After being loaded with the "bullet" of red-haired Yu Jin, the Sneering Revolver turned into a handgun that could fire infinitely without needing any manual operation.
Of course, there was a second way to use it: as long as he cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger, it became a "personality launcher" that could summon or retract red-haired Yu Jin at any time.
This gun was incredibly bizarre and abstract—so abstract that after Yu Jin tried it a few times, he got smacked by red-haired Yu Jin.
Rubbing the back of his hand, Yu Jin sheepishly put down the gun and discussed with red-haired Yu Jin what exactly was going on with this weapon.
Without realizing it, Yu Jin had gradually grown accustomed to conversing with "himself."
He quite liked this mode of self-dialogue. He felt that it split his thinking in two, providing different perspectives and making his thought process much more efficient.
Both Yu Jins agreed that this revolver was highly likely a Nightmare artifact.
A Nightmare artifact was an item formed after a Dreamwalker's death, when their active extraordinary ability separated from their decaying physical shell.
To put it simply, it was a lingering nightmare.
Not even one out of ten deceased Dreamwalkers would necessarily produce a Nightmare artifact.
Therefore, Nightmare artifacts had always been highly precious. Even if some provided absolutely no practical benefit, their rarity was undeniable, making them excellent tools for showing off if nothing else.
What ability this Nightmare artifact in Yu Jin's hands possessed remained unclear.
He only knew that the Sneering Revolver seemed to have "contained" red-haired Yu Jin. As for what the containment conditions were and how it had been triggered, he was completely in the dark.
Only red-haired Yu Jin, recalling his experiences in the dream, could fill in some of the details.
He looked at Yu Jin and said:
“When you aimed this Sneering Revolver at me and asked, ‘Have you really never thought about having freedom?’, I felt a subtle connection form between myself and that gun.
“But I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t feel anything unusual at the time.
“It was at the exact moment the Nightmare Disaster was dispelled that I felt a massive pulling force.
“At first, I thought it was the materialization force leading to reality, until you fired the gun for the first time and...”
“Released you?” Yu Jin added.
Red-haired Yu Jin frowned deeply. “I hate that phrasing. It sounds like a rabid dog being let out of its cage.”
“...”
Yu Jin couldn’t help but chuckle.
“It’s a fitting description.
“Besides, what’s wrong with being rabid? Some evils can only be stopped with evil.”
Red-haired Yu Jin shot him a sidelong glance.
“Was I talking about evil?
“I was talking about...
“Forget it, whatever. In any case, it was only at that moment that I realized my materialization wasn’t a normal awakening, but rather that I had turned into a bullet.”
Yu Jin's smile gradually faded as he fell into deep thought.
The words of the mysterious woman echoed in his mind once again:
“Freedom is the ultimate irony. Let this piece of advice be a gift to you.”
Freedom...
The only recurring word between those two remarks was "freedom."
So, did the containment condition of this revolver have something to do with freedom?
If so, what else could it contain?
Just personalities, or was anything else fair game?
Both Yu Jins racked their brains but couldn't find an answer.
Since they couldn't figure it out, they simply pivoted to another topic.
Who exactly was that mysterious woman?
Why did she give him this Nightmare artifact?
Was she truly related to his brother?
Caressing the gun in his hand, Yu Jin felt for the first time that the sneer on the revolver actually looked quite pleasant.
It could be inferred that the mysterious woman bore him no ill will. To some extent, the existence of this Sneering Revolver had even accelerated his cognitive clarity within the dream, allowing him to expose Xia Jie's false facade.
However, Yu Jin couldn't understand how she had managed to break into his dream.
Entering someone else's dream wasn't something that could be done on a whim, especially during a Nightmare Disaster. In most cases, the simplest, most direct, and only way to enter a dream was to approach the Nightmare Disaster and actively fall asleep within its range of influence.
This was precisely why every Special Response Squad was equipped with at least one safety officer.
When the others entered the dream, leaving behind several unconscious bodies, someone had to protect their physical vessels in reality.
Of course, there were also unconventional methods of entering a Nightmare Disaster.
There were a very select few awakened individuals in this world capable of crossing over dreams, as well as Nightmare artifacts with similar abilities, which could help people traverse other people's dreams.
Yu Jin had only ever heard of two factions that possessed this capability or such Nightmare artifacts.
One was the Bureau.
Jiang Shouyu, the Chief of the Dream Committee, possessed one such Nightmare artifact. Its specific name and abilities were unknown to Yu Jin, who only knew that Chief Jiang had used it to dispel many world-ending Nightmare Disasters.
The other was... the Disciples of Eternal Night!
Yes, this was precisely one of the main sources of confidence that allowed the Disciples of Eternal Night to repeatedly instigate conflicts in dreams, hinder the missions of the Special Response Squads, and drag Nightmare Disasters out into major catastrophes.
Aside from these two groups, Yu Jin was unaware of anyone else who possessed such capability.
The mysterious woman didn't look like someone from the Dream Committee or the Bureau, so... she couldn't possibly be a Disciple of Eternal Night, could she?!
At this thought, Yu Jin's heart grew heavy with gravity.
Offering favors to win people over—if she truly was a Disciple of Eternal Night trying to buy him off with this Nightmare artifact, he would absolutely never take the bait.
As an agent of the Bureau, he would never be swayed by temptation, never allow himself to fall into depravity, and never join the Disciples of Eternal Night. And as for weapons sent by the enemy, his stance was also clear.
Never underuse them.
There was no point in letting it go to waste.
Turning the enemy's own weapons against them was wisdom passed down by his ancestors, and future generations could not forget their roots.
And so, Yu Jin accepted the revolver with a clear conscience.
However, he still harbored reservations about the mysterious woman's identity and was especially curious about how his brother was tied to all of this. After thinking it over, he decided to have red-haired Yu Jin pay a visit to Changming Cemetery before they began hunting Xia Jie.
“Let's go see what clues we can find first. Even a headless fly needs a direction to start with.”
Red-haired Yu Jin "gladly" accepted the mission. He was a bit excited, as this would be his first time going out "alone."
Yu Jin was slightly worried:
“Make sure you... don't cause trouble, and disguise yourself carefully.”
Red-haired Yu Jin scoffed. He picked out a couple of clothes that Yu Jin rarely wore, changed his facial appearance, concealed his figure, and jumped out of the back window where there were no surveillance cameras, leaving behind a parting remark:
“If trouble doesn't look for me, I naturally won't go looking for it.
“Stop nagging, you sound like a mother hen.”
Standing by the window and watching the disappearing figure, Yu Jin suddenly thought:
If pulling someone out of one's own body to become another person could be described as being a "mother," then he...
Forget it.
A person shouldn't—or at least, couldn't—be their own mother.
...
By the time red-haired Yu Jin arrived at Changming Cemetery, it was raining again.
A gentle drizzle fell, blanketing the cemetery in a thin layer of mist.
He hadn't brought an umbrella, so he ran through the rain into the guardroom and borrowed a raincoat from the security guard.
The guard was quite nice, warning him that the paths were slippery in the rain and offering to accompany him to pay his respects if needed.
Red-haired Yu Jin declined. He offered his thanks, then turned around, transformed into the guard's appearance, and plunged into the rain.
Actually, even Yu Jin wasn't sure if they would find anything at his brother's grave. He only thought that if the woman really was connected to his brother, finding even a tiny shred of a clue would be far more reliable than merely relying on his memories of their encounter in the dream.
Although he was currently at home, the sensory sharing with red-haired Yu Jin made it feel like he was watching a first-person 9D movie.
Only this time, he was the secondary personality to red-haired Yu Jin.
Having walked the cemetery paths several times recently, he turned a familiar corner. Before he had gone very far, he saw a dog frolicking in the rain.
It was a perfectly standard, textbook-definition big yellow dog.
Red-haired Yu Jin's arrival startled it. Tilting its head, it barked curiously at him.
Looking at those lively dog eyes, Yu Jin felt that this didn't look like a cemetery guard dog, but rather one brought along by a visitor.
Walking a dog without a leash—how utterly uncivilized.
For some reason, Yu Jin recalled what Tang Yaoting had said in the dream:
“Dogs these days have no manners!”
Whether dogs themselves had manners, he didn't know, but dogs walking their humans without a leash definitely lacked manners.
While Yu Jin thought this, red-haired Yu Jin didn't pay it any mind. He bypassed the yellow dog and kept walking, only to stop in his tracks moments later.
A black umbrella canopy appeared up ahead once more.
The misty rain obscured the person underneath, but judging by the identical umbrella and where they were standing...
Right in front of his brother's grave!
“!!!”
Red-haired Yu Jin's pupils dilated. His muscles tensed, and a bone blade flickered at his wrist like a dormant viper flicking its tongue.
He stared at the figure, itching to move as he said:
“The target is right there. Let's strike immediately!”
“Look at you, always so hasty!”
Yu Jin quickly stopped him, urging him to calm down. He sat up from the sofa, straightening his back as he frowned in thought.
What a coincidence.
The exact same weather, the exact same umbrella, and the exact same... dog?
Yu Jin suddenly thought of something. Sharing his sensations, red-haired Yu Jin whipped his head back to look at the big yellow dog, only to see it still frolicking in the rain like an utter dummy.
Not only that, but it was also cautiously creeping toward a pile of poop, looking as though it was considering having a meal right there.
“...”
He was overthinking.
What ill intent could a poop-eating dog possibly have?
The corners of both Yu Jins' mouths twitched simultaneously. They turned back to look at the figure standing in front of his brother's grave.
After a moment of contemplation, red-haired Yu Jin scoffed and walked straight toward them.
...
Rate on N.U.
