Japanese Terrorist: What? I'll fight Hellstar!

What is a dream world? It is a complete world with a stable geographical structure, physical rules, and civilization system, constructed by the collective subconscious, imagination, and dreams of all intelligent beings.

Dreamers with exceptional mental strength and extraordinary talent can construct stable, independent, and permanently existing dream cities within the dreamscape, just like Randolph Carter's Sunset City.

However, Amamiya Rin's dream city is different.

"Flowers, trees, sky, breeze, clouds, sun, rainbow, ocean, beach, forest, pebbles, sand, earth..."

Amamiya Rin walked to the window, drew back the curtains, and looked out at the city.

The gaze stretches into the distance.

Beyond the street below the apartment building, above the layers of rooftops, the outline of the mountains on the city's edge can be seen. Beyond the mountains, there is a blurred horizon, through which another urban area can be seen.

Beyond that urban area lies a plain, dotted with villages and towns. At the edge of the plain stretches the ocean, its surface shimmering in the sunlight. Beyond the ocean lies land, and on that land rise mountains, and beyond those mountains lies another plain.

Land and sea alternate, extending outwards in layers until, at the farthest point, the boundary between earth and sky becomes a slightly downward-curving arc. Beyond this arc lies a dark cosmic backdrop, dotted with countless stars.

A city-state? No! This is a nation, even a world!

Compared to ordinary dream cities, Amamiya Rin's dream city is more in line with the concept of a fantasy dreamland.

The Dreamland is constructed by the collective subconsciousness, imagination, and dreams of all intelligent beings. Amamiya Rin's Dream City is constructed by the collective subconsciousness, imagination, and dreams of Amamiya Rin and hundreds of Kawakami Tomie.

In other words, this Dream City is Amamiya Rin's previous dream world, only now it has been connected to the Illusionary Dream Realm. Influenced by the Illusionary Dream Realm, Amamiya Rin, as the Dream Maker, has greatly increased her control over the dream world, possessing absolute sovereignty and almost activating a creative mode. Her ability to transform into the Giant of Light to fight against the Night Demon and unleash such powerful strength was also due to the special nature of the Illusionary Dream Realm.

However, if you die here, you are truly dead; it's not just physical death, but the complete disappearance of consciousness.

This is arguably the biggest drawback.

As for the benefits, they are the dream-realization specialization ability obtained from the Night Demon—transforming dreams into a reality that an individual is willing to believe.

This is a manifestation of the mind overcoming matter. When the souls of Amamiya Rin and Tomie leave the city of dreams and return to reality, their growth and changes in the dream world will also cause changes in their physical bodies due to their strong self-awareness.

It's not as good as Yuji Hirano's situation, but it's completely controllable and can be repeated countless times.

In the days that followed, Amamiya Rin spent most of her time resting.

His body needed to recover, and so did his mind. He slept until he naturally woke up every day, ate normally, took walks, read books, and thought.

Over time, the depletion of his soul gradually recovered, and Amamiya Rin's thoughts and understanding of the world also deepened.

Darkness, the essence of the universe is darkness, darkness rules this universe. Junji Itō's setting is too similar to the setting of the Cthulhu Mythos. Rin Amemiya couldn't help but suspect that, just as the prototype of Hell Star is the Judgment Star of the Cthulhu Mythos, the prototype of the darkness that rules the universe is actually Azathoth of the Cthulhu Mythos.

As for the God who created the world, and the light that ultimately triumphs over darkness, that's a concept created by the author, Junji Itō.

While the Cthulhu Mythos doesn't exist, the core of this world is the worldview constructed by Junji Itō. Even the Cthulhu Mythos falls under the category of novels and role-playing games in this world, so it shouldn't be much different from reality.

So, could the one who sent him back to the City of Dreams from the void last time be the God created by Junji Ito? Or perhaps... Kyoko Byakuya, who traveled back hundreds of years and became the light?

The knowledge bestowed by the Night Demon and the previous experience led Amamiya Rin to make many guesses, but... these things, which cannot be judged as true or false, seem to be of little use no matter how much you know. This universe is still so dark and full of danger, and the light that can ultimately defeat the darkness is just a pie in the sky.

While Amamiya Rin was recuperating, the other Kawakami Tomie was also not idle.

The swordswoman Tomie is still honing her swordsmanship, but the Consciousness Slash is no longer her research focus. Her current research direction is the sword energy that combines life force and sword intent.

The heretical Tomie went to recruit the weapon-wielding Tomie and further optimized and improved the unorthodox methods that the swordsman Tomie disdained. The weapon-wielding Tomie believed that the Ōdachi was still too small and not powerful enough. Instead of using the Ōdachi, it would be better to create an armor.

According to Tomie Gunma, she joined a research lab at the University of Tokyo, where her mentor is Professor Tsuchiya, a leading authority in the field of artificial humans. Professor Tsuchiya is developing the world's most advanced androids, using world-class technologies that are also of great help in the manufacture of exoskeleton armor.

"In that case... could you design a Seven armor set for me?"

While passing by Tomie's research institute, Amamiya Rin learned of this matter and proposed an idea.

The legend of Ultraman Seven: This form consumes too much energy; one must sleep after using it once. Moreover, its ability to interfere with the physical world is too weak.

To avoid wasting talent and to improve individual strength, Amamiya Rin felt that it would be great to have a Seven Armor.

"Don't get your hopes up."

After hearing Amamiya Rin's idea, Gunsmith Tomie looked up from a pile of blueprints and rolled her eyes. Her hair was a little messy, and her face was smudged with ink, indicating that she had been working for a long time.

"To create a practical Seven armor, the energy and materials technologies in the real world would need to develop for another fifty years. Do you know how large an energy core would be needed to achieve that kind of output power? Do you know what kind of alloy material would be needed to withstand that kind of load? There simply aren't such things on Earth right now."

"The thing we have plenty of is time, right? Tomie has already taken control of part of that country's government. As long as we develop the technology in the Dreamland, we won't have to worry about funding."

Amamiya Rin's attitude was relaxed, but Gunpla Tomie's attitude was the opposite.

"Don't think it's that simple. Even if we have the technology, the conditions in the real world might not be suitable. Technical blueprints are one thing, actual manufacturing is another... Never mind, you stubborn fool, I'll think of a solution."

"I ammunition," Tomie said irritably, waving her hand at Amamiya Rin as if to shoo him away.

After leaving the research institute, Amamiya Rin wandered around and then entered the Medical Research Center.

The laboratory is fully equipped with test tubes, petri dishes, centrifuges, and electron microscopes.

A dozen or so people dressed in white lab coats were busy inside. Some were observing cell sections, some were preparing reagents, and some were lying on the lab table, acting as experimental subjects and receiving observations from other people's sections.

The vampire Tomie is also here, using her medical knowledge to enhance her control over blood, hoping to develop a unique vampire-specific Ripple.

However, compared to the vampire's Ripple, another key project caught Amamiya Rin's attention even more: Tomie and her team were researching 19 organ modification surgeries. If successful, each Tomie would gain an additional, highly applicable form.

However, for Amamiya Rin, the most important thing in this dream world is the pressure training that the flesh-modified Tomie is currently undergoing.

The constant pressure caused the physical strength of the meat-modified Tomie to increase dramatically.

In less than a month, Tomie's strength had increased to the point where she could kill a brown bear with her bare hands. Half a month later, her physical abilities had surpassed those of many Kamen Riders.

However, the pressurized fitness pod was useless; Tomie's physical strength was too great, and the pressure of the fitness pod was like a drizzle to her.

Therefore, Tomie, who was studying mechanical engineering, approached Tomie and others.

"What kind of junk is this?"

Several mechanical engineering students named Fu Jiang surrounded the fitness pod, holding tools and instruments, tapping here and measuring there, their faces full of confusion.

Those like Tomie were unanimously in their opinion about the pressurized fitness pod: it not only lacked technological merit but also made no sense. No one understood why this so-called pressurized fitness could actually strengthen a person's physique. According to the principles of physics, simply increasing environmental pressure should only subject the body to a greater burden, potentially leading to cell damage, and should not produce any enhancement effects at all. But the reality is, it is indeed effective—at least for the flesh-modified Tomie.

"Is there no way to modify it?"

Meat-modified Tomie had a look of utter disappointment on her face.

"It's not that there's no way, it's that there's no principle behind it. We don't know why this thing works, or how it works. Without theoretical support, any modifications are meaningless."

"Is it because you don't believe it? The power of belief is very strong in this world."

Amamiya Rin proposed a hypothesis.

It is precisely because these people like Tomie do not understand or believe in the effectiveness of pressurized fitness that they are unable to improve the fitness pod.

"Do you want to destroy our worldview? Don't forget, a large part of the physical constants of this world comes from our understanding. If everything were based on belief, what would be the point of studying science? We could just rely on imagination, wouldn't we?"

"Tomie said with a cold laugh."

"Don't always attribute the problem to belief. In that pressure gym, how many people who tried it for the first time really believed that going inside that pressure cooker would actually strengthen their bodies? But they still got stronger, which shows that besides belief, something else was at play."

Another Tomie complained to Amamiya Rin.

"Mind over matter, mind over matter... This is endless! Ever since you discovered the importance of mind over matter in this world, you've interpreted everything as the concept of mind over matter. But in reality, isn't mind over matter just one of countless concepts? Human head balloons, hell stars, long dreams, even my existence, Kawakami Tomie—what do all these strange phenomena have to do with mind over matter?"

Another Tomie impatiently retorted to Amamiya Rin.

"...Sorry, I was prejudiced."

Amamiya Rin raised his hands in surrender to these materialists like Tomie.

Perhaps he was indeed wrong. Although the power of mind and belief accounts for a large part of this universe, there are still too many phenomena that mind and belief cannot explain.

Those phenomena can only be understood as natural phenomena, like wind and rain, like the ebb and flow of tides, like the movement of stars—they are simply there in motion, and whether or not someone believes in them does not affect their existence.

"Then why was I able to succeed?"

Meat-modified Tomie ruffled her hair and asked the Tomies.

"Who knows? It's probably some kind of phenomenon, some kind of meme, because you've become part of the pressure cooker meme. So as long as you do pressure cooker exercises, you can improve your physical fitness. But the power limit of this pressure cooker is fixed. When its pressure can no longer affect you, even if you continue to increase the pressure, it won't change your physical fitness."

Tomie shrugged and offered a conjecture.

Perhaps so. Amamiya Rin once mentioned the limits of pressure cookers. Although Meat-Changing Tomie was unwilling to stop there, reality is what it is, and the phenomenon of mind overcoming matter will not change because of her will.

Amamiya Rin, however, was quite content.

The physical enhancement at the Kamen Rider level is already incredibly powerful. Animals in nature cannot withstand a single punch from him, and killing ordinary mythical creatures would not be difficult. If Tomie and her friends could equip him with a Seven Armor, he would have a chance to defeat any kind of enemy.

10 years, 20 years, 50 years... 100 years!

This dream lasted for a full hundred years. When Amamiya Rin opened her eyes, she felt an unprecedented emptiness.

That feeling of being emptied out of my soul has completely disappeared. My mind is abnormally clear, but it feels so heavy! No! That's not right! It's not heavy, it's empty!

A sense of powerlessness prevented Amamiya Rin from moving even a finger. Her stomach growled like thunder, hunger struck her suddenly, her stomach convulsed violently, and the desire to eat rose from her heart.

At the same time, Amamiya Rin's body was also undergoing changes.

Muscles are expanding, bones are hardening, skin is becoming tighter, blood is flowing faster and faster in the veins, and the heartbeat is getting heavier and heavier.

The results of the training in the dream world are concentrated at the moment of awakening. The metabolic rate of the cells soars to hundreds of times the normal state, and every cell is frantically demanding energy.

The fat burned away in seconds, and the muscle tissue began to consume itself. Just as this body was about to be hollowed out by its own evolution, another force awakened.

Tomie-ized cells.

They began to split wildly.

Cells rapidly repair and regenerate, replenishing tissues lost through evolution, achieving a balance between depletion and recovery.

A moment later, the change finally came to an end.

The feeling was strange. Just moments ago, he was struggling on the verge of death, but now he was so healthy that even Amamiya Rin felt like a stranger to him.

Amamiya Rin raised his arm and looked down. Before him were solid muscles: the deltoids in his shoulders, the biceps and triceps in his arms, the pectoralis major in his chest, and the rectus abdominis in his abdomen—all muscle groups were perfectly proportioned and distributed.

He raised his arm and slowly clenched his fist.

As the muscles tighten with the movement, their lines become more defined, and a sense of full power flows throughout the body.

It's practically an overpowered enhancement; he just took a nap, and the transformation effect is even stronger than that of the Showa Rider.