Chapter 291: Plundering Moonlight

Words : 1700 Updated : Oct 15th, 2025

[Zion Power Station] The day before the Nightmare Project began, participants came in waves early in the morning to test the dream entry clothing, which now allowed better breathability and improved sensitivity in comparison to the ones Yi Chen and his team had used before. These were subsequently renamed “Dream Suits”. At that time, an important figure arrived wearing a white suit, a white bowler hat, and a featureless mask. His singular nature immediately drew everyone’s attention and salutations. “Mr. Martin and Mr. Marko!” His uniqueness wasn’t limited to his front-and-back masks or his distinct role as the Prophet, but also his unusual way of moving about the power station, which was walking backward the entire time without a hint of awkwardness. One might say his daily affairs were typically handled “in reverse”. As for what his “front side” was primarily responsible for, aside from the Prophets and a very few gentlemen on close terms with him, virtually no one knew. While Martin and Marko were trying on the suits in Task Force’s resting room, almost silent throughout, he suddenly spoke up from beneath the mask, “They’ve arrived!” At the main entrance of the power station, the security clearance level had been raised to its maximum because the Nightmare Project was about to start. The security captain, whose limbs and parts of his torso had undergone prosthetic modifications and whose body was armored, guarded the entrance with all security personnel, verifying the identity of every participant in the Nightmare Project. Suddenly, all of them felt a physical threat, even seeing hallucinations, of hairless, eyeless corpses with mouths sewn shut by surgical thread, crowding the power station corridors, even vividly feeling the intense sensation of flesh pressing against their bodies. At that moment, the EMP device equipped on the captain activated involuntarily. Buzz! The illusions vanished. All that remained was a man wearing an eye patch, a white casual shirt, and jeans, walking barefoot through the corridor, his sleeves rolled up past the elbows, a watch gifted by the school still on his right wrist. Not until this person had moved past the corridor did one of the security personnel realize he had not been screened for a security check. Just as this security guard, driven by professional instinct, thought to pursue the man, the captain immediately held him back forcefully. “This is Hogni Zede, the true monster imprisoned by the O.C.A. Rumor has it, it takes Principal Daislin and numerous faculty to ensure his proper confinement. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. I received notice yesterday that this monster would be participating in the Nightmare Project. That presence just now was unmistakable. If we had gone up to forcibly stop and check him, we likely would’ve been killed on the spot.” The security captain immediately relayed information about Zede’s arrival to every area of the power station, and all monitors captured his movements in real-time. As he approached the security gates, they were opened in advance to ensure his unimpeded passage. However, it was Zede’s first time at a power station like this, and the technology here was several levels above what he was used to. Despite the signposts, he was still somewhat confused as he moved forward. Knowing of Zede’s arrival, many staff members chose to keep their doors closed at this time. Zede couldn’t find anyone to ask for directions, but just as he was about to be completely lost, a staff member who kept stuffing dried meat into his mouth walked past him in the corridor, his cheeks nearly swelling from double to triple layers. “Could you tell me how to get to the gathering point for the Nightmare Project?” “Follow me, I’m heading there too.” “Thank you,” Zede replied courteously, appearing far less dangerous than outsiders assumed. This chubby ‘staff member’ was none other than Reagan, who felt not pressure but a strange kinship with Zede. As they walked to the destination area, Reagan struck up a conversation: “You must be Mr. Zede, right? William should be your student. The physical resemblance between you two is indeed high, but William’s body is transforming in another direction while you continue to delve infinitely in the original one.” “Oh, you know William?” “Yes, we are currently on the same task force. We even explored nightmares together. Although I proposed and designed the Nightmare Ladder, I’ve discussed the experience with William. We might also be involved in this Nightmare Project, trying our best to alleviate some of the pressure on Mr. Zede’s Task Force.” “Hmm? I was informed by Principal Deslin when I left school that young William had abandoned the Nightmare Project and left the city for refuge last night.” At this news, Reagan’s face squeezed together with all the fat on his cheeks. “That doesn’t make sense. William’s nature wouldn’t allow for such an action.” “You think so too, don’t you?” Reagan nodded, “Yes, the reason I’m here to guide you is because William once actively invited me to participate in a very dangerous relic operation. He was unusually paranoid about things where specific dangers were unpredictable, often choosing directions where danger was uncontrollable. It’s impossible for him to choose to leave at a critical time like this, certainly something must have happened. If it’s not Principal Desline’s mandatory measures, then it must be inevitably linked to the nightmare.” … 86 km away from Zion, on a small town that is the complete opposite of the Twilight Clinic. This town had virtually no gentlemen from the organization, always surviving according to the rules provided by the organization, and would immediately seek help from the nearest gentleman station whenever trouble arose, struggling to survive in such a world. But in the past year, the dispatched manpower from the organization is clearly insufficient, and even several requests for help went unanswered, causing an epidemic to break out within the town. In critical times, a silver-haired priest came here, using his unique “Descent of Light” approach to eradicate the pathogen in the town, and even completely healed those with mild symptoms under everyone’s watchful eyes. Since then, the town’s people worshipped him as an envoy of the gods, renovating and transforming the originally abandoned church, renaming it the “New Moon Church.” Every day, townsfolk would go between the church to pray, earnestly seeking the gods’ favor. Occasionally, some young males would grow a wisp of silver hair and were considered to be accepted by the deity;they would be sent to the church to become the priests’ assistants. For these past months, there had been virtually no unnatural deaths in the town, and the townspeople held dear their affection for the priest, even overlooking some of his excessive demands, believing them to be the necessary sacrifices for the new god’s grace. The morning sun had not fully risen, and in a secret chamber deep within the church, a group of silver-haired young male servants were kneeling and playing some strange games with the new priest, with only a very few resisting while the rest complied with the priest. Thanks to the nourishment of the power of faith and the nightly baths in moonlight, the priest felt he was close to achieving Open Source. When the first rays of dawn from the dungeon’s skylight hit him, the priest posed narcissistically and murmured softly, “Unknowingly, I have become so perfect. Now, even if I were to return to Viner City, I could kill the rat occupying the clinic all by myself. But there’s no longer a need for me to return;I will go to more populous cities to preach. By then, my statues will stand tall in all human cities, and my name will be remembered for millennia.” Just then, a shadow flashed past the dungeon skylight. “Hmm? Another patient has come to town, huh? What a bother…” As the priest pushed away the male servants in front of him and prepared to head upstairs to take a look, the previously well-concealed and booby-trapped dungeon entrance was surprisingly opened, and a pitch-black beast quickly leaped in, instilling an instinctive fear in all the male servants who hid behind the priest. “My children, fear not! It’s just a beast that has lost its way;I will bring it light and liberation,” the priest assured them. With a gesture of his hand, a beam of light instantly bathed the beast. Gradually, the beast’s fur rapidly receded, and it transformed from a crawling posture to a standing one, even its bent spine being straightened. This left the priest bewildered, as he had not known his Descent of Light could serve such a purpose. “Hmm? Has my ability undergone an advanced transformation? Is this a sign of achieving Open Source?” As the priest affirmed himself, the beast before him had already taken on a young man’s appearance, slowly walking towards him while rotating its neck back and forth. When the priest, sensing danger, tried to use Descent of Light again, the young man instead embraced the strong light, even giving it high praise, “Hmm~ such pure moonlight. It seems you haven’t been infected with any other pathogens since leaving Viner City and have been true to your identity as a Moon dweller. Quite admirable~ I need to borrow your core for a moment.” Before the priest could react, the young man took an Instant Step and was upon him. His right arm pierced through the priest’s body, the moon-shaped core extracted in its entirety. Snap! The priest, with a hole in his chest, fell to the ground full of disbelief, utterly dead. Yi Chen surveyed the pitiable male servants before him, ultimately picking out a young man who was resistant. “This town currently has no gentlemen assigned to it. Just leaving it unchecked would likely lead to total pathological transformation or even becoming a storehouse for the patients… Let’s choose you.” Yi Chen quickly indoctrinated the young man, shared some interesting things, and then turned to leave.

Chapter 291: Plundering Moonlight

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