don't open your eyes [unlimited]

The little curly hair gave a low "hmm".

Zero's mental power was completely exhausted, he was suffering from a severe headache, and any thought of turning would cause severe dizziness... and the other party seemed to know this very well.

The young pioneer didn't ask any more questions, but slowly ruffled his hair.

As if coaxing a child, he first rubbed the back of his head in a circular motion, and when his breathing and heart rate stabilized a little, he continued to massage down to the back of his neck.

I don't know why, this kind of quiet massage with moderate strength seems to be more effective than the painkillers with different effects that No. [-] has taken.

...maybe you can make a note of it.

When I return to reality in the future, I will press myself like this when I have a headache.

As if the pain of cutting the nerve back and forth with a saw gradually faded away, Zero unconsciously relaxed and sighed.

The kneading force stopped, and the little curly hair hugged him worriedly: "Uncomfortable?"

Zero shook his head and whispered sorry for his offense again.

Not only did he suspect that the other party was a fake, but he also pressed the little curly hair to the ground involuntarily, and almost lost control of his emotions... He actually didn't know how to apologize for this incident.

"It's okay." The little curly hair touched the back of his head, "Is this kind of behavior too much in your place?"

No. Zero twitched the corner of his mouth: "It's too much."

...This kind of behavior would probably be arrested as insanity in reality.

When he returns to reality, one day he will finally be unbearable, be controlled as an out-of-control lunatic, and be sent to some treatment facility?

Zero hadn't really thought about the answer.

Not long before he came, he had already been warned once.

It happened after the pioneer died.

Returning from the dream to reality, he tried several times to find this young man who would join the pioneers three years later and would face danger and sink into the depths of the dream, but he couldn't find any trace no matter what.

This uncharacteristic behavior caught the attention of the regulators, and he was sent to the teacher's office, who gave him an unprecedented and stern warning.

——The other party told him that the future is immutable.

Changing the future will cause the world line to collapse, and the trajectory may be completely out of order due to the most inconspicuous move, making everything messy.

He was sent three years later in the dream to guide the pioneers who would be called in three years later. This is no problem-because everything happens in the dream, and the dream does not need to strictly abide by cause and effect and logic.

But if he tried to find that pioneer in reality, and persuaded the other party not to join the "cocoon" or participate in the pioneering operation after three years, it would lead to confusion in the established trajectory of the real world...

Zero was tapped twice on the forehead.

He came back to his senses and looked at the figure in front of him who was looking at him: "Sorry... I thought too loudly?"

"It's really loud." Little Curly nodded, "Also, there is a problem with the accuracy of your information."

Zero raised his head and asked in a low voice, "What's the problem?"

"Your teacher's theory is wrong-there will be no chaos in your world. If the reality is chaotic due to changes in the trajectory, it cannot be called reality."

The young pioneer sitting opposite him explained: "The world line collapsed and the trajectory line turned. This is what happened in the subconscious world."

For example, a person three years ago caught up with a certain dream three years later, he learned some information, and then made actions and choices that he would not have made... Then of course the future will follow. changed.

But that dream should still be done.

Three years later, a person will wake up and remember that he had a dream last night.

The world in the dream is very similar to the present, but it seems to be different, it is almost like a parallel world on a different track... But who would take a dream seriously?

No one will have any doubts about this kind of thing.

There is only one trajectory in the real world, and whether this trajectory turns or changes, people living in it cannot detect it at all, just like no one can feel that "the earth is rotating" by themselves.

Zero lowered his eyes and was silent for a moment: "According to this, the 'dream' in the subconscious world absolutely exists and cannot be changed."

The little curly nodded.

Zero looked at his palm.

...That is to say, even if he persuaded someone to come down, it definitely does not mean that everything will be safe.

After three years, even if that person does not become a pioneer, most of the subjective consciousness will still be lost suddenly without warning, because those consciousnesses are destined to merge with that dream at that moment...

"The truth is...but you think you caused the death of one of your pioneers."

Little Curly said: "We did not monitor similar fluctuations."

Zero was a little surprised: "What?"

The young pioneer looked up the records of "Cocoon", and those densely packed numbers filled the screen. He just glanced twice, then quickly turned to the next page, and continued to browse the contents at a high speed.

"We can detect and record all your actions in the dream galaxy."

Little Curly said: "But there is no pioneer in your memory."

Zero was stunned for a moment, then frowned thoughtfully.

...the other party has already made it very clear.

Logically speaking, he should be able to reason from this and come up with an obvious answer.

But for some reason, his mind just couldn't move—it was like a huge mechanical instrument, but a gear was inexplicably locked.

If you insist on thinking about it, the blockage that seems to be stuck in the shell will become a kind of dull pain.The locked gears collided with other gears, sparks flew everywhere, and this dull pain soon became more and more acute...

The cool icy water rushed up, quickly suppressing the pain that had just risen.

Number Zero's hand was still resting on his temple, his fingers were a little stiff, and his fingertips could touch the wet cold sweat on his forehead.

The little curly hugged him tightly, probably to wake him up from that state, and the young pioneer from the other side turned over and jumped into the repair cabin, curling up his legs and kneeling beside him.

"Your consciousness must be properly repaired... Don't force your brain to act, the cracks are getting more and more, and it will soon fall apart."

Those eyes met his gaze: "Think about something relaxing and pleasant."

"Cocoon" also just detected that after No. [-] woke up from that near-slumber coma, the intensity of consciousness was so much lower than before... The purity has been significantly improved, and many parts that originally looked gray All seem to be gone.

This is of course beneficial, but it will also bring serious hidden dangers - if they don't happen to meet here, the other party can't even make a cloud.

"I'll take you home and heal your wounds."

Little Curly's expression was very serious: "We will slowly solve the remaining problems in the future."

In order to facilitate communication and understanding, he specially imitated the other party's way of speaking, using a positioning word that includes a time node.

No. Zero did understand what he meant very quickly. After being quiet for a while, he gently twitched the corner of his mouth: "Us?"

The young pioneer from the other side nodded.

He reached out and opened the shutter of the observation window.

The glacier stretches outside the window, which has the same texture as the "cocoon" on the other side seen by No. [-] - it is a pure, hard, transparent visual touch like gems, and because it is too dense and hard, it presents a kind of Heady blue.

A huge blue glacier that can't be seen is hanging above their heads.

Zero did not speak again, but turned his head sideways, staring intently at the layers of ice outside the window.

...It was an extremely strange and terrifying attraction that could not be described in words.

Fear and attraction also come from the source of the subconscious, or in the most idiomatic way of psychoanalysis, the collective unconscious—all members of a certain race, the most primitive and unclear memories that have been deposited from generation to generation.

For a moment, countless indistinct pictures suddenly appeared in his mind.

"There is no feeling of 'walking through time' here, our world is not in time, so there is no definition of sequence."

The young pioneer said: "So, when I brought you here for the first time, I could see countless of our futures."

Number Zero was startled unconsciously.

It seems that he did not force his brain to act according to the request of the other party, so it took a few extra seconds to understand the meaning of this sentence: "We still have a lot of future?"

"A lot." The person sitting next to him nodded, "It's too much...unbelievable."

This sentence seems to contain some extremely strange power.

At that moment, Zero seemed to notice something light up.He suddenly saw countless thin lines of light in the velvety deep blue soft sky.

Those thin lines converged and extended rapidly in all directions. They did have a little twists and turns, a little detour, and even almost missed it several times, but they still converged unstoppably in one place in the end, turning into an extraordinarily bright stream of light.

Hearing his own voice, No. [-] unconsciously lowered the volume, as if he was afraid of disturbing the exploration and search of any thin line: "What is this?"

He didn't get an answer, and he came back to his senses after a few seconds, looking at the little curly who was staring at him.

The overly young pioneer was watching him.

Zero felt that he seemed to see countless things in those eyes... But what was annoying and frustrating was that none of those contents could be recognized by the consciousness from the real world. As the other party's vision gradually became clearer, those The content also quietly faded away.

"It's the track."

Someone replied: "Here, the first time we meet that person, we can see the countless lives we have spent with that person."

Only then did Number Zero suddenly realize that the "cocoon" that had always wrapped and protected them had disappeared unknowingly, and they had come to the interior of those glaciers.

There was no one around them, and they couldn't find the location of the person who answered just now by following the sound.

"A certain 'existence' answered." Little Curly came back to his senses, took his hand and explained, "I'm not here, maybe I'm reading in the library, or maybe I'm fishing on the beach."

For the consciousness that just answered question number zero, it was nothing more than hearing a question that popped up in its mind suddenly, and gave an answer accordingly.

The accuracy and efficiency of this kind of communication is undoubtedly far beyond any kind of language and writing.

Number Zero tried to accept and understand the rules of this world, but it was still unavoidable to find it novel, and raised his head to look at everything around him.

They walk inside the glacier.

The pain and fatigue that had always been entangled in the depths of his consciousness seemed to have disappeared temporarily, and Number Zero hadn’t felt so relaxed for a long time—as described in many different beliefs and legends, he seemed to have really lived his life, Came to the shore where you can rest forever.

The little curly hair held his hand, and that figure led him to move forward, and the magnificent glaciers around were like dreamlike gems, shimmering and sparkling.

Number Zero lowered his voice to the lowest level, and asked softly, "You can see your whole life at a glance, will you feel bored?"

"of course not."

"It's just a trajectory line. With a little adjustment, everything behind will change."

"There are so many trajectory lines, we can discuss and choose the one we like the most."

"It's better to choose a few more. Even the best trajectory is a bit single. When you get to the end, you can come back and try something else."

"It's not in a hurry anyway."

"We're thinking about this, has anyone tried to take a few more trajectories? Wouldn't it be fresh?"

"Are you new here? It's not easy to be fresh, just take out the memory and make a cocoon to seal it up for a while."

"Be cautious too. I heard that someone on the other side is collecting our cocoons. Many people have lost their memories."

"Indeed, there are quite a few couples who lost their memories, and their trajectories couldn't get together, and finally they broke up and went to find someone else."

"That's because it wasn't appropriate in the first place."

"Yes, if they were originally put together, there is no problem in finding a new trajectory."

"If you attract each other in the depths of your soul, no matter how many times you lose your memory, the trajectories will definitely meet."

……

The above content is part of the answer that the S0 instructor who just came to the realm of the dead received within about one second of the somatosensory time after asking the question.

The young pioneer opened his notebook, neatly recorded and concluded stroke by stroke.

Zero:"……"

He looked at the little curly hair who was taking notes seriously, and rubbed his dizzy head from the noise: "You——"

He saw the smile that couldn't be concealed in those eyes at a glance, and immediately shut his mouth tightly, while silently chanting "one sheep, two sheep, three sheep", and emptied all thoughts in his mind.

"What are we?"

"What are we?"

"What about us? Say it quickly! The most annoying people who are half-talking."

"What sheep?"

"Why count one sheep and two sheep?"

"I heard that counting sheep can help you sleep faster."

"That's what you said in that era. Science has long proven that counting sheep not only makes you sleepless, but also makes you more energetic."

"Who told you to count sheep when your mind is empty? Don't you count sheep when your mind is full of thoughts?"

"So the mess in his head is all ideas?"

"Why mess?"

"What sheep? Goats or sheep?"

……

Zero suddenly felt that he might understand why Little Curly went out to be a pioneer, and he went so far as soon as he left.

This time, he quickly stopped his thoughts, completely emptied his mind, stood where he was, and rubbed his temples for a long time.

Although he is no longer used to the feeling of emptying his mind, it is because he always faces countless crises and there are too many things that he can't do if he doesn't want to be clear. He is used to not letting himself focus back on himself.

After blowing the final whistle so abruptly, and after being filled with a bunch of messy but completely harmless chatter... Zero suddenly realized that it didn't seem difficult to do so.

He seemed to be examining his own consciousness from a third perspective - he was looking at a embarrassed, funny and stubborn knight like Don Quixote, who was clearly faltering and faltering, but still refused to give up the last set Shabby swords and armor.

He untied the armor that was already tattered, and threw it out together with the rusty sword.

Those things were as light as a feather, but they shook violently when they fell, making his consciousness tremble slightly.

... When he came back to his senses, he found himself being hugged by the little curly hair.

They returned to the inside of the "cocoon", without the hindrance of the last layer of psychological defense mechanism, the repair cabin is methodically repairing his damaged consciousness.

"What was just now was not a dream...it will be like that when the shield of 'cocoon' is opened."

The little curly hair explained: "They feel very good about you, so the consciousness of feedback is a little bit more."

Number Zero pressed his swollen head.

He didn't care much about whether it was a dream just now - after all, even if it wasn't a dream, everything was fantasy enough, even if he was crazy, he couldn't confuse that situation with reality...

But he couldn't help but wonder about something else: "Is this 'a little bit more'?"

"Yeah." Little Curly nodded honestly, "My 'cocoon' has helped to shield and filter out 90.00% of it."

Zero took a deep breath, and fell silent with a complicated mood.

…For some reason, after being informed of this situation, his strong yearning for the realm of the dead suddenly faded by 90.00% without a trace.

The little curly hair looked at his expression seriously, as if he had confirmed something, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, and pursed the corners of his lips reassuringly.

"So learning to cocoon is very important."

The restoration cabin is very spacious, and the young kindergarten teacher sat down just like that.

He pulled the floating virtual screen and gave a temporary lesson to the new students: "I won't be disturbed by others, and I won't disturb others."

Seeing the extraordinarily decent posture of the little curly-haired teacher, Number Zero unconsciously showed a little smile, got himself a notebook, opened a page and listened carefully.

The cocooning process is said to be not overly complicated.

The first step, of course, is to absorb a large amount of knowledge and information-this step is essential and is also the main curriculum of kindergartens.

Regardless of whether these newborn consciousnesses are willing or not, they must carry out this step honestly.

They have to start with the basic knowledge first, and at a certain stage, they can choose a direction they like to specialize in, or they can choose multiple subjects, each of which understands the most basic part... In short, only after collecting enough raw materials, to proceed to the next process

"It sounds like what we have learned from preschool to college graduation..." Number Zero stopped writing and couldn't help raising his hand to ask, "Is this all taught in kindergarten?"

The little curly-haired teacher looked at him, obviously not understanding why there was such a question, and nodded twice in confusion: "Little class."

"..." Number Zero pressed his forehead.

He suddenly had an idea—he seemed to be confused by the illusion of appearance, was too absorbed in those soft and cute little curly hairs, and to a considerable extent underestimated the young pioneer in front of him.

Zero raised his eyes and looked at the content of the kindergarten middle class on the virtual screen.

The content of the middle class is to do manual work.

Doing as the Romans do, he tried his best to adjust his cognition, combining the three words "handmade" with "opening and dismantling Gundams with bare hands", "using different kinds of chemical reagents to mix spiritual power supplements, anesthetics and painkillers", "Operating two improved MP5 submachine guns with both hands at the same time" is calmly connected.

"Don't be nervous, these are courses for seniors. At the beginning, you only need to practice chopping wood with an axe, roasting reed chicken with branches, and chasing and killing wild boars with a spear."

The young kindergarten teacher introduced: "After mastering these, you can start to practice flying in the sky by holding the landing gear of the helicopter..."

Zero pondered for a few seconds: "Is there no transition in the middle?"

The kindergarten teacher stopped and blinked.

Number Zero bowed his head humbly and recorded a few lines in his notebook.

He decided to adjust the training method immediately after returning to change the atmosphere for the pioneer students who were too comfortable in those days: "After mastering these, can you cocoon?"

"It's almost there." Little Curly nodded, "But there is the most important point, you must set up a 'unique anchor' for yourself."

Number Zero was startled.

"It's similar to the anchor point you mentioned, but your anchor point is too ordinary... not enough power."

The young pioneer on the other side called up the data and looked at it: "This kind of strength, even the Dream Realm can't break through."

"Yes." Zero nodded lightly, "Its use is only to bring the lost back to their dreams as soon as possible when the dreams are connected in series."

"It's because the anchor point is set too randomly - in our case, the anchor point must be unique and irreplaceable, and it must have meaning."

The little curly looked at him: "We also call it the 'key', this key is used to open the door to go home."

Zero paused for a moment, and unconsciously tapped the paper twice with the tip of the pen in his hand, before asking again: "What if there is no home?"

The little curly-haired teacher obviously didn't prepare the answer to this question, so he stopped talking and was startled.

"I asked casually." Zero smiled, "Go on, I'm listening carefully."

After removing the already riddled armor, his demeanor was much gentler than before. He held the notebook neatly and looked up at the curly-haired young man in front of him intently.

The latter stood in such a quiet gaze, drooping his eyelashes and remained motionless for a while.

"Captain." Little Curly suddenly said, his tone seemed to be different from before, "If before our trajectories meet, you will be very sad and painful, and you will have to wait for me alone for a long time... Are you willing to accept this?" A future?"

Zero looked up in a daze.

Even though he had already realized this matter just now...but at this moment, this unprecedented clear cognition finally came to his mind.

——The moment he entered the glacier, the young pioneers standing in front of him had already seen countless lives of them.

Zero raised his hand and touched those soft little wool rolls lightly.

He asked in a low voice: "Will you be sad and miserable?"

The little curly shook his head in his palm: "For me, it was just a moment... I won't know anything that happened to you."

"That's fine." Zero breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "No problem."

That innocent, clean smile that came out of his eyes made him look even more like he was only 22, or even younger than that—he indulged himself in ten heartbeats, rubbing those little curls to his heart's content for a while.

To be honest... this feeling is somewhat strange.

The other party has already seen their future, but he doesn't understand anything, and he doesn't understand anything. They are just two pioneers who have gone too far, and meet at the junction of the other side and reality.

But what was it that made him want to answer uncontrollably?

He didn't know, he just seemed to have had a dream, and he didn't know nothing about their future——

"I had a dream."

Zero said: "It was a...in our timeline, it was a dream three years later, and I can hardly describe what a dream it was."

He fell into a deep coma, and only after three years did he have the supporting treatment facilities in the field of consciousness, so his consciousness was sent three years later in his dream-of course it was nothing to him, this kind of thing is endless Once everything happens endlessly, it becomes nothing worth remembering.

But that time was different from any other time, completely different.

He was hugged vigorously, and someone kept stroking his hair and forehead, dragging him out of the abyss time and time again.

It was he who processed this memory himself... He put them all away and hid them in the deepest corner of his subconscious, so that they would not be detected by the first cocoon.

But even so, he can still clearly recall the feeling at that time in an instant.

……

It was like receiving an invitation that was never expected or expected.

It's like a gust of wind that couldn't be lighter, at most it can only gently blow a few circles of ripples.

No one knows how far these ripples will spread, nor can anyone tell you in advance when they will cross all obstacles and merge with another wave from another ocean from afar.

So should I say yes?

Those lurking undercurrents, dangerous shoals, reefs, and vortexes may shatter all futures at any time, and any flicker of a butterfly's wings may change the predetermined trajectory.

There are countless trajectories in the world of dreams, but only one in reality—that's why reality is called reality.

The time flow of reality is one-way and fixed. All the trajectories of reality cannot be modified after they happen. Reality may lead to a completely different future due to any disturbance.

The worst possibility, this "long time" may be a lifetime in the real world.

He was too old to walk, walked tremblingly on crutches into the iceberg, was overwhelmed by a bunch of noisy thoughts... and then met someone who had been waiting for him here for a moment.

So... Do you want to agree?

Zero rolled his eyes.

He raised his hand and knocked on the door twice out of thin air: "Take me away, Mr. Curly?"