Translator: Cinder Translations
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In the distance, there was a bus station, empty and desolate.
There were no vehicles, nor any uniformed staff in sight.
The sky was gloomy, and it was still drizzling. A small group of people gathered on the wide platform.
There were about four or five individuals, likely travelers.
The dilapidation of the station was evident, from the exposed red bricks of the platform to the old, neglected shelter.
This meant the few travelers had no choice but to huddle in a corner of the platform to avoid the rain.
At that moment, all the travelers were gazing in one direction.
In the curtain of rain, about thirty meters away, stood a man holding an umbrella.
He remained completely still, maintaining that posture for at least ten minutes.
Just as the travelers were whispering to each other, the man suddenly moved and walked toward the platform.
He came closer.
It was indeed a man, of average build, looking quite decent. He wore an obviously oversized work jacket and pajama pants with a plaid pattern, topped off with cartoon-themed fluffy slippers.
The slippers, soaked by the rain, made a slapping sound with each step he took.
As he folded up his umbrella, Jiang Cheng looked up at the few people in front of him.
Rainwater dripped down from the umbrella fabric, pooling on the platform.
A petite girl with a pure appearance cautiously asked, "Are you a newcomer?"
"Don't ask stupid questions," replied a burly man with a thick beard, glancing at the girl. His gaze then lingered on Jiang Cheng's slippers for a moment before focusing on his face.
The man's look carried an assessing vibe, as if he were eyeing prey. After a while, he said, "An interesting newcomer, staying so calm in a place like this."
There were five people in total.
Jiang Cheng hadn't seen anyone else nearby on the platform.
Besides the girl and the bearded man, there was a woman in her mid-thirties with thin lips and a mole by her mouth; she was of average looks.
There was also a middle-aged man, around fifty, who seemed somewhat lewd and balding.
Lastly, a young man dressed neatly, with his hair meticulously combed, looked like a clerk.
Unlike the others, the young man appeared to have just been crying, with faint tear marks at the corners of his eyes, and he stood with an oddly hunched posture.
Jiang Cheng scanned the faces of the people in front of him, eventually fixing his gaze on the bearded man. "Where is this place?"
"We call it the Nightmare World, because every visitor comes here from a dream," the burly man replied.
Jiang Cheng nodded, which aligned with his own experience. "What do we need to do?"
"Based on the scenarios that appear, find clues to complete tasks, and do your best to survive in the process," he said, looking out into the rain. "The Nightmare World is merely a name given by the first people who encountered this place.
As for where this is and what it truly is, don't ask. Even if you do, we can't answer, because we don't know either."
"You just need to know that in the nightmare world, you might see a village, a tall building, or even a forest, a snowfield, or a wasteland.
Everything that has appeared in our real world could appear in this world."
"Everything from our world will appear in this world?" Jiang Cheng asked back.
"Yes."
"Then what's the difference between this place and our world?"
Jiang Cheng posed a very pertinent, yet also very tricky question.
"But our world will never have two identical versions of ourselves appearing at the same time." The burly man's voice was a bit muffled.
His words sounded awkward, but they weren't hard to understand, at least for Jiang Cheng. He frowned, "Are you saying that someone in the nightmare world encountered themselves?"
"Yeah."
It was unclear whether the burly man was speaking of these fears because of the topic or if he thought it pointless to discuss such things with a newcomer who didn't even know if they would survive this mission.
In any case, he ended the conversation.
"After the mission, can we return to the real world?"
"Yeah," the burly man nodded, his gaze shifting to the rain curtain.
The rain was getting heavier, and the entire world was shrouded in a gloomy hue, the sky gradually darkening.
"Newcomer," said the woman with a mole at the corner of her lips, looking at him, "if you die in this world, you will be erased from the real world. Aren't you afraid?"
"To be precise, it's 'missing,'" Jiang Cheng corrected.
The woman widened her eyes slightly, her gaze curiously assessing Jiang Cheng.
It seemed she wanted to find something different about him.
"If you can survive this time, I hope you won't mind being friends," she said.
Jiang Cheng ignored her completely and turned to the burly man.
The burly man stood at the edge of the rain curtain, his gaze constantly darting around, his expression somewhat anxious.
"You're waiting for someone," Jiang Cheng said to him, "someone hasn't arrived yet."
The burly man turned back, surprised, "How do you know?"
"Well, I also know the person you're waiting for is a fat guy, very agile."
The expression on the burly man's face could no longer be described as surprised, "Indeed, someone hasn't arrived, which is why the mission hasn't started yet. But I want to know... how do you know? Especially that he's a fat guy, and very agile, so detailed?"
Jiang Cheng didn't answer the question. Instead, he walked to the burly man's side, turned toward a direction outside the station, cupped his hands like a megaphone, and shouted, "Hey! It's safe here, come out, we're waiting for you!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a figure suddenly sprang up about dozens of meters away in the rain curtain and, to everyone's astonishment, dashed toward the platform.
Two legs, like ham sausages, swung agilely, avoiding puddles, and finally jumped, landing steadily on the platform.
At that moment, everyone couldn't help but think: Wow! He really is an agile fat guy!
As soon as the fat guy arrived, he stared fixedly at Jiang Cheng's work coat. He was only wearing a khaki shirt on top, completely soaked by the rain, shivering from the cold.
"Can"
"Cannot!"
Jiang Cheng decisively interrupted the agile fat guy's fantasy, then wrapped his coat a bit tighter around himself.
"What's going on here?" asked the bald man, who had never spoken before, looking somewhat confused.
"Met him on the way. I came to scout for him, and the price was a coat and an umbrella," Jiang Cheng said calmly.
The shivering fat guy looked rather unappealing, so no one was willing to engage with him, except for a girl who found him pitiable and lent him a scarf to wrap around his neck.
(End of this chapter)
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