Night. The nursing home.
Klein, Leonard, and the others decided to rest here for the night and observe whether Chief Reed and the others would show any abnormal signs.
Based on today's observations, the four of them basically believed that Chief Reed kept thinking his child was still alive because he had suffered a mental breakdown.
According to the information provided by the Church, that child had already perished beneath the storm.
It was impossible for him to still be alive, let alone grow into a young man in such a short time and then go sailing on the open sea for adventures.
However, in order to prevent any oversight, Klein ultimately decided to have Leonard use the Nightmare's Beyonder ability to enter Chief Reed's dream and investigate.
"This dream entry may encounter terrifying danger. You must be fully prepared and be extremely careful. If anything unexpected happens, you must leave the dream immediately. Do not force yourself to take risks."
Klein repeatedly emphasized his warnings, afraid that Leonard might encounter uncontrollable forces while entering the dream.
With a solemn expression, Leonard said, "Mm, I'll be careful."
After making the decision, Klein and his group went to the room next to Chief Reed's.
After confirming that Chief Reed showed no abnormalities, they allowed Leonard to perform the dream-entry technique.
When Leonard entered Chief Reed's dream using the technique, he found it strange at the very first glance.
Chief Reed's dreamscape was not chaotic or dark as imagined. On the contrary, it was extremely calm.
Gentle light formed a vast, boundless world of faint radiance. The light that met the eye was not dazzling, but instead gave off a warm and soothing feeling.
In order to digest the Nightmare potion, he had entered other people's dreams many times, transforming into a nightmare within them.
The situation before him indicated that Chief Reed's mind was very pure, without too many chaotic thoughts, and without corruption or madness.
Was this really the dream world a mental patient should have?
It was more like the inner world that only a devout believer would possess.
Suppressing the curiosity in his heart, Leonard continued forward into this unknown dream world.
After an indeterminate amount of walking, the faintly glowing world finally underwent a new change.
Mirrors, panes of luminous mirrors, spread endlessly, covering the entire sky.
The gentle strands of light were being emitted precisely from these mirrors.
As Leonard arrived, every luminous mirror in the sky simultaneously reflected his figure.
Every movement he made was replayed and reenacted within the mirrors.
This scene completely shook Leonard's soul. After the shock came an indescribable fear.
The countless luminous mirrors in the sky were like innumerable eyeballs, gazing down at him from above.
Being scrutinized by such a gaze, Leonard felt a chill rise from the depths of his heart. He felt that he should leave immediately, lest something truly unexpected occur.
At that moment, Leonard glimpsed the very front of the faintly glowing world, where a gigantic mirror stood. Leonard was like an ant standing at the foot of a towering mountain.
The unimaginably vast mirror surface looked like a rift in space and time.
It seemed to lead to another, entirely different world.
Leonard subconsciously walked toward it, but after only a few steps, he hurriedly stopped, then panicked and fled from this dream world.
Faintly, it seemed that the sound of waves crashing against reefs came from behind that enormous luminous mirror.
...
"Hu… hu… hu…"
Leonard's consciousness returned to his body.
He hunched over, gasping for breath, like a fish deprived of oxygen that had been thrown onto land, desperately struggling to take in one last breath.
Klein and the other two, who had been standing guard nearby, immediately rushed over, gently patting Leonard on the back, allowing him to breathe more smoothly.
After quite a while, Leonard finally half-lifted his eyelids and gradually returned to normal.
"Are you alright?" Klein asked, trying to keep his tone from sounding too anxious.
"Mm, I'm fine. Still alive." Leonard nodded and forced a strained smile.
"What exactly did you experience?"
"A world of faint light, countless mirrors, and a mysterious world beyond a gigantic luminous mirror."
Leonard first gave a brief summary.
After regaining a bit more strength, he slowly began recounting what he had just experienced in Chief Reed's dream world.
"It's a good thing you didn't take the risk of entering the world inside that gigantic luminous mirror."
Listening to Leonard's account, Klein finally let out a sigh of relief.
If Leonard hadn't left the dream world in time and had instead chosen to enter that enormous luminous mirror to the world beyond it, there was absolutely no way he could have returned safely.
"Yes. I'm very glad I managed to withdraw in time instead of going all the way without turning back."
Leonard also felt lingering fear after surviving the ordeal.
At that moment, he had suddenly regained clarity, perhaps the old man had given him a helping hand.
"By the way, when I left Captain Reid's dream, I seemed to really hear the sound of ocean waves, as if behind that enormous mirror of light there was a vast sea connected to it."
Leonard recalled what he had just experienced and only then remembered this important discovery.
The world inside the mirror might be an ocean? Captain Reid firmly believed that his child was adventuring on the sea.
Everything seemed to connect together. Perhaps this was not merely based on Captain Reid's own imagination.
It might be that, after being influenced by some kind of power, Captain Reid developed this sort of psychological suggestion.
According to the intelligence they currently possessed, the fastest solution was to enter the mirror world within Captain Reid's dream and thoroughly investigate it.
But even a nightmare like Leonard did not dare to delve deeply, so they were even less capable of doing so.
"Let's report the situation first and see if there are any new instructions from above." Klein made the decision.
As a team leader, what he needed was to handle matters steadily, rather than risking lives for achievements that might or might not be obtained.
"This is a very correct decision." Leonard supported Klein's view.
He had a premonition that if he entered Captain Reid's dream again, he would probably be drawn straight into that mirror world and encounter unknown dangers.
"The probing of Captain Reid will stop here. We can first investigate other people with abnormal eye conditions and see if there's any good solution."
After assigning Leonard and the other two to separately observe those with eye abnormalities, Klein went alone to the washroom.
He took four steps backward and arrived above the gray fog.
He was thinking about how to resolve this matter.
Should he directly use divination to take a peek at what special things might be hidden behind all of this?
In the end, he abandoned the idea. He did not want to be like last time, directly glimpsing the Eternal Blazing Sun.
Who knew how terrifying that evil god was.
"Should I divine that Baron Hastur Campbell? I always feel he isn't a simple figure."
Klein thought for a while and decided to give it a try.
He wrote down the divination statement: Baron Hastur Campbell is a Beyonder!
The yellow crystal pendant did not move at all, neither affirming nor denying it.
Instead, it showed no response whatsoever, solidifying and becoming unable to move.
But such a situation was itself a kind of divination revelation.
That Baron Hastur Campbell was definitely a powerful Beyonder.
Moreover, he must be carrying a powerful sealed artifact or Beyonder item.
Only in this way could he completely avoid Klein's divination.
Klein thought for a moment, then wrote a second divination statement: Baron Hastur Campbell intends to harm Captain Reid!
The yellow crystal pendant once again showed the same situation as before, completely motionless, unable to give him any effective divination revelation.
"Backlund really lives up to its name. I've only been here a short while and I've already encountered such a mysterious figure."
"It seems I need to find an opportunity to have an open talk with Leonard and see if I can grasp more information about that Baron Hastur Campbell."
Klein did not linger above the gray fog. He logged out and walked out of the washroom.
When he met Leonard, Klein gave him a look that said, confess and be lenient.
In response, Leonard made an excuse to go to the washroom as well, dodging Klein in every possible way.
Late at night, while Klein was asleep, he suddenly felt himself arrive in a world shrouded in darkness.
The sky was dim and lightless, and the heavy night seemed to completely conceal everything that could be glimpsed.
Klein was startled awake, his back already soaked with sweat.
This should have been a warning from his spirituality in response to what he had done that day.
The meaning was very clear: he was being told not to casually perform divination again, otherwise he might invite misfortune upon his future.
"In the future, I should be more careful in what I do and not rely too much on divination, or I might unknowingly glimpse something dangerous."
What Klein did not realize was that beneath that thick veil of night lay a brilliant starry sky.
That night, Leonard was also unable to sleep peacefully.
He too had a dream, a dream about the sea.
On the vast ocean, dozens of ships were sailing across the surface, and among them, the leading ship was especially distinctive.
It was like a blue ghost ship, its sailing path ghostlike, fast and mysterious.
On the bow deck of that ghost ship stood a figure holding a fishing rod, as if fishing for creatures in the sea.
Before Leonard could clearly see what that figure looked like, the dream shattered, and he woke from his deep sleep.
To his shock, he discovered that his entire body was soaked, as if he had been submerged in water.
By the smell of it, there also seemed to be a fishy scent coming from the sea.
Leonard was dazed, his gaze vacant.
He felt that he had gotten himself into big trouble!