Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 134: Chapter 128: The Beginning_2

Afterward, Nalan Shuo gave Yang Xiao an analysis of the various possibilities that could have led to the ghost’s death. With plentiful experience, his analysis greatly enlightened Yang Xiao. Most crucially, it gave him a glimmer of hope—at least there were still many people who hadn’t given up on him.

Having discussed these serious matters, Nalan Shuo took a deep breath and looked at Yang Xiao with a solemn expression, "Yang Xiao, do you have any wishes?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Xiao, who had just relaxed, became tense again, "Director, don’t give up on me just yet. I think there’s still a chance to save me!"

"You’ve misunderstood. I have high hopes for you, but this is a rule of the Patrol Defense Bureau. Every Angel Envoy leaves behind a wish. If something unfortunate were to happen, we will do our utmost to fulfill it. It’s not just you—your teammates have registered their wishes too, Beibei, Xi Menxiu, Yu Shu... every single one of them has." Nalan Shuo was very patient with Yang Xiao.

Yang Xiao couldn’t contain his curiosity, "What are their wishes?"

Nalan Shuo smiled mysteriously, "That’s a secret. Some of them are not convenient to share, but I can tell you about Yu Shu’s. Her wish is quite ordinary—she hopes that if she’s no longer around, someone will take over feeding the stray cats she’s been taking care of."

"And yours?" Nalan Shuo looked at him, "Tell me your wish."

"I don’t have any wishes. I just want to survive," Yang Xiao said with a resolute gaze.

After all, he used to be a scriptwriter, well-versed in the ways a character could stay alive. Generally speaking, when someone leaves behind a wish before undertaking a dangerous mission, that person was almost certainly doomed by the author. That was an industry rule.

Seeing Yang Xiao’s determined will to live, Nalan Shuo found it hard to say much else and let him return to his office and told him he could stay and rest there for the night.

After dinner, Yang Xiao sat alone in the office. Beibei and Da Xiong had gone home; their remaining there would’ve been of no use.

He went over everything that Director Nalan had told him that afternoon, stretched out his hand, pulled over the backpack on the desk, and took out the Drama Robe.

As he stared at the red Drama Robe, he saw that the Nine-Eyed Skull at the hem was indeed gone. Turning it over to the Nether Garment side, the vanished paper money hadn’t returned. It seemed that this was the price to pay for forcibly entering another person’s Nightmare World.

Yang Xiao wasn’t sure what it meant, but the danger last time had been evident; he nearly got killed by the Headless Green Ghost in the "future."

The red Drama Robe corresponded to the wedding procession, and the Nether Garment to the funeral procession. The Drama Robe could sneak into the nightmares others were experiencing, while the Nether Garment could "pluck" paper money to seal a ghost and utilize it for oneself; each ability was terrifying. He didn’t know how powerful the Resentful Eye’s previous owner was. If he could find the corresponding information, it would significantly aid Yang Xiao in using the Resentful Eye.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Yang Xiao’s mind—the Suit Ghost would come for him soon, and what would happen if he wore this Drama Robe at that time?

Since the Nether Garment could seal a ghost, why not go all out and try to seal this Suit Ghost?

If he succeeded, and there were no more ghosts, then the Nightmare World mission would naturally come to an end.

Director Nalan and the others had only reminded him that he couldn’t bring the Resentful Eye into the Nightmare World, but they never said it couldn’t be used to deal with script ghosts that came knocking.

"This is promising!"

As much as he thought so, Yang Xiao, just to be cautious, sent an audio message to Beibei.

"Hmm?"

Yang Xiao was momentarily startled to see that the network signal on his phone had disappeared, showing the message failed to send.

Before Yang Xiao could react, the lights in the office went out instantaneously, and it wasn’t just the lights—his phone screen went dark as well.

Yang Xiao swiftly turned his head to look at the window, where it was pitch black outside; the night view and the lights had all disappeared.

This isn’t right!

It wasn’t that the lights had gone out—it was my eyes! My eyes can’t see!

Yang Xiao immediately reached out to touch the Drama Robe on the desk, his lifeline, but his body stiffened; his arm wouldn’t respond as if his veins were filled with ice.

"Click—"

"Crack—"

Something in the darkness inched closer, the sound of friction against the floor was a bit grating, and very heavy, one thump after another.

Yang Xiao knew what it was, those were two sandbags being dragged on the ground! freewebnσvel.cѳm

The thing had come!

Yang Xiao desperately tried to wrest back control of his body, his efforts were gradually taking effect, but just too slow. His fingertips had just started to bend when the sound was already near him. Judging from the noise, the other party was standing by the office’s western wall.

That was a blank wall; what was he doing there?

A moment later, Yang Xiao heard a spine-chilling scraping sound, not sandbags, but something was rubbing against the wall.

The sound was intermittent and lasted for a long time, Yang Xiao was almost at breaking point, he racked his brains but couldn’t figure out what that ghost was doing to the wall, and the less he understood, the more frightened he became.

Finally, at the exact moment that the scraping sound vanished, Yang Xiao regained control over his body. His right hand fiercely reached for the desk; he needed to find the Drama Robe and put it on, the side of the Nether Garment, only then could he restrain the suited ghost in front of him!

But Yang Xiao was stunned. He had grabbed thin air, the Drama Robe that should have been on the desk was gone. His body started to tremble uncontrollably, and he touched an ice-cold, rigid hand.

The hand was resting on the desk, very thin, with pronounced knuckles.

The next second, his hand was suddenly seized by that hand and pulled toward the darkness.

...

Hard.

Underneath him was hard; it felt like he was lying on a plank.

There was light around him, and he could faintly hear voices of people talking.

After God knows how long, Yang Xiao’s vision gradually filled with light; he struggled to wake up, feeling a phantom pressure, like being held down by a ghost. He could sense what was happening around him, but he couldn’t open his eyes or speak.

Five minutes or maybe less, he suddenly heard a woman’s weeping, cries filled with terror. Yang Xiao finally woke up.

"Where is this..." Yang Xiao sat up, lying on a wooden bench. There were quite a few people around, both men and women. One of the women, with braided pigtails, was crouching on the ground, hysterically crying. The crying sound he’d heard came from her.

"Beauty, I’d say that’s enough. Look at the newbies, how stable they are," a young man in a Skull Hoodie glanced at Yang Xiao and advised.

As his brain completely cleared, Yang Xiao noticed he was in a bus station that looked long abandoned. The mottled walls exposed the red bricks inside, there were no vehicles nearby, nor could he see any uniformed staff.

Counting him, there were eight people there, four men and four women, which exactly matched the script box. It seemed these people were his teammates.

"Hey newbie, you’re pretty calm, aren’t you scared?" a girl with a rose tattoo on her neck cocked her head and curiously sized up Yang Xiao.

Yang Xiao quickly assessed the current situation; it appeared that they were treating him as the newbie, since he was the last one to wake up. Although he was unclear as to why this was happening, Yang Xiao decided to play along, pretending to be a novice this time.

"This...where is this?" Yang Xiao acted as if he was just coming to terms with the shock, opening his eyes wide, looking around, his gaze filled with confusion and fear, vividly displaying the unease in his heart and suspicion towards the people before him.

Then, a man with gold-rimmed glasses stepped out of the crowd, around 35 years old, dressed plainly but having a refined demeanor, "Don’t scare him, we’ve all been through this phase."

After speaking, the man approached Yang Xiao and greeted him, proceeded to explain their current predicament and introduced himself.

He claimed to be Song Yan, an artist as well as the owner of a gallery in Rongcheng.

According to Song Yan, this nightmare mission included four newcomers, including himself, and the other four were veterans who had experienced at least one nightmare mission. Everyone here had received a ghost script named "Fu Lin Middle School."