Chapter 107: Lifeline

“I really don’t understand why the boss wants to work with these guys. Do they want to abduct those people?”

As members of the Dream Eaters, Maine and Herring were assigned to this escort mission.

Going deep into the Level SS Nightmare Dungeon of the Army was a dangerous, life-risking mission for normal Dream Eaters. However, it was an easy job for Maine. Actually, in the eyes of this “Dream Seed Hunter,” soldiers of the Army walking around the square weren’t some extremely dangerous enemies or monsters but walking diamonds and gold!

He could become rich by randomly abducting one of them.

This was also how most Dream Makers of Supernova Pictures treated the Dream Seeds. The Dream Seeds were tools and commodities for making profits.

“Don’t try to do anything stupid. Just do what we should do.”

Herring didn’t want to lose her job as a Dream Eater this time. On the one hand, although she was a double agent, she was reluctant to give up her identity in Team T of the Dream Eaters.

On the other hand, Supernova Pictures had a lot of threats that might endanger Qiu Ren. Herring must go deep into the enemy’s base camp to get first-hand intelligence.

Qiu Ren was the Dream Maker of Batman. Threatening him would be threatening her idol, Batman. Herring could understand this simple logic.

“I’m not trying to do anything stupid. In my opinion, the boss is bringing food to them, and the reason why he’s feeding them is that he wants to get something from them or wants them to do something for him.”

Maine’s gaze landed on the representative of Supernova Pictures and the Commander of the Army.

The Chief Dream Maker of Supernova Pictures, Joe Finn, was responsible for the negotiation this time, but he had disguised himself well. Nobody would be able to recognize his real identity if they weren’t internal staff members.

“These guys wanted to enslave the humans at the beginning. I don’t think they’d accept jobs that benefit humans.” Maine’s thoughts proved true very soon.

“Tell me what you want.”

The Commander of the Army didn’t pretend to not know them. After he received the crystal provided by Supernova Pictures, he was willing to listen to what Supernova Pictures and the League of Gods wanted.

“I hope it’s not a suggestion that wastes my time.”

“What we want is very simple. We just hope that you… and the members of your Army can inherit some character names and powers.”

The Chief Dream Maker didn’t test the other party’s patience. He directly took out a name list and handed it to the Commander.

There weren’t just English names on the list but also a bunch of Chinese names.

Nightmare consciousness could read different human languages. Of course, that included Chinese… When the Commander of the Army looked at his name list, it was like the killers of a top assassination organization… reading a list of their targets.

“Wukong, Guan Yu, Zhuge…”

The Commander of the Army subconsciously read a series of names that made Herring feel weird.

“Which productions are those character names from?”

Maine felt like they sounded a bit familiar. Even though he knew quite a lot about the Dream Seeds in the Celestial Empire, he wasn’t interested in the dream productions carried by those Dream Seeds.

“Journey to the West and the Three Kingdoms…” Herring was an indoorsy girl in daily life, which was why she knew a little about each Dream Dungeon production. “The Dream Seeds sporting these two productions are of the highest standard in the Celestial Empire. Those names he read were characters in these two productions.”

“It turns out they still haven’t given up on that plan.”

Hearing Herring’s explanation, Maine immediately understood what Supernova Pictures wanted to do.

The cultural plundering plan.

“You want my Army to transform into these character images?” the Commander of the Army asked.

“Not only their images and names but also… the pollution… To be precise, you’re taking away their powers.” Joe Finn changed the way of description that was more acceptable to the Commander.

The American officials had been conspiring for the cultural plundering plan over the years.

Their purpose was to construct images based on the dream consciousness that protected the Celestial Empire. The most typical example was Wukong.

They wanted to do derivative work based on the character image of Wukong, changing and distorting the impression of viewers worldwide, to achieve the purpose of affecting the main body of the Great Sage.

And yet, this plan was only implemented on a small scale in the past. Even though companies overseas indeed produced a lot of popular productions related to Journey to the West, they couldn’t change the image and status of the Great Sage in the minds of people in the Celestial Empire at all.

The Supernova incident this time… inspired the officials of the film industry instead. The arrival of the Army also provided Supernova Pictures a breakthrough.

In the past, Dream Seeds used for carrying the re-creations were all low-level Level B Dream Seeds. Even if the character was named Wukong, it had a negligible impact on the original body of the character.

However, it would be different if the Army was willing to help. It might be very difficult to affect Journey to the West but threatening the Three Kingdoms with a lower level seemed much more feasible.

“There are a lot of characters in this Dream Dungeon, so the power of the Dream Dungeon itself is very much scattered.”

Joe Finn started explaining the condition of the three Dream Seeds with the theme of the Three Kingdoms in a way that the Commander could understand.

“This Dream Seed will help you reconstruct your image and build a connection between you and the Dream Seed related to this production. You just need to use the images of these characters to inherit their powers. This will also be a way of collecting energy for you.”

Joe Finn’s request made the Commander of the Army ponder…

“If you’re worried about… Alaina—I think that’s her name—you can leave the safety of this Lord of Nightmare to us,” Joe Finn said directly without hiding anything, “Among the top 150 participants on the leaderboard of the Alaina Cup, two-third of them are our people… The final victory of this somewhat ridiculous competition will definitely belong to us. After winning, if the organizer is really willing to hand over your mother, we’ll return her to you.

“But do you really think the organizer would simply… give the lifeline of a Level SS Nightmare Seed to someone else?”

Joe Finn’s words echoed with this Commander.

This was also the reason why the Commander of the Black Mist Army didn’t put his final hope on winning the Alaina Cup at all, even though he had sent some of his members to participate in the competition.

The organizer had never truly promised that the winner would be eligible to take their mother home. Even if he made a promise, there was a possibility that he might go back on his words.

“The organizer of the Alaina Cup is under the protection of these two types of Dream Seeds.” Joe Finn said as he pointed at Journey to the West and the Three Kingdoms, “If you put pressure on one of the works and steal the names, images, and powers of the characters in this production… to use them as bargaining chips, you may have more hope of making the organizer of the Alaina Cup return your mother to you.”

It seemed quite right?

Qiu Ren had taken away the mother of the Black Mist Army and had control of their lifeline.

Then, what the Army should do wasn’t to run to the Dream Dungeon Qiu Ren constructed and work for him but to think of a way to get control of his lifeline.

The Army had almost no intelligence network in this world, so the intel provided by Supernova Pictures truly showed this Commander a new way out!

Just as he was about to accept the job from Supernova Pictures and the Gods, a plume of black mist appeared behind Joe Finn. Along came the deep voice of the Hidden Court Master, “Risor! Our enemies are the creators and Shadow Beasts, not our compatriots! You shouldn’t work with humans to harm other compatriots!”

“They’re the ones… who chose to protect the creators. Besides, what are you going to do if we don’t do so? Watching Mother become an item these guys use to celebrate victory?”

The Commander of the Army questioned Riper, who didn’t have any clear form, as that plume of black mist showed the Commander a footage from his memory.

The footage recorded the life of their mother, Alaina, under Qiu Ren’s protection.

“As our active time in the Warzone increases, Mother’s power is also growing stronger. As long as we gain enough… popularity in the Warzone, we’ll be able to help Mother recover.”

This was another big reason why Riper had changed his attitude towards Qiu Ren. After his mother was taken in by Qiu Ren temporarily, her body condition had indeed become better.

Her control over this Nightmare Dungeon would slowly increase as well.

“Popularity? Riper! When did you start trying to please the creators to get food… like those dolls?”

The Commander picked up the crystal brought by Supernova Pictures and said, “This thing! It’s so tiny, but it can give you even more energy than you can get by pleasing a hundred creators!”

“But you’re also accepting this crystal from a creator. There’s essentially no difference.” The Master didn’t mind arguing with his colleague before falling out with him.

“We were born to fight for our mother, not for pleasing the creators. For those creators, we’re nightmares, enemies, and monsters right now. These words are nowhere near being attractive!”

“We… can change that, including the form of our powers, as long as we have an outstanding creator.”

“You’re committing suicide. Creators will only distort the power our mother gave you and make you lose your form completely… Then…”

Before the Commander finished his sentence, the black mist next to Joe Finn suddenly lifted. The Hidden Court Master appeared on his side.

“You have two choices right now.” Riper looked at the Dream Eaters of Supernova Pictures and the elites of the Gods here and said, “Accept the Power of Shadows and the Darkin’s Power and defeat all the dream consciousness here, or reject this gift and become a dead body before going back to the real world.”