Chapter 8: Nesting Dream, Internal Space

He was here to complete a mission, so he certainly wasn't going to just stand by idly and watch.

After a month and a half of training, his psychic body had become a lot stronger. He charged forward as if he were taking flight, grabbing one of the aberrations by the waist from behind before sending them flying off to the side. He then knocked down a second aberration before raining punches down onto its face.

The aberration's frog-like face was very slippery, so he was unable to transfer the force of his punches very well, and just as he was thinking about exploring alternative means of attack, a long tongue wound itself tightly around his neck.

Immediately thereafter, the frog that had been hurled aside also jumped up before crashing into him and sending him flying from the other side. All of a sudden, he found himself surrounded by the three frog aberrations, who were unleashing a variety of different attacks upon him. Even though his psychic body had become significantly more powerful, he was struggling to deal with the three opponents all at once, and all he could do was passively defend.

"What the hell is this? He's useless!" Deranged Pig wasn't an amicable character to begin with, and the sight of the scene unfolding before him immediately set his temper ablaze. "Didn't you say you were well-prepared? Is this what good preparation looks like?"

"Don't get so worked up! He still hasn't used his trump card yet!" Even though Red Spider was keeping up a confident facade, she was also feeling quite concerned. She didn't even believe in her own words, and she quickly added, "If he's not up to the task, our pawn shop has other people who can complete this mission. Rest assured, we've taken on this job, and we'll definitely see it through to the end."

Right as Red Spider's voice trailed off, Adam had already been tripped over by a tongue and fallen onto the ground. The three frog aberrations immediately piled up on him and began to unleash a ferocious assault.

At this point, it was just a one-sided drubbing.

Inside the unfolding scene, Kim was bawling off to the side, while Adam was already completely powerless to retaliate.

Right as Red Spider was about to sever the connection between Adam and Kim, a burst of reddish-black light suddenly flashed in the scene, and two aberrations jumped out of Adam's body.

The first aberration was a giant fiery hound. As soon as it appeared, it chomped down onto the face of one of the frog aberrations, tearing into it with its flames and sharp fangs while the frog aberration howled with agony.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The other aberration was even more fearsome. It was a mummy that was completely wrapped in bandages that were riddled with blades, and it was wielding a carving knife, with which it promptly sliced one of the frog aberrations into shreds. At this moment, it was in the process of rushing toward the final frog aberration with blade in hand, and the frog aberration immediately fled the scene in horror.

"See? What did I tell you? I told you he wasn't even trying yet! Our pawn shop never lets its clients down."

Red Spider was just about to sever the connection, but she quickly withdrew her hand as she put on a confident expression.

"Looks like I was too quick to jump to conclusions." Deranged Pig nodded with a pleased expression upon seeing this. "Damn, that feels good to watch! Anyone who dares to pick on my daughter deserves to die! That should get rid of the root of her PTSD, right?"

Deranged Pig was chortling with glee.

"I'm afraid it's not going to be that simple." Red Spider had been on many of these missions in the past, so she was a seasoned veteran. "To be frank, those aberrations are only the small fry. Everyone has them in their psychic world, and they're nowhere near powerful enough to cause such severe psychological trauma."

"What do you mean by that?"

Deranged Pig was a little perplexed.

"Let me put it this way: there's a very good chance that those three frog aberrations are only fellow students of your daughter's who don't get along well with her. Perhaps they've exchanged heated words in the past, and maybe there have even been physical altercations. Hence, these students were manifested as aberrations in her psychic world. However, everyone has aberrations of this level in their psychic world. If we enter your psychic world, there may be even more aberrations of this caliber."

"Then what do we do?"

"Through this, we should be able to earn some trust from your daughter. When a psychic body trusts someone, that's trust on a very deep level, and it's very useful. Perhaps we'll be able to get some information out of her."

With the assistance of the two anomalies, Adam made short work of the three frog aberrations, then made his way over to the weeping Kim.

"Don't be afraid, I've chased those aberrations away." Adam attempted to console Kim while observing her at the same time.

Kim's psychic body was even younger than her form in real life, and it was also thinner and more frail, giving her a very helpless appearance.

"Thank you, you saved me." Kim wiped away the tears in her eyes, but the fear on her face didn't fade.

"Tell me what you're so afraid of, I can help you."

"I'm, I'm scared... I'm too scared to tell you."

"It's alright. Look, I brought these strong friends with me!" Adam pointed at the bandaged mummy behind him as he spoke. "Who's picking on you? I'll make sure they pay for it!"

Perhaps the mummy's menacing appearance instilled Kim with some confidence, but after some hesitation, she opened her mouth to speak. However, right as she was prepared to talk, the air behind her rippled, and a pair of huge inky-black hands clasped themselves over her mouth before instantly dragging her into space.

Everything had taken place far too quickly, and there was no time for Adam to react.

"Looks like we might be dealing with a nesting dream and an internal space." Both Red Spider in the real world and Adam furrowed their brows upon seeing this.

Immediately thereafter, Red Spider severed the connection between the two without any hesitation.

"What are you doing?" Deranged Pig frantically jostled Red Spider as Adam slowly opened his eyes. "Didn't you see that thing drag my daughter away? Why did you cut off the connection?"

"Calm down!" Red Spider was certainly no pushover, and she immediately used her spider leg to slice open Deranged Pig's arm, thereby forcing him to step back. "I severed the connection because there's already no longer any point in continuing this."

"What do you mean by that?"

Deranged Pig recovered his composure a little, then cast his gaze toward Kim. She had been dragged into the source of her fear, and there was even more cold sweat pouring down her face. Her body was also beginning to spasm and convulse, and it was clear that she was in terrible condition.

"An internal space can only be formed by a deeper level of the subconsciousness, which means that there's something that your daughter is trying to hide from you. In fact, it could even be something that she's too ashamed of, so her brain actively chose to forget it. In order to enter the internal space, we'll require the assistance of special adapters, so this is all that we can do today. Rest assured, I'll bring more people here tomorrow, and we'll be sure to get the job done."

Red Spider picked up Adam by the collar as she spoke, then dragged him away with her as she departed.

After getting into the car, Red Spider placed her spider legs onto the steering wheel as she exclaimed, "I didn't think you'd put on such a show, kid. I thought that this would only be a training opportunity before I step in to bail you out! Tell me what those anomalies were."

"I don't know. Perhaps it's a special ability of my personality."

Adam shook his head in response. He didn't want to share all of his secrets with someone else, and he really was unaware of what exactly those two anomalies were.

Thankfully, Red Spider wasn't one to dwell on such things, and instead of prying any further, she began to think about how she could profit from this.

"I thought that this would only be some training for you, and after you fail, I would have to get someone else from the pawn shop to take care of things, but it looks like that won't be necessary. What do you say we score a paycheck together?"

"How?"

"Originally, after deducting the portion of my income that has to be submitted to the pawn shop, I would be left with an estimated 1.5 million from this job. If you couldn't get the job done, then I would've had to recruit the services of an expert adapter from the pawn shop, and most of the money would have to go to them. Do you get what I'm saying now?"

"Yes."

"I'm prepared to give you an opportunity now. I'll give you 300,000, you find some allies and get this job done yourself."

"I want a million."

"I'll do 500,00."

"750,000 is as low as I'm willing to go. We'll split the 1.5 million evenly between us."

"Deal!"