Wuxia.today191 Nightmare Man
Chapter 191: Nightmare Man
'Is this an illusion? No, it is not...' Even though Gu Jun could feel his mental power draining, it did not feel like he was inside an illusion. This was something completely new and different. Currently he was inside a theatre, not the modern opera house but some kind of ancient round-topped playhouse with bad lighting, narrow walkways, and a small stage with curtains. There were 10 rows of seats before the stage and each row had 10 sturdy wooden chairs so 100 seats in total.
'Wait a minute, what's this?' Gu Jun noticed immediately that he could adjust his point of view freely. He could be looking from the top of the stage to the back of the seat from one second to the next. It appeared to mean that he was not here in the point of view of a person or an object. This kind of all-knowing perspective... seemed to suggest that he was embodying theatre itself.
With this seemingly ludicrous idea in mind, Gu Jun moved his thoughts to try to open curtains and open it did. The stage was empty. Other than the dust on the ground, there was nothing. 'If I am the theatre...' Gu Jun thought confusingly, 'Who are the audience? And who are the performers?'
There was a wooden door behind the tenth row. It was closed but with a thought, it swung open easily. With that, a figure sauntered slowly into the theatre. The figure was shrouded in blurriness so much so that Gu Jun could not even tell their gender. Gu Jun tried to clear the shroud away but he felt the drainage on his mental power so he stopped. The person walked to the middle seat in the first row and then sat down facing the stage.
'The sweet dream belongs to this person?' Gu Jun thought. 'But whose idea of a sweet dream consists of sitting inside a small playhouse alone looking up at an empty stage?' The person sat quietly but the space around them started to ripple, becoming unstable...
'Something's wrong.' Gu Jun latched onto an idea among the many confusing ones, 'the play repertoire should be the real sweet dream, the audience is merely summoned here by the dream, while the repertoire is being handled by me, or rather the theatre itself. Probably by starting the play on stage that the sweet dream could be shown to the audience. Then the figure would actually materialize in the dream and lose the blurriness. The repertoire should be inside the dream already, there was no need for me to go search for it, instead I only needed to initiate the play...'
'Ah,' Gu Jun wanted to start the play but he sensed quite a big problem, his mental power was too weak to move the play into motion. He had no choice but to stop and instantly the inside of the wooden barrel stared back at him. Helplessness overwhelmed him. 'I am not in the shape to do anything. Also where was I transported earlier? Was I still inside my own mind?' Gu Jun closed his eyes and entered his sea of consciousness. There were still 5 bubbles but the one on the most left had lightened quite a bit like it was about to burst. 'These sweet dreams last more than one use but each use will deplete their energy. I wonder if that energy can be recharged. And was it the failure of triggering the sweet dream that caused the energy depletion? Will the energy not deplete if I was successful?' New questions surfaced but temporarily he did not dare to enter this sweet dream again. It was the same with the other four, if he did so, he would only exhaust his and their energy pointlessly.
'For now, I better focus on recovering my mental power...' He decided. 'Only after I have enough mental power to control the machinations within the sweet dreams should I enter them.' But this led Gu Jun back to the issue of the corruption. With no other choice, he continued to train his mind and roll his eyes to help complete the simple and difficult missions. 'Perhaps I can utilize the sweet dream with another 1 percent drop in corruption rate. Patience, now I all need now is patience.'
"Hey! Hey!" Gu Jun struggled to move his eyes but it only rewarded him with more pain. The metallic fixtures were put on and he found himself unable to even move his eyeballs and close his eyelids anymore. His eyes were peeled wide open as he was forced to look ahead. Fury burned within him, 'these bastards...'
They moved the pot onto a wooden wheelchair and covered him with a black cloth before he was wheeled away. Eventually, Gu Jun heard an ecstatic voice saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, bringing you the next and unseen before 'Nightmare Wonder', the Nightmare Man!"
The wheeling stopped with a thud. The black cloth was pulled back and Gu Jun was greeted with a theatre filled with audience. The theatron rows could occupy more than several thousand people each and currently the theatre was about 50 percent occupied. The audience members were dressed in exotic clothing and had strange and unusual looks. Their gaze of confusion, curiosity and interest were all turned towards the stage, onto him.
'Is this an illusion? No, it is not...' Even though Gu Jun could feel his mental power draining, it did not feel like he was inside an illusion. This was something completely new and different. Currently he was inside a theatre, not the modern opera house but some kind of ancient round-topped playhouse with bad lighting, narrow walkways, and a small stage with curtains. There were 10 rows of seats before the stage and each row had 10 sturdy wooden chairs so 100 seats in total.
'Wait a minute, what's this?' Gu Jun noticed immediately that he could adjust his point of view freely. He could be looking from the top of the stage to the back of the seat from one second to the next. It appeared to mean that he was not here in the point of view of a person or an object. This kind of all-knowing perspective... seemed to suggest that he was embodying theatre itself.
With this seemingly ludicrous idea in mind, Gu Jun moved his thoughts to try to open curtains and open it did. The stage was empty. Other than the dust on the ground, there was nothing. 'If I am the theatre...' Gu Jun thought confusingly, 'Who are the audience? And who are the performers?'
There was a wooden door behind the tenth row. It was closed but with a thought, it swung open easily. With that, a figure sauntered slowly into the theatre. The figure was shrouded in blurriness so much so that Gu Jun could not even tell their gender. Gu Jun tried to clear the shroud away but he felt the drainage on his mental power so he stopped. The person walked to the middle seat in the first row and then sat down facing the stage.
'The sweet dream belongs to this person?' Gu Jun thought. 'But whose idea of a sweet dream consists of sitting inside a small playhouse alone looking up at an empty stage?' The person sat quietly but the space around them started to ripple, becoming unstable...
'Something's wrong.' Gu Jun latched onto an idea among the many confusing ones, 'the play repertoire should be the real sweet dream, the audience is merely summoned here by the dream, while the repertoire is being handled by me, or rather the theatre itself. Probably by starting the play on stage that the sweet dream could be shown to the audience. Then the figure would actually materialize in the dream and lose the blurriness. The repertoire should be inside the dream already, there was no need for me to go search for it, instead I only needed to initiate the play...'
'Ah,' Gu Jun wanted to start the play but he sensed quite a big problem, his mental power was too weak to move the play into motion. He had no choice but to stop and instantly the inside of the wooden barrel stared back at him. Helplessness overwhelmed him. 'I am not in the shape to do anything. Also where was I transported earlier? Was I still inside my own mind?' Gu Jun closed his eyes and entered his sea of consciousness. There were still 5 bubbles but the one on the most left had lightened quite a bit like it was about to burst. 'These sweet dreams last more than one use but each use will deplete their energy. I wonder if that energy can be recharged. And was it the failure of triggering the sweet dream that caused the energy depletion? Will the energy not deplete if I was successful?' New questions surfaced but temporarily he did not dare to enter this sweet dream again. It was the same with the other four, if he did so, he would only exhaust his and their energy pointlessly.
'For now, I better focus on recovering my mental power...' He decided. 'Only after I have enough mental power to control the machinations within the sweet dreams should I enter them.' But this led Gu Jun back to the issue of the corruption. With no other choice, he continued to train his mind and roll his eyes to help complete the simple and difficult missions. 'Perhaps I can utilize the sweet dream with another 1 percent drop in corruption rate. Patience, now I all need now is patience.'
"Hey! Hey!" Gu Jun struggled to move his eyes but it only rewarded him with more pain. The metallic fixtures were put on and he found himself unable to even move his eyeballs and close his eyelids anymore. His eyes were peeled wide open as he was forced to look ahead. Fury burned within him, 'these bastards...'
They moved the pot onto a wooden wheelchair and covered him with a black cloth before he was wheeled away. Eventually, Gu Jun heard an ecstatic voice saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, bringing you the next and unseen before 'Nightmare Wonder', the Nightmare Man!"
The wheeling stopped with a thud. The black cloth was pulled back and Gu Jun was greeted with a theatre filled with audience. The theatron rows could occupy more than several thousand people each and currently the theatre was about 50 percent occupied. The audience members were dressed in exotic clothing and had strange and unusual looks. Their gaze of confusion, curiosity and interest were all turned towards the stage, onto him.