“The stone Buddha is crying. That is not a good omen.” A tester frowned deeply.
“Where is the stone Buddha? The thing inside is clearly a bloody human head.” The man beside him was his assistant.
“Do you see a human head?” The tester was shocked. He quickly asked the others. “What do you see?”
“A wiggling Tai Sui.”
“An urn for the dead.”
“A bronze mirror that shows your face!”
Every tester saw different things. Gao Ming touched Bai Feng lightly, “What do you see?”
Ever since Bai Feng saw the altar, her face was pale. “Bai Xiao’s death portrait.”
The series of knocking came from the wall behind the altar. Many small doors hidden in the wall opened. Strange things were written on them.
“Do we need to enter the doors that correspond to the things we saw inside the altar?” The tester who spoke first frowned. “There has to be a process to enter the dream. I’ve been paying attention, but I didn’t notice anything…” There was no hint or guidance. Other than the doors that were not larger than a puppy door, there was no other exit. Other than Gao Ming, everyone there had experienced many brain tests. However, even then, they couldn’t tell if they were in a dream or if they were still in real life. The group hesitated when Gao Ming noticed the paper doll on the altar moving. The glasses made from paper seemed to turn towards him. A chill ran up his spine. His heart raced. He didn’t understand what was happening, but the sting of murderous intent was real. The danger level was much higher than anything else he had encountered so far.
“If we stay here any longer, we might die.” An absurd thought appeared in Gao Ming’s mind. He pulled Bai Feng closer to the wall. Other testers also sensed something and started to move. About three minutes later, a tester facing the altar suddenly screamed. Then, he rammed at the base of the altar!
It was a powerful collision, but the altar barely budged.
“What is wrong with him? Has he lost his mind even though we haven’t entered the nightmare?”
“Ah Hai!” A lady tried to stop him, but an invisible force appeared to grab Ah Hai by the back of his head. He crashed his head into the altar base. His face was covered in blood. His eyes glowed with unnatural fanaticism. Ah Hai hugged the altar and started to laugh. Blood flowed down his face as he turned to look at everyone else.
The anxiety in Gao Ming’s heart heightened. He tried to scan the small doors, but he couldn’t find the word, paper doll. Was there no door marked with the character of a paper doll?
At that moment, a tester shouted, “Go into the door that is written with the stuff that you saw inside the altar! Don’t waste time! I heard from a level five tester that Immortal Pharma possesses an altar that they have invited out of the nightmare. A living God stays inside it!” Then, he crawled into one of the doors. The rest followed suit. Bai Feng looked at Bai Feng with concern, “We’ll have to split up. I’ll see you in the nightmare.”
“No need. I’ll enter the same door as you.”
“Did you see a death portrait too?” Bai Feng nodded. She led the way and crawled through the door written with ‘death portrait’. Gao Ming followed her. As they crawled forward, they heard the sound of tearing and laughing coming from the room behind them.
After crawling for who knew how long in the dark, Gao Ming felt a pain in the back of his neck. Then, he was hit by the smell of dirt. He wanted to keep crawling, but he hit a wooden board with his head. Bai Feng, who was supposed to be right in front of him, had disappeared. He reached out and touched the space around him. The stone walls were gone. They were replaced by wooden boards.
“I’m boxed inside wooden boards. Am I… inside a coffin?”
Dirt fell through the gaps in the boards. Gao Ming controlled the rhythm of his breathing. He used his hands to search in the dark. He noticed the board above him was loose. It was not nailed shut. He tried to give it a shove, but he felt it moving.
“I’m not buried deep.”
Gao Ming found the correct angle and pushed with all his might. Eventually, there was a creak, and the wooden board, as well as the soil above it, were pushed away. Before Gao Ming could take in the fresh air, a thunder shot through the night sky. Gao Ming crawled back into the pit. “It’s about to rain. I don’t like rain.”
The place was dark. There was no moon or star. He could hear the sound of water.
“Am I in a deep-level nightmare? This is different from what I imagined. My memory fragments didn’t react. The only good news is…” Gao Ming lay in the coffin and held his heart. As his heart pounded, he could sense the presence of the flesh tree. The giant tree that penetrated multiple dreams appeared to be looking for him. The walkie-talkie given to him by No. 2 started to change as well. A few channels emitted a static sound as if they could pick up some signals.
“No. 2’s real body is hidden deep inside Immortal Pharma. I still need to find the player called Zhang Mingli. I have to do this slowly.”
Gao Ming crawled out of the coffin and looked around. He appeared to be at a mass grave. His pit didn’t even have a headstone. There was only a rotten money bag dropped in the coffin. The bag contained three copper coins and a medical prescription.
“Who buried me alive? The coins appear to be stained with blood and animal fur.” Based on Gao Ming’s previous experience, he wouldn’t have anything on him when he entered the nightmare, but this time, it was different. Gao Ming put away the money bag and looked around again.
There was a large river to the west of the mass grave and a small temple to the north. There were silhouettes of buildings and lights to the south. Gao Ming brushed his face and tried to climb out. He realised he was the only one there. The other testers didn’t climb out of the other graves.
“Strange. I entered the same door as Bai Feng. Why is she not here?”
Gao Ming had great eyesight. This might be related to his experience. Despite the distance, he saw the stone sign propped up at the village entrance. The sign was covered in words but all of the words could be combined to form the bloody moniker, Dream Break Town.