The little figure was at a loss with the tall, thin figure standing at the front desk of the Deya Training Academy, who then tiptoed and opened the two cabinet doors hidden behind the service desk.
After the cabinet door opened, it was revealed that in front of the two âpeopleâ were piles of neatly stacked small objects, most of which had not been opened and still looked brand new. There were snacks, toys, and even school supplies in the cabinet.
After adjusting the glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose, Su Zimo looked at the conglomeration of text boxes that appeared in front of his eyes, then took Peng Pengâs left hand and began to tremble slightly.
Getting rich overnight⌠is this how it feels?
[Nightmare Brand Lined Exercise Book (No Stars)]
[Quantity: 20]
[Sale Price: 1 yuan]
[Description: Ordinary exercise books. You can record nightmares on blank horizontal lines.]
[Nightmare Brand Candy Box (No Stars)]
[Quantity: 10]
[Sale Price: 1 yuan]
[Description: Candy produced by Nightmare Brand has a very special sweet taste and may also bring another kind of sweetness to late-night dreams.]
[Nightmare Brand Large Lollipop (No Stars)]
[Quantity: 5]
[Sale Price: 1 yuan]
[Description: Lollipops produced by Nightmare Brand have a very special sweet taste and may also bring another kind of sweetness to late-night dreams.]
[Nightmare Brand Imitation Sunny Doll (No Stars)] <sup>1</sup>
[Quantity: 3]
[Sale Price: 1 yuan]
[Description: It is a clumsy imitation, so it does not pray for sunny days or attract customers, but because it is produced by Nightmare Brand, it may attract some special weather.]
[Nightmare Brand Teddy Bear (No Stars)]
[Quantity: 2]
[Sale Price: 2 yuan]
[Description: It is best not to let children and toys be alone in a room at night⌠just kidding.]
[Nightmare Brand Childrenâs Watch (No Stars)]
[Quantity: 1]
[Sale Price: 1 yuan]
[Description: Added the call function that humans particularly like, but who can be sure that on the other end of the phone is really the person you know⌠Of course, this is just a joke.]
âAre you sure you want this kind of thing?â Peng Peng hadnât reacted yet, and his eyes turned a light grey color. He then returned to normal with a puzzled expression, âThere are some prizes for students in most training schools, but these have never been used after being here for so long. After all, there are no students on this floor⌠Maybe those people are right, this is just a nightmare we canât escape.
Su Zimo gazed at Peng Peng and thought he was so different because he knew too much information that he shouldnât have known from the trainers.
âThese are exactly what I need.â Su Zimo nodded with a grin.
âSo what do you want?â Peng Peng looked up at the cabinet that was taller than him, as if he lacked interest in the small gifts that children often enjoyed. He didnât know why Su Zimo wanted to find these things.
âEverything is necessary.â Su Zimo carefully placed the sheet music and the black umbrella on the front desk, put down the bag, opened all the zippers, and restored it to the original shape of a huge hiking backpack. Although there were many things in the cabinet, they were just some trinkets and putting them all in the backpack was no problem.
Peng Peng: ââŚâŚâ
Su Zimo first put the trinkets into the backpack, then finally put the black umbrella and sheet music on top to ensure that the two most important objects wouldnât be damaged by being squished by other things.
Although he knew that the black umbrella and sheet music must be different from other no star things, Su Zimo was still careful.
Looking at the swollen and stuffed backpack after a while, Su Zimo didnât feel any additional weight, but he knew that compared with the existing objects in An Yu Yi Yu shop, the harvest this time was very large.
Su Zimo picked up his backpack and stared at the empty cabinet in front of him for a while with a thoughtful expression.
To Peng Pengâs confusion, Su Zimo suddenly pulled off one of his cufflinks and placed it in a more prominent position on the front desk. The cufflinks werenât inlaid with crystal or zirconium, but a few tiny real diamonds. Although they werenât valuable treasures, they were far more valuable than the objects in the backpack.
The nightmare hotel in the past was like a ruin, but the place Su Zimo was now seemed to be an ordinary office building. Even if he didnât know if there were âpeopleâ who would care about the objects going missing, Su Zimo felt that he had to leave something behind.
"
"
He didnât even have a penny on his body, but maybe the cufflinks would be worth something.
Although some prices are higher than the goods, Su Zimo didnât need the diamonds right now â only the products in front of him.
After arranging everything, Su Zimo glanced at the deepest part of the corridor behind him. Soon after he and Peng Peng left the classroom, all the lights, piano sounds, and even the surging voices of the trainers in the classroom disappeared completely. It was as if they were gone.
Su Zimo didnât know what their second mission was. If that mission was to survive the nightmare, or make Peng Peng, who was the âghostâ suspect, leave, then all the trainers except Gao Yang should have cleared the task.
Gao Yang, who was trapped, may have âpeeled off a layer of skin.â [2] <sup>2</sup>
âLetâs go.â Su Zimo turned around and stretched out his left hand to Peng Peng who was standing in front of him. After holding the small hands in his larger ones again, he stretched his right hand behind him and grasped the cold door handle!
Peng Peng really was the ghost in the nightmare, and must have been lying on the bed just now⌠the creator of âMusic of the Dead!â
From the start until now, Su Zimo finally has enough evidence to prove it.
After all, Peng Peng was staring fixedly at Su Zimo, and the door behind him would not disappear when a spirit from the nightmare stared at him.
Stretching his hand out to open the âdoorâ behind him Su Zimo dragged him back to the door to Peng Pengâs awed gaze.
âWhatâs this? How⌠how is it possibleâŚâ Peng Peng seemed to be able to see the door behind Su Zimo. His chin dropped and his big, beautiful eyes widened further, âWho are you?â
âCurrently, Iâm operating a small shop.â
In the blink of an eye, he found that he had returned to An Yu Yi Yu shop. He could see Peng Peng walking forward step by step through the side door ahead and the long length of Deya Training Academyâs glass hallway.
With a slight pull of his left hand, Su Zimo swiftly entered the store with little Peng Peng.
However, to Su Zimoâs surprise, Peng Peng, normally surprised and skeptical, squinted his eyes and smiled when he entered An Yu Yi Yu.
âItâs so comfortable.â The squinting child swept away the worry on his face, and instead smiled dizzily like a lazy cat. âItâs so comfortable, so comfortable. It feels so comfortable hereâŚâ
âPeng Peng?â
As soon as Su Zimoâs hands let go, he saw the child softly caress the wall, slide down a little bit, and finally lie there curled up like a little shrimp, then stretch out.
âWhere is this, I really want to sleep, en⌠I donât know how long itâs been since I last slept.â Peng Peng moved his mouth comfortably, and his body, which had been solid like a normal person, gradually became transparent.
âGege, I want to sleep, okay?â
After his body became transparent, Peng Peng, who was brought into An Yu Yi Yu by Su Zimo, dazedly extended a hand to him, and continued with a content smile, âThank you gege. Itâs so nice here. It would be nice if you have a piano. After I wake up, I want to be here with you⌠huâŚâ
Peng Pengâs words hadnât even ended yet, and his body gradually faded as if he fused with the air in the store.
Su Zimo reached out to grab Peng Peng, but saw that the little figure completely faded away, and in the place where Peng Peng was lying only remained a paper that looked a little old.
âPa!â
After the storeâs side door snapped shut, Su Zimo bent over to pick up the piece of paper that was probably created by Peng Peng, and found that it was the cover of a score.
The name of the score was called âDREAMâ and the name of the creator was âPeng Peng.â
The name was obviously written by hand, but it wasnât a childish or immature script at all. Instead, it appeared neat and with a pen-stroke, obviously achieved after a long time of practice. This also allowed Su Zimo to be sure that the piece of paper was definitely the missing cover page for âSheet Music of the Dead!â
With the cover for the pages, the musical score in Su Zimoâs possession finally became complete.
Although he didnât know what happened to Peng Peng, Su Zimo believed that he was temporarily integrated into the score after entering An Yu Yi Yu, and fell asleep for a while.
Thinking of this, Su Zimo breathed a sigh of relief, and looked around the still empty An Yu Yi Yu.
He thought that there was indeed a piano missing from the shop.
An Yu Yi Yu was quiet again, leaving Su Zimo standing alone in the empty shop, looking at the two shelves with only random goods.
The heart that was shaken because of the âadventureâ in the nightmare world seemed to gradually be calming down after returning to An Yu Yi Yu. Su Zimo put the backpack down behind him, and first took out the temporarily unsellable sheet music and black umbrella and put the two mysterious âproductsâ on the counter next to the cover page he just got. He then started to sort out the remaining products.
[Shop: An Yu Yi Yu (Ayuyuyu)]
[Owner: Su Zimo]
[Life Savings: 362 days]
[Shelf No.1 Capacity (No Stars): 46/50]
[Shelf No.2 Capacity (One Star): 0/20]
After all the products were sorted on the shelves, the price tags with â1 yuanâ automatically appeared in front of them, the same as in Su Zimoâs memory. All the no stars products were put in place, and the data on the storeâs computer had also been updated faithfully. Shelf No. 1 for no star goods had only four vacancies left, For the new shop owner Su Zimo, it really was a bountiful harvest!
The storeâs intelligent system that lacked operating energy still didnât appear. Su Zimo could only walk to the front door of the store by himself, wanting to see whether or not the new merchandise would allow him to leave An Yu Yi Yu.
After failing to open the front door of the shop again, Su Zimo walked to the back door next to the counter.
There was no electronic screen near the back door of the shop, so all he could do was hold the round door handle, turn it like before, and try to open it with some anxiety, looking forward, afraid of being disappointed again.
âClick!â
This time, the door opened.
Su Zimo, who hadnât been able to recover for a while, stood in the shop in a daze, looking across to the other side of the door.
On the other side of the door was a bedroom that felt familiar to Su Zimo. Although he hadnât seen it for a while, he could naturally recognize this bedroom that accompanied him throughout his student days.
Who wouldâve thought that after the side door of the store lead to an unexpected nightmare worldâŚ
The back door next to the counter lead to Su Zimoâs bedroom in the Su familyâs house!
He could even hear someone whispering outside the bedroom doorâŚ
Footnotes
<ol>Japanese Teru Teru Bozu: a doll that is used to pray for nice weather. Theyâre very cute! They look like little ghosts with a round head and a cute smile. Little children often make them as a fun and simple craft. ćäşä¸ĺąçŽ, an idiom meaning to be tortured or suffer</ol>