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

Chapter 99 Tranquility
The morning sunlight, like carefully filtered golden honey, cast a warm and tranquil dappled light on the floor through the heavy one-way privacy windows of the Investigation Bureau headquarters' medical area.

The fresh air system was operating silently, slowly delivering the air, which had undergone several purification and filtration processes, into the private room, carrying a hint of the fresh scent unique to the morning.

Bai Yu has been awake for a while now.

He leaned quietly against the headboard of the automatically adjustable hospital bed, turned his head slightly, and looked at the golden dust that floated slowly in the air with the faint airflow, feeling the incredibly real warmth of the sun baking his skin.

He felt that his cold sea of ​​soul was now reflecting the light of dawn.

He no longer clings to protecting the "past" that has long since passed, nor is he lost in the "future" that is full of unknowns and dangers.

He truly possesses his own "present".

A "present" with noisy companions, people he needs to protect, and a tomorrow worth looking forward to.

Just then, there was a gentle knock on the door of the ward.

"Bai Yu, are you awake?" Lu Yueqi's voice came from outside the door, with a hint of cautious probing.

Bai Yu snapped out of his reverie, glanced at his clean hospital gown, and slowly said, "You're awake. Come in."

The door was pushed open.

Lu Yueqi wasn't the only one who walked in.

Mo Fei, with his massive, towering frame, squeezed in after him, carrying an exquisitely designed insulated food container that seemed out of place with his powerful physique.

"Hey, Lao Bai, you're awake?" He grinned, revealing his signature big smile, and then placed the food box on Bai Yu's bedside table without saying a word. "Come on, come on! Dr. Lin specifically instructed that you overexerted your soul power this time and need to replenish it properly! This is a 'Ten-Ingredient Tonic Soup' that I specially asked the head chef in the logistics department to use the best pork spine meat, combined with more than a dozen precious herbs, and simmered for a full twelve hours! Come on, drink it while it's hot!"

As he spoke, he deftly opened the food box, and a powerful aroma filled with the rich scent of medicine and meat instantly filled the entire ward.

Lan Ce, who followed him in, frowned instinctively the moment he smelled the aroma, and gave the bowl of greasy-looking "tonifying soup" a merciless critique with his "scientific" and "rigorous" gaze.

"Mo Fei... Based on the law of conservation of energy and a comprehensive analysis of the human body's absorption efficiency, this mixture of high fat and high purine produced by long-term boiling is less efficient at replenishing the energy of the soul than even a basic energy supplement. Moreover, excessive fat intake will also place an unnecessary metabolic burden on Bai Yu's already extremely weak body."

"Get lost! You bookworm! What do you know?" Mo Fei retorted without any politeness. "This is called 'food therapy'! It's the crystallization of wisdom passed down from our ancestors for thousands of years! The human body is all about essence, energy, and spirit! What can your broken energy supplement do besides replenishing a pitiful few calories? Can it replenish emotions? Can it replenish mental fatigue?"

"Emotion is a complex emotional response produced by the combined action of multiple hormones and neurotransmitters; it does not possess any energy properties in itself. Your statement lacks the most basic scientific basis."

"I……"

As the usual playful bickering between the two was about to unfold once again, Bai Yu's lips involuntarily curled into a faint smile.

"Alright, alright, you two stop fooling around." He spoke slowly, his voice slightly hoarse from just waking up. "Since you've already brought it, then drink it."

He neither rejected Mo Fei's clumsy but well-intentioned concern nor denied Lan Ce's rational and insightful advice.

He simply accepted it all in a simple way.

Mo Fei immediately revealed a triumphant smile. He raised his eyebrows at Lan Ce with a smug look, and then, like a child eager for praise, carefully served Bai Yu a bowl of soup.

"Tsk..."

Lan Ce clicked his tongue, and although he didn't say anything, a hint of ease was revealed in his eyes hidden behind his thick glasses.

Lu Yueqi stood quietly to the side, watching the noisy yet heartwarming scene before her, her bright eyes filled with a gentle smile as vast as the stars and the sea.

Just then, the door to the ward was pushed open again.

An Mu's tall and imposing figure appeared at the doorway.

Looking at the "lively" scene in the ward, a helpless smile appeared on his usually resolute face, but behind it was a look of doting affection, as if he were looking at his own child.

"It seems our ace investigator is recovering quite well." He walked in slowly, his gaze falling on Bai Yu, who was sipping soup. His sharp eyes were filled with undisguised concern. "How are you feeling? Dr. Lin said that your soul damage this time was more severe than in the previous missions. If it weren't for the sextant you brought, which replenished your life energy at the last moment, you might have..."

He said no more.

"I'm fine, Captain." Bai Yu put down the soup bowl in his hand. He looked at An Mu's worried face and smiled gently. "Besides, we didn't come away empty-handed this time."

His words instantly made everyone present look serious.

After half an hour.

A dedicated tactical meeting room for the team.

The atmosphere in front of the huge circular conference table was solemn.

In the center of the conference room, a holographic projection device silently floats two objects filled with an air of mystery and eeriness.

One item is the old sextant obtained on the "ghost ship".

Although its surface is covered with copper rust and traces of seawater corrosion, its interior seems to contain a bottomless sea of ​​stars, with specks of light flowing across its surface.

The other item was the card obtained from the clown in the ruins of "Happy Paradise," which had a clown's smiling face drawn on it.

The card looked ordinary, but it exuded an aura from a higher dimension, filled with a chaotic aura of "tragedy" and "twisting".

“According to Dr. Lin’s preliminary analysis,” Lan Ce’s voice rang out in the quiet conference room. He pointed to the old sextant and continued, “the material of this sextant is not any known metal on Earth. Its internal structure is extremely complex, more like a ‘locator’ composed of countless miniature spatial beacons. The energy it absorbed from the ‘heart’ was transformed by it into a pure life energy representing the concepts of ‘protection’ and ‘remembering.’ It was this energy that repaired Bai Yu’s soul, which was on the verge of collapse, at the last moment.”

“And the symbol on its back…” A hint of seriousness flashed in Lance’s eyes, “…After comparing it with all the known Nightmare symbols in the database, we finally found a record that perfectly matched it in a top-secret file codenamed [Echoes of the Abyss].

The holographic projection switched again, displaying a file marked "Top Secret".

On the cover of the file was a symbol identical to the one on the back of a sextant! "According to this file, this symbol is the mark of a secret society attempting to open a 'door' to a higher dimension. They call that 'door'—"

"—Gate of the Rift"

When those four words were slowly uttered from Lan Ce's mouth, the air in the entire conference room seemed to be completely sucked into a vacuum in an instant.

The captain of the "ghost ship"... the clown who calls himself an "artist" in "Happy Paradise"...

At this moment, seemingly unrelated events are all connected by this terrifying entity called the "Gate of Rift" in a way that is full of a sense of destiny!
“Then, what about this card?” An Mu’s voice broke the suffocating silence as he looked at the white card and spoke.

“This card…” A more confused and wary expression appeared on Lancer’s face, “…its composition is even more incomprehensible. It does not belong to any of the material categories we know; it is more like a… um… fragment of a ‘concept’.”

“Within it, we detected a high-dimensional energy fluctuation that is very similar to, yet different from, the Tower of Ten Thousand Heads. If the energy of the Tower is a structural concept full of aggression and assimilation, then this card contains a performative concept full of self and appreciation.”

"It's like...like a 'tragic artist' from a higher dimension, leaving the world with a 'calling card' full of mockery and malice after his final performance."

The meeting room fell into a long silence once again.

Whether it's the "Gate of Boundaries," the "Tower of Ten Thousand Heads," or this newly emerged "tragic artist," their existence is beyond what they can currently understand or confront.

They were like a group of ants living on a two-dimensional plane, who inadvertently glimpsed the tip of the iceberg of the three-dimensional world.

That terror, emanating from a higher dimension and beyond comprehension, was enough to make anyone present feel a profound sense of insignificance and powerlessness.

"What should we do now?" Mo Fei's voice carried a rare hint of confusion.

This problem weighed heavily on everyone's mind like a boulder.

Is it to completely seal away these two "Pandora's boxes" full of unknowns and dangers, pretend that nothing has happened, and continue to deal with the nightmare events within their power?
Or should they choose to actively unveil the veil that obscures the truth of the world and confront the terrifying existence that they simply cannot defeat?
This was a choice filled with pain and difficulty.

Anmu's gaze slowly swept over everyone present.

He saw the confusion in Mo Fei's eyes, the solemnity in Lan Ce's eyes, and the fear in Lu Yueqi's eyes.

Finally, his gaze fell on the man who had remained silent throughout.

Bai Yu remained silent, tapping the table lightly with her index finger.

He simply stared quietly at the two ominous objects in the holographic projection.

After a long while, he slowly raised his head and met An Mu's questioning gaze.

His eyes held neither confusion nor fear, only a calm like the sea before a storm.

“Hiding is definitely useless.” His voice broke the suffocating silence. “Whether it was the ‘tower’ before or the ‘door’ now, they have always been there. Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist, much less that they won’t come looking for us.”

“We are like a group of hunters living in a dark forest. We don’t know how many 'predators' are more powerful than us in the forest. But the only thing we are sure of is that if we choose to stand still, we will become their food sooner or later.”

"Therefore, we have no other choice."

“We must take action. We must understand them, analyze them, and even… find ways to fight them before they find us.”

Bai Yu's words struck a heavy blow to everyone's hearts.

yes……

They are investigators from the Nightmare Investigation Bureau.

Their mission has never been to live a life of ease and comfort.

Instead, in the endless darkness, it opened up a path of survival filled with thorns and blood for the billions of people behind it.

An Mu looked at the young man in front of him, whose body was still very weak but whose will was more determined than anyone else's. A hint of relief and a hint of determination flashed in his sharp eyes.

He slowly stood up from his seat.

"it is good."

He said only one word.

But his powerful voice represented the loudest declaration of war issued by the entire team, and even the entire Nightmare Investigation Bureau, against the unknown beings hidden in higher dimensions.

"Lan Ce, immediately submit these two items and all our analysis reports to Headquarters District Seven with the highest level of security clearance."

"We need more professional help."

A hint of surprise flashed in Lan Ce's eyes, but more than that, he couldn't hide his excitement.

"Yes! Captain!"

He knew exactly what kind of place the captain was referring to as "Sector Seven".

That was the most mysterious department in the entire Nightmare Investigation Bureau.

A forbidden place dedicated to researching and analyzing all beings from higher dimensions, preserving "Abyssal Creatures" filled with unknowns and dangers.

—Deep Nightmare Matter Analysis Department.

(End of this chapter)