“…Jupiter.”
Jiuying found his voice with difficulty: “It’s in the position of the moon.”
“So there are dreams like this too.” It was Qiu Mian’s first time encountering such a situation, and he rarely put away his casual demeanor. “According to your dream-traveler deductions, dreams concerning the starry sky shouldn’t be able to manifest.”
Jiuying spoke cautiously: “This is merely a superficial appearance; it cannot actually affect the starry sky.”
In the vast universe, Earth’s satellite remained the moon, and Jupiter was still 630 million kilometers away from us. Yet the massive sphere before them, illuminating the heavens and earth, existed merely as a projection above the atmosphere, or rather, as a texture belonging exclusively to the fused dream.
Yet this brought about another problem.
When the fused dream ended, it was entirely possible for this projection to remain behind.
In the past, people had witnessed ethereal, completely unseen buildings and crowds appearing in the sky, resembling a celestial paradise, prompting them to look up in terrified reverence. Through word of mouth, numerous bizarre and mysterious legends gradually took shape. It wasn’t until scientific progress arrived later that this phenomenon was proven to be a mirage, where distant objects were reflected onto the sky via light refraction.
As a mirage conjured by such an A-class fused dream, Jupiter had ample reason to persist for a long time even after the dream vanished.
When that time came, explaining its existence would certainly cause countless people immense distress.
For Qiu Mian, this wasn’t yet a critical issue. Although he had no intention of voluntarily exposing himself, unlike the authorities, he wouldn’t deliberately seek out excuses to cover up the existence of fused dreams.
Yet he could fully understand that before being forced to make it public, this was a necessary step to maintain social order.
Conversely, Jiuying had far more things to worry about. He seemed to have thought of this as well, which was why he had delayed making a stance.
At this moment, the thick fog had been driven away by Jupiter’s radiance, and even the clouds were hiding away under the boundless clear sky. Beneath the endless light-brown canopy of heaven, only flight LA1718 trudged on alone. Or rather, there was another entity wishing to join this journey.
The giant, tumor-strewn worm raised its head excitedly, letting the pustules crowding its face burst one after another. It raised its body as high as possible, thrusting its maw toward the upper heavens as if trying with all its might to chase the light.
Failing once, it tried again. Its body grew even larger, and fishy, turbid filth exploded in all directions. Flight LA1718 served like a directional beacon on its path to ascend to the heavens, and the distance between them continuously closed.
Finally, Jiuying made up his mind: “Shall we cooperate?”
“Sure.” Qiu Mian withdrew his gaze. “I thought you were going to wait until it leaped over the dragon gate.”
Jiuying had no desire to elaborate: “I have a way to handle this dream, but I cannot alter his consciousness simultaneously. Making Jupiter disappear requires your assistance.”
“Couldn’t you do that last time?”
“This is a fused dream. I cannot do it.”
A fused dream intertwined the illusory with the reality. On one hand, dream-traveling was far more difficult, and on the other hand, the consequences were unpredictable. Within the dream world, forcibly altering the dream master’s consciousness merely caused them to wake up prematurely from their slumber. But within a fused dream, it was entirely possible to directly eradicate their existence.
What is consciousness? It can be explained as a collection of thoughts. Thoughts are numerous, and dissolving one or two of them under specific emergency circumstances is acceptable. But another explanation is the soul; altering consciousness within a fused dream undoubtedly becomes an established fact presented in reality, inevitably rousing worry over that classic philosophical problem, the Ship of Theseus.
Furthermore, human consciousness was neither a sturdy, stable, detachable hull nor clear, unambiguous code data. One couldn’t just shout one-click delete at a specific thought module. After altering consciousness, would the newly awakened dream master merely be an ordinary person who happened to forget a strand of thoughts, or a pitiful person whose very existence had been cut out?
Precedents for causing severe consequences were not lacking; they were even filled with lessons written in blood.
When Jiuying said this, his voice was cold, devoid of the slightest emotion, nor was there any resentment over his own inadequate strength. The so-called cannot do it was simply an unwillingness to do it.
Qiu Mian had no intention of probing further. He nodded thoughtfully: “I see.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“If the base’s analysis of you has no deviations, you can accomplish the concealment of Jupiter’s existence, right?”
As a well-known rogue wild dream-traveler in the Eastern District, the Passerby’s abilities, personality, and image had all been thoroughly researched by the authorities. Although the latter two had no concrete conclusions, his abilities had yielded certain research results.
Concealment. Intuitively speaking, the Passerby could turn invisible and drastically lower his own presence, allowing him to pass by low-key while other dream-travelers ignored him, and even preventing the dream-makers whose dreams were invaded from noticing his appearance.
Aside from himself, the Passerby had also displayed methods of concealing certain objects. A horror story circulated within the Eastern District Base: the former captain of Dream Decoding Squad Three had once conspired with the former research lab director to use a fused dream designated for base testing to conjure a thousand tons of gold bars, secretly transferring them bit by bit for profit. It wasn’t until one day when the gold bars were discovered missing that they exposed their flaws in panic and were caught red-handed on the spot.
Opinions varied widely on how the former captain was exposed. The most widely circulated theory was that he somehow provoked the Passerby, who turned invisible and strolled through the base’s fused dream, considerably helping the authorities rectify public discipline by casually concealing the gold bars while leaving behind a few remarks.
Leaving aside the fact that the authorities immediately locked down that fused dream and promoted anti-corruption and disciplinary inspections among dream-travelers with even higher intensity, in short, ever since then, the Eastern District Base’s attitude toward the Passerby had been extremely subtle. They neither removed his position as the number one wanted bounty nor established a duty squad to lie in wait, seemingly reaching an unspoken equilibrium. As for dream-travelers, encountering the Passerby was both a pleasant surprise and a source of terror. If they ran into him, their workload would ease considerably and provide analytical data for the research lab, yet they always felt they would grow unlucky.
Although Qiu Mian was clear on how far the authorities had researched him, since his real-world identity remained unexposed, the abilities displayed within the dream were inconsequential.
“Sure.”
His tone was relaxed as he raised his hand into an OK gesture, observing Jupiter through the circle formed by his thumb and forefinger, showing no sense of being overwhelmed by the massive celestial body occupying ninety-five percent of his field of vision.
“Are you just responsible for splitting the dream?”
Jiuying had demonstrated quite a few capabilities during their last encounter. Since he could slice himself into seventy-two pieces, splitting other objects should be a breeze.
Yet Jiuying spoke vaguely: “A fused dream involves too much reality; I will use a different method. You just need to ensure that Jupiter disappears.”
“What method?”
Jiuying remained tight-lipped, falling into a familiar silence.
A moment later, Qiu Mian turned his head, swept a quiet glance over him, and said slowly: “You know, I am a person who hates trouble, especially trouble that repeats over and over again.”
“Among this is included repeatedly dealing with the same type of dream, and even more so, asking the same question a second time.”
“…”
He seemed weary of this mode of communication, twirling a styled lock of curly hair around his finger while his figure began to turn transparent: “Then let’s handle our own parts. Goodbye.”
“Overwriting the second layer of the dream, severing the connection between the dream world and the worm.”
“Contesting the dream with him, but not contesting consciousness.” Jiuying turned around and clenched his left hand. “I have executed this multiple times with successful experience. That is how it is done.”
If the real world was a vat of clear water, the fusion point was a conduit reaching into the water, spewing ink droplets belonging to the dream world into reality. Once fused, separation was difficult, but as living currents flowed, it would gradually become invisible to the naked eye. Thus, unless the concentration of the ink cluster surged drastically, most fused dreams remained within an acceptable scope from a long-term impact perspective.
Yet indisputably, the impact of a concentrated ink cluster on water quality in a short period was massive. At times like this, items capable of absorbing impurities in the water were required.
The second layer of the dream mentioned by Jiuying was precisely such an existence. In truth, using the term second layer wasn’t entirely accurate. Based on the objective, Jiuying was employing certain methods to contend with the worm for dominance over the dream world, naturally contracting the dream to prevent the situation from escalating further.
Yet while Jiuying spoke of it lightly, the actual operation bore immense risks. Contrary to eliminating the dream by forcibly altering the dream master’s consciousness, this was equivalent to injecting impurities belonging to someone else’s thoughts into one’s own mind. Sorrows and joys, bitterness and delight would all be experienced simultaneously. If one’s willpower was insufficiently steadfast, losing oneself was easy, one might grow dazed over who truly ruled the consciousness, or even develop multiple personalities.
Jiuying’s explanation was vague. Had other dream-travelers heard it, most would fail to react in time, but Qiu Mian, who had dealt with dreams for so long, could instantly pinpoint the core issue and instead felt somewhat surprised.
“Sounds like you’re going to have a miserable time.” He raised his eyebrows slightly. “How come everything you think of is both troublesome and dangerous methods.”
“It’s just suitable.”
Jiuying closed his eyes for a moment, issuing a cautious reminder: “You are an unregistered illegal dream-traveler and remain wanted by the base. If our cooperation goes smoothly, I will apply to have your warrant revoked.”
Due to the existence of fused dreams, dream-travelers capable of altering dreams at will could virtually achieve anything they desired. Without constraints, the world would plunge into chaos. Dream-travelers refusing to report to the authorities were akin to hiding firearms and refusing to surrender them; their instability and danger level far exceeded that. Naturally, some individuals could remain law-abiding, but having the gun barrel out of official hands meant peace of mind for no one.
Jiuying’s remark was equivalent to issuing him a firearm possession permit. From an official standpoint, doing so must have been quite difficult.
Twirling a lock of hair, Qiu Mian remained indifferent to this privilege: “Warrant or no warrant, is there a difference?”
“I provide a guarantee; the base will no longer investigate your real-world identity.” Jiuying lowered his voice. “Conversely, if you intentionally sabotage our cooperation, I will treat hunting you down as my primary task.”
Perhaps because it sounded rather interesting, Qiu Mian couldn’t help hooking the corners of his lips.
“Is that so? I feel like the latter sounds much more attractive. What should I do?”
He took two steps backward, leaning his upper body back in a relaxed and languid posture, and jumped straight down from the airplane, yet his voice clearly reached Jiuying’s ears:
“However, I don’t like looking for trouble. Better choose the third option instead.”
“Just crush the dream. Jupiter will vanish.”