Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

Like wild beasts breaking free from their cages, the two of them fiercely left the chaos and noise behind.

"Turn left! Avoid the main road!" Lin Yi roared, twisting his body first and rushing into a narrow alley.

Gulu followed closely behind, slashing the dagger in a backhand motion and cutting the throat of a resident who was trying to pounce at the alley entrance. The movement was clean and swift, without the slightest hesitation.

The pursuers behind them were like a persistent carbuncle, and more footsteps converged from all directions.

The window was pushed open, revealing a dark gun barrel and an indifferent face.

There were figures moving on the rooftop, trying to seize the high ground.

The city has truly "come alive," in an extremely xenophobic and frenzied way.

"This will never end!" Gulu dodged a bullet fired from above. The bullet hit the wall next to him, sending sparks flying.

"There are too many of them!"

Lin Yi didn't slow down at all, kicking an overturned trash can behind him to temporarily obstruct the pursuers' view.

"Shadow Legion, heed my command!"

He let out a low shout, and the power of the abyss poured out like a flood.

The next moment, centered on Lin Yi, thick shadows spread rapidly in the shadows of the alleyways, the corners of the walls, and even the cracks in the ground around them, like ink dripping into clear water.

One by one, the shadowy soldiers, their scarlet eyes the only visible feature, silently rose to their feet.

In the blink of an eye, thousands of shadowy soldiers filled the nearby streets and alleys, surrounding the residents who had been chasing Lin Yi and his companion.

"kill."

The carnage erupted instantly!
The shadowy soldiers pounced on the controlled residents like ghosts.

The screams, the sounds of collisions, and the roar of gunfire reached a climax in an instant, before being quickly drowned out by an even greater chaos.

The number of shadowy soldiers even temporarily exceeded that of the pursuers, creating a deadly swamp in the area and holding back most of the pursuers.

Lin Yi and Gulu felt a sudden relief from the pressure. They exchanged a glance, then exerted their strength again, taking advantage of the chaos created by the Shadow Legion, and burst out of the last alleyway.

Suddenly, everything becomes clear!
A massive, silver-gray building with geometric lines appeared in front of them, with the logo of the "Sleeping City Paranormal Science and Echo Phenomenon Research Society" hanging at the entrance.

This is their destination.

The main gate of the academy was tightly closed, but the side gate next to it appeared to have been violently damaged.

"This way!" Lin Yi rushed towards the side door without the slightest hesitation.

However, just as they were about to rush into the academy—

boom! boom! boom!
Inside, gunfire suddenly erupted in several rooms near the windows.

The bullets struck the two men precisely; the attackers were not ordinary residents outside, but rather armed security personnel who had learned how to operate from within the compound.

Their eyes were equally vacant, but their tactical movements were extremely professional and experienced. They also used more powerful standard weapons, making them a far greater threat than the rabble outside.

Lin Yi swung his sword to parry, the blade clashing with the bullet with a piercing metallic clang.

Gulu rolled along the ground like a nimble cat, narrowly avoiding the barrage of bullets.

"Damn it! The people inside have gone mad too!" Gulu cursed, his voice tinged with panting and anger.

"Don't stop! Charge in!" Lin Yi's eyes flashed with sternness. Instead of retreating, he used the momentum of blocking to accelerate again, like a raging chariot, and slammed his shoulder into the already damaged side door.

The wooden door panel shattered like paper in the face of his terrifying physique.

Before the two security guards behind the door could even turn their guns around, a cold glint of sword light flashed past.

puff!

Two heads wearing tactical helmets shot into the air, their faces still bearing cold expressions. Blood gushed from their headless necks like fountains. The bodies swayed and then fell heavily to the ground.

Lin Yi and Gulu rushed into the lobby on the first floor of the research society in an instant.

The moment he entered the hall, a strong, nauseating smell of rust mixed with the pungent odor of internal organs slammed into Lin Yi's nostrils like a solid fist, making his stomach churn.

Gulu frowned and instinctively covered his mouth and nose.

The hall was brightly lit, yet eerily silent.

What came into view was a hellish scene.

Dozens of corpses lay scattered haphazardly on the smooth, mirror-like light-colored marble floor.

Most of them were wearing pristine white lab coats for researchers or uniforms for technicians, but at this moment, that white was stained dark red by the freely flowing blood.

Blood spread from beneath them, pooling into puddles of varying depths, quietly reflecting the cold, ornate lights on the ceiling.

The expressions on the faces of these dead were frozen in utter astonishment and bewilderment, as if they had witnessed a completely unbelievable scene in their final moments.

Almost all of their wounds came from their backs.

A sharp weapon pierced precisely into the back of the heart, and a bullet exited at close range from the back of the head... all of this clearly indicates that this was a massacre that took place from within.

The perpetrator was clearly someone these researchers knew or even trusted, who delivered a fatal blow when they were completely unprepared.

"Hiss?" Gulu gasped. "Our own people killing each other? What the hell is going on in this godforsaken place?"

Lin Yi's eyes were serious as he warily scanned the entire hall.

The fact that the blood had not completely coagulated indicates that the massacre had not occurred long ago.

Just then, a very faint but strangely familiar cough came from a room at the end of a corridor on the side of the hall.

Lin Yi's pupils contracted slightly. Without any hesitation, his body shot out like a cannonball, instantly rushing to the door marked "Data Room" and kicking it out!
boom!
The heavy solid wood door panel, along with the door frame, was kicked open and cracked inwards, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

Inside the archives, the scene was even more chaotic and devastating than in the main hall.

The huge bookshelf against the wall had mostly collapsed, and various books, documents and papers were scattered everywhere, many of them trampled or stained with blood.

The air was thicker with the stench of blood than the hall, mixed with the acrid smell of flesh being instantly burned by extremely high temperatures.

A figure sat against the corner of the wall, his chest heaving violently, each breath accompanied by a hoarse, bellows-like sound and a slight cough.

It's that old geezer, Bliss.

His right hand was tightly covering his abdomen, but the gaps between his fingers could not conceal the horrific wound—a charred hole nearly the size of a fist, running straight through him.

The edges of the wound, flesh, and clothing were instantly carbonized by some extremely high heat, forming an ugly black scab, and the color of the wall behind was even faintly visible.

"Still alive?" Lin Yi strode forward, squatted down, and quickly scanned the other person's injuries.

Bliss seemed to hear the voice and struggled to lift his head.

When his cloudy pupils focused and he recognized Lin Yi, an extremely complex and incomprehensible smile appeared on his ashen face, a mixture of pain, relief, and a hint of mockery.
"Ahem, it's you, outsider." His voice was weak and feeble, each word seemingly uttered with all his might.

Lin Yi immediately took out high-grade medical supplies and bandages from his storage space, preparing to stop the bleeding first.

“It’s…it’s no use…” Bliss seemed to sense his intention. The hand that wasn’t covering the wound lifted up with extreme difficulty, almost imperceptibly, signaling Lin Yi to stop. “…Energy burning…internal organs…are all…burnt…cough…”

From Lin Yi's perspective, the bar representing Bliss's health points above his head was shrinking rapidly at a visible rate, and the upper limit was also constantly decreasing.

As he said, this was not only a serious injury, but also a collapse of the very foundation of life, which is extremely difficult to reverse with conventional methods and requires a long period of recuperation.

But Lin Yi was being hunted down by the entire city at the moment, surrounded by dangers, and had neither the means nor the time to do so.

Seeing Lin Yi's solemn expression, Bliss's lips twitched as if he wanted to laugh, but this triggered an even more violent cough. A mouthful of bloody foam mixed with fragments gushed from his mouth and dripped onto his already blood-soaked front.

"Being...being hunted down by the whole city...no, it's not a pleasant experience, is it...?" he said haltingly, the mockery in his eyes seeming to intensify, though it was unclear where that mockery was directed.

His fingers trembled as he fumbled with great difficulty in the pocket of his white lab coat, which was already stained with blood and dust beyond recognition. After a long while, he finally pulled out a crumpled cigarette case, half-soaked in blood—the very same kind of cigarettes Lin Yi had sold him earlier. Only one cigarette remained, and it was also half-stained with blood.

Lin Yi paused for a moment, then took out a lighter from his pocket.

Bliss's hands trembled as he tried to put the cigarette in his mouth, but he failed several times.

Lin Yi reached out to steady the cigarette for him, then brought it closer, and with a "click," the pale blue flame ignited the blood-stained cigarette.

Bliss took a deep, greedy drag, as if it weren't nicotine, but a life-saving elixir.

As the smoke filled his lungs, his brows, which had been furrowed in extreme pain, actually relaxed a little, and his cloudy eyes seemed to clear for a moment.

He leaned against the wall, slowly exhaling a puff of smoke, the smoke twisting and rising in the air thick with the smell of blood and burnt flesh.

"Thanks." Bliss's voice seemed a little better, but it was still weak. "I didn't expect this thing to be the one to keep me company in the end."

He took another drag of his cigarette, his gaze seemingly piercing through the walls and reaching into the distant past.

"Do you want to know the answer?" He looked at Lin Yi, then at Gulu by the door.

"This city, the city of slumber. It destroyed itself more than 3,700 years ago because of its blind pursuit of the crystallization of eternal dreams."

"Everyone died, and the city was reduced to ruins, buried by wind, sand and time."

“But then we came back.” Bliss’s eyes were filled with confusion and fear. “After some time, buildings and streets reappeared in the city, and even some of the ‘residents’ returned.”

“We have forgotten the destruction, forgotten the past, and woven a completely new set of memories and history for ourselves. We believe that we have always lived here, that the outside world is dangerous, and that we are guarding the last pure land.”

“Ha, ha.” Bliss laughed sadly. “What a ridiculous and pathetic nightmare.”

His gaze returned to the cigarette in his hand.

“Your cigarettes are special. They seem to have a slight stimulating effect, or rather, an awakening of something deeply buried. The more I smoke them, the more those fragments of memory keep surfacing.”

“Until recently, I saw those people outside the window rushing frantically in one direction and heard them muttering ‘Clear the anomaly.’ Then I finally remembered everything.”

“I know the others in the society will wake up soon, and they will become tools to deal with you, having been completely controlled by the city’s will.”

"So, I acted before they received orders to do so." He glanced towards the lobby outside the archives, his meaning clear.

"Almost...almost...time...is running out..." Bliss's breathing became extremely rapid again, his chest heaving more and more, the flame of life flickering like a candle in the wind, about to be extinguished.

With his last ounce of strength, he pulled a crumpled, blood-soaked A4 sheet of paper from his inner pocket and tremblingly handed it to Lin Yi.

Lin Yi quickly took it and unfolded it.

The handwriting on the paper was messy and hurried, clearly written by Bliss in a state of extreme tension and pain. Many parts were blurred by blood, but the key information was still legible:

The central black tower is not an original structure, has no historical record, and appeared abruptly…

The Vatican refers to it as the 'Divine Mark'.

[Emitting unique fluctuations, distorting cognition, modifying memories, constructing loops...]

[Is there a core inside? Should it be destroyed?]

Just as Lin Yi finished reading the last line, the notification sound from the Paradise of Reincarnation rang in the depths of his mind.

[Hint: The Hunters have obtained crucial information: "The Origin and Speculation of the Divine Seal."]

[Promotion Quest Two: Echo Source Tracing Completed.]

The hunter has obtained 3 complete Soul Crystals.

The third stage of the promotion quest has been activated.

[Final Stage of the Promotion Quest: The Source of Destruction]

[Mission Brief: Locate and destroy the core of the anomalies in the Sleeping City—the "Divine Seal."]

[Mission Information: The Divine Seal is located deep within the Black Tower at the center of the City of Slumber. It possesses extremely strong abilities to corrupt the mind and distort cognition; maintaining mental stability is crucial during the approach.]

[Mission deadline: None. 】

[Task Rewards: Promotion eligibility fully confirmed; additional rewards will be calculated based on completion rate.]

[WARNING: Destroying the Divine Seal may lead to unpredictable chain reactions, including but not limited to spatial collapse, dream backlash, and being watched by unknown entities. Hunters, please act with caution.]

From seeking the truth to directly destroying the core, the mission's leap and difficulty have more than doubled.

This is absolutely beyond the scope of a normal sixth-tier contractor advancement mission. It can only be said that the existence of the Dream Eater has led Lin Yi's mission down a path of no return.

"Heh, looks like you know." Bliss saw the change in Lin Yi's eyes and gave a relieved smile. "Destroy it, and let this damn nightmare end."

His voice trailed off, and his hand, which had been covering his wound, slipped limply and lay hanging in the pool of blood.

The half-smoked cigarette, stained with blood, fell from between his fingers. The dark red embers hissed softly in the viscous blood before quickly going out.

Lin silently looked at Bliss's body, slowly reached out, and closed his unclosed eyes.

He stood up and took out a pale green solution from his personal space.

This thing was a good item that Lin Yi got from Su Xiao, but there were very few of them, since Su Xiao himself didn't have many.

He then smashed the bottle of solution on Bliss.

There was no towering flame, only a tiny, dark green flame.

laugh--!
The dark green flames instantly flared up! Fueled by Professor Bliss's corpse and the blood splattered on the ground, it spread wildly as if it had a life of its own, at an astonishing speed!

Bookshelves, scattered papers, wooden tables and chairs, the floor, the wooden structure on the ceiling... all the organic matter in the room became its best fuel and was quickly ignited the moment it came into contact with the dark green flame.

"Let's go! To the rooftop!" Lin Yi shouted, grabbed Gulu, and rushed out of the archives.

They ran wildly up the stairs.

Behind them, dark green flames, like a primordial beast awakening, spread rapidly in an incomprehensible way along the corridor, through door cracks, and even along the ventilation ducts, devouring everything in the research institute building.

When they burst through the rooftop gate, the entire research institute building was emanating a chilling, dark green light from within, and the windows no longer revealed rooms, but rather a raging inferno.

The flames were spreading from the building to the surrounding blocks.

Where the flames passed, the residents who had been chasing after them, whether ordinary people with empty eyes or armed personnel with professional tactical skills, would immediately let out a shrill scream as soon as the dark green flames touched them. Their entire bodies would rapidly carbonize and disintegrate from the point of contact, becoming part of the flames.

"Ten minutes." Lin Yi estimated the time it would take for the flames to completely engulf the building and spread steadily. "Let it burn for another ten minutes."

Instead of going downstairs, the two leaped and traversed between the rooftops of adjacent buildings.

The immense chaos and death caused by the flames temporarily drew all the "attention" of the Sleeping City, buying them precious time.

About an hour later.

The two men lay in ambush atop a commercial building, gazing towards the city center.

The flames had already engulfed a large part of the Sleeping City, and the dark green sea of ​​fire resembled a death barrier, dividing the city.

The flames continued to spread slowly outwards, leaving everything in their wake in silence.

Just as the flames spread to within about five kilometers of the towering black tower in the city center, something strange happened.

The dark green flames encountered an invisible yet incredibly resilient wall, and no matter how much they struggled and thrashed, they could not advance even an inch further.

Centered on the Black Tower, a huge circular area with a radius of five kilometers became an insurmountable forbidden zone.

Outside the restricted area, flames raged; inside, the city maintained its "normality" and "order," completely unaffected by the outside world. (End of Chapter)