The Forest

The school had an organization like Paradise Society backing it, which meant it was far from simple.

"Let's sleep. Tomorrow during the day, I'll have the clones rent a few more places."

The house was gradually becoming too cramped. Even sleeping meant squeezing together now. If she had some strange dream at night, she might end up doing something absurd.

What she feared was losing control and making a move on herself.

She stuck out her tongue and noticed the group chat messages in her social media account.

Lovely Wolf (Chen Ning): "Everyone, I seem to have come across some information."

Lan Xinyu: "What information? What information?"

Lovely Wolf (Chen Ning): "It's about dungeon spaces, not the Main World. I learned that recently, the chances of entering dungeon spaces have been getting lower and lower. Some people haven't entered a dungeon for many consecutive attempts and have instead all gone to the Main World."

Lan Xinyu: "Ah... isn't that a good thing?"

Lovely Wolf (Chen Ning): "Normally, it is. But that also means the Exchange Points earned in dungeons become useless. You have to know that everything exchanged with those points can be brought into the real world, while only abilities can be brought out of the Main World."

Lan Xinyu: "The death rate in dungeons is too high. I still prefer the Main World."

Lovely Wolf (Chen Ning): "There's another issue, concerning the Second Era."

Lan Xinyu: "The Second Era?"

Lovely Wolf (Chen Ning): "You should know that our age has gone through many eras, including the First Era, the Lost Era. The Second Era, the Magic Era. The Third Era, the Godless Era. And the Fourth Era. The current age belongs to the Fifth Era, but there are still some magic-related items around. Those powers clearly belong to the Second Era. Even if such inheritances exist in reality, there aren't many of them. Yet many people have encountered civilizations where magic flourished, both in the Main World and in dungeon spaces."

Lan Xinyu: "Magic should be different from the supernatural abilities of our era, right?"

Lovely Wolf (Chen Ning): "Yeah, and that's what's strange. Magic is contaminated for us. But in those other worlds people have encountered, anything related to magic seems to have no side effects on the native creatures. Don't you find that strange?"

Forest

The conversation ended there.

When Ye Qian saw their discussion, she suddenly remembered the explosive ring she had on her.

"This seems to be a magic item."

After thinking about it, she chose not to join the exchange between the two teammates.

However, scrolling further back through the chat history showed that Chen Ning had complained about other-world dungeons more than once.

He had even speculated that there was a specific way to enter those dungeon worlds from reality.

"What he said isn't wrong. There really is a way to enter other worlds, but it requires dreams." Ye Qian grumbled, silently setting down the phone in her hand.

Speaking of dungeons, she herself was indeed quite curious about them.

Especially the realm of dreams. By all rights, it should have been illusory, so why did it seem so real in practice?

"Let's give it a try."

With that curiosity in mind, her main body considered closing her eyes and taking a look in her dreams.

Perhaps because she had fought a lot today and was a little tired, Ye Qian had already fallen asleep within minutes of closing her eyes.

The white-haired clone, Vier, immediately tugged on the Mystic Thread and entered her dream.

"Here we are."

The two girls met on a land of lava.

Two cats were mating on the lava.

"Fuck, why am I having this kind of dream?"

Vier muttered speechlessly. Without dwelling on it, she flew directly into the distance.

Yes, this was how she could enter other worlds.

Most importantly, she needed to test an idea.

Her body left the bubble containing her main body and arrived in the vicinity of the endless Bubble World.

At first, she tried to search for the Colored Bubble she had seen last time, but Vier quickly discovered that the target had vanished.

She floated silently in the void for a while and observed carefully. Before long, she understood: all the bubbles were moving.

"So that's it. Its position changed?"

Like stars in the universe, the countless bubbles formed from dreams and unknown worlds had assembled into a mysterious starry sky, continuously operating according to its own rules.

Vier changed direction and quickly found another Colored Bubble nearby. Without another word, she immediately approached her destination.

After what felt like more than ten minutes, she arrived before the target. She pressed both hands against the edge of the Colored Bubble, then slowly entered it.

At the instant she completely merged into it, Vier made a decision.

She would connect with her body in reality.

It might be a risky move, but it could also yield unexpected gains.

With a thought, an intense sense of connection came almost instantly.

"Mm, wait, why does it feel like I can connect in reverse?"

Realizing this, she immediately stopped, a trace of surprise flashing through her eyes.

Reverse connection meant that not only could she leave this world within the dream, she could also pull her real body here.

"Isn't this an illusion?"

Didn't that mean she could use her own will to actively enter other worlds?

According to Chen Ning, all those dungeons likely represented real worlds... If that was true, it obviously meant she could obtain Life Energy here.

"If I can get Life Energy here, won't I be able to increase my strength and proliferate faster?"

With the intention of trying it out, Vier took a deep breath and prepared to summon her body.

A few seconds later...

Her dream body gained substance.

For a moment, the world spun around her. By the time she came back to her senses, she was already standing on unfamiliar ground.

A forest filled her vision.

Verdant trees packed the entire field of view. Faint insect chirps reached her ears, and sunlight filtered through layers of green leaves, casting dappled shadows across the ground.

Vier raised her arm.

Slender and snow-white.

She wore a white top and skirt, while her legs were wrapped in thin white stockings.

Long silver-white hair fell beside her ears.

"It really is me."

She was certain that she stood on solid, tangible ground.

And at that instant, her connection to her other bodies had indeed grown more distant, while time had also become different.

A long time passed here while only a brief moment passed in reality.

"But where is this?"

Ye Xin stood there curiously.

Taking half a step back and lowering her head, she discovered a pattern resembling a magic circle beneath her feet.

"Come to think of it, when I pulled my body over earlier, I sensed a repulsive force, as if this world was rejecting my entry. But... there was one spot where it didn't. That was where I came in."

Was that spot on the magic circle?

She started walking forward.

Her shoes crunched over dry yellow leaves, while similar leaves occasionally drifted down from above.

"It feels romantic."

She stretched out her hand, and a leaf drifted into Vier's palm.

A gust of wind blew by, making her silver-white hair flutter.

Vier walked forward for some distance and soon came upon a river.

The river was fairly clear. When she approached it and leaned over, she immediately saw a girl beautiful enough to make fish sink and birds fall.

"Honestly, this appearance is pretty dangerous too."

Most worlds were not safe, otherwise they would not have been designated as dungeon target locations and had people sent there to carry out missions.

She followed the stream upstream. Before long, an unfamiliar building appeared in her sight.

The structure was enormous, but exceptionally dilapidated. It looked like a temple overall, long neglected, with severely weathered outer walls.

Vier walked in curiously while carefully observing her surroundings.

Just then, a loud roar suddenly rang out from the distance.

Her heart jolted. She hurried behind a pillar and cautiously peered outside.

Before long, a girl wearing a loose blue robe and holding a gemstone staff appeared in her view.

After the other girl ran breathlessly to the front of the great hall, she immediately spotted the white-haired girl hiding behind the pillar.

"You are..."

The blue-haired girl froze for a moment, then revealed an odd expression. "A human... girl? Why are you here?"

Even Vier herself did not know how to answer.

"Huff, forget it. Leave this place quickly. It's dangerous nearby. A disaster demon is chasing me."

Without wasting words, the girl actually ran over, grabbed Vier's hand, and dragged her away.

"Huh?"

Without giving her any chance to speak, she dragged Vier along as they sprinted toward the upper reaches of the river.

Not long after, bizarre sounds came from behind them. Looking back, Vier saw lion-like creatures twice the normal size, with vicious fangs and blood-red fur covering their bodies, chasing after them from the distance.

"Wall of Repelling Light!"

The blue-haired girl hurriedly spun around, raised the staff in her hand, and fiercely swung it forward.

A powerful white light burst out. The two monsters charging at the front immediately let out pained howls, their entire bodies flung several meters away as they rolled across the ground several times.

"Go!"

After casting that move, she continued dragging Vier along at a sprint.

They ran for several minutes, but the number of monsters only kept increasing.

"Huff, huff."

Although her physical constitution was stronger than that of an ordinary person, Vier was still somewhat out of breath after sprinting at full speed for so long.

As several monsters closed in from both sides, the blue-haired girl raised her staff again and softly chanted, "Rain of Ice Spikes."

Long, slender ice spikes suddenly formed in midair and shot down from the sky.

Several Calamity Beasts were immediately struck and let out agonized wails.

But two of them still leaped forward and charged close.

"It's over."

Just as the blue-haired girl fell into despair, Vier stepped forward and viciously swung her fist.

Super Strength.

Bang!

As if struck brutally by an Iron Hammer, the creature's head cracked apart before the blue-haired girl's astonished gaze. Its entire body slammed fiercely into the ground under the terrifying force.

Another monster attacked from the left, but guided by Danger Perception, Vier merely shifted sideways and dodged it.

Then she lifted her leg, sending the Calamity Beast tumbling away as though it had been hit by a car before it smashed heavily into a distant tree.

The remaining monsters immediately dared not charge forward. They all stopped in their tracks.