Dream Plane?

Hao Ren sat ramrod straight across from Raven 12345, waiting for her to explain everything to him. To be honest, he had never expected her to tell him everything so readily. In his impression, Raven 12345 had been an extremely domineering woman who only ever talked about herself from the moment they met. That impression had been set in stone ever since the day she forcibly dragged him aboard her ship. But now that he thought about it... this woman didn't seem quite as heartless as he'd thought.

"The world is more complicated than you imagine." Raven 12345 sat directly on her desk without a shred of decorum, carrying herself like a **boss. "There are races you know nothing about, another society you know nothing about, and even another space you know nothing about. Most humans are completely unaware of them, but a tiny number of people with special talents can come into contact with that place. It's called the Dream Plane."

Hao Ren swallowed instinctively. The solemn expression on Raven 12345's face made him feel an invisible pressure.

"Of course, I only decided on the name Dream Plane recently. Before that, I called it the Illusory Space, then the Mirror World, the Phantom Universe... Hmm, I think I once called it the Second Realm, too." Raven 12345 scratched her hair, and all traces of solemnity vanished. "Anyway, it's a phenomenon unique to this universe. You can call it whatever you want. For now, let's stick with Dream Plane. I'll change it if I think of a better name in a couple of days."

Hao Ren had already gotten somewhat used to this strange woman's erratic rhythm. Enduring the urge to complain, he **asked, "So what exactly is the Dream Plane? A parallel space? I know about that theory..."

"No, it's a little more complicated than that." Raven 12345 shook her head. "The Dream Plane is a special information structure within this universe. It's somewhat like a parallel space, but more illusory and more unstable. The Dream Plane overlaps with this universe. The latter is real, stable, and orderly, while the Dream Plane is illusory, ever-changing, and lawless. When the real world operates normally according to the rules of the universe, the Dream Plane changes along with it like a dream following reality. However, the mapping between them is chaotic, so those changes are basically impossible to trace. You only need to listen to these theoretical details once. Most humans can't understand them. In short, you only need to know one thing: the Dream Plane is a place superimposed over the real world. It's extremely unstable, but almost never intersects with reality. It has mountains, rivers, plants, birds, and beasts, and may even contain Intelligent Life. But everything there is terribly chaotic. Until you have enough experience... you'd better not go near that place."

"Who'd want to touch that thing?" Hao Ren immediately hunched his neck. "I fell in and got mobbed by dozens of wolves not long after. They were at least twice as big as wolves on Earth! Didn't you say that thing called the Dream Plane doesn't intersect with the real world? Then how did I end up there?"

"I told you, people with special talents can come into contact with it." Raven 12345 pointed at Hao Ren's forehead. "Through dreams. This world exists in an Information State. Everything is a manifestation of information. Information such as hot and cold, size, and mass piles up to make an object describable and perceptible, and thus all things come into being. That's the most basic form of Information Unification Theory. Oh, the theory is actually much more complicated than that, but this much is enough for you. You only need to know that because of Information Unification Theory, things from the Dream Plane can be guided into the real world, with dreams serving as the medium. That's also why I recently started calling it the Dream Plane. Throughout human history, there have been people capable of connecting to the Dream Plane. Most of them lived very short lives, dying when they accidentally encountered the twisted things within it. But their brief lives brought endless trouble to the real world... the Black Death, floods, and certain... Hmm, very troublesome things. Everyone who dies in the Dream Plane brings some of its contents back with them, more or less, and eighty to ninety percent of those things are harmful to the real world."

Hao Ren broke out in a cold sweat. He had never imagined that the world he knew so well had such a side to it. Just a few days ago, he'd complained that the world was too boring and everyday life was too dull. Now he no longer felt that way at all. On the contrary, the world had suddenly become a little too exciting!

"So I count as someone with talent?" Hao Ren didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He could only point at his own nose with a strange expression. "You make the Dream Plane sound so ominous, like people could die if they're not careful... Then think of something to help me."

"Talent? You didn't originally have that talent." Raven 12345 grinned. "Don't get ahead of yourself. You're just an ordinary person. It's only that after coming into contact with me, you were affected by Information Perturbation Force. That influence can gradually make you different from ordinary people. The first change is that you'll find it easier to come into contact with unusual things, which will also make your future work more convenient. But you don't need to worry. The unlucky people who died in the Dream Plane had no one backing them. Not one of those miserable fellows in history was an employee of our Bureau. How long could they last on their own? You're different. You have credentials. This is Ordered Transmigration. I'll do my best to pull you out whenever you're about to die..."

Sweat trickled down Hao Ren's forehead. "..."

"Now you know what the Dream Plane is like, but I'm not sure how much you can understand based on words alone. You need to experience abstract things like this more often. Once the time is right, you'll have plenty of opportunities to visit that place." Raven 12345 jumped down from the desk and comfortingly patted Hao Ren on the shoulder, nearly driving him into the floor. "As for nightmares and the like, you haven't encountered any these past few days, have you? That means the balance between you and the Dream Plane has been restored. Under normal circumstances, an individual from the real world won't just randomly fall into a nightmare."

Hao Ren grimaced as he rubbed his shoulder. He finally remembered that there was something else he wanted to ask. "By the way, you know about Demon Hunters, right?"

From Vivian, Hao Ren had learned about the centuries-long grudges between Demon Hunters and the Others, as well as the historical ties between the Others and humanity: weak but vast in number, humans; powerful but rare and scattered, the Others; and Demon Hunters of unknown origin, standing between humans and the Others. These three had once been equally active players on the stage of Earth. But now humanity ruled the planet, the Others had been pushed to the extreme margins of society, to the point where ordinary people knew nothing about them, while Demon Hunters had gone into hiding within human society. The former three-way struggle had become a one-sided dominance by humanity. Under such circumstances, everything seemed peaceful—but Hao Ren knew that this peace was merely superficial, maintained through a tacit understanding between the Demon Hunters and the Others to preserve the world's outward stability.

Demon Hunters still roamed everywhere in this world. These powerful warriors who looked no different from humans were still hunting the Others to this day. And unfortunately, Hao Ren's home housed two members of the Others—two of the Others among the Others, to be precise. He desperately wanted to know what attitude this self-proclaimed goddess, Raven 12345, had toward the situation.

Or, to put it another way: how did the Xiling Pantheon and the Time-Space Administration Bureau view the various races on Earth? Which side were they actually on?

Hao Ren thought about it at length, but Raven 12345 merely waved a hand dismissively. "I know about them, but I can't be bothered to deal with them. They still haven't found you, have they? We'll talk about it when they do."

Hao Ren thought it over and decided he couldn't beat the White-Haired Demoness in front of him. He obediently sat back down, clasped his hands together, and put on a sincere expression. "Then I have one last question. I'm a frail Earthling, and you're asking me to deal with that bunch of superhumans. Vivian and Lily are easy enough to handle while their tempers are good, but what if I run into someone with a bad temper...? You have to give me some way to protect myself, right? How about it? Give me two hundred years of cultivation, maybe?"

Hao Ren was only saying it casually. He had never expected Raven 12345 to readily agree and then pass him a copy of the Tathagata Palm.

But Raven 12345 slapped her forehead. "Oh! If you hadn't said that, I would've forgotten! New employee onboarding enhancement! I knew I felt like I'd forgotten something... Luckily, I remembered before sending you to the battlefield!"

Hao Ren: "..."

If he ever died an unnatural death, it would definitely be because this useless, scatterbrained, screw-up of a boss had gotten him killed!