.
Finally, he killed himself, personally dispelling the Nightmare Disaster.”
At this point, Zhou Li could no longer hold back. He fired another shot at Xia Jie's corpse on the ground.
Yu Jin looked down coldly, his face livid.
“That's impossible.
Group 4 has its share of people just coasting along, waiting to collect their paychecks, but not everyone is a fool.
If Xia Jie confessed to his crimes, why didn't they immediately alert the field agents and relay the message about the danger of the Subject back to the Bureau?”
Zhou Li explained, “Because when Xia Jie recounted the dream, he didn't use the perspective of the child who designed the murder of Squad 6. Instead, he used his mother's perspective.
Speaking from a mother's perspective, he described ‘her’ utter helplessness so vividly that the Group 4 investigators taking notes filled their journal with sympathy for Mrs. Xia...
Finally, he said he could no longer bring himself to spoil such an evil child. While the boy was sleeping, he smothered him with a blanket.
And so, the Nightmare Disaster was dispelled.”
“Utter nonsense.”
Yu Jin frowned deeply, thinking Zhou Li was talking absolute rubbish.
Xia Jie was Xia Jie, and Mrs. Xia was Mrs. Xia. They were two completely different living people. How could they be conflated?
Even if someone was an absolute idiot, no one should have believed a child claiming to be his own mother.
Even if someone did believe it, thinking it was just a child's fantasy projection due to his inability to properly express a dream, where was the real mother who would have stopped his fantasies?
Zhou Li saw Yu Jin's confusion and sighed. “From start to finish, Xia Jie never had a mother. He became an orphan when he was very young.”
“!!!”
What?
Yu Jin's pupils shrank.
“Yes. Not only did he have no mother, he also had no father, and he isn't even a child.
He has been an adult for a long time.
Xia Jie, male, twenty-three years old, unemployed, suffering from severe dissociative identity disorder—commonly known as split personality.
The Post-Disaster Investigation Team had thoroughly reviewed his background before arriving at the Xia household.
His family was well-off, but his upbringing was terrible.
His father was a retired athlete with severe violent tendencies who would beat him at the slightest provocation.
His mother was a smooth-talking businesswoman who believed that pressure was the first step to success. She never protected him, only comforting and instructing him on how to do better after each time he was hurt.
Such a high-pressure environment caused Xia Jie's mind to twist from childhood. On one hand, he felt absolute hatred toward his overbearing parents. On the other hand, he couldn't let go of the only affection he had ever received in this world.
He depended on them yet endured them, unable to break free or move forward.
Yet all of this came to an abrupt halt one day.
Because his parents were gone, killed in a man-made disaster.
That day, he was liberated, but he was also in even greater pain.
His already twisted personality, coupled with an indescribable mix of fear and attachment, caused him to split off a new father and a new mother personality.
His body matured as time passed, but the ages of those three personalities remained forever frozen on the day they split.
Because of this, when Investigation Group 4 visited, they didn't treat Xia Jie as a single ‘person.’
But they still miscalculated, because Xia Jie was not a ‘person’ at all.”
Zhou Li paused, his attention fixed on Yu Jin's emotional state. “Every tragedy happens for a reason.
Through the follow-up investigation of that disaster, we learned that the man-made catastrophe that took Father Xia and Mrs. Xia's lives was engineered by the Disciples of Eternal Night.
When Xia Jie learned of this, that small, twisted child actually felt immense gratitude toward them. In his rebellious heart, he even came to identify with the ‘great feat’ of the Disciples of Eternal Night!
He began trying to get closer to the Disciples of Eternal Night.
He wanted to use this method to completely rid himself of his parents and gain independence, proving there was absolutely no problem with him leaving their ‘custody.’
However, that was the greatest problem.
No one poisoned by the faith of the Nightmares ever comes to a good end. Under the increasingly severe pressure of his parental personalities, the child personality finally went completely mad, stepping onto a path of no return.
He saw his own parental personalities as sworn enemies. To manifest his rebellion, he fantasized about his parents as weapons of slaughter.
Originally, fantasies were just fantasies; not everyone's fantasies become reality. No one knew exactly what kind of torment Xia Jie went through as he toggled between his three personalities.
Until the so-called Nightmares favored him.
The Nightmare Disaster arrived!
The moment the Nightmare Disaster descended, he was ecstatic. Casting aside all restraints, he unleashed his true nature and began his horrific crimes.
Engineering the murder of the Special Response Squad that entered the dream, disguising himself as the innocent Mrs. Xia personality to fool the investigation team and slaughter all of Qingniao Street, and finally escaping the Bureau's dragnet...
This was the tragedy that occurred just a day ago.
And today's dream is no longer triggered by Xia Jie, but by you, Yu Jin.
Everything I have said comes from your investigation report.
That very day, you connected all the clues amid the ruins and penned an investigation report thicker than a fist. Then, clutching that report, you sat in the ruins for an entire day.
No one could convince you to leave.
When night fell, you clutched the report and fell into an exhausted sleep.
And then...
The Nightmare Disaster descended once more!”
Saying this, Zhou Li raised his gun once more. He took a deep breath, his expression turning solemn. “I deeply sympathize with what happened to Group 4.
But...
For the peace of Haicheng, and to ensure that a second tragedy does not occur on Qingniao Street, I must find out one thing.
Yu Jin, as an agent of the Bureau, I hope you can honor the oath you once swore before the Monument of Dawn. Answer me seriously and solemnly:
What exactly did you experience in this dream?
Is the red-haired you standing before us right now still you?
Or has he evolved into some projection spawned by your fear in this nightmare, one that highly resembles Xia Jie?!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Squad 172 moved quietly, surrounding Yu Jin in the center.
This question was critical. It concerned how the Bureau would define Yu Jin's identity once the Nightmare Disaster ended.
It might sound hard to understand. Who else could Yu Jin be besides Yu Jin?
But this involved a crucial rule of Nightmare Disasters: their manifestation was not limited to inanimate objects. Living beings in dreams also had a probability of being materialized into reality.
They would either be given a physical body manufactured by the Nightmare Disaster, or directly seize the vessel of an existing real-world life.
Regardless of how they invaded reality, these life forms that ‘broke out of prison’ from nightmares were collectively referred to as Nightmare creatures.
In areas where Nightmare creatures resided, the probability of a Nightmare Disaster occurring was far greater than in other regions. Thus, hunting down Nightmare creatures had always been another key subject of the Bureau's research.
However, because there were very few stable means in the world to differentiate a human from a Nightmare creature, once a Nightmare creature successfully escaped a nightmare, it truly became a ‘human.’
This was exactly what Zhou Li was worried about.
He feared that under the traumatic shock of Investigation Group 4 being completely slaughtered, Yu Jin had developed a mental demon.
Once the other party became trapped by obsession and fear, no one could guarantee that the Yu Jin they woke up to see at the end of the Nightmare Disaster would still be the original Yu Jin.
This wasn't groundless suspicion. It was because the red-haired Yu Jin before them looked far too similar to Xia Jie—the same tentacles, the same bone blades. Anyone who took a single glance would think something was wrong with this Yu Jin.
But Yu Jin didn't think so.
With an impatient cold snort, the crimson slowly receded from the top of his head, gathering inside his eyes.
The black-haired Yu Jin was back online.
Taking a deep breath, he held back his tears and forced a reassuring smile. “No need to worry, everyone.
Since I can't keep it a secret, I might as well put it plainly.
He is not a fear spawned by this nightmare. He is an ability I awakened long ago.
I am him, and he is me. Whenever a nightmare arrives, it is he who helps me endure one agonizing night after another.
Although some changes occurred to him in this dream, I assure you, I am still myself—Yu Jin of Post-Disaster Investigation Group 4.
My identity is not an issue.
Now, let's return to reality. I am ready to face it.”
Saying so, Yu Jin closed his eyes, quietly waiting for the bullet meant for him.
However, upon hearing these words, the expressions of everyone in Squad 172 grew visibly grave.
They looked at one another, their faces wearing bizarre expressions.
Zhou Li tightened his grip on his gun, his voice raspy and halting. “That is precisely the most troublesome part.
Yu Jin, from what we know, you have never awakened.”
“!!!”
Yu Jin abruptly opened his eyes.
Crimson and hideous.
...
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