don't open your eyes [unlimited]

There seems to be something strange about Cocoon's headquarters this evening.

If it is normal, even if there are not too many people gathered in the hall, there will always be some questers who have just finished quests or are waiting for the next queuing.

This is already the normal state of work for those who are directly under the task. Almost everyone will choose to completely separate work and leisure - first brush up dozens of drifting dream fields in one breath, and complete the work indicators for the day.Then enter the semi-open decompression dream area, choose a Maldives beach or polar hot spring vacation, relax and have a pleasant dream.

With such a combination, no matter how expensive it is, the last dream will eliminate the mental tension, stress and exhaustion accumulated before.After waking up, you will still be full of energy, and you can enter the non-sleep mode to continue doing tasks at any time.

In this mode, there will naturally be many taskers in each free activity area.

Taskers who have not yet completed their targets will simply rest in the buffer zone to prepare for the next dream realm.

Those who have completed today's Dreamland target will go to the mall to replenish some consumed props, and if they happen to encounter a discount, they will stock up on a batch of mental power supplements of different specifications.

In addition, there will always be some people lingering in front of the automatic dreamland vending machine at the entrance of the leisure area, entangled in where to go for vacation today.

——It is worth mentioning that there are usually a few dice prepared beside the vending machine, and a blind box mode is also set up, where a dream domain can be randomly selected.Just to prevent these people from being unable to make a decision and standing here struggling all night...

All in all, no matter what the time of day, the lobby is never empty.

So tonight, when D2 finally came out of the training mode, facing the empty hall, he inevitably fell into a kind of confused panic.

"Am I finally crazy?"

D2 murmured, then shook his head again: "Impossible, I've done mental tests several times, that guy just implanted a hint that I can't say, and didn't do other crazy things..."

He was muttering to himself, when he suddenly saw a colleague hurried past with a strange expression, and hurried over to grab him: "What's going on? Is there any group meeting tonight?"

"Two——" when the visitor saw him, he reflexively came up with a name, and stopped the second word in time: "D2, you didn't dig potatoes?"

"..." D2 was silent for a few seconds: "Huh?"

"Digging for potatoes and pumpkins. I was late and didn't get a single nut."

When the man said the last sentence, there was a bit of regret on his face: "That guy in S2 is too cunning. When encountering such a good thing, he will give priority to calling people from his own team."

"We're better. Those who came later could only pick up the leftover peas. There's always popcorn, but the person in charge of the store seems to have gone offline. We can only save it until he comes back next time... "

The man was immersed in the experience just now, and he talked to himself for a long time before he remembered D2 on the opposite side: "By the way, you have been in training mode recently, did you not read the background messages?"

D2 faltered twice: "...well."

It's not that he didn't read it, but he got a headache when he saw the prefix "Dumb" that came with the email, so he simply blocked these background messages at all.

The upgrade of "Cocoon" will take a few days, and the code name system cannot be reset in these few days.If it weren't for the lack of ammunition and mental power supplements on his body, D2 would never have planned to come out of the training mode.

"This kind of thing is not important. What are you talking about potatoes and pumpkins?"

D2 frowned: "And your outfit, what's going on? Why are you wearing a broken iron pot on your head, and you have a strange beard..."

Halfway through his words, he glanced at several people who came out of the landing space one after another from the corner of his eye, and their eyes widened in astonishment.

Not just the man in front of him...everyone who appeared in front of him wore a broken iron pot on one side indifferently, and had strange messy brown beards on their faces.

When D2 saw the first person dressed like this, D[-] also felt that this outrageous outfit was weird and funny, and maybe it could relieve him a little of the pressure of being trapped in the cusp of internal gossip.

But when everyone is wearing pots and beards, and the whole headquarters is having some kind of weird masquerade...

D2 stroked his empty chin, finally feeling strongly unconfident again.

"Right? I thought it was weird at first, but then I got used to it. After all, everyone has to dress like this."

The man said: "Anyway, I plan to dig a few more potatoes, and it will be troublesome to pick Dai Dai's back and forth... Would you like to go with us?"

D2 frowned, he was still in a strong confusion: "Where are you going?"

"Drafting Dreamland No. 14679... Oh, it's not a Drifting Dreamland now."

The man looked at the positioning system: "There is a tasker bound to that dream, and it now has a new dream owner."

Of course, this kind of situation is not common at all... But what is unexpected is that among the vast program codes of "Cocoon", there are actually several columns corresponding to it.

As long as it is determined that there are no serious dangers and hidden dangers, the tasker can be bound to the ownerless drifting dreamland.

If the new dream owner is willing, he can even entrust the dream domain to "Cocoon" for trusteeship.

These dreamlands hosted by the "cocoon" will be merged into the leisure area and become one of those semi-open dreamlands.The new dream owner can set a price for the dream domain, and after taking [-]% of the custody fee, the rest of the income will belong to the new dream owner.

"That is to say, as long as the new dream owner entrusts the dream to 'cocoon', he will not be responsible for anything."

The man explained: "Just like those dreamlands used for vacation, the 'cocoon' will carry out daily maintenance to keep it in normal operation. The new dream owner just needs to lie down and divide it..."

"Where did these regulations come from?!" D2's eyes widened, "A new rule? Why don't I know?"

"Really, this rule is very old... It seems to have existed in the generation of pioneers."

Another technician walked by, and he also dressed up in the iron pan beard suit: "If you think about it carefully, it actually makes sense."

"Otherwise, where did the semi-open dream realms used for vacation come from?"

He pointed to the door where D2 just came out: "What about the dream realms in the training mode? They couldn't have fallen from the sky, right?"

D2 never thought about this question, and was stunned when he heard this, but couldn't answer it.

……

"Pioneers" are actually a group of very special taskers.

In reality, the mutation in the dream only happened in less than a hundred days.

But in the "cocoon" where the taskers gather, in order to make the evolution of the cocoon fast enough to protect the stability of reality, the basic time flow rate has been set at 10:1 from the very beginning, that is, nearly three years have passed .

During these three years, all technicians, taskers and other departments worked overtime, and after several large-scale iterations of the entire program, today's "cocoon" came into being.

And the "pioneers" they mentioned are actually the first group of personnel who were recruited three years ago to perform the mission.

These people are responsible for subconscious pioneering work, and their only mission is to go as far as possible—as far as they can go, solve all the dream realms they encounter along the way, and keep sending the collected information to the world. Back to headquarters.

The information returned by the pioneers is the cornerstone of all logical operations that support the "cocoon" today.

Without these most important basic information, even the most brilliant neuroscience expert and the most complex and delicate program, it is impossible to build this behemoth that stands on the edge of the subconscious and maintains the stability of the real world.

As for where these pioneers are now... no one knows.

Rumor has it that each of them has now become a high-ranking member of the "Cocoon" headquarters.

But there are also people who have heard in private... Due to lack of experience at the beginning, many of them completely collapsed during the too long and chaotic subconscious exploration operation, and are still recuperating now.

As for the more outrageous gossip, such as "the pioneers have all been lost in the depths of the subconscious and become part of the subconscious world", "the pioneers have found the border to another world", "the pioneers still have not all Returning to the team", "Someone among the pioneers eloped"...there are so many things to list, but these speculations are too wild and unconstrained, and most people don't take it to heart.

……

In short, for the group of taskers like D2, these are already the stories of the previous generation or even several generations of predecessors.

"You mean—we have these semi-open decompression dream realms, and there are also special dream realms for training."

D2 looked back: "Maybe these were brought back by the pioneers in this way and put here for us?"

The technician shrugged his shoulders lightly: "After all, this old process is in the code of the first generation of 'cocoon' and has never been changed. This is the most likely assumption, right?"

What he said was indeed correct, not only D2, but also a few taskers nearby who were carrying iron pots and nodded thoughtfully.

Of course, another reason why everyone thinks it makes sense is that they specialize in technology, and the other party is originally a technician in charge of writing programs...

"I wanted to ask just now."

D2 accepted this speculation, but still couldn't help but said: "Aren't you writing code in an office? Why are you wearing this set like them?!"

As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed to those missionaries who isolated themselves.

"It's a combination of work and rest, who wouldn't want to go in and have a fight with piranhas and hot peppers." The technician flexed his wrist twice, still a little unsatisfied, "This is one of my boyhood dreams."

According to their era, this kind of medieval-level classic games would only appear in the "Nostalgic Inventory", and naturally there would be no holographic game manufacturers to spend time and energy reproducing them.

The technicians were eager for skills for a while, so they couldn't help but went in for two rounds, and then helped to upgrade the map, adding night, pool, dense fog and rooftop scenes.

When there are enough people entering, and the Dream Realm has absorbed enough scattered consciousness fluctuations, the next time you upgrade yourself, you can go in and grow mushrooms.

"By the way, you can rest assured."

The technician pushed the glasses and added: "This is our newly built energy circulation system. Even if these dissipated consciousness fluctuations are not collected, they will dissipate naturally and will not cause any harm to the person..."

"It's enough to leave these to you." The previous tasker Da Lala waved his hand, "We have nothing to worry about."

He tidied up the iron pot above his head and looked at D2: "This round of plants should be ready, I'm going to go again, do you want to go together?"

D2 stood still, frowning.

Although I don't know why so many people dig potatoes... But in the descriptions of these people, the dream field does seem to have a special charm.

In theory, you have nothing to lose by taking a look.

But for some unknown reason, a strong, unexplained resistance is always inexplicably brewing in D2's heart...

"Just go." D2 rubbed his face vigorously, he may have been too nervous recently, "By the way, who is the new dream master?"

"I didn't see it either. The new dream master had already left when we passed by."

The tasker thought about it carefully: "I heard from people I know, he seems to be a curly-haired young man, gentle, and he calls his partner the captain..."

D2: "..."

Tasker: "?"

D2 turned around without saying a word, plunged into the dreamland of the training mode, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.

……

Dream Galaxy.

Under the sky full of stars, Zhuang Die and Ling Su had left the dreamland of "Plants vs. Zombies" and returned to the queue waiting for assignment. The environment they were in had also changed back to the deep blue sky.

"The binding was successful?"

Ling Su transferred all the lucky draws earned this time to Zhuang Die, and checked the background with him: "Make sure, don't tie it to Dr. Yan's account..."

Zhuang Die checked carefully and nodded: "No problem, it's my account."

Although Zhuang Die himself didn't realize it at the time, when he planted sunflowers and exchanged sunlight for plant seeds, he had actually had a unique interaction with this drifting dreamland.

When "Cocoon" was confirming, because of the sunflower field, Zhuang Die naturally became the new dream owner of this dreamland.

Due to the relevant regulations of the headquarters, the semi-open Dreamland can only be priced in units of reward points and experience values.The number of lottery draws could not be filled in as the price, so they had to open a self-service booth selling "Happy Digging Sets" next to the store, and put up a wooden sign with a set of 500 lottery times.

Zhuang Die felt a little regretful. After discussing with the team leader, he set the price at 50 experience points once in reference to other dream realms.

Unless it's a critical juncture for upgrading, and there is only a thousand or eight hundred experience points to upgrade the mental power to the next level... In most cases, the taskers actually don't care much about the sporadic dozen or so experiences.

What's more, as long as you spend ten experience points, you can carry out an unlimited excavation, and you can take as much as you can, which is a strong temptation for any tasker.

Before they left, someone brought the plants they had dug to quickly clean up a few Dreamlands.

The most common type of combat-type drifting dreamland, throwing a few pea shooters down with a flower pot, can almost speed through, and you can get back your money without any suspense after doing two or three missions—even for the more difficult dreamlands, It can also be combined with nuts, potato mines and pumpkins to achieve quite amazing effects casually.

This is only used randomly, and the combat effectiveness will be doubled after the internal meetings of each team are held to let the strategic taskers formulate the most suitable attack lineup.

According to Ling Su's prediction, it might not be long before they will receive a letter from "Cocoon".It is recommended that they increase the ticket price or agree to control the number of people, so as not to have too many people queuing up to enter the Dreamland, which will put too much pressure on the system...

"We'll go back and grow mushrooms when the next Dream Realm is upgraded and the night scene appears."

Zhuang Die opened his notebook and wrote down the next plan according to the upgrade process, filling in the form with timothy grass, sea mushrooms and corn pitchers.

Ling Su also followed up with ideas enthusiastically, suggesting planting garlic for a while, reminding that you can also grow melancholic mushrooms and ground thorns, and taking the initiative to increase the difficulty for himself, adding a torch stump.

——Before he left, he also memorized the contact information of the technician.Prepare to find an opportunity to cooperate with the other party, and bring out those rich types of zombies to have fun...

Zhuang Die meticulously memorized them all, arranged them one by one according to the upgrade and unlock scenes, and finally closed the notebook.

There were always new notifications in his background, Zhuang Die opened the inbox, clicked in and looked: "Captain, I got a pioneer medal."

"You can also get a destruction mushroom..." Ling Su mused, but suddenly raised his eyebrows when he heard the words, "Sent by the headquarters?"

Zhuang Die nodded and opened the unread email.

They are now using game helmets to access, and only when Zhuang Die returns to his personal dreamland will the medal be materialized and officially awarded to him.

Zhuang Die clicked on the preview picture of the medal, and found that it was a pale green ball surrounded by thorns and with many spikes.

"It's cocklebur."

Ling Su held Xiao Curly's shoulders, and looked at the picture with him: "I haven't seen this thing for a long time... It's a reward for the pioneers to pick up the New Dreamland."

In the initial stage of mutation, both the headquarters of "Cocoon" and the Psychological Association still had a very limited understanding of the subconscious, and they could only rely on the pioneers to explore a little bit with manpower.In order to increase the samples available for research, every time the pioneers bring back a dream domain, the headquarters will issue a medal of this kind as a reward

Because many dream realms will stick to the consciousness of the pioneers and be brought back all the way, just like the cocklebur, most pioneers simply call it the "Cocklebur Medal".

Many people have accidentally touched a place where consciousness is particularly active and people gather together to dream. When they return from the headquarters, they can even hang medals all over their bodies.

After the initial completion of the subconscious expansion and exploration plan, the taskers were no longer sent out to wander, and these medals had not been given a chance for a long time.

If Ling Su remembers correctly, the last Pioneer Medal was awarded two years ago.

Zhuang Die was a little curious: "Is it the kind of thorn ball that hangs on the trouser leg?"

Ling Su smiled, nodded and said, "That's right... it's also called sheep bear. It is said that it was hung on the sheep's curly hair and entered the Central Plains. But it can't be eaten, because the fruit is poisonous."

"They travel with people or animals, to all kinds of new places."

Ling Su raised his hand and gently rubbed the little curly hair beside him: "Where it falls, stop there."

Travelers who walk through the boundless wilderness will have cockleburs hanging on their trouser legs every time they pass through a piece of wild grass.

The pioneer walks subconsciously, and also brings back many dream realms encountered on the road.

These dream realms will be stripped from the pioneers' consciousness one by one, picked and sorted out.

They will either be preserved and become a semi-open internal dream domain, or they will be crushed and disintegrated by the "cocoon", and transformed into a massive flow of precious information and data.

Zhuang Die guessed what Ling Su didn't say: "The more important the dream is, the more it will be smashed?"

Ling Su nodded: "This is the most efficient method, and you won't miss any fragments of consciousness... If the pioneer refuses to smash it, he has to enter that dream by himself and collect all the information."

Zhuang Die stretched out his hand and lightly touched the spikes on the cocklebur.

This is just a virtual preview projection. For the time being, he has no way of knowing how hard they are, whether they are piercing, or how far a cocklebur must travel before he can follow the pioneers through the endless wasteland of dreams.

He felt as if he had heard the word "pioneer" before, but when he thought about it carefully, he didn't have any impression.

"Captain." Zhuang Die raised his head and asked, "Do pioneers feel lonely?"

Ling Su raised his eyebrows.

He didn't answer right away, and after pondering for a moment, he lowered his gaze and smiled softly: "Dividing people... It's best not to have such a situation."

Zhuang Die was a little tired from sitting, and leaned back on Ling Su's shoulder, rubbing his soft curly hair into his neck.

"Why?" Zhuang Die asked, "What if you feel lonely?"

Ling Su hugged Zhuang Die, pointed upward to the Milky Way composed of dreams, and said slowly, "I can't help being friends with the stars."

In the boundless, chaotic and lonely journey, there will always be travelers who accidentally go too far and greet a star because they are too lonely.

That is the most dangerous behavior.

Therefore, after the first generation of "pioneers" finished their exploration, there was always one more rule for the taskers-"It is strictly forbidden to enter the dreamland alone. Under any circumstances, there must be one or more people traveling together."

Zhuang Die had only memorized the rules before, and it was the first time he realized the importance of this regulation.

He drew a key point in his mind, and held Ling Su's hand seriously: "Captain, I will be with you from now on, the two of us will go together."

Ling Su was stunned for two seconds, and couldn't help chuckling.

Ling Su folded his arms, he pulled Zhuang Die deeper into his arms, took a breath, and exhaled very slowly.

"No problem, little curly hair." Ling Su assured softly, "No problem."

Ling Su put his chin on Zhuang Die's shoulder.

He turned his head sideways, rubbed lightly on those fluffy and extra soft little wool rolls, and suddenly said, "Look up."

Zhuang Die then raised his head.

Above their heads, there is a galaxy composed of countless drifting dreamlands.

Every dream that has not dissipated is a star, with bright or dark lights shining.

Ling Su's tone was low and soft.

He was going to pick another drifting dream with his little curly hair, but he refused to talk about it, and walked around the backstage casually, with a smile in his voice that would never be serious for a long time.

"Which star do you like?" Ling Su said solemnly, "I'll pick it for you."