Chapter 519

Chapter 519: Field of Expertise

With a loud bang, the figure in the blue uniform fell to the floor. Blood slowly spread out from under his body. His heart had been torn apart. The body twitched hard a few times, then slowly stopped moving.

The scene looked like a clear, simple murder. Even the twitching of the body after it fell seemed to keep stressing the “murder” in front of her, and kept telling Heidi that she had just killed an ordinary person.

But Heidi only watched it all with no expression. While the corpse twitched on the ground, she tilted her head and listened for the slightest sound around her.

Under normal circumstances, that loud gunshot would be enough to echo through the whole floor. The security guards and the Church guardians stationed in this facility should have been alarmed by now. But in fact, after the gunshot, the corridor stayed completely silent. No one appeared at all, as if… this whole facility had already been empty for a long time.

The purple crystal pendant hanging at her chest still gave off a faint warmth. Some blessing that did not belong to the Four Gods, but was still very effective, kept Heidi’s thoughts clear.

This pendant was not the first one. The pendant that Father had brought back from that antique shop the first time had already run dry and shattered during the earlier Black Sun incident. The one she wore now was the “gift” that the boss of that antique shop had given Father the second time.

It turned out that this pendant still had the same astonishing power as the first one.

After a brief silence, Heidi let out a soft breath. One hand held the revolver she had just taken from the hidden compartment in her case. With her other hand she set the case on the floor and took out a long golden spike from inside it. It was one of her medical tools. Her eyes never left the body on the ground as she said: “Your acting is good, but can you stop now?”

The “corpse” had long since stopped twitching. After Heidi finished speaking, it finally moved. Then, as if nothing had happened, the man got up from the floor. With the horrible bullet wound still in his chest, he turned to look at the psychiatrist who had just “killed” him and said: “I am very curious. When did you notice?”

Heidi held the gun in one hand and gripped the golden spike tightly in the other. She looked at the Dream Invader in front of her with caution and calmness and said: “There is only one bed in this ward. So when I lay down on the ‘empty bed’ beside it, this fight had already begun.”

“How interesting… Very few people can still notice such a mistake after they have already fallen into Dreamwalking, at least not this fast,” the intruder said at an easy pace. In the air beside him, a dark, hazy shadow or smoke began to appear. It slowly gathered into a solid form. “That includes those so-called ‘psychiatrists’ who have had professional training.”

Heidi frowned at the cloud of smoky shadow beside him. At last she made out its shape, and her eyes changed at once: “Smokewisp Jellyfish… an Annihilator?”

The moment she recognized the shadow, its vague outline became clear. A “jellyfish” made of smoke and dust floated in midair. A pitch-black chain linked it to the intruder’s skull. This dangerous demon creature pulsed and writhed. Countless tentacle-like structures spread over its surface, and at some point they had already reached very close around Heidi!

A huge sense of danger exploded in her heart. Heidi felt the corruption and destruction taking place in her own mental world. The enemy’s attack was secret and sly, and it had already begun. If not for her sudden flash of intuition that let her recognize the shape of the Smokewisp Jellyfish in this dream, by the time she reacted she would already have fallen to the Smokewisp Jellyfish’s Mental Parasitism!

In the next instant, she did not hesitate at all. She raised the sharp golden spike in her hand and drove it hard into her own temple.

The next second, a thunder-like boom exploded inside her head. Everything in her sight began to shake and tremble. The ward that had looked normal a moment ago twisted and warped at once. The walls melted like wax, revealing a disgusting inside like withered flesh. The floor turned into dry, scorched earth, full of ugly cracks and filthy, writhing things. The Smokewisp Jellyfish, with its many stretching tendrils, seemed to be badly wounded. It let out a shrill scream, and all its tentacles shrank wildly.

Right after that, the Annihilator disguised as a council clerk, and the Smokewisp Jellyfish in a symbiotic pact with him, both vanished from Heidi’s sight like mist.

But Heidi did not relax at all. She still gripped her gun and the golden spike, watching for any wrongness in the twisted surroundings while quickly checking her own mental state. She knew that the Dream Invader had not been defeated and had not even left.

This dream showed no sign of breaking apart or fading.

The knowledge she had studied while taking advanced courses at Truth Academy slowly rose up in her mind.

Smokewisp Jellyfish… a branch of Abyssal demons. They had formless bodies like smoke and many strange and dangerous supernatural powers. They were especially good at attacking a victim’s mind and senses. Summoners who formed a symbiotic pact with such demons could use mind-damaging spells, or draw the energy of Abyssal demons and fire it as corrosive projectiles.

Compared with most Abyssal demons, the body of a Smokewisp Jellyfish was not very tough. But their eerie supernatural powers made them one of the most dangerous Abyssal demons. In many cases, you would have no chance to strike their fragile bodies before the wounds on your mind took away your chance to resist. The cunning cultists who formed symbiotic pacts with Smokewisp Jellyfish would even work on purpose to amplify these “traits” of the Abyssal demons, making them even harder to handle.

The heat from the purple crystal pendant on her chest grew stronger. Heidi could feel that some malicious “components” in this dream were still trying to Corrupt and damage her mind. But the power released by the pendant protected her, kept breaking down those intrusions, and held her mind clear.

In this stalemate between corruption and protection, a new sense of danger suddenly rose in her heart.

Heidi followed this feeling at once and raised her gun. But the figure that appeared out of the air at the very moment she aimed made her stop.

Morris appeared there, staring at her in shock.

“Heidi?” that familiar figure said, confused and worried. “What is going on… have you been trapped in a nightmare?!”

“Yes,” Heidi said, nodding as she pulled the trigger without a second thought. She fired while she spoke: “I do not know what is going on either. An Annihilator interfered with my hypnosis treatment. But as far as I remember, even a Smokewisp Jellyfish does not have the power to control the realm of dreams.”

The muzzle flash lit up. The gun roared. Father’s figure took the bullet. An expression of disbelief froze on his face. He swayed twice, then fell backward.

In the next second, another figure appeared where Father had fallen. It was an old woman with a gentle face and a look of concern. Mother.

“Heidi, what are you doing? Why are you—”

“I am treating my patient,” Heidi said casually as she pulled the trigger.

Mother’s figure fell as well. But right after that, a very tall figure appeared in her sight. This time, the figure had only formed a rough outline of Vanna before Heidi fired first.

Another phantom fell.

“You really are not putting your heart into this, Mr. Intruder,” Heidi said, shaking her head. “How could such simple tricks work? Especially with Vanna. If it were really her, when I fired she would just pinch the bullet between her fingers, roll it into a ball, and throw it back…”

Those constantly appearing figures finally stopped.

But an angry, low voice suddenly came from some unknown place: “Why are you not affected?”

“I already know this is a twisted dream, so of course I will not believe the phantoms you make,” Heidi said calmly. “Of course, I do not think that is what surprises you. You are surprised that my mind has not wavered at all. After all, even if they know it is all an illusion, if an ordinary person keeps seeing familiar faces die in front of them by their own hand, that process will build up huge mental pressure and finally break through their line of reason. That has nothing to do with being ‘awake’ or not… But sadly for you, I have had some training.”

As she spoke, this Miss Psychiatrist slowly raised the muzzle of the gun and pressed it against her own temple.

“Do you know how much weight a combined master’s and doctorate with a full scholarship from Truth Academy carries, Mr. Intruder—”

“Bang!”

The trigger snapped. The gun roared. Heidi shot through her own head without the slightest hesitation. As her body swayed, another Heidi stepped out from beside her in an instant!

Bang, bang, bang. Gunshots rang out again and again. The revolver, which should only have held six bullets, kept firing as if it had endless rounds. Heidi kept pulling the trigger against her own temple. One Personality Split after another walked out from beside her. Each one held a golden spike as they moved toward every corner of the ward that had twisted into a nightmare, toward the door, and toward the corridor outside.

“You should not have provoked me in my own field of expertise, Mr. Intruder,” Heidi said. She slowly raised her head and pulled the trigger at her own skull one last time. “And you really should not have made trouble while I was treating a patient. I really, really, really hate working overtime!”

Dozens of Personality Splits quickly spread out, scattering through every part of this already warped “medical facility”. They began to search this invaded dream for any suspicious clues, and to seek out the “cognitive voids” at the edges of the dream that might be Invasion Paths or hiding places.

However, as the Personality Splits moved, Heidi suddenly frowned.

“…Gone?” she murmured.