Chapter 44: Where There Is Light, There Is Darkness

Lu Yuan leaned against the back of the convenience store door, not rushing to get up. Instead, he recalled the singing he had just heard.

The melody was not complex.

After listening to it a few times, one could easily hum along.

Yet, whether it was just his imagination or not, Lu Yuan always felt that the melody he hummed lacked the appeal of the phantom's version, as if something vital was missing.

He felt that his hummed tune was overly monotonous, even though the phantom moments ago had sung it in the exact same way.

Lu Yuan did not dwell on it further; remembering the melody was all that mattered for now.

To complete the task assigned by the television, learning the tune was the first step, as well as the simplest one.

After all, the melody was uncomplicated and could be learned after a few listens. Anyone who wasn't completely tone-deaf would find it effortless.

The most difficult part, however, was how to hum this tune in front of hundreds of phantoms.

Lu Yuan could already picture the scene: standing alone before a horde of hundreds of phantoms, only to be torn to shreds in the very next second.

"There is no time limit, so I'll just take it slow."

Lu Yuan tried to comfort himself.

Fortunately, there was no time limit for this task; otherwise, he might as well just commit suicide right now for a clean and quick release.

Half an hour later, the inexplicable chill lingering on Lu Yuan's body completely dissipated.

He rubbed his numb legs, steadied himself against the doorframe of the convenience store, and slowly rose halfway, hunched over as he peered out into the street.

The street outside seemed unchanged.

Yet, upon closer inspection, the ground and the surrounding buildings were stained with red lines resembling human blood vessels. These lines spread outward from the street surface, climbing up the walls of the buildings like countless tiny tentacles.

Resentment manifested!

These dense red lines were the remnants of hatred left behind by the singing. As time passed, this resentment did not dissipate; instead, it embedded itself deeply into the walls, becoming a part of the architecture.

Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly.

The phantom that had just passed by carried resentment that was almost tangible.

Compared to this singing, the hatred emanating from Zhuo Yan was mere child's play.

Lu Yuan did not waste any more time. He had already squandered a great deal of time in this convenience store, and if he didn't hurry, he might not even make it to the psychological clinic before dawn broke in the real world.

Buzz, buzz, buzz...

The door of the convenience store was gently pushed open.

The weathered iron scraped softly against the ground, producing a faint squeak. Lu Yuan had been extremely careful, but given the dilapidated state of the door, complete silence was impossible.

He poked his head out, looked both ways down the street, and once again plunged into the darkness.

Lu Yuan did not close the convenience store door behind him as he left.

Shortly after his departure, a skeletal, hunched hand reached out and pressed against the door panel, applying steady pressure.

The convenience store door closed shut once more.

The hand vanished.

Inside the convenience store, a black-and-white photograph had mysteriously appeared on the wall, and the face in the picture was unmistakably that of Lu Yuan.

......

Naturally, Lu Yuan was completely unaware of all this.

As he walked, he mentally estimated the time in the real world while navigating through the narrow alleyways relying on his memory of the map.

"It is always night here. Without a clock to keep time, it's hard to calculate the exact hour." Lu Yuan could only roughly gauge the passage of time.

If his calculations were correct, the current time in this world should correspond to around 3:00 AM in reality.

The real world was currently in late autumn or winter.

The sun rose quite late, usually between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM.

Although Lu Yuan didn't have a conventional job and rarely received visitors at his clinic, he still needed to be on guard against Zhuang Dong causing trouble, as well as worry about whether Wen Ke might suddenly drop by.

"I must wake up in the real world before seven in the morning." Lu Yuan's gaze flickered.

In other words, he had only four hours left.

Not only did he need to reach his psychological clinic within these four hours, but he also had to return to his own body before he could fall asleep.

Since he hadn't finished the television's task for the day, even returning to the clinic wouldn't allow him to sleep.

"Please, no more unexpected complications."

Lu Yuan prayed continuously.

If any more time was wasted, he would have to change the subject of his prayers and beg that no one came looking for him at the clinic during the daytime.

City S in the dream realm looked identical to its real-world counterpart, but it was dangerously easy to suffer from visual fatigue.

Every so often, Lu Yuan would carve a tiny mark into the corner of a wall to prevent himself from getting lost and walking in circles.

Another half-hour passed before Lu Yuan finally returned to a familiar street.

At the end of this street lay the location of his psychological clinic.

At this thought, Lu Yuan quickened his pace.

The closer he got to his clinic, the stronger the surge of eager anticipation and homesickness grew within him.

No matter how luxurious An Shi's villa might be, it was never truly home. Only that modest little psychological clinic could grant Lu Yuan a genuine sense of belonging.

Propelled by his eager running, Lu Yuan vaulted over the security booth railing of the residential complex, his vigilance toward his surroundings dropping significantly.

Pairs of blood-red eyes emerged from the surrounding dark buildings, locking onto Lu Yuan's moving figure with unblinking stares.

An endless wave of hatred began to block off Lu Yuan's retreat.

Had he glanced back even once, he would have discovered that the path he had just traveled had turned into an ocean of malice.

Puddles of blood constantly welled up from the gaps in the street pavement, smoothing over the road and slowly flowing in pursuit of Lu Yuan's departing back.

Yet Lu Yuan did not look back; he didn't even sense the encroaching hatred.

The dense blackness seemed to transform into a giant, gaping maw swallowing everything in its path, lunging toward Lu Yuan as the surging blood on the ground formed the monster's tongue.

Suddenly, Lu Yuan stopped and stood frozen in place.

It wasn't because he sensed danger, but rather because... he had arrived home.

The building right before his eyes was his psychological clinic.

"I'm home." Lu Yuan felt a surge of excitement.

The dark, monstrous maw behind him was mere inches away, capable of swallowing his body whole with a single snap.

In the very next second, with a soft click, the lights of the psychological clinic turned on.

A gentle glow streamed through the clinic windows, casting a long shadow of Lu Yuan onto the ground behind him.

Immediately following this, the black maw that had been poised to strike began to twist and shrink, every inch of darkness retreating frantically before the illumination.

The pools of blood on the ground rapidly burrowed back down beneath the surface.

With a sudden intuition, Lu Yuan turned and glanced behind him.

A dark street, dark buildings.

They looked exactly as they had when he arrived, without the slightest difference.

Lu Yuan only faintly heard a miserable shriek, but when he looked back again, he saw nothing at all.

Where there is light, there are shadows.

Yet light can also dispel shadows.

In the dead and pitch-black world of the dream realm, even the faintest glimmer of light became the nemesis of darkness.