That December, Eastern State was plagued by extreme weather. There was a heavy rainstorm at the end of the month, and the streets of the city were slightly flooded.
The flu had been ravaging the city for more than a month. Many hospitals were lined up. A few days ago, a large quarantine point was set up. Communication and traffic in the city were under constant surveillance. The citizens were in a state of panic. The situation at Eastern State received the attention of the whole country. Everyone was worried that the flu would continue to spread.
At a corner of the city that was not known to the public, Eastern State Phecda's Medical Department was shrouded in a heavy atmosphere.
Inside the psychology building, a large conference room on the 10th floor had been cleared out and converted into a 'dream room'. The 46 people who participated in the dream operation were all lying on the chairs. They were connected to various monitoring devices. Their electroencephalogram, skin resistance, heart rate, and other data were all being monitored.
After their lucid dreams, the electroencephalogram showed some changes. However, the workers at the monitoring center had no idea what was going on.
"Mr. Jiang, is everything going well?" Yao Sinian asked a middle-aged man. Behind the man were six younger people.
Jiang Mingchang was a normal looking man with a thin body. He wore a simple black suit, but his eyes shone with the depth of knowledge.
They were Phecda's unexpected reinforcements. They were all members of Angell's Order.
In 1925, Professor George Gammer Angell, a linguist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, had an audience with a strange young man. The young man by the name of Wilcox brought a strange clay relief to Professor Angell and told him about his strange dream.
The young man's original intention was to ask Professor Angell for help in deciphering the hieroglyphics on the relief, but Professor Angell found some other clues.
It was about a pagan religion. It was about the 'collective nightmarish manic event' that broke out around the world in the spring of 1925.
However, this was a private investigation by Professor Angell. The manic cultists were scattered all over the world, so at the time, no one paid much attention to them. Furthermore, there was no modern communication back then. Other than the newspaper clippings that the professor collected, there was no other information.
Through studying Wilcox's dream, Professor Angell got closer to some shocking secrets of the pagan religion.
Not long after that, Professor Angell passed away. Although he had died at the age of ninety-two, and the cause of death was thought to be a heart attack, the School had always believed that he had been murdered by the heathen, and that the Professor had been violently pushed to the ground while walking.
Professor Angell's death was not the end, because at that time, his grandnephew and a few of his students had secretly formed an association, the Angell School.
The School of Thought continued their research on dreams and paganism. The reason why they carried out their research in secret was to avoid the pagans, and also because they would be ridiculed and removed from the academic community if their research was made public. After so many years, the sect had been passed down for a few generations and had members all over the world. Mr. Jiang and the others were one of them.
As for the specifics, Phecda was not too sure either because there were still many secrets within the school.
However, not only did Mr. Jiang and the others demonstrate a deep understanding of dreams and dream worlds, they also had a considerable understanding of the R'yleh Cult.
They believed that this was the cult they had been studying.
Even this sentence had been deciphered by them: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
In the eternal house of R'yleh, the sleeping Cthulhu waits for thee to enter thy dreams
"We call the cult the Cthulhu Cult." Mr. Jiang told Phecda, "These cultists worship an ancient existence whose name can barely be translated into the human pronunciation of 'Cthulhu'. They call this existence the Great Old Ones. Based on our research, we believe that the leader of the Cthulhu Cult is an old Chinese man who lives deep in the mountains. He is called the Immortal by the cultists. The goal of this cult is to awaken Cthulhu from his slumber in the underwater city of R'yleh and have it descend upon this world once again. "
The information provided by Angell's School was consistent with Gu Jun's research and speculation.
The School of Thought believed that if Cthulhu was successfully awakened by the cultists, it would be the end of human civilization.
At their current stage, humanity should not be thinking about how to deal with the Great Old Ones but how to stop their arrival, or rather, how to avoid their attention.
This was in line with why Gu Jun wanted to blow up the channel to the foreign world.
Mr. Jiang's help was a pleasant surprise to Tong Ye and Yao Sinian, but at the same time, they had their suspicions, their identity and their goal.
"We hope that through this cooperation, the School of Thought will step out and cooperate with the rest of the world," Mr. Jiang said. "Times have changed, the situation is about to change." He added that he was the one who suggested this cooperation. "I know how harmful the Nightmare Illness is, we can't just ignore it."
He said that Angell's School was not a religious organization but an academic organization. Their pursuit was different from that of the cult.
The School of Thought was not omniscient. At the end of the day, they were just a bunch of normal people. They just started their research earlier. They could not cure the Nightmare Illness and could not provide much knowledge on spells, but they had the Dream Invasion spell that they were most familiar with.
Should they trust these people? Based on the strong evidence, Phecda chose to do more research and experiments while keeping them under control.
"There are two types of lucid dreams. One is to immerse oneself in the ocean of one's subconscious, and the other is to enter the Dreamlands."
That was what Mr. Jiang said. They called the dream world 'Dreamlands'.
"Only a small number of people have the talent to enter the Dreamlands on their own. Our School has only succeeded a few times, and it was mostly due to luck. But your situation is different. Many people have entered the nightmare, and for a short period of time, they will still have some lingering spiritual connection. If we use Gu Jun as an anchor, and he is still in the nightmare and can respond to the Dreamer's call, perhaps we can reach his side. This requires people that he is familiar with to be able to connect to his mind. "
After a series of discussions, Phecda finally made the decision to give it a try, or rather, Tong Ye and Yao Sinian made the decision.
The two of them could not allow the cult to succeed, they could not afford to lose Gu Jun and Yao Sinian, and they could not allow the situation at Eastern State to deteriorate any further.
"There might only be one chance. Spiritual connection will be exhausted. Once the spiritual connection of these former Dreamers is exhausted, they will not be able to enter the dream again."
This time, the 46 Dreamers hoped to help Gu Jun and Yao Sinian. This was a large number, but it was hard to tell if it was enough.
They were willing to take on two risks, one was the authenticity of Angell's Order, and the other was the danger of entering the dream itself.
Di, di, di. Inside the surveillance center, the various machines beeped. The workers studied the data on the screens quietly. Suddenly, the electroencephalogram of every Dreamer started to change. It turned into a chaotic wave that did not make sense.
But this data was very similar to the data provided by the School for entering the Dreamlands.
"…" The leader of the psychology team, Tang Zhifeng, was stunned. Not everyone that Gu Jun was familiar with could enter the dream, most of the commanders had to stay behind.
"They have entered the dream," Mr. Jiang said. Mr. Jiang said, unable to hide the excitement on his face. The other six young members of the sect were on the verge of cheering.
Yao Sinian paid close attention. If the man was not lying, this was the first time Angell's Order had successfully entered a dream on such a large scale.
But soon, the data became more and more chaotic. Even Mr. Jiang and the rest were shocked. They had not seen something like this before.
"What they are experiencing in the Dreamlands …" Mr. Jiang admitted his ignorance, "is something that we have not experienced before."
The group could not help but feel nervous. The hearts of the Dreamers were racing. Some of them even jumped dangerously. Their facial muscles were contorted and their bodies were covered in sweat. But Mr. Jiang had warned them not to wake up once they entered the dream or else it would be even more dangerous.
After a while, suddenly, someone in the dream room woke up with a scream. He gasped for air. "Ah Jun …" It was Uncle Dan.
Lin Mo, Yu Xiaoyong, and Lou Xiaoning all woke up with a start. Their faces were pale and bewildered, as if they had just experienced a complete madness.
"Ah Jun, Ah Jun, he …" Dr. Shen's voice was hoarse. His eyes were red but he did not want to say it. Perhaps it would not be like that in the future.
At that moment, the dreamers who had woken up earlier and the people in the surveillance center were shocked to see a blurry shadow suddenly appear in the middle of the crowded dreamscape. The space around them seemed to be torn apart, blurring and forming a crack.
At this time, all the surveillance cameras could only capture a black shadow that was constantly twisting and mutating.
Before anyone could react, a figure leaped out from the crack. He was wearing a linen outfit. He was hugging something that looked like a book, a med kit, and a bag of food. It was Wu Shiyu.
She stood there for a while before tossing the med kit and the food away expressionlessly. She hugged the book and collapsed to the ground. She gave a long sigh and stared blankly at the sky.
At the same time, Tong Ye, Professor Gu, Cai Zixuan, Wang Ruoxiang, and the rest of the people that Gu Jun was most familiar with woke up with a start.
They were like drowning people who were pulled ashore. They gasped for air and looked around. Their faces were filled with shock, anxiety, and sadness …
"Ah Jun, where is Ah Jun?"
"Has Ah Jun returned?"
"Gu Jun?"
They called out as they looked around for the figure. Gu Jun was wearing a linen outfit. If he was there, he would be easy to spot.
But there was only one figure in the whole dream room. It was Wu Shiyu, who was lying on the ground.
"There's no need to look." Wu Shiyu said. She choked with sobs. "He did not return."
She couldn't sense his presence here, nor could she sense his presence.
Gu Jun was in another world. Perhaps he was in the dream world, or perhaps he was in heaven.
In any case, people like him … would not go to hell, right? She held back her tears. She wondered if it was a sin to be stupid.
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