After Dark Souls gained popularity for a period, the Lord of Nightmare thought that even though it hadn't healed completely, it had recovered enough to conquer the other worlds.

It dared not wait. There was an increasingly higher number of Ashen Ones entering Dark Souls, so more players were contracting its children.

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Accordingly, the harm and degree of pollution its children suffered also became higher.

The number of players in the Watchdogs of Farron Covenant and the Warriors of Sunlight Covenant had broken through 7300. The degree of pollution of its children that represented these two Covenants had also gone over 50%.

They had started to show signs of rampage, so the Lord of Nightmare must do everything, regardless of the price, to end this war before its children completely lost control.

So, when the Lord of Nightmare was ready, it would lead all of its children to attack the world of Dark Side, using Herring as a stepping stone.

The price for that was leaving the world of Dark Souls unguarded. The Dream Eaters seized this opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Qiu Ren was monitoring the traces and actions of each invader right now. The one who was the closest to the core of the nightmare at the moment was Herring…

She was now challenging Pontiff Sulyvahn, who had tried to deceive her before. Unfortunately, this Pontiff Sulyvahn wasn't controlled by a nightmare consciousness that had fought hundreds of battles anymore. Instead, it was a very normal AI.

Herring soon realized this during the fight, and she ended it in just half an hour…

When Herring cleared the HP of Pontiff Sulyvahn with her daggers, there was a disappointed expression on her face.

What she anticipated was to fight with Pontiff Sulyvahn in his best condition. However, she had a mission to complete at the moment, so she had to put her desire aside.

The nightmare consciousnesses guarding this Nightmare Dungeon had already left. Even if a small number of them were staying here, it was impossible for the bosses to beat the Dream Eaters up until they couldn't care for themselves. A nightmare guardian and an area wouldn't need a whole day and the lives of an entire team to beat anymore.

Herring had to use this opportunity to take down the core of this Nightmare Dungeon as soon as possible!

With these thoughts, Herring defeated Pontiff Sulyvahn and came to a new area… Anor Londo.

She felt the energy of the third Lord of Cinder at the highest point of this place. Once she killed that Lord of Cinder, then the Twin Princes at Lothric Castle, her Dark Souls journey would come to an end, and so would this world!

"I'm coming for you!"

Herring seemed to have sensed Qiu Ren watching her. In these few days, he had used the recordings of her completing the levels for live broadcasts. Even though she had reported it to Twitch, it didn't help much. They only asked Qiu Ren to continue his live broadcasts using the recordings of another member of the Dream Eaters.

Herring wanted Qiu Ren to pay the price for offending her today…

"You'll have to meet the third Lord of Cinder first…"

Qiu Ren looked at Herring, who had entered Anor Londo. The nightmare she had to experience had only started right now.

The day before yesterday, Qiu Ren had launched an event for all the players of Dark Souls. They could invade the world of the live streamer of Dark Souls that they liked during this event.

Herring had always been low-profile in the Dream Eaters, but Qiu Ren had made her the top technical live streamer on Twitch and the spokesperson of Dark Souls Speedrun.

This helped Herring gain a large number of fans. Many people joined the Dark Souls Speedrun Competition because of her, although they had already realized… the version they played seemed to be a bit different from Miss Herring's.

But today… they finally had an official opportunity to fight with their idol!

Once Herring stepped out of the courtyard in Anor Londo, she found that… there wasn't even one monster here. This was something unusual. She remembered that there should be monsters called the Silver Knights guarding the tower.

But when she looked over to the tower far away, she couldn't see any Silver Knights on it.

Perhaps there wouldn't be any monsters in the world of Dark Souls once the nightmare consciousnesses went outside?

Herring soon realized that she was too optimistic. Once she took a step forward, she seemed to have triggered something.

Suddenly, a large number of notifications—a large number of invasion notifications—popped up in front of Herring.

"You've been invaded by 'Vxxa' from the Undead Legion of Farron!"

"You've been invaded by 'XINX' from the Darkmoon Knights!"

"Silver Knight 'SunGUN' guards here!"

Herring looked at the players who were summoned from all over the world. They filled all the empty spaces of the monsters in Anor Londo…

The Lord of Nightmare and its children had indeed gone all out to fight outside… Now, though, this world of Dark Souls still had a group of Ashen Ones willing to step up and turn into the Silver Knights that guarded the tower and the Abyss Watchers that guarded the Farron Keep.

"Don't think that these people can protect you."

Herring didn't hold back because they were people who claimed to be her fans. There was no way normal players could stop Herring from moving forward…

Even players who were Silver Knights could only survive a few rounds under Herring's daggers.

However, humans would make mistakes. Herring was hit by an arrow from the Dragonslayer Greatbow shot by a Dream Explorer Silver Knight…

It penetrated Herring's chest, and the huge impact shot her down the tower… stopping Herring from advancing.

Herring had already been bored of seeing the two words "YOU DIE." And yet, after she was reborn, the invasion time shown before her eyes temporarily dashed her high spirits!

In order to complete this operation, the Dream Eaters had sent almost two-third of their teams inside. The invasion time was conservative, only six hours.

Not all Dream Eaters were like Herring, this monster who could survive for a whole day in Dark Souls by injecting glucose and nutrient solution.

A Nightmare Dungeon was extremely torturing to a human's mind. The Dream Eaters took turns to enter every six hours, letting new members continue exploring using the accounts and archives of the old members.

However, the invasion time Herring saw wasn't six hours, but… ∞:∞:∞. Three infinity symbols were shown in front of her eyes.

This meant that her consciousness might probably be locked in the Nightmare Dungeon of Dark Souls forever.

"Can someone hear me? Captains… Why did my invasion time become unlimited?"

"Headquarters? Headquarters, if you hear me, please reply!"

The anxious voices of the other members sounded in the internal communication network created especially for the Dream Eaters.

The invasion time had become unlimited. This was something Herring had never encountered after invading so many Dream Dungeons since she joined the Dream Eaters!

The other Dream Eaters were the same. No matter how many times they died in the Nightmare Dungeon, they would be able to return to the real world once the invasion time ended.

But now… their consciousness was very likely to be left in Dark Souls forever!

This sent all the members of the Dream Eaters in the invasion into different degrees of panic and chaos.

"Everybody, calm down! Keep going and finish the mission you have!"

Herring comforted the anxious members of the Dream Eaters in the communication channel.

"Something must have happened to Dark Side! Damn it…" A Dream Eater spat the truth without knowing.

If these Dream Eaters were like diving into a bottomless ocean when they explored a Nightmare Dungeon, the Dream Dungeon supporting them would be the rope tied around their bodies.

No matter how deep they dived, as long as the rope was on their bodies, they would be able to leave the Nightmare Dungeon.

When it led its children into Dark Side, the first goal of the Lord of Nightmare was to cut these ropes off, completely severing the connection between the Dream Eaters and Dark Side!

And now, the Dream Eaters were trapped under the bottomless ocean. There were many monsters that were preying on them, wandering around the dark seabed.

"We just have to wait until Dark Side defeats all those nightmare consciousnesses! Dark Side and the headquarters will definitely think of a way to get us out of this nightmare." Herring continued to comfort everyone else.

But suddenly… a Dream Eater said, "You think… for the headquarters, is it more cost-effective to risk having the superhero Dark Side swallowed by the nightmares to save us or to train another batch… of cannon fodders that are sent to death like us?"

This question expressed what these Dream Eaters were most worried about in their minds. Nothing could possibly destroy the faith of an old soldier more than being abandoned by the superiors and organization he trusted.

At this moment, a shadow-like thought came to Herring's mind, and a weird voice whispered in her ears.

It said… Will the superhero you admire really come to save you?

"Impossible!" Herring yelled loudly in the communication channel, "Calm down! Destroy the Nightmare Dungeon in front of you! Once we finish the mission, we'll be saved!"

He… the superhero… would definitely come!