Chapter 93: Waking from an Impermanent Dream
With his long hair flowing, the once delinquent youth had now become a rebellious middle-aged man.
Well, it turned out that Waking Dream wasn't really that old. Actually, he still looked quite young.
Not knowing oneself in dreams, this characteristic allowed many legendary pioneers to experience the Black Lotus District in their dreams.
Everyone thought that Waking Dream must be dead.
If dreams were so dangerous, what about reality?
Even if Tianxia Wuer, who greatly admired this number two figure in the guild, couldn't imagine any scenario where Waking Dream survived this crisis.
Unless... he never entered the black fog at all.
Waking Dream, smoking a cigarette, looked at the two mutating monsters in the basement, it was his first time encountering such a situation.
"What's this? Both are turning into monsters, yet neither has completely become one…"
"Such a hassle. How should this be handled?"
If it weren't for the sudden announcement in his mind about the defense mode being deactivated, given Waking Dream's nature, regardless of good or bad, these corrupt beings had to die.
He should have finished them off.
But in the end, seeing Jiang Xianwu sacrificing himself to save this monster called Zhang Haoyun in the dream, he, once a hardcore enforcer, found himself unexpectedly soft-hearted.
A person's life should have a miracle worth more than gold. If mountains block, I will move them; if seas impede, I will fill them. If you become a monster, then I will no longer be human.
Such things, sounding like juvenile fantasies, were yet...
Extremely suited to Waking Dream's taste. Deep down, he was still a hot-blooded youth.
As for why Waking Dream was here, and why he hadn't died, that had to start with his ability.
Not knowing oneself in dreams, Waking Dream had mentioned, had two effects, the first of which he chose to keep hidden.
And the concealed part was the reason Waking Dream survived—
Dream forewarning.
When Waking Dream was risking his life, about to take that step into the Black Lotus, the hidden feature of his ability, 'not knowing oneself in dreams', was triggered.
When the host faces a lethal threat, there's a twenty percent chance to simulate the aftermath in dreams, thus achieving an outcome of embracing good fortune and avoiding disaster.
Of course, this percentage could increase as it was triggered more frequently, with pioneers growing stronger.
Simply put, Waking Dream had fallen asleep at the edge of the black lotus.
He never entered the black lotus itself.
And the dream he send out wasn't his own experience, but a forewarning dream.
In any case, Waking Dream was sure that once he entered, he would certainly die.
But he also had information from his dream, so this mission... he'd leave to pioneers like Tianxia Wuer and Guang Tongchen.
That's what he thought, and so he stayed on the edge of the black fog, wanting to see...
Which pioneer would appear and resolve this crisis.
He had seen Tianxia Wuer in reality.
But he hadn't seen the other legendary pioneers.
At last, he saw a young man, his body wrapped in a strange, crimson aura...
This style, reminiscent of a manga with red domination aura, really struck a chord with Waking Dream.
Duan Kun, standing behind, heard that repeated query, "Do you believe in miracles?"
At that moment, his toes almost curled out of Jiangcheng's finest. This kid... definitely wasn't Tianxia Wuer, that show-off king might love to show off, but he wasn't this passionate.
Yes, it's awkward yet thrilling, but the more it was so, the more he craved the unpredictable nature of the dream master.
He realized... this person could very likely be Jiang Xianwu.
He had felt a kinship towards Jiang Xianwu for a while, because Jiang Xianwu was a Mutator.
After all, the dream master always liked those who could turn a bad hand into a good one.
As for whether Jiang Xianwu really started with a bad hand? Probably not, but who cares, he liked it.
That was the attitude of the dream master.
So in the end, when the black fog began to collapse, he changed his mind.
Currently, Jiang Xianwu has not yet awakened, and another corrupted type has also not awakened.
If the corrupted type wakes up, it is likely to be very dangerous.
But the dream master was truly fierce, just like having two drunks in his own room, he would do push-ups, skip rope, and make instant noodles... in the rented basement.
Life didn't change at all.
Then he turned on his phone and scrolled through the news for a while.
"The insect disaster in Linxiang City has now been lifted, and medical teams have begun to clean the area. The casualties of this insect disaster are still being tallied, and according to experts' analysis, these insects are a type from 1.7 million years ago, their form..."
An expert's nonsense drifted by. The dream master, a middle-aged man with a tough demeanor and not much education, had little patience for these people.
Things like taxing the unemployed, taxing those who are employed, suggesting the poor consider renting out a second home, or driving for DiDi...
Although these people may not be of the same ilk, in the subjective view of the dream master, they were all fools who asked, "Why not eat meat porridge?"
But he discovered that something mentioned in the update notice - "We will erase some memories of non-predecessor humans. And perform logical repairs through adaptive memory" - had actually been implemented.
This was quite excellent; he had felt the aftermath this time would be very troublesome.
But now it seemed... the aftermath issue had been directly resolved by the high and almighty "we".
Sucking on his instant noodles, the dream master thought of how shocked people would be now and suddenly laughed out loud, then choked, spraying noodles out of his nose.
"You'd better wake up first, kid, or if this lady wakes up first, I'm screwed."
Initially, when the dream master was influencing dreams, he spoke to Jiang Xianwu very...formally, appearing like a very mature senior.
Now, he figured he had broken the seal.
The reason was simple, if two predecessors met in reality, the best strategy was... to become friends.
The legendary predecessor, the Dream Master known as the dream master, now felt Jiang Xianwu was to his taste.
Jiang Xianwu's fingers twitched slightly.
The bright red crystals covering most of his body were also slowly... evaporating like water, continuously dissipating.
The dream master had been keeping an eye on this, wondering why Jiang Xianwu's decayed body could reverse decay.
Was this really decay?
And the female monster nearby... Was it an illusion? It seemed like the eyes on her body were not so dense anymore.
Decay was still a mystery to predecessors, and the dream master was clearly not a collector of knowledge.
He couldn't figure out what the situation was, but he didn't care:
"Anyway, we've survived. Even if the sky falls, we'll talk about it after you wake up."
Zhou Baiyu could actually already hear the outside sounds, but for now...
His consciousness couldn't yet control his body.
Because at the moment, he had to deal with some issues from Dr. A first.