The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 424: Annan Seizing The Initiative

“You may have all my memories to create nightmare imitations, but you’re a fool.” Annan leaned on the wall behind him and said slowly, “If you had the same wisdom as me, you wouldn’t leave so many loopholes.”

Naturally, there was no response to Annan’s words.

But that did not matter.

After exiting the nightmare, Annan understood Danton’s logic.

Danton survived his nightmare because Salvatore underestimated the power of a Gold Rank transcender and added Danton’s brain as a curse material to the elixir.

After the soul was “dyed”, it had essentially surpassed the limit of the “human” race.

Danton was a real inhuman.

After all, only Danton’s spine and soul were taken away. At the same time, his brain was still intact despite having his soul taken away.

For this reason, Salvatore used them as the main ingredient for the Dream Elixir.

Salvatore must not have expected that the final product retained Danton’s fragmented will even when the soul was lost, the brain was whipped into a pulp, boiled, and filtered.

But luckily, it was just a fragment of his will.

Danton’s actions were rigid like machines, probably because there was no soul.

In other words, Danton could not see through Annan’s bluff in pretending to be strong.

All of Danton’s actions had a clear goal.

He pulled Annan into a fake “Nightmare: Wolf’s Kiss” to get Annan to accept the Wolf Kiss ritual.

Annan originally held the reversed Winter Heart, which deprived him of all negative emotions. Thus, what would he be left with if he was deprived of all positive emotions in the Wolf Kiss ritual in the nightmare?

Only the empty shell remained.

At that time, Danton’s will fragment could take advantage of the void and occupy a corner of Annan’s soul. Slowly, Danton would regain a body capable of thinking and have a transcended soul that could cast spells.

“But you don’t realize how good my memory is. You can’t read my mind in this space because you have lost your spell casting ability. Thus, you can only get information from what I say.”

The corners of Annan’s mouth rose slightly as he said calmly, “Otherwise, you should have known—

“I recognize more paintings than those I have named.

“So, I’ve seen through your petty actions.”

Indeed, Danton did something behind his back.

Before Annan jumped over, he had already noted the paintings on the wall.

There were eight paintings on this wall: Two from Kafni, one from Kafni’s dad, two from Old Bread, one from Yiyi, and one from Jiu Er.

The other one had a black pupil.

Instead, it was black but not gray.

But when Annan turned his gaze to the painting, it silently turned gray.

In other words, it became another painting.

But that only made Annan a little suspicious.

After all, he might be mistaken.

But when Annan left the nightmare, he found that Yiyi’s mouth and Jiu Er’s ears, which he had not mentioned, had disappeared from the wall.

“That is to say, you have a certain level of authority and can control my nightmares. The imitation nightmares you created before should also have this level of technology.

“But the part you can control is little. So, you’re saving power, or you’re worried that I’ll see through it. So your strategy is to send your adjusted nightmares straight to me.

“I wondered why the two burning paintings were far from me. If I hadn’t moved there, it wouldn’t have been possible to see the paintings so far away.

“The answer is simple. It’s because it doesn’t matter which painting I look at. My nightmares are in the order you have arranged them.”

Annan replied calmly.

“In the first nightmare, you used your fear fragments to imply to me that ‘Danton is indeed dead’, trying to make me give up my [Vigilance] of you;

“And then you told me that logical reasoning would make me sluggish and stuck so that I could put aside [Reasoning] and walk down the hallway without hesitation. That’s all the steps you have committed to making me accept the Wolf Kiss ritual.”

But at that point, Danton had failed.

Annan was too rational and calm.

So he realized the loophole in the false nightmare.

However, after that, Danton did not admit defeat.

“Then, you threw me into a dead end where I had to rely on [External Force] to clear the level. You must be thinking through my behavioral pattern. Your goal is to force me into using David’s power, reminding me of this strength.

“In the previous two fear fragments, you leveraged the fast-paced nightmares and stopped me from remembering this power to eliminate redundant factors influencing the Wolf Kiss ritual. So the question is, why do you want me to use that power now?”

Annan said calmly, “That’s because you want me to use ‘David’ too in this world, right? Or, do you want me to change my body to ‘David’ when we confront each other?

“If it’s a trap, you’ll emphasize this concept to me in the next three fear fragments. You’ll choose the nightmares that ‘I can’t get through without changing my body’ to make me habitually think so. The purpose is to induce me to activate this ability when I confront you. Even though I can’t figure out the reason, it should be related to your means for a comeback.

“You don’t have a soul yourself, so you can’t enter the nightmares. Like a creature who can’t go into dreams, you won’t be in the fear fragments. Thus, you must be in this place.

“Why is that eye in the sky my own? What am I looking at? What am I looking for?”

The answer was already evident.

The eye in the sky hinted at Annan to “look into” his heart.

That was to search for Danton.

Although it sounded strange, the broken stone ship should be Annan’s inner world under the night sky before dawn.

Danton was the “virus” program of this world.

That eye was searching for Danton instead of Annan.

Then, let’s walk through the procedure again.

Annan did not move, leaned against the wall, and sighed, “I’ve already said the whole story to this level. Do you still want to continue?”

Annan’s voice echoed, but there was no response.

“Or, you don’t even have an entity until the subsequent three small dungeon instances are over?

“That would be too pitiful, right?” Annan mocked without hesitation.

Danton still did not appear in front of Annan.

“Fine, I will go through the process.” Annan leaned back and said, “I’m hurt and lazy to move.

“Which nightmare do you want me to enter? Go ahead and bring the painting to me. Move it yourself, got it?”

After a short delay, the painting in front of Annan that belonged to Kafni’s mouth suddenly became the mouth of another person.

The moment they looked at each other, shouts, roars, and cries surrounded Annan again.

“Shut up!” Annan’s cold voice fell.

At the moment when his voice fell, the noise suddenly subsided.

In a quiet atmosphere, Annan fell into a new nightmare again.

Then, he noticed that his left hand and right foot were handcuffed to the operating table. A small saw was placed beside his right hand, and directly above him was a huge rotating hacksaw, slowly approaching.

He understood well what this scene was and what he would do next.

Annan did not panic at all.

Recalling the previous scene, the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

As expected…

His guess was right.

“Although it’s a nightmare, it’s my dream after all.”

Unlike the previous nightmare, what Annan entered this time was his dream.

Danton was able to alter his nightmares, probably because of this. If it was someone else’s nightmares, he might be unable to change them.

After all, he was the real [Dream Stealer].

He remained the world’s first class in the operation of dreams even if he lost his mind, was muted from spell casting, and only relied on instinct to act.

Annan respected his technique.

“But, it’s my world, after all.” Annan closed his eyes slowly.

His body bulged up instantly and turned into a hard marble statue.

“Mr. David” knocked the shackles attached to his wrists from the operating table with just two punches.

However, the shackles were not broken.

Instead, he destroyed the operating table.