The dreamscape is chaotic and disordered.
The towering Spine of the World Mountains lie ahead on the path, beneath the cold mountain foot, Lu Li silently progresses forward.
He draws nearer to the snow-covered peaks, yet the temperature grows warmer.
Figures appear on either side of the road, those previously possessed and killed by Anna. They accuse Lu Li as he passes by.
"You caused her to become !"
"Why didn’t you kill her!"
Each figure condemns Lu Li, yet Lu Li moves past them silently, without uttering a word.
He approaches closer to the Spine of the World Mountains, but the snow-like fog renders the peaks vague, no longer clear. Ahead on the road, Anna quietly awaits Lu Li, cradling a straw cat. As he gets closer, her outline transforms into a figure cloaked in black.
"Do you remember what I once said?" Friday’s reminder emerges from within the black robe. "Do not, investigate, the things beneath the robe."
Lu Li slowly awakens.
A bonfire burns before him, crackling.
The firelight brings warmth and fully reveals the narrow crevice within the rock layers.
On the opposite side of the fire, Friday cradles a leather paper bag, consuming its contents.
Inside the leather paper bag lies an incomprehensible grotesque object to Lu Li: it holds numerous unborn embryos, transformed by unimaginable powers, stripped of their original form, twisted into shapes coated with uneven black substances.
The ominously black solid, once it perceives the warmth of life, liquefies into pitch-black fluid, enveloping layer by layer and absorbing each ounce of energy. Yet in the five senses and even the mysterious sixth sense, it emits a wonderfully alluring aroma, enticing countless weak-willed humans to merge with it.
Every embryo blasphemously seduces Lu Li, met with sane resistance to the nauseating desecration.
Friday quickly notices Lu Li awakened, devours hastily as if afraid of being robbed, and throws the leather paper bag behind, allowing it to be shredded and soaked by the dark river.
Lu Li remains unmoved, even if Friday feasts on howling souls, he says nothing.
"Where did the bonfire come from?"
Lu Li’s dark eyes reflect the burning fire.
The ashes have accumulated several centimeters thick, indicating it was kindled shortly after Lu Li fell asleep.
The warmth in the slumber originates from this. Without it, Lu Li would be as cold as stone, or perhaps gravely ill.
"Anything might be brought across by the dark river."
With that, Friday reaches into the dark river, retrieves a branch, and leaves it by the fire to dry.
As mentioned before, even if Friday dredges the dark river for evil entity bodies, Lu Li wouldn’t be surprised.
Although the dreamscape’s contents were atrocious and chaotic, Lu Li’s condition improved significantly after resting than it was the first time.
"How long did I sleep?"
Friday dries his hands on a rock by the fire: "Ask me that question when I fish out a clock."
"Possibly half a year or a year." Friday casually says.
Down in the layers of rock, tens of meters, or maybe hundreds of meters deep, the words of the enigmatic Friday deviate further from common sense, likelier to be true—
Until Lu Li reaches to touch his chest, revealing it unchanged from his last waking, exposing this as yet another of Friday’s casual deflections.
Once the fatigue ebbed away, Lu Li began to inspect what remained on him.
The straw doll and Doomsday Apocalypse pawn remained in his pocket.
The former protected him from dying during Silent Moments while unconscious, the latter reinforced his physique against death from injury and cold.
All four Spirit-Calling Guns were lost, the short knife remained, the evil broadcast kept inside the inner coat pocket, but perhaps unusable due to water immersion, placed to dry beside the fire by Lu Li.
The only surviving Stone Badge lay among the fragments of its companions, and as Lu Li took it out, Friday glanced over, saying that no merchants could be summoned here.
Lu Li didn’t verify whether Friday was right or wrong, simply stowing away the Stone Badge.
Interestingly, the currency that exists in the fog still remains—found within his shirt pocket, partially forming a bandage wrapped around Lu Li’s chest.
Lu Li retrieves it and places it in his pants pocket, then wrapped the bandage layer by layer, halted on the last when interrupted by Friday.
"If I was you, I wouldn’t expose the wound after suffering a fatal injury." Friday’s words defy understanding, shattering normality. "Upon seeing the wound, you’ll die."
Lu Li halted, re-wrapping the bandage.
He contemplated the true meaning of Friday’s expression.
Was it simply the pragmatic "exposing the wound causes infection and death" or the idealistic "you were meant to die, but have survived because you never witnessed the wound."
"Don’t want to die?" Friday’s tone carried tease.
Lu Li didn’t respond, his stomach emitted a "growl."
The hunger wasn’t intense.
The augmentation of the Doomsday Apocalypse apparently had nothing to do with science. It doubled Lu Li’s humanity and Sanity Value, also doubled his endurance.
The stomach growl acted as a reminder for Lu Li that he hadn’t eaten in a long time.
"Food needs to be prepared in advance."
Saying this, Friday sat by the riverside, recent searching in the rushing waters, asking Lu Li: "Is there anything you dislike eating?"
Her tone sounded like in a restaurant, cradling a menu enquiring the diner across from Lu Li.
"No," Lu Li replied, recalling something and adding: "Normal human food."
Friday continued rifling, seemingly delving through the river called time.
At a moment, a palm-sized cod was grasped and tossed ashore by Friday. It already died, the fish’s empty eyes gazing at the rock wall.
"A seawater fish," Lu Li remarked.
"So it drowned." Friday said indifferently.
A single fish obviously wasn’t enough for the two, not even for Lu Li alone. Friday continued searching in the dark river, Lu Li then used a small knife to slice open the fish belly, taking out the entrails, and selected suitable small branches in a pile beside the fire, skewering the cod and placed it over the flames to roast.
Black spots appeared on the fish skin as it gradually cooked.
A modern creation—small glass bottle tossed towards Lu Li. He caught it, filled with sparkling salt grains inside.
"I carry this with me."
Friday addressed Lu Li’s gaze.
Anyway, Lu Li didn’t see if Friday took the salt bottle from her bosom or extracted it from the dark river.
Soon, another sea fish tossed over by Friday, this time a palm-sized tuna.
"Do you favor sea fish?" Lu Li asked.
"Sea fish don’t have as many annoying bones," Friday said. "Besides, I don’t decide. Anything might be brought over by the dark river, right?"
Faced with a lie easily exposed, the two inside the rock crevice maintained a tacit understanding.
Lu Li grilled fish while Friday dredged for more, time flowed peacefully in this tranquility.
As the fish cooked to semi-done, Lu Li asked: "How do we leave here?"
"Is it so bad to stay here?"
"Perhaps we can live longer here than those above."