After the Little Crybaby Enters the Nightmare Cycle

Perpetual Usage Rights

You Yu’s lips, like his fingers, were so cold that Chi Nan shivered slightly.

Nevertheless, he didn’t dodge them. His eyes widened slightly like a frightened wild cat and tears rolled down from his green eyes.

They were cool but soft.

Chi Nan’s mind inexplicably had this evaluation of the touch of You Yu’s lips.

You Yu just touched them lightly. Then he raised his eyes and looked at Chi Nan, who was crying. “Sorry, I seem to be a bit too happy.”

“Happy?” Chi Nan was a bit surprised. This was the first time he heard You Yu describe his emotions as happiness.

After all, this sick guy liked to use the word ‘interesting’ every time.

You Yu smiled. “Yes, I have encountered something that made me very happy.”

“Congratulations.” Then Chi Nan wiped away his tears with the tissue the other person handed him.

“Brother Nan, I can guarantee you,” You Yu suddenly said, “I will ask for your consent in the future.”

Chi Nan wondered, “What are you referring to?”

He actually wanted to ask if You Yu was referring to making him cry or a kiss like the one he just did… If this understated contact between lips and skin could be called a kiss…

You Yu restarted the car and looked ahead. His voice was soft but determined, as if he had guessed Chi Nan’s thoughts. “Anything.”

He saw in the rearview mirror that the people in the backseat of the car were gradually waking up.

You Yu’s lips curved up slightly. “Then there is something I have to explain to you.”

Chi Nan looked over and You Yu paused deliberately.

“I’m not narcissistic,” You Yu said.

After a while, Chi Nan replied softly, “Yes, I understand.”

“Are you sure?” You Yu had a smile in his eyes.

Chi Nan was silent for a moment. “I’m not very sure.”

The excessively strong sunlight just happened to shine on his ears, making them extremely hot.

You Yu glanced at Chi Nan’s earlobes that were reddened from the sun out of the corner of his eyes. He smiled and said nothing.

***

Chi Nan slept again in the second half of the Highway 404 journey. By the time he opened his eyes again, they had arrived at Dawn Base.

“I took a shortcut,” You Yu explained to Chi Nan, who had just woken up. “It is to save some trouble.”

207 clicked her tongue from beside him. “In order to allow you to sleep and to ensure that there are less transfers and struggles, he opened his permissions and directly modified the route. This is a violation.”

Chi Nan rubbed his eyes and was seriously worried about this person. “Will you be punished by the system?”

You Yu gave 207 a warning look and 207 pouted. “I’m just reminding you not to be overturned.”

Don’t underestimate the authority of a dream maker,” You Yu said honestly, “Innocent violations are within the acquiescence range.”’

207 shrugged. “Just look at it. I was hit anyway.”

The group of people entered the favorability calculations center and the familiar system voice was heard.

[First of all, congratulations to all the sleepwalkers for successfully clearing Highway 404. The following is the calculation of favorability.]

[Due to the peculiarity of this nightmare, all sleepwalkers can get a lot of favorability from the instance. Some values are distributed in the order of who completed the favorability point missions first, and then decreased in descending order.]

The moment the system finished speaking, the remaining three people looked at Chi Nan in unison. All the clues and task points in this nightmare were basically first discovered and completed by Chi Nan.

There was no doubt that the person who had the most favorability was Chi Nan. Everyone was convinced by this.

[There is a total of 100 points of favorability for completing the rainy day plot of the people waiting for the car to park: Chi Nan +40, Lu Baizhou/Xu Lantian +30, Pei Mo +20, and Jiang Yu +10 points.]

[There is a total of 200 points of favorability for completing the redemption of being killed: Chi Nan +80, Lu Baizhou/Xu Lantian +60, Jiang Yu +60, and Pei Mo +0 points.]

Pei Mo weakly gulped when he heard this. At that time, he was afraid of death. As a result, he was forced by the new driver to open the door and die. It wasn’t unjust to get 0 points of favorability. It was just a bit humiliating.

[There are 100 favorability points per person for finding the victim’s body and +10 points per person for participating in your teammate’s corpse search.]

[The favorability for helping your teammates complete the corpse search is as follows: Chi Nan +20, Jiang Yu +20, Pei Mo +20, Lu Baizhou/Xu Lantian +20.]

[The Highway 404 special reward: The sleepwalker who cracked the radio rules during the instance and successfully accelerated the plot, favorability +50.]

[Chi Nan has earned 290 points of favorability.]

[Jiang Yu has earned 190 points of favorability.]

[Lu Baizhou has earned 210 points of favorability.]

[Pei Mo has earned 120 points of favorability.]

The favorability points were distributed and everyone sighed with relief. It was as the system said. The favorability assigned by this instance was much higher than ordinary instances. Even Pei Mo was satisfied despite earning the lowest favorability.

It was just that for Chi Nan, this 290 favorability was a drop in the bucket. Now he was 99,663 points away from realizing his wish to ‘retrieve his memory’…

Just as everyone thought the distribution was finished, the system broadcast was heard again.

[The sleepwalkers who successfully cleared the nightmare will also receive special binding items corresponding to their characters in addition to the favorability rewards.]

“Special binding items?” Jiang Yu murmured, “What are they?”

[Congratulations to sleepwalker Jiang Yu for obtaining the ‘Qu Yijun’ character binding privilege x1. In an instance with the privilege enabled, the sleepwalker can summon the character to work through the level together. The favorability earned by the character belongs to the sleepwalker.]

Jiang Yu was stunned as she held the cigarette in her hand. Next to her, Pei Mo was pale as he muttered, “F*k, will that writer be bound to me?”

Everyone: “……”

[Congratulations to the sleepwalker Lu Baizhou/Xu Lantian for obtaining the personality separation privilege x1. In an instance where the privilege is enabled, Lu Baizhou and Xu Lantian can appear as two individuals at the same time to jointly pass the instance. The favorability earned is combined.]

[Congratulations to sleepwalker Pei Mo for obtaining the right to use the Book of Revelations x1. In an instance where the privilege is enabled, the sleepwalker can get an important hint.]

Pei Mo sighed with relief and slapped his chest. “This is okay…”

[Congratulations to sleepwalker Chi Nan for obtaining the perpetual usage rights to use ‘Twins.’ After enabling the privilege, the sleepwalker can summon the character to clear the instance together. The favorability earned by the character belongs to the sleepwalker.]

[The above is the distribution of all the privileged items in this instance. I wish you a happy sleepwalking.]

The group looked at Chi Nan with disbelief and Jiang Yu was stunned. “Perpetual usage rights? Isn’t that the equivalent of sending him to you?”

Pei Mo’s mood was complicated. “I don’t know whether to congratulate you or to sigh… Is a dream maker so idle?”

Jiang Yu and Lu Baizhou glanced at him at the same time.

After the broadcast, 207 and You Yu walked over from the corridor.

Chi Nan looked at You Yu. “What’s going on?”

You Yu shrugged. “It is just as the system said.”

Chi Nan asked, “Why?”

You Yu hid the smile in his eyes. “Why what?”’

Chi Nan: “……” This person asked despite knowing.

You Yu looked at Chi Nan for a moment and couldn’t help smiling. “Why am I so cheap, right?”

Chi Nan: “……”

207 put her hands in her pockets and watched the scene in front of her with interest.

She knew the reasoning behind silently watching the game of chess, but she really couldn’t help adding to the fire. “This guy isn’t just cheap, he also ‘owes’ a lot.”

“A dream maker might have privileges but they aren’t unlimited. In order to get more privileges, we must redeem it through our dream maker points. Your 229 spent almost all his coffin money in order to permanently bind to you.” 207 didn’t mind being a good wingwoman for her colleague.

“The dream maker’s redeemed privileges can’t be returned.” You Yu deliberately wore an aggrieved expression as he looked at Chi Nan. “So Brother Nan, please take care of me in the future.”

He saw that Chi Nan was still stunned, so You Yu deliberately leaned close to him and whispered in his ear, “You asked me why and I told you the answer.”

Chi Nan looked at You Yu suspiciously. This guy usually spoke in half-truths but at this moment, Chi Nan could tell that he was more serious than ever.

“I said the answer in Smile Town and after coming out of the ghost tunnel.”

You Yu restrained himself and didn’t touch Chi Nan. “Besides, you still have 99,663 points of favorability left to realize your wish. Two people doing it is more efficient.”

“Little evil spirit, I will borrow your 229 to talk about business. I’ll return him later.”

207 winked at You Yu and You Yu told Chi Nan, “Wait for me for 30 minutes.”

Then he and 207 went into the conference room.

207 closed the door of the conference room, reconnected to the main system, and quickly browsed the bugs list. She shook her head with a serious expression. “The bug record of the ghost tunnel has disappeared. I tried to add the record manually, but I couldn’t register it at all.”

It was reasonable to say that if a dream maker encountered an uncontrollable bug, they should solve it. If it couldn’t be solved, it should be recorded to find a way to deal with it. Yet now, the entire bug had been cleared from the system.

You Yu suggested, “Look for clues from the nightmare’s surveillance video.”

The two people called up the surveillance and pulled the progress bar to the last part of the journey. The incredible thing was that the section of the tunnel bug was wiped clean and there were no clues.

“Who has the authority to do something about the bug record and surveillance footage?” 207 had a bad feeling.

You Yu lowered his eyes. “The system and the dream god can do it.”

207 sucked in a breath and looked at You Yu with worry. “I’ve never seen the system use its privileges on any sleepwalker.”

“Don’t talk about sleepwalkers, it is the same with dream makers.” The emotions in You Yu’s eyes couldn’t be read.

“229, you are the most experienced dream maker. You need to closely monitor the sleepwalkers who cause serious bugs. I don’t think I need to remind you…”

207 scratched her head with some embarrassment. She saw that You Yu didn’t speak and added, “After all, it was Chi Nan who called out the ghost tunnel.”

“Don’t worry, I know,” You Yu answered casually, “However, the binding rights I bought in exchange for the ruin of my home weren’t done for business. Don’t misunderstand.”

The originally serious 207 was speechless. “…F*k, I definitely know that.”

There were many ways to closely monitor sleepwalkers. There was no need to give themselves to the other person.

You Yu smiled. They had been working together for so many years and 207 had never seen this perverted colleague smile so heartily.

It was as if something wonderful had happened to him.

She wanted to ask something else, but her unspoken words were blocked by the snowflakes flying outside the French windows in the conference room. She exclaimed, “F*k, is it snowing?”

***

The core areas of the Nightmare World like the Dawn Base and Zi City had never changed their weather.

Over the years, there were only empty nights and the moon hanging in the same position in the night sky.

This was the first time that the Dawn Base had ushered in a snowy night.

Chi Nan stood in the long glass corridor and looked out. White snowflakes floated in the night sky. He leaned against the window, his breath condensing into white mist that covered the glass window.

The coincidence of the snow made him a bit happy.

After coming out of the ghost tunnel this time, he retrieved some fragments of the time he spent with little You Yu in the old house. Half a minute ago, he recalled that on a snowy day, little You Yu pushed open the glass and stuck his white and clean hand out the window. He tried to use touch instead of visual perception to see the first snow.

Ordinary children waited for the first snow to come so they could play in the snow.

Yet for little You Yu, the arrival of the first snow only meant the arrival of a colder winter.

Chi Nan was trapped in the painting and could only watch quietly as little You Yu retracted his frozen hands. The melted snow dripped on the carpet along with his frozen red fingertips.

Little You Yu retracted back into his quilt, closed his eyes, and faced the window where the first snow was flying. He said, “Brother, once I am free, let’s go and play in the snow together.”

He was talking to the ‘Crying Boy,’ or perhaps to himself.

After withdrawing from his memories, Chi Nan thought, ‘You Yu probably likes snowy days. It’s no wonder why there was always snow floating outside the window at the Mosaic School. Unfortunately, it was only a nightmare.’

It would be nice if it could snow at the Dawn Base at this moment.

You Yu must be very happy to see the first snow falling when he came out of the conference room.

Thus, Chi Nan stared at the night sky for a long time. Then he found that white snow was falling down.

He even pressed his face against the glass. The corners of his lips had curved up without him noticing. He couldn’t learn the complex expression of ‘smiling,’ but at this moment, he unknowingly seemed to be smiling.

Jiang Yu felt incredulous as she stood in the corridor waiting for 207. “Is it actually snowing at the Dawn Base? This is the first time I’ve seen it.”

“Really? I’ve only been here five times and I’m lucky enough to happen to run into it.”

“You don’t know that this ghostly place is very monotonous and there is basically no weather change.” Jiang Yu’s mood was relaxed right now and she spoke more than usual. “Thus, this snow is very strange. It is almost like a bug.”

“Then this bug is pretty good,” Chi Nan said.

Dawn Base, shrouded in the first snow, looked grand and mournful through the French windows. The silent white floated in the eternal night and the light of the snow gave the illusion that the sky was about to brighten.

However, the sleepwalkers who stayed here knew that the sky would never brighten.

Jiang Yu was enveloped by an inexplicable sense of loneliness. She looked thoughtfully at Chi Nan and said, “Based on the favorability and the privilege binding, I can probably realize my wish and return to reality after one more instance.”

Chi Nan was sincerely happy for her. “That is really good.”

Jiang Yu smiled and looked over. “That Ye Chang before was 229 right?”

Chi Nan lowered his eyes and nodded. “Yes.”

“You like him, don’t you?” Jiang Yu asked casually while biting her cigarette.

Chi Nan was obviously stunned. Before he could speak, he suddenly heard someone outside the window who seemed to be calling his name.

The other party seemed to be standing very far away and the sound was as cold as snow. It reached his ears through the thick glass.

Chi Nan immediately swallowed back what he was about to say and carefully distinguished the sound coming from the snowy field.

It wasn’t the voice of You Yu and it wasn’t the voice of anyone he knew. It was not even…a human voice.

Proofreader: Kat