WOA 2

World Of The Aberrant: Harvesting Apparitions Within The Nightmare

Chapter 2: The Nightmare Investigation Bureau

"Gasp—!"

Lu Yueqi jolted awake from a suffocating nightmare, gasping for air as the terror of the previous night clawed at her chest. Once again, she had dreamed of that flesh-eating specter trying to tear her apart.

The last thing she remembered before passing out was being scooped up by a stranger in the dark. What had happened after that remained a total blank.

Warm morning sunlight spilled across her face, helping to clear the thick fog of sleep.

She blinked, taking in her surroundings. Everything was completely alien.

"Where... where am I? Did I actually survive?"

A lush potted plant sat on the balcony. Shelves lined one wall, packed with heavy volumes, while a pristine, dust-free work desk stood immaculate against the corner.

She cautiously pulled back the blanket and slid her feet into a pair of soft white plush slippers placed right beside the bed. They fit her perfectly—as if whoever had put them there knew her down to the smallest detail.

Stepping softly toward the door, Lu Yueqi eased it open.

At the dining table sat a young man with messy dark hair and a blue sweater, quietly eating a simple breakfast: two deep-fried dough sticks, a sunny-side-up egg, and a glass of warm milk.

Noticing her movement, he looked up and offered a calm, steady nod.

"Morning. You're safe now. Come sit and eat—I had a portion prepared for you too."

Baiyu gestured to the empty chair across from him, inviting her to make herself at home.

Dragging her feet, Lu Yueqi walked up to the table. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice tight with caution. "And where am I?"

Baiyu paused mid-bite, chewing slowly before swallowing the dough down with a sip of milk. "I'm Baiyu. This is my place. I pulled you out of the fire last night."

Lu Yueqi narrowed her eyes in skepticism. He saved me?

She looked the young man up and down. While he wasn't sickly thin, he didn't exactly look like a powerhouse capable of wrestling violent ghouls out of thin air, either.

Yet, considering he was the only other person she had seen since blacking out, who else could it be?

"Right. I saved you," Baiyu nodded, reading her expression. "You passed out cold last night, so it's completely normal that you don't remember what I look like."

Rubbing the back of her head, Lu Yueqi bowed deeply. "Thank you for saving my life last night. I can never repay a debt like this. If you ever need a favor, just say the word and I'll do whatever I can. Anyway... I should probably get going so I don't intrude any longer."

Baiyu's dark eyes locked onto hers, unblinking. Slowly, he shook his head. "You can't leave."

"Why?" Lu Yueqi froze, her stomach dropping. Did I just escape one nightmare only to walk right into another? Even if he was her savior, holding her against her will was crossing a line.

Without a word, Baiyu slid a fresh plate of food across the table and gestured for her to sit down and talk over a meal.

"You saw what happened last night," Baiyu began once she reluctantly took a seat. "That thing trying to tear your life apart—we call them Demons. They are twisted aberrations birthed when a human's nightmare spirals completely out of control. They hunt down their original dreamer, slaughtering them to break free from their constraints. But as you heard, they need hosts. Why? Because they rely on the host's life energy to sustain themselves."

Baiyu paused, letting the heavy words sink in.

"You weren't even its original host, yet it targeted you anyway," he continued. "Why? Because once those things kill their dreamer and break free, they begin leaking into the waking world, mutating everything. Yet they still hunger for life energy to keep from dissolving. You became their target because your body radiates a massive reservoir of it—far more than an ordinary person."

"W-what does that even mean? I don't understand," Lu Yueqi stammered, her mind spinning. She understood the part about the monster wanting her life as nourishment, but why on earth would she produce more energy than anyone else?

"People with your specific physiological makeup are what we call Dreamweavers," Baiyu explained. "Deep inside your soul, you harbor a dormant nightmare entity of your own, though it's still fast asleep. While it slumbers, its power is at its absolute weakest—yet its scent acts like a siren call to other wandering Demons, drawing them in like moths to a flame because it offers a feast of raw energy. That's why people like you are prime targets. And that's why I'm keeping you here."

Taking another calm sip of milk, Baiyu pressed on.

"I'm an operative with the Nightmare Investigation Bureau. Our job is to hunt down the chaos caused by these Demons and neutralize hidden Dreamweavers before they erupt. Naturally, ordinary human strength is useless against them, which means we have to borrow the power of nightmares ourselves. In short, we rely on Dreamweavers to commune with their inner nightmares, channeling that dark power to fight back against rogue Demons."

"There's massive risk involved, of course," he added. "The pressure of a nightmare warps both mind and body. The more you draw on its power, the deeper the nightmare corrodes you..."

"And what happens at the end of that?" Lu Yueqi whispered.

"Your body shatters to pieces, and your soul gets torn into dust," Baiyu tapped a finger lightly against the wooden table. "The end result is identical to being slaughtered by a Demon—and once your nightmare breaks free, it poisons reality just the same."

"Then isn't this just treating the symptoms instead of the disease?" Lu Yueqi stared at him in disbelief. Fighting monsters by unleashing inner demons felt like a suicidal trade-off—losing a thousand to kill a thousand.

"Do you have a better idea?" Baiyu lowered his gaze, his expression hidden in shadow.

"I..." Lu Yueqi choked, completely silenced.

"We've only ever had one choice: to fight them," Baiyu said softly. "No matter how it ends, at least while we draw breath, we can keep this world from turning entirely to rot. If we give up even an inch, the darkness swallows another piece of reality, crawling closer to a point of no return. Struggling futilely is still infinitely better than sitting back and waiting to die, isn't it?"

He closed his eyes for a quiet moment, as if giving her time to process the weight of his words—or perhaps giving himself a brief respite to swallow the ghosts of his own painful past.

When Baiyu opened his eyes again, he looked straight at the stunned girl. "Let's get back to your situation. As I said, you are a Dreamweaver. What happened to you last night will happen again—once, twice, over and over until you're dead. That's why I need you to stay."

Lu Yueqi bit her lip. "I want to help, truly, but I don't think my capability..."

"No, you misunderstand," Baiyu cut her off smoothly. "I didn't mean I want you to join the bureau right now. I just want you to stay here, where I can keep you safe. You won't always be as lucky as you were last night. The bureau maintains secure quarters for displaced Dreamweavers—a sanctuary where Demons cannot breach. Our specialists will monitor the status of the nightmare inside you and step in before things turn critical."

Lu Yueqi sat in silence, absorbing every word.

"As for joining the bureau officially—that's a choice you'll have to make for yourself when the time comes," Baiyu continued. "It's a matter of personal survival, so I can't advise you either way. Speaking purely as an individual, I don't want you to join. In fact, I don't want anyone to join. Everyone who signs up trades their life away just to buy humanity a few more fragile seconds against the tide."

"Then... what am I right now?" Lu Yueqi looked up, her eyes searching his.

"Finish your breakfast, and I'll take you down to the bureau headquarters to register. After that, we'll pack up your things and move you into the bureau's residential sector. It's much safer there."

"Okay," Lu Yueqi nodded, fully aware of the razor-thin blade she was now standing on.

Just as Baiyu pushed his chair back to stand, Lu Yueqi's voice stopped him.

"Mr. Bai—wait."

"Hmm?"

"Um... how did you find me last night? How did you know I was in danger, and how did you know the ghost was standing right behind me?" A flurry of questions tumbled out of her mouth.

Baiyu offered a faint, cryptic smile. "Would you believe me if I told you I'm one of your regular viewers? All those creepy urban legends and horror stories you dug up online gave me quite a few useful leads."

"Ha?"

Lu Yueqi froze dead in her tracks, her brain short-circuiting completely. The surreal absurdity of the moment made her feel like reality was slipping away. She stared blankly at Baiyu’s retreating back as he walked toward the doorway. Him? A fan of mine? The horror stories I read online actually helped him track anomalies down? Is this a joke?

Breakfast finished, the two packed up and headed out.

Their car rumbled down the highway, heading deeper and deeper toward the remote outskirts.

"We're going this far out? Don't you live inside the bureau?" Lu Yueqi watched the rolling green fields blur past the passenger window, turning to the driver. She had assumed his house sat on the fringes of the city while the bureau's main base was nearby, not buried out in the desolate countryside.

"I don't live there," Baiyu answered evenly. "That house is just my private home. The bureau is quite a distance away."

Remembering the spacious house she had just woken up in, Lu Yueqi muttered, "I figured you guys all lived inside the headquarters compound. Given what you said about your inner nightmares acting up, wouldn't living right next to a bunch of agents make emergencies easier to handle?"

"Mn..." Baiyu fell silent for a long beat. "Think of it as a stubborn quirk of mine. I suppose I just never liked the feeling of being locked inside a cage."

Lu Yueqi glanced sideways at his profile, but seeing no invitation to pry further, she swallowed the rest of her questions.

Silence settled back over the car cabin as the miles ticked by.

After more than an hour of driving, the vehicle finally slowed to a halt.

"We're here," Baiyu said, unclipping his seatbelt and stepping out into the crisp air.

Lu Yueqi stepped out behind him, raising her eyes to look ahead. Stretching across the horizon was an imposing, monolithic metal gate flanked by towering, razor-wire-crested walls that vanished into the distance. A chill ran down her spine.

"This is the Nightmare Investigation Bureau?" she breathed, the sheer scale of the compound leaving her speechless.

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