Chapter 204 Illusions in the Cracks

Luo Limas’s innermost wish was conveyed to Su Bai’s ears through the *Evil Ghost Puzzle*.

So before the haze had completely dissipated, Su Bai responded to Luo Limas’s wish, carrying his easel and painting tools outside, sitting on the chair prepared outside the shop, and began channeling Luo Limas’s power.

As Luo Limas’s power flowed into Su Bai’s body, he quickly noticed that his legs went numb, but his hands were itching to paint. Perhaps because they sensed that Su Bai’s aura at this moment was no different from that of ghosts, or perhaps because there were no other humans around to attract attention, most of the ghosts wandering the streets continued to walk around as if they hadn’t noticed Su Bai’s presence.

Even if some unseeing ghosts tried to approach Su Bai, they were distracted by the cat spirits that darted out from the protection cord on Su Bai’s left wrist. The once-clueless black kitten, Kaixin, seemed to suddenly gain awareness and began dutifully easing Su Bai’s burdens.

Luo Limas’s hand sketched lines quickly, but when it came to refining the details, even though she had sped up, it still took a long time. By the time Su Bai put down his brush to admire the finished piece, the surrounding haze had nearly cleared, and the entire Fog City looked no different from other places in the nightmare world under the red moon.

The only difference might be that the real ruins revealed in Fog City were more eerie and peculiar than those in other parts of the nightmare world.

Su Bai had thought that what Luo Limas wanted to paint was Fog City gradually revealing its true face as the thick fog dispersed, the architectural ruins of different styles under the red moon and the night sky, and the ghosts wandering the streets like a night parade of a hundred demons...

But what finally appeared before Su Bai was the morning of an ordinary city.

In Luo Limas’s painting, the undispersed thick fog was like morning mist, with the first light of dawn already appearing on the horizon. The streets in the painting were still the peaceful and serene Fog City from before, with elderly people who couldn't sleep starting to chat by the roadside early in the morning, and adults beginning to take children to breakfast spots. On the side of the street in the painting, there was a shop with warm lights, familiar chairs and tables set outside, exactly like the Mist Store beside Su Bai.

This time, Luo Limas was not painting reality, but rather than an illusion, it was more like "the past" and "memories," as if recording the once-existing Fog City, proving that the Mist Store had truly left its mark on this city.

Although Luo Limas said nothing, Su Bai felt that even though she had painted so many bizarre and eerie works in Fog City, she must have genuinely relished and treasured her time freely painting in this city.

At the moment Su Bai laid down the final brushstroke, he heard Luo Limas’s gratitude in his ear, and then her power quietly receded from his body.

Luo Limas did not disappear but returned to Su Bai’s shadow, back into the *Evil Ghost Puzzle* hidden there.

"Ding! Ding!"

"The game is about to end."

"Lucky human, dear temporary resident of the nightmare world, because the opposing camp has gone offline due to special reasons in this game, congratulations on once again successfully beating the game and continuing to enjoy the blessings of the red moon."

"You can choose to remain in the nightmare world or immediately go to the real world. Dear resident, if you choose to stay in the nightmare world, you will be sent to a relatively safe area. If you choose to go to the real world, you will return to the location where you were before the game started."

"Please state your choice aloud."

"The real world." No longer under the influence of Luo Limas’s power, Su Bai stood up from the chair and took one last look at the city’s ruins now that the fog had lifted.

"Dear resident, you will now proceed to the real world. I hope the scenery there is real, hahahaha!" The administrator’s voice was as mocking as ever, but it was definitely not the same administrator who had communicated with Su Bai before.

"Ten... Nine... Eight..."

Just as the administrator was counting down, Su Bai’s vision turned pitch black, and he found himself back in the dark space he had once stood in before entering the nightmare world—what Luo Limas called the "gap," and what the administrator had referred to as the "void sea."

This feeling was actually quite peculiar.

In his previous life... even before Su Bai knew about the existence of the gap void sea, when he entered and exited the nightmare world, he only experienced distorted vision and momentary darkness.

But since Su Bai learned about the existence of the gap void sea, he began to truly step into this space, this pitch-black yet eerie space where he could clearly see his own body. Moreover, Su Bai could sense that this space was vast; if he continued walking forward, he might reach other places, though he didn't know if he would encounter something terrifying along the way.

"Administrator?" Su Bai tried shouting in the darkness, his voice echoing in the emptiness.

Su Bai received no response, as if he were the only one in this extremely dark world.

Just as Su Bai began to wonder how to leave this gap space, a chasm seemed to open beneath his feet, and he began to fall straight down. Su Bai, his body losing gravity in the endless abyss, felt a forgotten feeling of panic and even fear. But just as he reached out for help, his consciousness began to drift into a trance-like state.

In his daze, Su Bai seemed to return to the bed in the Mist Store’s lounge and fell into a deep dream.

This feeling was incredibly eerie, but Su Bai couldn't think too much about it at the moment.

Perhaps because Su Bai hadn’t slept well in a long time in his previous life, he rarely dreamed from then until now. But this time, Su Bai slipped into a dream in a state that should have been filled with panic and despair.

In the dream, Su Bai saw some strange and eerie scenes, images that felt instinctively unreal.

Yet these scenes felt familiar to Su Bai.

It was like a memory that should have belonged to him.

In the dream, Su Bai was sitting at a large long dining table. Unable to move his limbs or even turn his head, he couldn't see the surroundings and furnishings clearly. He could only observe that aside from a few blood-red candle lamps, there was nothing on the long dining table in front of him. Besides him, there were over a dozen seats at the table, each occupied by articulated dolls with distinct features.

These dolls were dressed extravagantly, with realistic faces, but only their unfocused eyes, vacant stares, and the spherical joints at their necks and fingers allowed Su Bai to recognize them as dolls.

Before Su Bai could observe more closely, his vision went black, and he toppled backward.

When Su Bai regained his sight, he was lying in a forest piled with leaves. Countless thick tree trunks around him bore faces of people struggling in pain, loudly wailing and hoping for someone to free them.

Just a little more, and Su Bai almost remembered when he had seen this forest before.

But just as Su Bai tried to sit up from the pile of leaves, a voice sounded in his ear—

"Now is not the time to remember."

Su Bai snapped back to reality and found himself still in that extremely dark space, with the administrator’s countdown still echoing in his ears.

"Seven... Six... Five..."

There had indeed been a moment when the administrator’s voice disappeared from Su Bai’s ears, and he became trapped in various strange dreams. Now, coming back to his senses, Su Bai realized that from the moment he fell into the endless abyss, he had been trapped in some kind of illusion.

Su Bai tried to recall the dreams, but the images in his mind had already become somewhat blurry.

What exactly happened?

"Special reminder: The white side is currently at a disadvantage."

"Have a pleasant journey."

The administrator’s countdown ended, and a blinding light flooded Su Bai’s vision. The extreme darkness and light mixed, warped, and distorted, giving him that familiar feeling of leaving the nightmare world.

When Su Bai adjusted to the light, he found himself back in the real world, and still standing on the sidewalk near Honghuai No. 1 Middle School.

Su Bai looked up at the sky, enjoying the warm sunlight of the real world. He remembered that when he left the real world "three months" ago, it was early morning, but now it was noon, with the sun at its brightest. He just didn't know if it was the same day as when he left.

Su Bai didn’t overthink it and simply started walking toward the hospital.