Chapter 406: Dead City and Desert

It is coming!
At the moment when the gray fog giant hugged the sixth layer of nightmare and tried to squeeze in, even though there were no obvious signs, everyone in the nightmare world still sensed the existence of the Nightmare King almost at the same time.

If I have to describe it, this strange feeling that suddenly appeared in my heart was like a rabbit eating grass and discovering the shadow of a falcon cast on the ground, or like drifting in the sea on a small boat and seeing a huge dark shadow approaching underwater.

Even if there is no real crisis yet, just the slightest rumor is enough to make one's heart sink.

If the Nightmare King arrives first, I'm afraid it will be too late to save him...

Feeling the surroundings suddenly become lively, as if welcoming a drizzle, Director Scorpio, who was standing on a smoke-covered city wall, had a slightly gloomy expression and simply raised his hand to break the neck of the pale puppet beside him.

"Gaba!"

Along with the crisp sound of broken bones, a thin woman screamed among the crowd blocking the door and trying to escape under the city wall. Her thin neck with scars and the neck of the pale puppet tilted to one side at the same time.

But the strange thing was that even though her neck was suddenly broken, the thin woman did not die. Instead, she shrugged her shoulders against her head and ran towards another group of sick-looking people.

Unfortunately, before she could run two steps, a thin sword that was still dripping with blood pierced through her chest with extreme brutality, knocking her to the ground and nailing her to death.

And with her death, the tower under Chief Scorpio's feet began to twist slightly in a strange way.

Then, the crowd retreated in fear; the black-robed doctor wearing a strange bird-beak mask, shouting loudly; the soldiers standing behind the wooden barricades, stabbing the rushers with long poles;

Blackened corpses were piled on top of each other, and the dirty streets were filled with the dead. Outside the city, white smoke billowed all day long, and the crematorium had burned countless bodies of the dead...

This city, which was being dragged into death by the plague, began to twist unconsciously with the death of the thin woman, just like a shadow reflected on the lake. With the stone thrown into the lake, the city began to twist unconsciously.

The next level of nightmare should be the desert with giant dune worms, right?
After killing the plague girl who was in charge of "guarding" this nightmare layer and temporarily breaking the nightmare called "City of Death Plague", Director Scorpio, with a tired look on his face, narrowed his eyes and looked at the dim and burning lower dreamland below the dead city. He couldn't help but sighed with regret, and then, holding the last hope, he stepped into the endless desert below.

After knowing that Leon had jumped into the dream on his own initiative, he immediately rushed down with all his strength, passing through three layers of nightmares in a row, trying to meet up with him as soon as possible, but in the end he was still a step too late.

Compared to myself who needs to kill the nightmare of the corresponding world to escape from the nightmare, the Nightmare King, as the lord of nightmares, can travel freely in all nightmares as I please.

Then, the moment it came into contact with the sixth layer of nightmare, it would have found Leon's location, and could pass through it directly without any hindrance, arriving at his nightmare in an instant.

And facing the Nightmare King who is doubly strengthened by the Dream World and the Fallen Soul Abyss and is still in a nightmare and fighting on his home turf, even I, who do not have the blessing of the Star Palace, am afraid I will have a tough battle.

With Leon's level as a third-level cleaner, no matter how many trump cards he has, they will probably be shattered at the slightest touch. It would be easier for the Nightmare King to strangle him to death than to crush a bug.

What a pity to waste such a good seedling... Alas... This is the fate of a cleaner.

……

After recalling everything Leon had done, Director Scorpio couldn't help but sigh again.

The more paranoid and risk-taking a cleaner is, the greater his potential is and the faster he becomes stronger. There have even been records of people being promoted all the way to become branch chiefs within five years.

It's a pity that the more outstanding the talent, the more likely they are to have irrational and reckless behavior due to overly intense emotions, and die early in a mission that is incompatible with their own abnormal objects. In the end, only a few can survive.

A good seedling like Lyon, who can be emotionally intense but also rational and calm, will have a bright future as long as he proceeds steadily and works hard for another 10 to 20 years.

As a result, that stinky woman Olivia did not fulfill the responsibilities of a director at all. She actually allowed him, a third-level cleaner, to get involved in this kind of true god-level mission. It was really... After shaking his head with a bad look, Director Scorpio, who was extremely regretful, swung the rapier in his hand, cut through the dim outer wall of the dream below, and took the initiative to enter the vast desert belonging to the dune worm.

"Pong!"

After Director Scorpio left the damp, cold, rainy plague city and entered the sun-baked desert, a heat wave that could steam a person rolled in and dried away all the remaining moisture on his body in the blink of an eye.

By the time Director Scorpio got used to the change in temperature and looked around through the heat wave that distorted the horizon, a somewhat familiar figure in the distance instantly caught his eye.

That's... Leon?!

Director Scorpio's eyes widened suddenly as he looked at Leon, who appeared on the sand dunes more than ten miles away and was desperately fleeing with the Snow Girl on his back, and the gray fog giant who was emerging behind him.

Damn it! Why in the vastest desert? It's too far away!
After discovering the traces of Leon and the Nightmare King, Director Scorpio activated some abnormal object. His tall and thin figure fell backwards, and the shadow under him strangely stretched infinitely, spreading over a distance of thousands of meters in an instant, until it was cut off by a huge sunken sand pit, and then it stopped.

Immediately afterwards, Director Scorpio's shadow, which had been stretched infinitely, suddenly shrank back. When he stood up again from lying down, he had instantly crossed a distance of a thousand meters and stood directly in front of the huge sand pit.

You have to catch up! Maybe you can still make it in time!

Without even bothering to shake off the sand on his body, Director Scorpio stood up and was about to activate the anomaly again and continue moving towards Leon, but suddenly he discovered that both the gray fog giant and Leon had disappeared, and there was nothing on the sand dunes more than ten miles away.

It turned out to be a sand dune mirage...

Looking at the empty sand dunes in the distance, Director Scorpio's expression couldn't help but become completely gloomy.

This mirage-like thing, just like the wards of the Plague City and the deep mountains of the Snowy Mountains, is a "feature" of the nightmare of the endless desert.

The specific origin is that the shed scales from the giant dune worm can reflect the phantom light through dreams, which can make people see the things they most want to see at the moment, thereby inducing them to move towards their goals.

However, once you are tempted by the mirage of sand dunes, you will continue to lose water while moving, and finally die in the endless sea of sand, becoming a dried corpse buried in the yellow sand. Although the scene you see is not fake, it is something you can never truly achieve.

"call……"

After letting out a disappointed sigh, Director Scorpio turned back the way he came and reactivated the anomaly he was using to get on with his journey.

A mirage is a mirage...

Judging from the environment around Leon in the mirage, he should also be in the endless desert, but this desert with the word "endless" in its name is the largest among the six nightmares, larger than the other five nightmares combined, and it is too late for him to get there.

Since he can't be saved, I might as well use the dune mirage to take a good look at his final outcome. As a cleaner, it can be regarded as a tribute to a brave colleague.

With this in mind, Director Scorpio stretched his shadow and returned to the position when he entered the endless desert. He looked solemnly at the position where the dune mirage appeared, but...

"what?"

Looking at the mirage, Leon punched the Nightmare King on the toes, and then twisted his face and screamed together with the Gray Fog Giant. Director Scorpio's eyes suddenly opened as wide as possible, and he almost popped his eye sockets.

"ah???????"

(End of this chapter)

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