Chapter 1 A Murder

With a bang, the figure in the blue uniform collapsed to the ground, blood slowly spreading beneath them. The body convulsed violently for a few moments, the heart ruptured, before gradually becoming still.

The scene was akin to a cold-blooded murder; even the twitching of the corpse seemed to reinforce the element of "murder," intensifying Heidi's impression that she had "just killed an ordinary person."

However, Heidi simply watched expressionlessly. As the body fell and convulsed, she listened intently to every rustle and movement around her. Under normal circumstances, the gunshot would have echoed throughout the entire building, alerting the security personnel and church guardians stationed at the facility. But the truth was, the corridor remained silent after the gunshot, as if the facility were already deserted.

The amethyst pendant hanging on her chest continued to emit a faint warmth. A blessing, not from the Four Gods but remarkably effective, constantly maintained Heidi's mental clarity. This pendant was not the original one; the pendant her father had first brought back from the "antique shop" had been depleted and shattered during the previous Black Sun incident. The pendant she now wore was a "gift" that the antique shop owner had given her father the second time. As it turned out, it still possessed the same incredible power as the first pendant.

After a moment of silence, Heidi breathed softly. With one hand gripping the revolver she had just retrieved from a hidden compartment in the briefcase, she placed the briefcase on the ground and took out a long, thin cone (one of her medical tools). Her eyes remained fixed on the body on the ground.

"Nice acting, but can you stop now?" The "corpse" had long ceased twitching. After Heidi spoke, it finally stirred. Then, as if nothing had happened, it sat up, ignoring the gruesome gunshot wound in its chest, and turned to look at the psychiatrist who had just "killed" it.

"I'm curious, when did you realize?" Heidi held the gun in one hand and the gold cone in the other, watching the "dream invader" before her with vigilance and composure.

"There's only one bed in this ward. So, when I was lying on the 'empty bed' next to the hospital bed, the confrontation began!"

"How interesting… Few people can detect such deviations after falling into a dream, at least not so quickly," the invader said leisurely. In the air beside him, a dark, hazy shadow or mist seemed to be gradually emerging and solidifying into a tangible existence, including those so-called psychiatrists who have undergone professional training.

Heidi frowned at the figure. When the outlines of the smoke and dust shadows beside him finally revealed what it was, her expression changed instantly. "A Dust Jellyfish… Annihilation Cultist?" The moment she recognized the shadow, its previously hazy outline immediately became clear: a "jellyfish" that seemed to be formed from smoke and dust floated in mid-air, connected to the invader's skull by a dark chain.

This dangerous demonic creature was pulsing and wriggling, its surface covered with countless tentacle-like structures that had, unbeknownst to her, already spread to a very close proximity to Heidi. A tremendous sense of crisis exploded in her heart. Heidi sensed the erosion and destruction taking place in her mental world. The enemy's attack was covert, insidious, and had already occurred. If her intuition hadn't suddenly alerted her, allowing her to identify the outline of the Dust Jellyfish in this dream, she would likely have been mentally parasitized by the Dust Jellyfish before she could react.

The next moment, she didn't hesitate at all. She raised the sharp gold cone in her hand and stabbed it into her temple without hesitation.

In the next second, a muffled roar exploded in her mind. Everything in her field of vision began to tremble and shake violently. The previously unremarkable ward instantly began to deform and twist. The walls melted like wax, revealing the sickening truth of withered flesh within. The floor was like parched, scorched earth, covered with terrifying ravines and unclean, wriggling things.

The Dust Jellyfish, with its countless tentacles, seemed to have been critically wounded. It suddenly let out a piercing shriek, and all its tentacles contracted violently.

Then... the Annihilation Cultist disguised as a government official and the symbiotic Dust Jellyfish disappeared from Heidi's sight like mist. However, Heidi did not relax in the slightest. She still held the gun and gold cone tightly, vigilantly watching for any incongruities in the environment while quickly checking her mental state. She knew that the dream invader had not been defeated, had not even left. The dream showed no sign of shattering and dissipating.

The knowledge she had learned while studying at the Truth Academy surfaced in her mind one by one. Dust Jellyfish… a branch of the Abyssal Demons… possessing an amorphous body like smoke and various dangerous and bizarre supernatural powers, especially adept at attacking the victim's mental and perceptual abilities. Summoners who formed a symbiosis with this demon could use mental damage spells or directly extract the energy of the Abyssal Demon and launch it as corrosive missiles…

Compared to most Abyssal Demons, the Dust Jellyfish's main body was not strong, but its bizarre supernatural powers made it one of the most dangerous Abyssal Demons. In many cases, you simply didn't have time to attack their fragile bodies before you had already missed the opportunity to resist due to mental trauma. Those cunning cultists who formed a symbiosis with the Dust Jellyfish would consciously amplify this "Abyssal Demon's" characteristics, thus becoming even more troublesome.

The warmth emanating from the amethyst pendant on her chest became increasingly pronounced. Heidi could feel that certain malicious "components" in this dream were still constantly trying to erode and destroy her mind, but the power released by the pendant was protecting her and constantly dissolving those intrusions, while maintaining her clarity.

In the stalemate between this erosion and protection, a new sense of crisis suddenly arose in her heart. Heidi instantly followed this feeling and raised her gun. However, just as she was aiming, the figure that emerged from the air made her stop. Morris appeared there, looking at her with a bewildered expression.

"Heidi?" The familiar figure spoke with confusion and concern. "What's going on? Are you trapped in a nightmare?"

"Yes," Heidi nodded and pulled the trigger without hesitation, saying as she fired, "I don't know what's going on. An Annihilation Cultist interfered with my hypnotherapy, but I remember that even a Dust Jellyfish doesn't have the ability to manipulate the dream realm."

The gun flashed, and a deafening roar echoed. Her father's figure was hit by the gunfire, his face wearing an expression of disbelief. Then, he staggered twice and fell backward, but the next second, another figure appeared where her father had fallen: a gentle old woman with a concerned expression on her face, her mother! "Heidi, what are you doing? Why are you…"

"I'm treating a patient," Heidi said casually as she pulled the trigger.

Her mother's figure fell, but then an exceptionally tall figure appeared in her field of vision. This time, the figure only had time to condense a few outlines of Vanna before Heidi fired a shot. Another phantom fell!

"You're not even trying," Heidi shook her head. "How could such a simple trick work? Besides, there's Vanna. If it were really her, she'd just casually catch the bullet and roll it into a ball before throwing it back."

"Those constantly appearing figures finally stopped, but an angry, low voice suddenly came from an unknown direction: "Why aren't you affected?"

"I already know this is a distorted dream, so of course I won't believe these phantoms you've created," Heidi said calmly. "Of course, I guess that's not what you're surprised about. You're surprised that my mind hasn't wavered at all. After all, even if they know in advance that these are all illusions, an ordinary person would accumulate tremendous mental stress if they constantly saw familiar faces dying before their eyes, and did it themselves. Eventually, this would impact their rational defenses... This has nothing to do with whether they are conscious or not…"

"But unfortunately, I've received some training," the psychiatrist said as she slowly raised the gun and pressed it against her temple.

"Do you know the value of a joint master's and doctoral program with a full scholarship from the Truth Academy? Invader."

"Bang."

The trigger was pulled, the gun fired, and Heidi shot a hole through her head without hesitation. As her figure swayed, another Heidi instantly walked out from beside her. Bang, bang, bang, a continuous series of gunshots rang out. The revolver, which could originally only hold six bullets, fired continuously, as if the bullets were endless. Heidi repeatedly pulled the trigger against her temple, and one "personality clone" after another began to walk out from beside her, each holding a gold cone, heading towards every corner of this ward that had been twisted into a nightmare, towards the door, towards the corridor outside.

"You shouldn't have provoked me in my field of expertise, Invader," Heidi slowly raised her head and pulled the trigger on her head for the last time. "You shouldn't have made trouble while I was treating patients. I really, really, really hate working overtime."

Dozens of personality clones quickly dispersed, scattering throughout the transformed medical facility, searching for any suspicious clues in this invaded dream, looking for cognitive voids at the edges of the dream that might be the paths of invasion and hiding places.

However, as the personality clones moved, Heidi suddenly frowned. "Gone?"