Overturned Tower

This made Russell wonder if it was someone who had a problem with eating...it was actually him?

At the final checkout, Russell originally wanted to have an AA with Delphinium, but was told that Delphinium had already settled the bill.

Although I came here with the idea of ​​eating and drinking at first, I was really invited.It still made Russell a little uncomfortable.

But the delphinium just laughed it off, stretched out two hands, and grabbed both of Russell's ears at the same time: "Then it will be fine when you invite me back next time? As long as you don't think I eat more It would be nice if you had more..."

"...Well, that's sure to be fine."

Russell subconsciously raised his head and rubbed delphinium's hand, the soft and fluffy cat ears slipped out from delphinium's fingertips and jumped away.

Afterwards, Russell nodded slightly, and agreed: "When I find a delicious restaurant, I will take you to eat - it doesn't matter if you have a few more meals!"

Although we meet every day... and almost every day the bad guy goes to the next door to help in the executive department, and Russell and Delphinium hang up in the office.

But the small talk in the workplace, between colleagues... is very different from the atmosphere of chatting and laughing at the dinner table and in the private space today.

Although it feels like the relationship hasn't gotten that close yet.

But just eating together made Russell happy.

"That can't be done. I'll have to invite you next time. After all, I eat more than you. If you invite one person once, you will lose money?"

The delphinium smiled, turned sideways, and gently tugged Russell's tail with her fluffy and fluffy tail: "You think so?"

Russell subconsciously dodged his tail, and when he wanted to catch it back, the delphinium turned around and grabbed Russell's forearm.

"Don't even think about running," Delphinium said with a straight face, "snack for food first. It's not good for your stomach if you go straight back to sleep."

"...Ah, okay."

Russell's inner thoughts were immediately seen through, and his ears drooped.

He just felt that he was a little full from eating, feeling dizzy and sleepy, and wanted to go home immediately and fall asleep.

But Delphinium still took Russell out for a couple of laps.

In case Russell wanted to run away, she kept telling jokes and interesting topics to hook him.

It was estimated that Russell had almost digested it, and he happened to be near Russell's residence.Then she put Russell back.

"I'm going back to the company, Kitten."

After going out for a walk, Delphinium, who had obviously become more energetic, smiled at Russell and said, "Then, see you tomorrow?"

"See you tomorrow!"

Russell, who had been slipped away to the point where he didn't want to sleep, smiled and waved while rubbing his stomach.

He thought in his heart: "You also know that my soul relative is a cat... how can I come out to walk the cat if I have nothing to do?"

Russell had fantastic visions - like a Samoyed cat out on a leash, trying to take a nap.

Although the cat always wanted to turn around and go home, it was dragged back by Samoyed every time.

...Although I don't have the habit of walking, it doesn't look too bad now.

Chapter 18 The First Wasteland

When Russell entered the house, it was already 03:30 in the afternoon.

He sat on the massage chair, turned on the zero-gravity mode, plugged the data chip brought to Russell by the head portrait of the deer into the interface on his left arm, and began to read the files in the chip.

"……what?"

Russell originally looked at it with the mentality of previewing, but he quickly let out a sigh and realized the importance of this knowledge.

That was the experience of the deer head in the "dream world"—yes, she called the illusory world formed by the group consciousness that mages arrived after dreaming as the "dream world".

The mage's dreaming behavior is called "dream world mansuo".

As the name suggests, it is aimless exploration.

Because in the dream world, there are no coordinates, no day and night... There is even no boundary.

Maybe looking into the distance from the original wilderness, any direction is an endless wilderness.

But after walking through a certain line, you will suddenly come to ruins full of crystal remains, or you may suddenly come to an abyss full of lava.And if you continue to go forward from the abyss, you may enter an underwater city, or you may enter a dark cave; at the end of the crystal ruins, it may be a maze of countless mirrors, or a city composed of huge toys...

All areas have no clear boundaries.All the areas are changing and changing every day... the inside of the area will also change, the area itself will move, and different areas will eat each other.

They are like monsters composed of different trends of thought, devouring, digesting, and merging each other.

There are as many different ideas in the world as there are different regions in the dream world.

Because of this, the map of the dream world cannot be drawn.

Because it is impossible to measure without entering the corresponding area, and the moment when entering the corresponding area, the dividing line has changed.Therefore, it can be said that the map of the dream world is always inaccurate.If an ignorant young mage entered the original wilderness, he would probably get lost in it.When a mage walks with his heart, the dream world will gradually guide him to the path that suits him best.

It's like a psychological test with constant correction.

Of course, the biggest problem is... the mage's own thoughts are constantly changing.Therefore, their own positions in the dream world are always shifted and skewed.

But according to the experience of Lu Shouxiang, there is also an experience of being able to barely recognize the way.

That is to find the "Tower of the End".

Although these areas have been constantly moving, gnawing, and merging, the general direction they belong to will not change easily.

After waking up in the dream world, when you are about to leave the original wasteland, you can see the Tower of the End - it will always appear right in front of you when you are about to leave the original wasteland.

The Tower of the End is a phantom.Those who walk straight in that direction will never arrive no matter how far they go.

But it always points in a fixed direction and is visible in all areas of the dream world.

In other words, the Tower of the End can be used as a coordinate of the dream world.

For example, if a person who has advanced a certain distance toward the right side of the tower at a 120-degree angle wants to go back the same way at the opposite angle, he will definitely fail.Because he will not arrive at the previous area, but will enter another new area where the tower leans [-] degrees to the left.

Conversely, if you walk 180 degrees away from the Tower of the End, no matter which area you were in before, you will eventually arrive at the "Primary Wasteland".This is also the way those mages organized to "find newcomers".

Because different regions all want to grow themselves.But every mage will not stay in a specific area...they will definitely walk on the road.

Those "lines" that connect different areas are called "roads".

Every time you walk on the road on the Dream World Roaming-whether it is exploring in this area, or arriving from this area to the next different area.As long as you don't go back and look at "what you have already seen", you can get different types of spells for the mage.

And the essence of these "paths" is actually the method that mages will choose at the first time when they encounter difficulties and act in unfamiliar fields.

For example, "The Way of Answering", "The Way of Practicing", "The Way of Anger", "The Way of Stillness", "The Way of Joy", "The Way of Meditation"... The spells obtained by mages are often helpful Because of their power to continue walking on the "way".

The deer head also shared her own path with Russell: she first walked on the path of contemplation, and the specific coordinates were fifteen degrees to the left of the Tower of the End.

She passed the "Crystal Ruins", "Mirror Labyrinth", "Fossil Sea", and "Book Group", and stopped here.

Then her path changed.

She had finished her contemplation and turned to "the way of doing it."That was thirty degrees to the right from the Tower of the End - when she crossed the border, she would follow this path into the next area.

After that, she switched back and forth from time to time on the "way of practice", "way of protection", and "way of stillness", and now she is back to "way of practice".And go all the way, arrived at a very far, far away position in the dream world... called "the way forward".In this area, she is currently the only mage.

The spell she uses now—the spell that connects different doors together—comes from the power of this area.

"And the sorcerer who recruited newcomers came back along the 'way of anger'. The specific angle is that the tower is tilted 45 degrees to the right."

The quiet and ethereal voice of the deer head was also recorded in the chip: "Every time they change direction, you can record it.

"After entering the dream world, all the abilities brought to you by the chip are unusable. You will enter the dream world in the form of 'not equipped with a prosthetic body', so the abilities of the prosthetic body series cannot be used... because there is no slot, So the 'consumable chips' provided by your company can't be used either.

"But other than that, you can bring some cold weapons. My recommendation is a crowbar or a sapper shovel. The track recorder is too easy to detect, but you can bring a graduated pendulum and pretend to be a fortune-teller... …Use the pendulum and the tower to determine the angle at which you are going.”

According to the opinion of the first deer, Russell packed his luggage.

Pendulum, sapper shovel, crowbar, goggles, windproof and waterproof jacket.Plus bandages, wound medicine, "saint beheading", and most importantly... a shotgun.

——Yes, guns can be brought into the dream world.

But those that are too high-tech won't work, because those that have to be linked to prosthetic bodies to automate the operation... the simpler ones are fine.

This is the gun that Russell seized from the mercenary leader on the airship before.The gun was later sent to the Department of Operations, and Russell, in his own right, wrote a note and lent it.

After that, Russell had a quick-acting sleeping pill ready.The purpose is to be able to fall asleep quickly during the short period of time when he transforms into a blue songbird.

So, Russell put on a mask while fully armed.

In the ultramarine flames, his height suddenly increased a lot, and he turned into a blue robin with a cheerful smile.

Immediately afterward, he injected himself with delayed-acting sleeping pills.

There are many keys to enter the dream world - the method taught by the head of the deer to Russell is to block his eyes with a white cloth and wrap his ankle and wrist with a white cloth.If you do this, it will be very difficult to give yourself a needle... So Russell put on the eye band and the white bandage on the ankle first, and then tied the bandage that trapped the wrist after the needle was done.

After that, Russell quickly fell into a deep sleep.

A strange but familiar sense of submersion and falling made Russell feel suffocated.

It's like being submerged in the sea with your hands and feet tied...

When Russell couldn't bear the suffocation anymore, he suddenly woke up and sat up from the ground.

"--Pooh!"

He first took a few mouthfuls of suffocation, spitting out the sand that had been poured into his mouth because of the suffocation.

Afterwards, Russell struggled to free the bandage on his wrist.Remove the bandage covering the eyes.

That moment—Russell hadn't expected it.

The strong light made him burst into tears in an instant.

It was really tears.

"It's so bright..."

He couldn't help but let out a low breath.

As soon as the voice came out, it seemed to be drowned by something... The strange feeling gave him the feeling of "being in a different world".

In order to obtain the maximum information, Russell did not buy tinted goggles.

As a result, as soon as he opened his eyes, he was almost blinded by the cat's eyes.

He was on the empty island and had never seen such a strong sunlight.Being so suddenly illuminated, it became difficult for Russell to even open his eyes.If you open it a little bit, you will keep crying.

And when Russell gradually got used to the strong light and opened his eyes to look at the world around him...

Only then did he realize that he was standing in a desert.

The flying sand blowing up in the wind prevented him from seeing too far away.

The sunlight is also strong and dim...the dimness is because it is partially blocked by the rolled up sand and dust.

And when Russell stretched out his hand to block the dust and tried to raise his head to look at the sun.

—he was stunned.

Because above the head, it was a bright sun that was so clear that it was too dazzling to look directly at.

as well as……

The blue sky that Russell once knew, but is now unfamiliar... the blue sky.

Chapter 19 Escape to One

The moment he saw the blue sky, Russell felt unprecedented consternation.

If it is an aborigine in this world, I am afraid that there will be no reaction to this.

They will only naturally think that... this kind of azure blue sky with some white clouds is the unique scenery in this area.

Not even the head deer mentions this.

She just reminded Russell that there will be widespread thunderstorms or acid rain in certain areas.

This means...at least during the Islamic Wars, the sky was already gray.

But in an even older past that doesn't even exist, the sky might still have been blue.

So, when should it be?

When those old elves were still young?

Is it 1000 or [-] years ago?Or earlier?

Long before the birth of those immortal elves, there are secrets known only to those immortal dragons-this is also possible.