Chapter 126: Chapter 130: Your Notorious Reputation Is Known to All
“I don’t mean to offend.”
Just as the figure started to speak, Sherry suddenly heard a “boom” from nowhere—an unreal booming that existed neither in this dreamscape nor in the memory, it exploded directly in her mind, and amidst this booming, the distant sounds of flames burning and crowds crying out in chaos instantly dissipated.
The entire world suddenly became incredibly silent.
The next second, Sherry noticed her body had changed—she had reverted to her seventeen-year-old self, no longer wearing the familiar nightgown from her memory but now dressed in her usual black skirt. Her arm, which had been devoured by the Abyssal Hound, had somehow restored itself—a pitch-black chain extended from her arm, at the end of which A-dog seemed to be sleeping, quietly lying in the corner of the room, the blood-red glint in its eyes flickering dimly.
Sherry suddenly sat up, startled and tense, looking at the figure sitting on the bed.
She didn’t know who this figure was, but she knew that a powerful being had penetrated the Profound Curse and invaded her dreamscape.
Even she, the “master of the dreamscape,” couldn’t detect the intruder in advance, which indicated that the invader was a presence too powerful to contend with.
“Who… who are you?!”
Duncan slowly stood up, presenting himself as “Captain Duncan,” his original posture in this conscious-level world, oppressive in height, making Sherry subconsciously take a half step back.
“You haven’t seen me in this form before, it’s normal for you to react this way,” Duncan said gravely, “I sensed you were having a nightmare and came to see.”
“I sensed… came to see…” Sherry blinked, slightly confused, before catching on slowly, “Wait, you are…”
“Let’s reintroduce myself, I’m Duncan,” the gloomy yet authoritative man revealed a slight smile, “Duncan Ebnomal.”
He gave his name because he was not worried about Sherry daring to share this encounter—even if she were foolhardy enough, that timely wise Abyssal Hound would make her keep this matter buried within herself forever.
“Duncan… Mr. Duncan? You are Mr. Duncan?!” Sherry’s eyes widened in shock, a feeling of palpitations quietly spreading within her, but then she was confused again, “But aren’t you called Duncan Strain? What is Ebnomal?”
Duncan: “…?”
Her reaction momentarily confounded him, making him pause for two seconds before he spoke curiously, “You… haven’t heard of this name?”
After a thought, Sherry honestly shook her head: “No.”
Then it dawned on her, her face marked with fear, “Should I… have heard of this name?”
Duncan suddenly realized this girl truly hadn’t heard of the name “Endless Sea Moving Catastrophe.” Her reaction was genuine, and regardless of how fierce Captain Duncan’s reputation was, it seemed some people truly had limited knowledge, which indeed was somewhat deflating. He couldn’t help but ask, “…are you illiterate?”
To his surprise, Sherry actually lowered her head in silence.
“Forget it, that’s not important,” seeing her reaction, Duncan immediately ended the topic, his gaze slowly sweeping across the small room. By this time, the noise and fires in the streets outside had already calmed down, resembling a hastily concluded drama, leaving only dark red chaotic light spreading outside the window. Duncan’s gaze fell on Sherry, his expression serene, “This is what you experienced back then, right?”
Sherry still had her head lowered: “… Yes.”
“… I did not intend to pry, but I discovered your secret in the process of entering,” Duncan expressed sincerely, “I’m sorry.”
Sherry was stunned, never having expected that this Evil God-like terrifying being was actually apologizing to her. Her mind’s turmoil swiftly converged into waves of cold sweat, and she hurriedly stepped back two steps, “No… no, it’s okay, how can you apologize to me…”
“Regardless, snooping on a lady’s dreamscape is not polite—even if it’s a ‘small’ lady like you,” Duncan revealed a slight smile, then his gaze fell on the Abyssal Hound, “When will it wake up?”
“I don’t know…” Sherry appeared somewhat at a loss as she looked at A-dog sleeping, “This nightmare has never changed like this before, I don’t…”
She had only gotten halfway through her sentence when she heard a faint sound of bone fragments clinking from within Adog’s body. The next second, Adog, who had been in a deep sleep just a moment before, slightly shook its head, the red light in its hollow eye sockets slowly brightening. The next second, the terrifying giant hound suddenly stood up.
Perhaps the nightmare from the moment before still had some lingering effects, causing Sherry to take a half step back instinctively, but she quickly recovered and stepped up to Adog’s side.
“Sherry…” Adog finally began to wake, suddenly noticing the room around it. Its gaze fell on Sherry’s arm in the next second, its tone tinged with a hint of panic, “I…”
“It’s okay, just a nightmare,” Sherry smiled and stepped forward to hug Adog’s huge and hideous skeletal head, “You had a nightmare too.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Adog kept repeating in a low voice, while the chain that linked it to Sherry rattled, “Does it hurt? Does it hurt a lot?”
Sherry awkwardly turned her head, “Stop being melodramatic… there are strangers watching us…”
“Strangers?” Adog paused, finally noticing that there was another person in the room. Then, it clearly recognized Duncan’s appearance, saw his captain’s uniform, and his gloomy and imposing face. More importantly, it could see the cascading green flames floating behind Duncan.
“Holy crap!” Adog suddenly exclaimed, pulling Sherry behind him reflexively the next second, positioning his huge body between Sherry and Duncan. Its bones clattered and shook, but it still tried hard to look in Duncan’s direction, “Is… is that the Ghost Captain!?”
Duncan raised an eyebrow upon seeing the reaction, “Sherry doesn’t recognize me in this form—you do?”
“Adog?” Sherry quickly caught on, “Adog, have you seen him?”
“Seen him? At this time, all the Profound Demons that have seen him are mostly sent to Subspace!” The black smoke inside Adog fluctuated, its tone carrying terror, “The moving disaster of the Endless Sea… why is he in your Dreamscape?!”
“Endless Sea moving disaster?” Sherry was still confused, “Why have you never mentioned this to me…”
“Nonsense! There’s too much I haven’t told you—the world is full of disasters, we can’t cover them all, and under normal circumstances, who would think you’d meet a Ghost Captain on land!”
Sherry listened in bewilderment, seeming to want to ask something else, but Duncan suddenly broke the silence—he quietly gazed at the defensive Abyssal Hound, “I thought only people of the real world were this afraid of me, I didn’t expect to have such a reputation among the Profound Demons too.”
Adog stepped back slightly, maintaining a fully concentrated defensive stance as it spoke, “You underestimate yourself—your notoriety is known from the Mysterious Deep Sea to the real world, even the heartless Profound Demons know to instinctively avoid your Homeloss… honestly, if the Profound Demons had hearts, even the fear demons of the Gray Ashes would probably tattoo your image on their backs to embolden themselves…”
Duncan thought for a moment, suspecting that the other party was actually praising him—in its own supposed way.
Meanwhile, Sherry overheard Adog’s faint mutterings—through the spiritual connection established by the chain, she was the only one who could hear, “Sherry, I’ll try to entangle this shadow while you try hard to wake up. He is likely just a Spiritual Body projection, I can hold him off for a while, and once you break free from this Dreamscape, he won’t be able to follow…”
Sherry didn’t catch on immediately—or rather, she and Adog weren’t quite on the same wavelength, “Ah… then what?”
Adog spoke urgently, “Then you hurry to the next room, seek help from that important person—say you’re entangled by the Homeloss, be earnest, even offer to become his follower for protection if needed. We can’t worry about safety now; being torn apart by the Homeloss and dragged into Subspace is far more dangerous than becoming a follower of a Subspace Evil God—at least the latter still counts as ‘alive’…”
Sherry showed no reaction.
“Sherry?” Adog grew more anxious, “Sherry, don’t space out! Use this disruption in the Dreamscape, figure out how to wake up! Let the big shot handle the big shot; it’s our only…”
Adog cut off halfway when Sherry finally responded in their spiritual connection:
“Adog… the two big shots you’re talking about seem to be the same person…”
Adog: “…?”
The conversation in the spiritual connection took only an instant.
The Abyssal Hound somewhat dazedly lifted its head.
In its view, the Ghost Captain, holding the fire of Spiritual Bodies, simply quietly watched this side, revealing a smile as cold and dark as Subspace.