Chapter 567

Chapter 415: Metamorphosis

These people were the key observation targets that Dorothy had carefully selected before. Among them were families who devoutly worshiped Panmoth, the head of a psychiatric hospital, and high-ranking city officials from the municipal hall in Navaha. These individuals were potential secret contacts with the Black Dream Hunter Group. As long as she kept an eye on them, Dorothy was confident she could uncover the group’s activities.

It was late at night, a time very conducive to the activities of “Shadow” societies like the Black Dream Hunter Group. This was also an opportune moment for Dorothy to conduct comprehensive surveillance. If she could catch the Black Dream Hunter Group tonight, their detailed information would be sent to the church fleet at the port tomorrow under very normal and reasonable pretenses.

“Although there are church members present, they might not be familiar with matters in the Dream Realm. If they can’t handle these guys either, it will be troublesome. So I must prepare some backup plans.”

While monitoring, Dorothy continued to ponder in her heart. Then, she began to manipulate the small zombie puppets in the believers’ homes to conduct thorough searches. The primary target was Panmoth’s scriptures and other similar materials. Dorothy meticulously examined these scriptures while making the small zombie puppets observe how the believers usually worshipped Panmoth.

“Moth… Please let your wings flutter in my skull… Bring me a dream free of worries tonight…”

Under the observation of the small zombie puppets, Dorothy saw an elderly couple, emaciated and weak, dressed in sleepwear, performing a worship ritual at the altar of the Moth hidden in a partition within a civilian house in the city. After completing the simple ceremony, they stumbled out of the partition, closed the door, and entered their bedroom, quickly turning off the lights and going to sleep.

Seeing the couple fall asleep, Dorothy immediately instructed her small zombie puppets to search their home for more information about Panmoth’s faith. Just as Dorothy started searching, an unexpected situation occurred.

In the dark room, the elderly couple, who had just fallen asleep, suddenly began trembling unnaturally all over. They did not start moaning in pain; however, amidst the painful sounds, their originally closed eyes suddenly opened, revealing only the whites of their eyes.

“Ahhhh…”

Like someone having an epileptic fit, the couple trembled more violently, shaking the bed as if it might break apart. Seeing this, Dorothy was startled.

“What’s happening? Why did this sudden situation occur? Could this be the state when they are being granted a beautiful dream by the Pseudo Moth? But this doesn’t seem like a beautiful dream at all.”

Seeing the strange movements in the room, Dorothy frowned, thinking, and then noticed similar movements in the zombie puppets in other believers’ homes.

In every believer’s home that Dorothy observed, including some municipal officials, they all began trembling and emitting painful sounds in their sleep one after another. Each symptom was surprisingly consistent, as if they were having the same nightmare. From their expressions, it was clear that these were not beautiful dreams but nightmares.

Seeing this scene, Dorothy immediately realized that this was definitely not their usual sleeping behavior because the commotion was too loud, even affecting neighbors who came knocking. Thus, this was an unexpected situation for these believers.

In the psychiatric hospital, Dorothy saw that the previously listless patients suddenly rose from their beds, knelt silently on the ground, extended their hands towards the same direction, and began worshipping.

“What is happening in their dreams now?”

Seeing this series of unusual events, Dorothy frowned in her heart, feeling an ominous premonition arise.

…

Navaha, somewhere underground.

In the vast darkness beneath, countless figures were kneeling here. Most of these figures were raggedly dressed, emaciated, with vacant stares, resembling dry corpses, much like the patients in the psychiatric hospital.

The emaciated figures knelt in circles within the dark space, raising their hands in a gesture of worship. Their vacant eyes stared at the center of the circle where a group of normal-looking people in gray-black robes stood. The robes were adorned with spiral moth patterns, and they whispered quietly. Within the circle they formed, a massive object hovered.

It was a giant cocoon nearly ten meters tall. This cocoon floated vertically in mid-air without any external support, emitting a faint glow and appearing semi-transparent, both ethereal and real. Around the cocoon, one could faintly see fleeting images of a virtual forest.

On the enormous cocoon, countless similarly semi-transparent white cocoons were attached, almost covering its entire surface and slowly wriggling, seemingly rapidly being absorbed into the cocoon. The entire scene was nauseating.

Below the giant cocoon, among the group of people in gray-black robes, Garcia held a wooden staff, her eyes filled with fervor as she stared at the giant cocoon. She spread her arms wide and shouted enthusiastically.

“Cocoon! Eat your fill! Finish all the cocoons that haven’t been eaten yet! Absorb all the dreams that haven’t been absorbed! And then transform!”

“Moth’s scales, now is not the time for slow growth. Crisis has come upon us. Glimmer is attempting to pierce our dreams. We need you! So now, transform! Use your wings to shield Glimmer! Let eternal dreams continue!”

Garcia called out to the giant cocoon. Immediately, the cocoon absorbed all the attached cocoons, becoming smooth on its surface after the absorption.

After the cocoon absorbed all the cocoons and remained silent for a short while, a crack appeared on its illusory surface.

At this moment, an invisible force burst forth from the cocoon, spreading rapidly to the surface and throughout Navaha town. Those affected by this force fell into deep sleep.

Seabirds flying in the sky fell asleep due to sudden drowsiness and plunged from the sky. Police officers on duty collapsed on the ground after yawning uncontrollably. Thieves stealing fell asleep on rooftops. No living creature could resist this force.

This invisible power, centered around the giant cocoon, soon swept across the entire Navaha. In a hotel, Dorothy, who had become alert to the sudden anomalies in the observation targets, suddenly felt an overwhelming drowsiness, a powerful sleepiness she could not resist.

In this overwhelming drowsiness, she almost surrendered to sleep without any resistance. At this instant, she sensed something was amiss.

“d*mn… This is… supernatural interference…

‘I can’t… just fall asleep…’

At the last moment before falling asleep, Dorothy used her last bit of consciousness to tightly embrace herself. Then, without activating her electro-resistant state, she allowed her body to release electricity.