That being said, it was already getting late. Lin Yilin had gone home after work, while Zheng Fan was preparing to embark on his grand sleeping endeavor.
He played with the Three Little Ones for a while, and when night fell, Zheng Fan immediately grabbed the quilt that was running around.
“Whether we succeed tonight depends on you. Do your best,” Zheng Fan patted the quilt, comforting it.
The quilt gently twitched, likely nodding.
Zheng Fan transformed, his unchanging black clothes turning into a light, thin pajama with a black background and starry sky pattern. As he draped the quilt over himself, he immediately felt a familiar wave of drowsiness wash over him.
Although he could easily shake it off, there was no need.
Allowing the sleepiness to consume his consciousness, Zheng Fan lay down on the sofa, not minding the heat, and rolled over, wrapping himself up like a chicken roll.
“Toast, Lu Lu Shoes, goodnight~” After sweetly uttering that, he completely let go and sank into sleep.
Then.
Panic unfolded…
He transferred a portion of his nascent panic ability into his dream. However, even with some dream manipulation achieved through his connection with Lin Yilin, it was still like a blind man touching an elephant, molding clay in complete darkness.
Even though Zheng Fan felt his skill was already superb, the final result was not pleasing.
He did create a dream, but infinite horror turned into infinite comedy, with all the NPCs being Zheng Fan himself, repeating “warmth, twitching” in a bizarre, Cruel way.
It even left Binary Little Sister speechless.
Zheng Fan pondered whether that barrier was due to a complete lack of ability, or if it was because he was in reality while the anchor point of the dream was elsewhere?
Dreams are mysterious. In this world where even a thought can summon an Illusion from another world, complex dreams naturally cannot exist peacefully.
Lin Yilin once said that people in Dadu could gain inspiration from other worlds, and this inspiration often appeared when their consciousness was in a chaotic state.
Actions that temporarily “lose control” of one's consciousness, such as drunkenness or dreaming, could all touch upon this layer of inspiration.
In other words, dreams could indeed become a wonderful medium.
Lin Yilin also said that in certain unconfirmed mysterious studies in Dadu, it was claimed that dreams are a channel for human consciousness to transcend reality.
Through dreams, even ordinary people can transcend mundane reality and glimpse the colors of multiple worlds in deep dreams.
How wonderful.
Zheng Fan really wanted to try, but before he got this quilt, as an Illusion, he couldn't sleep or dream.
He could gradually control people's consciousness, and one day might even manipulate the presentation of people's dreams, but he himself might only be like a player in front of a computer screen, watching the characters inside move without being able to do anything.
But now, he had a way to prove it.
Sleeping was not just for the sake of sleeping, but one thing Zheng Fan had to admit was that sleeping was indeed one of his favorite things to do.
Only when his consciousness quietly sank into darkness could his unconscious self feel his existence in nothingness.
Now it was up to him to prove—
Can an Illusion dream of a Black Goat?
…
He couldn't tell if his consciousness was rising or sinking, but what was certain was a very strong sense of accelerating displacement.
Zheng Fan saw himself, a very ordinary and normal self. Although his appearance was no different from usual, Zheng Fan's heart was telling him that was his true self, his human self.
His human self seemed to be submerged in black seawater.
Large areas of burn marks, his body torn into pieces, fragments flying in this black ocean, the scene frozen at that moment.
It seemed his final fireworks had been set off.
Unfortunately, he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, only able to infer it by accidentally glimpsing his human self.
And now, this broken person, his body was being covered by blackness.
The darkness was alive, the world was alive, unseen gazes watched Zheng Fan, sticking themselves to Zheng Fan's body, using themselves to refill those body fragments.
Zheng Fan watched his human self, trying to get closer, but found his body unable to move smoothly, just like in a dream.
This feeling was not very comfortable.
Suddenly, an inexplicable summons made him look up, unable to distinguish whether he was looking at the sky or the ground, perhaps it didn't matter in this place anyway.
He was just sure he had seen something.
Meeting the gaze of that chaotic, void-like vision.
It was a black vortex encompassing everything, extending its tendrils into all worlds of different colors, dyeing them a uniform black.
From its body, a large number of black “water droplets” trickled down. The moment they were illuminated by the light of other worlds, they were given different forms, then followed the tendrils to a place shrouded in hazy white.
Who was it?
What was it?
Its form was distorted, abstract, difficult to describe concretely, with thousands of pieces of information brewing in every “water droplet.” Without the processing of other colors, the chaos within seemed to throw one into the vacuum of the universe, burning away all thought, witnessing pure truth.
Zheng Fan stared at it blankly.
The darkness wriggled in his gray pupils, appearing after the vortex, in another form he imagined.
A slimy and twisted “Black Goat.”
Just as he thought.
Zheng Fan dreamed of himself.
Bang!
The sound of shattering glass suddenly rang out, and everything before him quickly receded. Zheng Fan left this bizarre black dream anchor point, then shuttled back and forth through countless colorful worlds.
During this process, he became increasingly clear-headed.
The scenes before him also became increasingly concrete.
At this moment, the splendor of the multi-worlds that Lin Yilin had once described to him was fully visible.
The kaleidoscope of colors, in every sense of the word, quickly stirred Zheng Fan's desire to go there. He could understand why Lin Yilin's eyes had shone so brightly when she told him about it.
But…
He couldn't get through.
Although he seemed to have recovered from the daze of just dreaming, that feeling of powerlessness had not ended.
He should be sleeping and dreaming now, and he didn't know if he could dream so smoothly next time, so Zheng Fan didn't plan to just wake up and end it.
He had to do something…
He reached out, and with a thought, multiple singularities appeared around him, orbiting him like stars, though each was pitch black.
It was time to rely on effort and sweat again.
Using the singularities, Zheng Fan tried to use dreams to travel through these worlds before him.
However, the consumption rate of the singularities was unprecedentedly fast. Zheng Fan's current stock was instantly burnt through by more than half, and it was still rapidly decreasing.
Even so, nothing seemed to have changed before him.
Why was it still playing tricks on him?
Just as Zheng Fan was thinking this, intending to stop directly to avoid being held hostage by sunk costs, he had a subtle sensation.
His gaze shifted, and he found a Black World.
It wasn't quite what he wanted, but it wasn't impossible either.
After a slight hesitation.
“Let's try.”
He directly traveled towards that world. And this time, the sluggishness and powerlessness were gone. He moved very smoothly, and after a strong feeling of falling, he landed within it.