The First Dream: An Inescapable Nightmare

This is a story that unfolds within the mist.

— Li Le

*

*

Zhang Zinian lay in the fog, dazed and muddled, his face tinged with a bluish-purple hue, unable to see anything anymore.

His head rested on a piece of dark, decaying wood, and he was slowly chewing a small section of a mushroom—no wider than two fingers and two inches long.

The mushroom was helping him resist the corrosive effects of the dense fog, keeping him from dying on the spot.

He guessed—the mushroom in his mouth had been fed to him by a female admirer.

He had no idea what was special about the mushroom, but he sensed it was something extraordinary.

Too many people had ventured into the mist in search of adventure—far more than just him and her.

“She truly loves me! If I get out, I must treat her well!” he thought, biting the mushroom with difficulty, as the icy mist gnawed at him, leaving him completely numb.

But he felt no fear, for he sensed, in some mysterious way, that she was always by his side.

…

Li Le stood nearby, pale and expressionless, biting into a mushroom the size of her palm, her gaze coldly fixed on the man.

She stood shrouded in fog, her features barely visible. Around her, the darkness was so dense one could not see their own hand, yet she appeared able to glimpse a small portion of her surroundings.

—Countless corpses, faces bluish-purple, eyes bulging, cold and lifeless.

It seemed in the dense mist, only Li Le and the man remained alive.

How had things come to this?

Li Le wondered.

From the moment she followed the large expedition team into this strange, clouded land, she felt a chill of dread in her heart.

Later, all the evidence proved Li Le’s intuition had been correct:

—They lost their sense of direction, lost track of time, and even lost the feeling of hunger and fear.

They wandered like lonely travelers, like walking corpses, drifting through mist so thick it swallowed everything.

They seemed to have achieved immortality.

But this immortality came at a price:

—They became dependent on the fog, spared from hunger and disease, yet slowly eroded by it, assimilated, losing warmth and turning ashen-faced; their senses faded, leaving them muddled and numb.

Eventually, their faces became coated in icy blue frost, and, with their senses sealed away within their bodies, they perished in endless darkness…

Li Le should have shared their fate—

Had she not discovered those rare mushrooms that could resist the mist’s corrosive power.

Just as with serpents, the antidote lies within seven steps.

---

Li Le had no memory of the exact circumstances in which she, driven by sheer willpower, bit into her first mushroom, but she remembered its bitter taste and the sticky sensation on her tongue.

Her mind grew clearer, though her body remained beyond her control; she was compelled to wander with the others through the fog.

But something set her apart: she began to consciously seek out and devour the mushrooms, desperately fighting off the corrosion…

In time, she seemed to adapt stubbornly to the strange fog, her body and the outside world reaching a delicate balance.

This was evident in how she needed fewer and fewer mushrooms to survive, and she could even vaguely perceive some scenes within the mist.

Her mind regained some lucidity, though she sensed she had lost something forever—

Was it emotion, or something else? She did not know.

Now, when she looked at the man she once liked, lying on the ground with a deathly pallor and sealed senses, her heart was barely stirred.

The young man had been ravaged too deeply by the mist; the few mushrooms he received were hardly enough, and he was bound to die soon.

The mushrooms seemed precious, their rarity apparent—at first, Li Le had difficulty finding them in the fog.

But as her vision sharpened, she could vaguely discern where the mushrooms grew.

Even so, they remained scarce and limited.

Perhaps, to prove her own humanity, or simply to savor the feeling of being alive, she had kept Zhang Zinian alive these days—

Feeding him small pieces of mushroom each day, prolonging his fragile existence.

But now, things had changed…

“Why—why is it that, when I look at him, I feel nothing?” Li Le murmured.

“There used to be something—there was—”

She stared at the man, clutching her chest—her heart still beat, but with relentless regularity, utterly unmoved.

Her voice was cold and questioning, but the man lying on the ground, senses sealed, could not hear her.

—He could not hear the growing confusion and irritation in the eyes of the admirer upon whom his survival depended.

“She loves me, she will always be by my side,” he stubbornly believed.

Yet, at that moment,

Li Le found her vision in the fog sharpening, and the lingering taste of mushroom in her mouth grew sweet…

Even more—

She raised her hand, and the sinister mist that once clung to her like a haunting specter now swirled obediently around her, tame and docile.

“What is this?”

“A blessing in disguise?”

A hint of mockery and curiosity flickered across Li Le’s beautiful face as she gazed at the deep fog.

Meanwhile, a tremor of electromagnetic waves, the hum of a system, echoed in Li Le’s ears:

---

【Host has met system binding conditions】

【Beep—System activating】

【Beep—System activated】

【Forced binding—】

【—Binding successful】

A stunned look flashed in Li Le’s icy eyes—she realized it had been an eternity since she last heard any sound.

Now, as the electronic voice resounded, her heart raced a little faster.

【Host: Li Le

Current Faith Value: 1 (Note: Please collect more Faith Value as soon as possible)

Bound: Death Mist (Note: A strange mist born from death)

Body Attribute: Mist Body (Note: In the face of impossibility, you created a miracle, and as the child of the Death Mist, you can manipulate the fog—but your body is on the verge of death)

Location: Nether Domain, Death Mist Territory (Note: One of the notorious demon domains)

Remaining Life: 40 days (Note: Please collect Faith Value to exchange for time.)】

Li Le stared at the blue control screen before her, her cold gaze settling on the remaining life.

—Only forty days left.

After the words “remaining life,” a small countdown appeared, emphasizing the time she had left, like a death sentence, manifesting her remaining years from the river of time into reality.

“Faith Value?”

“Child of the Death Mist?”

Li Le’s eyes slowly closed, as she sensed something new.

Just then, the cold electronic voice rang out again:

【Detected 1 Faith Value in host. Would you like to exchange it for Life Value?】

Li Le looked at the blue screen.

【‘Yes’ and ‘Confirm’】

…As if toying with her.

Li Le said nothing, her expression unchanged. She simply reached out and pressed firmly on “Yes.”

【Ding—】

【Life Value +1 hour】

【Host: Li Le】

【Total Life Value: 40.04 days (960:57:42)】