Qingmu knew the problem wasn't in the locker room. Dream scenes are three-dimensional landscapes created and reconstructed by the subconscious based on memories, while the conscious being itself can break free from dimensional constraints and construct spatial rules and understand spatial content in higher or lower dimensions. Qingmu gained a deeper understanding of this by entering the dream of the mechanical consciousness " Ghost."
After Zhao Pengcheng's Mental Power weakened, the dream space was on the verge of collapse. It was Qingmu who used his Mental Power to support the space.
At this moment, Qingmu's Mental Power easily reached the edge of this dream. At first, he felt that the dream was no different from ordinary people's dreams, but he soon discovered that there was a gap in space in the direction of the changing room.
In a typical three-dimensional sense, space is a sphere centered on the conscious mind. However, in dreams, space is superimposed; many events and scenes occur simultaneously. Therefore, dreams are more like rolling up three-dimensional space, creating a scroll. But even this is too orderly, because when we reconstruct our dreams upon waking, the sequence is rearranged, making our dreams appear to unfold along a single timeline. In reality, a true dream is more like a ball of yarn.
The length of the yarn represents time, and the texture of the yarn's surface represents the three-dimensional scene we inhabit. When the yarn wraps around a sphere, many three-dimensional textures are superimposed. When you seamlessly transition to another three-dimensional world, your timeline may have moved forward or backward a great distance. In terms of time, this is a disordered world, but this disorder is arranged in a special, tight order, forming a complex world.
When we wake up from a dream, because our conscious mind can only understand the three-dimensional world, we unfold the ball of yarn and straighten the yarn, which is equivalent to rearranging all the scenes.
But the ball of yarn is too messy, so we often can only remember part of the scene, or even nothing at all, because the human brain will actively classify this chaotic information as invalid memory. This is an instinct formed in the long process of evolution - the brain classifies memories that are not of use to people together and buries them like garbage.
A gap in three-dimensional space is very obvious. For example, a cardboard box with a missing corner or a hole can be easily seen with the naked eye. However, a gap in four-dimensional or more-dimensional space is not easy to detect. It's like a piece of yarn that is broken; you can see it, but when it's wound into a ball, you can't see it, and it still looks like a tight, complete ball of yarn.
Zhao Pengcheng's dream was fine on a three-dimensional scale. When Qingmu used his Mental Power to fully sense the entire ball of yarn, he didn't find anything. But when he unfolded the ball of yarn, the problem arose.
Long strands of yarn were pulled from the sphere, and dream scenes, one after another, tangled around the yarn, before suddenly getting stuck somewhere. Of course, this is normal; we often find ourselves unable to untangle a tangled headphone cord from our pocket, let alone a long, messy ball of spatial scenes and a book-timeline.
But Qingmu noticed that the stuck spot was unusual. There was a strange knot there, not naturally formed, but man-made. When he untied the knot, a gap appeared—the thread of time had broken, with a small section missing in the middle.
Of course, the line of time doesn't fall down because it's broken, because there's nowhere for it to fall. It just reveals a gap, and after that gap, it continues to follow its own rules.
As Qingmu meticulously unraveled Zhao Pengcheng's dream, Zhao Pengcheng was still peering towards the operating room. Qingmu could now clearly see that Zhao Pengcheng's consciousness corresponded to the gap in time that had fractured.
"What are you waiting for?" Qingmu asked.
Zhao Pengcheng saw Qingmu give a strange smile and had a bad feeling.
"It's nothing," he said.
Qingmu stopped talking to him and walked straight towards the locker room.
"What are you going to do?" Zhao Pengcheng asked.
Without turning back, Qingmu pushed open the locker room door.
The door swayed back and forth twice. Behind the door should have been a small room with a wardrobe, a bench, and a sink. But now all of that was gone, leaving only darkness.
This is the gap that Qingmu discovered.
Qingmu turned to look at Zhao Pengcheng and said, "If I asked you now what this is, you definitely wouldn't tell me, but I guess this is your special communication channel."
Zhao Pengcheng remained silent.
Qingmu chuckled, "You've been looking this way the whole time, what are you hoping for?"
Zhao Pengcheng remained silent.
Qingmu ignored him, seemingly talking to himself, "A gap in the dream... How interesting! A dream is a complete space, but what's outside of that space? Nothing." He then shook his head, "Space doesn't have gaps for no reason! Unless... there was something here before. Let me guess... what was it? Hmm... could it be a passage connecting to another... dream?"
Zhao Pengcheng could no longer remain silent. He looked up at Qingmu in horror, his chest heaving violently.
"Did I guess right?" Qingmu said with a grin. "Oh, I think I guessed right."
"You have your own way of connecting dreams, reaching another person's dream, or the place where you gather. It's a bit like... Group Dream Realm." Qingmu recalled the cave in Southern Yunnan, a perfect combination of Group Dream and Real-Scene Dream. "However, your dreams aren't truly connected; they're connected through a special channel. Were these channels created by your special abilities, or did they already exist and you just happened to utilize them?"
Qingmu glanced at Zhao Pengcheng. "What I'm more interested in is, whose dream is that over there? Ronald Cohen?"
"You wouldn't know," Zhao Pengcheng said.
Qingmu said, "Really? What if I go over and take a look?"
Zhao Pengcheng showed a hint of panic, but quickly regained his composure. "Don't dream about it, this passage is sealed off, you can't get through."
"Closed?" Qingmu stood at the locker room door, looking into the deep darkness behind it. "Even if it's closed, it can definitely be opened again, otherwise what were you expecting just now?"
Zhao Pengcheng opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing, remaining silent once again.
Qingmu decided to take the risk, even though there was an unknown world behind the door, it was a risk worth taking.
He stepped into the darkness, and before him appeared a long, dark corridor that stretched endlessly forward, its destination unknown.
Zhao Pengcheng watched Qingmu walk in, and the operating room door slammed shut. He tried to move his body; although weak, he could move freely. He breathed a sigh of relief, walked to the operating room door, and nervously pushed it open. Behind the door was a row of neat wardrobes, and next to it was a bench.
He went inside and washed his hands at the sink in the corner. There was hand sanitizer next to the sink, and a mirror on the wall.
Zhao Pengcheng looked at himself in the mirror and couldn't help but laugh, "Who said I can't fool you? Oh right, I didn't lie to you. I really am looking forward to it, looking forward to you discovering it, looking forward to you stepping inside! Hahaha..."
His laughter grew louder and sharper.