Dylath-Leen, a giant coastal city, was the harbor for the passing and going of numerous ships and vehicles. This was not a bright city by any means, as most of its buildings were black towers built from basalt. There were narrow dark alleys between the towers. The alleys were squeezed with many squat taverns and the taverns themselves were squeezed with sailors from all parts of the world. The place was a pit stop for many travellers but none of the locals had the travel bug. The world was filled with danger and as a normal person, why leave the city where they could get everything they ever wanted comfortably?
Every citizen of Dylath-Leen knew about the ships with the black sails. The ships were handled by the strange merchants who dealt in trades of jewels, slaves and other curios. No one could tell for sure where these people came from, some said that they came from the legendary Plateau of Leng. Leng was in itself a land of mystery, according to legend, the place was filled with endless horror but that was never verified because not many people dared to venture there to confirm the legends. Regardless, it was true that some black merchants dealt with the trade of horror, with either news of horrifying nature or disfigured objects. These did not gather much attention in the past but recently, the ‘Nightmare Wonder’ the black merchant brought to the Sunset Theatre had caused a ripple through Dylath-Leen.
The Nightmare Man, a scary and ugly man who could unleash illusions that could scare the whole theatre of audience witless. The first few shows were visited only by the loyal patrons of the theatre. They went with curiosity and suspicion but left with satisfaction like how one would feel after watching a scary movie. Some of these satisfied customers dropped by the taverns and that was how the news spread among the foreign sailors. The half-drunk sailors joked among themselves when they heard this. “Nightmare? Strange man? I’ve been on the seas for so many years already, how come I have not heard of anything like that before?””Let me tell you about the true horror. That one time, our crew ran into a giant storm, our ship almost capsized, now that was real horror.””Only those who have not seen the actual world will be scared by some kid born with disfigurement.””Fine, I’ll go to the show, guarantee you I’ll come back laughing.”
With the addition of these sailors, when it came time for the third showing of the Nightmare Wonder, the theatre was jammed. The management even had to add seats on the pathway. The smell of alcohol permeated the room. The sailors glanced at the stage with condescension, believing the whole mystery was more show than substance. However when the nightmare man was wheeled onto the stage, his horrifying appearance caused their heart to quiver. Regardless, their fear was still mostly suppressed by the alcohol running in their system. They gloated about how each of them could have come up with a nightmare man of their own, just by locking a lowly slave and a mad beast inside a cage and everyone would have on their hands a nightmare man.
But they were forced to eat their words when the black merchant poked the nightmare man’s eyeballs with the silver needles. The sailors dropped down in screams, perhaps due to their state of inebriation, their susceptibility to the nightmare even more intense than the locals. The black merchants appeared to wish to make an example out of these sailors so the show went on longer than usual. It was not until the sailors went on their knees to beg for mercy, with some of them crying, vomiting and even fainting that the show stopped. Who knew what kind of tragedy they had experienced in their illusions. After this third show, the nightmare man was destined for stardom at Dylath-Leen.
After the sailors exited the theatre and returned to the taverns, they refused to admit their weakness. When others asked, they would say openly, “it was nothing scary, I vomited because of the alcohol in my stomach and not because of anything else.””It was just a disfigured man.” But their pale face and the avoidance of going into details had belied the truth. That drew up more hype among the sailors. More such conversations and bets appeared in the different taverns. “You dastardly coward, I’m sure a glance at the nightmare man will cause you to empty your bowels on the spot!””Fine, care to put your words where your mouth is? We will go together but what will I get if you’re the one who collapses first?””I’ll do anything you want!”
Not only the sailors, even the locals had shown more interest in this new arrival. The House of Worm and Leng were places of legends, they would not have the chance to go visit, and even if they were given the chance, they wouldn’t dare go, but Sunset Theatre was right in the city. After the show, they could walk out of the theatre to enjoy the timely sunset. Therefore, on the fourth day of the Nightmare Wonder, due to the exorbitant number of demand, the black merchants decided to have three showings in one day. The number kicked up to 10 showings on the fifth day.
This decision was understood by the merchants in the city. Every merchandise had their perishable date, especially those that came with mysterious power. There were too many strange and powerful forces in this world, and popularity ran on a deadline. Therefore on the sixth day, the sunset theatre was open all day for the showing of the Nightmare Wonder. The nightmare man was kept on stage but the audience under the stage swapped batch after batch. 3 shows, 5 shows, 10 shows… before noon, there were 15 showings already.
People carried a trembling heart out of the theatre, they commented on the gold mine that the black merchants had stumbled upon. The question raised was, where did they find this nightmare man? It had to be Leng, the plateau with the endless horror. No one would have thought that the answer was Ulthar, a small township that was not far from Dylath-Leen and the tribe of Zoogs that made the surrounding forest their home.
Another batch of audience left the theatre, the strange curios on stage was covered back with the black cloth. Sensing the return of the darkness, the eyes of the ‘nightmare man’ returned with the glow of humanity.
‘That was the end of the 31st showing.’ Gu Jun counted in his heart. The first showing digested 0.1 percent, the second 0.2 percent, the third 0.3 percent and every showing after that decreased the corruption rate by 0.3 to 0.4 percent. Now, the corruption rate had dropped down to 38.07 percent and the completion rate of the abyssal mission was 9.8 percent. He believed one more showing and he’d be down with the mission.
For the past few days, Gu Jun could feel conspicuous change in his mental power, especially this morning, he could feel its recovery at a rapid speed and it now contained a kind of property that was different from before. ‘What would that entail?’, he could not tell for now. Going below the 40 percent was a breakthrough. When he reached that corruption rate, he felt a reconnection to his physical body, the various senses were returning. Now he could wiggle his toes or fingers slightly, that was an extremely good development. But the bad news was the ungual phalanx of his left pinkie had been severed, it was probably the emergency rescue done by the Zoogs. He had been alternating the sweet dream bubbles to sustain his consciousness. 2 of them were still left untouched but 3 of them were at the verge of bursting already. As he slipped between the different bubbles, he realized they were of the same dream, strengthening the idea that they came from the same dreamer.
“Ladies and gentlemen.” The host’s voice rang out again, as a new batch of audience shuffled into their seats. Gu Jun disappeared into a sweet dream bubble and he was greeted by the same old ancient playhouse.
Soon the black cloth was pulled back. He sensed quite blurrily the rowdy human presence inside the theatre, there were thousands of people who came to gawk at him…
Suddenly something cleared in his vision. His heart that he had reconnected with suddenly started to race. Gu Jun saw there was a group of people sitting in the second row. Earthlings, they definitely looked like people who came from Earth.