Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 25: 25. The New Nightmare

“`

After the chaos, the prisoners slowly got to their feet, as dozens of Mechanical Prison Guards entered the square with the neat sound of hydraulic transmission, directing the inmates to clean up everything that had been overturned.

In the dining hall, Guo Huchan sat cross-legged on the ground not far away, as if he had entered a monk-like trance.

Lin Xiaoxiao looked at the black rubber bullets scattered all over the ground and remarked, “When immortals fight, it’s the mortals who suffer. The ones who fought are fine, but those inmates who didn’t are the ones who really got unlucky. Hey, Guo Huchan, doesn’t everyone say you’re compassionate and always do good deeds? So what about those you’ve dragged down with you?”

Without even lifting his eyelids, Guo Huchan replied, “You talk to me about innocent bystanders in prison? There’s not a single innocent one among them.”

“Hypocrite,” Lin Xiaoxiao twitched his mouth.

“Also, I’d like to emphasize,” Guo Huchan opened his eyes to glance at Lin Xiaoxiao, “I’m not a monk, so don’t use words like ‘compassionate’ to describe me.”

After saying this, he closed his eyes again to seriously adjust his breathing.

He seemed unharmed in the fight with Uncle Li Dong, but his internal organs were actually quite uncomfortable now, as if they had been scorched by a fire.

Seeing that he was quietly meditating, the others stopped bothering him. Lin Xiaoxiao gave Ye Wan a look, and suddenly, an invisible force field expanded around them.

Qing Chen had seen this ability before. When the “Iron Sky” rained black droplets, all that fell towards Ye Wan was repelled by this force field.

Seeing Qing Chen’s puzzled look, Lin Xiaoxiao explained with a smile, “Don’t worry, our voices won’t carry.”

Uncle Li Dong sat by the dining table, pulling the large cat into his arms, then said to Qing Chen, “This morning, I saw Lu Guangyi questioning those people during the newcomer ceremony. That was your doing, right?”

“It was me,” Qing Chen admitted, knowing that the other party was aware of his connection to Qing’s Family and that Lu Guangyi was taking orders from him, he no longer hid the fact.

“Why did you interrogate them?” Uncle Li Dong asked.

“I wanted to see if there were other forces competing with me for the Taboo,” Qing Chen lied, needing a plausible reason to explain his actions.

Uncle Li Dong nodded, “I appreciate your honesty, but I noticed that Lu Guangyi didn’t mistreat the new inmates this time. Was that also your doing?”

“Yes,” Qing Chen said.

“But I remember when you first came in, you didn’t help the other newcomers,” Uncle Li Dong remarked.

“Within my power,” Qing Chen responded.

Uncle Li Dong smiled and offered no judgment.

If his own safety was in jeopardy, Qing Chen would quietly watch others die without lifting a finger; that was his principle.

His life was never smooth sailing, so he had learned selfishness early on.

It was an attitude toward life bestowed upon him by his experiences, not a choice of his own making.

At that moment, Lin Xiaoxiao suddenly glanced over at Guo Huchan, who was seated not far away…

Qing Chen turned his head and was shocked to see Guo Huchan still sitting with his eyes closed, but his long arms had already dropped to his sides.

Using the index and middle fingers of both hands, he propped his entire body up, slightly off the ground.

Then, like walking, he inched closer to Ye Wan’s force field with his fingers…

It was clear that he realized he couldn’t hear the others’ conversation from where he was, so he wanted to sneak closer.

This made Qing Chen chuckle ruefully; a burly man over two meters tall, covered in tattoos, had been fiercely fighting just a moment ago and now pretended to meditate, while in reality, he was trying to eavesdrop on other people’s chats.

The contrast was just too great.

Feeling the eyes upon him, Guo Huchan nonchalantly used his fingers to move back to his original spot as if nothing had happened.

The sight even made Uncle Li Dong laugh, “Alright, let’s disperse. It’s a pity I didn’t get to play chess today; I’m off to read a book.”

Before leaving, Lin Xiaoxiao squatted in front of Guo Huchan with a smile, “If you’ve lost, just stay put honestly. We really don’t want to make an enemy of Spade, knowing full well it’s not easy for you out in the wilderness. But could you refrain from causing us trouble, alright?”

“`

Guo Huchan lifted his eyelids, “I didn’t lose to you, so why so smug?”

Lin Xiaoxiao raised her eyebrows, “You think I can’t deal with you?”

Guo Huchan replied calmly, “Touch a hair on my head and see what happens.”

Lin Xiaoxiao looked at the other person’s shiny bald head, “…?”

Indeed, rumors were just rumors. This Guo Huchan was nothing like what he had heard!

Qing Chen paid no attention to their bickering and instead turned to get his food from the window and began to eat voraciously.

He had been dirt poor in the Outer World, eating compressed biscuits for two days since he returned, although his family did have rice, flour, and vegetables, there was no meat—he couldn’t afford it.

The food here was average, but at least the synthetic meat had some taste of real meat.

Qing Chen felt somewhat melancholic that the prison food in the Inner World was actually better than what he usually ate in the Outer World.

When he absentmindedly looked up while eating, he suddenly noticed that a quarter of the 210 surveillance cameras in Prison 18 had silently turned towards him.

It seemed that his feat of finding a blind spot in a flash had caught someone’s attention.

But he had no idea who was behind those monitors.

After Lin Xiaoxiao and Guo Huchan finished their spat, Lin Xiaoxiao stood up, set Qing Chen’s plate aside, then grabbed another plate and tapped on the window, saying to the robot inside, “The boss has ordered that from now on, he gets real meat, as much as he wants.”

Qing Chen was stunned, “Why?”

Lin Xiaoxiao smiled mysteriously, “You’ll find out soon enough, but it might not be a good thing.”

…

At night, while Qing Chen was brushing his teeth in his cell, he suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness wash over him and immediately sensed that something was amiss.

This time, however, he didn’t collapse and fall asleep on the spot like before. Instead, he calmly rinsed his mouth and made sure he was lying in a comfortable position on the bed board before slowly closing his eyes.

The nightmare began.

In the dream, Qing Chen found himself in a desert, with two people sitting on the opposite dune.

The desert in the nightmare world was filled with flying sand and the sun was scorching hot.

In just a few seconds, Qing Chen felt his lips dry out and crack.

One of the people across called out pleadingly, “Qing Chen, please give us a sip of the water from your backpack. If we don’t drink soon, we’re going to die.”

Qing Chen took off his backpack and opened it, indeed finding a bottle of water inside.

He didn’t speak.

The person across couldn’t bear it anymore, “We won’t drink your water for free, just name your price.”

Suddenly, a voice whispered in Qing Chen’s ear, “Facing companions who are about to die of thirst, how would you price your water?”

Qing Chen looked coldly at the person opposite and said, “I’ll watch the person next to you die of thirst first, then let him name his price.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the person across turned into Lin Xiaoxiao and the other faded away slowly like a bursting bubble.

Lin Xiaoxiao said speechlessly, “Are you even human?”

“I already knew this was your nightmare, so naturally, I would not feel any sympathy,” Qing Chen found a comfortable spot to sit down.

“This is truly bizarre,” Lin Xiaoxiao said, sitting opposite him, “You can now remain conscious and retain your memories even after entering the nightmare, so you should be able to resist its call too, right?”

“Hmm, yes,” Qing Chen answered succinctly.