Chapter 386: Chapter 386: Seeking Truth in a Dream
In an instant, the surrounding environment changed drastically. He and the second music box exchanged positions, appearing in Lin’s room.
The tabletop was pressed down by heavy objects, slightly bending and emitting a faint creaking sound.
Chen Xuan immediately spread his hands and feet, bracing against the four corners of the table, tightening his waist, and arching his body into a bridge.
The deformation of the table disappeared, and the weight was entirely transferred along the wall into the ground.
Before he could relax, two ballpoint pens rolled towards the edge of the table due to the slight rebound.
Chen Xuan’s nerves immediately tensed!
He moved horizontally, quickly positioning his left foot under the falling pens, slightly hooking up his instep. The next second, the pens fell one after the other, landing quietly on his foot without making a sound. He then formed a new three-point balance with his hands and one foot, anchoring himself on the tabletop.
Such seamless reaction speed and body coordination were impossible for his past self to achieve.
"Hmm..." Lin let out a slight hum on the bed, turning her body inward.
Chen Xuan silently landed on the ground, placing the two pens back in their original position.
At this point, he had completed the most risky part of the entire plan.
Indeed — since ordinary chit-chat could hardly access genuinely valuable intelligence, perhaps an ordeal-sharing heart-to-heart could change the situation. Such experiences seemed rare and elusive, but if it was in a dream, he could have whatever he wanted.
The music box was his medium to get close to the other party.
To avoid teleporting into a trash can or some enclosed space where he might get stuck, he had prepared another replica with a camera to ensure safety after the translocation. It was indeed lucky to directly teleport into Lin’s bedroom, but even if she casually tossed the music box into a corner of the spaceship, it wouldn’t matter. As long as he entered the spaceship, Chen Xuan could use the Celestial Radiance True Skill to lock onto her aura, then use the invisibility talisman to sneak over.
He took out the first music box from his pocket and carefully placed it back in its original position on the table.
The next step was to choose a place to enter the dream.
After scanning around, Chen Xuan decided to sleep in the opponent’s wardrobe. Generally speaking, if one seeks concealment, under the bed is the best option. But the cabin space was limited, with the embedded design of the bed and desk, leaving no room for hiding people beneath them as they were either drawers or storage compartments.
After entering the wardrobe, he carefully closed the wardrobe door and then took out another set of equipment to wear. This was an alert system used to monitor the outside noise — whether footsteps or the sound of a door opening — which would be transmitted to the outside response team. Once Little Pigeon and Liuli deemed the risk too high, they would press the wake-up switch, delivering an electric shock via the wristband to awaken Chen Xuan instantly from his dream.
This served as the last layer of insurance because the biggest drawback of a "Dream Maker" was that the ability user had to enter the dream together. This was why he chose not to sleep on the floor or in the bathroom; if Lin suddenly woke up, she would see him immediately. At least in the wardrobe, there was a door separating them, and she was unlikely to check the wardrobe in the middle of the night.
Chen Xuan swallowed a potent sleeping pill, leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes.
...
"Hey, snap out of it, what are you daydreaming about?"
Lin felt herself being pushed twice abruptly. She was furious; who dared to speak to her like this? But as she opened her eyes, she couldn’t help but be taken aback... Where was she?
Before her seemed to be a temple, with the temple gate brutally pushed down. On both sides stood many fully armed private soldiers of the mechanism, their eyes all focused on her, seemingly waiting for her orders. Fierce gunfire constantly erupted from afar, sometimes interspersed with a few explosions, and the deep night did not hinder the conflict but rather seemed to provide cover for their actions.
Lin immediately realized that this was an assault planned by the mechanism.
Who was the opponent... Evangelicals? Rival companies? Or perhaps Wanderers hostile to the mechanism?
She did not know, but it was certain that this temple was the enemy’s hideout.
Lin turned to the person who had pushed her, and to her surprise, it was a familiar face...
"Chen Xuan?"
"Yes, the time is up, we’ve been ordered to strike immediately." Chen Xuan coughed twice, "What’s with you, you’ve been in a daze just now."
The background environment crafted by the Dream Maker is the core element that determines the direction of the dream.
No matter how absurd the content of the dream, those deeply entrenched in it cannot escape by their own will, yet they might still develop a resistance, thinking "this is a dream, right?" or "I must wake up," thus a logical backdrop is extremely necessary.
Chen Xuan knew very little about the world of 2108, whether simulating the future Jiang City or the future mechanism would likely be riddled with flaws, so he chose the background he was most confident in: the 2026 Battle of Beitian Academy.
The mechanism indeed launched a surprise attack on this place.
Moreover, Lin’s predecessor personally participated in this assault.
Regarding both the scenery and the event process, Chen Xuan could replicate them with precision, making it hard for the dreamer to find any flaws. The only uncertainty was whether Lin, upon inheriting her predecessor’s abilities, would also retain some of the predecessor’s subconsciousness? When exactly does this subconsciousness get retained — is it at the moment of preservation, the moment of the ability user’s death, or perhaps... after the ability user’s death?
Chen Xuan leaned towards the former.
The reasoning is simple: if the mechanism can retain part of the consciousness of Arbitration Court operatives, why wouldn’t they? Such inheritors would undoubtedly be more loyal to the organization, and their cultivation would be more straightforward. They likely did not replicate a Lin with complete memory due to other considerations.
Lin Qing is actually an example.
Not only did she inherit part of Honglian’s abilities, but she also likely continued Honglian’s determination to oppose the mechanism. This subconsciousness did not contain specific memory fragments but could still influence her life, prompting her to unhesitatingly become a rebellion fighter, even at the cost of her life.
As for the latter question, common sense suggests that it should be at the moment of backing up, akin to a game save.
Otherwise, if the person dies, where would the abilities and consciousness be inherited from?
However, the abilities themselves defy common sense.
Especially after hearing Ma Kang’s description of the Evangelicals’ pursuits, he increasingly suspected that not only did Liu Shuyue and Elorie’s worlds possess souls but the people of this world also had souls. The research of both the Evangelical Association and the Dimensional Limit Mechanism involved this field, suggesting it was no longer a fictional concept.
If "Agreement Birth" functions like the Destiny Wedge, acting on the soul, the saving theory would no longer be the only explanation.
To test this hypothesis, Chen Xuan deliberately brought Liuli along to observe Lin’s reactions.
The result showed she did indeed have an instinctive response to the person who killed her.
There was no doubt she did not recognize Liuli nor did she remember that night raid a century ago. She and the dead ability user of the Arbitration Court were not the same person; yet she still displayed a touch of hesitation and repulsion — even if Lin herself wasn’t consciously aware of it.
This answer gave Chen Xuan a bit more confidence.
If a flawless background design is the prerequisite for a successful dream, then an intrinsic sense of immersion is the best aid to immerse Lin in it completely.
"Was I daydreaming?" She blinked, her gaze falling on the badge on Chen Xuan’s shoulder: a three-star Sharp Sword emblem, indicating he was a seasoned Execution Team operative — such a level ability user would usually serve as the right-hand man to the Judgment Court operatives in action, "No... I was just thinking. Let’s proceed with the attack as planned."
"Yes, move forward with me!" Chen Xuan gestured to the soldiers on both sides, "Kill any resistors without mercy!"
Under his lead, the fully armed team immediately sprang into action.
However, shortly after stepping into the west courtyard, they were overwhelmed by a torrential downpour of bullets.
The ones responsible for intercepting them were none other than the Hot Pepper Village Hunting Team!
Comments