Archer's Adventure Manual

Chapter 159 Dream Network Vulnerability

After making a rough guess about the hooded man's motives, Loran continued to browse through the books, which contained invaluable content about dreams.

With a sufficiently high level of spiritual support and the advantage of language proficiency, even with some obscure and difficult content, Loran was able to understand most of it.

Gradually, he came to understand why the hooded man had kept these books there: it was because some of the processes involved in dreams were extremely complicated and intricate.

Just like the alchemy process that man was going through, the materials added earlier would affect the addition of subsequent materials, which is highly uncertain.

In such a situation, the only way to make adjustments is to constantly consult books to ensure accuracy.

This made things convenient for Loran, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to see such detailed books.

However, Loran wasn't very interested in the alchemy section of the book. Just as he had guessed, alchemy could enchant items in a special way, allowing those who had deep contact with the subject to enter dreams.

Once deeply involved, those who enter the dream world will have their minds influenced by the alchemist, and the victims may be completely unaware of their own dreams and actions.

At this point, the alchemist can use the victim to observe their daytime memories. However, if handled improperly, this could bring irreparable disaster to the victim in reality.

The mentally unstable people in Luolin Village are the best example.

Memory is the hard currency of dreams because dreams are ultimately just illusions; they need to be based on the real material world to develop in the long run.

Therefore, the bishops of the Dream Cult are very keen to collect more information about the real world.

If my guess is correct, this hooded man is likely a bishop-level figure in the Cult of Dreams.

However, there was still one thing Loran couldn't understand: he had clearly entered Dream City as a victim, yet he hadn't been subjected to any mental control or influence from the alchemist.

This might be related to Loran's own unique circumstances; after all, his soul does not belong to this world, and he can only speculate about it.

The deeper Loran delved into the knowledge within the book, the more he felt the wonder of dreams. After all, everything he was seeing now was generated from dreams!

It's important to understand that even for large-scale open-world games like those based on Earth, it's extremely difficult to take care of every detail in every corner of time.

The dream world he is in now has achieved this; all the content of the dream is absolutely real.

Many of these books were written by members of the Dream Cult. He learned from these books that dreams themselves possess immense power, and that the emergence of the Dream Cult followers was simply a matter of them borrowing some of the power of dreams to construct an independent dream network.

They are responsible for maintaining the operation of this dream network and constantly using the power of dreams to observe and uphold the status of the dream cult.

Their goal is simple: to keep this dream network running indefinitely. The members of the Dream Cult all believe that dreams are the best, and they have absolutely no interest in reality.

This is why they did not expand wildly, but instead observed the world from the perspective of a few. They knew that if they did not advance, they would fall behind. If they wanted to maintain the status quo, they needed to take some necessary actions.

The people in the Dream Cult are the ones who are most deeply addicted to dreams.

Loran also found a crucial book, which contained ideas on the construction and maintenance of dream networks.

After reading the guide to dreams in depth, Loran's eyes gradually sharpened.

If we consider that seemingly grand and magnificent dream network as an online game, then this book is about the underlying code that builds that game.

It is very difficult for one person to find vulnerabilities in the entire Internet, but it is much easier to find vulnerabilities in a specific game.

Clearly, Dream City is just such a game. The Dream Cult merely uses dreams to build this game; they do not truly control the entire dream world.

As Loran continued reading, he increasingly felt that the world was nothing more than a giant makeshift operation!

The authors of these books used very simple language, seemingly worried that people of the Dream Cult wouldn't understand the content; it was all very concise and easy to understand.

Another crucial point is that these guys only considered how to build a Dream City online game, without considering its security!

After all, these books only circulate among the bishops of the Dream God Cult. Those who have reached the level of bishop are naturally all striving to make the Dream Cult better and better.

There is no such thing as a "hacker" in this era, so they are naturally completely unprepared.

After an unknown amount of time, the candles that Loran had brought went out several times. He relit them and continued reading until he finally understood the general contents of the book.

However, I haven't fully grasped all of this content yet, but having a general understanding is more than enough!

He put the books back in their place, and would come back to look at them again if needed.

Loran left the secret chamber in the churchyard, left the magic academy, found a secluded place to escape his dream, and returned to Dream City.

Returning to the city, Loran no longer felt anything for those seemingly tall and magnificent buildings; in his eyes, they were nothing more than a bunch of code.

Loran walked towards the edge of Dream City... until the scenery of Dream City became increasingly monotonous and the buildings became sparse.

According to the book, the people of Dream City are restricted in their use of skills and cannot harm the spirits of others within the city. These are rules set by the builders of the Dream Network, and only those at the bishop level can transcend these restrictions.

For unknown reasons, Loran was not subject to this restriction, while Karin, whom he encountered in the underworld, also gained the authority to kill by borrowing the bishop's power.

These are all loopholes in this city.

The closer an area is to the edge of a city, the more vulnerabilities it will have.

Loran learned from books how to maintain the city's stability, and that doing the opposite would destroy it.

Loran used his skills to continuously attack a piece of ground in Dream City. His skill release was not limited by mental power, and his Ignite Trick caused the ground to burst into flames.

Soon, a gap was burned into the ground, and through this gap, Loran could see beyond Dream City, a desolate yet dreamlike place.

Pink specks of light drifted among them, and Loran leaped down, jumping directly into this world.

As if weightless, his body was able to float lightly in this space, and Loran reached out to touch a pink star.

In an instant, his mind wavered.

He became a battle-hardened warrior, facing a giant bear several times his size!