Chapter Fifty-Three: Dreamscape 5

“Woof—”
The enormous mutant dog let out another furious roar and charged toward Long Yu.
To Long Yu, the mutant dog moved far too quickly for him to react. All he could do was constantly use spatial shifting to change his position, making it impossible for the dog to land an attack.
But this was no long-term solution. Continuously using spatial shifting drained his stamina rapidly, and even though these were short-range shifts, he couldn’t keep this up forever.
At this rate, Long Yu would exhaust himself to death in less than ten minutes, without the mutant dog even needing to land a fatal blow.
What should he do?
Sweat beaded densely on Long Yu’s forehead from the rapid loss of strength.
“Will the owner of that mysterious voice help me again this time?”
Helpless, Long Yu pinned all his hopes on that unknown, enigmatic being.
The owner of that voice had been helping him from the beginning, and now Long Yu could only choose to trust him.
Yet, the way things unfolded left Long Yu disappointed.
One minute passed.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
The mysterious voice never spoke again.
Ten minutes quickly slipped by, and Long Yu’s body reached its absolute limit!
Aching weakness flooded his entire body, gnawing at his mind bit by bit. Now, Long Yu was holding on by willpower alone—
Fueled solely by his fierce desire to survive, and by his love for his wife and daughter!
But even the strongest conviction could not bridge the vast gap in power.
Love could not work miracles.
Perseverance could only buy him a few more minutes—it couldn’t change the outcome.
Fourteen minutes in, Long Yu’s depleted stamina slowed him down so much that the mutant dog finally struck him with a heavy paw.
That blow shattered Long Yu’s last reserves of resistance. In that instant, even the will to fight was obliterated.
So be it—death will come! Lying on the ground, agony surged through his mind, overwhelming even the exhaustion brought on by such overexertion.
All he wanted now was for the mutant dog to end him quickly, so he could be free from this torment.
He only felt guilty toward his daughter and wife—it was his weakness that had failed to protect them.
It seemed they would all die together.
…
The mutant dog did not keep Long Yu waiting. In a single bite, it snapped his neck.

Long Yu’s consciousness faded entirely!
He did not know how much time passed before his awareness emerged in a strange, mysterious space—entirely white, without boundary.
Where was this place?
“Is anyone there?”
Long Yu shouted loudly.
But the answer was a deathly silence—so absolute that even his own voice seemed swallowed up.
“Is anyone there?”
He wandered aimlessly, calling out again and again!
But only silence replied.
The emptiness and stillness wrapped around him, filling Long Yu with a terror unlike death itself.
Even dying outright would be preferable to this.
…
A day passed!
Within this suffocating silence, Long Yu replayed his entire life: his birth, his parents, his classmates from primary school through university, meeting his wife, falling in love, marrying, the birth of his daughter, the onset of disaster, and finally, his own death.
Again and again, he relived every chapter of his life.
By the second day, the practice of recalling memories to pass the time no longer worked.
The oppressive stillness drove him to the edge of madness.
“If only someone could talk to me!”
“If not a person, then a dog, a cat—anything!”
“Even a bug, an ant—just something living!”
All Long Yu wanted was to see another living being. The loneliness was unbearable.
No matter what he did, the shadow of solitude clung to him.
By the third day, Long Yu began to consider suicide.
He tried biting through his tongue, tried holding his breath until he suffocated…
But nothing worked. All he achieved was pain—no release, no escape.
By the fourth day, he gave up on suicide. He simply lay on the ground, unmoving, refusing to think.
He could only endure the torment of silence, moment by moment.
Nine days passed this way, and on the tenth day, a massive screen appeared in the space.

On the screen was a replay of everything that happened after Long Yu encountered the mutant dog.
Scene by scene, the battle unfolded: Long Yu’s struggle, his death, then his daughter’s screams.
“Daddy, Daddy!”
Watching himself die before his daughter’s eyes, hearing her call out for him again and again, Long Yu felt a fresh wave of pain pierce his numbed heart.
Tears welled in his eyes.
The mutant dog tore through everyone—his daughter, his wife, and all the other people in the supermarket.
Everyone was dead! Long Yu, his daughter, his wife, and the rest.
The carnage on the screen made Long Yu’s heart ache unbearably.
After the mutant dog finished its slaughter and prepared to feast, the entire supermarket was suddenly bathed in white light. The mutant dog froze under the glow, unable to move.
Then, all the corpses began to float in the air. Blood, scattered organs, everything missing from their bodies slowly returned to its place.
“Hello, Long Yu. This is the Realm of Dream’s End. You had died, and I saved you.”
“What about my wife and daughter?” Long Yu asked at once. If he could be saved, perhaps they could as well.
“Their situation is dire, but their lives have been preserved.”
“To fully restore them, however, you’ll need to find certain things outside. I’ll tell you what you need when the time comes.”
…
“No matter what it takes, I will find them. I will save them!” Long Yu shouted with all his strength.
“First, finish watching these recordings. They show the changes that have taken place. You need to understand how this world has changed.”
With that, the mysterious voice vanished.
The giant screen continued to play.
“With the help of the mysterious voice, everyone in the small town awakened one after another, and reconstruction began.”
Long Yu’s body, though dead, was gradually restored until it was completely whole—yet he remained unconscious, his soul still lingering in the Realm of Dream’s End.
His soul was kept there to prevent it from dissipating, as a form of protection.
Long Yu had fulfilled the conditions required for resurrection. His body was retrieved from another space and placed in a separate room, awaiting the return of his soul and his revival…