After a team of FEAR operatives entered the underground base to confirm its safety, the FEA agents outside began to fully enter the facility.
Then, Gerald saw Roy sitting wearily in the hallway, along with nearly a hundred unconscious agents.
Seeing this scene, Gerald and the agents beside him were astounded.
"Did you do all this by yourself?"
Roy nodded irritably, his mood terrible due to a headache.
"If I didn't knock them out, did they do it to each other?"
Gerald noticed that Roy wasn't quite himself, so he didn't get angry at his sharp tone.
"Mr. Black, you don't look well. Should we get you to a hospital?"
"No need, I just need to go back and rest."
Roy knew there was nothing physically wrong with him; it was purely mental exhaustion. Going to the hospital wouldn't help in this situation.
Besides, Roy didn't want to be examined by the FEA. Their technology was so advanced, what if they found something strange in his genes?
Theoretically, Roy was now a hybrid of three races: human, demon, and angel, which was what Lilith had previously referred to as a Nephilim.
Seeing that Roy didn't accept his offer, Gerald didn't say much more.
"Mr. Black, thank you very much for your help this time. I'll resolve the matter regarding Saltana as soon as possible, and I'll also pay you an additional 'intelligence fee'!"
Roy raised an eyebrow, not expecting Gerald to be so generous.
But upon closer thought, it seemed quite reasonable.
Because Roy had handled this incident very well. So far, only a few agents had been shot, and the most seriously injured was Agent Tom, who had been shot in the abdomen. Everyone else had just been knocked unconscious.
It could be said that Roy had minimized the losses for the FEA's Los Angeles branch, so Gerald was naturally very grateful to him.
If things had really escalated, Gerald, as the person directly responsible, might have lost his position.
However, this was also related to his habit of personally overseeing operations at the front lines. If he had stayed behind like other high-ranking leaders and remotely directed things, he could have easily shifted the blame.
Of course, this time it was also thanks to Gerald's preference for being on the front lines that he had taken half of the special agents out in the morning. Otherwise, if he had been in the underground base, FEA's command system would have been leaderless, and the resulting chaos might have been even greater.
"Then I'll go back and rest first."
Waving his hand, Roy wasn't in the mood for small talk with Gerald. He staggered out of the underground base.
Watching Roy's departing figure, Gerald narrowed his eyes, seemingly deep in thought.
His face, similar to Nick Fury's, always made people feel like he was plotting something when he was thinking.
"It's a pity someone with such strong abilities isn't one of my agents. That way, I wouldn't have to do everything myself. But if Saltana can come back, that would be a good thing. Maybe it can change the situation somewhat."
An agent came to Gerald's side, interrupting his thoughts.
"Chief, the technicians found some abnormal blood in Adela's laptop, and they also found abnormal code residue in the server room's mainframes!"
Gerald frowned at the agent.
"Is that so? Seal Adela's laptop and the mainframe where the abnormal code was found with the highest security protocols! No one is to study or remove them without my permission!"
"Yes, Chief!"
Roy felt like he was experiencing the sensation of being drunk, something he hadn't felt in a long time. The whole world was spinning, and even the numbers were a bit blurry.
Dizzy, he walked out of the elevator without even looking closely at which floor it was.
Suddenly, someone pulled Roy from behind.
"Sir, this is the 14th floor. No one lives here. How did you get here?"
Turning his head, he saw a young service worker. He wondered if they were an agent in disguise.
Roy broke out in a cold sweat. His room was 1208, just one digit off from 1408. If he had accidentally entered that cursed room, it would have been a huge problem.
"Thank you! I'm feeling a bit unwell. Could you help me back to my room? My room is 1208."
"Of course, no problem, sir!"
With the service worker's help, Roy finally managed to return to Suite 1208. This time, he carefully checked the room number to make absolutely sure.
Inside the suite, Heather and Penny were surfing the internet when they suddenly saw Roy staggering in. They were both startled.
"Roy, what's wrong?"
The two girls quickly helped Roy, but he first turned back to thank the service worker and gave them a tip.
Then, Roy sat down on the sofa with Heather and Penny's support.
"I'm fine, just a headache. I'll probably be better after a sleep."
Roy's mental attribute was 34, which was considered quite high.
This attribute determined Roy's mental strength and recovery speed after mental trauma, so Roy's problem wasn't actually that serious.
However, the feeling of experiencing mental trauma for the first time wasn't pleasant, and Roy was very uncomfortable with it.
Penny looked at Roy with concern.
"Roy, are you sick? Should we go to the hospital?"
"No, no! Just help me back to bed."
Roy was a big guy, and it took both Heather and Penny's combined effort to barely support him to the bed.
The two girls lay down on either side of Roy, trying to lull him to sleep like comforting a sick child.
Penny even started humming a lullaby.
Unfortunately, this girl was beautiful, had a sweet voice, and had even studied dance, with flexibility second only to Jennifer, but she just didn't have a musical bone in her body.
The lullaby she hummed was completely off-key, making it hard for Roy to keep a straight face.
"How am I supposed to sleep with you two like this?"
Heather also felt that Penny's lullaby was a bit frightening and quickly stopped her.
"Penny, you should probably stop singing. Let me do it!"
Heather used her ample chest as a pillow and hugged Roy, using her hands to massage his head with very professional techniques.
Roy quickly felt his headache ease.
"Heather, I never knew you had this skill!"
"Hehe, actually, I learned some nursing and massage techniques when I was in Los Angeles, but I just never had the chance to use them! Do you like it, Roy?"
This was true. Most of the time between Heather and Roy, Roy was the one taking the initiative, usually giving Heather massages. After the massage, Heather wouldn't have the energy to massage Roy.
"I like it a lot..."
Roy's voice grew softer and softer.
"Then I'll give you more massages in the future!"
Roy didn't answer. It was then that Heather realized Roy had already fallen asleep under her massage.
However, Heather didn't stop massaging. She continued to rhythmically press Roy's scalp, allowing him to enjoy it even in his sleep.
Penny looked at Heather's skillful technique with some envy.
"Heather, can you teach me this?"
"Of course! We're best sisters!"
Heather began giving Penny on-the-spot instruction. Roy, in his sleep, was completely unaware of this.
Due to the mental trauma, Roy's sleep quality this time was quite poor. Random and chaotic dreams intertwined.
Suddenly, Roy felt a strange sensation of falling in his dream, like falling from a great height.
Many people might have this feeling in their sleep, which can even cause the body to instinctively make some movements.
After falling, Roy's vision suddenly became clear. He found himself standing in the hallway of the Dolphin Hotel, with the elevator behind him.
The floor indicator above the elevator showed that he was on the 14th floor.
The 14th floor again?
Roy felt a bit strange. He had inexplicably come to the 14th floor in the elevator before, and now he was dreaming of the 14th floor as well.
Something was off!
Roy turned around and pressed the elevator button, wanting to leave this floor, but the elevator didn't respond.
This situation made Roy frown.
In Freddy's Fate Box, Roy had obtained a special ability called Nightmare. Because it was somewhat troublesome to use, he hadn't used it on anyone else so far.
However, Roy had experimented with this ability in his own dreams before. Nightmare allowed him to distinguish between reality and dreams.
For example, after arriving in this hotel hallway, Roy immediately knew he was dreaming. Under normal circumstances, a person's first reaction wouldn't be like this.
Moreover, after gaining the Nightmare ability, Roy was able to change his own dreams, but now his ability had inexplicably lost its effect.
There was only one possibility for this phenomenon: this wasn't Roy's own dream; he was an outsider!
The Nightmare ability could also change other people's dreams, but only if the dream's owner didn't have conscious control over the dream and was in a state of fear. Only then could Roy seize control of the dream.
The problem was, Roy was the only one here so far. So, who was the owner of this dream?
Roy started walking forward.
Due to the special nature of Room 1408, this floor actually only had this one room. The doors of the other rooms had all been converted into walls.
The reason for this was to prevent other guests staying on the 14th floor from accidentally entering Room 1408.
However, for some unknown reason, FEA had actually allowed the elevator to still stop on the 14th floor and hadn't completely sealed off Room 1408.
When Roy walked to the door of Room 1408, the door suddenly opened a crack on its own, as if inviting Roy to enter.
It was now certain that the one dreaming wasn't a person, but most likely Room 1408 itself.
A room dreaming might sound a bit strange, but in the movie "1408," this room did seem to possess a kind of self-awareness, capable of reading the memories of its occupants and creating realistic illusions that could drive people to collapse.
However, Roy was a bit puzzled. Why would he enter 1408's dream without activating his Nightmare ability?
Could it be because he had suffered mental trauma, or as the Cthulhu mythos would say, his Sanity had dropped to zero?
Roy couldn't be sure.
At this moment, some faint whispers suddenly came from the crack in the door. The voice was very alluring, as if a beautiful woman inside was calling Roy to come in.
Roy couldn't help but reach out and grab the doorknob, then gritted his teeth and used force to close the door completely.
Did it really think it could tempt him with just a beautiful voice?
The succubus Adela had at least used several abilities to make Roy lose control.
However, after closing the door, Roy still needed to find a way to leave this hallway. He started trying to use his Nightmare ability to break through the wall and leave, but he was a bit worried that if the wall broke open, he would directly enter Room 1408.
It seemed he could only wait for an external influence to wake him up.
Roy returned to the elevator door and sat down cross-legged, waiting idly.
During this time, the door of Room 1408 repeatedly opened, trying to lure Roy in various ways.
This included, but was not limited to, using the voices of the women around Roy, the voices of his original body's parents, and even the voices of the horror movie villains he had killed.
It was a pity that Roy knew this was a dream, so he wasn't fooled at all.
He didn't know how long he had waited, but the elevator in the dream suddenly started running. The elevator slowly ascended from the first floor, as if someone was coming up.
Could there be other people who had entered this dream?
5, 6... 10, 11...
Just as Roy was about to see who was in the elevator, he suddenly heard a phone ringing above his head, and then his consciousness began to rise rapidly, quickly leaving the dream of 1408.
He was so close to seeing who it was, but being able to leave this damn place was good enough.
Opening his eyes, Roy found that it was already pitch black outside, clearly it was night.
He was still resting on the soft and comfortable airbag, but the size seemed to be a bit smaller because Penny was now acting as Roy's pillow.
The two girls didn't seem to have left while Roy was sleeping, taking turns massaging his head.
But they had probably fallen asleep from staying with him for too long.
The sound of the phone also woke up Penny and Heather. The two girls rubbed their eyes.
"Roy, you're awake? How are you feeling now?"
"I feel much better! At least eighty percent recovered!"
Roy picked up his phone and glanced at the screen. It showed Saltana's number.
And the time on the phone showed that it was already ten o'clock at night. He had probably slept for eight hours.
"That's good!"
Penny rubbed her eyes for a while and then yawned.
The two girls had been taking care of Roy for several hours and probably hadn't had enough sleep yet.
"You two go back to sleep. I'll go out and take this call."
Heather and Penny nodded sleepily, hugging each other and continuing to sleep.
Roy took his coat and walked out of the bedroom, answering Saltana's call.
"Hello, Sister Saltana, why did you suddenly think of calling me?"
"Can't I call you?"
Saltana's tone on the other end of the phone was relaxed, and she seemed to be in a good mood.
"Of course not, I'm overjoyed whenever Sister Saltana calls me!"
Roy sat on the sofa, picked up the remote control, and turned on the TV. He flipped through several channels, but there wasn't anything good to watch.
It was a pity that the "Night Owl" show wasn't on tonight. Roy had wanted to see what urban legends the show might reveal.
"Hmph! Always saying nice things. You took so long to answer the phone just now. I wonder what you were up to!"
"Of course, I was missing you, Sister Saltana!"
These cheesy words finally made Saltana crack up. She chuckled.
"So cheesy! Are you free right now? Let's grab a drink."
[Image caption: A still from the hallway of the Dolphin Hotel]
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