Chapter 54: You’re My Hero After All

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

The hero didn’t come in the end.

It had already been ten hours since the invasion of the nightmare started.

In these ten hours, the Dream Eaters had cleared many levels in Dark Souls with great organization and military literacy under the command of Herring and the other Captains.

But starting from the tenth hour, the unrested Dream Eaters began to have mental breakdowns.

While fighting with the monsters in Dark Souls, Herring also had to comfort these team members. Because of this, she, who was always not very gentle, couldn’t stop killing at all.

This was the eleventh hour since their invasion. Rumors about the Dream Eaters being abandoned gradually became unstoppable.

Herring also gave up comforting those Dream Eaters who weren’t in her team. She put her attention on finishing the level…

In the eleventh hour of invasion, she had already defeated the last Lord of Cinder, the Twin Princes of Lothric, coming to the last guardian of Dark Souls, the “Soul of Cinder.”

The Soul of Cinder was originally a character prepared for the Lord of Nightmare. Even though it didn’t have self-consciousness, its combat strength was still very strong.

However, no matter how powerful it was, after figuring out its tricks, Herring only spent two hours to defeat it with the price of dying seven times, clearing its Health Points completely.

When the last bonfire lit up, Herring felt a little… empty in her mind. She felt like… that food she kept till the end, the one she thought was the most delicious, fell into the water and started to foam, but she still had to swallow it.

The smell was there, but it was a bit tasteless.

Herring didn’t have time to experience the charm of Dark Souls right now. She had already come to the core of this Nightmare Dungeon, or what she thought was the core.

This was the center of the world of Dark Souls. If she caused damage here, she would directly destroy this Nightmare Dungeon.

She wanted to force the Dream Maker behind the nightmare to show up this way… Perhaps, she and her team of Dream Eaters could leave this Nightmare Dungeon.

However…

“Invasion lock dismissed!”

“The support team is finally useful. Or has Dark Side dealt with all the nightmare consciousness invading his world?”

“I’ve had enough of the dogs in this nightmare. I can finally leave!”

Some good news came from the communication channel of the Dream Eaters. The Dream Eaters, who thought they would be trapped here their entire life, could finally leave this damn nightmare.

Dream Eaters hadn’t received any supplies in the last thirteen hours, so they chose to evacuate right away. Only Herring and a small number of elites stayed.

“Did we win?”

Herring couldn’t believe it as she looked at the exit option that appeared before her eyes. From her perspective, there was only one possibility: Dark Side had defeated the Lord of Nightmare that invaded his world.

Only this could give Dark Side power to reconnect with his Dream Eaters.

Then, there would be a reason for the Dream Maker behind this nightmare to show up!

Herring’s thought was soon proven correct. At the end of the last bonfire, someone with a ghost face appeared in front of Herring.

He applauded Herring gently, as if he was celebrating the birth of the first player to complete Dark Souls.

“Congratulations, even though I don’t know for what. I bet you’re not feeling much sense of achievement… after completing this little biscuit mode of Dark Souls.”

Qiu Ren narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly. At the same time, he stared at this girl, whose smokey makeup had traces of tears running down her face because of her unstoppable desire to kill.

“It’s enough as long as I can meet you.”

Hearing Qiu Ren’s voice, Herring was surprised that he was such a young Dream Maker.

But anyone could set their own image in a dream. Maybe Qiu Ren was just pretending to be young. However, this wasn’t Herring’s main focus.

“You mean I should feel honored?”

Before Qiu Ren could talk with her at length, Herring had already rushed towards him in a hurry. It looked like she was the type of person who liked to fight more rather than chatting.

Herring could release extreme power at a close range. When Qiu Ren saw her rushing towards him, he seemed to be looking at a female leopard ready to attack.

With such speed, Qiu Ren wouldn’t be able to avoid her at all if he relied on his body.

Fortunately… Qiu Ren didn’t have to dodge.

The second Herring was about to catch Qiu Ren, a dark shadow suddenly came out behind him, blocking Herring’s daggers that were swaying towards Qiu Ren.

The sharp daggers in Herring’s hands clashed against the shield formed by the black shadow. The clanging sound of metal and the hot sparks surged right away.

At this moment, Herring thought it was Qiu Ren’s defense, but she soon sensed who that black shadow was…

When Herring realized this, her eyes popped out, and she took a few steps backward. She couldn’t believe it as she looked at the black shadow circling around Qiu Ren.

“You…”

Herring could hardly believe her eyes as she stared into Qiu Ren’s eyes. Qiu Ren also put away his smile. He narrowed his eyes and suddenly widened them again to stare at the person in front of him.

“Your mentor doesn’t seem to like your reckless way of greeting as well.”

Qiu Ren told Herring the truth, which she wasn’t willing to accept. At this moment, Herring’s spirit was shaken more severely than when she learned that she could not leave this Nightmare Dungeon.

The black shadow that rose behind Qiu Ren was Dark Side himself, the dream consciousness that supported the Dream Eaters.

“What… exactly did you do?” Herring asked.

“It’s just an invitation. A hero should have a stage befitting its status. The environment where your mentor stays can’t give him that, and I… can,” replied Qiu Ren.

Herring couldn’t accept this truth at all. She waved the daggers in her hands again and attacked Qiu Ren, but the black shadow blocked Herring’s attacks several times. In the end, he directly knocked her down on the ground.

“Herring, stop! Go back to reality. Your mission… the mission of the Dream Eaters has already been completed,” Dark Side said with a deep voice.

“But sir, you…”

“Um… Stop. Don’t make this like a touching farewell before the moment of life and death.” Qiu Ren stopped the two of them from arguing. Herring and Dark Side indeed had a relationship like that between a teacher and a student.

According to Dark Side’s description, this Level S Dream Seed was miserable. A few years ago when he debuted, he had gained a lot of popularity with his movie. However, he soon became inferior to the other superheroes who had debuted in the same period.

After that, he was mobilized for military use. The special task force, the Dream Eaters, was then formed with him as the base.

Most Dream Eaters didn’t take Dark Side seriously. They didn’t like Dark Side at all, and they weren’t fans of Dark Side’s series of production either. They only treated him as a source of power in their dream world.

However, Herring was an exception; she was a true diehard fan of Dark Side because of her family and her personality. She was the kind of fan who bought three copies of Blu-ray discs for her collection at home. She probably had an entire collection of figures related to Dark Side.

The relationship between her and Dark Side was also a bit like that of a teacher and a student or a father and a daughter.

So, for Herring, it shook her belief when Dark Side joined the enemy’s side at this moment.

“I’m not planning to erase his true self and memories, and I’m not going to bench him either. From now on, I’ll make a series of new movie productions based on your mentor. I can assure you that you’ll definitely like these productions,” said Qiu Ren.

“Do you think… it’s possible?”

Herring was still sneering at Qiu Ren.

Like many others, there were some preconceptions in her mind that people in the Celestial Empire didn’t know how to create superhero-type productions, just like people in the Celestial Empire thought Americans and Europeans couldn’t grasp the essence of Journey to the West.

Then, please delete your hundreds of hours of game record of Dark Souls before saying that! 

How long has it been since the game was opened? And you’ve already been online for almost two hundred hours?

“It’s not for you to judge whether it’s possible or not. Besides, I’m not planning to let you go so easily.”

Qiu Ren took out a syringe with scarlet red liquid and threw it to Herring.

Herring caught this syringe that felt a bit old. The liquid flowing inside… was some crimson blood.

“You and your Dream Eaters have brought me so many troubles. Dark Side belongs to me now. The Dream Eaters organization won’t exist anymore from now on, and you also have to pay for your price. First, inject that thing into your body,” Qiu Ren said.

“What creature did this blood come from?”

Herring shook the liquid inside the glass syringe. It didn’t feel like human blood.

“It’s the Old God’s blood. The setting is like this… Are you feeling unsatisfied after finishing Dark Souls? There are other extended worlds hidden inside this Nightmare Dungeon, and the force in one of the worlds is much more suitable for you than Ashen One.”

Qiu Ren said as he threw the game console of “Bloodborne” to Herring.

“Dark Side can’t give you power anymore, so what about going into this world? Of course, you can’t reject me… You must either inject the Blood of the Old God to become a hunter or stay in this nightmare forever.”

Qiu Ren had already made it abundantly clear. He wanted Herring to be a double agent and sneak into the dream organization of the United States.

Herring indeed had no room for rejection. She flipped over the game introduction of Bloodborne in her hands. “Yharnam,” “Night of the Hunt,” “Blood Ministration,” these were all words she was very interested in.

At least the setting was more interesting than that of Dark Souls. It looked like it would be a pretty good Nightmare Dungeon for people who were competitive like her.

“What does the movie script you wrote for my mentor look like?”

Herring was still worried that the script Qiu Ren wrote was mere trash and would destroy the character, Dark Side.

“You just need to keep an eye on the release date. But if you become a hunter, you’ll be one of the first to get all the related information about the production of the movie.” Qiu Ren told Herring another irresistible condition.

Herring looked at Dark Side. When Dark Side nodded gently, she immediately injected the blood in the syringe into her body.

“I… accept your suggestion.”

Herring felt the surging energy inside her body. This time, she completely embraced the power from that Lord of Nightmare. She abandoned the identity of a Dream Eater and became a hunter!

“Very well. Now… it’s time for you to wake up in reality.”

When Qiu Ren sent the last Dream Eater in the Nightmare Dungeon away, the nightmare invasion war also ended… with Qiu Ren’s victory, a huge victory where he beat his enemies up!

After this war, Qiu Ren didn’t think there would be any other Lords of Nightmare overseas who would dare to despise their poor and helpless compatriots in the Celestial Empire.

And Qiu Ren had won on the battlefield of Nightmare Dungeons. Right now, it was time for him to fight on the battlefield of Dream Movies…

“The new you won’t disappoint your fans.” Qiu Ren felt that Dark Side had been looking in the direction where Herring left. “Whether it’s your front or back…”