Chapter 86: A Loophole? Is It a Solution?
Inside the bustling Elm Street Riel Hospital, the remaining members of Team China looked at each other.
At Ren Arakawa's suggestion, everyone had brought their family members here, both to supervise them and to help themselves stay awake.
It was only two hours until nightfall. The thought of facing an even more unbearable night alone made Big Mom, who hadn't participated in yesterday's collective action, burst into tears.
She was just an ordinary, retired old woman whose physical condition was slightly better than average.
If she had known that cleaning her grandson's computer would lead to such a situation, she would never have touched that damned mouse.
With Big Mom leading the way, the other four Newcomers also started crying sorrowfully.
"What did I do to deserve this?! I just embezzled a bit of project money, is that enough to torture me like this?!" Brother Liu, the foreman, cried bitterly, "I'm so sleepy, I can't hold on, I want to sleep, I want to sleep!"
At this sight, Zheng Zha's convenient wife couldn't help but sob.
"Don't cry, my dear." Zheng Zha gently patted his wife's back, unsure how to comfort her.
After all, in the true sense, he was merely an outsider who had descended upon this place, while his wife had genuinely lost her daughter.
"Daddy, why are they crying?" Diana, with dark circles under her eyes, asked, tugging on Ren Arakawa's finger, her eyes blinking, looking very cute.
Ren Arakawa crouched down, "If you fall asleep, Daddy and Mommy will cry like this too. Understand? No sleeping."
"Oh, oh. Then Diana won't sleep."
"Ahhhhhhh!"
A sudden scream drew everyone's attention!
Brother Liu, the foreman, who had just been crying, had a large hole ripped in his chest! His tongue was hanging out, and his eyeballs were missing.
How utterly tragic!
Seeing this, the members of the Reincarnation Team, and their families who didn't understand them, collectively shut their mouths and became quiet.
The Main God had arranged for Brother Liu, the foreman's wife and son, to watch their loved one's corpse, nearly scaring them unconscious.
Seeing this scene, a bolt of lightning flashed through Ren Arakawa's mind!
He slapped his thigh, "I miscalculated!"
"What? What did you miscalculate?" Zhan Lan asked, puzzled.
"It shouldn't just be the Reincarnation Team members; it should count a family of three!" Ren Arakawa said, quickly counting the number of people present.
Excluding Zheng Zha's unlucky daughter, and Brother Liu, the foreman...
The number of people present was...
Twenty-five people!
Ren Arakawa recalled the details of encountering Freddy in the Dreamscape and quickly came to a conclusion.
This was a devil who loved to push people to their limits, making his prey suffer a mental breakdown before making a move!
"From last night's situation, even if one falls asleep, Freddy won't directly attack within about the first thirty seconds."
"Thirty seconds of safety!" Ren Arakawa smiled slightly, looking at the people in the room, "If we make good use of this, we can avoid many dangers!"
"If we proactively hold the danger in our hands..."
"It's like a kitchen knife!"
"If it's in your own hands, it's not dangerous!"
Zhan Lan nodded, still confused, "But, but how exactly do we implement it?"
Ren Arakawa's eyes lit up, "Sleep together!"
"Sleep together?" Zheng Zha was stunned, "What do you mean?"
"Everyone sleeps together, then Freddy can only chase one person into the dream! As long as we control the time to twenty-five seconds, then this chase is basically not very dangerous."
Ren Arakawa lightly tapped the desktop with his finger, "Although twenty-five seconds of sleep is very short, compared to enduring ten days without sleep, it's already a godsend!"
"As long as we steal enough sleep during the night, the fewer accidents will occur during the day!"
"At the same time, the difficulty of me manipulating Freddy will also be greatly reduced! He won't even have time to make a move on me before he enters the dream again!"
"But, but..." Zhan Lan quickly grasped the key to the problem, "Then how can we ensure everyone falls asleep and wakes up at the same time? By phone?"
"We definitely have to sleep face-to-face," Ren Arakawa said without thinking.
"Sleep face-to-face? Wouldn't that mean facing Freddy's pursuit at night?!" Zhan Lan's heart skipped half a beat just thinking about last night's thrilling scenes.
"It's not you guys being chased, what are you afraid of? I'll bear it!"
"But, but how will it be implemented?" Zhan Lan continued to press.
Ren Arakawa then looked at Zheng Zha, "Tonight, you'll have to put in some effort. From now on, sleep."
"Zhan Lan, if you don't want Zheng Zha to die, wake him up every twenty seconds. I'm leaving it to you."
Ren Arakawa looked at the crowd.
"Then..."
"Everyone will spend the night in the hospital's anesthesia room tonight!"
Night fell, and an eerie silence enveloped the first floor of Elm Street Riel Hospital.
The hospital lights were exceptionally dim, as if even light struggled to penetrate the oppressive atmosphere.
In the corridor, two small nurses lay unconscious on the cold floor, their comatose state making the entire hospital seem even more desolate and terrifying.
An odd wind rustled through the corridors and ventilation shafts, its sound sometimes distant, sometimes near, like the breathing of some creature, or an invisible hand gently tapping the windows, sending shivers down one's spine.
In the anesthesia room, the tension and terror were almost palpable.
Blankets and covers were spread on the cold floor. Everyone except Zheng Zha and Ren Arakawa lay on them, their expressions filled with dread.
Some people kept their eyes tightly shut, afraid that opening them would reveal something they shouldn't see.
Others kept their eyes wide open, staring intently at the ceiling, seemingly searching for a glimmer of hope.
The smell of disinfectant permeated the air, mixing with people's sweat and the scent of fear, creating a suffocating odor.
The door to the anesthesia room was tightly shut, as if trying to block out the terror outside, but the strange wind still seeped in through the cracks of the door and windows, making it impossible for anyone to feel at ease.
Ren Arakawa raised his hand to check his watch; there was less than a minute remaining until Freddy's appearance countdown.
Holding a syringe in his hand, Ren Arakawa mumbled, "Anesthetizing so many people at once requires some skill. Fortunately, I have these eyes..."
Zheng Zha, standing nearby, looked curiously at Ren Arakawa's Three-Tomo Sharingan.
Because Zheng Zha was pulled into the Main God Space from the 2007 timeline in real life, he hadn't escaped the cultural impact of the Naruto anime and knew what Ren Arakawa's eyes meant.
"Squad Leader." Zheng Zha swallowed, "To strengthen to Three-Tomo, how many horror movies do you have to go through? I heard Zhang Jie say this seems to be your second horror movie where you can move freely. How are you so powerful?"
"Talent."
"Talent, huh? I wish I had talent like that too..." Zheng Zha slowly lowered his head, his eyes full of envy.
Ren Arakawa was too lazy to mock Zheng Zha.
Resident Evil entered the Main God Space, then just coasted along, then Alien opened the first Gene Lock, The Grudge opened the second lock, and Death came and opened the third lock.
A rocket-like ascension all the way.
Ren Arakawa had already experienced so many things, and he still hadn't opened the second Tier Gene Lock. Who should envy whom?
"When will I open the second lock?"
As he thought of this, a sudden rush of footsteps in the corridor interrupted Ren Arakawa's thoughts.
"They're here!"
(end of chapter)