Die, Replay, Repeat -
Chapter 92: Nightmare Unleashed
Fang Xiu held the scalpel, slowly approaching Yang Kunpeng's body. He wanted to confirm his guess.
"Nightmare couldn't leave the mental hospital before. To be precise, those Specters shouldn't be able to leave either. But Nightmare's power enables it to enter people's dreams. Now, Yang Kunpeng has come out alive, filled with fear."
As he spoke, Wang Dehai and Bai Qi's expressions changed slightly.
Suddenly, there was a flash of silver, and Fang Xiu's scalpel swiftly aimed toward Yang Kunpeng's severed head on the ground. However, just as he was about to hit, a wisp of black smoke shot out from the head.
Fang Xiu's eyes flashed coldly. He saw a pair of blood-red eyes in the black smoke. It was Nightmare!
Nightmare was quick, deftly dodging Fang Xiu's attack.
At this moment, Bai Qi moved. Fang Xiu finally saw his weapon—a short knife with no extra decoration, completely dark gold, and very high quality. Fang Xiu recognized it instantly as a knife made from 100% pure Mind Steel, so it had the same color as spiritual coins.
Bai Qi, holding the dark gold short knife, disappeared from his spot like he had just teleported. When he reappeared, he was already beside Nightmare.
With a swift cut through the air, he struck hard. The attack was so fast that Nightmare couldn't dodge it. However, the knife seemed to pass through Nightmare.
Nightmare coldly smiled. "Oops, any attack is pointless against me."
Bai Qi frowned and slashed several more times. Each hit was accurate but was also ineffective.
"Is that so?" a calm voice spoke. It was Fang Xiu.
The scalpel shimmered with silver light, aiming straight for the blood-red eyes in the black smoke. Nightmare panicked and fled. It seemed to have no physical form, easily passing through the walls of the interrogation room.
"Fang Xiu, this isn't over yet! I'll get back at you!" Nightmare's restrained and hoarse voice echoed in the room.
Bai Qi also disappeared, chasing after Nightmare. Fang Xiu didn't move, knowing he couldn't catch up with a being that could ignore physical barriers.
It seemed his guess was right. Yang Kunpeng had survived because Nightmare wanted to use him as a vessel to escape the mental hospital.
When he and Zhao Hao had escaped the hospital, Nightmare probably had the same plan, but it failed. Fang Xiu had broken the dream, and Zhao Hao had banged his way out.
Reflecting on it, Zhao Hao's escape from the dream might not have been due solely to his unique traits and his ability to bang everything in any dangerous situation.
According to Yang Kunpeng's description, to escape alive, you had to completely ignore fear. Although Zhao Hao had overcome fear with another instinct, he hadn't truly eliminated it. Probably, the real reason he escaped the dream was that he managed to make Nightmare fear him.
Fang Xiu also noticed something else—Nightmare seemed to deliberately avoid his attacks.
_'If it's truly invulnerable, it won't do that. And it only dodged my attacks, not Bai Qi's. If Nightmare could truly ignore any attack, it won't need to dodge at all.'_
Fang Xiu then realized that he must have a power that Nightmare feared.
_'Is it the power of pain or the scalpel?'_
Fang Xiu couldn't decide yet. The scalpel had cut through dozens of Specters at the Green Mountain Mental Hospital, so Nightmare might fear it. But it could also be the power of pain.
With insufficient information, he couldn't be sure.
However, he had a feeling it wasn't the scalpel. As its owner, he knew that although it was sharp, it was still a physical attack, not mental. So, Nightmare likely feared the power of pain more.
Soon, Bai Qi reappeared like a phantom.
Wang Dehai urgently asked, "How did it go?"
Bai Qi shook his head expressionlessly, "It has no physical form. We have no way to get it."
Wang Dehai's face turned ugly. A Specter escaping right under their noses was a great embarrassment for him as the director. Especially a dangerous Specter like Nightmare, ignoring attacks and killing in dreams. If such a Specter were left loose among people, it could wreak havoc and cause significant death.
"Find it immediately, Bai Qi. We can't let Nightmare do as it pleases," he ordered.
Bai Qi nodded and vanished again.
Wang Dehai turned to Fang Xiu with a troubled expression. "I hope you can help too, Fang Xiu. You walked out of the dream alive, so Nightmare probably can't hurt you. And it seems to fear the scalpel you brought from the hospital. This is my fault; I'll take responsibility and confess to the higher-ups. If I had listened to you earlier, this might not have happened."
Fang Xiu nodded. The matter concerned the Green Mountain Mental Hospital, and he wouldn't ignore Nightmare regardless. Perhaps he could learn something about the hospital from Nightmare.
The Specter Zone at Green Mountain Mental Hospital was likely man-made, and the director, Zhou Qingfeng, might be human, or at least once was.
Fang Xiu didn't agree with Wang Dehai's belief that listening to him earlier would have prevented the current situation.
Even if Wang Dehai had truly believed him and placed high importance on Green Mountain Mental Hospital, it wouldn't have made a difference. Nightmare's abilities were too extraordinary, even evading attacks from Bai Qi, the strongest in Greenvine. This implied that practically no one in Greenvine could handle it.
Considering Nightmare's strength, Fang Xiu pondered about the other Specters in the psychiatric hospital. Having faced these Specters, he knew the terrifying power they emitted. Nightmare wasn't the strongest among them; it was just tricky due to its abilities.
The seals in Green Mountain Mental Hospital were weakening, and if the Specters broke free, even all the psychics in Greenvine City combined might not be able to handle the Specter Zone there.
If Wang Dehai had sent Bai Qi and Yang Ming previously, the outcome would likely have been the loss of both, resulting in more severe consequences than the current situation.
Thus, for the Investigation Bureau, this misjudgment turned out to be somewhat fortunate.
Regarding Nightmare's escape, Fang Xiu chose not to use his reset ability. It wasn't that he wanted Nightmare to escape; he wished it remained trapped in the psychiatric hospital, and he could just go and kill it.
The main reason was that Yang Kunpeng had gone to Green Mountain Mental Hospital before he went to Blackwater. Even if he reset it, he couldn't stop Yang Kunpeng from entering, making it an unchangeable past event.
Yang Kunpeng had escaped the psychiatric hospital the day after he entered, meaning even if Fang Xiu rewound to Blackwater and abandoned the Blackwater event to kill Yang Kunpeng in the psychiatric hospital, it would be too late to prevent Nightmare's escape.
Fang Xiu's reset point was the day after he entered Blackwater, but Yang Kunpeng had escaped much earlier than that.
When Fang Xiu set off, it was the same time Yang Kunpeng had escaped."
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