Super Righteous Player
Chapter 433 - 430: Nightmare: Dream Within a Dream, Cleared!_1

Chapter 433: Chapter 430: Nightmare: Dream Within a Dream, Cleared!_1

As Annan’s voice fell.

The giant, ice-blue pupil outside the captain’s cabin where he and the white-haired youth were located also finally shone over and ceased moving.

For some reason, Annan felt an epiphany in his heart.

He did not move and calmly accepted the illumination of that light.

The ice-blue light shone behind Annan casting a long shadow that enclosed the "Denton" crouching on the ground.

——Indeed.

The gaze of Annan’s "self-inspection" did not harm Annan in the present in the slightest.

The injuries he had sustained in the nightmare before gradually began to heal.

And as Annan’s breath became steadier, the "Denton" opposite him curled up even more, his breath growing weaker and weaker.

Annans had gathered all seven fragments of fear.

In this world, there is a saying that a person will only be unlucky seven times in a row. Because "seven" is the number of luck and accident—his chances to directly attack Annan were only seven times.

Once the seven chances passed, the "accident" ended.

Now it was Annan’s home field.

The Eye of Self-Perception in the sky was like a firewall mechanism.

Its purpose was to find and exterminate "Denton," the intruder in the domain of consciousness.

This "Denton" was actually a kind of "Trojan"—he combined Annan’s memories, naturally part of Annan’s emotions, part of Annan’s will as well.

He would be judged as "Annan who had changed."

Originally, he would not have been detected by the Eye of Self-Perception.

When Denton had invaded the minds of others before, using this tactic had never failed once.

However, only Annan was different.

——Annan had an unwavering confidence and affirmation for his form, for his soul.

Annan was utterly certain that he would never change... or rather, Annan had long known the direction of his own changes.

Even the slightest impurity mixed in would be immediately destroyed by Annan.

...This steadfastness and severity towards oneself, it hardly seemed human.

"You’ve failed."

Annan raised an eyebrow and looked down at "Denton" with his hands in his pockets, "Do you know why you failed?"

"The cook stopped looking at the recipe and started studying military tactics?"

"Denton" responded subconsciously.

"——Oh wow, indeed, that’s so me!"

Yet Annan was not surprised or taken aback, instead he extended his hand, clapping vigorously and cheerfully for him, "Good catch!"

"...Aren’t you going to kill me?"

"Denton" lifted his head from the shadows, looking at Annan with a complex gaze, "Now you can do it."

"I can,"

Annan answered, "But I don’t trust you.

"I don’t believe that if I killed you here, you would just die so simply—I want to destroy you more cleanly, more thoroughly."

With Annan’s voice, the surrounding world trembled again.

The world changed again.

The captain’s room gradually collapsed, flattened. The three-dimensional world slowly turned into a flat plane, then turned into towering mountains.

The ice-blue pupil became even larger, even piercing through heaven and earth.

But this time, along with Annan being thrown into the new world... so was the very "Denton."

He had no ability to resist in front of the dominant Annan and was fixed on the Beheading Platform.

This Beheading Platform was identical to the one Annan had seen from the Pale Princess.

It was a tribunal for severing the undying.

——It was capable of ending everything.

"You tampered with others’ memories for your selfish desires."

Annan’s voice thundered in the sky.

"You stole others’ status and identity.

"You bullied the weak, wantonly manipulating and confusing others’ will.

"You lived by ’reaping’ and ’theft’... you’re a thief of the soul, Denton."

"What’s this, you want to judge me?"

"Denton" couldn’t help but laugh, "But that’s the philosophy of our Soul Snatching School. That’s how I’ve been educated since I was little.

"It’s all ’everyone for myself’ anyway. ’Individuals are weak and limited; they cannot achieve anything on their own. One must be adept at utilizing the strengths of others to survive in this world, to ascend to greater heights’."

"Since the purpose is to use others, does it matter whether the façade is moral, or if it holds any meaning?"

That was a sophist style of argument, much like Annan’s.

Disguising concept as a knife, seeking essence as a spear.

But Annan himself wasn’t led around by the nose.

Because this wisdom belonged to Annan himself.

"Indeed, using the strength of others to achieve one’s own goals—there is nothing wrong with this essence. It is also a choice in life."

Unexpectedly, Annan did not deny this.

He only replied softly, "But if you become accustomed to living by theft, to a life where things come to you without effort, you will make your soul lazy, unambitious, reluctant to change;

"If you consider yourself strong and casually toy with the fates and souls of the weak, you will become arrogant, no longer cautious in your actions;

"If you do not respect the pasts of others, your own will weakens, and your soul becomes less resilient.

"In every challenge you’ve encountered in the past, you’ve chosen the most despicable, the simplest answer. And this truancy has ultimately delivered you into the hell you’ve created with your own hands."

——That is, here and now.

"Your failure was inevitable. Even if you hadn’t met me, you would have met someone else. And in the end, you were bound to fail.

"——Because you were a loser from the beginning, that’s why you have come to me."

That was indeed the case.

——Failure.

All the fears that Denton had instilled in Annan were various scenarios and types of [Failure].

After all, it was because Denton himself harbored a deep-seated fear of failure.

Because he was thoroughly a failure.

And he was deeply frightened of his own failure, frightened of Bernadino who had defeated him with an unstoppable force... This fear was deeply engraved in his brain and had yet to be released.

The fear of being exposed.

The fear of power being rendered ineffective.

The fear of hesitation.

The fear of being powerless to resist.

The fear of self-sacrifice.

The fear of repeated failure.

And, the fear of facing death.

——Ah, I see.

Now it all makes sense.

Denton took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

This was not... Annan’s fear.

It was his own fear, manifesting as a nightmare.

——Because the memories of Annan mixed with those of Denton after he had absorbed them all had become muddled.

Though he intended to murder Annan, to trap his soul... Denton had instinctively created nightmares out of his own fears.

This was why Annan had so easily passed some levels.

It wasn’t that his dream control abilities were weak.

It was because deep down, his own fear of [Failure] had yet to dissipate.

"Yes, I have indeed failed..."

Denton said with a bitter smile, slowly lowering the head on the Beheading Platform.

Decades of playing with dreams, and yet he was not as adept as Annan in understanding the human heart, who wasn’t even a Soul Reaping Wizard.

This was truly...

In the moment when resignation filled his heart, the cordless blade of the Beheading Platform whooshed down.

Effortlessly, it severed Denton’s neck.

"——What an irony."

No need for mind reading.

Annan calmly continued Denton’s last words, saying so.

The world before his eyes turned into darkness in an instant.

Nightmare: Dreams Within a Dream——

——Fully Cleared.