Li Yan harbored the fear of monsters and hid in the shadows for an unknown amount of time, but he was a human after all, and he needed to eat, drink, and Lazar.

Lazar left it alone, eating and drinking could not be solved nearby, and he had to go out and find food. Therefore, despite his fear, he reluctantly walked out of his hiding place.

Then, unsurprisingly, the monster found him again, and it was the same monster that had killed him before. Although it is not the first time that he has died, death and pain are by no means something that can be used to it. The experience of being killed several times cast a very heavy shadow on his heart, and he was suddenly frightened, driven by fear, he squeezed all the strength in his muscles, and his mind knew nothing but escape and escape.

But this time he didn't die under the monster's minions, because he met me and Joan.

The indigo blade burst through the air, slaying the chasing monster in an instant.

"I almost thought that I was the only living person in this city, but I didn't expect to be rescued when I escaped, and I didn't expect that the person who saved me was a superpower......" At this point, his face was full of joy and surprise at what he had experienced.

He added that he introduced himself, "Speaking of which, I haven't said my name yet." My name is Li Yan. ”

JoAnn and I have introduced ourselves before. At this time, Qiao An was silent in order to avoid seducing Li Yan again, and at the same time walked in front of us. As before, I left the task of leading the way to Joan, who knew how to go back the way he came, which was much more convenient than listening to the guidance of reality.

I said that I was going back the way I came, but looking at the scenery around me, I couldn't figure out whether the "place where we first entered the dream" we were returning to was Joan's or mine. The blue bird said that it could be either way, and that space didn't mean much to dreams. Even if they are visually different, they may be exactly the same from a real-world data perspective.

On the way, I encountered several more demons, but I killed them all at once. Li Yan was reflexively panicked at first, unable to even stand steadily, but he was also trying to adapt, and looked at me with shocked and unfamiliar eyes from time to time.

But being looked at like this makes me hardly proud of it. Then I asked him, "After several resurrections, do you really have no after-effects?" ”

"Nope. If there's anything wrong with it, it's that I'm hungry and thirsty now, and I'm running so hard just now......" He touched his stomach uncomfortably and looked ahead again, "What direction are we moving in?" ”

"Directions out of the city." As I spoke, I comforted him, "When you go back, you'll be able to eat and drink to your heart's content." ”

"Leave, go back...... Will we really be able to leave the city? He said as if talking to himself.

"Why do you ask?" I asked.

"That may be offensive to you...... I said before that I couldn't accept that this was a dream, but this was really not my dream, and you weren't really the characters I imagined? He asked blankly, "Such a bizarre city, not like a monster that would appear in reality, and you can easily kill such a monster...... These are not things that will appear in reality at all. Even me, who was resurrected in the original place no matter how I was killed, was ......."

Maybe you've awakened the superpower of time rewind, or maybe it's the ability to prescient dreams, and that's the truth of the mystery of your resurrection...... Originally, I wanted to use such a joke to ease his anxiety, but I swallowed the joke after thinking about it.

"It's unnatural to think about it. If these are dreams, then when did the dreams begin? He seemed to be entangled and pondering, and even doubted even further, "From the moment I found myself at a crossroads?" But there is a strong continuity between switching from the staff dormitory to the intersection, is it possible that the staff dormitory is also my dream? ”

"So, how do you explain how realistic you feel?" I asked.

It's easy to explain. If I am dreaming, then my consciousness is definitely not awake. Even if I feel like I feel like it's realistic now, it's probably just my delusion, and I won't think about it when I wake up. As if trying to extract superfluous feelings, he said, "Any conclusion drawn by an unconscious consciousness cannot be trusted." ”

After composing himself, he showed me a clear mind. I realized that underneath his lack of assertiveness and courage was indeed a brilliant mind. Then I asked another question, "But is there anything more trustworthy than your own consciousness?" ”

He froze like a dead machine, "This ......"

"Actually, your suspicions are not wrong, this city like Liucheng is indeed a dream." I still chose to tell the truth.

"What!" Although my words matched his suspicions, he was still dumbfounded, and couldn't help but refute his previous speculation, "But, but how is this kind of thing possible?" I'm not that easy to deceive. Rensai, you said this is a dream, do you have any proof? ”

"Isn't what happened to you enough to be evidence in your heart?" I said, "If you really can't agree with it, just take it as an 'what if' for now." Assuming that what I say is true, think about it. ”

"Suppose, well, let's say you're right......" He looked at Jo Ann who was walking in front and then at me, "then...... Then you two ......."

"Of course, we're all real people. Coming from the real-world Security Service, I'm a law enforcement warlock who deals with all sorts of covert incidents and the warlock criminals who cause them. I said, "And you are an ordinary person living in a secular society, who was unfortunately involved in a secret event a few days ago, and is a very unfortunate victim." I am here to save you from this nightmare of pain and death. ”

He had an uncomfortable expression as if he couldn't digest so much information at once, as if he wanted to start sorting out the details, "Warlock? Does a warlock mean a superpowered person like you?

"Yes." I nodded.

"So......" He then hesitated and asked a question that I thought he would not have at this stage, "what kind of person am I in reality?" ”

As soon as these words came out, even Qiao An couldn't help but look back at him.

Li Yan continued to ask: "The self in the dream is often inconsistent with the self in reality, is the me here really the same as the me in reality?" ”

"It's very different." I said, "In reality, you're a middle-aged man twice as old as you are now. Love and career are so-so, and from the perspective of social evaluation, there is still a distance of 108,000 miles from 'successful people'. Although you have a wife and a son, your son disappeared in the mountains five years ago. In reality, you don't know if he was abducted or what, and to this day I have not received any news about his whereabouts. If he were still alive, he would be nineteen years old this year, which should be about the same age as you are in your dreams now. ”

"What!" He uttered these two words again, his expression very messy.

Come to think of it, although I was telling the truth, it might have been more convenient to lie to him. Why do I have to tell the truth, because Li Yan is my father, so shouldn't I deceive him with lies? But even then, there is no need to talk about this point, or is it that somewhere in my heart I want to see what choice Li Yan will make in this situation?

But if you do that, you have to think about how you can convince him if he refuses to return to reality. But even if I did, I couldn't sit back and watch him stay in a dream. The dream must disintegrate as soon as possible, or all the sleepers, including him, will be reduced to living sacrifices to the fanatics.

More and more I feel that I have said superfluous words, and I still have the smell of knowingly. Thinking about it like this, I may have a little resentment towards Li Yan and my father.

Li Yan was once again entangled and moved with us step by step. And I reported the experience I had inquired about from Li Yan to the blue bird.

"He was actually killed by demons so many times in his dreams...... "Blue Bird was stunned, "Could it be that the people who killed him a few times before were not demons, just virtual monsters in the dream realm?" ”

"No, he said that the demon who chased him just now is the same monster that killed him before." I first denied it, and then said, "Besides, as you said before, this dream itself has a strong attraction to demons, and this is why demons invade. In other words, since the demon invaded, it would not just invade his 'channel' and attack him alone. Instead, it will invade all channels and attack all the sleepers. ”

Spirits and spirits are things that have both spiritual and material attributes, so when a person dreams, his spirit body exists in both the dream and the reality.

And if a demon injures a spirit in a dream, the injury of the spirit must be observed in reality.

"Unless it's a great warcist like the Dream Warlock who doesn't even speak of the most basic causal logic, no spirit can be injured in a dream and still be intact in reality......" she said, and then thought of more things, "But the fanatic can even simulate the reappearance of the dream immortal, and the information also mentions that he will." Is the current phenomenon of the state of the spirit body being separated between the dream and the reality a special attribute of the collective dream as the basic structure of the dream immortality? ”

She couldn't believe it, "This, this is already a completely unknown technology, I've never heard of such a ......"

"The current situation of the sleeper being repeatedly killed by demons in his dreams is probably also the result of his initiative...... Is there any meaning in this? I asked.

"Probably because of ...... He wanted to squeeze the use of the spirits of the sleepers repeatedly. She said, "The spirit body is the aggregation of spirits, and instead of just absorbing the spirit from the spirit, it is better to directly destroy and decompose the spirit body and get more spirit in one go." Originally, this was a one-time transaction, but because even if the spirit body was destroyed and decomposed in this dream world, the spirit body in reality would not be affected, and he could still continue to devote himself to the dream world, so he could squeeze it as many times as he wanted. What, this is, did he find a real-world bug? A true dream warlock doesn't have to do that. ”

That's why Li Yan is resurrected intact in the original place after each death - I came to a conclusion. However, if we continue to do this method, will we not be able to obtain an inexhaustible source of spirituality? Squeezing infinite spirituality out of a finite spirit is already a perpetual motion machine, right? Rationally, I thought that kind of thing was impossible, but I was still shocked by the technology of the fanatics.

"Also, this dream itself has the property of absorbing spirits, and the demons that invade the dream are equivalent to the automatic harvesting machines of fanatics." Her voice became more and more solemn, "Now the number of demons is not enough, and when the number increases, the relaxed environment of 'finding a place to hide and hiding until you can't stand it with hunger' will no longer exist, and this collective dream will become a veritable hell." ”

"I see, the reason why the fanatics want to break up the sleepers into their own channel is to prevent them from surviving." I said, "Suppose there are 100,000 people involved in Dream City as he planned, and those 100,000 people are all united, there is no guarantee that there will be no obstacle to his harvest." ”

"It should be what you say." She nodded.

"But according to what he said just now, he doesn't actually need to get involved in so many people, as long as he grabs random people and squeezes them repeatedly, won't he be able to get an inexhaustible source of spirituality in the end?" I asked.

"Maybe it has something to do with the container, the dream itself can't withstand the infinite spirituality as a container for storing spirituality, but as long as more sleepers are added, the collective dream will become huge, and the storage capacity for spirituality will also increase." "But if that's the case, he should have a way to transfer the spirit that can't hold his dreams to the outside world." There must be other restrictions, and they are particularly strict. ”

"The Sleeper won't die even if he is killed, so what about me and Joan?" I asked.

"You are the intruders of this dream, and cannot expect to be treated in the same way as the sleepers who have been 'entertained' in. To be on the safe side, let's act on the premise that there is only one life. She said.

"Okay." I nodded.

After that, she went to report the matter to the analytics department, and I turned my gaze back to myself.

Li Yan seemed to have finally struggled out of the long entanglement.

"I ...... Or must we return to reality. He said.

"Why? Don't you think that you are a completely different person from you here? I shouldn't have said that to him, "Choosing to return is no different from choosing suicide." ”

"It's not like I haven't dreamed, is it true that every time I dream and wake up, I will die and come back to life in reality? The dream me and the real me must be the same person, but I have forgotten something for a while, and now I just have to remember it again. He said, "Also, although I still don't know much about the warlocks and the secret events you talked about, there is one thing that even I understand. ”

"What's the matter?" I asked curiously.

He turned his head and said seriously, "Dreams wake up." ”

(End of chapter)