***
Bonus chapter! Thank you to Somebody for the donation! ^^
***
'Su Zhen's' tone was completely flat, but it was clear he wasn’t joking in the slightest—nor did he find his own thoughts the least bit shocking.
Ruan Qing's expression froze on his face, his fingers stiffening beneath his sleeves. He didn’t doubt the truth of 'Su Zhen’s' words for a second.
Trying to reason with a pervert about rules and ethics was a mistake to begin with.
But what he truly couldn’t understand was why, in the eyes of someone like that, it always came down to either killing or… that kind of thing.
Even without memories, it was still the same.
It just proved that, after all, this was one of His avatars. No matter how their personalities seemed to differ on the surface, at their core, they were all the same.
Obsessive, twisted, and utterly filthy-minded.
Ruan Qing’s delicate face paled, as if 'Su Zhen’s' words had genuinely frightened him. He stumbled back, stammering,
"I—I really am your brother! Your full-blooded younger brother!"
"You can’t—"
Su Zhen didn’t bother responding. Instead, he proved with action that even a blood-related brother wasn’t off-limits. Step by step, he closed in on Ruan Qing, his tall frame radiating an oppressive, inescapable presence.
Ruan Qing had backed himself into a dead end. After a few more steps, there was nowhere left to retreat. He could only press helplessly against the wall behind him.
He glanced at the wall, then back at the man still advancing toward him. Gritting his teeth, he tried to dart past him.
But he’d barely taken two steps before Su Zhen seized his wrist and shoved him back against the wall.
Ruan Qing’s eyes widened, panic and unease flashing across his delicate features as he instinctively struggled.
"Let me go!"
'Su Zhen’s' grip wasn’t crushing, but it was more than enough to keep Ruan Qing trapped. No matter how hard he fought, all he managed was to muss his hair and wrinkle his white shirt. Nothing else changed.
With such a glaring gap in strength, brute force was useless. Ruan Qing had no choice but to switch tactics.
Tears welled in his eyes, his lashes reddening as he gazed up at 'Su Zhen' with fragile, pitiable vulnerability.
"Brother… you’re hurting me…"
Ruan Qing’s beauty wasn’t the striking, aggressive kind—it was a delicate, icy fragility. When he looked at someone with red-rimmed eyes, it was impossible not to feel pity for him.
As if the moment he cried, the whole world was in the wrong.
Yet 'Su Zhen' showed no mercy. His gaze darkened as it lingered on Ruan Qing's teardrop mole, and the grip of his hand only tightened further.
It was as if he wanted to see Ruan Qing cry.
This time, Ruan Qing was genuinely in pain. His delicate, picturesque brows furrowed slightly, and his heart sank.
Of course, there was no reasoning with a psychopath. They had their own twisted logic, and if you didn’t play by their rules, they’d take matters into their own hands.
At that point, life or death would be entirely at their mercy.
Ruan Qing refused to be completely at his mercy. Pretending to be powerless, he let 'Su Zhen' keep hold of his wrist, looking pitiful and helpless.
'Su Zhen' frowned at the sight of the docile, unmoving figure—dissatisfied, though he couldn’t pinpoint why. In the end, his expression cold, he kicked the wall behind Ruan Qing.
"Boom—!!!"
The wall collapsed as if made of paper, sending up a cloud of dust.
"Cough, cough." Though unharmed by the falling debris, Ruan Qing choked on the dust, his eyes watering even more.
By now, he was a far cry from his pristine state at the start of the dungeon. His white shirt was smudged from the wall, and the dust from the collapse left him even dirtier.
Yet he didn’t look disheveled—instead, there was a strange, ruined beauty to him.
If he cried, he’d probably be even more captivating.
'Su Zhen' reached out expressionlessly, his long fingers pressing against the teardrop mole at the corner of Ruan Qing’s eye.
It wasn’t particularly forceful, but moles were sensitive. The slight pressure made Ruan Qing flinch back in pain.
"It hurts..."
His voice sounded utterly pitiful, like someone pushed to their limit. But it wouldn’t earn him any sympathy—only a twisted desire to torment him further.
To push him until he finally broke down in tears.
'Su Zhen’s' body reacted instantly in a way it shouldn’t have. His thumb brushed lightly over Ruan Qing’s mole as he spoke, voice hoarse.
"Call me 'brother'."
Just moments ago, he’d refused to acknowledge that title—yet now he was demanding it, all while his body betrayed him with such a disgusting response. Truly, he was a pervert through and through.
Ruan Qing felt this way, and so did the people behind the collapsed wall.
The ones behind the wall were none other than Ling Qishuo, Ji Nanyu, and the others.
If the person being bullied hadn’t been someone he knew, Ling Qishuo would have outright called this situation perverted. But as fate would have it, the victim was his missing boyfriend.
The last thread of Ling Qishuo’s restraint snapped. Without a second thought, he pushed Ji Nanyu back, gripped his blade, and charged toward the two figures behind the ruined wall.
After entering the dream, the fragile peace they had maintained on the surface had long since shattered. In this nightmare world, they had resorted to violence without hesitation.
To grow stronger, one had to climb over the corpses of everyone else. The problem was, their strengths were too evenly matched—killing each other was nearly impossible.
Ji Nanyu and the others had also spotted the two figures and instantly understood why this man was the young man’s nightmare. Like Ling Qishuo, they rushed forward.
‘Su Zhen’ tilted his head slightly, his deep eyes cold and unreadable, like a puppet devoid of emotion.
Except this puppet was terrifyingly strong.
Even combined, Ling Qishuo and the others were no match for him, which only solidified Ruan Qing’s belief that Su Zhen was this dungeon’s boss.
If even a mere manifestation of ‘Su Zhen’ was this overpowering, the real Su Zhen’s strength was beyond imagination.
Ruan Qing wasn’t particularly surprised. After all, Su Zhen was the kind of existence who could clash head-on with two high-level dungeon bosses in someone else’s domain.
He was also the only one still alive who had ever placed a bounty on Ruan Qing.
Among the players Ruan Qing knew, if there was anyone capable of standing against the System’s avatar, it would be Su Zhen and no one else.
Even when dungeon bosses left their own domains, their connection to them remained. They could always be summoned back—just like the ‘deity’ from the <Eerie Blood Shadow> dungeon.
Ruan Qing’s eyes reflected ‘Su Zhen’s’ figure. His lashes trembled faintly before he finally lowered his gaze.
This time, he didn’t run.
***
The entire campus had been reduced to ruins by their battle. Monsters spawned from nightmares roamed freely, turning the scene into complete chaos.
Though Ling Qishuo and the others were no match for ‘Su Zhen,’ they still had their wits about them. They wielded the nightmare world’s power against him, managing to hold their own even if they couldn’t win.
However, defeat was inevitable.
'Su Zhen' was too strong—strong to an insurmountable degree. Even with only a fraction of the real Su Zhen's power, he was beyond what Ling Qishuo and the others, mere avatars corrupted by the Nightmare World's energy, could withstand.
Power clashed violently against power, not only ravaging the campus beyond recognition but also destabilizing the entire space.
The space fractured once again.
Ruan Qing stood quietly and obediently to the side. At first, he paid no attention to the splitting space, but suddenly, as if sensing something, his eyes widened, his heart skipping a beat. He whipped his head around to stare in a certain direction behind him.
It was the same aura—the one that had wanted to kill him earlier.
The presence flickered past, almost like an illusion.
But it was no illusion. Ruan Qing hesitated for less than a second before sprinting toward the fractured space, intent on entering it.
The real Xiao Mingyu was most likely there.
The space was splitting rapidly, but Ruan Qing was too slow. At his current speed, the rift would close before he could reach it, and he’d miss his only chance.
Gritting his teeth as the fissure loomed just ahead, Ruan Qing’s slender fingers shimmered with a faint white light. He channeled his power and lunged forward.
He could make it!
Yet, just as Ruan Qing was about to cross into the space, a terrifying wind blade grazed his face, obliterating the rift in an instant. The next moment, a tall figure materialized before him, blocking his path.
Ruan Qing’s eyes widened, his pupils contracting. Unable to stop his momentum, he crashed straight into the man.
He had thrown his full weight into the dash, so the impact was brutal. Pain flared, tears welling in his eyes instantly.
But Ruan Qing had no time to dwell on the pain. The spatial rift had sealed, and that faint aura had vanished without a trace.
The man now towering over him stared down impassively, his shadow enveloping Ruan Qing with an oppressive, inescapable presence.
It was 'Su Zhen'.
'Su Zhen' looked down at Ruan Qing, his calm eyes laced with something dangerous.
"Where," he asked, voice devoid of inflection, "do you think you’re going?"
Though his tone was even, the words sent a chill down Ruan Qing’s spine. His hair stood on end, his face paling as he lowered his head to avoid 'Su Zhen’s' gaze. Trembling slightly, he whispered his reply.
"Nothing, I wasn't trying to go anywhere."
Ruan Qing truly hadn't expected that 'Su Zhen' would still be watching him during the fight—even able to break away just to stop him. But even if he had known, he would've made the same choice.
Now, though, he had to face the consequences of that decision.
