northernbook Chapter 236 Scammer, pay back the money!
Chapter 236 Scammer, pay back the money!
Yan Xun was standing on a giant hamburger, Qin Ke was sitting on it, and there was an open-air cinema sign nearby. Wen Yuan was in a giant popcorn bucket.
It looks completely different from the previous scenes and is different from the entire Evil Sea instance.
There is a path in the sky. Following that path, you can see a villa. Next to the villa is an osmanthus tree that has been growing for who knows how many years. And further away, there are dark clouds.
"Whose dream is this?" Yan Xun asked.
“No.” Gu Jia stepped off the movie theater seat. “This is how it is when we arrived.”
He looked around and saw not only familiar fast food restaurant signs, but also scattered notebooks and familiar cartoon characters in the distance.
"It feels like...a child's dream?"
Yan Xun casually grabbed a notebook that was flying around in the air.
"It seems the dream's owner is in their second year of high school." The notebook has no cover, but judging from the content, it's probably something they would study during their second year of high school.
As Yan Xun stepped on the ground and looked at the familiar yellow McDonald's logo in the distance, he felt a sense of confusion for the first time.
He had thought he would arrive in a desolate place that resembled the surface of the moon, or a frozen, frigid land, but he never expected to intrude into a middle school student's dream.
"I'll go take a look over there," Yan Xun said, pointing to the McDonald's over there.
Qin Ke sat on the hamburger, his expression somewhat dazed. "Isn't this the deepest dream of that thing?"
"Something went wrong?"
He touched the burger he was sitting on. "It's a double cheeseburger."
"Hot."
Yan Xun stared at the McDonald's logo over there, trying hard to recreate Ronald McDonald's image in his mind—but no matter how he tried to recall or remind himself, there should be a Ronald McDonald at the entrance of McDonald's.
The man in the clown costume didn't show up.
It seems this is indeed not a dream they can control.
Yan Xun tried to see if he could open the live stream, but found that the live stream room could not be opened, which proved that they must have entered a deeper dream than before.
"No way?" Yan Xun muttered.
"When you have nightmares, do you always crave McDonald's?"
Yan Xun stepped on the ground and exclaimed, "So dreamy?"
"Is this a nightmare or a unicorn?"
The sleeping nightmare, of course, wouldn't answer his question. Yan Xun looked up and found that the clouds in the sky were all pink heart shapes.
"...Is she really that girlish?" Yan Xun wondered.
But still, I stepped on the ground and walked into that huge McDonald's fast food restaurant.
Although Gu Jia and the others were also confused about the place, they simply followed Yan Xun into the fast food restaurant.
Unfortunately, Wen Yuanzheng still couldn't handle these things that looked like plum blossom stakes. He walked very carefully, afraid of accidentally falling down.
He silently asked the old man, "Are you sure we haven't come to the wrong place?"
The old man also fell silent.
He only knew that Nightmare had been protecting Blue Gold, and he also wanted Blue Gold's power, but he was afraid that this power would burst his body, so he planned to let Wen Yuanzheng absorb it first, and then he would extract the energy overflowing from Wen Yuanzheng's body.
But now...?
The old man didn't understand why there were so many incongruous things deep within the nightmare's dream, so he could only remain silent.
"Probably," the old man said. "Anyway, we don't have any other choice."
Upon hearing this, Wen Yuanzheng realized that the old man had lied to him when he said he knew everything. This man probably only knew a little about Blue Gold, Wen Yuanzheng thought.
As he was thinking, he looked up and saw that Yan Xun and the others had already gone quite far.
He hurriedly followed, saying, "Wait for me."
……
Yan Xun quickly arrived at the entrance of that McDonald's.
Everything felt so familiar.
It was exactly the same fast food restaurant he remembered, even the interior layout was the same.
Yan Xun stood at the door for a while, looking through the glass at everything inside.
The restaurant was empty, but the latest menu and special offers were displayed on the order counter. Every detail in front of the counter was restored... Everything was too normal, which made it seem very abnormal.
Yan Xun stood at the entrance of the fast food restaurant, hesitating to go in.
Gu Jia and the other two followed closely behind and arrived at the entrance of the fast food restaurant.
“…Holy crap…” Gawain peered through the glass, “It’s exactly the same.”
"Does Nightmare like this?"
"If I had known this would happen, the people on the Terror should have used fries and hamburgers for their sacrifice."
Gu Jia and Qin Ke simply observed the fast food restaurant in front of them without saying a word. Qin Ke walked to one side of the entrance and found that the restaurant's address was displayed there.
"No. 120, Guinan North Road?" he read the address of the shop. "Have you heard of this place?"
Gao Wen shook his head.
"It probably isn't a real place name," Gao Wen said. "Addresses for places like this are usually made up."
Gu Jia didn't shake his head. "I've heard of Guinan North Road," he said.
Yan Xun looked at him, "Does this place really exist?"
“I used to have a tutor,” Gu Jia said. “She said that when she was a freshman in college, she worked here on Guinan North Road.”
"You can remember all of this?" Gao Wen exclaimed in surprise. "You have a crush on your tutor?"
Gu Jia: "..."
“No,” he told Yan Xun. “He said there was something eerie about Guinan North Road. He was working at a bar at the time, and when he got off work at night, he often felt like he was in a ghost’s maze. He was scared, so he quit after less than a month.”
"Plus, there's a Guinan Middle School over there, which is quite famous, so that's why I remembered this place," Gu Jia explained.
Yan Xun found this even stranger.
Why does a real-world place name appear in the deeper layers of a nightmare...?
Or is this actually a memory of "Blue Gold"?
"Blue Gold" is energy formed from the blood of a certain being. Nightmare swallowed Blue Gold and hid it in the deepest part of its dream, so it is normal for the memories of the owner of "Blue Gold" to appear in the dream.
But what mysterious being's memories would be filled with nothing but McDonald's?
Ronald McDonald?
Yan Xun mentally ranted, and the once unapproachable and mysterious figure had turned into Ronald McDonald with black stripes on his face.
"Never mind, let's go in and take a look first," Yan Xun said. "Qin Ke and I will go in."
"You all wait outside."
Gao Wen made a gesture indicating that he had received the message.
"...And me?" Gu Jia asked.
"Keep an eye on Wen Yuanzheng outside," Yan Xun whispered, gesturing for Yan Xun to look at Wen Yuanzheng, who was still walking unsteadily. "Don't let him cause trouble."
Gu Jia looked at Yan Xun for a long time before nodding, "Okay."
Yan Xun then beckoned to Qin Ke, signaling him to come with him to the fast food restaurant for a stroll.
As Qin Ke passed by Gu Jia, he quickly said, "Excuse me."
Gu Jia turned her head to look at him.
"I suddenly took your place," Qin Ke said. "But now, I am indeed more useful to Yan Xun."
His voice was low and he spoke quickly, almost as if he were speaking to Gu Jia, "You keep watch outside for us, we'll be right back."
Yan Xun was already about to push open the door when he turned around and saw Qin Ke still dawdling. He became a little impatient and said, "Hurry up."
"Do I need to carry you in on a sedan chair with eight men?"
“If you’re willing to go all out, I don’t mind.” Qin Ke said, then smiled at Gu Jia and went to Yan Xun’s side. “Alright, you can go in now.”
Yan Xun didn't say much. He pushed open the door of the fast food restaurant and entered the seemingly warm and normal place.
Gao Wen was still observing his surroundings when he suddenly heard a sound—
I'll kill you sooner or later.
Gao Wen turned his head and asked Gu Jia, "Did you just speak?"
Gu Jia remained obediently hiding his face with his bangs. When he heard Gao Wen's words, he simply shook his head, indicating that he hadn't heard them.
"Holy crap, this is unbelievable!" Gao Wen exclaimed.
"I just heard someone say they wanted to kill someone!" he said, glancing at Gu Jia again. "You really didn't say that?"
"I feel that voice really sounds like..."
“You misheard,” Gu Jia said calmly. “No one spoke just now.”
……
Yan Xun pushed open the glass door and entered the fast food restaurant.
The familiar warm yellow lighting, the familiar tables and chairs, and even a basket of freshly fried fries behind the counter.
Yan Xun walked over and glanced at the fries. Unlike the hamburgers outside, the fries were piping hot, and you could still feel the temperature of when they were freshly fried.
He reached out and snapped off a French fry that looked exactly like the one he remembered.
The more ordinary something is, the stranger it seems.
If you see a fast food restaurant like this at the end of a deserted alley, you can comfort yourself that the nearby infrastructure is quite good. But if this appears in the deepest part of a nightmare, it can only be described as bizarre.
Qin Ke followed Yan Xun behind the counter and stood beside him, looking at the fried fries.
He held it up and looked at it for a while. "It looks just like the real thing."
"Is this the memory of the Blue Gold Master?" Qin Ke asked.
Yan Xun thought so too.
But shouldn't the owner of Blue Gold also be a mysterious being...?
Surely it can't be some kind of fast food god?
The image of Ronald McDonald's smiling face began to appear in Yan Xun's mind again.
Yan Xun looked around behind the counter again and found that the kitchen area was very simple, or rather, blank. It seemed that the owner of the memory had never been to the kitchen of the fast food restaurant.
He searched the fast food restaurant again and finally found the pencil lying on the floor on a chair.
There are also homework books forgotten in the corner.
The name is on the homework book.
Guinan Middle School - Grade 11 (3), Class 3, Zhang Ming.
Yan Xun opened his notebook, which was also completely blank.
He guessed that it wasn't that Zhang Ming hadn't done his homework, but rather that the owner of the memory had never opened the notebook.
Yan Xun looked down at his homework, then glanced at the interior of the fast food restaurant. A familiar song was playing in the restaurant, occasionally switching to another song, and then switching back to the first one after it finished playing.
"Is the Blue Gold Master the guardian deity of this street?" Yan Xun wondered.
"Has He been staying in this fast food restaurant the whole time?"
So in the nightmare's dream, this fast food restaurant contained the homework the other person had looked at, the music he had listened to, and the fries he would see behind the counter every time he picked up his food.
"This guardian spirit is very honest," Qin Ke commented. "It doesn't want anything, it just likes to go to McDonald's."
Yan Xun suddenly thought of that person in the Garden of Bones... Well, compared to that person, the Blue Gold Master is a law-abiding god who has no other hobbies but loves to go to fast food restaurants.
The fast food restaurant at No. 120 Guinan North Road is not big; it would take Yan Xun and Qin Ke less than 20 minutes to walk around the whole place.
When the two of them went out, Wen Yuanzheng immediately rushed up and asked if there were any clues.
"No."
"I only found a notebook and some fries behind the counter inside," Yan Xun thought for a moment. "The music playing in the restaurant was also the same two songs on repeat."
Wen Yuanzheng hurriedly asked him which two poems they were.
Yan Xun told him the song title.
“This is so common,” Wen Yuanzheng said. “I’ve heard this song before when I went to McDonald’s.”
"Is Nightmare playing a trick on us?" Gawain wondered, turning back to look at the brightly lit fast-food restaurant behind him. "What does this place have to do with Blue Gold?"
It doesn't fit with the blue-gold theme at all, let alone the overall atmosphere of the dungeon.
Yan Xun stood at the entrance of the fast food restaurant, feeling lost once again.
"Why don't we go check out the villa?" Gu Jia suggested. "If the fast food restaurant is a place the dream's owner frequents, could the villa be the dream's owner's home?"
"Is the owner of this dream a little too unstudious?" Gao Wen complained. "They have a home and a fast food restaurant, but no school, right?"
Yan Xun looked at the high school textbooks floating around him and the workbooks in the fast food restaurant, "Maybe it's because the dream's owner never went to school."
This dream must be related to blue gold.
It's highly likely that Nightmare read some of the other party's memories after absorbing the power of Blue Gold.
Is the other party, like the leader of the Donkey Meat Sandwich Cult, once a human?
They were even students from Guinan Middle School?
Yan Xun thought it was unlikely. Although the Fire Lord had become a god, his power was limited. He had a godhood but not much real power.
Since the master of Blue Gold was able to severely injure the one in the Garden of Bones, he was clearly no ordinary god.
Yan Xun looked at the pile of notebooks and books floating around and grabbed them one by one.
He flipped through these notebooks and then found a feeding guide at the end of one of the diaries.
-
[God's Guide to Raising His Family]
1. You must let the god you are raising fight against other gods.
The diary's owner crossed this out, and below it is probably the notebook's owner's comment.
Forget it, the furry ball is too weak.
[2. The best way to feed a god is through offerings of flesh and blood, as well as some negative emotions.]
This one was marked with an X by the owner of the diary.
[Incorrect. Furry doesn't eat flesh; it prefers French fries.]
When Yan Xun saw the keyword "eating French fries", he couldn't help but turn around and look at the fast food restaurant behind him, and the French fries that had just been fried behind the counter.
Then, more and more sections of the guide were blacked out, probably because they realized the guide was unreliable.
The owner of the diary wrote at the end—
This pet care guide is full of misinformation; scammers, give me my money back!