Chapter 316: The Embarrassing Situation of Fool Dream
Fool Dream encountered difficulties, and this was not the first time. The simplest way was to take them to find the Ground Patrol Team, after all, I had a bit of experience with their ability to speak to both people and ghosts.
It might not be effective for Fool Dreams to find them, but if I approached them, it would definitely work.
Although I hadn’t spent much time at the Extraordinary Research Base and my reputation in the outside world hadn’t spread far, some information travels quickly in certain places. After all, they depend on this for a living and must understand whom they can provoke, whom they cannot provoke, and who needs to be catered to.
Although the Underground City looks vast, everyone can basically meet each other after wandering around.
The class division in the Underground City is quite evident, and the distribution of interests is very clear. Because of this, there is a lot of operational space within it.
Before long, I led this group of Fool Dreams, all dressed in the uniforms of the Extraordinary Research Base, through the doors of the Ground Patrol Team.
Upon seeing my uniform, the other party greeted me with more enthusiasm than they had for my person.
“Hello, hello… Esteemed Scholar, I wonder what troubles you’ve encountered in our Ground Patrol Team?”
“Indeed, there are some minor troubles, but I’m not sure if you can help resolve them.” Noting the enthusiastic hand extended to me, I directly refused, “No need for a handshake… What? I’ve already walked into your Ground Patrol Team, haven’t you figured out who I am as a scholar from the Base?”
“Oh no, no, no, how could that be? The new outsider scholar from the Extraordinary Research Base these past couple of days, you are the hottest figure in the base right now.”
“Ah, so you do know? Then the troubles these little ones are facing are my troubles too; please assist in handling them.” I spoke up.
“Understood, understood, let’s get someone to help register the report… uh, Scholar Yang Yuelan… right? We’ve prepared some tea for you here; how about sitting down for a chat? After all, resolving those little ones’ troubles can be quite troublesome.”
“Sure.” Guided by him, I entered the reception room and unceremoniously chose a comfortable seat to sit down.
“However, handling troubles, isn’t that the obligation of your Ground Patrol Team?”
“That may be true, but our Ground Patrol Team’s personnel can’t possibly oversee every interaction here; Scholar, you might spend every day in the laboratory and not know the hardships of the world…”
“I understand. To sort this out, what do you need?” After all, the fact that I cannot influence reality is an objective challenge I must face; obtaining help from others naturally requires benefits. Just like the idea that it’s easy to see the king but difficult to deal with the little ghosts, offering benefits is the most straightforward way to handle matters.
Talking further with such people would only be pointless, and my role as a scholar here is precisely to make things more convenient, isn’t it?
“Hahaha, you are right…”
After some brief communication, we swiftly reached a consensus. After all, I won’t be staying here forever, and even if I short-term damaged the interests of the Base, no one would dare to say anything; regarding the long term… it’s not as if I’ll be here forever.
The demands of the Ground Patrol Team are actually quite simple; they control the armed forces in the Underground City, so what else could they desire more than advanced weapons?
Manufacturing weapons is naturally a cinch for me; the only trouble is whether these Fool Dreams can execute and fulfill the requirements I propose.
“Let’s go, little ones, say goodbye to the older brothers and sisters of the Ground Patrol Team.”
Amid the cute farewells from this group of Fool Dreams, the Ground Patrol personnel also escorted us out.
After watching us leave, the relaxed atmosphere here quickly dissipated.
“Captain, why did we agree to that woman’s request? They are just a group of beggars by the roadside, do they really think they are precious?”
“Hey, that’s not just any little wild cat; we now have ourselves a small noble here at the Ground Patrol Team, so let’s get busy helping our esteemed scholar… and go find the cats.”
“Captain, that scholar is an outsider, and who knows when she might leave; there’s no backing from any influence, we don’t need to be so respectful, do we?”
“How can you be so foolish? Wouldn’t it be better to avoid trouble rather than invite it? Just because she has no influence doesn’t mean she has no value. It is precisely because she is not from here that her generosity is genuine.”
“By the way, did you find out which influence took those cats? If it’s just a bunch of small-time ruffians, we can deal with it directly; if not…”
“Captain, it seems it isn’t… this…”
“Ugh… troublesome, I knew it wouldn’t be easy.” Upon hearing that it wasn’t those small-time ruffians, the captain directly interrupted the other’s words and went to check personally.
“This…”
“Captain, those cats came to us before; we have investigated and refused, but didn’t expect they found this esteemed scholar…”
“Stop, I know. Next time, if you encounter such matters, inform me ahead of time! d*mn it… we’re too short on resources. Let me make a call.”
The captain, looking furious, took out something akin to a phone and walked to the empty reception room.
After entering, she locked the door, opened the phone, and found the contact labeled “Ninglan Qiuyue.”
“Hello, miss.”
“What happened? Why are you suddenly using this contact to reach me?”
“I discovered that someone from above has encroached on the territory of the Base again.”
“Is that all? Have you figured out which family it was?” The voice on the other end inquired.
“No, but they are secretly transporting cats up there.”
“Do they have the audacity? Then this matter is simple; pinpoint their location and directly track their destination. Don’t tell me you can’t manage this kind of thing in your territory.”
“We can do it, of course, but this matter involves the lady Scholar Yang Yuelan you asked me to pay attention to. Just recently, she personally came to inquire about the cats… so…”
“Troublesome… carry on as usual on your end; I’ll handle the rest.”
“Yes, yes!” After hanging up, the captain of the Ground Patrol Team let out a long breath, as if shaking off the trouble, but still couldn’t let their guard down.
After the captain left, a Ground Patrol officer responsible for communication quickly stood up, “Captain, there’s been another appearance!”
“What do you mean another appearance? Speak clearly… wait, you’re not referring to the Nightmare, are you?”
“Yes! Just got a call; there have been multiple cases of people in District Three not waking up from sleep. It’s highly probable to be that… Nightmare again.”
“Trouble comes in waves… d*mn it… assemble the team, and come with me to calm the citizens. You guys need to keep an eye on those cats; there can’t be any mishaps.”
At this moment, I returned to the hotel with this group of Fool Dreams. Because of me, these Fool Dreams were considered special employees within the Base, having a designated place to stay, only it was different from where I lived.
The main place is a dormitory similar to those for trainees of the Base. The internal space isn’t large, but it can accommodate many Fool Dreams, so they also shelter homeless Fool Dreams to live together.
It can be said that mutual help among Fool Dreams has become their instinctive behavior since it’s the only way to avoid losing more companions around them.
Upon returning to the hotel, I knocked on Sister Bai’s door but received no response, indicating she wasn’t around.
Sister Bai has been quite busy these days due to me, so she went off to do her own things; as for what she was doing, Sister Bai didn’t clearly inform me but mentioned that she felt there might be some opportunity here in the Underground City and wanted to explore.
Back in my room, during this personal time, I certainly wouldn’t waste it, as I would continue to study and improve the Dream Rewriting Spell.
However, this spell, at its core, is merely a channel for rewriting dreams to acquire information.
Dreams continuously gather information about the current intrusion into reality and constantly reconstruct and replicate any aspect of reality within the dream.
This all should be the case, but there is one particularly special existence among them—us outsiders. Our existence is not a product of the dream invasion of reality but a conscious awareness located far from where we know.
Thus… this dream connects to the world I originally inhabited, including my entity.
Because information does not lie, dreams have acquired information about our entities through some channel; perhaps I should look into the troubles caused by those Nightmares, after all, all of this could be traced back to the actions of these guys.
In the following days, I busied myself with similar tasks as before, almost as if oblivious to the urgency of it all, but I also began to inquire about some matters, such as the Nightmares.
There seem to have been many happenings regarding Nightmares recently, to the extent that people at the Extraordinary Research Base are discussing it.
This naturally stirred my interest; although Nightmares carry fortune, as long as I don’t k*ll them, there won’t be any problems. I simply want to utilize the Nightmares for some research.
“Little… Scholar Xiao Han… um… we’ll get to working now…” At this moment, a few apprentices chatting there got startled and were about to leave upon seeing me approach.
“Wait, don’t rush to leave.” I called out to them. “What were you just talking about?”
“Uh… well…”
They suddenly became tongue-tied, unable to say anything.
“You were discussing topics related to Nightmares, right? Do tell; I’m very interested in this too.”
“Eh? Scholar Xiao Han, you’re also interested in this?”
“I’m interested in the existence of Nightmares.” I nodded.
“Really? I’ve heard that those Nightmares seem to have some relationship with outsiders; um… sorry, I spoke out of turn.”
“If you know not to speak out of turn, then don’t ask. Are there any cases of Nightmare attacks in the district you were talking about? Is that true?”
“Of course, that’s true. The street I live on was sealed off by the Ground Patrol Team; I had to take a detour to get here on time today.”
“Same here; wow… that entire section of the street was as silent as d*ath, and that Nightmare was terrifying, right?”
“Can you tell me specifically which place?” I inquired.
“Eh? Wait, Scholar Xiao Han, you don’t mean to go see it yourself, right? No, no! If we cause you any danger, we’re done for! Please! You can’t!”
“Please! I’ve worked so hard to become an apprentice here; I can’t afford to lose this job!”
“That’s none of your worry; just tell me where it is; treat it like you’ve never seen me.”
Then, I forcibly gathered some information about the Nightmare incidents from them. Even if they hadn’t spoken, I could naturally inquire about intelligence elsewhere; but right now, it was merely more convenient.
Today, I left the place earlier than usual since I still needed to reserve some time to check the escalation of the Nightmare incidents, or rather, the Nightmare events in the Underground City had never stopped; they had merely been suppressed, or perhaps those matters had not spread due to the methods of the Ground Patrol Team.
Moreover, I also learned that the attacks by the Nightmares were at most giving people bad dreams, causing some to be startled and disoriented. So far, no one had experienced fatal situations, meaning this was still just a common case. The sealed-off region was just for show; after a few days, when the Nightmares dispersed, people would wake up, and the Ground Patrol Team would proceed with their comforting processes, which would signify the matter had been satisfactorily resolved, at least from the Ground Patrol’s perspective.
However, the psychological trauma inflicted on the residents here cannot be erased.
“Sister Xiao Han, why did you finish so early today?” At this moment, a Fool Dream was organizing documents while asking, as today truly ended much earlier than usual.
“Oh, due to some matters, I need to head back early. By the way, I still don’t know where you live; let me go have a look.”
“Eh? Is that okay? Didn’t you say you had more matters to do?”
“Well, that’s not urgent. I just need a suitable excuse to leave early.” I smiled, but in truth, these were just excuses. The incidents involving Nightmares were indeed occurring near these Fool Dreams’ residences, which further aggravated the disdain of the lower-class towards Fool Dreams. They needed a rational outlet or target to vent their suffering, and I naturally worried about the circumstances of these Fool Dreams.
When I followed these Fool Dreams to the vicinity of their residence, I unsurprisingly saw Ground Patrol personnel sealing off the scene, and there were also sounds of arguing.
“It’s these things that attracted the Nightmares! The city is so big; otherwise, why do those Nightmares frequently appear around here!”
“Exactly! Move them out! We don’t welcome them here.”
“Stop playing the pity card! Push them to the ground and don’t let them harm us!”
“Look… here come a few cat people! Push them away…”
At this moment, I, accompanied by this group of Fool Dreams, saw a gathering of angry people stirring up trouble. Upon seeing us, they immediately turned their ire toward us.
“Oh my gosh… what’s that lady doing here?” At this moment, a Ground Patrol officer maintaining order here also complained.
Of course, they were merely complaining verbally; they were here to mediate. These foolish individuals were only causing them trouble; now with a heavyweight in their presence, they had reason to take strong measures.
Boom!
With a loud explosion, the scene was thrown into panic. Many people were so scared they froze in place, while some directly dropped to the ground and covered their heads, appearing to be seasoned.
“Everyone STOP! Who gave you the audacity to gather and challenge the scholar of the Extraordinary Research Base!”
“Do you all want to test the methods of our Ground Patrol Team?” At that moment, the leading captain of the Ground Patrol Team was holding a firearm.
As he stated this, the crowd began to realize that the person beside those Fool Dreams was indeed wearing the uniform of the Base.
They never expected such a high-profile person would arrive here, causing them to tremble in fear, especially those at the front and those instigating the crowd.
