Translator: Lonelytree
Barrow Creek was 3 kilometres south-west of the collapsed channel that connected the two worlds. 320 kilometres to the north of it, one would reach Warburton. 320 km was not a short distance and in Australia, there would be nothing but sparse desert that connected the two cities. Warburton was further inland, sitting right in the middle of the desert. That meant that the city had no tourism value and was mostly inhabited by locals. Kathlyn had spent her childhood there until her family moved to Melbourne when she was 11.
“That was all I can remember of my childhood.” Kathlyn could not pick up anything too special about it. “It was a very small place, in fact there was just one convenience store.” Gu Jun knew they would have to go to Warburton themselves to find out more clues. Thankfully, Tom Chen, Cers Wang, Jeff Carlos, Annie Ho were quite obedient. It was not that they were not scared but they were still willing to follow Gu Jun’s orders… even though it was unclear whether that was because they were afraid of the nightmare man or Kathlyn was that good of a negotiator. That night before their departure to Warburton was a restless night for all of them… well, for all but one. That night, Gu Jun had the best sleep he had had in a long time. Even though the bed at the hotel was old and small, it was the most comforting sleep he had in his recent memory.
The next morning, they prepared to drive to Warburton. Since Kathlyn and Tom drove there, it would be reasonable to expect the other 3 to do the same as well. In other words, their vehicles should be parked around the gas station too. Before they checked out, Gu Jun wished to contact Wu Siyu one more time, to confirm if she had any dream yesterday night. He picked up the landline in the small room… The call was picked up almost immediately.
“Hello?” Wu Siyu’s voice came through, she sounded quite anticipatory.
‘Good morning.’ Gu Jun said internally. Before he could continue, he heard the girl say in a rather obviously exaggerated tone. “No matter what kind of pervert you are, I am so happy because I have just received wonderful news! Everyone is so happy!”
‘What does she mean by that?’ Gu Jun was startled. He tried to focus to receive the signal that she was sending his way. ‘Salt… SOS signal… Zombie… Gu Jun… asking for help… Gu Jun has revived like a zombie?’
‘I have just received wonderful news! Everyone is so happy!’ A thought crossed Gu Jun’s mind and it chilled him to his core. ‘Dirty-minded Yu did not leak my secret but she was informed of my return through the official channel?! This means that someone is pretending to be me and reaching out to Phecda?! Is this the start of ‘Phecda Chaos’? Or the organization has noticed something off through our calls and this is a test for Dirty-minded Yu?’
Gu Jun was anxious but for this moment, pictorial communication was too ineffective for it was impossible to communicate complicated meaning and it was heavily exhausting. If he spoke, it would definitely expose his identity and would lose the chance to capture the traitors. Gu Jun was suddenly reminded of what the shadow said, ‘use the sweet dreams to change…’
Regarding the sweet dream bubbles that were awarded by the system, Gu Jun had already exhausted 5 of them to survive the Nightmare Wonder so now he only had 3 left. He had been studying them over the past few days but he could not figure out any method to make the audience that entered the theatre to materialize into their respective owner, it was the same for all 3 bubbles. If he did not know the audience, how was he supposed to perform the show without knowing the content of their sweet dream? This was a question that had been bothering Gu Jun but now, a new idea surfaced. ‘What if the sweet dreams are supposed to be ownerless?’
It had no content because it could be adapted to anyone’s sweet dream. It did not belong to anyone so it could be applied to anyone. ‘As Barzai said, human beings can be summoned by dreams… if I can adapt the bubble to fit Dirty-minded Yu’s idea of a sweet dream, then perhaps the dream can place both of our consciousnesses in the same place, allowing us to speak directly… Dreams exist in a different dimension so the physical distance between us should not matter.’ With this possibility in mind, Gu Jun was eager to give it a try.
If it was indeed an ownerless dream, to shape it to another person’s sweet dream would require the willing participation of the other subject, or else it would be a nightmare that summoned people against their will into it like the Nightmare Illness. Therefore, Gu Jun found the phone and transmitted two more pictures. One was a woman meditating and the other was the cartoon of a girl sleeping, hopefully she would get the meaning…
After 10 seconds, Wu Siyu said, “Sit down, close my eyes and start to sleep?”
Gu Jun transmitted a smile to show that she was on the right track. He could then hear the sound of the chair being moved. He thus entered his sea of consciousness to click open one of the sweet dream bubbles. As weakened as it was, it was still shining beautifully.
Instantly, he could sense that he had slipped back into the round-topped theatre. There were 10 rows of seats but the interior of the theatre appeared more decrepit than before. He tried to picture Wu Siyu and summon her name. He could hear her light breathing coming through the phone and felt a bond between them. He then pulled open the small wooden door at the back of the seats. A blurry figure walked slowly into the theatre. It took the middle seat of the first row, it was still of indeterminate gender and age.
‘This is still a blank person, a vessel to be filled.’ Gu Jun thought as he tried to adapt the sweet dream to fit Dirty-minded Yu’s imagination. Before this, the mental corruption rate of his brain was high and his mental power was low but now he was in a much better state. Gu Jun was confident that it would work this time!
They had discussed the topic of sweet dreams before so Gu Jun knew some of Wu Siyu’s wildest wishes. He decided to play out one of them on stage. The curtains of the small stage were slowly raised and it brightened the theatre for quite a bit. A cloud of candy cotton floated onto the stage. A person was lying on the cloud, enveloped by the fluffy cloud. The cloud was even more comfortable than the world’s softest pillow. And with a turn of the person’s head, he could reach for the cotton candy by his lips whenever he felt peckish. He did not even need to lift his finger to satisfy that gluttonous itch. The cotton candy came in many flavors, it mimicked the flavors of all the wonderful food in the world. It did not even require the effort of mastication, it dissolved in one’s mouth like the cloud that it was…
Gu Jun trained his mental power to materialize this sweet dream while he was calling, ‘Wu Siyu, this is your sweet dream! This is you!’
The breathing sound from the phone had faded away but the shape of the audience member was slowly solidifying. The body frame was becoming slender and the figure started to lean against the chair. The clothes came into being, it was a set of casual clothes. Then came the black short hair but the face was still blurry like one was staring through a looking glass. But this should be good enough.
“Dirty-minded Yu!” Gu Jun called multiple times. The speakers in the theatre broadcasted his voice and it boomed loudly.
“Aiz?” The figure of Wu Siyu suddenly sharpened into being as she came alive. She stood up and looked around with curiosity. Her eyes eventually settled on the stage. “Dirty-minded Jun, is that you? What are you doing?”