I! Cleaner!

"You're... not too bad..."

Facing Leon, who not only successfully escaped the dreamscape despite being outnumbered three to one but even managed to bring the Snow Maiden out as well, the Scorpio Director dryly complimented him. However, seeming to feel a bit ashamed of being trapped by nightmares, he hesitated and explained:

"Well... I'm almost done here too, it's just a pity these six nightmares won't face me head-on.

Their task is probably to stall me, so they keep fleeing everywhere in the six layers of the dreamscape. Occasionally when I catch one and get rid of it, the other five nightmares will team up and revive it...

Anyway, you just wait outside for a bit; I'm struggling to move through the nightmares, not as fast as them. Let me think of a way to trap them all together first."

So your problem is that you can beat them, but you can't catch up with those nightmares, right?

After hearing the words from the Scorpio Director, Leon pondered slightly, then turned back to look at the Snow Maiden behind him.

Although the Snow Maiden now is a battle-damaged version, having lost her core ability to mask memories and even her ability to summon snowstorms is weakened, she was still empowered by the King of Nightmares as a nightmare envoy and possesses the ability to traverse nightmares freely.

So, if she could open a passage...

"Give up!"

Seeing through Leon's intentions at a glance, the Snow Maiden on the ground raised her slender neck, her eyes coldly and resentfully staring at Leon as she said:

"Damn human! Don't forget what you did to me! I will never help you!"

"..."

Ah, well, to be fair, I didn't really do anything excessive, did I? You were the one who troubled me first, so why are you making it seem like I was forcibly abducting a civilian girl?

Facing the Snow Maiden's deep-seated resentment behind him and the Scorpio Director's increasingly strange gaze in front, feeling like his reputation was being unjustly maligned, Leon couldn't help but argue:

"It's not like I destroyed your nightmare core, right? Other than dragging you out of the dream, I didn't do anything else, did I?"

"Now that it's come to this, what else do you want to do to me?"

Recalling the painful experience of being dragged out of the dream while crying and screaming, and her nightmare that was completely polluted by a strange melody, nearly as good as destroyed, the miserably unlucky Snow Maiden couldn't help but be overwhelmed with sadness.

...

Although nightmares are the masters of nightmares, they are not like humans who can have new dreams every night. Most nightmares have only one dreamscape they sustain — the one they were born in, grow in, and ultimately shall perish in.

For a nightmare, the importance of this symbiotic dreamscape is akin to a safe harbor for a ship, a hometown for a traveler, bearing unparalleled special significance, the bond between them tighter than the connection between plant roots and the earth.

Being forcibly dragged out of their symbiotic nightmare is akin to being rudely awakened from sleep, stripped naked, and left exposed on a busy street for a nightmare.

And this damned human, apart from dragging her out of her nightmare, has completely polluted her symbiotic nightmare. It's like not only stripping her bare on the street but also enthusiastically picking up a pen, drawing a row of wiggling turtles on her! It can be considered the ultimate humiliation for a nightmare!

"In any case, give up!"

Looking at the hateful human who destroyed everything of hers and indirectly led to her "excommunication from the nightmare realm," the red-eyed Snow Maiden defiantly vowed:

"Even if I wither under the sun tomorrow morning or get obliterated right now, I will never help you!"

"..."

Alright then...

Seeing the Snow Maiden's eyes, wishing she could devour him whole, Leon abandoned the idea of persuading her. Instead, he reached out, pointed at his cufflinks, and retrieved a roll of black snake skin, a demon skin scroll with vicious patterns, and a sharp knife.

Ding, Leon Laine used the [Unfair Snake Pact] to initiate a transaction.

Transaction Item: [Demon Register]

Transaction Target: The Snow Maiden in front of him.

Transaction Content: Herself.

"Mmm..."

After cutting a slice on his arm with the knife, Leon endured the pain and pressed the wound against the [Unfair Snake Pact], a large amount of dark red blood was forcibly extracted, quickly soaking into the snake skin scroll.

What... what is he doing?

Realizing something was amiss, the Snow Maiden on the ground was startled. Just as she was about to ask angrily, she felt a sudden weight on her chest; unbeknownst to her, the demon skin scroll Leon had taken out had been placed upon her.

"???"

Noticing that she inexplicably lost "ownership" of herself, and through the scroll that swallowed a large amount of blood, faintly linked to Leon, the Snow Maiden was instantly alarmed.

"You! What did you do to me?"

"Nothing."

Retrieving the [Plague-Infected Blood Band] and wrapping it around his arm, healing the wound he personally inflicted, a slightly pale Leon cut the rope tying the sleeping bag and then ordered:

"Get up, it's time to work."

"??!"

As Leon's words fell, the Snow Maiden, in horror, found that no matter how much her heart resisted, her body honestly responded, quickly crawling out of the sleeping bag.

And as per Leon's instructions, she silently infiltrated the nightmare world maintained by the other six nightmares and began to locate the trapped Scorpio Director.

No! No! No!!!

...

Damn, such an anomaly exists?

Seeing the Snow Maiden, her face full of reluctance but forced to follow Leon's commands and search the nightmare world, the Scorpio Director opened his dog mouth wide in shock.

Even though the Snow Maiden in front of him seemed to have suffered serious injuries and had even left the nightmare world she maintained, appearing even weaker than an average person, her rank and weight hadn't changed, still at the level of a primary cleaner.

And Leon, a tertiary cleaner, just by consuming some blood, forcibly suppressed the Snow Maiden's will, overriding control of a being far superior to him... Isn't this snake skin scroll a bit too "unfair"?

After scrutinizing the snake skin scroll in Leon's hand, the Scorpio Director couldn't suppress his curiosity and, while the Snow Maiden was opening up the nightmare world, asked his question.

After hearing his question, Leon shook his head, his expression slightly complex as he replied:

"Actually, it's not that overpowered... I mean, the restrictions on this thing's effects are significant, not as outrageous as you think, even quite fair.

Dream Realm Creatures, strictly speaking, do not have souls; they are merely aggregates of memories and fantasies, closer to 'objects' than 'people' in our human definition, so they can be directly exchanged.

As for why I can override her control... it's because what I used to complete the 'transaction' wasn't just blood, but also the demon skin scroll that appeared on her chest."

"That thing is called the [Demon Register], an anomaly with a Leon Value of 42 points. In terms of value, it's even higher than the Snow Maiden herself, so the price I paid was actually quite steep too."