“Wait a moment!”
Zhao Qian called out, stopping the restless group just as they were about to move.
He turned toward the man in the black robe, who had been silently observing everything. “We’re still inside the dream, aren’t we?”
“So what if we are?” Ye Jinran’s lips curved in an indifferent smile.
Zhao Qian’s expression became strange. “In a dream, anything you imagine can come true, so nothing that happens here should surprise us. But… can something from a dream really be brought back into reality?”
He had been pondering that question for a while. He couldn’t figure out where those villagers who ventured outside were getting their supplies.
But after learning the structure of this dungeon, he started suspecting that they had simply imagined a market into existence, a place where goods could be traded, thus obtaining the materials they needed to survive.
If they were truly living inside a dream, then using the power of the dream itself was fine. But they would eventually have to leave the game and return to the real world.
Even if their current state was something close to entering the dream physically, Zhao Qian dared not draw any rash conclusions.
Ye Jinran narrowed his eyes slightly, a trace of disdain and irritation flashing beneath the shadow of his hood. “You really underestimate the power of gods.”
Normally, it was impossible, not just between this dream and reality but across other dungeon spaces as well. The laws that governed each realm were different.
An item that worked fine in one might disintegrate or lose its function in another. In mild cases, its effects might alter. In worse cases, it would cease to exist entirely.
But the system shop was a peculiar place. Items stored there were frozen in time, eternally preserved, untouched by decay. Once withdrawn, they could function in any realm.
That was one of the privileges granted to Ye Jinran by the Main God. Anything that passed through his hands could cross boundaries safely, ensuring that the entire “item” system continued to operate properly.
Strictly speaking, even the players’ personal inventories fell under Ye Jinran’s management, though they were nominally owned by the players themselves.
He could easily take anything from them if he wished but doing so would break the rules of the game and he had no intention of ruining the fun that way.
After all, once the rules were broken at will, the game would lose all meaning.
When Ye Jinran finished speaking, Zhao Qian fell into thought. On the surface, there was nothing wrong with what he said.
The rewards were generous, more than enough compensation for the journey they had made. Their teammate Luo Xi was still in poor condition and needed immediate help. Escaping the dungeon quickly was the logical choice.
But Zhao Qian’s instincts whispered that things were not as simple as they seemed.
His gaze drifted past Ye Jinran to the massive stone gate behind him.
The gate was built of weathered rock, its surface covered in cracks, standing silently like it had endured countless ages. Judging by its thickness, Zhao Qian estimated that even with all of them combined, they would barely be able to push it open.
What lay behind it? And why was the man in black standing guard here?
A deep, primal curiosity began to stir inside Zhao Qian, pushing him toward the gate.
He didn’t bother hiding the impulse. “May I choose to enter there?” he asked, pointing at it.
“You may,” Ye Jinran replied solemnly. “But if you go any further, I will take back all of your rewards.”
Zhao Qian understood immediately and nodded. “That’s fine. That’s exactly what I want.”
Caught red-handed, Ye Jinran blinked innocently, then waved his hand.
In an instant, the treasures and artifacts that had been scattered across the ground vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.
The others glanced at them longingly but said nothing. Under Zhao Qian’s lead, they skirted past Ye Jinran and approached the massive stone gate.
Each of them harbored their own desires but they all knew that in a dungeon, listening to orders was the key to survival.
Zhao Qian pressed his palm against the surface of the gate. After confirming that nothing strange happened, he said, “Everyone, come over here. Let’s push it together. Three, two, one!”
With a thunderous rumble, the heavy stone door slowly creaked open, inch by inch, under the combined strength of several pairs of hands. Fearing it might close again, they didn’t dare hesitate and quickly slipped through the narrow gap.
What awaited them on the other side was a vast expanse of green. Towering oak trees rose from the damp soil, competing for sunlight. Strange shrubs and vividly colored mushrooms dotted the forest floor.
The place looked like something straight out of a fairy tale, a mystical forest where one could almost imagine elves living among the trees.
The stone gate shut behind them with a loud bang, cutting off all connection to the outside world.
A narrow path wound through the forest, paved with uneven stones. Zhao Qian led the way and as soon as he stepped past the tree line, he felt it, countless hostile gazes pressing in from every direction.
Tiny eyes glinted from between the leaves. Small beastlike faces peeked out, watching the intruders with open malice. Zhao Qian kept his guard up and motioned for the others to stay alert and move faster.
After about ten minutes of cautious walking, they reached a river. The space opened up again, sunlight filtering through the canopy onto the lush green grass along the banks.
Zhao Qian couldn’t resist his curiosity and stepped closer to the water. That was when he noticed it, a single flower blooming among the grass.
Delicate and pure white, its petals glistened like dew. Amid the colorful mushrooms and moss of the forest, it was not the most dazzling thing to see but its solitary presence made it stand out.
None of the other plants here bloomed, which made its existence even stranger. The moment Zhao Qian saw it, every rational thought vanished, replaced by one overwhelming urge to touch it.
And so he did.
He grasped the stem of the flower and tried to pull it out. The impulse hit him the moment his fingers brushed it, so strong he couldn’t control it. The others barely had time to shout a warning before it was too late.
The roots began to come out, first short and thin, then longer and thicker. What started as a small clump quickly turned into a network of massive roots, several meters long, spreading in all directions.
Within moments, the ground around them began to split. The earth trembled beneath their feet as if something colossal was awakening underground.
Blinding white light burst out from the widening cracks, searing their eyes.
Ah Peng gritted his teeth and rushed to Zhao Qian’s side, grabbing the root to help him pull. Seeing this, the rest of the group hesitated for only a moment before joining in.
The earth quaked violently. They could barely keep their footing, all of them leaning back with all their strength, holding onto the root like it was a rope in a desperate tug-of-war.
Then, with a deafening snap, the balance broke. They were all thrown backward at once and the next instant, a blinding radiance swallowed them whole.
“Congratulations, players, for clearing the dungeon: ‘Mist of Nanjin Village’, True Ending: The Flower Beyond the Fog.”
“In the enchanted forest, the savage flower grows wild, its roots piercing deep into the ground, tunneling through the lairs of rotting creatures to invade reality. The boundary between dream and waking blurs once more, shrouding the land in mist.”
“You have traversed layer after layer of dreams and reached the kingdom of slumber, uncovering the source of the anomaly. From this moment on, dreams and reality are divided again. The lost souls will finally return to where they belong.”
“Reward: S-rank item ‘The Flower Beyond the Fog’, function unknown. It seems to be a key to a mysterious dungeon.”
Before losing consciousness, they caught a glimpse of the system’s completion screen.
Ye Jinran had been locked outside the gate, unable to witness the ending.
But when the system stopped prompting him to retrieve “The Flower Beyond the Fog,” he knew the players had successfully claimed it.
There had never been any grand conspiracy in this dungeon. The truth was simple, within the realm of dreams, a peculiar plant with overgrown roots had accidentally pierced through the abandoned nest of corpse ghouls, creating a rift that connected the dream world to reality.
Where the two spaces overlapped, the laws of nature had become unstable, forming the misty landscape of the dungeon. Within it, fragments of dream seeped through, people’s subconscious desires took physical form.
On the outermost layer of the dream, one could still escape by force. But the deeper one ventured, the harder it became to leave.
By uprooting that flower, Zhao Qian and his team had caused the dream-space to collapse and the system promptly sent them back to their original world.
Seeing that there was nothing more to do, Ye Jinran logged out as well.
The trip hadn’t been a waste, he had earned a handsome sum of points from those players. Pleased with the numbers on his balance, he leaned back on his sofa, planning to release a “Beginner’s Super Value Bundle” in the system shop next.
He tidied up the shelves, adjusted the featured banners according to his new marketing plan, then sprawled lazily across the couch.
His apartment was small and empty and since he’d only been away for two days, there wasn’t much dust. No need to clean.
With nothing better to do, he pulled out his phone to kill time.
He logged into the player forum, an app automatically installed by the Main God on every participant’s device. It didn’t take up any storage and couldn’t be deleted.
Ye Jinran had first entered the game as a player himself, so he had an account to access the forum. His username was “A Fish Without Dreams.”
The first time he’d joined a discussion there, he was amazed by how absurd some of the usernames were. Many players hadn’t realized they’d be stuck with their handles for life and now they regretted their choices deeply.
That was when Ye Jinran had a brilliant idea, he immediately added a “Username Change Card” to the system shop, priced the same as a monthly subscription and limited to one purchase per month.
The feature launched at the same time the shop reopened after maintenance and the news caused an uproar across the player community. People speculated that the long downtime had been for a major system upgrade and they rejoiced, thinking good days were coming.
And indeed, good days did come, just not for the players but for the capitalist behind the counter.
When the monthly pass appeared in the game, people began to sense something was off.
But many players were too busy celebrating their shiny new names to care. They felt reborn, leaving their old embarrassment behind. The outrage was quickly drowned out by a flood of cheerful posts.
That had been some time ago. Now, Ye Jinran logged in for another reason, to check on Zhao Qian.
He could easily view player data from the system, including real names and IDs, so finding them wasn’t difficult.
The item “The Flower Beyond the Fog” was a key to a high-difficulty dungeon series, automatically bound to the player with the highest contribution in the run.
Ye Jinran guessed that it had gone to Zhao Qian, or perhaps to Luo Xi, who had suffered the most losses.
Most of Luo Xi’s injuries had been because of him, though, so the system might not count them. Either way, they were a fixed team. It didn’t matter who held the key.
Zhao Qian’s username was “GaiShi123.” He had posted quite a few strategy guides on the forum and seemed well-connected with other teams.
They had just cleared the dungeon, so they probably hadn’t figured out how to use the item yet. They wouldn’t leak information or rush into the next challenge so soon.
Nothing unusual. Ye Jinran sighed and closed the forum.
Then a series of alerts flashed before his eyes.
“Bulk purchase detected, ”
“C-rank item: Binding Blast Device, sold out.”
“D-rank item: Power Burst Potion Alpha, sold out.”
“D-rank item: Agility Burst Potion Alpha, sold out.”
“Points credited: 387,500,000.”
“What the hell?!”
Ye Jinran shot upright from his lazy sprawl, sitting bolt straight.
The notification windows popped up in rapid succession, almost exploding in his face. Someone was buying up massive quantities of low-tier items, so fast that even the restock process couldn’t keep up.
The system eventually declared production capacity insufficient and temporarily shut down all purchase options.
Even obscure, unpopular items that hadn’t sold in ages were suddenly out of stock.
When Ye Jinran checked the order logs, he saw that every single purchase pointed back to the same buyer.
Player ID 008. Real name: Bai Yanzhou.
“Buddy,” Ye Jinran muttered, eyes narrowing, “are you running a wholesale business here?!”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
One tiny coffee. One very happy translator. ✦
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Blood Moon Town: ShhhChapter 2 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (1)Chapter 3 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (2)Chapter 4 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (3)Chapter 5 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (4)Chapter 6 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (7)Chapter 7 · The Mist of Nanjin Village (6)Chapter 8 · The mist over Nanjin Village (7)Chapter 9 · The Mystery of Nanjin Village (The End)Chapter 10 · Real WorldChapter 11 · Riding The Wind (1)Chapter 12 · Riding The Wind (2)Chapter 13 · Riding The Wind (3)Chapter 14 · Riding The Wind (4)Chapter 15 · Riding The Wind (5)Chapter 16 · Riding The Wind (6)Chapter 17 · Riding The Wind (7)Chapter 18 · Riding The Wind (8)Chapter 19 · Riding The Wind (9)Chapter 20 · Riding The Wind (10)Chapter 21 Part 1 · Riding The Wind (11)Chapter 21 Part 2 · Riding The Wind (11)Chapter 22 · Real World (1)Chapter 23 · Real World (2)Chapter 24 · Golden Sands Fade Away (1)Chapter 25 · Golden Sands Fade Away (2)Chapter 26 · Golden Sands Fade Away (3)Chapter 27 · Golden Sands Fade Away (4)Chapter 28 · Golden Sands Fade Away (5)Chapter 29 · Golden Sands Fade Away (6)Chapter 30 · Golden Sands Fade Away (7)Chapter 31 · Golden Sands Fade Away (8)Chapter 32 · Golden Sands Fade Away (9)Chapter 33 · Golden Sands Fade Away (10)Chapter 34 · Golden Sands Fade Away (11)Chapter 35 · Golden Sands Fade Away (12)Chapter 36 · Golden Sands Fade Away (13)Chapter 37 · Golden Sands Fade Away (14)Chapter 38 · Golden Sands Fade Away (15)Chapter 39 · Golden Sands Fade Away (16)Chapter 40 · Golden Sands Fade Away (17)Chapter 41 · Golden Sands Fade Away (18)Chapter 42 · Golden Sands Fade Away (19)Chapter 43 · Golden Sands Fade Away (20)Chapter 44 · Golden Sands Fade Away (21)Chapter 45 · Golden Sands Fade Away (22)Chapter 46 · Golden Sands Fade Away (23)Chapter 47 · Golden Sands Fade Away (24)Chapter 48 · Golden Sands Fade Away (25) The EndChapter 49 · Main God’s DomainChapter 50 · Anomaly Investigation Bureau (1)Chapter 51 · Anomaly Investigation Bureau (2)Chapter 52 · Item FactoryChapter 53 · Defrosted Friendship (1)Chapter 54 · Defrosted Friendship (2)Chapter 55 · Defrosted Friendship (3)Chapter 56 · Defrosted Friendship (4)Chapter 57 · Defrosted Friendship (5)Chapter 58 · Defrosted Friendship (6)Chapter 59 · Defrosted Friendship (7)Chapter 60 · Defrosted Friendship (8)Chapter 61 · Defrosted Friendship (9)Chapter 62 · Defrosted Friendship (10)Chapter 63 · Defrosted Friendship (11)Chapter 64 · Defrosted Friendship (12)Chapter 65 · Defrosted Friendship (13)Chapter 66 · Defrosted Friendship (14)Chapter 67 · Defrosted Friendship (15)Chapter 68 · Defrosted Friendship (16)Chapter 69 · Defrosted Friendship (End)Chapter 70 · The Real WorldChapter 71 · Matching TimeChapter 72 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (1)Chapter 73 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (2)Chapter 74 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (3)Chapter 75 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (4)Chapter 76 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (5)Chapter 77 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (6)Chapter 78 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (7)Chapter 79 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (8)Chapter 80 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (9)Chapter 81 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (10)Chapter 82 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (11)Chapter 83 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (12)Chapter 84 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (13)Chapter 85 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (14)Chapter 86 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (15)Chapter 87 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (16)Chapter 88 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (17)Chapter 89 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (18)Chapter 90 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (19)Chapter 91 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (20)Chapter 92 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (21)Chapter 93 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (22)Chapter 94 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (23)Chapter 95 · The Meaning of Endless Abundance (Complete)Chapter 96 · The Main God Invites You for TeaChapter 97 · The Player ForumChapter 98 · Training GroundChapter 99 · Eternal Night – The Stone-Striker (1)Chapter 100 · Eternal Night – The Stone-Striker (2)Chapter 101 · Eternal Night – The Stone-Striker (3)Chapter 102 · Eternal Night · The One Who Strikes the Stone (Finale)