Chapter 90: Chapter 65: Entering the Dream (Part 2)
"Just because he hasn’t been taught a lesson doesn’t mean I’m not on my way to do it."
"I’m on my way to teach him one right now."
The "old man" let out a dry, rasping laugh. He raised his head, and his aged face suddenly blurred, like a swirling mist. Then, as if blown away by the wind, it dispersed, revealing Sopea’s face.
Sean: "??!"
No joke, he was genuinely startled.
’Is this what Elvire meant by "right away"?’
’Isn’t that a bit too fast?’
This was precisely the effect Sopea wanted. He was very pleased with Sean’s reaction.
He had said it before: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
At this moment, Elvire, Kate, and the others were waiting outside the Confession Room.
For one, they were telling the people lining up for prayer to find other Priests. For another, they were keeping an eye on Sopea, lest the old geezer really make a move on Sean.
On the other hand, they were also very curious about what kind of person Sean had been in his past life.
To have such terrifying Talent and potential after being reborn, Sean couldn’t have been a nobody in his past life. Perhaps they had even known each other back then.
Being friends across two lifetimes... it was a rather romantic thought.
That word didn’t just apply to love; it could describe friendship as well.
「In the Confession Room.」
Sopea reverted to his original appearance, and the "little girl" revealed her true face as well.
It was Koni.
To put Sean in his place, Sopea had spared no expense. A Witch Potion was not cheap.
But he didn’t care.
As long as he could help Koni get even, he wouldn’t hesitate to use a hundred Magic Potions, let alone two.
In the "family of three," only the little dog was real. This was to distract Sean, as people in a state of shock or surprise are easier to hypnotize than usual.
So, startling Sean was just the beginning.
The real place to get even for Koni was in a dream.
Sean didn’t understand the principles of hypnosis. He was about to roast Sopea for acting so childish at his age, but before he could say a word, Sopea made his move.
Sopea stared directly at Sean. His eyes were deep and sharp, like a knife hidden in the night, piercing through a curtain to stab straight into Sean’s own.
In that instant, Sean felt the world spin. His vision went completely white, as if something had just been activated.
By the time the white light gradually faded and color returned to the world, he had once again arrived at the place Koni had brought him to before—
Holkaydo.
The only difference was that this time, there were two people beside him.
Looking at the familiar streets and buildings, Sean was astonished.
"Are we... already in a dream?"
He hadn’t gone to sleep; he was still at work and had just finished bickering with Elvire. He was wide awake. ’Can someone really use Entering the Dream on me in this state?’
"I told you, my master is amazing," Koni said, a little smugly.
Sean praised him sincerely, "Truly worthy of being a Dream Master."
Sopea replied with a nonchalant expression, "I’m average, I suppose."
’Hypnotizing a mere Tier Two Wizard into a dream is child’s play.’
Sean then asked sincerely, "But why are we still in this lifetime?"
Koni: "..."
Sopea: "..."
’This lifetime?’
He had been too busy enjoying the praise from Koni and Sean to carefully observe the dream. Now, hearing Sean’s words, he finally took a serious look at his surroundings and discovered...
...it really was this lifetime.
Sopea frowned.
"This shouldn’t be."
It was as he’d thought before: with his current Tier and Spiritual Strength, making a mistake with a mere Tier Two Wizard was impossible. He was certain this was the deepest memory in Sean’s heart.
"Is the timeline wrong?" This time, it was Koni’s turn to say it.
She believed her master wouldn’t make a mistake.
Sopea didn’t answer, merely giving Sean a deep look.
"I underestimated you."
Sean: "..."
He really wanted to say it had nothing to do with him.
But it seemed this was, in fact, his business.
He didn’t know how to explain, because he himself had no idea what was going on with his dream.
The only thing he was sure of was that he wasn’t controlling the dream.
He hadn’t had a single thought about it.
In fact, even if he wanted to, he probably couldn’t.
There’s an idiom: "the cuckoo occupying the magpie’s nest."
Although the master of a dream has absolute control over it, the gap between him and Sopea was simply too vast, especially in dream control. If they were to fight for control, Sean wouldn’t necessarily win. The most likely outcome would be "mutual destruction" and the collapse of the dream. Sopea could then easily use this "collapse" to trick Sean, making him think he’d returned to reality when he had actually fallen into a second layer of dreaming constructed by Sopea.
After a few rounds of this, Sean might never be able to distinguish dream from reality, forever doubting if the world he was in was real. This is commonly known as psychosis, or in layman’s terms, going completely insane.
However, Sopea wouldn’t do that.
He and Sean didn’t have some deep-seated hatred for each other. Those were tactics for dealing with enemies, unnecessary for simply getting even.
The reason he said he’d underestimated Sean was that he had already figured out the problem.
It wasn’t that the timeline was wrong, as Koni had suggested. On the contrary, the timeline had to be correct. The dream itself was constructed from Sean’s deepest memories, and they had to believe that. Otherwise, in a subjective world like a dreamscape, the more you doubt, the further you get from the truth.
"But if the time is right, why is there a Holkaydo?" Koni didn’t understand.
She hadn’t lied to Sean back then. The Era of Polymath in her memory wasn’t like this, nor did it have Holkaydo or the Alola Grassland.
"Because this is an illusion," Sopea said meaningfully.
If people in a dream could have normal senses, then naturally, those senses could also be deceived.
The fact that even he couldn’t break through this illusion at first glance meant that the soul defense Sean left behind from his past life was still very strong.
Hundreds of years had passed, yet it could still fool him. It seemed Sean’s strength in his past life was even greater than he had imagined.
Not just Tier Ten, but one of the best among them.
’He must have been on the same level as me.’
But unfortunately, that was all in the past.
Whether in dreams or reality, one rule always held true—
When past life Tiers were comparable, what mattered was the Tier in this life.
And in this life, he was far, far stronger than Sean.
A defense of this level couldn’t possibly stop him.
As Sopea made his move, Sean also realized that a master was a master, after all. He was more than just a little bit stronger than the apprentice.
He didn’t even see Sopea perform any actions like Koni’s, who clasped her hands to chant a Spell. With just a single thought from Sopea, the surrounding scenery began to change rapidly.
Once again, it shifted from Holkaydo to the Alola Grassland, then through city streets and country villages, finally settling on a hospital.
Unlike the last time Koni used Entering the Dream, this time they were outside the hospital.
Faced with the same scene, the three of them had different feelings and reactions.
Koni covered her face in shame. She really didn’t want to relive her childhood again.
’Even though it was Master who used Entering the Dream this time, and I was just brought along to learn, it’s like "Sean" thinks I’m an easy target! The scenes flashing by are still my memories... This is just bullying!’
Sean, on the other hand, was deep in thought.
’First, I’m not targeting Koni.’
’Second, this hospital still feels completely unfamiliar.’
’And third, didn’t he say it has nothing to do with the timeline? Then why are we rewinding it?’
Sopea seemed to have read his mind. "The best way to dispel an illusion," he said, "is to break it."
Break it, literally.
Just as Sopea expected, the moment he had this thought, the sky suddenly darkened. Clouds that had been scattered about quickly gathered, blocking the sun and forming a gigantic face that looked just like Sean’s, blotting out the sky.
Seeing this scene again, Koni hurriedly lowered her head, not daring to meet the eyes of the Sean in the sky.
Sopea, however, was the exact opposite.
"You’re the one I’m looking for!"
He looked up, staring straight at the face. With a cold laugh, his figure shot toward the heavens. The shimmering outline of a giant appeared behind him, its hands reaching for Sean’s face, intending to tear the very clouds apart.
"Break for me!"
...
