Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 54 Return and Anchor Point

The roar of the engine was completely swallowed by the tearing wind, and the specially made black combat vehicle sped wildly through the private passage leading to the Nightmare Investigation Bureau headquarters like a black arrow released from a bow.

The scenery outside the car window blurred into a flowing ribbon of light. Inside the cold metal carriage, the atmosphere was frozen like solid ice, so heavy that every breath was accompanied by excruciating pain.

“生命体征持续下降！心率38、35、32！血压50/20！精神能量反应……正在逸散！该死！我们正在慢慢失去他！”

Lance's voice lost its usual calm and composure. His rationality, built on data and logic, was completely shattered by the series of precipitous drops in red data on the tactical tablet.

Sweat beaded on his forehead from anxiety, and his hands flew across the virtual keyboard as he tried to intervene through the vehicle's emergency life support system.

Unfortunately, all efforts were in vain; the energy points on the screen representing Baiyu's life core were rapidly and irreversibly dimming.

"Drive faster! Drive faster!"

Mo Fei's burly body was curled up in the corner of the carriage. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on Bai Yu, who was lying on the central emergency stretcher. His voice was hoarse, like that of a crying animal.

He dared not go forward, fearing that his uncontrollable trembling would affect Lance's operation, and even more afraid that if he reached out, he would touch a body that was rapidly growing cold.

This man, who was nearly two meters tall and could cleave through nightmares with a battle axe, was now like a helpless child, only able to vent the fear in his heart that was about to burst him with a powerless roar.

Anmu sat in the driver's seat, his face, which was always as firm as a rock, was now as taut as a fully drawn bowstring.

He didn't speak, but pressed the accelerator again. The engine's wail, strained from overload, mingled with the heavy self-reproach and pain in his heart.

He was the captain, he approved the operation, and he was everyone's strongest support. But now, he could only watch helplessly as his most capable team member slowly walked towards death before his eyes.

Lu Yueqi sat blankly in the position furthest from the stretcher, her hands tightly covering her mouth, trying her best not to make any sound.

Her world lost its color the moment she burst through the spatial rift. She looked at the man who had burned his soul to save her, at his face paler than snow, at the still-dry crimson blood at the corner of his mouth, at his tightly closed eyes... An immense sense of guilt and heartache gripped her heart like an invisible hand, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.

is her.

If she hadn't recklessly barged in, if she hadn't alerted that monster... Bai Yu wouldn't be in this state now.

She always thought she had grown up and could be a help to him, but in the end, she was still the burden he had to protect with his life.

"squeak--!"

With a screeching sound of tires, the combat vehicle almost drifted into the underground hangar of the Investigation Bureau headquarters. Before the vehicle had even come to a complete stop, several medical personnel in white sterile protective suits, who had been waiting there, rushed up pushing a suspended emergency bed.

"The condition of the wounded!"

The woman leading the group was a woman around thirty years old, wearing silver-rimmed glasses and possessing a calm and intellectual demeanor. Her name tag displayed her name and position—Lin Lan, Chief Researcher of Soul Engineering.

"Bai Yu! During an S-level mission, you suffered a 'conceptual' mental shock, severely damaging your soul's essence, which is currently dissipating!" An Mu quickly jumped out of the car and reported the situation succinctly.

Lin Lan's eyes sharpened, and she quickly walked to the stretcher, placing a strangely shaped instrument resembling a stethoscope on Bai Yu's chest.

On the small screen at the end of the instrument, a series of data streams representing the soul waveform flashed by rapidly, but the waveforms were as faint as a candle flickering in the wind.

"Damn it... it's a 'source rejection' reaction." Lin Lan's face turned extremely grim. "Quick! Send him to the 'Fountain of Stasis'! Prepare the seventh 'Soul Adhesive' immediately! Hurry!"

The medical staff immediately sprang into action. They carefully transferred Bai Yu's body to the suspended emergency bed and then rushed into the medical area as quickly as possible.

A group of people followed closely behind, their hearts pounding in their throats.

The Nightmare Investigation Bureau's medical area is known internally as the "Soul Repair Shop." Here, instead of the pungent smell of disinfectant found in ordinary hospitals, there's a unique aura, a mixture of ozone and some kind of energy crystal.

On both sides of the corridor are "static pods" made of a special alloy, with complex runes engraved on the pods.

Bai Yu was directly transported to the "Fountain of Stagnation" located in the core area. It was a huge circular room with a sunken pool in the center, filled with a viscous liquid that emitted a silvery-white light. It was a "Soul Stabilizing Fluid" made from high-purity spiritual energy and various rare materials, which had miraculous effects on repairing damaged spiritual bodies.

Through a thick observation window, the group watched as Bai Yu's body was slowly immersed in the silvery-white pool of light. Various monitoring instruments were connected to him, displaying his vital signs as data on the large screen in the observation room.

Time passed second by second, each second feeling like an eternity.

Finally, the red light in the operating room went out, and a weary-looking Lin Lan walked out.

"How is he? Dr. Lin! How is Lao Bai?" Mo Fei was the first to rush forward, his body trembling slightly from excessive tension.

Lin Lan took off her glasses, wearily pinched her brow, and her voice was filled with a deep sense of helplessness: "The situation is worse than we imagined. We temporarily used the 'Fountain of Stillness' to stabilize the rate at which his soul dissipates, but... but this is only a temporary solution."

"What do you mean?" An Mu asked in a deep voice.

“It means the problem isn’t with us, but with him.” Lin Lan put her glasses back on and brought up a complex 3D model on the main screen. “This is the soul structure diagram of Bai Yu that we just scanned. You see, these dense cracks are old wounds left from the incident a year ago. And these old wounds have only been barely ‘glued’ together by the power of the nightmare called ‘Black Words’ within him. To give you an analogy, he’s like a broken piece of porcelain that’s been glued back together. Although it looks intact on the outside, its internal structure is still incredibly fragile.”

She pointed to the area on the model that was flashing a red warning light, where the cracks were as dense as a spider web.

"At Anling Mental Hospital this time, in order to protect you, he excessively borrowed the power of 'Black Words.' For his current soul state, this behavior is equivalent to subjecting an already broken porcelain to a blow of hundreds of kilograms from the inside. Those old wounds that had been barely glued back together have completely shattered once again."

“That’s not the most fatal thing.” Lin Lan’s tone became increasingly solemn. “The most fatal thing is that Bai Yu’s own ‘will’ seems to have been completely… abandoned because of this severe blow.”

“Give up?” Lance frowned. “That doesn’t make sense. Survival is the instinct of all intelligent life.”

“But for someone who has already ‘died’ once and has suffered the torment of a torn soul for years, perhaps… complete peace is a more tempting relief.” A trace of pity appeared in Lin Lan’s eyes. “His soul is actively rejecting the power of ‘Black Words’ and the stabilizing fluid we injected, rejecting all external forces that try to pull him back. His subconscious is telling us—he doesn’t want to ‘live’ anymore. He wants his broken work of art to return to dust completely.”

Lin Lan's words shattered the last glimmer of hope in everyone's hearts like a heavy hammer. If even Bai Yu herself had given up, what was the point of everything they had done?
"No...no way..." Mo Fei staggered back two steps, leaning against the cold wall. For the first time, tears welled up in the eyes of this towering man. "That guy...he's such a proud person...how could he possibly give up..."

An Mu clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into the flesh of his palms, but he felt no pain whatsoever.

In the midst of this deathly silence shrouded in despair, a voice rang out.

"There's a way... there must be a way, right?"

It was Lu Yueqi. Her voice was trembling with tears, yet unusually firm. She had somehow appeared before Lin Lan, her eyes, red and swollen from crying, burning with an inextinguishable flame.

"Please, Dr. Lin... I'll do anything to save him, no matter the method!"

Lin Lan looked at the girl before her, at her stubborn determination, and remained silent for a long time before slowly speaking, "There might be another way... But it's only a theoretical plan... and it's never undergone any clinical trials, so the success rate might be less than 10%..."

"Don't even mention a one in ten percent! Even if there's only a one in ten thousand chance, we'll still try!" An Mu's voice was resolute.

Lin Lan nodded and switched the 3D model on the screen to an energy link diagram that resembled a star map.

“Since Bai Yu’s soul is actively severing its connection with the inside, we can only forcibly establish a new connection for him from the outside that he cannot resist. A ‘spiritual anchor’ that can forcibly pull him back to reality.”

"An anchor for the spirit?"

“Yes.” Lin Lan took a deep breath. “We need to find a ‘coordinate’ that has a very deep bond with Bai Yu and also possesses powerful spiritual energy. Then, through the ‘soul resonance device,’ we need to deeply link the consciousness of this ‘coordinate’ with Bai Yu’s fading subconscious. Simply put, we need to send someone into his sea of ​​souls that is about to fall into silence, find his ‘lamp’ that is about to go out, and then use their own will and emotions as oil to rekindle it.”

“This plan is extremely dangerous.” Lin Lan’s tone became more serious than ever before. “For the person acting as the ‘anchor,’ this is tantamount to an undefended journey into the soul. You will face the despair and nothingness of a dying person’s sea of ​​souls. If your will is not strong enough, or if the ‘bond’ between you is not deep enough, then your consciousness may be completely swallowed by that nothingness, and you will be forever lost in it, becoming a vegetable like Bai Yu. Or even… worse…”

Silence fell again in the observation room.

They all understood what this plan meant. Although An Mu and Mo Fei had deep ties with Bai Yu, their spiritual energy attributes were incompatible with Bai Yu's; a forced connection would only result in an instant repulsion. Lan Ce's rational thinking was utterly ineffective as "oil" in a purely emotional world.

There was only one, and the most suitable, person, from beginning to end.

"I come."

Lu Yueqi did not hesitate at all. Her voice was not loud, but every word was full of determination.

"No way!" An Mu and Mo Fei shouted almost in unison.

"Bai Yu is already in this state! We can't let you take any more risks!" Mo Fei's attitude was unusually firm.

“He became like this… all because of me…” Lu Yueqi slowly turned around, meeting the complicated gazes of the crowd, her beautiful face still streaked with tears. “If it weren’t for saving me… he would never have forcibly borrowed that power. This is what I owe him… and it’s the only thing I can do for him…”

She looked at Lin Lan, her eyes resolute: "Besides, I am also a 'Dream Enterer' with a spiritual attribute. My spiritual energy is the same as his... He has saved me so many times, he gave me the chance to live, and he also gave me the courage to fight back..."

"Dr. Lin, let's begin. We don't have time."

Lin Lan gave her a deep look, and finally nodded slowly.

The girl is right.

……

Half an hour later, in another meticulously crafted, pure white room.

Lu Yueqi lay inside a huge, circular instrument resembling an MRI scanner. She wore a silver-white helmet covered in miniature sensors, and several wires connected to her wrists carried energy. Beside her, on another instrument, lay Bai Yu, who had just been transferred from the "Fountain of Stasis."

"Are you ready?" Lin Lan's voice came through the room's public address system. "If you feel any unbearable pain or lose your senses, immediately repeat 'stop' three times in your mind, and we will forcibly pull your consciousness back."

"I'm ready," Lu Yueqi replied softly, her eyes closed.

"Okay. 'Spirit Anchor' linking process...start."

hum-

With a slight buzzing sound, a stream of cold energy emanated from the helmet and slowly seeped into the depths of her consciousness.

The darkness before my eyes began to spin, like a giant vortex that had been opened.

A tremendous suction force pulled her consciousness out of her body and dragged her into the bottomless vortex.

The world is spinning.

When Lu Yueqi's consciousness returned to normal, she found herself in a strange space.

There is no sky, no land, only an endless black ocean. The surface of the sea is completely still, as silent as a giant black mirror.

The air was icy cold, carrying the ethereal aura of the permafrost. Countless crystals, like shards of a mirror, floated on this black ocean.

Each crystal contains a fragmented memory belonging to the Bai people.

In some fragments, a young boy sits alone on a swing; in others, a young man in an investigation bureau uniform calmly pulls the trigger; and in still others, he stands before the ancestral hall in Luoshui Village, his desolate yet resolute figure silhouetted against the distance…

This is Bai Yu's sea of ​​souls, which is heading towards annihilation.

Lu Yueqi's consciousness floated on this ocean filled with sorrow and brokenness, like an insignificant speck of dust.

She could feel a gravitational pull emanating from the deepest part of the ocean, a pull that was constantly tugging at her soul, trying to drag her into that eternal stillness.

She dared not be negligent in the slightest and immediately began to build her own "spiritual anchor" in her heart.

"Bai language!"

She tried to call out, but in this boundless sea of ​​nothingness, her voice could not be heard at all, only forming an empty echo in her own consciousness.

But she knew she had to go down.

She must dive to the deepest part of this ocean of despair and resignation to find the soul that chose to succumb.

She took a deep breath, and without any further hesitation, plunged her consciousness into the bottomless black ocean.

(End of this chapter)