This Text Adventure Game is definitely poisonous-Chapter 1231 - 550: The Early Arrival of Mirage Energy Season_2
Chapter 1231: Chapter 550: The Early Arrival of Mirage Energy Season_2
[Your body felt so heavy, it was as though you were carrying a mountain on your shoulders, making it hard for you to take even a single step...]
[Drowsiness also reached its peak at this moment, no matter how much willpower you tried to muster, you couldn’t keep your eyelids from closing...]
[You stood still, sinking into a deep sleep...]
"Rewind!"
Mu You quickly pressed his watch, and within the short span of ten seconds, he could only manage to make his character swallow a dose of Dream Powder.
[As time flowed, just before falling asleep, you hastily ingested the Dream Powder, fantasizing about having a pleasant dream...]
These two types of powder were only dropped by the monsters here, so they couldn’t be completely useless.
Combining this with the three distinct types of monsters he had encountered before—one sleepwalking, one petrifying, and one sleeping on the spot—Mu You speculated whether ingesting a certain powder would correspond to one of the aforementioned states.
As for whether it actually worked, Mu You wasn’t sure, as once he fell asleep in the game, no text popped up anymore; someone else would have to be by his side to figure out his condition.
After falling asleep, Mu You shared his speculation in the group.
The others had also acquired some powders along the way, so upon hearing him, they all tried it out.
"Eh? It seems to really work! One of my men said that after I took the Dream Powder, I entered a petrified state..."
"Petrified state seems to be invulnerable, right? Does that mean you don’t have to worry about being attacked while asleep?"
"Damn, this stuff is so useful? Why didn’t you say so earlier..."
"Speaking of which, what’s the use of Nightmare Powder?"
"Not clear yet, someone on my side swallowed Nightmare Powder and just fell asleep on the spot, with no petrification protection..."
...
The group buzzed with discussion, but they couldn’t come to any conclusions for the time being.
Seeing that his game character wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, Mu You put aside his phone, took out an oil lamp, rubbed the Lamp God, and prepared to consult with a native.
"What’s wrong now?" The Lamp God appeared quickly, looking very sleepy.
Mu You briefly described the situation he encountered in the game.
"Dream Powder, green speckles... Are you sure you killed a monster that dropped Dream Powder?" The Lamp God suddenly perked up upon hearing this.
"Yeah, what’s the matter?" Mu You looked at the Lamp God, who clearly seemed to know something by his reaction.
The Lamp God didn’t speak but instead looked at him with an extremely strange expression on his face for a long while before finally speaking, "I really don’t know whether to say you have a body of bad luck or a body of good luck..."
"What do you mean?"
"Visual impairment, seeing all sights as mirages, that’s a typical characteristic of Mirage Season!" the Lamp God said.
"Mirage Season?" Mu You was startled. He remembered the Lamp God once explaining to him about the four Season Beasts: Flaming Cow, Gusha, Mirage Tapir, and Wasteland, correlating respectively with Flame Season, season of Fear, Mirage Season, and season of Wasteland.
Following the season of Fear was Mirage Season.
"Are you saying that Mirage Season has already begun and the entire Real World is now enveloped in Mirage Energy?" Mu You asked.
"No, it’s not that severe," the Lamp God shook his head. "Even the Beasts of Catastrophe can’t affect the entire world; they can only make the area they inhabit fall into the corresponding catastrophe."
"Furthermore..."
The Lamp God pondered for a moment, then added, "According to the timeline, it’s actually the intersection of two seasons, not entirely out of the tail end of the season of Fear; the Mirage Tapir hasn’t fully entered its dominant phase yet, it shouldn’t be eager to start roaming the continent..."
"Your meaning is..." Mu You had already vaguely guessed what he was about to say.
"I estimate that you all likely entered the Mirage Tapir’s slumbering domain!" Lamp God said.
"As expected..."
Mu You sighed.
In this way, it did explain why both the giant octopus and the Titan dare not pass through the Dark Vortex on the sea floor, for there lived an even fiercer creature on the other side!
If you consider the Nine-Star Titan as a junior in front of the giant octopus, then the Octopus Monster, in front of the legendary Beast of Catastrophe, is an even smaller junior.
Initially, a Gusha, sealed by the Seal Spear, had cost them four thousand years of plotting and endless schemes just to barely confine part of its consciousness.
And as a full physical form of Gusha of the same tier, the ’Mirage Tapir’s’ strength needs no mention. It’s natural for the Octopus Monster to not provoke it, and the reason it guards the vortex without allowing any creature to pass is precisely for fear of revealing the existence of the teleportation vortex to the Mirage Tapir.
Once the Mirage Tapir was lured to the vortex, the giant octopus would surely be doomed.
Having confirmed that he was facing Mirage Tapir, Mu You somewhat came to terms with it and hurriedly sought advice from Lamp God about the precautions during Mirage Energy Season.
"The main features of Mirage Energy Season are threefold: 1, All props will be contaminated by mirage energy, rendering them unusable."
"2, A large area around the Mirage Tapir will fall into a mirage, and all creatures’ visions will be misled by scenes projected by the mirage energy."
"3, All creatures inhaling mirage energy will enter sleep forcibly from time to time, and when they wake up, the mirage energy in their bodies will be temporarily emptied, and then they will continue into the next cycle of sleep-awake."
"And the Mirage Tapir sustains itself by absorbing the dreamscapes of sleeping creatures around it as food and nourishment, whether nightmares or beautiful dreams, the more stimulating the dreams, the better, whereas bland dreams are of little help to it."
"However, most creatures mostly experience bland dreams, making up over 80% of their dreams, while the proportion of true nightmares or beautiful dreams is very small. Thus, to encourage surrounding creatures to produce high-quality dreams, the Mirage Tapir creates two substances—Nightmare Powder and Beautiful Dream Powder. By killing any creature within the mirage energy, one can obtain one of these powders, and creatures who follow the rules of the Mirage Tapir and consume these powders will receive certain protection while they sleep."
"For example, by consuming Beautiful Dream Powder, when experiencing beautiful dreams, a special petrification layer will appear around the body to protect it from harm, while Nightmare Powder, though it doesn’t produce a protective layer, will make the dreaming creatures extremely sensitive, causing them to wake up at the slightest severe attack."
"And if neither type of powder is consumed and one directly enters deep sleep and unluckily experiences a bland dream, they will enter a hazed somnambulistic state, wandering endlessly in the mirage, unable to wake even when attacked, until killed by other creatures..." Lamp God recalled and explained in detail.
As Mu You listened, he suddenly interrupted him.
"Hold on, you just mentioned that the scenes seen in the mirage energy are mirages?"
"Yes, why?" Lamp God looked at Mu You.
"Does that mean that these scenes actually exist?" Mu You asked.
A mirage is not a fabricated fantasy but merely projects the scenery from a distant location through various refractions of light to another place.
"Of course!" Lamp God nodded: "And the scenes projected by the Mirage Tapir are all real-time scenes within the range of the mirage energy, only with their order scrambled."
Indeed!
Mu You’s eyes brightened.
This meant that the ancient city ruins and the Soul-inducing Lamp he saw earlier actually existed and were somewhere nearby.
Lamp God then added, "Oh, and if you are currently in the mirage energy, you can look for moist soil nearby."
"In the area covered by the mirage energy where the soil is sufficiently moist, there’s a chance that the eggs of something called a ’Dream Breaker Beetle’ are growing. If you find these eggs and kill them before they hatch, you can obtain a ’Dream Breaker Orb.’ The light emitted by this orb can temporarily disperse the surrounding mirage illusions, allowing you to see the real scenery."
"Oh?" Mu You was pleased, astonished by such a peculiar creature! Even if the area was small, being able to reveal the real scenery could greatly accelerate their progress.
"However, the lifespan of these orbs is very short, basically only maintaining light for five to ten minutes before they decay. Also, places with eggs often have a large number of already hatched Dream Breaker Beetles, and stealing the eggs will result in these creatures attacking furiously."
"Although these little creatures are not strong, they have normal vision, and when they swarm, it’s easy to fall victim if you’re not careful!"
