VIP Chapter 560: Anle (2) (3k)
Death Hall, 200th floor.
The moment Treya saw what was before her, she knew something was wrong. She should have reached the floor that served as the BOSS for every ten floors. It should have been either a fierce battle or a complex puzzle.
But…
Before her lay an endless sea of flowers. The colors were stretched to their absolute limit. It was as if heaven and earth were spinning, her eyes widened to their maximum, only able to gaze into the vast, boundless expanse of flowers.
The multicolored flowers, much like the colorful vanity she saw in her dream, accentuated not beauty, but a nauseating premonition, as if a nightmare. All the colored flowers randomly surged into her pupils at the same time, rushing directly into her brain.
Dizziness.
Treya gripped the hilt of her sword at her waist.
Dizziness.
She tried to steady herself to prevent herself from suddenly fainting, but ultimately, she couldn’t avoid swaying. It even worsened.
“Hoo… hoo… hoo… Why… What is this…”
Dizziness.
Suppressing a sudden, stimulating urge to “vomit” that started in her abdomen. She looked up again, staring at the sea of flowers before her. After accepting what she saw, in that instant, her “dizziness” and “nausea” surged back into her stomach like a tidal wave…
Followed by…
Exhilaration.
Treya had a high threshold for pleasure. After all, she grew up as a “princess,” and the royal family always provided her with the best food, the most fun toys, and the most beautiful scenery.
But…
Upon seeing all of this, she felt an endless, almost tangible sense of “pleasure” rushing to her brain, as if it were urging her to abandon all thought and lie down in this sea of flowers.
This was akin to her own power… the ability to implant “heavenly bliss,” “ultimate joy,” and “crazy fantasies” into the brain, compelling one to abandon their body and consciousness, and sink into death.
“It’s… it’s a dream… That’s right, it’s a dream… or rather, an illusion, in any case… it’s a mental attack, isn’t it…”
People always forget that besides angels and demons, the third dungeon specializing in mental attacks is this “Death Hall.” Because… the most basic… definition of death, besides the physical body, includes the demise of “consciousness,” or rather, “spirit.”
A BOSS on this floor—physically perhaps very weak, but with an extremely strong spirit, launching such an attack, drawing her into… a sea of flowers evoking “All is Peaceful, Heading Towards Death.”
Treya drew her sword. “Who is it? Where is the enemy? No, it didn’t kill me directly, but it allowed me to retain my consciousness to see this—yes, as long as I’m alive, it proves it couldn’t kill me.”
What she was thankful for first was that she, not the other two, was the one who had entered this sea of flowers with Will. Among the team, she was the most sensitive to, had the highest resistance to, and understood mental skills the best.
“So, this proves it’s the only way it can kill me. If that’s the case, Will, who entered with me, must surely be…”
*Swish—*
Her sword cut through a patch of flowers. As the Shadow Nightmare Sword passed through the colorful sea, space distorted with it, revealing an indistinct “black foundation of reality.”
“Will. Where would Will be…”
Her mind seemed to be working against her. One eye saw a colorful world that made her “sink,” while the other eye saw a completely black reality that made her sober up. She dimly felt a sense of foreboding. If even she was like this, even if Will had some resistance due to his exposure to demonic power, he would have a hard time holding on.
This stage was even one that the team who had cleared Daisianwei hadn’t encountered. It was a brand new “difficulty” tailored for them by Daisianwei.
“Will… you… you’re right beside me, if I can still see a little bit of reality… I should be able to find you…”
She swung her sword again, cutting through the sea of flowers, but to avoid harming Will, she hadn’t used much force, gently brushing past like a black paintbrush.
“You… you’re always the clearest-headed one, right?”
She swayed, then realized she couldn’t even distinguish up, down, left, or right in the entire space.
“We… cannot fall here.”
Then, she felt her foot bump into something soft. She looked down. Caught between reality and illusion, Treya saw an even more indistinguishable scene—
The same scene displayed on Daisianwei’s screen—
The rope connected to the blade naturally divided the guillotine’s view into left and right halves. On the left, within the sea of flowers, Will’s entire body was vaguely outlined by colorful flowers. On the right, in the darkness, Will, whose body was covered in blotches from corrosive liquid, was dimly visible.
And on either side, Will had a smile on his lips. A smile that matched Treya’s.
“This is my favorite little monster. It has no offensive capabilities, and its form is this strange ‘liquid’.”
Daisianwei was very satisfied, even standing up. This was perhaps the happiest she had ever been.
“Perhaps it can be called ‘Gentle Goodnight.’ It will, as it is now, pull everyone into a dream of pleasure, bringing your consciousness to its peak, and then, snap, it devours your consciousness, leading to death.”
“It thinks it is playing happily with you.”
“It believes death is the most comfortable state for you to sleep in.”
As Daisianwei spoke, she produced a record player from somewhere. She reached out and placed a “Blood” record on it, like a CD made from crushed remains. Yet, it emitted a pleasant sound from the record player, crackling and humming.
“This is a death dedicated to you, Treya and Will, who finally made it this far.”
“I hope you enjoy it.”
The image of Will, divided into two drastically different worlds by reality and spirit, remained on screen for a long, long time. The music also played a soothing piano piece for a long, long time. If the piano hadn’t been about to conclude, with the soaring violins beginning to play wildly, the scene before Daisianwei seemed to have “frozen” time.
The music from the record player began to shift into intense drumbeats, and at this very moment…
Treya moved.
She didn’t use the Shadow Nightmare Sword, but instead… spread her wings.
In the sea of flowers.
In reality, the corrosive liquid on Will’s body gradually receded, leaving only the scars of erosion.
“…”
*Click.*
Daisianwei stopped the music.
“Heh, is this the ‘Master’ of the Zeroth Heaven? Using the beautiful dream you created as bait, leading ‘Gentle Goodnight’ into your sweet dream.”
In the guillotine’s display, Treya’s sea of flowers began to fluctuate violently. Countless “doves” appeared within the flower sea. These were not the white doves people saw in reality, but doves of various colors. Their vibrant wings brushed past the splendid flower sea, their intricately colored feathers and petals flying together in the air.
“Heh… Heheheh…”
Treya couldn’t suppress the corners of her mouth. She had never laughed out loud like this before.
“But with your dreams alternating, it will go deeper into your dreams, and you will be unable to extricate yourself from its dreams.”
“In the end, you can only perish together—yes, that is also an interesting solution.”
Daisianwei looked at Treya. In her dream, the image had even begun to devolve into a chaotic dance, to the point where her own existence was unstable. Her light blue eyes were constantly stained with different colors, eventually becoming not a single hue but appearing as a rainbow drawn within her pupils. Her body was constantly tearing apart and reassembling—not the tearing of flesh and blood, but more like ink colors bleeding on paper.
“Teacher Will, I believe you can hear me. Because… we are already in the same dream.”
Treya held her sword, standing within it, and spoke slowly.
“My consciousness dissipating, even if my body appears unharmed, is death to me.”
She trembled. In her vision, despite barely being able to distinguish her own existence, she still shakily drew her sword.
“I understand, you told me. To abandon one’s will is equivalent to death.”
Her right side flickered between darkness and the sea of flowers, the flower side slowly merging her silhouette with the entire landscape.
“But, even though I know doing this is equivalent to taking it down with me. I will use this method, with my death…”
She drew her sword. In her vision, the sword alternated between the black Shadow Nightmare Sword and a colorful holy sword covered in the feathers of colored doves.
On Daisianwei’s screen, it was like an unstable TV signal, entering a chaotic state of static, black and white, and vibrant colors constantly flickering.
“—to wake you up.”
She drew her sword and let it graze Will’s shoulder, stabbing downwards to wake him with “pain.”
“So, since you’re going to accept my heavy death, you must see it through to the end. Do you hear me?”
Treya retracted the forced “laughter” she had gained in her dream. She returned to a poker face. As the sword blade was reinserted into the ground, she again wore her signature faint smile, turning up the corners of her mouth ever so slightly.
*Whoosh—*
A sound like birds spreading their wings echoed, and the screen before Daisianwei went black.
Simultaneously, the guillotine blade descended further. It was only a quarter of the way from the bottom. On the small remaining screen between the blade and the bottom lay Will’s sideways profile; he opened his eyes.
“Treya—this is a dream—”
The first thing he shouted was this, then he realized the pain, clutching his arm. He looked up again. The darkness beneath his feet vanished, and he became like the sole spotlight in this darkness. He saw Treya before him, holding her sword, but her eyes completely devoid of highlight, kneeling before him, her silver hair falling loose, a smile on her lips.
“!? ”
Will took a deep breath. Then, calming his breathing, he held Treya’s shoulders and slowly moved her away.
Daisianwei remained silent, quietly observing Will’s next choice. When he was alone… would he continue forward? With still 30 floors left until Daisianwei’s final level, would he continue downwards?
“For… Forward… is also…”
Will stood up. He didn’t say anything more, as there was no one beside him to converse with now. He then fumbled in the darkness and found the door leading to the next floor.
*Click.*
Under Daisianwei’s gaze, he continued downward without hesitation.
