Hyperdimensional Warlock

Chapter 4371 Malice
Dakman... he went home?
Upon hearing this, Ke Mai paused for a moment, and a layer of melancholy slowly rose in his eyes.

He naturally understood what Ingres meant.

"Going home" doesn't mean waking up, but rather failing to withstand the curse of whispers... and dying.

He nodded slightly, a hint of sadness flashing in his eyes.

However, he quickly cheered up, after all, Captain Darkman hadn't really died, he had just failed the dungeon challenge and been removed from the dungeon.

They will meet again.

Angell: "Keep going, Dakman, Bulko, Rebecca, they'll be waiting for you outside."

"I imagine they are also eagerly awaiting news of your triumphant return."

Kemai nodded, no longer dwelling on Darkman's elimination, and turned to walk into the misty, dark forest.

……

Outside the Misty Forest instance.

Ingres withdrew from his God's-eye view.

He didn't plan to watch any further, but instead decided to go to Rabbit Town to see Darkman first.

Angel had originally had high hopes for Darkman, after all, Darkman had managed to last for more than three hours after Bulko and Rebecca were eliminated by the Whispering Curse.

Perhaps Darkman really does have a chance to find the truth about the "song," and even break free from the illusion created by the Whispering Curse and return to reality.

To his surprise, Darkman also died.

Even so, Darkman lasted much longer than the other two, and the information he obtained in the dream world must have been much more than that of Bulko and Rebecca.

This is why Angell decided to go find him immediately.

After taking one last look at the crystal artifacts in the dungeon, Angor turned and logged off.

Just two seconds later, he logged back in and, using the Dream Gate's access, teleported directly to the front of Darkman's residence.

As the team leader, Darkman is clearly stronger than Bulko and Rebecca, both in spirit and physique.

Therefore, although he died in the instance and suffered some mental damage, he managed to withstand it thanks to his physical constitution.

He woke up almost immediately after being teleported out.

When Angell arrived, he was sitting on the edge of the bed, panting heavily, trying to clear the jumbled thoughts in his mind.

He only slowly came to his senses when he heard a knock on the door.

With slightly unsteady steps, Dakman opened the door. When he saw Angel standing outside, his tired eyes lit up for a moment, then quickly drooped, revealing a hint of shame that was hard to hide.

"Lord Angel... what brings you here?"

"I……"

His voice was hoarse, and he seemed reluctant to speak.

He was supposed to lead the team into the dungeon, but he was eliminated so early.

Moreover, right after being eliminated, he ran into Lord Angel, and he felt too ashamed to face anyone.

Seeing Darkman's evasive gaze, Angor could guess his thoughts even without using his super-sensory abilities.

Angel gently comforted her, "This elimination isn't your fault. The Whispering Curse isn't something you can withstand with willpower alone."

Darkman was taken aback: "My lord...my lord also knows about 'The Whispers of the Living Dead'?"

Angel nodded: "After I came out of the Sandbox Wonderland, I've been keeping an eye on the Misty Swamp Forest instance, so I know your situation very well. Bulko and Rebecca were eliminated three hours ago."

"So you don't need to blame yourself, you've already done very well."

Darkman's eyes dimmed: "Bulko and Rebecca came out too? What about Juka and Kemai...?"

Angor: "Juka is cursed, but hasn't been eliminated yet; Kerma is not cursed, he's still in the instance."

Darkman's eyes lit up instantly.

"Kema wasn't cursed?"

Angel nodded, paused, and turned to look at the slowly gathering crowd in the corridor. His sudden arrival had already attracted a lot of attention.

Darkman finally noticed the gazes around him, a hint of shame flashing in his eyes: "Sir, please come in."

After the door closed, Darkman apologized guiltily, "I just woke up and my head is still a little fuzzy. I'm really sorry."

Angel shook his head dismissively: "It's alright. Now that you're awake, let me tell you about the situation inside the dungeon."

Dakman quickly nodded in agreement.

Over the next period of time, Angel briefly described the situation after Dakman fell into a coma.

When Darkman learned that Kemai had escaped the Whispering Curse because of "Illusionary Concealment," he looked enlightened and then thanked Angor profusely.

"Without the illusion node bestowed by the master, we would all have fallen victim to the curse, and then we would have been completely wiped out..."

Angel waved his hand: "No, the illusion node at most helped Kerma avoid this Whispering Curse, but it still can't avoid the essence of the curse."

Under Dakman's questioning gaze, Angell slowly said:
"If Whispering Curse is simply a direct death attack, then Illusion Node did save him."

"But you yourself experienced that dream, so you should know better than anyone else that the curse may not be meant to kill you."

"It did not immediately destroy you, but instead plunged you into an exceptionally vivid dream, and even gave you some guidance in the dream through song."

"This in itself shows that the existence of the curse is purposeful and meaningful."

"And the main quest of the Misty Swamp Forest dungeon is to have you uncover the truth about the 'evil spirits'." Angor: "Then I can reasonably suspect that the dream within the Whispering Curse might hold the answer to the truth."

"Even if it's not the whole truth, it at least contains a fragment of the truth."

Therefore, Angell believes that the Whispering Curse is a hurdle that all challengers entering the dungeon will most likely have to go through.

If that's the case.

That time, Mai escaped this calamity by using illusion to gain an advantage, but in reality, he simply saved himself a lot of time.

He can escape this time, but he can't keep hiding forever.

To clear the dungeon and collect all the truth fragments, he will eventually have to face the Whispering Curse.

After hearing Angell's guess, Darkman fell into thought for a moment. After a while, he nodded slightly: "I haven't had many experiences in the dream world, but I do have a feeling that as long as I can find the source of the song, I might be able to survive..."

In other words, the Whisper Curse really does have a "solution".

A curse that can be solved must have its reason for existing.

Perhaps the source of the song is the truth behind the main storyline's demands!

Angel: "I came to see you this time because I wanted to ask about your experience in the dream world. You lasted longer than Bulko and Rebecca, so perhaps I can use your experience to help Kemai and the others overcome the curse."

Darkman nodded knowingly.

He paused for a moment to recall, and said, "My experience in the dream was actually similar to that of Bourko and Rebecca; we were all searching for the source of the song."

"However, I've probably experienced a few more 'maps' than the two of them."

Next, Dakman began to recount his dream journey.

At first, he also landed in a pitch-black, empty space, and then heard a faint singing voice.

At the same time, he had a sudden inspiration that if he could find the source of the song within the given time, he could survive.

Then he kept searching.

Just before he sensed the "death line" was about to be reached, he found the source of the song in a glimmer of light.

When he touched the faint light, the pitch-black void began to change, and he arrived in a dreamlike city with undulating hills.

it's here.

He heard the familiar singing voice again.

The same intuition arrived as expected; he needed to find the source of the song hidden in a building in the city.

This urban fantasy was the most absurd and longest dream Duckman ever experienced, because the buildings in the city constantly changed color, stretched shape, and even drifted in front of him.

The singing echoed and reverberated through the city buildings, making it difficult for Duckman to determine which building was the source of the song.

Darkman dared not step into any building rashly, because his intuition told him that if he made the wrong choice, he would surely die.

Under the weight of death, he could only retreat and wander, holding his breath to discern the direction of the song.

However, as time went by, Darkman gradually sensed something strange—the malice of the city.

“Urban malice?” Angell asked, somewhat puzzled.

Darkman nodded emphatically: "I dared not choose any of the buildings, so I deliberately avoided them. But as time went on, these buildings began to drift towards me on their own."

"At first, it just drifted a few dozen meters in front of me and blocked my way."

"Later on, they came right up to within a few meters of me."

"The speed was getting faster and faster, and it was getting more and more sudden. Several times I couldn't react in time and almost crashed into the building that suddenly appeared..."

Darkman sensed the malice of the entire city, which was forcing him to make a choice immediately.

Darkman could even vaguely sense that if things continued to drag on, he would lose all options.

In this situation, Duckman had no choice but to bite the bullet and choose a huge cathedral shrouded in colorful halos.

Although I chose this option reluctantly, it wasn't a random one.

He had heard very clear singing coming from the church several times before, but he was worried that the wind might be making the singing clearer, so he didn't dare to choose it directly.

But now the city is forcing him to choose, and he finally chose this church.

And he won the gamble.

……

By this point in the story, Dakman had already far surpassed Rebecca in progress.

Rebecca didn't even experience the "city's malice" before she made the wrong choice of building and was eliminated by the Dream.

Next, after entering the massive building, Duckman...

They found themselves in a corridor inside the church, a corridor that was sometimes black and sometimes white, filled with bizarre dolls dressed in papal robes, emitting eerie laughter.

At the same time, the corridors are crisscrossed, sometimes undulating and rolling, with various side passages and even inverted spatial corridors... like a corridor maze.

When Dakman arrived, the singing became muffled again.

His intuition told him again... to find the source of the song.

So, Darkman continued to wander through the labyrinthine corridors, searching relentlessly...

Finding the source of the song in this maze was even more difficult, because no matter which way he went, the song seemed particularly distant, as if it had never come close at all.

In addition, the eerie laughter of the divine robe doll would interfere with him to some extent.

He wandered in the maze for who knows how long, but still made no progress.

As he spent more time there, the maze began to show its "malice."

The dolls that had been sitting still began to move, brandishing various instruments of torture—shackles, torches, chains—and relentlessly chasing after Darkman.

Darkman's intuition told him that once the doll caught up with him and put him in shackles, he would surely die.

So Darkman had no choice but to speed up, searching for the source of the song while dodging the dolls' pursuit.

Darkman was fast, but he couldn't overcome the maze's intense hostility towards him.

The speed at which the doll chased the object actually increased over time!

Later, Darkman could barely keep up with the doll by a hair's breadth, even with almost all his strength... and at that point, it was even more impossible for him to be distracted and search for the source of the song.

"Unable to concentrate on finding the song, and with the doll's speed increasing over time..." Darkman: "Under these circumstances, I've given up."

"I felt like I might just die there."

"But then, things took a turn for the better."

Angell: "A turning point?"

Darkman nodded: "Yes, I was speeding along when I suddenly heard the sound of a piano."

The sound of a piano?! A look of surprise flashed across Angell's eyes.

Darkman: "I don't know where the piano music came from, but it was not only very clear, but also very beautiful, soothing and warm... Most importantly, when the piano music started, the dolls stopped chasing me."

"They remained in place as they had at the beginning."

"At the same time, the appearance of the zither music made the faint singing in the maze rise higher... This gave me hope again."

"I followed the song and kept moving forward..."

Darkman felt himself getting closer and closer to the singing, and he even had a vague feeling that the source of the singing might be in a room at the next intersection.

Just when he thought he could get through this hurdle smoothly, the music suddenly stopped.

"After the music stopped, the doll went crazy again, even more so than before!"

"Luckily, there weren't many dolls in the corridor I was in, so I wasn't caught up immediately... But there was a doll in the side corridor that spotted me and chased after me like a gust of wind!"

At this moment, the doll's speed far exceeded Darkman's speed, and from Darkman's perspective, he had no chance of escaping the doll's pursuit.

Just as Darkman was in despair, the sound of the piano rang out again.

The doll also stopped.

The music was still the same, still gentle, but the style had changed; it had become sorrowful…

"At the same time, I also faintly heard a new singing voice. This time it was a man singing, his voice was low and hoarse, accompanied by mournful piano music."

"I still remember that the lyrics seemed to describe the moon and sorrow..."

Just as Dakman was speaking, Angel suddenly spoke up.

"The moonlight fades, the wind falls silent; the light may go out, but the heart remains; a single note, an endless sorrow..."

"I wish to use this song to call you back."

"The moonlight sinks... and there's endless sorrow!" Darkman's eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly: "That's right, those are the lyrics!"

After speaking, Dakman looked at Angel with a surprised expression.

"Sir...how do you know this song?"