The room they appeared in this time was very bare, with only a few crooked, ordinary pieces of furniture.
In this black-and-white world, things sometimes seemed to shift out of place, letting them see right through them.
If she had to describe it, the place looked like the sort of pretend-play picture book most people drew when they were little.
Zheng Wuyou endured the aching in her eyes from the black and white and stared fixedly at the jarring, twisted words in color, afraid she might miss some new rule hidden in them if she blinked.
"Congratulations, everyone, on triggering the dream Sweet Dream."
"The rules for clearing Sweet Dream will appear in your palms shortly. We hope all you Dream Experience Officers will participate enthusiastically. The nightmare will begin in thirty minutes. Have fun!"
Unlike the NPC last time, whose gender had been hard to make out, this NPC had a childishly innocent voice that rang in everyone's ears, breaking the silence of the black-and-white world.
"What do you mean? What kind of dump is this?"
The dark-skinned man, who still hadn't figured out what was going on, stared in surprise at his body, which had been reduced to nothing but curves, making his eight-pack abs stand out in all their glory. He gave them a satisfied pat.
He almost thought he was dreaming. Getting to his feet, he slapped his own face.
"Hey, you were the first batch he mentioned, right? If you're hiding anything from us, you'll be sorry!"
The girl with wavy hair turned her gaze toward Zheng Wuyou, who was sitting on a white bench. She seemed to have gotten used to the strange scene and pointed across at her.
Her wavy hair looked even better in the black-and-white lines.
"Instead of wasting your breath, you should listen to what the NPC said. The NPCs who introduce a dream don't lie. If you get yourself killed in here, you don't need me to tell you what'll happen outside."
Yuan Ling still rolled her eyes at the girl, whom she couldn't bring herself to like. It just wasn't very noticeable in this black-or-white world.
Yuan Ling glared angrily at the conceited girl. From the moment she'd arrived, the girl had been at odds with her, always snapping back whenever Yuan Ling said anything.
So she certainly wasn't going to be nice to her.
Zheng Wuyou couldn't be bothered with the others. She spread out her palm, which looked transparent to her, and saw a line of black text appear against the white.
[Sweetness of Dreams—???]
Countdown: 00:29:01
She hadn't expected there to be no story or introduction this time, just those few simple words written in her palm.
There were even three question marks??
Did that mean these were extra rules?
Extra rules right from the start?
This was the first time Zheng Wuyou had encountered rules that began with a riddle, and she couldn't make heads or tails of them.
But Yuan Ling was the first to notice the fine lines creasing Zheng Wuyou's forehead. She came over and covered her palm.
"My dear Wuyou, stop looking. You won't find anything no matter how long you stare. My last dream was like this too, with no story at all. Now do you understand why I was so surprised when I heard about the detail from your last dream?"
When Zheng Wuyou still looked confused, Yuan Ling continued, gently explaining, "So all we can do now is wait. As the countdown continues, the key information will appear one piece at a time."
Yuan Ling pointed to the white wall, half of which was shaded in. The empty white surface gradually revealed the outline of a clock, as if someone were darkening it stroke by stroke with a pencil.
"Looks like this dream's going to be another desperate race against time."
Ben Yu, who was struggling to accept reality, walked toward Zheng Wuyou, shaking his head with a bitter smile. "So why was I dragged in here?"
He was clearly at a loss over being selected as an Experience Officer.
Zheng Wuyou didn't know how Ben Yu and Yun Ting had been chosen either.
Her earlier theory seemed to have been completely overturned.
She sighed softly and patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Don't dwell on it. Since you're already in here, just focus on staying alive for now."
Zheng Wuyou deliberately lowered her voice for the last sentence. She didn't want it to invite more unwarranted suspicion.
Nearby, Yuan Ling couldn't help bursting into laughter.
She looked at the people around her. Everyone's appearance had become very amusing.
They were all made of lines, like characters in a comic.
They could be viewed from any angle.
This unique visual experience was genuinely fascinating.
Zheng Wuyou slowly got to her feet. Her faded, milky-white sweater twisted with her movements, and the black lines on it shifted along with her.
There didn't seem to be any secrets in this dream.
Every emotion showed through the lines.
Every tiny expression was plain to see.
"I know you're all scared, and that some of you have concerns about being brought into this dream. But all I can tell you now is that if you want to survive, you have to finish the task before the countdown ends."
Seeing that five minutes had already passed, Zheng Wuyou knew they couldn't afford to waste any more time. Delaying in a dream was never a good idea. "This isn't a joke. The clock on the wall is counting down. Each of you should search one area. If you find anything suspicious, or anything that doesn't fit this world, tell us immediately!"
In Yuan Ling's previous dream, every rule had been extremely strict, pushing them nearly to their limits each time.
Even under those conditions, Yuan Ling had only been able to protect herself.
If this dream got off to a disastrous start and they suffered heavy losses, the challenges ahead would be even harder to face.
What's more... Zheng Wuyou knew people on this team—Yuan Ling and Ben Yu.
She knew she wasn't exactly a noble person, but she had to protect her companions, especially the people she was close to!
The elderly couple still hadn't figured out what was going on, but after hearing Zheng Wuyou say that,
they took the lead and began rummaging through the modestly sized room.
After all, when it came to hiding things, that was an instinct that only awakened with age.
The youth with lip piercing didn't sit idle either. He glanced down at the words in his palm, then up at the only moving object in this world—the clock on the wall.
Without a word, he started searching the area he was in.
In this black-or-white world, everything seemed to have been given a strange ability to be seen through. Only the black-and-white lines stood out clearly.
When they moved closer to inspect, it was hard to tell which part of the furniture the lines belonged to.
As a result, they inevitably bumped into things and fell over.
Zheng Wuyou in particular had already badly bruised her knees and elbows just by getting up and turning around to walk a few steps.
She'd lacked a sense of three-dimensional space since childhood, so learning solid geometry had been the biggest obstacle she'd ever overcome in math.
But now, solid geometry no longer held the title of her greatest challenge.
Of everyone there, the only one who could handle this environment with ease was Ben Yu, the artist.
Since opening his eyes and familiarizing himself with the scene, he had already committed a three-dimensional diagram of the shabby house to memory.
That meant he knew exactly where every line ran and where each boundary lay.
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