When the Nightmare Beast's twin antlers tore open the boundary between reality and illusion, Blue Star fell completely into a silent riot.
It was an absolute domain—
A realm born under divine will.
And with it came absolute night.
Except for a rare few—souls like Tian Shuangxin, who were undergoing specific karmic trials—
Billions of humans, at that very moment, fell together into a single abyss.
An abyss called—
"Primal."
This descent was not a transformation of the body.
It was the collapse of cognition itself.
Within the wilderness of dreams, they realized in terror—
Language, logic, even morality—
Everything they had once been proud of
Was melting away like snow under a blazing summer sun.
In its place—
Something thick.
Something burning.
Instinct.
The Nightmare Beast's divided antlers acted like a perfect lens,
Extracting and amplifying everything buried beneath the shell of civilization—
Greed.
Rage.
Ignorance.
Love.
Hatred.
Desire.
All of it—
Pulled out.
Magnified.
Unrestrained.
The landscapes of dreams were vibrant—
Yet disturbingly diseased.
—
On the endless plains of Africa,
A group of well-dressed elites found themselves transformed into hyenas lurking in dry grass.
No longer discussing stocks or options,
Their jaws hung open.
Saliva dripped.
Their eyes glowed green—
Not from ambition—
But from hunger.
Extreme.
Unrelenting.
Ahead of them—
A wildebeest in labor.
The smell of blood.
The trembling body.
The newborn life.
That craving—
For flesh—
Shook them more deeply than any wealth ever had.
With a howl—
They charged.
Teeth bared.
But they did not kill immediately.
They circled.
Toyed.
Tormented.
The weakened mother.
The helpless newborn.
What they enacted—
Was not the instinct of beasts.
It was cruelty.
—
In the deepest trenches of the Pacific Ocean,
Pampered aristocrats became small fish hunted by colossal sharks.
The crushing pressure squeezed not just their bodies—
But their souls.
There was nowhere to hide.
Nowhere to run.
Only the endless, slow terror of being chased—
Toyed with—
Before death.
Their silent screams filled the ocean.
—
In that moment—
Desire and fear reached equilibrium.
All beings wailed within their dreams—
while those who wielded power and wealth reveled in them.
This was the Beast God's first grand-scale "shared sensation" bestowed upon humanity—
especially upon those who stood at the very top.
—
Meanwhile—
In a dream wrapped in gentle light,
On an isolated island—
"New Sato"—
Zhizhi, the soul of a pet rat trapped within a human body—
Found himself in the place he had dreamed of countless times.
A living room.
Warm tones.
Soft sunlight slanted across a beige fabric sofa.
Dust floated lazily in the air.
And there was a scent—
Faint.
Sweet.
Strawberry cookies.
It was the only anchor his soul had ever known—
Back in that cold laboratory filled with chemicals and death.
"Zhizhi, come here."
Tian Shuangxin smiled.
She sat bathed in sunlight,
A golden glow outlining her silhouette.
In her palm—
A small, red cookie.
"…Master…"
Zhizhi cried out silently.
He tried to run forward—
The way he used to.
To burrow into her fingers.
To nuzzle into her warmth.
But—
He couldn't.
He was trapped.
Inside Sato's body.
Heavy.
Clumsy.
Reeking faintly of blood.
Every step he took—
The expensive leather shoes struck the wooden floor with a dull, jarring sound.
Unnatural.
Wrong.
But longing overcame fear.
He moved forward anyway.
Closer.
Closer—
Until his fingers were just about to touch her—
And then—
Reality twisted.
Her smile froze.
Her eyes—
Those eyes once filled with warmth—
Turned into cold mirrors.
And within them—
Reflected a face.
Not his.
Sato's.
Cold.
Violent.
Empty.
The face of a man who had pierced small bodies with needles.
Who had watched suffering without emotion.
A butcher.
A monster.
"Who are you?"
She recoiled instantly.
The cookie slipped from her hand—
Shattering into crumbs.
Her gaze filled with instinctive revulsion.
Pure fear.
As if she were looking at something rotten.
Something inhuman.
"Stay away from me!"
"You bastard!"
"No—! Master, it's me! It's Zhizhi!"
He tried to shout.
To explain.
To beg.
But what came out—
Was nothing but a low, hoarse breath.
Sato's voice.
Rough.
Cold.
Alien.
The world collapsed.
The warm walls curled and burned away like paper in fire,
Revealing a bottomless void.
Darkness surged in—
From all directions—
Swallowing her.
"Don't go! Don't leave me!"
Zhizhi reached out desperately—
But something else took hold of him.
A force beyond resistance.
Pulling him away.
Dragging him down.
His vision dimmed.
His consciousness sank—
But in the final moment before everything faded—
His right hand changed.
Shrinking.
Softening.
Fur emerging—
Returning to what it once was.
A tiny paw.
In that endless void—
He grasped something.
Something thin.
Faintly glowing.
Fragile—
Yet vital.
"Don't let go…
I can't let go…"
That was his final thought.
Then—
Darkness.
—
Reality.
Inside the hotel room.
Zhizhi shot upright in bed.
His chest heaved violently.
Sweat drenched his body.
He gasped like a drowning creature,
Desperate for air.
His fingers—
Still clutching the bedsheet tightly.
Too tightly.
The fine fabric had begun to tear.
Threads snapping softly.
He raised his right hand.
Examined it.
Again.
And again.
Nothing.
No crumbs.
No light.
"…Just a dream?"
His voice was quiet.
Empty.
But the feeling remained.
That terror—
Of being abandoned again.
—
Above the world—
Under a silent sea of stars—
The Nightmare Beast stood beside the Beast God.
Its antlers pulsed—
Light and darkness alternating.
The orbs above its wings rotated slowly,
Absorbing the immense tide of fear and obsession rising from the planet.
"What you see…
Is what your heart desires."
The Beast God stood with hands behind Her back.
Eyes distant.
Unfathomable.
"And also—
What you fear."
"Dreams are the final mercy…
And the cruelest dissection."
Under the Nightmare Beast's weaving—
Dreams became magnifying lenses.
Desire twisted.
Fear suffocated.
Obsession bound the soul like chains.
Her gaze pierced through clouds—
Through countless collapsing minds—
Toward something deeper.
Far beyond.
There—
A presence.
Ancient.
Corrupt.
Tied to this world's history.
It trembled.
It tried to flee.
"…How long do you think you can hide?"
Her voice was soft.
Almost amused.
Like a predator watching prey exhaust itself.
For Her—
Human suffering was inevitable.
Merely consequence.
What She waited for—
Was the true source behind it all.
—
And on Blue Star—
The darkest hour before dawn had arrived.
The world had split.
Completely.
Most had broken.
Some drowned in the pleasure of becoming predators—
Waking with bloodshot eyes and twisted smiles.
Others remained trapped in endless terror—
Even after waking, cowering, unable to speak.
But a few—
Very few—
Dreamed differently.
Their dreams were quiet.
Like a lake at dawn.
They remained human.
Calm.
Gentle.
And in those dreams—
Animals approached them.
Not to attack.
Not in fear.
Foxes.
Deer.
Stray cats.
They came close.
Softly.
Carefully.
And sometimes—
They would nuzzle their hands.
Or lie beside them.
In that moment—
There was no hierarchy.
No deception.
No violence.
Only something ancient.
Something nearly forgotten.
Trust.
That trust became faint points of light—
Scattered across the darkened world.
Like sparks.
Waiting—
For the wind of a new era.