Inside the cavern, Jiang Yan's silhouette reappeared. By now, every nation—apart from Nanwu Country—had seen its armies of ten thousand or more wiped out.
pearl of the abyss: 247,680,000 / 247,680,000
"Negative-emotion value full. Summon?"
'Summon!'
Buzz! At Jiang Yan's mental command a ripple formed in mid-air; violet-black mist emerged.
The violet-black mist swiftly expanded to nearly a hundred metres across.
Rumble! Thunderous booms echoed from within while Jiang Yan stood to one side and watched.
The roar finally ceased after more than an hour, the mist dispersing.
An eyeball a hundred metres wide appeared, ringed by grey tentacles dozens of metres long.
The air around it twisted, as though some vast force were warping space.
Not far away, every remaining Monster was drawn by the great eye and turned to look.
"Master!" A voice devoid of emotion sounded in Jiang Yan's mind.
He gazed at the colossal eye and sank his consciousness inward to inspect.
Outer God of the Starry Sky · Nightmare Authority · Gus Lee Barton Raphael: a creature that roams the firmament, a subject of nightmare! (Creating nightmares is how it grows.)
Mental Aberration: an Outer God's mere presence pollutes the mind; those with low resistance who behold it are twisted into its thralls! (You and your summons ignore the mental pollution of Gus Lee Barton Raphael.)
Nightmare Authority: Gus Lee Barton Raphael can plant a seed of nightmare; creatures inside it enter nightmare while asleep, or he can drag them forcibly into nightmare without waiting for sleep! (Ninety-nine seeds, lasting one year; they replenish automatically. Frequency and intensity are under his control.)
Nightmare Parasite: any being that enters his nightmare becomes one of his anchors for resurrection!
Jiang Yan opened his eyes and regarded the long-named eyeball: 'So this thing is basically a reusable emotion-farm?'
The more he looked, the more pleasing it seemed; he only wondered what range it had.
"From now on you're Gus; that name's too long to bother with." Jiang Yan spoke to the eye.
The great eye fixed on him, its voice in his mind: "Yes, Master; call me Gus."
"What area does a seed of nightmare cover, and how many beings can it pull in at once?" Jiang Yan continued—if the numbers were poor he'd use a soul crystal; if not, he wouldn't bother.
Gus's emotionless voice answered: "Master, the seed covers a circle roughly one hundred and seventy kilometres in diameter; every creature within will fall into nightmare."
"Come with me to neighbouring Shi Country; let's test your seed." Jiang Yan told him.
By now every surrounding nation save Nanwu Country had been subdued; the people were corralled together, a single city holding a million souls.
The chaos had been quelled by force and calm restored; apart from those keeping basic services running, no one worked. Paper money was worthless; one meal a day kept starvation at bay.
Some regions had resumed farming, and many were sent to labour there—the sole benefit being full bellies. After all, these people were Jiang Yan's precious emotion-supply; he wouldn't let them die so easily.
Wings sprouted from Jiang Yan's back as he turned and flew outward, Gus following.
It was nine at night; twin moons cast faint light across the sky.
While flying, Jiang Yan sent word to every high-ranking member of the Monster Association to halt all offensives; he needed to test nightmare-based emotion harvesting without interference.
High above, tens of thousands of metres up, the two streaked toward neighbouring Shi Country, soon hovering above one of its cities.
Save for scattered lights on the perimeter, the entire city lay in darkness.
Those lights marked Monsters of the Association standing guard to prevent escape.
"Start here." Jiang Yan spoke without looking back.
"Yes, Master." One of Gus's grey tentacles extended.
Buzz! A unique ripple pulsed from the tentacle, and a five-metre-tall black rhomboid crystal materialised in mid-air.
With the crystal came a peculiar vibration.
Gus's tentacle gave the crystal a gentle push; it streaked toward the city centre.
There it halted, hovering above the heart of the city.
A black flash glinted across Gus's enormous eye; the distant crystal responded.
Bzzzz! Waves pulsed from the crystal, sweeping outward.
High above, Jiang Yan felt the ripple brush him, but Gus flicked a tentacle and the strange energy around Jiang Yan vanished.
Jiang Yan calmly sensed the situation in the city below.
Beneath the city, in a pitch-black room.
A young man lay on the bed, staring helplessly at the ceiling. "When will this kind of life end?"
Gurgle! Just as the words fell, his stomach let out a growl.
The young man could only reach for the water on the nightstand and gulp it down to ease his hunger.
One meal a day. To reduce energy consumption, most people choose to find a place and lie still.
Luckily the tap water keeps flowing, so when they're starving they can still drink to fill up.
Buzz! Right then, a peculiar ripple swept across the young man.
Crack! The glass in his hand hit the floor and shattered, and he slumped over, eyes shut in sleep.
At this moment, not only he, but every human and Monster in the entire city sank into slumber.
Out in the sky, once everyone had fallen asleep, Gus extended a tentacle and tapped the space in front of Jiang Yan.
Swish! An image appeared before Jiang Yan: a young man sat at a table piled with every kind of delicacy, wolfing down meat and wine, bliss written all over his face.
"Master, this is the dream of a randomly chosen creature," Gus's voice echoed in Jiang Yan's mind.
Jiang Yan stared at the young man's happy expression and asked in puzzlement, "Isn't it supposed to be a nightmare? Why does he look so delighted?"
Gus explained, "Everyone's nightmare generates itself. His type first lets him reach a certain level of happiness, then suddenly plunges him into the nightmare—those emotional swings are the strongest."
Hearing this, Jiang Yan quietly watched the scene.
In the dream, the young man clutched a roast lamb shank and tore into it; upon entering, his real memories would blur.
So he didn't know why he was here or why he was eating meat; he simply felt, instinctively, that this was how life should be.
"So good—absolutely delicious!" The young man kept devouring the delicacies, ripping off huge mouthfuls.
"If only I could eat like this every day..." He gazed at the food, eyes shining with greed.
Just as he took another bite of the roast shank—
Swish! The surroundings changed in an instant. The cozy little room became a chaotic graveyard, tombs everywhere.
The lamb shank in his hands turned into a rotting human leg, maggots burrowing in and out of the putrid flesh.
The sudden shift stunned the young man. "What's going on? Wasn't I eating roast lamb?"
An overwhelming stench of decay rushed into his nostrils, and he instinctively looked for its source.
He saw the maggot-riddled corpse leg stuffed into his mouth, maggots writhing inside while the reek of rot spread.
He couldn't hold it anymore: his face turned ashen, he flung the leg away in terror and began to vomit.
"Urgh—urgh—urgh!" As he heaved, his pupils shrank—maggots mixed with rotten flesh spilled from his mouth.
For a food-lover like him, the impact was devastating; psychological trauma was guaranteed.
"Hey kid, how was my leg?" Before he could move, a ghastly voice sounded behind him.
He spun around and saw a bloated, putrefying fat man: belly split open, guts exposed and crawling with maggots, one leg missing, eyes bulging as they stared at him.
His belly had rotted open, organs spilling out, all writhing with maggots, one leg gone, eyes popping as they fixed on the young man.
"Holy crap!" At the sight of the Monster goosebumps swept his body; a primal terror surged inside him.
He tried to run, but his legs felt like noodles; every step cost every ounce of strength.
Tap-tap-tap!
Behind him came a hopping sound—something bouncing on one foot in pursuit.
Hearing it, and seeing his legs rooted in place, the young man's face went white; tears and snot ran in panic.
"No—don't come near me!" he sobbed, utterly desperate, the Monster's steps like the knell of death driving him toward madness.
Outside the vision, after Jiang Yan had waited an hour, the pearl of the abyss—whose progress had slowed on his order—suddenly pulsed.
But the number was only a little over twenty thousand.
"A bit small, but if everyone on Blue Star enters the nightmare we'll get hundreds of millions a day." Jiang Yan wasn't discouraged; it could be recycled—time was all it needed.
Gus spoke up: "Master, if these creatures enter nightmares continuously, they'll drop dead in just five days."
"That won't do. Is there a way to reuse them?" Jiang Yan looked toward Gus.
Population was now his greatest resource; letting them die at random was unthinkable