Chapter 49: Nightmare

An hour later, Xueqiu sat at the end of a rectangular table in the building’s only makeshift meeting room.

Xia Yin was some distance away, separated by Ou Ziyun and Su Xi.

Across the table, near the head, sat two researchers, summoned abruptly.

The one who called them was none other than Old Gu, who’d brought Xueqiu’s group from the Investigation Team.

Old Gu sat at the head, looking like he’d just been roused from sleep.

He still wore pajamas and a sea-blue sleep cap he hadn’t bothered to remove.

An hour ago, he’d received a message from Ou Ziyun, the leader of the Academy’s study group to the Investigation Team.

She used the Team’s internal comms system—unlike the Academy, regular phones had no signal here.

Ou Ziyun’s initial report: a man and a woman were found in Su Xi and Xueqiu’s dorm.

Disheveled, collapsed by the bathroom door, the man leaning on the woman, as if asleep.

At first, Old Gu thought it was a couple from the Team, maybe in the wrong room, passing out mid-tryst…

But then he remembered: romantic relationships were forbidden in the Team.

This stemmed from an accident over a decade ago, costing two A-rank members and a live Shadow Ghost.

A bloody lesson.

This was a big deal.

Worse, it happened in the rest area he’d prepared for the students.

To keep it from escalating to the Academy’s board, Old Gu, just woken from sleep, summoned two researchers—graduates of the Academy’s applied psychology program—rushing to the meeting room still in pajamas.

And so, things unfolded as they did.

“I didn’t do anything to her, right, Xueqiu?” Xia Yin said.

He recounted everything he and Xueqiu experienced.

Then, he grabbed an unopened bottle of mineral water, chugged it, and spoke like a storyteller. His lifeless eyes darted under the spotlight—sometimes at Old Gu, sometimes at Ou Ziyun and Su Xi, but mostly at Xueqiu.

“Senior… we were attacked,” Xueqiu said after a pause.

Xia Yin had mentioned a strange Contract pulling them into a dream-like place.

Xueqiu confirmed it.

But that wasn’t her only unease.

An hour ago, when she emerged from that strange space, she’d glanced at the time.

Her phone read 9:45 p.m. She clearly remembered taking off her shoes and coat at 9:40 to head to the bathroom.

Only five minutes had passed.

Yet their time in that space felt like half an hour, maybe forty minutes—not five.

“You think someone used a Contract affecting mental states on you,” Ou Ziyun concluded after analysis.

“What else, President Ou? You’re not suggesting I snuck into the girls’ dorm and failed an assault? My guilt rate’s not 100%—I didn’t do it!” Xia Yin retorted.

Ou Ziyun rubbed her forehead. She wanted to ask for details, but nine-and-a-half of Xia Yin’s ten sentences were nonsense, two-thirds of the rest emotional venting, leaving only a third useful.

“Based on your account, I’d guess it’s Antidote’s people. The Contract was likely ‘Yanmo’ or ‘Shenlou,’” Old Gu said, yanking off his sleep cap.

“Antidote infiltrated the Investigation Team?” Su Xi asked.

Xueqiu hadn’t taken Contract courses.

She knew maybe ten Contract names from self-study, with ‘Yinglong,’ ‘Hakutaku,’ ‘Ear Mouse,’ and ‘Mirror Demon’ taking up half.

“If I recall, ‘Yanmo’ is Contract No. 023, a rule-type that manipulates dreams,” Ou Ziyun said coolly.

Xia Yin had suggested they were in someone’s dream.

“Gotta be ‘Yanmo.’ We were in the same dream, right? ‘Shenlou’ was only discovered last year, named by the principal, wasn’t it?” Xia Yin rambled.

“But no one here has the ‘Yanmo’ Contract,” a bespectacled researcher said.

Old Gu folded his cap and stuffed it in his pocket. “True. Half their abilities are for research, the other half for fighting.”

“But…” Xueqiu didn’t know how to continue.

If they were attacked here, the attacker was close.

Possibly in this building.

“How about this? I’ll arrange a full search. Stay here, don’t move,” Old Gu said after a moment.

Everyone nodded, except Xia Yin, who raised his hand.

“What? Got an opinion?” Old Gu asked.

“Gotta hit the bathroom,” Xia Yin said dryly.

Old Gu nodded stiffly.

He’d long thought this kid was absurd, like a classmate from his own Academy days.

Old Gu left the room, Xia Yin trailing.

Before the door closed, Xia Yin shot Xueqiu a look, signaling her to make an excuse to follow.

“I… need to go too,” Xueqiu said awkwardly.

She didn’t need permission after Old Gu left—she could just go.

Outside, the corridor had no heat, the temperature dropping sharply.

In just a white hoodie, Xueqiu shivered.

Xia Yin wasn’t waiting outside.

He appeared at the corridor’s left turn.

“Senior, something up?” Xueqiu asked, arms crossed to stay warm.

She didn’t know why he’d called her out.

It felt like aligning stories in a crime movie, but she’d already said everything.

What was there to hide?

But Xia Yin’s question was different.

“When did you learn ‘Yinglong’? I remember we tried dozens of times, and it always failed,” he said abruptly.

“Yinglong?” Xueqiu’s heart jolted.

How could she know ‘Yinglong’?

Her Contract was ‘Mirror Demon,’ currently mimicking the rule-type, healing-focused ‘Hakutaku.’

“Yeah, Yinglong. You used it in the dream, didn’t you? I know, in a ‘Yanmo’ dream, thinking of something makes it appear—like my sword showing up in my hand.”

He continued, “But Contracts aren’t objects.”

“But…”

“No buts. Remember that snake? You called it a Shadow Ghost—ugly as hell.”

Xueqiu nodded.

“I used ‘Yinglong’ to cut it fifteen times, but it broke into eighteen pieces.”

“Meaning, you landed two cuts.”