"Yee... roar!"
"What the hell!"
Amid deafening cries of frenzied excitement, Deng Chun jolted awake. He practically sprang off the bed, only to be slammed stiffly back onto the boards by some kind of "inertia."
His body and consciousness seemed to still be trapped in that chaos. For a while, all he could do was stare wide-eyed at the damp, gloomy ceiling and walls, as if they would collapse the next second and bury him along with them in that blurry, absurd scene.
More than ten seconds passed, yet none of what he had imagined happened. His limbs and thoughts had somehow returned to normal... perhaps nothing had ever gone wrong in the first place.
Deng Chun lingered on the bed for a while longer, repeatedly flexing his fingers and toes and twisting his waist and spine. Only after confirming that there really was nothing wrong did he slowly sit up.
He was soaked in sweat. He had no idea how much had come from his recent exertion and how much he had brought back from the nightmare.
Deng Chun got out of bed and pulled open the curtains. The window faced the storage yard below Eagle Head Yard, offering an excellent view from above. Outside, however, the light was dim and the air heavy with moisture.
He checked his wristband again. It displayed August 17, 2097, at 4:43 a.m. It had only been a little over two hours since he had entered the Dream Game, and most people were still sleeping soundly.
Two hours had felt like a lifetime. Who could have imagined that inside the Dream World...
What had happened again?
Deng Chun's mind abruptly descended into chaos once more.
He did remember some things, mostly from before and after their group had gathered at the Long Tail