The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 132: Woke up with a start

Zhang Mu eventually figured the truth regarding this matter. It was these infamous Nightmare Worm which he had heard in his past life, that dragged him and the others into a dream. Every dream was constructed from their personal memories.

The mutated wolfdog’s and the Obsidian Beetle’s memories should be simple, so the number of Nightmare Worms assigned to them was inadequate as opposed to the human being, Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui, who had occupied a large portion of them.

Especially Zhang Mu, as his vigilance was incredibly high, and he had a complex memory. At first, these Nightmare Worms were playing as a guide, but in the end, they had to gather a large number of them to alter his memory slightly. They induced a dire emotion into his dream naturally, to disintegrate his consciousness.

In contrast, the mutated wolfdog was drooling all over the floor with a weird smile on its face. Zhang Mu did not know the current situation between Yuan Rui, who was laying behind the mutated wolfdog, and the Obsidian Beetle. Anyway, they would not be any better than him. The possibility of being manipulated was related to the rank of the evolvers being manipulated. Even if they were higher by a rank, it did not help the matter, let alone how the type of ability would bring any differences.

It was good that Zhang Mu had heard of these Nightmare Worms before. Even though they had the shape of a worm, but their constitution was not that at all. In his past life, there were some high-ranked evolvers who were skilled at the psychic field, and managed to capture one of this notorious worm successfully. After dissecting, they discovered that it was not a worm at all.

It was an extraordinary kind of fungus. Under the appearance of a worm, there was a type of plant fibers inside the body. When cutting apart their body, they discovered that their internal part was structured just like a magnified mushroom.

This combination of worm and plants, when facing other creatures that were not two ranks higher than their evolve rank, including human and mutated animal, they would suffer great destruction to their vitality and soul.

Moreover, the more it targeted those with weaker willpower, and the more it constructed a more simplistic dream, the more effortless it was for them.

Now that Zhang Mu recalled his dream, it was really terrifying. He was pulled little by little into an abyss, and almost got himself into deep trouble.

If he did not cultivate his willpower, that dream would not last for such a long time. Every struggle he made each time were actually the natural manifestation of his subconscious from his willpower and the corruption from the outside world. That explained why Zhang Mu could escape from the fabricated silver mink’s claw, and from the swarm of second-ranked piranhas, whereby he threw an arm to escape.

In fact, that also proved that Zhang Mu’s resistance was getting weaker and weaker. Because with his subjective consciousness leading him, the remaining willpower had to defend for itself. Under such circumstances, whereby the majority of the Nightmare Worms gathered to attack Zhang Mu, revealed that Zhang Mu had a powerful psychological capability as he was able to hang on for such a long time.

Even so, Zhang Mu was almost defeated. If not for the psychological talisman hanging on his chest, most likely he would be drowned and became their food in half an hour for these neither plant nor worm type.

Zhang Mu still shuddered in fear when he recalled that dream. He gazed at the numerous Nightmare Worm, who had closed their eyes in front of him, as hairs raised all the way up to his spine. He had been listening to rumors from other people in the past, but now it was his turn to face these horrible creatures.

Being killed or becoming food to the mutated animals, actually seems nothing as it would be over in an instant and the pain would only last for a moment. However, the feeling of your soul slowly being nibbled away really make life worse than death.

Only when your soul was devoured completely, then you would find relief. Even so, when your soul was melted and integrated inside these creatures, thinking of it would also be disgusting.

But Zhang Mu knew that these Nightmare Worm had a weak close-ranged combat ability. Otherwise, they would not need to construct a dream to encroach on their prey’s soul. So to deal with them, there were only two options. One was to have external influence, the other one was to wake up by yourself, and fight head on.

The former was the main case for those who had escaped from the Nightmare Worm. Without external help, it was impossible to depend on themselves to wake up. But with only a small possibility, Zhang Mu had done it.

But if this was another person, then it might be more critical. He was fortunate that he had a psychological talisman to protects him from any psychic ability since his own willpower was not enough to sustain until the last moment when the Nightmare worm would wake up the talisman automatic defensive mechanism.

Hence, if one’s perseverance is up to standard, but without any psychological defense to warn them, they would also be fully engulfed because of the fatigue when they woke up.

Therefore, Zhang Mu was very lucky.

However, he did not know what to do anymore. He did not have any countermeasure for these creatures too. Others would not give him their own secret to deal with the Nightmare Worms, and to share with him the information about these Nightmare Worms were not easy too.

Zhang Mu’s current body was still suffering the aftereffects, causing his body to be weak as he was unable to stand up. He slowly shifted toward the mutated wolfdog, and rocked the dog’s head violently, “Hey, stupid dog, wake up.”

However, there was no reaction at all. As if it had a sweet dream, it licked Zhang Mu’s face just like licking a bone. Zhang Mu felt that this dog had no hope anymore, so he quickly pushed aside its head and turned to the corner behind it.

Yuan Rui’s expression looked very scared. Her whole being formed into a ball as she hugged her knees together and shivered.

Zhang Mu did not dare to touch her body now and swung his head to look at the Obsidian Beetle who turned small on the ground.

“Little Black, wake up. Stop sleeping anymore, wake up.” Zhang Mu’s anxious voice did not reach the Obsidian Beetle as it was not moving at all. Seeing this, Zhang Mu immediately use the blood connection between them to call him.

This time, the Obsidian Beetle finally moved a little, and Zhang Mu’s eye was filled with bliss. Did it work?

However, the Obsidian Beetle only moved its body a little and went back to its calm state. It merely turned its body only. Zhang Mu’s voice currently could not reach out to him, no matter the body or the mind. As if there was a thick black fabric had wrapped around the Obsidian Beetle, cutting off their connection.

It seems like there was no breakthrough from them. Zhang Mu was afraid that if he dragged this any longer, it would threaten the three of their lives, causing irreparable damage. He knew that he must make a decision now.

His eyes were focused on those Nightmare Worms. Zhang Mu not sure how would it affect Yuan Rui and the others if he woke up these Nightmare Worms, but it would be better than watching them crumble here.

Zhang Mu touched his Obsidian Beetle dagger and pushed against the body of the mutated wolfdog to give him a lift as he leaped over to a Nightmare Worm and pierce hardly into the fathead.

Just as the tip of the dragger touched the surface of the Nightmare Worm, it suddenly made a sharp wailing, just like a woman’s scream.

But after that, something happened that makes the back of Zhang Mu filled with goosebumps.

Every Nightmare Worm had woke up all at the same time. Each one of the Nightmare Worm had six pairs of compound eyes staring at Zhang Mu, who was holding the Obsidian Beetle that had stabbed into their companion.