ecstasy

[Also, I have a stupid thing to say, just take a look.]

She seemed hesitant.

Controlling my body with those dance machines seems like my superpower.

Doudou couldn't help but be startled - but he couldn't make a sound.

[Huh? Is she in a frenzy? This is too tragic! And there's no benefit to be seen at all: it's more like a curse.]

Doudou had always thought that this cluster of dancing robots was just a special characteristic of this dream; all he had to do was wake up.

If it is insanity, won't it remain like this forever?

He quickly stained his body with blood and wrote:

[You're not stupid at all. Superpowers do exist! I have superpowers too. I'm a superpowered human.]

[How did you know you had super powers, though?]

Most people wouldn't think that this was something that was tampered with by those people from Asia-Europe Post?

Ruan Jingbo gestured and wrote at the same time, his four "hands" writing faster and faster:

[A “classmate” in a mindfulness class told me this.]

[He also said: Because I was so anxious, my "heart" provided me with this solution, a plan; a superpower that broke through the difficulties and gave me complete control over my body.]

Ruan Jingbo deliberately painted the word "heart" thickly, making it into a bloody mass.

Doudou's body held the glass plate high:

[Makes sense! That's what I've learned. Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and the like can trigger superpowers!]

If Ruan Jingbo really has ecstasy, then she must be a [patient]:

The Psychiatric Department of Mong Cai Hospital. It sounds like a place with a lot of "patients".

Doudou still remembered what Richard had said. The [patient]'s ecstasy was out of control; the [sinner] needed to do some strange movements to activate or awaken him.

For example, Richard's chain-smoking partner—could it be that Richard took the doctor to see a doctor and then returned to Mong Cai? Doudou had a lot of questions for him:

[What does that person look like? Is he wearing a black trench coat? And a white shirt underneath?]

Ruan Jingbo shook his head:

[No, I'm dressed like a tourist. Beach shorts/floral shirt/bucket hat.]

Chapter 113 The Way to Dream

Ruan Jingbo started drawing next to the words. However, she obviously didn't have Ai Xi's artistic talent, and she drew a dwarf-like creature with black eyes and hands thicker than his waist.

Doudou frowned, searching his mind for traces of this look—

He looks like the guy on TV who would travel to Hawaii, eat coconuts and enjoy hot air.

Mong Cai also has Truong Son Beach, which is quite nice. Doudou and Aixi have been there a few times and haven't seen many tourists.

Doudou pondered for a moment. Since he was known to be obsessed with something and spoke in a mysterious way—no matter how you looked at it, he was definitely connected to a large company:

Any other clues? Is it a foreigner? Or a tourist from the mainland?

Ruan Jingbo gestured with his hands on his face:

[He must be a foreigner. He looks a bit like an Indian or Mexican, and he's quite strong.]

Now there is really no clue at all - Doudou has never come into contact with this kind of guy.

Doudou's scalp was burning with thought, but his body was far away from his head; he wanted to scratch it but couldn't reach it; he was very upset:

In addition, he couldn't talk to himself, which slowed down his thinking.

[No matter what, we still need to go back outside to investigate.]

After thinking for a long time, Doudou thought that it would be better to communicate with reality through the dance machine first: two cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang; with Ai Xi working together to find a solution, maybe they could come up with one.

Doudou raised the glass plate, his fingers moving rapidly:

[Are you mentally prepared? Do you want me to help you separate your limbs from your body?]

[It seems a bit difficult to do it yourself, otherwise I will try it for you first.]

[I'll break my legs off first, and then you can help me get them to the dance machine!]

Ruan Jingbo's mouth twitched, her expression tangled and complicated. She lowered her head and began to write furiously.

But before she finished writing--

Sizzle, sizzle.

Strange noises were heard all around, as if someone were frying dough sticks. Ruan Jingbo was still writing and drawing, and seemed to hear nothing.

Doudou wanted to turn his head, but his lonely head could not move——

The bright red blood in my sight gradually faded and became transparent; it seemed to be evaporating and about to become mist.

The mist in front of him disappeared, and Doudou blinked:

The dazzling haze of the arcade is no longer visible, but this isn't a classroom either.

It was getting dark, and the corridor was filled with twilight; the rusty smell in my nose was swept away.

The air was filled with the smell of evening food: in the teachers' dormitory opposite the window, someone was cooking dinner, and the frying pan made a sizzling sound.

".Doudou? Doudou!"

The shouts mixed in with the piercing noises came from my ears——

Ai Xi was behind him, dragging him along; his two hands passed through Doudou's armpits and gripped his chest tightly, strangling him very hard:

"You finally woke up. You scared me to death."

Doudou touched his head - it was resting perfectly on his neck.

"Hey?! Why did you wake me up? I almost thought I couldn't get out!"

Ai Xi wiped the sweat from his forehead and wiped it on his school uniform; he panted:

"I wanted to wake you up with the noise, but that didn't work. So I tried to pull you further away to see if that would help."

"Thank goodness it worked. You're so heavy."

She supported her knees with her hands and coughed twice:

"About... maybe twenty meters straight line distance? I dragged you from the classroom to this corridor when you suddenly regained consciousness."

Ai Xi raised his head, his voice still filled with lingering panic.

"How are you? Are you okay? Jingbo... is she still in the dream?"

Doudou stood up straight and scratched his neck:

"Ai Xi, do you have any soda? I need to hydrate first and then talk to you."

-

They returned to the classroom; Doudou danced and gestured, telling Ai Xi everything he had seen and learned in the [Electronic Dungeon]—

He couldn't speak just now, and he was really upset.

Ruan Jingbo stared blankly at the table, her eyes swirling vaguely - she didn't know whether she was already disassembling her body parts.

Ai Xi sat next to Ruan Jingbo, his eyes filled with worry:

"so--"

"Perhaps [dreaming] is a new natural phenomenon? Or perhaps a trance that works without direct contact from the bearer?"

"What a wide-ranging superpower! It feels like it covers the entire city. Mong Cai Hospital is quite far from No. 5 Middle School."

Doudou spoke rapidly, making a large circle with his hands:

"Regardless of whether it's a trance or not, more than one group of people have already learned the method of 'dreaming'! Those people in the Taro Society may have heard about it."

Ai Xi counted down his fingers one by one:

"So at least there are people like the psychiatric department of Mong Cai Hospital and schools. Is there someone or an organization deliberately spreading the virus?"

Doudou nodded. Ever since returning to reality, he's been moving his neck constantly:

"That's possible! It seems like there are a lot of patients in these two places?"

Ai Xi moved closer to Ruan Jingbo and looked at her eyes, which were no longer as frightening as before:

"For example, Jingbo... She didn't wake up. So she's right, she must really have superpowers; she's just trapped by herself now."

"Is it because [dreaming] triggered that ecstasy?"

Doudou gulped down his mineral water. The smell of dinner outside the window made him feel a little hungry.

"I don't know if it was dream-induced! But when I dream, I can also affect her ecstasy."

"Did Ruan's eyes roll around in front of me? That was me."

Ai Xi exhaled and pinched his arm:

"It's so weird, it's like I'm driving my body like a super robot. It's exhausting just thinking about it."

"It's like being separated from reality by a layer. You can't taste food or touch things; you only have limited vision and hearing."

"But at least we can confirm this: we need to stay within a few dozen meters of the dreamer. Even if they dream again, we'll have a reliable way to wake them up."

Doudou stuffed the empty bottle of mineral water into the side pocket of his schoolbag; in this kind of weather, even the mineral water was warm:

"I discovered! There are several conditions or steps to enter this [shared dream]."

"First of all, there have to be at least two people; if it's just one person, there's no way. I feel like this is the biggest difference from a normal dream."

"Then—the two people have to be thinking about the same thing, or something similar: for example, at noon in the utility room, everyone is thinking about [Taro King]."

"Well, let's just call it a [public fantasy]."

"But don't think too hard about it. I just heard everyone shouting those three words and the mascot flashed through my mind."

"Ms. Ruan was stuck in her dream of the arcade, so I thought of the Dance Revolution, and it worked."

Ai Xi pondered for a moment and gave a summary:

"So, all I have to do is think of a specific image and recite a line or spell at the same time?"

Doudou pursed his lips and rolled his eyes around:

"Hmm—does chanting this [mantra] seem more like focusing on an image? Like an FM radio, where participants tune into the same channel by speaking."

"Ah! It's like playing in an arcade: those racing, fighting games, and so on; you have to enter a key or something to match them together, except that the key is [image] or [idea]."

"And it seems like the more people there are, the blurrier the details become. This time, it was just Ruan Jingbo and I dreaming—or rather, entering her dream—and it was so clear, and I didn't turn into a crystal person in the dream."

Ai Xi frowned and looked very tired:

"Maybe it's because there are more people, and everyone has more different ideas. So there's noise? When there are more people, there are more cognitive conflicts."

"When I was in the taro dream, it seemed that only the taro king was the clearest; everyone else was abstract and vague."

"And I was wondering earlier: Why did you wake up at noon when the lunch bell rang? But just now, no matter how I called you, you wouldn't wake up."

"It's probably because the more people dream, the more unstable the dream becomes. There were more than a dozen people at noon, and now there are only two of you."

Doudou clapped his hands lightly:

"That makes sense! So we have to be face to face to dream together. Being too far away won't work. Let's not dream for now. If there's no one watching and pulling away in time, we might not wake up at all."

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the work, and I wonder if there will be any sudden hiccups these days? Apologies in advance~

Chapter 114: Ascension in front of the middle school gate

Ruan Jingbo was no longer completely still. Her index finger twitched and scratched the table.

Ai Xi put his hand on her shoulder, with some vigilance and worry in his eyes:

"We've already learned that the Taro Society is a group of our classmates, and that Jingbo is also receiving treatment at the mindfulness class in the psychiatric department of Mong Cai Hospital."

"The timing is perfect, and they're all so close to us. Is it a coincidence?"

Doudou yawned. It was only evening, but he was already feeling dizzy and sleepy.