don't open your eyes [unlimited]

In Z1's original memory, all this seemed perfectly normal.

They just followed the guidance of "Cocoon" and came here for a routine final confirmation.

This was a routine operation before the Dreamland was blocked.The reason why I came here to check it out is to prevent some accidentally lost consciousness from being trapped in it, and before it can come out, it will be completely blocked into the depths of the subconscious together with the whole dream.

Although this possibility is very small, it has not never happened since the opening of Dreamland Galaxy.

A long time ago, Z1 and his teammates went to the depths of the subconscious mind and were responsible for rescuing an unlucky ghost who was blocked with the Dreamland.

Because the time there is almost static, even if the outside team checks the number of people, finds that a person is missing, searches and locates the Dreamland, the series of actions are extremely fast, when Z1 and his teammates enter the Dreamland to start the rescue, the newcomer is still there. Trapped inside for decades.

According to the usual procedure, after the investigation is over, the dream domain they are in will be permanently blocked.

If this possibility is true... If Ling Su hadn't happened to draw this Dream Realm, Z1 and his teammates might have experienced this kind of thing.

... locked up with a dream, imprisoned forever in the farthest corner of the galaxy.

"I could have been sure."

Z1 clenched his fists, his voice was a little hoarse due to nervousness: "But——you put it this way..."

He can recall those experiences methodically.

Even now, Z1 can still remember what happened in those few simple drifting dreams.He remembered that he and his teammates cleared a few tasks, went to the store, and later went to the semi-open leisure dreamland to find a beach to fish.

If you have to say that there is something weird about this memory, the only thing is probably...

"Except for your teammates, all the faces in your memory are blurred." Zhuang Die said.

Z1 froze, and his face paled instantly.

His heart sank unconsciously, he swallowed with difficulty, and instinctively looked at the hypnotist beside him with the same dignified expression.

Just a few minutes ago, the other party just gave him this knowledge point.

At that time, Z1 didn't quite understand the concept of "most of the faces of irrelevant people are blurred". Now when I searched for memories, I suddenly realized that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't remember anything other than my teammates. Besides, any face encountered in this memory.

"We..." Z1 said incredulously, "We fell asleep in a dream? How is it possible?"

"It is strictly forbidden to fall asleep again in a dream", this is one of the few prohibitions that even newcomers and junior teams who have just joined the team are most familiar with.

It is not difficult to do this, people hardly feel any concept of "drowsiness" in their dreams - because this feeling is originally a normal physiological need, and the body is in a dormant state when dreaming, naturally No similar feedback will be communicated to consciousness again.

In the dream at the hotel, the reason why the shadow of Wu Li who was left in the hotel had the illusion that he was "asleep" was because he shared memory with the body outside during that time, and to a certain extent produced Cognitive confusion.

Even if it is due to staying in the dream realm for too long, mental fatigue, or due to some reasons, the mental power is completely exhausted, at most it will only enter a state of quasi-coma.

At this time, the consciousness will enter a dormant state, there will no longer be any clear thinking activities, and only a small amount of fluctuations will escape... In order to prevent this from happening, "Cocoon" will immediately take compulsory measures before the mental power is exhausted to the warning value. Measures to pull the tasker's consciousness out of the dream realm.

Z1 and his teammates have performed countless tasks in cooperation, and it is absolutely impossible to make such a low-level mistake at any time.

"Did you talk about it during the training?" Ling Su said suddenly, "What happens when you fall asleep again in a dream?"

Z1 froze for a moment, shook his head and said, "They said it's better not to know... We guessed it privately, and generally think it's similar to the one in the movie, falling into a deeper dream or something like that."

"'Absolute ignorance against absolute insecurity'..."

Ling Su nodded: "It makes sense, this will be safer."

While speaking, Ling Su had already taken out a rag from his pocket, put it on the table, and pushed it in front of Z1 with one hand.

Z1 was a little dazed: "What is this?"

"It was cut from the collar of the shop owner." Ling Su gestured to him, "Take it."

Z1 took it subconsciously: "Oh... good."

He held the rag in his hand, and before he had time to ask again, he found that the background turned gray again in an instant.

Seeing the same grayed-out contact status, Z1 vaguely guessed the other party's intentions: "This way I can prevent this memory from being sent back to the headquarters? That's right, why didn't I think of such a way... Wait."

Z1 suddenly remembered something, quickly swipe the offline background, search for his key memory fragments, and drag the progress bar in order to read them.

"No wonder." Z1 rubbed his head vigorously, "Only the key memories have been sent back... The headquarters also think we have gone out."

As the hypnotist just said, it doesn't take long for most irrelevant memories to be cleared to make room for more important information.

The processing logic of "cocoon" is the same. Simple memory fragments such as drifting in the dreamland, going to the store to replenish goods, and vacations will not be rated as "important", and the extra bandwidth and storage capacity will be sent back to the headquarters.

Z1 went through his recent memory storage, and the last thing they ran while pulling the sled was that they had obtained the boat ticket and boarded the boat smoothly, and then sent out the signal of "confirmed to exit the dreamland".

From the perspective of those teammates who stayed in the headquarters, Z1's experience is consistent with his memory - completing the investigation, dealing with some unimportant things, returning to the dream realm and meeting the famous "Nightmare II" as a guide group of people"...

"Do you even have nicknames for them?"

Although he knew the situation was serious, the hypnotist still couldn't hold back, and quickly ate a plate of french fries filled with ketchup: "It's pretty easy to do the task with them, right?"

"How should I put it?" Z1 rubbed his forehead and replied in a low voice, "This is probably the difference between different perspectives. I saw the video of D2 and F3 before, and I thought so too... Please keep it secret."

Z1 glanced at Ling Su and Zhuang Die, and quickly set the words "Nightmare Duo" to a hidden state.

His expression was slightly dignified, and he held the rag and raised his head: "Ling Tui, do you know what happens when you fall asleep again in a dream?"

"In the past two years, this was not a secret." Ling Su nodded, "If you fall asleep again in a dream, you will enter a dream composed of countless consciousnesses."

Z1 pressed: "What is the scope of 'infinite consciousness'?"

Ling Su slightly raised his eyebrows, and looked at Z1: "Very good question... are you sure you want to ask this?"

"At this point, I don't have the right to choose ignorance, do I?" Z1 smiled wryly, "Don't worry, I won't go out and talk nonsense."

Ling Su nodded.

He watched the little curly hair playing with the scalpel, stretched out his hand to wrap around Zhuang Die's hand, let the scalpel rotate between their fingers together, and slowly performed a complete trick.

"Disregarding time, disregarding space."

"From the concept of the world we live in, the first action of raising your head and looking into the distance begins."

Ling Su replied: "All creatures that have produced the consciousness of 'I'."

Z1's pupils shrank unconsciously.

He sat in silence for a few seconds with this answer, and then let out a low breath: "So...in that kind of dream, the physical sensation will become very real."

Because it is a dream composed of countless consciousnesses, that world will be even more complete than the world they are in, which only has "now".

It has everything that reality has and does not have—perspectives that cannot be exchanged with each other, positions that cannot be understood by each other, all the past that has long been lost, the past that can no longer be recalled, and the people who can never be seen again...

"Has anyone tried falling asleep in a dream before?" Z1 asked.

I also know that if they know that such a place exists, some people will definitely try to find a way to get in.

Maybe it's not necessarily to find out, maybe it's just to let go of a knot that can't be untied, maybe it's to get back something, a certain memory or a certain person.

Maybe knowing that it is impossible to find it back, but because I know it is there, I can't help but not do it.

"A lot." Ling Su said, "but that world is so big that no one can really find what they want in it, and even if they find it, they won't remember it."

Z1 has already understood what he meant, and nodded: "At the same time... because that dream has a part that is completely consistent with reality, so we really did the mission in the dream and replenished the equipment."

"It's so similar to reality, if there is no reminder, how can I wake up from that dream?"

Z1 still remembers the feeling at that time, he didn't even notice any abnormality, and felt that the running speed of "Cocoon" seemed to be a little faster: "Under normal circumstances, you don't even realize that you are going wrong, right?"

Ling Su taught Zhuang Die how to play the most basic knives, raised his eyes, and spread his hands lightly.

Z1 stopped talking.

...He now understands why this matter was blocked, and also understands what Ling Su said.

Taskers spend most of their time in dreams, and they need to distinguish between dreams and reality at any time.

Compared with the anxiety of doubting which world one is in at any time and whether one accidentally falls asleep again in a dream, perhaps ignorance is indeed the best choice.

"……last question."

Z1 took a deep breath and exhaled slowly: "How did we get there? I can assure you that we must not have slept on the boat. Is there something wrong with the transmission mechanism of the program..."

Zhuang Die raised his head and couldn't help being curious: "Are you the kind of top student who must get A's in all assessments?"

Z1 froze for a moment: "Huh?"

"He's not." Ling Suji pinched the blade of the knife that nearly cut Curly Hair between his fingers, and whispered in front of Z1, "His cognitive adjustment just passed."

Z1: "..."

"Relax, we are not examiners, and we will not deduct your points for this."

Ling Su put away the scalpel, smiled and said: "You are not responsible. This is indeed because the detection result of 'Cocoon' is wrong, and the way you were sent should be another way."

While explaining, he bent down and picked out two 25-cent coins from the bucket, and handed them to the little curly beside him.

Zhuang Die used these two coins to stop the newsboy outside the window, and got an emergency number from the other party.

This extremely crude account was not even printed, but was written in scribbled and messy handwriting.

It is a language that is very close to English, but it is almost impossible to translate and understand it smoothly in English. Most of the words are like random combinations after shuffling letters.

Obviously, the development of the matter to this point has exceeded the detection range of the "cocoon", so the unprocessed original text appeared.

The background of Z1 is still blocked, and I looked at the garbled letters on it: "Is this not English?"

He was about to loosen the rags and resume the background translation function of "Cocoon", when Zhuang Die had already handed the number to Ling Su: "Dutch."

Z1 was a little surprised: "How do you know?"

"I was a guest at the captain's house, and I saw it in the third popular science book for teenagers in the first row of the captain's bookcase. Food, climate, ports, pirates...the hints in all aspects are very obvious."

Zhuang Die closed his notebook: "It's almost time to plant tulips under all the big windmills, and then put a mountain of canned herring."

Z1 was a little dazed when he heard it, and subconsciously grabbed the piece of cloth back: "Oh..."

Ling Su raised his hand to touch the tip of his nose, coughed lightly, "Yes."

He tried his best to restrain his desire to express, and explained concisely: "We are now at my house together, using the game helmet to dream with you, so the backstage function is not complete."

Z1: "Oh..."

Ling Su Hulu licked the little curly hair beside him, and took a look at the account number: "I think... It's been a long time since I did this, and I'm a bit unfamiliar."

He briefly glanced at the content, pondered for a while, and put the extra number on the table again.

Zhuang Die leaned on the edge of the chair with both hands, sticking to Ling Su's side, and shook his head with the bartender who asked questions.

While they were talking, the atmosphere inside and outside the tavern had completely changed.

Thick dark clouds gathered in the originally clear sky.The wind was strong, and the dust on the ground was swept into the sky. It seemed that a terrible storm was brewing rapidly in the clouds.

The account has been passed on to everyone, many of them have serious faces, some are rushing to the passenger terminal, and some are catching people they know and asking them in a certain language with a strong accent.

At this point, everything is no longer within the detection range of "Cocoon".

They seemed to have suddenly fallen into a completely unprocessed original dreamland, and there were loud noises everywhere around them.

Just a few hours later, everything in the dream seemed to have completely changed.

……

Ling Su suddenly tapped on the table twice.

Under the influence of the holder's cognition, all the handwriting on the account was also translated.

[The passenger ship was hit by a storm after leaving the port, and all passengers died in the shipwreck. 】

Z1 was secretly canceling the hidden status of "Nightmare Duo", when he glanced at the words on that piece of paper, his eyes widened in astonishment.

What Zhuang Die said was right, that boat really couldn't go up.

If you follow the clues explored by "Cocoon" and board the ship after getting the ticket, you will encounter a storm at sea—that is a ship that never returns.

This was originally a dream belonging to the dead. When Z1 and his teammates were unaware, their consciousness was sent by the ship into the shadow of death in the dream.

"I've only heard about this kind of situation, and I've never tried it... That's not a place for strangers to go."

Ling Su said: "Besides falling asleep again in a sleeping dream, this is the second way to get there."

—Meet death in a dream of death.