Chương 236: Trouble Comes Knocking

Watching it all work out exactly as I intended was deeply satisfying–Gilepre truly had no choice but to play by my rules if he wanted to stand a chance… During the first shift in particular, a victim of mine could absolutely refuse to engage with the office's quirks and just hide in a locker behind them or somewhere else inside the building, but if they weren't absolute idiots, they would realise that as the danger would ramp up, it would quickly become unsustainable to try to game the nightmare.

As such, it was best for someone enduring the trial to play as intended from the very beginning. Which led to a much greater spectacle for me. The foolish agent of Lunovis was filled with dread as he realised just how quickly Gelbimi could move around. My cute jester-cheerleader was pretty much always the automaton to start hostilities in the pre-final nightmares where she appeared.

Her swiftness and unpredictability allowed her to immediately set the tone and get people nervous about what would come after her as they struggled to keep sight of her. Of course, since the pre-final nightmares were typically lengthy and had difficulty that increased over time, she wasn't too powerful. Just as she was originally inside the A. R.

DL, Gelbimi is a curious airhead who easily gets distracted–After all, the entire way she functioned as a threat was that she wasn't always actively seeking out the trial participant. She spent most of her time just wandering around and would only actively hunt if given a very big reason to believe the victim was nearby. … I am actually quite surprised that this particular variant of the pre-final trial was selected.

It is one of the hardest, not just because it was extremely lengthy, but because the later shifts are insanely difficult. I tested them all myself while actively making myself akin to a more regular person–The only reason I am always able to win my own trials is because I know everything about them, a luxury far from given to the participants. Indeed, part of the challenge is learning how to effectively defend against my lovely clown gals.

They borrow pretty much everything they could do from the alternate reality, from how they attack to how they are dealt with, but I have refined and added many more things on top of it all. For example, there wasn't originally an emergency exit inside the security office, and originally, Gelbimi could only attack in a single manner. Pretty much all of my clown gals have several ways in which they can attack. There are special interactions, unique events that can affect the flow of the shift…

It's just way better than what it started off as, and I am very proud of what I have created so far. The only issue is that I can't spread my nightmares to more people at the moment. Otherwise, I would be able to enjoy many more shows, as well as check if everything worked as intended with the rest of my creations. It's a shame I can't watch him for long. The shifts are long for him, and I need to be doing stuff outside the Dreamscape. Gilepre seems to be doing quite fine, though. He is a professional, after all.

Once he got over his surprise, he showed that he was able to keep his cool and deal with the yellow clown girl. He didn't, and might never, know how she functioned exactly, but it didn't matter as long as he understood the basics. Gelbimi was intentionally simple. The next shift would immediately get a lot more technical, though… Don't get yourself killed too soon. I want to see you struggle and fight for your life, so don't mess up while the trial is still going easy on you.

I floated up in the air, but just as I was about to exit the Dreamscape and perhaps go enjoy Leou's delicious fluff, I noticed something pop up in the corner of my vision. … Is that another trial? I looked down at Gilepre. He was still in the same spot. Did someone get into the sewers too close to his real body or something? Leou is right here in the structure on the back of the flying beast, Mari and Xlown are immune to the nightmares… Is it one of Leou's guards?

No, what the hell would any of them be doing in the sewers long enough to be within range of 'Remember Me?' long enough for a nightmare to bloom within them? Just a worker of the sewers, then? I checked their schedules, though, and they only ever go down into the sewers when there is a problem, and I doubt there is any. I made sure to keep the pristine precisely to avoid foot traffic from people who could get caught within the gloomy radius emitted by Gilepre's real body.

I quickly flew over to this new nightmare, and dove down right next to the victim I wasn't expecting–It was a young man… I might actually know who he is. Oh, he's one of the little fools who came to my old house back then. I doubt this little fucker moved outside of Tolten. How the hell did he get caught up in my nightmare world? I wish I could physically manifest to interrogate him, but I couldn't directly interact with trial takers. That was reserved for the final trial.

Brat, don't you want to mutter aloud for me or something? Explain what happened to you in clear terms to yourself! Unfortunately, apart from making mouth movements that solely expressed his incomprehension at the situation, he did nothing of note. The little fool was in a very classic nightmare. He was in an abandoned house, and only the 'Cauchemar Beast' was roaming around looking to take a bite out of him. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. An abandoned house…

Maybe he was left scared of what happened back then, and the increase in strength of my nightmares ended up being good enough to consider him a target? That doesn't make sense. My nightmares have gotten stronger a while back by now. Why would he only show up at this moment? I don't think my nightmares have gotten any stronger since I unlocked the first part of the 'Nightmare Form'. Do you confirm, Nara? I confirm. I do not have an explanation either.

Nightmares can bloom in people who have emitted lots of negative emotions due to interactions with you, but you encountered this young man so long ago, and the interaction might have been frightening for him, but it was nothing traumatic. He didn't even properly see you If you are stumped about it, I doubt I can figure it out–Let's just say that he is weak-minded for now. I left the Dreamscape this time, and when I came back to myself inside of my monstrous steel body, we were already nearing Randlac.

Time does seem to pass more quickly when you are messing around inside your own mind. The huge beast landed, an act that somehow didn't cause any shaking for anyone inside the structure on its back, and there we were–Back home.

"Miss Leou. There is a group of people who have been seeking to speak with you" A guard immediately informed the snow leopard as soon as she stepped out. She ran one finger through her whiskers and sighed softly.

"I am a bit tired from this trip. If they come today, tell them to come back tomorrow morning. I will be resting" Big Sis, quick! Ask her if she wants to rest with you! No. Aww… Let's go find Xlown, and maybe Mari made some progress on mechanistry. For some reason, I found Xlown holed up inside my bedroom, currently in the midst of testing her power to change how her clothes looked.

"Mommy! Thanked may the gods be, you are back! There are some very bad and mean people who are trying to get into the tower. Including the halfling mage I talked about!" Xlown crawled into my shirt and chest cavity, popping out from the collar to wrap her arms around my neck and pressed her face against mine.

"Now–ow, Sweetie… I know you aren't that sca–scared of th–em, you can just say–say when you want a hug from y–your mommy""Mmh… But they hurt me pretty badly last time. They know my tricks and weaknesses better now!"

"Don't wor–rry. I'll pro–tect you" Eventually, Mari showed up as well, and she explained in clearer terms what was going on. The famed investigative mage–Binibelle–Had shown up in the company of her assistant and a group of adventurers headed by Slayer Blade. Which was… An odd coincidence, to say the least. I had run into these adventurers in Louwoods due to helping Sylbi get away from them. It had been a while since I had seen Sylbi, by the way… I know that they are quite powerful.

So, right now, a mage who got into conflict with my daughter is showing up here with adventurers I personally encountered in the past… The only way this could get more improbable is if I knew her assistant as well, whatever his name might be! Regardless, they are definitely not here by coincidence, since the halfling detective is a part of this. I can only imagine that she was able to track Xlown here.

I don't know how good that woman's capabilities are, but hopefully, she is only asking to see Leou because the snow leopard is the most influential person in town and well-known to be a good person. Binibelle surely wants to get the assistance of the most beloved and trustworthy local personality before actively beginning to search for my beautiful, adorable daughter. It's either that, or she already knows that Xlown is in here somehow. I patted Xlown's head.

With the backing of Leou, Binibelle wouldn't be able to do much to get to Xlown, so I wasn't very worried about this, but I did not like being in proximity to the halfling. My daughter had already informed me of what Binibelle had been up to back in Tolten. She was seeking answers to the death of my first five ghostly little sisters, but due to my connection to it all and my odd ability to mess up investigations of all kinds. She had been running into issues.

I wasn't certain of it, but it was pretty much a given that I was her prime suspect. After all, anyone would assume that the person with the bizarre ability to thoroughly obscure the truth was the killer. That was a logical assumption, so if she tried to use her nifty spells to learn things about me, and subsequently been denied or fed meaningless crumbs, then she would naturally suspect me more than anyone else. …

This ability of mine was–In my experience–Very good, but Binibelle was probably the best mage of the continent when it came to this specific kind of investigation-based spells. She might figure out that I was around if she attempted to cast more spells, or worse, she might actually be able to overpower my ability and actually learn things about me. I liked to have my privacy, so I didn't want this to happen, but attacking her inside the city wasn't exactly a great idea.

She was a bit too well-known and respected for me to do that. It would definitely pull attention from people, neither Leou nor I wanted here. I suppose I'll have to trust in this power of mine to do its job… I'll have to keep a low profile as well, good thing I picked up on wearing clothes that obscured my true appearance. Someone from Tolten could probably pick up on the fact that I was a perfect match for the creature that had appeared there a while back.

With the fuss that I had created, people probably still had a good memory of it all. Thankfully, I had things to occupy myself with–Namely, the question I had about why someone else had suddenly been dragged into the nightmare trials basically answered itself the next day. As per usual, Leou seemed to know everything right as it was happening. I haven't seen it, but her information network had to be developed beyond belief.