This Is Isolation, Isn't It?

Once Wushen had recovered, she clung to Yuan Ling and started crying.

She didn't care that she was still covered in blood that hadn't dried.

"All right, all right, it's okay. We're all here. Wushen, I need to change my clothes. I don't want to get yours dirty. Otherwise, if the dorm supervisor comes in, she'll think this is a crime scene." Yuan Ling soothingly patted Wushen's back and spoke to her in a soft voice.

"Are you feeling anything strange physically?" Zheng Wuyou took off her slippers, removed the cushion from Wushen's chair, stepped onto it, and gently patted Wushen's back too.

She was worried... about that news report she'd seen back then.

"I'm fine now. I must have made it out alive. I just got hurt a little in the dream. You probably won't believe me, but in the dream... I was almost killed by a mushroom!" Wushen's troubled face was full of disbelief. She didn't even know how to describe what had happened.

"...I believe you."

"I believe you!"

Zheng Wuyou and Yuan Ling answered one after the other, firmly. Wushen pushed Yuan Ling away and looked at them both in confusion.

Thinking they were just trying to comfort her, Wushen anxiously gestured in the air as she said, "I'm not joking! All my vitals are normal! It's just that someone forced me to swallow a poisonous mushroom in the dream! And that poisonous mushroom ate people!"

"Emmmm, I'm not joking either. I had a nightmare too. In the dream, I was forced to experience the thing I hate most: being the size of an ant. One careless step could get me crushed or smashed to death, or carried away."

Yuan Ling seemed to remember something soul-crushing and shuddered.

"Wait! What are you talking about? What have you three been doing behind my back? Is it some kind of game?" Gu Yunting had still been sleepy, but the moment she heard what they were discussing, she perked up. She felt like they were leaving her out. What were they talking about? She'd never heard any of this before.

They hadn't mentioned it to her earlier, either.

Zheng Wuyou guiltily turned to look at Gu Yunting's puzzled face, unsure how to explain what had happened.

But the only thing she could be sure of now was that Yuan Ling and Wushen had most likely become Dream Experience Officers, just like her—though they hadn't entered the same dream.

"It's nothing. We just had nightmares. It was probably because of what happened yesterday." Zheng Wuyou's words had a double meaning: she seemed to be explaining their conversation to Gu Yunting while also telling Yuan Ling and Wushen what had led them into the dream.

...Besides, they still didn't know what triggered the dreams, or whether this would happen just once or countless times. If they could avoid involving anyone else, they shouldn't tell Yunting yet.

"But... Wushen threw up so much... blood. Is she really okay?" Gu Yunting wasn't stupid. Wearing the blank, baffled expression of the Subway Elder, she looked even more confusedly at Wushen, who had let go of Yuan Ling.

Unable to explain, Yuan Ling chose to dodge Gu Yunting's question. She got out of bed and rummaged through her wardrobe for a change of clothes.

"Wushen, don't just sit there. Hurry and strip off the sheets and take them to the laundry!" Yuan Ling's voice was muffled by the rustling clothes.

"...You're making me feel like an outsider." Looking at the friends who'd been so close just yesterday, Gu Yunting felt a surge of anger and disappointment. After one night's sleep, they seemed like different people. She said it to them plainly.

Just because she hadn't been there yesterday, did she not even have the right to know what was going on? She'd only been worried about Wushen's health...

And Wushen's symptoms clearly called for urgent attention. What on earth were Zheng Wuyou and Yuan Ling playing at?

"If you won't tell me, I'll get the dorm supervisor to deal with Wushen throwing up blood." Gu Yunting raised her phone. The dial pad was already open and ready, its bright screen especially conspicuous in the dim light of early dawn.

"..."

"Wait, Old Gu, I know you're worried, but don't panic!" As soon as she said that, Yuan Ling lunged like a hungry tiger to snatch Gu Yunting's phone from the opposite bed. But from her lower position, she came up short.

"If you don't explain, I'm pressing the button!" Gu Yunting had expected Yuan Ling to try to grab the phone, so she'd dodged backward in advance, her right index finger pointed straight at the call button.

"Yunting... It's not that we won't explain. We haven't figured out what's going on ourselves, and we don't even know if the three of us experienced the same thing."

Hearing the weariness in Zheng Wuyou's voice, Gu Yunting fought off Yuan Ling with one leg while bracing herself against the wall with the other. "That still doesn't tell me anything..."

"All right, all right, stop messing around. Why don't we just lay it all out? I really am fine, Old Gu, so don't worry. We do need to talk this over... As for you, Old Gu, just think of it as listening to a story." After steadying her emotions and taking in the chaotic dorm room, Wushen rubbed her brow, unable to bear looking at her sheets and pajamas.

Zheng Wuyou lifted her wristwatch and checked the time. There was nearly an hour left before the eight o'clock wake-up bell. If they kept it brief, they should be able to finish in time. That dream had certainly given her the good habit of being punctual.

Wait...

"Woc!" Where had this watch come from? Zheng Wuyou stared at the watch that had somehow appeared on her wrist, unable to remember where it had come from.

She never wore a watch, much less one with such a complicated face.

"..." Looking closely, Zheng Wuyou understood: the watch's layout was exactly the same as the one in Zhu Family Village. This one just looked like the newer model, while the one in Zhu Family Village was an older version.

She helplessly raised her wrist and showed the watch to Yuan Ling and the others.

As expected, Yuan Ling's wrist, which was still waving in the air, had a watch on it too, though it was a different model.

Realizing something was wrong, Yuan Ling froze her hand in midair and stared blankly at the watch, as if her soul had been snatched away in an instant.

Then, coming to her senses, she shook her arm like a flailing-hand meme, trying to take the watch off. As she tugged at it, she muttered,

"What a cursed thing!"

"Hey, Old Gu, we couldn't be sure before, but... now we can." Wushen held up the watch on her own wrist. Almost simultaneously, all three of their phones chimed with a notification.

Virtual Operator 414:

"Congratulations, Dream Experience Officers. You have received your corresponding rewards. The rewards will take effect in your next dream. Please check the time carefully: your next dream will begin in seven days. Countdown Nightmare awaits your arrival."