In the abandoned boiler room, more than ten fireballs turned the cold boilers red-hot, scorching to the touch.
Freddy in front of Yujin appeared and vanished intermittently, looking utterly pitiful, while the air was thick with the stench of burning metal.
"Still not working?"
Yujin panted, trying to regain his strength. The black patterns of the curse mark spiraled across his body, and the bracelet on his wrist glowed faintly.
Freddy's abilities were far trickier than he had imagined.
Although Freddy had no clear advantage over him for now, Yujin knew that relying on such a reckless method could backfire at any moment due to some small oversight.
Yujin rolled his eyes. With his gene lock activated, his mind ran unusually sharp, calculating multiple solutions.
"Guess I have no choice but to tank it," he concluded.
Taking a deep breath, Yujin struck Freddy in the face the instant it reappeared.
Freddy, infuriated by the continuous attacks and teasing, swung its metallic claws with even more frenzy. Each strike ripped through the air, tearing the surrounding space apart.
With the aid of the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Yujin's movements became ghostlike, weaving through Freddy's deadly claw strikes with razor-sharp precision.
While dodging, Yujin made a run for the factory exit.
As he glanced back, Freddy lunged with a claw!
But the imagined impact never came. Another textbook-level use of the clone technique.
"Ahhhh!"
Freddy screamed in rage, its arms and legs stretching unnaturally long.
In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a three-meter-tall giant.
It stomped forward violently. One step covered the distance that would take a normal person five strides.
It was getting closer.
Closer and closer. Freddy's claws gleamed with a deadly cold light, and in its eyes, the human before it was doomed.
At that moment, Yujin spun around. The three tomoe in his eyes spun furiously.
The tails of the tomoe, sharp as blades, stabbed straight into Freddy's soul.
Freddy's expression suddenly froze, and its movements halted as if it had been frozen in place.
Seizing this precious moment, Yujin didn't hesitate for a second and bolted, the hundreds of meters disappearing beneath his feet in an instant.
He raised his hand to check his watch, the passage of time felt unusually clear at that moment. Only a little over a minute remained before the pursuit would end at dawn.
However, Freddy was not held by the illusion for long. It quickly broke free from the restraint!
Its claws grew even longer, and its body became taller, reaching an astonishing height of five meters!
Every step it took made the ground tremble!
Freddy raised a claw to strike, and Yujin felt an unprecedented sense of danger.
Believing he was about to die and with nowhere to dodge, he quickly formed hand signs and used Water Release: Water Formation Wall along with Iron body!
"Slap!"
The pain he had imagined never came.
Opening his eyes, Yujin saw Nova raising her hand, and the anxious expressions of Zhan Lan and Zheng Zha!
Looking around, he realized he was lying on a main road!
Yujin's heart skipped a beat. "I fell asleep!?"
Zheng Zha's face was filled with fear. "We called you for so long, and you didn't wake up! The sun's finally up!"
"Phew." Yujin exhaled, relieved. He looked at their expressions. "Why are you all so gloomy? We get to live another day, don't we?"
He paused, then asked, "Did Zhang Jie and Zhao Yingkong return to the police station?"
Zhan Lan, sweat dripping down her forehead, nodded repeatedly like a pecking chick.
"Oh, ah~" Yujin yawned. "That was such a good sleep. I'm not even tired anymore!"
The others were completely speechless.
Normally, a wise person, after scheming all night only to find little effect and nearly dying in the process, would have completely lost their composure.
But him? He acted as if nothing had happened.
Half an hour later, at the Central Continent team's gathering point.
Today, four people were missing from the entrance!
Zheng Zha was frantic. "Could it be that Lao Liu and Lao Zhang were held up by something?"
"What could be more important than staying alive? They died~" Yujin said, completely unfazed, glancing at Zhan Lan. "Go buy coffee for the captain."
Zhan Lan, worried and distracted, didn't even hear Yujin.
"Zhan Lan, go buy the coffee," Yujin raised his voice.
Zhan Lan turned around. "How are you not scared at all? We could enter the dream at any moment, but at least during the day we have teammates to help. At night… what do we do? Last night was way too extreme."
She shuddered as she said, "Even though it was so dangerous, Freddy had time to kill four people with a single mistake. We definitely wouldn't be able to survive like this."
"Hah, what's there to be afraid of? Worst case, we die!"
Looking at Yujin casually shrugging, Zhan Lan and Zheng Zha were left speechless.
"You guys take staying alive way too seriously. If you can survive, survive. If not, then die. Will panicking actually stop time from passing? Will staring wide-eyed in fear prevent you from entering the dream?"
"It's all the same."
Zhan Lan was stunned. "H-How do you handle pressure like that?"
Yujin didn't bother replying.
If "they" couldn't handle pressure, the name Yujin would have disappeared long ago.
Deep in an old, dilapidated prison, a narrow corridor was lit by scorching white lights, turning it almost as bright as daytime. The air was thick with sweat and despair.
The floor was made of old metal plates.
Though the underground third level of the fortress was called the Starvation Hell, because it was right above the Blazing Hell, the heat had nowhere to go.
It pressed up through the metal plates, turning the corridor into a massive grill.
Pirate Yujin curled up in a corner of the corridor, avoiding the metal plates as best he could. His prison uniform was soaked through, sweat dripping from his forehead and pooling in the gaps of the floor before instantly evaporating into thin wisps of steam.
The air was humid and stifling. Every breath felt like inhaling a cloud of hot, wet air, suffocating anyone who tried to breathe.
His skin had turned bright red from the intense heat, and in some places, blisters were beginning to form.
Even so, he couldn't use Water Release to cool himself down or quench his thirst.
If he did, the place would quickly turn into a high-temperature steam chamber, far worse than the current situation.
"Gurgle…"
Yujin's stomach growled from not having eaten for so long. Hunger and dehydration twisted his insides painfully.
But he couldn't eat. There was no food here, only endless heat and despair.
"Search over there!"
The footsteps of the guards echoed in his ears. Yujin had almost no strength left to resist.
He flailed like a headless fly through this hell of hunger, searching for an exit. His energy was completely drained, and he had no clue where to go. All he wanted now was to rest.
"Found it!"
"Here!"
****
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