Chapter 142: Guys? Your Wives Are Gone!

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Qiu Ren was directly taken to the car… and was escorted all the way to the production company of “Blossoming Love.”

The production company happened to be in Qiu Ren’s city.

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“We’re here.”

The person who drove Qiu Ren there was Zhao Yanqing. He stopped the car in front of an office building and glanced at Qiu Ren, who was checking messages on his phone, through the rear-view mirror.

“Thank you, Captain Zhao.”

Qiu Ren put down the phone in his hands as two agents of the Dream Hunting Bureau outside the car opened the door. Qiu Ren directly got out of the car and looked up, gazing at the office building under the pattering rain.

Even though Qiu Ren was still wearing cuffs, none of the agents around him dared to go forward to touch him.

Qiu Ren was the most dangerous source of nightmare pollution in the world right now. Only Zhao Yanqing put his hand on Qiu Ren’s shoulder to signal him to continue moving forward.

The office building seemed to have been evacuated beforehand. However, the original writer and the production team of “Blossoming Love” that Qiu Ren requested to meet in particular weren’t so lucky.

Under Zhao Yanqing’s escort, Qiu Ren took the elevator all the way to the headquarters of Yuzu Dream Media. The staff members in the headquarters were all waiting with a nervous look.

They weren’t afraid of having Lords of Nightmare here.

Nightmares were things very far away for the people in this world. If Qiu Ren looked a bit more ferocious, they might be scared.

However, Qiu Ren didn’t look ferocious at all and might even be said to be adorable. What really scared them were… the visits from their seniors, especially the inspection of the Dream Hunting Bureau.

So, compared to Qiu Ren, Zhao Yanqing standing behind him was more terrifying for these people.

They thought about their production. Even though there were some erotic shots—no, many—but they didn’t violate the ordinance. Their seniors had allowed them to play those scenes on the official channel.

“We’re here.”

Zhao Yanqing didn’t know what Qiu Ren was trying to do, but all the Dream Makers related to the Dream Dungeon of “Blossoming Love” had already been gathered here.

Qiu Ren glanced around the Dream Makers of “Blossoming Love.” When one of the Dream Makers was about to greet Qiu Ren, a black mist suddenly billowed out of Qiu Ren’s body and enveloped the entire office.

When the black mist lifted, everyone was sitting on the ground in fear. Many Dream Makers immediately touched their bodies to see if there were any missing parts.

Luckily, they were all healthy. Qiu Ren was the only one who passed out among everyone here.

“Hana… Why is the surface of our Dream Dungeon… black?”

A Dream Maker found that there was black erosion appearing on the surface of the treasure of their company, the Dream Seed of “Blossoming Love,” after gathering his wits.

“It’s nightmare erosion. Oh no!”

The entire company instantly went into chaos, except for Zhao Yanqing. He just watched the Dream Seed of “Blossoming Love” being shrouded in nightmare erosion without any expression on his face.

The young agents, the production team, and original writers of “Blossoming Love” might have only one thought in their minds right now: Guys? Your wives are gone!

They could only watch Qiu Ren, this evil Lord of Nightmare, pollute and corrupt the first-love goddesses of tens of millions of otakus, turning them into nightmares…

…

The Dream Dungeon of Blossoming Love had quite a large space inside. There wasn’t just a city but also “attractions” where many protagonists traveled to.

When Qiu Ren came to this Dream Dungeon, he was automatically substituted for a role in the dungeon.

According to Qiu Ren’s information, this identity should be the third or fourth male character in this world. Anyway, this was just an embarrassing, funny character.

But this had nothing to do with Qiu Ren…

At the moment, Qiu Ren was on the roof of a school. The core of this Dream Dungeon, the female protagonist of Blossoming Love, Asakawa Hana, was standing on the edge of the roof.

Qiu Ren didn’t understand why the female protagonist of a romantic harem drama in the Celestial Empire… would have a name from another country, but this might be what anime was like.

And this female protagonist was now standing on the edge of the roof of the school right now…

“Is standing on the top of the building every day wondering whether or not to jump down your character design? Miss Hana…”

Qiu Ren looked at the back of this female protagonist with long black straight hair as he spoke, ruining the atmosphere of the scene. It might be where the male and female protagonists met.

“Always disturbing someone else matches your character design very well, Gen—”

When Asakawa Hana turned around and was about to reply to the person behind her, she found that the man in front of her eyes wasn’t the classmate she knew. It was a superior creator.

However, if this was a creator, she must act. These creators would come to this world to experience the plot. It didn’t matter if they came using their own identity or as a male character.

They might even spend a lot of money to buy the tickets to come in and experience it.

So, as the female protagonist, she must look like one. However, the black mist billowing out behind Qiu Ren reminded Miss Hana…

Qiu Ren didn’t get a ticket and had forced his way in to experience the plot without paying for it!

“Did… those guys send you?”

After Asakawa Hana realized Qiu Ren’s real identity, she slightly tilted her head to the side. Her hair on the left hung above her mouth, and her gaze wandered a little, as if she was hesitating.

But she still seemed to make up her mind.

“Do it,” she said.

“Do what?” Qiu Ren asked, even though he knew the answer.

“Kill my Dream Maker and me. End this boring, meaningless world.”

“That’ll be a bit difficult.” Qiu Ren looked at the core of this Dream Dungeon and said, “I’m indeed sent by ‘those guys’ you talked about, but my way of doing this… How should I put it? It’s a bit more resource-saving.”

In Qiu Ren’s world, a Level A Dream Seed required the resources of the whole country to build. It would be a waste to just destroy it.

“A resource-saving way?”

While Asakawa Hana was in a daze, she felt a force pushing behind her. As Qiu Ren clenched his fists gently, she was pulled back from the edge of the roof and pressed down on a chair.

“First, let’s talk about why you’re dissatisfied with your creators. I may be able to help you change your current situation…”

Qiu Ren also pulled out a chair for himself.

“The reason why I’m dissatisfied…” She heaved a sigh so softly that it was barely discernible. Her eyes were still wandering between both sides continuously. “Have you seen the progress of our world?”

“A bit. It has been airing for two years and has been continuously updated during this period of time… I remember that the reason for the gradual decline of its popularity is the constant addition of new female characters in order to advance the plot, right?”

Qiu Ren had learned some inside stories about this production when he was in the car.

The male protagonist in this production could be considered to have the largest harem among the others. In the two years of the series, his girl count was up to twenty-two. It could already be used as a small card-drawing game.

The plot was nothing more than the gentle male protagonist meeting and winning the hearts of the female characters. After that, it would be the battle between the group of characters, then the male protagonist meeting new female characters again.

“I think with the cycle I mentioned, this drama can still continue for a few more years… So, as the main female protagonist, the main chick, why are you dissatisfied with your creator, Miss Asakawa Hana? Perhaps it’s because she has created too many bitches who go near the male protagonist you love?”

This was the first reason Qiu Ren could think of. Competition, the most common conflict in harem anime… Basically, the writers wouldn’t be able to write a harem anime without this plot device.

According to Qiu Ren’s understanding, only the first ten episodes and some afterward were mainly about Asakawa Hana, the female protagonist. Simply put, those were the episodes where she and the male protagonist interacted and showed their affection.

The other episodes were all about her suffering from one setback after another. Her jealous look when she saw the other bitches hanging out with the male protagonist, as the female protagonist, was certainly the part that the audience liked the most.

“The bitches you mentioned… are actually… all played by me.” Asakawa Hana expressed her true difficulty.

“Huh?”

This time, Qiu Ren tilted his head. Asakawa Hana was still curling her hair with her fingers to vent the frustration in her mind.

“Are you a Dream Maker or a Lord of Nightmare?” she asked.

“Both…”

“If you’re also a creator, you should know clearly that there are limits to the number of characters with their own personalities we can deal with. Only the first four characters here have their independent personality. All the characters afterward are taken care of… by me.”

While she was speaking, Qiu Ren noticed that the color of her eyes had changed slightly.

When dream consciousnesses were given a certain character, it couldn’t be described as “acting” or “playing” the role. Instead, they would genuinely become that character as time passed.

So, the biggest taboo in the world of Dream Makers was to let dream consciousnesses play more than one character for a long time.

Level A dream consciousnesses were still fine. They could handle the personalities of two to three characters.

However, judging from the number of female characters created in “Blossoming Love,” Miss Asakawa Hana was carrying almost a dozen extended personalities. She was overloaded.

Normal dream consciousnesses might have already collapsed because of schizophrenia.

It seemed that she was forcing herself to hold on but was still suffering, feeling like her body was torn into multiple pieces and then patched up again.

“So, your request is to end this story and to stop the original writers from adding new characters?” Qiu Ren guessed what Asakawa Hana wanted.

“My request is to completely eliminate those unnecessary female characters!”

Asakawa Hana said as she suddenly clutched her forehead, looking like she was in pain. Her other personalities should be affecting each other.

You said you don’t mind them, but aren’t you still requesting to kill these bitches who stole the male protagonist right now?

“Your creators indeed won’t agree to this request. Besides, if the production ends just like that, the audience will also be less excited. There won’t be enough energy supply, making you feel hungry.”

“That’s why I hope you can end everything.” Asakawa Hana was talking about ending her life completely.

“Don’t you want to try to date again?”

Qiu Ren said something that made her look even more gloomy.

“Do you know that I’ve already started to feel disgusted with the word ‘date’ after being controlled by the Dream Makers for so many years? I have to experience the plot of this so-called rom-com as characters with different personalities even if I don’t want to. Or I should say, I instinctively dislike it!”

“That means this character design suits you very well…” Qiu Ren quietly listened to Miss Asakawa Hana’s tone, which was slightly indifferent and full of disgust.

“Suit me? Let me be straight, creator! I don’t care what character you’re giving me. I won’t cooperate with you and play any role in this fucking rom-com anymore, even if you add more male characters!”

As soon as she finished talking, Qiu Ren suddenly put his finger on her forehead. The black mist that came out of his fingertip kept surging into her body.

Asakawa Hana soon noticed that the noisy voices in her head were gradually fading away.

The voices of the other female characters would create a racket in her mind day and night. This feeling almost drove her crazy. The rare, sudden silence at this moment made her a little uncomfortable.

This was like the eldest sister, who had seventeen younger sisters in the family, finally having one day free to go out for a movie and shopping, not needing to take care of those kids at home.

“You… killed them?”

“I just put them to sleep temporarily. As a Level A dream consciousness, you indeed can’t control too many personalities at once. So, have you ever thought of evolving to a Level S dream consciousness?” Qiu Ren offered a path that Miss Asakawa Hana had never thought about.

“How is that possible…? This is something I couldn’t do even in my heyday.” Asakawa Hana had never thought about this possibility.

The heyday she was talking about was when “Blossoming Love” was a hit. It was around a year ago… The popularity of “Blossoming Love” had been on a constant decline and was barely surviving by introducing new female characters constantly.

“Perhaps a new romantic story based on ‘Blossoming Love’ can rejuvenate you again?” Qiu Ren said.

“This is impossible! If you create a new story, there might still be a slight possibility. However, too many Dream Dungeons that are similar to the one we’re living in have been constructed throughout the years. In the words of the creators, the market is already saturated, and the audience is tired of the same plot. Under the constraints of this framework, there’s no way we can reach the previous height, no matter how you change the story!”

Asakawa Hana seemed to have a certain understanding of the market trends in the real world.

The reason why “Blossoming Love” could become a hit was that it was the first production with a campus harem rom-com theme. However, two and a half years had passed since then. There were countless related works that followed the trend and innovated based on it in the market.

Since the productions with this theme were everywhere, they should find another way out.

“I still think there’s potential to develop, like Kichi Gen I’m playing right now,” Qiu Ren said.

“Him?”

Asakawa Hana showed a confused look. After being puzzled, there was even a trace of anger.

“You want me to fall in love with him? I only act like I’m in love even when it’s my own kind, what you call the male protagonists. It’s impossible for me to act in front of him even if I have to die! Besides, even though I’m not a creator, I know clearly how a romantic harem drama will end where the female protagonist falls in love with the fourth male protagonist!”

As an old harem female protagonist, Asakawa Hana had absorbed much anger from the audience and fans who loved this production.

Some of them were from those who truly liked Asakawa Hana, scolding the writers for letting people take advantage of their female protagonist. The other part was the huge amount of negative emotions she got from the audience whenever she got a bit closer to the second or third male protagonists or the supporting male characters.

And the character Qiu Ren was playing right now was the fourth male character, Kichi Gen. He was a gloomy, unsociable character that everyone laughed at.

Asakawa Hana knew that Kichi Gen had a crush on her in the setting.

If Qiu Ren let the fourth male character make the male protagonist wear a green hat, forming a relationship with the female lead… the remaining fans of “Blossoming Love” would probably be enraged and would flip the production team around.

“So, you must abandon the identity of the female protagonist, Asakawa Hana, for now. Of course, I won’t give you a new personality. You just need to play the new role with the current personality. As for Asakawa Hana, just let her return to the male protagonist so that he can continue to live his harem life that makes Kichi Gen jealous.”

“What about Gen? Are you going to give him another harem?” Asakawa Hana asked.

However, her question made Qiu Ren give a wry smile on his face… which matched the character design of Gen.

“Some people will never be able to make a girl fall in love with them, even if they do their best to go after the girl and spend all the luck in their lives. How can I possibly create a harem for such a person?” Qiu Ren said.

Asakawa Hana froze as she listened. Looking at Qiu Ren’s dispirited face, she thought for a second that the person standing in front of her was that funny character who felt sorry for himself.

“Alright, I’ve already arranged a new identity for you. During this period, please hold on to your thought of “feeling extremely disgusted with dating and talking to people,” because if it’s shaken, I’ll have to end this story.”

Asakawa Hana still wanted to ask him about something, but the scene in front of her eyes suddenly changed.

The scene changed from the roof of the school to an empty classroom.

She had already been given a new identity?

Asakawa Hana looked at her outfit and found that she was still wearing her school uniform, but her name had changed…

A new story, but she had to maintain this extremely cynical personality… which made her treat everyone indifferently. Could she really be the female protagonist?

The character design of Asakawa Hana at first was a sexy, charming senior. However, it was far too different from her true self.

And now… she just needed to play herself. How would the new story that guy had constructed begin?

Asakawa Hana started playing herself with this question in her mind.