Chapter 186 - 183: The Forgotten Nightmare
Mrs. Ruby wasn’t actually obese; at most, she just had a little extra weight. It was her larger frame that made her seem big overall.
But after giving birth, she felt she’d gained weight and aged rapidly. She was always trying to slim down but had never succeeded.
Hearing her excited shout, her husband emerged from the bathroom with his toothbrush in his mouth to see what the fuss was about.
"Oh, congratulations! But dear, a person’s weight naturally fluctuates at different times of the day due to water retention and things like that..."
Before he could finish, he saw the dark look on his wife’s face and quickly shut up, focusing on brushing his teeth.
Of course Mrs. Ruby knew what her husband was saying, but she’d been weighing herself every single morning for a long time. She could tell when she had actually lost weight.
Happily, she grabbed her phone from the table, then stood back on the digital scale. Opening her phone’s camera app, she framed her feet and the scale’s reading in the shot.
CLICK.
And just like that, she had a photo to document her weight.
Then, grinning, she opened WeChat and posted an update with the picture to her account. Compared to Twitter or Facebook, she preferred this newer, popular app for more personal posts, as it offered better privacy and a more convenient, pressure-free way to interact.
"Woke up this morning and found my diet is finally paying off! Down 1 kg!"
She paired it with a picture she had taken just a few days ago.
Notifications for likes and comments started popping up one after another.
Mr. Ruby had already applied shaving gel and was about to shave, but he still felt drowsy.
He glanced at his wife, who was so excited she looked ten years younger.
’Women...’
After Mrs. Ruby posted her update, she habitually refreshed her feed to see what others were up to, but a strange expression gradually appeared on her face.
...
PinkButterfly: "Woke up to find I’ve lost weight, a full 0.6 kg. So happy!" —26 Likes
DoctorLovesBeautyToo: "I think I lost some weight today. I didn’t sleep well, but I’m in a great mood!" —12 Likes
GothicCavalrywoman: "Seriously, it looks like I have a real talent for weight loss. I’ve lost two kilograms in a week. At this rate, I’ll have my killer body back in no time!" —16 Likes
...
She scrolled through her feed. About five or six people had posted about losing weight. This struck Mrs. Ruby as odd, and it dampened her earlier excitement.
’Why are so many people posting similar updates today?’
But she didn’t give it much thought. Her post had already racked up over forty likes in a short time, the most of any similar update. She figured that on a popular new app like this, everyone in her circle probably refreshed their feeds around the same time.
She glanced again at the picture of the mirror she had posted yesterday. The number of likes had reached 120—a third of her friends list.
With a small smile, she went into the bathroom.
’I have to take the kid to school soon. I’d better hurry up, get ready, and make breakfast.’
Toasted bread, fried eggs, and bacon, along with fresh milk and coffee—it was a simple yet nutritious breakfast.
Mrs. Ruby quickly brought it to the table.
"Mama, Papa, good morning..."
Luna emerged, her eyes bleary with sleep, yawning nonstop.
"Sweetheart, did you not sleep well last night?"
Mrs. Ruby asked with concern.
"Yeah, I had a nightmare last night and didn’t sleep well."
The six- or seven-year-old child wasn’t spoiled. Without much complaint, she sat at the table and quietly ate her breakfast.
...
Brown and the twin brothers, who hadn’t rested well all night, finally saw the family of three emerge again.
"Stay sharp, they’re coming out!"
The three of them were far from ordinary; a single sleepless night hardly affected them.
This time, the twin brothers even managed to draw upon Qin Xiaoxia’s Magic Power, but none of the three, including Brown, detected anything.
"This time all three of them got back into the car, but we still didn’t feel anything."
The small white sedan had already driven away, but Brown’s vehicle didn’t move.
"Either the unknown Demon sensed us and has already left..."
Then, all three of them turned to look at the Ruby’s house.
"Or, it’s inside!"
The older twin finished his younger brother’s sentence.
Brown added another point.
"It’s also possible that it can evade our Perception!"
They hadn’t seen anything, and now they couldn’t even perceive anything. Even the most basic sense of danger seemed to be absent.
But would going directly into the house be too reckless? Not only would it be dangerous, but it would also alert the enemy.
The matter was reported to Qin Xiaoxia through Philier.
But just from the description, it seemed there were no casualties or sense of crisis. It didn’t sound like anything particularly formidable.
It was probably even less of a threat than the Invisible Insect Monster back in Jiutian.
He thought about the people in Los Angeles. Not to mention Baru, even Jenny and a few others were gradually becoming able to hold their own. The other three Quasi-Knights were no pushovers either. One had already begun to infiltrate the core of Hercules Security Company and was on track to take control. The other two had become influential figures at their schools, building wide networks among elite universities and keeping an eye on talented individuals and academic developments.
In contrast, there was the French Branch.
The twin brothers were tech geniuses with both intelligence and courage. As for Philier, if nothing else, he had the makings of a classic con man. The others, at the very least, had been consuming Mumu’s Magic Fruit for a long time, and their bodies had been transforming under their own Magic Power.
There were plenty of members with potential, but they always seemed to lack a backbone.
Qin Xiaoxia felt this was something of an opportunity. Besides, he really couldn’t get away himself. The others were either like Su Su, preparing to undergo "Elfification," or were unreliable types like Mumu, Doudou, and the Red Demoness.
So this time, he replied directly, telling them to first observe carefully, try to figure out what it was, and then resolve it themselves if they could.
This reply was exactly what Brown had wanted.
He had reported it earlier out of caution, but he could sense that both Philier and the twin brothers seemed relieved when they heard it was being escalated.
’This is not good!’
He knew very well this wasn’t an attitude of shirking responsibility. He knew his partners; none of them were lazy or cowardly.
It was a more fatal mindset: a doubt in their own abilities, a lack of self-confidence that hindered their growth. It was like a weaker version of his former self.
Perhaps their bodies had grown strong, but their minds hadn’t caught up. It was fine when dealing with ordinary people, but what did Dawn have to face?
In Brown’s opinion, it was no exaggeration to say that if the mentality of Dawn’s members fell short, the impact wouldn’t just be on themselves and the organization, but could even have a negative effect on the world.
He finally understood the heart-to-heart talk his Mentor, Baru, had with him before he left.
Baru himself had seen Brown off at Los Angeles Airport.
At the time, Baru had stated frankly that the pressure on this generation’s Wand-Holding Sage was immense; the burden of almost the entire organization rested on his shoulders alone.
Unlike in the past, when numerous heroes shared the burden, the current Dawn faced both internal and external threats. Many of their legacies were lost, the Magic Controllers needed to monitor vast areas, and there was only a single Sage.
The Silent Knight Order was also just beginning to recover, so they were severely lacking a core force. It was a time when the next generation was desperately needed to step up.
These words had deeply moved Brown. And with them, Baru had successfully convinced Brown to become his student, conveniently using his authority as a Mentor to order him to participate in the next, possibly even more brutal, advanced Knight training program.
Although Brown later realized he had kind of been tricked, he knew that what his Mentor had said was undoubtedly the truth.
...
So when the reply came from headquarters, while the others were merely trying to pump themselves up, Brown exploded with intense passion and motivation.
He also inspired everyone else to raise their morale and treat this as a test for themselves.
Aside from those who had to handle other work and the few who had already joined the military to infiltrate the French Army, the remaining ten members sprang into action.
They took turns standing guard outside the Ruby’s house and secretly planted Demonized Plants around their home.
If the Ruby family were observant enough, they would notice that many "weeds," "wild vines," and "wildflowers" had grown around their house in a short period of time.
Brown, with his superior physical constitution, never left the post. He could stay sharp and full of energy with at most one or two hours of sleep a day.
...
Late one night, the Ruby’s child was fine, but the couple was having nightmares at the same time.
In bed, Mrs. Ruby and Mr. Ruby were both letting out hoarse cries from their throats.
"HHH... ARGH... HHH..."
Their limbs twitched and stiffened involuntarily, and they clutched the bedsheets so tightly it seemed they would tear them to shreds.
On the dressing table in the room, inside that beautiful mirror, human figures were struggling.
Each of them looked like skeletons, like desiccated corpses with no moisture left. They too were letting out hoarse cries of "HHH... ARGH... HHH..."
The movements of two of them were almost identical to the couple on the bed.
Mrs. Ruby was having a nightmare.
In the dream, she was trapped in a cramped space, surrounded by pitch-black, deathly silence. She felt herself rotting, dying.
Suddenly, a glass surface appeared before her. As she writhed weakly, she pressed her face against it and saw the outside world.
She recognized that place. It was her home, her room!
And on the bed, another version of her and her husband were sleeping.
"Ah... save me... My... love... save me...!"
"Hhh... ah... Why can’t you hear me? Why?! Who is that woman? Ah...!"
She couldn’t know how terrifying her desiccated, grimy face looked at that moment. Her deep-set eye sockets were empty, containing only pure resentment.
But Brown and another young man standing guard outside heard none of this.
The next morning, when the Ruby couple woke up, their bedsheets were damp, soaked with sweat.
They’d had nightmares again last night but couldn’t remember the details.
This was the second day. When Mrs. Ruby stood on the scale, she found she had lost more weight. A faint smile appeared on her somewhat listless face.
It wasn’t much, only 0.5 kilograms, but that was just in one day. She had been worried she’d rebound.
P.S. Second Chapter for Saturday.