Dark Moon Era

A rustling noise whispered beside his ears. Under the dim light, his grandmother was there sewing his shirt. It had been a long day as she kept rubbing her already red eyes.

Tang Ling’s eyes blurred.

Grandmother zombie used its only hand to support its torso up as it was trying to get back on its feet.

Tang Ling let his tears roll down freely as he moved forward.

He saw his grandmother’s rough hands hold his own petite ones at her heart.

“Xiao Ling, are you cold? I’ll rub your hands.”

“Xiao Ling, good boy, don’t cry. Look at what I have here. It’s a piece of jerky. I’ll cook it for you.”

“Xiao Ling, Grandmother found a piece of shirt under the dumpster today. It’s quite new. I’ll alter it to your size, so you’ll have new clothes to wear.

“Xiao Ling…”

“Ugh…” Tang Ling started to fall apart. He sobbed his lungs out and had no intention of concealing his emotions.

Grandmother zombie looked at the food coming its way excitingly. It finally managed to stand up in a twisted way and jumped towards Tang Ling.

“Grand… Ugh…” Tang Ling messily wiped his tears away. Ever since that night, he had been drowning in sorrow. The sadness felt like he had been through countless moons yet was unable to break free from the nightmare.

It pounced towards Tang Ling, but he did not even look as he instinctively reached out and grabbed his grandmother by the neck.

“Why is that monster crying so badly?” The little girl’s voice sounded behind him.

Without caring, Tang Ling’s body was trembling while he cried so hard that his tears and snot covered his face. He could not stop them even if he wanted to. His fingers at his grandmother’s neck were slowly closing in a tighter grip.

Wuaaaaaa!

Grandmother zombie seemed to have realized the danger before its eyes, so it started to growl strongly. The irritating and sharp growls spread further away, causing the zombies in the forest to amass quicker than before.

The Drifters also noticed the situation, and they started to flee for their lives amidst the chaotic scene.

Tang Ling felt absent-minded. All he felt was the zombie in his hand slowly growing weaker, and gradually becoming stiffer.

“Grandmother…” Tang Ling wept uncontrollably as a spine-chilling hatred rumbled in his gaze.

Who turned his grandmother like this? If it was this cruelty era, he would not mind burying the entire era with his grandmother.

Right after the crazy thought rose from his mind, a powerful gale blew over the entire forest, and the trees started to collapse at an astonishing speed.

The frenziedly running zombies were sliced into shreds while the fleeing Drifters dissipated as if they were illusions.

A blinding light enveloped Tang Ling whole, and a cold voice abruptly sounded beside Tang Ling’s ears. “You have qualified. Welcome to the Dream World.”

******

The rain that went on for three consecutive days finally stopped. Safety Sector No. 17 welcomed a rare sunset that evening.

There was a tender breeze after the wind that was accompanied by the soft and reddish sunset, and the smell of grass and soil in the humid air.

The moment was beautiful, yet Tang Ling struggled and sat up from his bed. In his arms were his grandmother’s bottle of ash and his sister’s dress.

His back was drenched wet in cold sweat. Even though he had just woken up from a dream, he still could not hold back his exhaustion and breathed heavily.

Was it a dream? It was all just a dream?!

The voice saying “Welcome to the Dream World” lingered in his mind. Tang Ling’s eyes then landed on the hourglass in the room.

He was unable to precisely tell the time, but based on the amount of sand that flowed in the hourglass, it told Tang Ling it had been ten minutes at the most.

That meant that it had only been ten minutes after Su Yao left the room, yet he had been through a long yet cruel dream.

“Was it really just a dream?” Calmer, Tang Ling wiped the sweat on his forehead away, ultimately accepting the fact that it was just a dream.

Regardless of how realistic the dream was, a deeper thought about it would reveal many flaws.

Like how did he even run out of the highly guarded Safety Sector gate without any problems?

How could the higher ranks of the Safety Sector be so careless? Why did they not take care of the bodies in time and allow them to turn into zombies?

“But… how did such a dream happen?” Standing up from his bed, Tang Ling could not shake off the words that entered his ears when he woke up from the dream.

He could not simply treat it as a normal dream.

Right after the thought rose from his mind, Tang Ling uncontrollably gasped sharply. The motion of standing up proved to be too strenuous for him. It made the wounds all over his body stretch and sting him.

Wounds? When did I get hurt?

With doubts in mind, Tang Ling took his shirt off.

“Is this a surprise?” A while later, Tang Ling kept his gaze neutral. His face did not show any extra emotion as his left hand unconsciously stroked his right arm.

There was an obvious wound on his right arm. Albeit it having stopped bleeding, the wound itself looked rather nasty.

He had never hurt himself like this in reality as far as he could remember. At least, before Su Yao left his room, he was completely fine.

However, after the realistic dream, that wound abruptly appeared on his arm.

Tang Ling’s memories were reliable. He remembered that after he met his grandmother zombie in the dream, he sprinted madly in a scorching trance, and a very sturdy iron bramble tree left a huge cut on his arm, which was the one on his right arm.

As a matter of fact, it was more than that. The wound on his arm was the most obvious one. The other cuts and scratches that he suffered in the dream were all displayed accurately on his body after he woke up. Even the smallest cut was there.

Tang Ling was utterly astonished by the wounds, but that was it because he remembered what the man, Su Yao, had warned him about before he left.

‘Be careful of your dream.’ That’s right, Su Yao hinted to me before this, but how could it be this inconceivable dream? What is the dream all about?

Tang Ling’s heart could no longer remain calm. While he desired for an answer, he had no idea where to find Su Yao, and he knew next to nothing about Safety Sector No. 17.

Tang Ling could not sit tight because of the frustration. He walked back and forth in the room until he stood before the wooden window.

In fact, he stood in front of the wooden window for eight hours consecutively before he was bored by the scenery outside.

With his astounding memory, every detail of the scenery outside the window was captured in his mind. There was nothing else left for him to discover.

Inhaling deeply, Tang Ling quickly got fed up with searching for the motive. His eyes landed at the dark and short alleyway outside the window.

The path in the alleyway was muddy and narrow. After the rain, the bumpy path road was filled with big water puddles.

The residences on both sides of the narrow alleyway were busy cleaning up their houses from the flood, dirty water was poured into the big jar outside their doors.

After letting the water subside for a few days, it would become quality Level 4 drinking water.

It was a fortunate shower. Unfortunately, his grandmother and his sister never had the chance to experience the fortunate event.

Tang Ling’s messy thoughts held a sense of sadness. It seemed like after the encounter in his dream, it would take some time for his heart to truly calm down.

It was until his gaze went through the dim light of the dark and narrow alleyway and landed at the very end that Tang Ling was stunned.

“Is that…”