No - it should be said that there is almost no problem. Is there something serious wrong with her?
Think about it, since those damn hybrids came from the dream world into reality, it is normal for a person who is wandering in the dream world to be attacked by them there.
"It's not normal, so I plan to go into the dream world to investigate after I arrange things here."
In fact, she had already sent people to do so: those who came with Matt to help included the Shadow Lion branch of Xixinna. Unfortunately, half of these people were killed when the building collapsed. Only a dozen people and one level six agent were left. She sent them to explore the dream world first.
She wasn't particularly anxious, because after the trip to the Land of Origin, her spirit and Hitzfeld's were almost symbiotically intertwined. As long as the two of them were in close contact, they could even vaguely share thoughts and physical sensations. If Hitzfeld was in danger in the dream world, she would not be unaware of it.
Therefore, she should deal with the things outside step by step first. This is her responsibility, and these people are watching her now.
"Have the casualty reports been tallied?" she asked Darent.
"Eighteen people died, and the number of injured should be over 18," said Darent. "Kangana has ordered those canned soldiers to put on armor and dig down there. It is possible that the number will increase after daybreak."
"What about the witnesses?" Xia Yibing frowned, "Did anyone see that thing come in?"
“No.” This time it was Frick who answered, “I asked everyone when I was down there, and no one saw it. They can’t be lying.”
"What about 'getting out'?" the woman asked again, "When it grew bigger and burst the building...didn't anyone else see it?"
Darent, Frick, and Matt all shook their heads - this did not represent themselves, but the troops under their command.
"That's weird." Xia Yibing smiled. "Such a huge nightmare monster... came from a dream. When pushed to its limit, it expanded to over a hundred meters. After blowing up the building, it suddenly disappeared. There were no traces of it falling on the ground nearby, and there was no flesh and shell scattered after the explosion. I can only understand that it went back to its hometown."
My hometown is the dream world.
This is the only explanation, the only possibility, otherwise a monster of that size would not disappear out of thin air.
"This case is very challenging." Darent nodded, reaching out to take out a cigarette and lighting it for himself. "Very challenging... I have never encountered anything like this before."
No one.
Matt narrowed his eyes.
There are actually quite a few monsters that can sneak from nightmares into reality. Some nightmares can do this if they keep avoiding strangulation and grow up. They can freely shuttle back and forth between dreams and reality, and it is quite a headache to chase them.
There are also Corruptors. They can do it too. Every time a Corruptor is involved, there are heavy casualties, but at least they are all carried out in the dark, and no monster is so big that it can make such a huge noise...
Imagine if that thing expanded to more than a hundred meters at the beginning and then attacked the building. Matt couldn't help but feel a little scared.
He was proud in his bones, but even he had to admit that it was a good thing for Nightingale that they had not found these monsters before this group of people arrived.
"Wait." Another question suddenly occurred to him, "Why didn't that thing get bigger from the beginning?"
"Good question!" Darent blew a puff of smoke at him. "...It certainly can't do it."
"So it can't use that ability to grow indefinitely?" Matt immediately added, "That kind of growth is passive... uncontrollable. It can only be activated when it is on the verge of death?"
"This statement reminds me of a system." Xia Yibing frowned.
What she thought of was the "alienation" path of the evil god.
Even though Elsa has returned and the Nine Evil Gods are gone, as long as the gray fog is still there, the source of these things is still there, and there is no guarantee that other gray fog evil gods will not sneak in through the channel and continue to use this method to poison people's minds.
People who take the path of "alienation"...seem to become less and less human at around level 5, right?
They believe that the human body is a kind of shackles, and only by abandoning it and embracing the reality that descends from the deep space and universe can they complete "ascension" and enter the heavenly kingdom of those gods.
Therefore, most of the extraordinary people on the path of "alienation" are very deformed. Hitzfeld once described some examples to her, including orcs, twins, people with flipping skin, and even weird people whose whole bodies have become like jelly. These are what she had witnessed in Coldis's memory.
After these cases, the insects did not seem so surprising. Xia Yibing mainly thought that the "alienation" path was essentially a deception of the evil gods to the lower creatures - it was not like their fantasy that they could ascend to a higher level, and they were probably just vessels prepared by the evil gods for their advent.
Namiya is protected by the will of the mother tree, and those thoughts that are too chaotic and crazy should not be able to enter.
Even if there is gray fog as a passage, if they want to come through, they can only do so by creating a carrier and then relying on the carrier to descend.
The closer the Transcendents on the "Alienation" path get to higher-level thoughts, the more chaotic and crazy they become. Just like the "King of Gluttony" is also worried about losing his mind and becoming distorted after breaking through the 6th level, once the Transcendents on this path completely lose themselves, their degree of distortion will only be deeper and more exaggerated than those on other paths. This is the perfect container for them.
Could the sudden growth of the man-worm monster be a manifestation of "losing control"?
Xia Yibing pondered.
Knowing how to launch a sneak attack, and even knowing how to cut off the light source at the moment of the sneak attack, are undoubtedly manifestations of wisdom.
Although that thing didn't look like a human at all from the outside, just based on these analysis, she believed that the other party did these things with a plan and premeditation.
At that time, the other party's spirit should still be stable - controllable. It can resist the influence of madness and at least maintain its own sanity.
I cut off all its claws and it was lying on the ground twitching... The way its mouthparts were moving, it must have been very angry or very scared.
Intense emotions can exacerbate madness, so can its increase be understood as "out of control"?
The manifestation of its "loss of control" is that its body expands nearly a hundred times, and then it jumps into the dream world and disappears?
Too many mysteries, which means the unknown. Xia Yibing didn't like this feeling very much, and she couldn't wait to go to the dream world to track down the girl's condition.
Just then, a series of clanging footsteps were heard at the entrance of the corridor.
A power armored foot stepped into the hallway, followed by a full suit of armor, with only Ashley's face visible on it - she was not wearing a helmet.
Is this the end of the discussion?
Ashley looked at the scene in front of her nervously.
The atmosphere was a bit too depressing... She had never participated in such a formal decision-making meeting before, and she forgot all the wording she had thought of on the way.
"What's the matter?" Xia Yibing looked.
"Just..." Ashley stammered, "Captain Hayden's condition has been confirmed. He's fine, just a little frightened."
"Are you here just to report this?" Xia Yibing frowned slightly.
If you have the guts to call Lieutenant Colonel Cab for questioning right now, I might praise you. Haydn... Who cares about that puppet?
"There's also the matter of the church!" Ashley finished speaking quickly, "Over there in the church... it seems that the few gold warriors who came with us started fighting! The noise is said to be no less than here, and it caused a lot of panic in the surrounding area!"
It was the hound's fault.
Xia Yibing then remembered that Hitzfeld had made arrangements outside. She suppressed her thoughts and continued to ask, "What was the reason for the fight?"
"It seems to be the one called Belmaren. He thinks there is something wrong with the death of the district chief some time ago, so he has been insisting on opening the coffin and examining the body."
Ashley finished the long sentence in one breath, then took a deep breath: "Those local knights didn't check him, so he said the other side was a rebel, and the two sides started fighting, and then a few of our people went over to help."
"So, did we win?"
"?" The others turned to look at the woman at the same time, thinking, you don't care about the news that "the district chief is dead", and you have nothing to do but dwell on this?
Xia Yibing had her own considerations. She and Hitzfeld had already discussed the incident with the district chief, so it was not surprising. In comparison, she was more concerned about how strong Belmalen was.
The ones standing here now are Flick and Carlo, which means that the three people who went over were Marseille, Harrison and Josie.
1 vs 3, all are gold, Marseille is not an ascetic who can use the boiling blood potion, so no matter how you look at it, the team 1 has no chance of winning.
"It should be... a draw?" Ashley didn't understand the situation, she just relayed what she heard, "It is said that half of the church was destroyed... They couldn't do anything to Belmaren even if they joined forces. Belmaren had already run away when the police arrived."
This description is too vague. It is possible that You Renyou left on his own, or that he was beaten and ran away after being injured.
Forget it.
Looking out the window and staring at the light white color appearing in the sky, Xia Yibing decided to end the chaos here.
"Flick."
"I'm here."
Frick immediately realized from the change in her tone that she was about to issue a task, and responded with a correct attitude, which also served as a reminder to others.
Although the two departments have different systems and Director Yingshi has no control over him, the golden head, but the woman now has another identity as a special envoy, and it is right for him to obey orders.
"You all got enough sleep last night, so starting today you will be divided into shifts, each shift is responsible for 12 hours, make sure there are people on duty during the day and at night, and the number of people on duty at night should be twice that of the day."
"no problem."
"And Mapes."
"I'm listening."
"Did you find anything in Magnon last night?"
"I found...nothing. I heard something was going on here not long after I arrived, so I rushed back."
"You're back just in time. Let Carlo follow you later, and take the remaining agents to the East City Military Camp. Tell Lieutenant Colonel Cab to come over and say that I have something to discuss with him."
"It's easy."
"And finally Matt."
The woman turned to the man in black, "...I can trust you, right?"
"If you don't believe me," Matt unbuttoned several layers of clothing, pulled them apart to reveal his chest, "you can try stabbing it here."
"You know so many secrets, and the codes match. I'm not talking about that." Xia Yibing shook her head. "I mean, are you sure that all the disappearances happened at night?"
This is of vital importance and directly determines whether the decision to allocate more manpower to keep watch is right or wrong.
"I'll take my life as a guarantee."
"That's fine. Now take your men back to Magnion and guard the hospital you described in the file, and also guard Fran Middle School."
"I'll go now."
Matt retreated directly into the shadows. Darent, curious, also went in and explored for a while. When he came out, he exclaimed: "He disappeared!"
"It's safe during the day." Xia Yibing ignored him and continued to summarize the situation for them. "Maybe it's because the dream world is too far away from the ground during the day, so it's not convenient for them to move around... But this kind of thing is unpredictable, don't think that nothing will happen during the day."
Then she announced the disbandment of the team, told Ashley to be safe, and went upstairs alone to find Daryl in the new bedroom.
One third of the building collapsed, but about two thirds remain intact. The rooms here are habitable, but we can only live here for the time being.
When she came in, Daryl was standing guard at the window. Xia Yibing glanced at the bed and saw Hitzfeld lying on it, still unconscious.
This is not normal... it's too abnormal...
As the distance got closer, she could feel that the girl's spirit was in a highly active state. This meant that she was definitely not really asleep, her mind must be clear, and she was thinking about something.
What happened to her?
Regarding this point, the fastest way is to directly enter the dream world to check. Fortunately, Daryl also took out their big box. Xia Yibing found a few boxes of ointment from the box, unscrewed them one by one, smelled them, and picked out a box of sleep aid.
"Guard the doors and windows."
With her left hand on the holster and her right hand on her lower abdomen keeping a loose grip, Xia Yibing sat down on the chair with her clothes on and turned to instruct the mechanical bodyguard.
"I've told them not to bother you. Unless it's Maps Darent knocking on the door, just ignore it."
Daryl nodded in understanding.
"Hulala~"
At this time, the Blood Crystal Crow suddenly flew out of the jewelry box, "I hope you can take me with you!"
"..."Xia Yibing was silent.
"Give me a reason to take you."
"I'm well-informed!" Crow looked up. "After all, this is Xixin, isn't it? Although it looks like it has nothing to do with the ancient city, there may be some supernatural things... such as the ghosts of the ancient city. I can recognize them immediately!"
The ghosts of the ancient city? Is she talking about the city of the dead?
That makes sense.
"But I don't know how to get you to go in with me." Xia Yibing said, "I can only make sure that I can find her. I can't guarantee whether you can go in or come with me."
"It's none of your business. As long as you agree subjectively, there's no problem."
Then we have reached a consensus.
Xia Yibing lay down on the chair, and the Blood Crystal Crow landed on her shoulder and lay down. They fell asleep together while smelling the ointment.
……
When she opened her eyes, Xia Yibing felt like she had just come out of a freezer.
It's a place specifically used to store ice.
It is said that Paul Drake has invented a machine that can actively cool down. If it can be popularized, we will have a good summer in the future.
Wait, what am I thinking...
Rubbing her head, the woman felt that her thinking was much slower than usual.
This is not an illusion.
Including the feeling of coming out of the freezer.
Looking up, I seemed to be in a glass compartment. I was naked, and behind me was a tall cabinet with cold air coming out.
