From that forum post, Hu Qi already knew what was making the sound.

An ordinary person, no matter how mentally tough, would inevitably panic when faced with such a bizarre situation, especially knowing what was making the sound outside.

However, Hu Qi remained perfectly calm, his expression unchanged. He even had the presence of mind to ponder other matters.

’So that’s how it is!’

Witnessing this scene, a flash of understanding crossed his eyes as he finally connected the dots on some previous questions.

For instance, why the original poster, named ’Burning the Midnight Oil,’ was still posting right before his death.

It now seemed that the poster himself had probably written the beginning of the post.

But at some point, the real poster was killed.

The subsequent content was the Nightmare’s power interfering, or rather, controlling him.

The purpose was to create that so-called audio file. The sound itself must be some kind of medium.

The Nightmare could spread through this method, killing anyone who heard the sound.

As for why it took three days for anything to happen, perhaps the distance was too great, or perhaps it hadn’t finished killing the others who heard the audio. Now, it was finally his turn.

Hu Qi leaned toward the latter explanation.

BZZZT!

Just then, a harsh electrical crackle sounded out as the dim elevator light overhead flickered twice before going out completely.

In an instant, the elevator was plunged into total darkness, devoid of any light.

At the same time, the slowly ascending elevator abruptly stopped, and a deathly silence fell over the surroundings.

Noticing this, Hu Qi’s gaze shifted slightly.

With his current eyesight, mere darkness was no obstacle. He could still see his surroundings clearly.

Just then, the stationary elevator suddenly plummeted downward at an incredible speed.

After just a few seconds, with a loud BANG, the elevator stopped.

The force of the fall was immense, yet Hu Qi, standing in place, only swayed slightly. A force that would have sent an ordinary person sprawling had no effect on him whatsoever.

If one looked closely, they would notice faint ripples spreading across the surface of his skin in the darkness, like waves on water.

This was a masterful technique where he used the Qi Blood Power within his body, skillfully manipulating it to simulate force mitigation, directly neutralizing the concussive force from the fall.

This was a method that an ordinary Qi Blood Realm Secret Martial Artist could never hope to master.

Achieving this required an extremely high level of control over one’s Qi and Blood. The slightest mistake would not only fail to dissipate the force but could also cause severe internal injury.

But for Hu Qi, it was effortless.

Now that the elevator had stopped, there were no other anomalies.

Hu Qi’s gaze fell on the elevator doors, which had become somewhat twisted and deformed from the fall.

He lifted his leg, bent his knee, and then viciously kicked out.

BANG!

The already deformed elevator doors shuddered violently, then bulged outward and broke.

The next moment, with a CRACK, half of the door flew straight out and slammed into the wall of the opposite corridor.

It let out a thunderous BOOM, revealing an empty hallway outside.

Hu Qi strode out. The elevator had stopped on the first floor.

Compared to before, although it was still the first floor, it had undergone a world-altering change.

The floor, walls, and ceiling of the corridor looked as if they had been abandoned for years, covered in moss and black grime.

The doors of the first-floor residents were all shut tight. Despite the huge commotion, not a single person came out to check.

Seeing this, Hu Qi walked over to the fire equipment cabinet by the stairwell and looked at the dusty fire axe locked behind the glass.

He raised his fist and smashed the glass.

CRASH! Sharp shards of glass scraped against Hu Qi’s arm but couldn’t even break his skin, failing to leave so much as a white mark.

Hu Qi picked up the fire axe, hefted it in his hand a couple of times, then turned and walked outside.

Once outside the building entrance, he found that the previously placed wreaths and photos had vanished, and even the sound of the suona and crying was gone.

The residential complex was deathly silent, as if he were the only person left in the world.

The sky was still raining.

Just then, something fell from the side, landing on the stone pavement just two meters in front of him.

It made a loud THUD!

Looking closely, he saw it was a woman in a red dress.

The woman’s legs were slender and pale. A red string was tied around her left ankle, and she wore a single high-heeled shoe, as vibrant as blood.

She had landed headfirst. Like a tomato smashed on the ground, a splatter of red and white burst out, and her body was twisted into an unnatural shape.

However, the next moment...

...the woman, who should have been dead, suddenly began to twitch. Her body then straightened, and she lifted her shattered face, matted with blood and black hair. Her gaze was bizarre as she stared straight at Hu Qi.

But the panicked expression one might expect did not appear on Hu Qi’s face.

Instead, a savage grin spread across his features.

He swung his arm.

An ear-splitting whistle tore through the air as a red light flashed.

SQUELCH!

The sound of a blade slicing through flesh and shattering bone rang out. The immense force and momentum sent the woman in red flying, her feet leaving the ground like a struck shuttlecock, before she crashed into the bushes to the side.

Aaaah!

A piteous scream echoed through the air.

At the same time, the surrounding scene blurred.

Whirrrr...

The sound of the old, malfunctioning elevator gears whirring came from overhead.

Hu Qi was, in fact, still inside the elevator.

The elevator was brightly lit, and he could faintly see a few small insects crawling inside the light fixture overhead.

Other than that, the fire axe he had been holding had vanished at some point.

The elevator doors in front of him, previously twisted with one half missing, were now perfectly fine, completely undamaged.

To the right, the real estate flyer was still posted on the wall.

[Only 100,000 down, easily own your own cozy little nest...]

The words that followed were obscured by a black stain, making them unreadable, just as he remembered.

Hu Qi glanced at the display panel to the side. The number had just changed to 14.

’So this is a Nightmare?’

Hu Qi seemed to have anticipated this, showing no great surprise.

According to the information he’d researched, apart from a few Nightmares that manifested directly...

...all others required a period of time to invade reality, during which they would present external omens, like the scene of the woman in red falling from the building.

During this period, the affected person would enter a special space—a gap between reality and the Nightmare.

In this space, the monsters would generally not attack to kill.

This was why it was known as a premonition.

However, after some time had passed following the premonition’s appearance, the true Nightmare would manifest and overlap with reality. At that point, death would be permanent.

’Too bad. It ran away after just one hit! I wonder what this so-called Dream Eye is.’

Hu Qi’s eyes flickered, a hint of regret in them.

’Still, this proves that Qi Blood Power can indeed harm these creatures from the Nightmare.’

From what he knew, normal physical attacks were generally ineffective against these creatures from the Nightmare.

Only the power of a Nightmare could fight a Nightmare.

In Hu Qi’s view, this was only because the world lacked other forms of Extraordinary Power.

His actions just now had undoubtedly proven his guess.

The situation just now must have been a premonition of the Nightmare’s arrival. If he had played along and fainted, he might have been able to return to reality early.

Unfortunately for the Nightmare, it hadn’t found an ordinary person this time. It had found Hu Qi.

The falling elevator didn’t knock him unconscious, the strange woman didn’t scare him, and he even sent her flying with his axe.

Therefore, this premonition of the Nightmare could only disappear on its own.

Based on the contents of that forum post, the real Nightmare would probably descend in just a few days.

As he thought about this, he summoned his panel and looked at the status column.

[Status: Abnormal △ (Marked by Nightmare Aura)]

Seeing this, Hu Qi’s eyes shifted, but he did not modify it to remove the Nightmare aura from himself.

After all, for Hu Qi, a Nightmare that delivered itself to his doorstep was exactly what he was hoping for.