Chapter 23

Hao Ren, using the streetlights, found a clump of black wolf hair on the ground. He felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead, but fortunately, he had encountered many strange things in the past two days, so his nerves had grown somewhat stronger. He didn't lose his composure in the face of this bizarre situation. After calming down, the first thing he did was to check for any suspicious "anomalies" around him—this was a lesson he had learned from spending two days with Lily and Vivian. When "abnormal beings" were active, there were always noticeable anomalies, such as Lily's oppressive animal aura and Vivian's blood-chilled wind. He thought that the indescribable situation, whether a dream or something else, might also be related to these "abnormal beings" (after all, he had been encountering such things lately), but after searching around, he found nothing unusual, and his always super-sensitive sixth sense remained quiet.

"Landlord?" Lily blinked her eyes, her unusually bright eyes looking somewhat eerie in the night. "What's wrong?"

"Do you feel anything... strange around here?" Hao Ren suddenly remembered that wolves were highly sensitive to danger and also recalled the terrifying scene of the wolf pack charging at him before he woke up from the nightmare. However, he shook his head and dismissed the second thought. "Like other 'abnormal beings.'"

Lily sniffed the air and then, under Hao Ren's speechless gaze, got down on the ground to sniff around carefully. She then stood up and shook her head. "No, it's all familiar scents. No strangers have been here. Landlord, did you encounter something?"

"Let's talk about it when we get back." Hao Ren clutched the hair in his hand and walked toward home. Lily, somewhat puzzled, followed behind but didn't forget to carry the lounge chair back—she was indeed a good guardian of the house.

In the living room, Hao Ren sat solemnly on the sofa, facing a confused Lily and a curious Vivian. "Roll" sat beside them, making the "family of four" complete. Since the coffee table had been destroyed by the two superwomen, a slightly old and worn low table was placed in front of them. Hao Ren put the clump of black wolf hair on the table and looked into Vivian's eyes. "I encountered something strange."

He then recounted the strange dream in as much detail as possible, emphasizing the vast grassland and the two silver moons in the sky. Finally, he pointed to the wolf hair on the table. "When I woke up, this was in my hand. Do you think I just had a cheap and fast version of a穿越 (time travel), or did I accidentally gain the ability to twist reality with my imagination?"

Vivian frowned, not bothering to respond to Hao Ren's off-the-cuff joke. She picked up a few strands of wolf hair and sniffed them. "The scent of a beast, and there's no trace of black magic. This is definitely from a natural animal. Big dog, your nose is better. Come and smell this."

Lily said "Oh" and sniffed the wolf hair deeply. "It seems a bit different from the wolf scent I'm familiar with, and it definitely carries a scent... different from this city, a mix of earth and grass. Only a werewolf could detect such subtle differences." After a while, she finally reacted and slapped the table. "Wait, who did you call a big dog?!"

"Hey, be gentle!" Hao Ren looked at his old table with concern. Fortunately, Lily was in human form and not using her full strength, so the table wouldn't end up like the coffee table. He then looked at Vivian. "What do you think is going on? Is this some kind of magic?"

"A simple dream is easy to explain. Various illusions and hypnosis techniques can achieve the same effect," Vivian said, still frowning. "I can create a dream that can make hundreds of people sleep together and not realize they are dreaming until they wake up. A person with a rich imagination would definitely think they had traveled through time. But bringing something out of a dream... that's unexplainable. At least, I don't know any magic that can do that. Of course, it might not be magic. The dark world is complex, and my knowledge is limited."

"Actually, it could be like this," Lily suddenly interjected, her face full of interest. "First, use an illusion or hypnosis to make the landlord have a nightmare, set the content of the nightmare, and then sneak over while he's sleeping to put the wolf hair in his hand..."

Vivian listened with a stunned expression and couldn't help but twitch her lips. "Can you not ruin the mood?"

Hao Ren thought Lily's theory made sense, despite being a bit ridiculous. It could perfectly solve the current problem. How to put it? Idiots have their own worldview, and it's usually simple, brutal, and very practical...

But Lily had already confirmed that there were no unfamiliar scents at the scene, so this ridiculous theory wasn't very convincing.

"In any case, I can be sure that what I encountered wasn't normal. The natural environment definitely can't make me have a dream where imagination erodes reality," Hao Ren sighed. "I've resigned myself to it. The more lice, the less it itches; the more debt, the less it worries. Whatever strange things come, let them come—before that, I need to find a way to stay alive. Hanging out with you super beings... it could be fatal!"

Vivian and Lily knew about Hao Ren's contract with a woman who claimed to be a goddess, so they didn't suggest leaving. Instead, they thought seriously about the situation. Vivian was a very smart girl (at least smarter than Lily). She could see that although Hao Ren was an ordinary, lazy, and trouble-averse young man, his courage and adaptability were surprisingly strong. Every time he encountered something that could shatter one's worldview, he would be surprised for only ten seconds before starting to analyze and find a way out. This time was no different. It was a rare quality. But even with strong courage and adaptability, Hao Ren was still an ordinary person, and Vivian had no idea how to make an ordinary person instantly become powerful.

"Didn't that Raven 12345 give you some kind of golden finger?" Lily asked, leaning on the table with curiosity. "I've read in human novels that when you work for a god, the Time Management Bureau should at least give you some protective gear."

"She might have forgotten, and I didn't ask," Hao Ren thought about it. "I'll ask her next time. Her phone number doesn't work, so I'll probably have to go back to that place... I'm starting to feel that the Time Management Bureau is becoming less reliable."

"Long-term solutions won't help with immediate problems. You've already had one strange dream, and since you didn't resolve the source in the dream, it will likely continue. You can't avoid sleeping, can you?" Vivian said, slowly transforming into her vampire form. "I'll make you a talisman. Whether it's an illusion or something else, it should suppress it and make it disappear quickly."

Hao Ren immediately thought of Vivian's collection of "talisman" and asked subconsciously, "Are your trinkets reliable?"

"Who told you about my treasures?" Vivian frowned. "I'm talking about the power of a high-level vampire!"

With that, Vivian bit her finger without hesitation, and a drop of blood with a strange golden-red glow appeared on her fingertip. "Come here, let me put this drop of blood on your hand. It should be enough to suppress that nightmare—if it's really an illusion."

Hao Ren hesitantly extended his hand, watching as Vivian applied the drop of blood with the strange glow to his hand. He couldn't help but mutter, "I remember that in legends, vampires can turn ordinary people into vampires with their blood. Do you think I might mutate?"

"Forget it, that's just a scare tactic," Vivian chuckled. "I've heard your human legends, about how one bite can create a new follower... if vampires could reproduce that easily, what would be left for humans? We would have covered Asia, Africa, and Europe by the Bronze Age, and we wouldn't have been driven to the brink by demon hunters and the church."

As she spoke about the history of vampires being driven to the edge by humans, she showed no hostility toward Hao Ren, which was quite interesting.

"Huh? How can this be?"

Vivian exclaimed in surprise: the moment her blood touched Hao Ren's skin, it disappeared rapidly, as if being absorbed at an astonishing speed.