Dream Ghost

Lin Ye slept for a full twelve hours.

He didn't dream. Or rather, he dreamed of something, but remembered nothing when he woke up. The curtains weren't fully drawn, and a ray of sunlight squeezed in through the gap, landing directly on his face. He opened his eyes, stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, and then sat up.

There are three messages on my phone.

One of the posts was from Zhou Zhou: "Captain Chen's heart rate has dropped to 45. It's still decreasing, but the rate is slowing down. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

One message was from Dr. Jiang: "All your indicators are normal. Please be careful."

The third message was from an unknown number: "Midnight tonight. Misty Coast. Don't be late."

Lin Ye put down her phone and got up to wash up.

The tap water was cool, and the splash on his face was refreshing. He looked at himself in the mirror—his dark circles had faded a bit, but his eyes looked different than before. He couldn't quite put his finger on what was different, but looking into his eyes, he felt there was something new within them.

They probably know where they're going.

He changed into a black tracksuit with few pockets, but enough for his needs. The anchor point was in his left pocket, the metal plate was on his right palm, and his phone was in his pants pocket—even though Zhou Zhou said there was no signal in the Dream Continent, he still carried it with him.

Before leaving, he glanced at the book "The Interpretation of Dreams" on his desk. He had bought it during his freshman year of college, read it many times, and the pages were yellowed and curled. He hesitated for a moment, then decided not to take it.

close the door.

Go downstairs.

The afternoon sun was intense, and the streets were teeming with people. Lin Ye weaved through the crowd and entered the subway station. His destination wasn't on any subway line, but the association headquarters' anchor teleportation device required an underground departure—supposedly to avoid interference from the consciousness of the real world.

He arrived at headquarters.

The room was located three underground floors deep. The door was round, like a bank vault. Zhou Zhou was already waiting at the door, holding a tablet, the light of data reflecting off his glasses.

"Are you ready?" Zhou Zhou asked.

"Um."

Zhou Zhou pushed open the door.

The room was small, circular, about twenty square meters. In the very center of the room was an intricate array of runes, about three meters in diameter. The lines of the runes were silver, glowing faintly in the dim light.

"This is a teleportation array," Zhou Zhou said. "It's a stable connection point between the association headquarters and the Dream Continent. Stand in the center, and I'll activate the array, projecting your consciousness to the misty coast of the Dream Continent."

"Consciousness projection?" Lin Ye frowned. "Not physical entry?"

"Your body can't get in." Zhou Zhou pushed up his glasses. "The Dream Continent isn't a physical space, it's a space of consciousness. Your consciousness will be projected there, forming a 'dream body.' If the dream body is injured, your consciousness will be damaged; if your consciousness is damaged, your body will also be affected. But if the dream body dies in the Dream Continent, your consciousness will be trapped there and can never come back."

"Did Captain Chen and Su Wanning also get in this way?"

"Yes. Everyone does," Zhou Zhou said. "The only difference is that Captain Chen and Su Wanning use the association's standard anchor points, while yours is specially made by Captain Chen. The black anchor point allows you to maintain a higher level of consciousness stability in the Dream Continent and also makes it easier for you to find your way back."

Lin Ye took the black metal piece out of his pocket and held it in his palm.

"Is there anything else I need to be aware of?"

"Remember three things." Zhou Zhou held up three fingers. "First, don't trust any 'people' in the Dream Continent. The creatures there might impersonate people you know. Second, don't stay in one place for too long. The fog on the Misty Coast will slowly erode your consciousness; if you stay too long, you'll forget who you are. Third—"

He paused for a moment.

"Third, if you encounter 'primal fears'—whatever they look like, whatever they say—don't look at them. Don't listen to them. Don't think about them. Just one look at them will pollute your consciousness."

Lin Ye nodded.

"Start it up."

Zhou Zhou walked to the control panel in the corner of the room and pressed a row of buttons. The rune array on the ground began to glow, changing from silver to blue, and from blue to white. The light grew stronger and stronger, and a deep humming sound began to appear in the air, as if some ancient incantation had been activated.

Lin Ye stood in the center of the rune array, feeling his consciousness being pulled by some kind of force. It wasn't his body that was moving, but rather "himself" that was moving outwards, as if trying to break free from his body.

"Close your eyes." Zhou Zhou's voice came from afar.

Lin Ye closed his eyes.

The light engulfed everything.

He felt himself falling. Not physically, but mentally—like falling into a bottomless pit, surrounded by endless darkness, with the wind whistling in his ears. His senses were completely ineffective in this state; he could feel nothing, grasp nothing.

Then, he landed.

He didn't fall to the ground. His "consciousness" recombine into his "body." He felt the touch of his feet on the ground, the temperature of the wind blowing across his skin, and a damp, salty smell in the air.

He opened his eyes.

The grayish-white fog stretched endlessly.

The fog wasn't thick; you could see things within ten meters. Beyond ten meters, everything was a blur, as if someone had erased the edges of the world with an eraser. The ground was black gravel, making a soft rustling sound underfoot. In the distance, you could hear the sound of ocean waves, slow and heavy, like the breathing of some giant beast.

Misty Coast.

Lin Ye squatted down and grabbed a handful of sand and gravel. Black particles slipped through his fingers, the texture so real it didn't feel like a dream. No, this wasn't a dream. Zhou Zhou was right—the Dream Continent was a real, existing space of consciousness, with its own physical rules, its own ecosystem, and its own "creatures."

He stood up and looked around.

Something is moving in the fog.

It wasn't a living thing. It was the fog itself. The grayish-white mist flowed slowly, like an invisible river meandering through the air. Lin Ye's perception extended differently in the Dream Continent—its range shrank to about thirty meters, but its precision increased. He could feel every tiny fluctuation in the mist, every crash of distant waves, he could feel—

someone.

About 25 meters directly in front of him.

A human silhouette stands motionless in the fog.

Lin Ye did not move.

His senses extended and locked onto the humanoid figure—about 1.75 meters tall, slender, with long hair—

"Su Wanning?" he called out.

No one answered.

The humanoid figure stood in the fog for a few seconds, then slowly turned around and walked into the depths of the fog.

Lin Ye chased after him.

He ran very fast, black sand and gravel flying everywhere beneath his feet. But the humanoid figure moved slowly, maintaining a distance of twenty-five meters from him, like a shadow that could never be caught.

"Su Wanning!" he called out again.

This time, the humanoid figure stopped.

It turned around.

The fog lifted slightly for a moment, and Lin Ye could see the face clearly—

It's not Su Wanning.

It was a man. In his forties, with a square face, short hair, and wearing a gray jacket.

Chen Xuan.

But his eyes were wrong. Chen Xuan's eyes should have been calm, gentle, and slightly weary. But the eyes of this "Chen Xuan" were empty, like two bottomless black holes, with nothing inside.

"Lin Ye." The "Chen Xuan" spoke, his voice exactly the same as Chen Xuan's, but the intonation was wrong. It was too slow, with a second's interval between each word, like a slow-motion recording.

"You shouldn't be here."

The rift in Lin Ye's rules opened automatically.

He saw the structured rules within that "Chen Xuan"—it wasn't human. It was an outer shell. Someone had created a "shell" using Chen Xuan's appearance, inside which was something else. That thing wriggled within the shell, spoke in Chen Xuan's voice, and looked at him with Chen Xuan's face.

"Who are you?" Lin Ye asked.

Chen Xuan tilted his head.

"I am... the gatekeeper," he said. "The gatekeeper of the Misty Coast. Everyone who enters the Dream Continent must pass through my gate."

Where is Chen Xuan?

"Chen Xuan passed. He went to the depths," the gatekeeper said. "Su Wanning also passed. She also went to the depths. But you—"

He took a step closer to Lin Ye.

"You're not qualified."

Lin Ye did not back down.

"What constitutes 'qualified'?"

The goalkeeper tilted his head again, as if he was thinking about the question.

"Defeat me," he said. "Or, bypass me."

As soon as he finished speaking, his body began to deform. His gray jacket tore open, revealing what was inside—not flesh and blood, not bones, but a constantly shifting mass of light and shadow. That mass of light and shadow expanded, contracted, and reshaped in the air, finally transforming into a form that Lin Ye had never seen before.

Something without a fixed form.

Sometimes it resembles a person, sometimes a beast, sometimes a twisted tree, and sometimes a pile of scattered stones. Its rule is "impermanence"—it has no fixed form, no fixed rules, and it changes every second.

Lin Ye's rule cracks were operating frantically, trying to find its weakness. But every time he locked onto a form, that form would disappear the next second and transform into a completely different form.

He couldn't find a pattern.

The gatekeeper lunged at him.

Lin Ye dodged to the side, but the gatekeeper's "hand"—if that outstretched shadow could be called a hand—brushed past his shoulder. It wasn't a physical touch, but a conscious one. Lin Ye felt as if his consciousness had been bitten by something, a sharp pain spreading from his shoulder throughout his body.

He looked down at his shoulder—there was no wound, but the “dream body” in that area had become blurred, as if someone had erased a layer with an eraser.

"Every time I touch you, a little bit of your consciousness is erased," the gatekeeper's voice came from all directions. "Seven times. After seven times, you will completely disappear. Not die, but 'non-existent.' No one will remember you, as if you had never existed."

Lin Ye had no time to be afraid.

His perception extended to its fullest extent, capturing every change in the gatekeeper. Not capturing its form, but capturing the "gap" between changes in form—the instant it transforms from one form to another, its rules are "empty." No form, no rules, nothing at all.

That gap was only a fraction of a second.

But that's enough.

The gatekeeper lunged again. This time, Lin Ye didn't dodge. He charged towards the gatekeeper, and in the instant it transformed from a "beast" into a "tree"—a gap appeared—his right hand passed through the light and shadow, grabbing something hidden deep within.

A fragment.

Transparent, small, like a piece of broken glass.

[Rules Broken - Chapter-Level Gatekeeper]

[Warning: The target's level is higher than the current fragment level (page 99%). Forcibly breaking through may result in backlash.]

Lin Ye ignored the warning.

He gripped the shard tightly.

The gatekeeper's body began to crumble. The ball of light and shadow dissipated from the edges, like a painting fading. Its voice came from all directions, no longer slow and hollow, but carrying a strange... relief.

"Thanks."

The light and shadow completely disappeared.

Lin Ye stood still, holding the transparent fragment in his hand.

The fragments were slowly melting, merging into his palm.

[Devouring—]

[Rule analysis in progress—]

[Gained Ability: Shape Perception (Can perceive the true form of a target, ignoring illusions and disguises)]

[Fragment Evolution: Pages (99%) → Chapters (3%)]

[Warning: Forced absorption beyond one's level has increased residual consciousness to 2.1%]

Lin Ye looked at his palm.

The markings have changed. From the green of the pages, they've turned blue for the chapters. The crescent moon pattern in the pupil is clearer, and the moon reflected in the pupil has gained a halo.

He took a deep breath and looked up.

The fog has lifted.

It didn't completely disperse; rather, the fog within a thirty-meter radius around him vanished, revealing a black sandy beach. Scattered on the beach were some things—shells? No, not shells. They were some white, smooth, bone-like objects.

The waves lapped against the shore not far away, the black seawater churning with white foam. The seawater was black, not because of pollution, but because it was its natural color, like ink poured into the ocean.

In the distance, at the end of the beach, there is a road.

It wasn't a man-made road, but a path worn into the ground, leading deep into the fog. The fog was even thicker on either side of the path, like two walls, trapping the road in the middle.

Lin Ye walked down that road.

He walked for about ten minutes.

Occasionally, something would appear on either side of the fog wall—abandoned buildings, rusty machines, and fallen statues. The statues were strange; some resembled humans, some beasts, and some some kind of creature Lin Ye had never seen before. Their surfaces were covered with moss and vines, suggesting they had been lying there for a very, very long time.

At the end of the road was an open space.

A person was standing in the open space.

It wasn't a gatekeeper in disguise. It was a real person.

She wore a black trench coat, her long hair was tied back, and she had a scar on her left cheek.

Gu Yan.

He stood in the middle of the open space, his hands in his pockets, looking at Lin Ye.

"You're faster than I expected," he said. "I thought it would take you a whole day to get past the gatekeeper. You did it in less than half an hour."

"It's not difficult," Lin Ye said. "It just changes quickly. Find the gaps in these changes, and you can grasp the core."

Gu Yan's lips curled up slightly.

"Chen Xuan is right, you do have talent."

Where is Su Wanning?

"In the third seal," Gu Yan said, "she found Chen Xuan, but she's trapped too. The Dream Weaver will use her as leverage to force Chen Xuan to hand over the fragments."

"Did Chen Xuan make a deal?"

"Not yet," Gu Yan said. "But he's almost at his limit. His daughter—you know—is a hostage of the Dream Weavers. If he hands over the fragments, they promise to heal his daughter. If he doesn't, they'll destroy both his daughter and Su Wanning."

Lin Ye clenched his fists.

"Take me to the Third Seal."

Gu Yan looked at him.

"Do you know what going there means?"

"Know."

"You will be facing the core power of the Dream Weavers. They have at least three Dream Domain Overlords who can enter your dreams. Your level is not even that of a Dream Controller."

"I know."

"You might die."

"I know."

Gu Yan remained silent for a few seconds.

"Come with me."

He turned and walked into the depths of the fog.

Lin Ye followed behind him.

The two walked one after the other in the gray-white fog.

The sound of the waves faded into the distance, replaced by a deep, continuous hum, as if something was vibrating deep underground.

The blue mark on Lin Ye's palm was slightly warm.

Ahead, the fog grew even thicker.

And deep within the fog, something awaited him.