"Get lost!"
Facing Hashimoto Ayaka's shocked and angry interrogation, Amamiya Rin gave only a one-word response.
His powerful will transformed into weapons of war, blasting toward the four women along the [Khala] connection.
Almost simultaneously, the four women were struck as if by lightning. They sprang away from Amamiya Rin's bedside, staggering backward.
Due to extreme weakness and panic, their footsteps were vain and chaotic, and they nearly tripped over each other.
They didn't even dare to spare another glance at Amamiya Rin, as if he were not a person, but a terrifying abyss that would swallow them whole.
The room door closed, cutting off the inside from the outside.
Leaning against the cold corridor wall, the four women's faces were frighteningly pale. They gasped violently, their complexions as white as paper, looking as if they had just finished running a marathon of several dozen kilometers.
In their shared consciousness, fragments of that sixty-day Nightmare continued to flash back, bringing waves of physiological nausea and fear.
(...No good... four people... not enough...)
(His will is above ours...)
(Cannot... assimilate...)
(Must... increase... us...)
Chaotic thoughts echoed within their common brain, finally converging into an urgent directive—they needed a new body!
It must be a female body!
Male and female brain structures were different; they couldn't complete assimilation in a short time. Instead, due to the gap in willpower, they would be influenced in reverse.
They needed more female bodies to make the collective consciousness stronger, so they could assimilate Amamiya Rin's brain.
Almost coincidentally, four pairs of slightly hollow eyes turned toward the neighboring Hospital Ward.
There, lived the young girl named Mitsuo Yukiko.
The Hospital Ward was silent, save for the rhythmic ticking of medical instruments and the girl's steady breathing. Mitsuo Yukiko slept peacefully under the effect of medication, completely unaware of the approaching crisis.
Hashimoto Ayaka and the others, having infiltrated the room, gathered around the bed, looking down at the sleeping girl.
Just as they had done to Amamiya Rin before, they slightly opened their mouths.
Dozens of wet, slender tentacles extended silently, writhing slightly in the air, glistening with moisture.
Their target was the girl's unconsciously parted lips.
The tentacles drilled in with precision. The needle-like tips easily found the soft tissue of the upper palate and deep throat, piercing gently to connect with Mitsuo Yukiko's cranial nerves.
In her sleep, Mitsuo Yukiko's brows furrowed slightly. She let out a whimper like sleep-talking, her body tensing unconsciously for an instant before slowly relaxing again.
The process was quiet enough to make one's hair stand on end.
After a while, those tentacles connecting five small, cherry-like mouths gradually melted into the air.
They didn't vanish, but rather disappeared from sight, or perhaps hid in the Sub-space parallel to reality.
Otherwise, one could simply use a scalpel to sever all the tentacles.
With the connection of the [Khala] complete, the four women's tense bodies also relaxed.
The next moment, the fatigue accumulated over sixty days and Mitsuo Yukiko's drowsiness swept over them. Like puppets with their strings cut, the four collapsed softly by Mitsuo Yukiko's bed, falling into a deep sleep.
Inside the ward, only the sound of five even breaths remained.
In the neighboring ward—likely due to the delay caused by the increased distance—Amamiya Rin only felt the exhaustion and drowsiness, as well as a newborn consciousness distinct from Hashimoto Ayaka, ten seconds later.
"F*ck! It hasn't even been a minute, how has someone else fallen victim already?"
Amamiya Rin's eyelids twitched, his expression becoming unusually ugly.
He could withstand the assimilation of four people, maybe five, but what about forty? Fifty?
And the [Long Dream]!
Amamiya Rin had only just discovered it.
The lengthy Dream World was not his Golden Finger at all!
But a curse, a curse originating from the Junji Ito worldview!
Junji Ito's manga "Long Dream," a work that had once been adapted into anime and film.
The protagonist suffers from a special curse. Whenever he falls asleep, he falls into a lucid Nightmare. Every minute and every second of the Nightmare can be clearly felt.
Furthermore, the time in the Nightmare keeps stretching longer, and the body after waking up undergoes changes because the brain cannot bear the volume of memories.
By the final few days, one dream lasted a thousand years, and the protagonist woke up aged into the appearance of Tengen from "Jujutsu Kaisen."
On the very last day, his physical body weathered into sand grains, and his spirit entered an eternal Dream World.
[That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die.]
It was precisely because he remembered the origin of the dream that Amamiya Rin truly understood the nature of the dream.
This wasn't some Golden Finger, but a malicious curse! A curse that targeted everyone equally!
Originally, the dreamer was himself, and he was the only one who needed to bear the malice of the Nightmare. But Hashimoto Ayaka also entered his Nightmare through the [Khala], becoming a target of the Nightmare. The Nightmare's center of gravity dispersed, which allowed him to gain a certain degree of freedom.
However, Amamiya Rin couldn't be happy.
Even if he could control his body in the Nightmare, the long dream would still impact his brain.
The manga protagonist only lasted about three months before his body turned to dust.
What could he do?
Moreover, the Nightmare's environment was uncontrollable. If it was "Goblin's Nest" every time, using the dream time to study would be unstable.
"What a sin!"
Transmigrated to a parallel world, starting with two fatal, unsolvable curses—was there anyone unluckier than him?
Enduring the ceaseless exhaustion and drowsiness, Amamiya Rin sighed and fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, the early morning sunlight pierced through the gaps in the curtains, awakening Amamiya Rin's consciousness.
Gazing at the pale white Hospital Ward on all sides, feeling the thoughts constantly flowing into his brain, the memories of last night surged into his heart. Amamiya Rin exhaled weakly.
At this moment, his ward door was pushed open, and a Nurse walked in carrying breakfast.
Seeing Amamiya Rin's complexion was off, the Nurse asked with concern, "Mr. Amamiya, good morning. How did you rest last night? Your complexion seems even worse than yesterday..."
Amamiya Rin sighed. "I had another Nightmare. Nurse, after I finish breakfast, could you please trouble yourself to ask Dr. Kuroda to come over? I have some situations I want to understand."
Hearing this, the Nurse nodded. After feeding breakfast to Amamiya Rin, she immediately went to bring Dr. Kuroda.
Dr. Kuroda pushed the door open and entered, a gentle smile on his face. He asked Amamiya Rin with concern, "Amamiya-kun, you were looking for me? Is there some special discomfort in your body? Or do you have questions about the rehabilitation plan?"
Amamiya Rin did not answer immediately. He weighed his words, his gaze looking straight at Dr. Kuroda. "Dr. Kuroda, I had another very long dream last night. It was terribly clear, and it felt like it lasted a long time, unnaturally long. After waking up, the exhaustion felt as if I had really spent that much time, and I can remember every single thing that happened in the dream."
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