Land Players

In just a few minutes, Ke Meng built a brand-new landmass for the players, complete with enormous snowy mountains, long rivers spanning the land, vast forests, and harmless animals. The only thing missing was cities.

There were already cities of steel and concrete inside the Great Whale. Ke Meng wanted to see a different style of city.

If the players were given the ability to build, what kind of cities would they create?

Ke Meng was eager to find out, but he had no good ideas yet about how to put his plan into practice.

His Dream Distortion ability hit a wall at this step, unable to fulfill Great Cthulhu's wishes.

His requirements were too vague and nebulous, and the steps needed to realize his idea were not concrete enough. It would take far greater mental power to support them.

Ke Meng set the matter aside for now. He left the dream world and observed it covertly through Synesthesia.

To draw a comparison, Dream Invasion was like going to a stadium to watch a match in person, while Synesthesia was like watching a livestream of the match on a computer at home. This method would not adversely affect them.

The players inside the whale's belly still had no idea that a continent had appeared on the sea. They continued cautiously exploring the map, trying to find the key item that would unravel the dream.

The player White Milk looked up at the sky. The profusion of blood vessels overhead was as thick as tree roots, pulsing and contracting sharply. Bright white points of light drifted through them, providing illumination.

That strange tightness in her chest had disappeared, but for some reason, her intuition told her that something had changed outside.

No one knew how to get out yet, but everyone knew of a backup method.

If they killed themselves, they would most likely respawn on the surface of the sea. Even then, however, they could not escape being swallowed back into the Great Whale's belly.

This group of Orange Star People had watched the news and read the reports released by the Research Bureau. They knew that the Great Whale liked to swallow castaways on the surface of the sea, sending humans into its belly.

Inside the Great Whale's belly lay the cities left behind by the Ancient Ancestors, which might contain the key to unraveling the dream.

The Orange Star People answered the call and wandered through the Great Whale's body, searching for dream-unraveling objects that might not even exist.

Meanwhile, new dreamers began entering the dream world on the continent.

They did not fall into the sea. They spawned directly on land.

The dense forest shaded them from the blazing sun. Blue Lantern Flowers bloomed everywhere, and drifting Glowworms filled the woods.

"Where are we?"

"Am I playing a game? But I didn't log into a Game Pod."

"Wasn't I sleeping in a game earlier?"

The three stood bewildered, unsure what had happened.

Suddenly, a tired voice with a slightly resonant tone came from the woods. "This isn't a game. It's the nightmare world. By the way, my friend, you've got guts, sleeping without a Game Pod. How many hours were you planning to sleep?"

"Who's there?" the three Orange Star People shouted, turning toward the voice.

A man wearing a Black Warlock Robe stepped out from behind a giant tree. Wright spread his hands. "I'm a player trapped in this nightmare, just like you. But I set mine to wake me after three hours."

Everyone was shocked by what the man in the black warlock robe said.

"This is the nightmare world? Then where's the blue sea?" the player Ke Molo asked, keeping her soft, childlike voice low.

She wore heavy armor, with a sword at her waist and a helmet covering her face. Her appearance did not match her voice. Beneath that armor was probably a very young girl.

She looked around but saw no sea at all.

"There was a sea before, but things are different now. It's turned into land." Wright looked somewhat haggard. He still had not emerged from the shadow of death and would need a long time to recover. Even his voice lacked its former strength.

Before long, more humans spawned nearby.

At that point, the three players began to believe Wright. This had to be the nightmare world; otherwise, there was no reason for everyone to gather in the same space.

There was no Game Pod system here, no exit button. Everything was just like real life.

"Listen, we don't know what's going on, and I don't know whether it's dangerous here. For now, make yourselves some simple weapons and hold out until you wake up. Once you're back in reality, check the Research Bureau's news and see what the experts say," Wright said.

Despite his haggard appearance, this well-spoken fellow's advice seemed quite reasonable.

Everyone settled down and followed his suggestion, making simple weapons to defend themselves. Everything else could wait. They would be able to return once they woke up anyway.

During this time, people continued appearing in the forest. They were all new arrivals to the dream and knew little about the situation.

The female player Ke Molo planted her sword in the ground. She kept her helmet on, and every so often, someone glanced at her heavy armor.

She sat on the ground with her legs forming an inverted V, hugging them with both arms.

"Hi, can I ask you something? Where did you get that equipment?" a man in a T-shirt asked curiously.

Ke Molo drew her legs in a little, like a startled rabbit.

Only after two seconds did she reply. "I was sleeping in a fantasy game earlier, and when I fell asleep, I ended up here. The equipment came from there too."

The man in the T-shirt blurted out, "Holy shit! You can bring game equipment here?"

"You can. The warlock robe I was wearing in the game came with me too," Wright added.

"Do the equipment's stat bonuses still work?" the man in the T-shirt quickly asked.

The man in the T-shirt had a high-end account in the virtual game Cultivation, decked out in impressive gear. If he could bring it here, wouldn't he be able to soar through the skies and burrow through the earth?

"I don't know." Wright shook his head.

The girl in heavy knight's armor shook her head too. She had not even tested it. "I don't know either."

"If you don't know, test it. It's not like it'll take much effort." The man in the T-shirt urged the two to fight.

They had nothing else to do anyway. After hesitating for a while, the two decided to test their equipment's stats.

The girl in heavy knight's armor swung her longsword sideways at a tree. The blade sank ten centimeters into the wood.

"The stats aren't right," Ke Molo said quietly.

"What's wrong?"

"In the original game, cutting down trees with a blade was easy," Ke Molo said.

Off to the side, Wright put his fingers to his mouth and whistled.

Several seconds passed. There were no unusual sounds, and nothing happened.

"My warlock robe can summon an eagle, but no eagle flew over here. My guess is that the equipment's built-in skills and stats didn't carry over," Wright said, shaking his head.

The man in the T-shirt could not help feeling disappointed by that result.

How exciting it would have been if they could bring those over. Unfortunately, the dream would not allow it.

The heavily armored knight girl also felt disappointed. It was a shame that none of this equipment had any stats.

Wright did not dwell on the matter. He turned to the people in the forest and said, "Quiet down, everyone. If you've set a short wake-up timer, let me know. When you leave, take the information I have to the institute."

Wright was the first person to witness the accelerated transformation of the desert on land. What he knew was extremely important and had to be reported to the institute as soon as possible.

"I set mine to wake me after twenty minutes," Ke Molo said, timidly raising her hand.

Eighteen minutes later.

The Orange Star Research Institute updated its information. From the player Ke Molo, they learned that the dream world had undergone a drastic change: the sea had turned into land.

Researchers around the globe tore their hair out. They had yet to figure out how Nightmare Disease spread, and now the dream world had undergone another massive change. It was a disaster.

On the projection screen, a line of vivid red text kept ticking upward.

Previously, it had shown over 100,000 victims. By late that night, it had been updated to 980,000.

And those 980,000 were only the people who had woken from their dreams.

The nightmare patients who were still dreaming, already afflicted, had not yet been entered into the statistical system.