My Exclusive Dream World Adventures-Chapter 140 - Third Dream (Guaranteed 2 Updates)
Chapter 140: 140 Third Dream (Guaranteed 2 Updates)
Chapter 140: 140 Third Dream (Guaranteed 2 Updates)
The next night, at half past eleven, Chen Xu closed up shop early. After a shower and drying his hair, he noticed there were thirteen minutes left until midnight.
He lay on his bed, awakening the interface and began to wait quietly.
Time ticked away, and when the countdown on the interface hit zero, he saw a new notification pop up in the top right corner.
He clicked it, “Would you like to enter the dream ‘The Foggy Epoch’?”
That name…
He pondered deeply. Having experienced two dreams before, he knew he could deduce some of its content from the dream’s name alone.
The first dream was ‘Survival of the Doomsday,’ which completely unveiled the predicaments one would face within the dream—its setting in the apocalypse and the theme of survival.
The second was ‘Beast Invasion,’ which also pointed out, quite explicitly, the most direct and formidable enemy.
Now, with the third dream titled ‘The Foggy Epoch,’ the focus seemed to be on the word “fog.” It reminded him of a movie he had watched before.
It wouldn’t be like in that film, would it?
He hesitated; in that movie, besides the fog, there were monsters hiding within it. If the dream world was anything like the movie, he estimated he wouldn’t survive past three days.
He didn’t rush into the dream but instead opened the subsequent notification, which contained three options as before. This time though, he decided against copying someone from reality into the dream.
He opened up the list of character choices provided by the system, thought for a moment, and made his selection.
“Let’s go with this one.”
His focus settled on the third option—a muscular man skilled in combat techniques who could serve as his bodyguard.
As for other experts, he didn’t see them as necessary; having lived through two dreams, he had picked up a fair number of survival skills.
Ding-dong.
A prompt popped up, “An unknown error has occurred in the database, character template lost.”
Following that, all characters on the page disappeared.
He stood there dumbfounded. No way?
Exiting and re-entering yielded the same result—a blank page.
Did that mean he couldn’t choose any of the built-in characters?
A bit helpless, he bit his lip and thought, forget it, he would just pick an item from the second option. Among those, there were a few things that could prove incredibly useful.
However, upon clicking the item options, they too were empty.
He was grinding his teeth in frustration. Damn it, this broken system needed to be fixed as soon as possible.
Now, he faced only one choice.
So, the question arose, who should he replicate?
…
Another day passed, and it was two o’clock in the afternoon.
“Aunt Zhou, you go ahead and take a break,” Chen Xu courteously spoke to his sole employee.
Aunt Zhou took off her hat and apron, hanging them on the wall, and said, “Okay, I’ll be off then.”
After she left, Chen Xu closed the door and called Old Tang to ask where he was.
“I’m out, what’s up?”
“I need to talk to you about something. Where are you now?”
“Uh, I’m at a photo studio; there are some designs that need adjusting, so I came over to communicate with the design team.”
Chen Xu felt a slight headache—that sort of place was typically in the suburbs; he only had three hours, and he wasn’t sure if there would be enough time for the round trip.
But he didn’t want to drag it out to the next day either, so he said, “Just give me the address, I’ll come over.”
If there was anyone he trusted the most to have by his side, it was Old Tang. The difficulty of the dreams was increasing, and going in alone didn’t give him much confidence. Another person meant an extra measure of strength.
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Soon after, Old Tang sent over the address. It was a location well known to Chen Xu as he had been there several times before.
He called for a car and rushed over.
Upon reaching the photo studio, he was barred from entering. The guard refused to let him in, suggesting that there was a celebrity inside for a shoot and that they couldn’t let just anyone in.
“Chen Xu?”
Just as Chen Xu was about to call Old Tang, he suddenly heard someone call his name. Looking up, it was the advertisement designer he often worked with who said, “What a coincidence, Mr. Gao.”
The security guard asked, “Mr. Gao, do you know this man?”
“Of course, he’s a big client of our company,” Mr. Gao answered with a smile.
With that, Chen Xu was allowed to enter smoothly.
“Why is it so strict today?” Chen Xu curiously asked, having been here a few times before. Previously, he would just tell the guard whom he was seeing, and he would be let in, unlike today.
Mr. Gao seemed surprised, “You don’t know? Bai Jinxuan came here to shoot today, so of course the guards are a bit more tense to prevent fervent fans from sneaking in.”
“Oh, I see.”
Chen Xu had heard the name; it belonged to an idol who shot to fame last year—the so-called celebrity with massive online followings. Even someone like him who never paid attention to the celebrity world and only browsed forums occasionally was aware of her reputation.
But he had no idea what she looked like, having never seen a photo.
“My colleague is supposed to be here, right? Where is he?” Chen Xu inquired about the matter at hand.
“He should be in the photo room.”
Chen Xu thanked him and went to look for Old Tang in the photo room.
He made his way to the door and saw it was crowded with people inside. Old Tang was standing not far from the door, chatting with a man.
He immediately activated the scanning function, targeting Old Tang.
Beep beep.
A prompt popped up, “According to Article 99 of the Breeding Encouragement Regulations, when entering the dream state, do not replicate a companion of the same gender to avoid affecting proper romantic views.”
Chen Xu was stunned by this prompt.
Is there no basic human right left anymore?
“Please reselect your scanning target. Note that you lack the necessary permissions. After this use, the next activation of this feature will be available in one month.”
A few seconds later, another prompt appeared before his eyes.
This damned system.
He cursed inwardly and looked inside. The photography studio was filled with only a few women, including the actress Bai Jinxuan, her assistant, her agent, and a few other staff members.
His gaze swept over the women, feeling overwhelmed, finding no one reliable.
Moreover, he thought of Yang Jinxia and Luo Xiyun; after waking up from the dream, the person would also retain the memory fragments from the dream. He really didn’t want to have such an entanglement with another woman.
Better to just forget it. He could venture through the dream world on his own.
As he made his decision, another prompt appeared: “Because you’ve exceeded the time limit, a target has been randomly scanned for you. Please check inside the character template.”
Ha, it’s in these details that you can feel a touch of humanity.
He shook his head. Just then, Old Tang looked over in his direction, raised his hand, said something to the person beside him, and squeezed his way out.
Old Tang asked, “What’s the rush to find me? What’s the matter?”
Chen Xu took out a delicate bag and said, “Isn’t your daughter’s first birthday coming up? I bought a little gift for her.”
“Thanks. But, there was no need to make a special trip for this,” Old Tang said, taking the bag.
Chen Xu said, “I have to go out of town in two days and was worried I might forget. I had some time today, so I came to deliver it in advance.”
“What about your noodle shop?”
“I’ll close for a couple of days. Anyway, I’m off.”
…
By the time Chen Xu returned to the noodle shop, it was already past five, and Aunt Zhou was waiting at the door.
He hurriedly went over to open the door, saying, “Got held up a bit, hope you haven’t been waiting long.”
“Not at all; you’re too courteous, boss,” Aunt Zhou said with a smile.
Once the door was open, customers started coming in. By six or seven o’clock, the place was packed, with many people choosing to queue outside.
Chen Xu, working in the kitchen, didn’t stop for a moment until after nine when it finally quieted down enough for him to sit and rest for a while.
At ten, Aunt Zhou clocked out. The rest of the evening, patrons trickled in to eat noodles.
At eleven-thirty, once the last customer had left, Chen Xu locked the door. He first took a shower, dried his hair, and lay down in bed. Then, he opened the prop window.
Dozens of small icons appeared before him, all props that could be purchased with points.
He had made his selections during the day; now he simply clicked to buy.
In his second dream, he had earned 150 points as a reward, twice as much as from the first dream.
The props available this time were very different from the last dream, with dozens more options. Many were high-tech items, suggesting the level of technology in the upcoming dream wouldn’t be low.
He spent twenty points on a thin, close-fitting protective garment to ensure his basic safety.
Then, he spent another twenty points on an electromagnetic pulse gun. In fact, all available weapons were electromagnetic in nature; what he bought was the cheapest kind for self-defense.
He spent the remaining one hundred points on various aids.
Having spent all his points, he logged out.
Immediately, a prompt appeared before him, “You will soon enter the virtual dream world ‘Epoch of Mist.’ The difficulty level of this dream is one, and the duration is one hundred eighty days. We wish you a pleasant experience in this dream.”
As the prompt’s voice played, he saw his surroundings undergo a drastic transformation, with damaged marks appearing on the walls, followed by a thick fog materializing out of thin air, obstructing his vision.
This was his first time entering a dream while conscious. Witnessing these changes was truly shocking.
It also confirmed one of his theories: the settings in the dream device were modeled after the real environment.
He turned to see a backpack placed on the table. He went over to check, and all the props he had bought were there.
This time, the system had thrown no curveball; the purchased props were right beside him.
He donned the body armor, put on a mask and helmet, slid the handgun-sized electromagnetic pulse gun into his belt, picked up his backpack, and opened the door to step outside.
The first floor looked like it had been shot up by powerful firearms; the walls were full of holes as thick as fingers. Seeing his noodle shop in such a state gave him a pang of distress.
Fortunately, this was just a dream.
A war must have taken place here, though it was unknown who the combatants were.
Moreover, this had all apparently happened not long ago, as there was no layer of dust on the overturned tables and chairs.
The surroundings were eerily quiet, without any noise at all.
He knew that aside from the name, the system wouldn’t provide any background information; he had to explore everything on his own. He approached the door that was now riddled with holes, took a deep breath, and pulled it open.
The rolling door rose with a sound of metal squeezing and colliding, echoing far in the silent world.
As the door opened, thick fog slowly poured in, causing him to involuntarily step back.
PS: The next chapter is before twelve. Lastly, vote for a monthly ticket.
