Watching Little Blue, who had turned into a humanoid form on the ground and was gradually drying out, several Pujis lifted him and carried him away from the secret room.

Lin Jun finally shifted his attention to the Pink Puji. “You’re dying… why?”

She looked perfectly healthy!

In fact, hadn’t she been living so comfortably and freely lately that she’d gotten a little rounder? But nowhere near fat enough to die of it!

“I might… die from nightmares.” Inanna’s voice carried both sobs and fear.

“There’s actually a way to die like that?!”

Then again, thinking about it, maybe it was possible!

Although he had never tried it himself, if one used [Mental Guidance] to ceaselessly torment a person’s spirit, it might indeed be possible to drive them insane, even to death, within a dream.

The only reason he hadn’t tested it was simple: after playing around with one person’s dream a few times, Lin Jun always got bored. He never had the patience to repeat until “completion.”

Inanna then explained everything—her nightmares, the similarities to her mother’s death, along with her fears and speculations.

Just from her mother’s story, Lin Jun’s first reaction was: the butler was the murderer, and that so-called “Dream Flower” was probably something like his own hallucinogenic spores, acting as a conduit!

But when he compared it with Inanna’s situation, that guess was clearly wrong.

The other party’s method of intrusion seemed unlike his own, and apparently didn’t require such a medium.

Otherwise, if someone had directly invaded Inanna’s bedroom, even if Lin Jun hadn’t noticed, the Knight Pujis surely would have.

Checking the Pink Puji’s panel, he really did find a new status effect: [Strange Dream].

This proved it wasn’t just Inanna’s paranoia—something real was happening.

Lin Jun told her about the existence of “Strange Dream,” but unfortunately, Inanna didn’t recognize the term either.

The ominous feeling was confirmed. Inanna now seemed certain she would die young like her mother—perhaps even sooner.

“Boss… is there any way I can be saved? If I really have to die… I… I want to die on the Mycelium Carpet…”

“Even judging from your mother’s case, you wouldn’t die that quickly! I’ll have Aiden investigate this ‘Strange Dream,’ and tonight I’ll enter your dream to check the situation.”

Inanna asked hesitantly, “Enter… my dream? What do you mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like.”

“Boss, you can enter dreams?”

“Yeah.”

“T-then… have you ever… come into my dream before?” Inanna’s voice grew flustered, visibly shaken.

“Uh… no.”

Truthfully speaking, Inanna’s dreams were the dullest of the dull in Lin Jun’s view—either tea parties with Pujis or endless parties, without the slightest drama. They had always sat at the very bottom of his “Dream Entertainment Rankings.”

At least he managed to calm down the Pink Puji. Lin Jun had no choice but to abandon his original plan of staging a “battle royale” for fun inside Norris’s dream and decided to devote all his energy tonight to Inanna instead.

That night, Inanna slowly fell asleep in unease.

The entire mansion, under the Mycelium Carpet and Knight Pujis’ tight watch, left no room for physical intruders.

It seemed the problem had to lie within the dream itself.

[ Mental Guidance LV5 ]

Following the fungal network, Lin Jun sank into the Pink Puji’s dream.

…

By the roots of a gnarled old tree, a gray-green mushroom quietly broke through the soil.

As usual, he first observed the scene.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, the forest was serene, a stream babbled. Inanna was at the riverside with a group of Pujis, having a picnic.

As expected, another completely plotless, relaxation-type dream—boring to the extreme.

Some Pujis darted about playfully among the trees, some splashed in the water, while Inanna herself squatted on the bank, earnestly grilling several fish.

Lin Jun noted there wasn’t even a Mycelium Carpet here. He wondered how she planned to share the grilled fish with the Pujis.

Inanna at this moment had none of her earlier fear. Within the dream, she couldn’t fully carry her waking memories—she was entirely immersed in the peace.

While she wasn’t looking, the green mushroom swelled, quickly becoming a Green-Capped Puji, naturally blending into the group.

For now the dream remained tranquil; it seemed the nightmare hadn’t begun yet. Lin Jun, having arrived early, could set up some defenses in advance.

He scattered spores throughout the woods, and the Mycelium Carpet spread at an impossible speed for reality, silently claiming “territory” within the dream.

Just then, a pair of hands suddenly scooped up the Green Puji from behind.

“Huh? You’re a cutie, are you new? I’ve never seen you before!” Inanna stroked his green cap, muttering curiously.

???

There were more than forty Pujis here, and he wasn’t the only one with a green cap. How did she recognize him?

Twisting free from her arms, Lin Jun continued his preparations.

Thankfully, as the dream’s master, Inanna didn’t intervene further—she simply returned to grilling fish.

Time passed. Just when Lin Jun thought tonight would be wasted, a sudden wolf’s howl split the peace.

More howls followed, growing in number, drawing closer.

At the same time, Lin Jun clearly sensed a foreign spiritual force invading the edge of the dream!

Beyond the forest, where there had been only blank space, a whole new area appeared—a twisted, sinister nightmare forest with an entirely different style. From it poured countless vicious-eyed wolves, charging straight at the tranquil picnic site!

Hearing the howls, Inanna hurriedly gathered the Pujis to retreat, but they were soon forced back to the mouth of a narrow cave.

The Pujis instinctively blocked the entrance, clashing with the wolves. Inanna, desperate, could only throw out the occasional spell from the rear.

From his perch in the treetops, Lin Jun watched it all.

The Pujis fighting beside Inanna weren’t under his control—they were the embodiment of her own mental defenses.

As for why they took Puji form, that was simply her personal preference projected into the dream.

In ordinary dreams, such defenses might appear as family, guards, or other symbols.

The exact shape or number wasn’t important. What mattered was the strength of the mental defenses.

For example, though the wolves appeared to have the advantage, pressing Inanna to the brink, in reality the battle at the cave mouth was at a stalemate. This showed the invader hadn’t yet gained overwhelming superiority.

This kind of situation was familiar to Lin Jun. Dream invasion was like a timed siege: the invader’s strength would gradually grow with time.

Even if they didn’t crush the target in one attempt, as long as they drained enough mental energy, the next invasion would be easier.

What truly caught Lin Jun’s attention, though, was that suddenly manifested nightmare forest. What did it represent?

His [Mental Guidance] could adjust scenes slightly, but it couldn’t conjure entirely new maps of such scale from nothing. This once again proved the intruder’s methods were not [Mental Guidance].

He had observed enough. He couldn’t just watch his Pink Puji take a beating.

Time to step in.

On the Mycelium Carpet Lin Jun had spread across the forest, one Puji after another sprouted.