Zheng Fan woke up to find his “chicken roll” had come undone.
It seemed his sleeping posture was still terrible, even after he had changed into this form.
He threw off the quilt, but the quilt's reaction seemed a beat slow, as if when it covered someone, and that person fell asleep, the quilt itself would also fall asleep. Its sleep synchronized with the covered target, striving to sense user needs at the first moment.
But perhaps Zheng Fan was special, so the quilt couldn't keep up.
After the quilt woke up, it waved one of its corners at Zheng Fan, as if greeting him.
Zheng Fan glanced at the gradually brightening sky outside and responded, “Good morning.”
In the early hours, before dawn, wrapped in a quilt, putting on shoes, and walking Toast.
…
“So, did Illusion dream of the Black Goat?”
In the morning, after Lin Yilin arrived at the office, she curiously asked Zheng Fan about his sleeping experience last night.
“I did. It was huge, and it looked just like me.”
At this moment, in the office living room, a Black Goat was aimlessly strolling around. This was truly just a Black Goat; there was no tree-like skin, strange tentacles, or a gaping maw filled with interlocked fangs.
“I can't imagine it,” Lin Yilin said, frowning slightly as she listened to Zheng Fan's description.
“It's good that you can't imagine it. That scene was very abstract, with a touch of stream of consciousness, just like being in a dream.”
“Isn't Illusion dreaming?”
“That's true.”
Zheng Fan shook his goat head. “All these things are fine. I'm not interested in the mystery of my current birth. Even if I'm just a single hair that fell from a monster like that Black Goat, and I'm destined to return to that black ocean, I don't care.”
“Why not? If everything you have now is taken away, it's usually very difficult to accept, isn't it?”
“I've already set off fireworks. On my side, no one could survive an explosion of that magnitude. I don't think dying and coming back to life here is a 'second new life' worth cherishing. Although at first I didn't understand the situation and didn't want to end things haphazardly, in the end, I just considered it a freebie.” Zheng Fan didn't care, the Black Goat chewed on something unknown.
Lin Yilin fell silent, staring intently at Zheng Fan.
Zheng Fan turned his head and said, “But then again, it seems I can wander freely in my dreams. Like going to other worlds, and then meeting a girl there who's a little younger than you…”
“Regularly numbered Unit Three?” Lin Yilin immediately collected her thoughts, her gaze slightly narrowed.
“Just a reserve. I haven't gotten on her yet.” Zheng Fan twitched the goat's lips.
“Mm.” Lin Yilin's reaction was very calm.
“It's no fun when no one complains or curses when I make a dirty joke,” Zheng Fan said, bored.
“Mm. So what kind of world was it over there? And what's the situation with the Unit Three reserve? Perhaps I can offer Illusion some advice.” Lin Yilin habitually rested her chin on her clasped hands. It felt like the evil Binary Little Sister was online.
And in the end, she still didn't give any feedback!
Zheng Fan could only continue with the main topic: “Somewhere deep in the Black World, there's a human settlement and a town that looks very harmonious at first glance. There's a lighthouse in the town, which should have a protective function. It's a bit like the lights the Processing Bureau turned on back on June 31st.”
Lin Yilin's eyes turned to the ceiling, and she mused for a moment.
“It should be somewhere in the Black Suburbs. If there's a white lighthouse, it's probably a more advanced area.”
“Ah? That town is considered relatively advanced?” Zheng Fan was puzzled.
“Black Suburbs settlements need to limit their population. More people mean more trouble, which isn't conducive to exploring the Black Suburbs. After all, that place constantly encounters true physical Illusions. To be able to form a town-sized settlement, that truly counts as advanced.”
“What's so great about exploring that rotten place?” Zheng Fan asked.
Although the environment didn't seem to have major problems, with the Black Sun and those Illusions, most people probably couldn't sleep soundly.
“The benefits involved are huge. Unstable Fantasy Factors cannot be widely used, and the Processing Bureau's numerous subordinates can't always rely on those standardized weapons to deal with the scraps that slip through, can they?”
“That kind of place can stably yield Fantasy Factors?” Zheng Fan understood.
“Yes, it's like mining. According to statistics that have no guarantees, the Black Suburbs supplies over seventy percent of the Fantasy Factors used by Dadu. If no one risked their lives to mine in such a dangerous place, Dadu's power couldn't accumulate to be so strong.”
Zheng Fan nodded his goat head and then asked, “What about the lighthouse?”
“It's a method of using artificially created substances similar to Pure White Factor to emit light and maintain the boundary between White and Black Worlds. It's the same principle as the white lights seen at the Processing Bureau before. But those lights are just distributed scraps; the lighthouse is a more pure source created by some means. But I don't know the specifics of its interior.” Lin Yilin shook her head slightly towards the end of her sentence.
Finally, it had reached an unknown area that even the Binary Little Sister didn't know.
But honestly, it was already a bit terrifying how much she knew.
Zheng Fan suspected that her claim of her intelligence network only covering Xixikeke and its surroundings might be a very conservative statement.
“So, what about that girl?” Lin Yilin asked about this.
“There's a Monastery below the lighthouse on the edge of that town. They say it's a place to train Lamplighters. That girl is the top seed, a super 'chicken dinner' king who, under gu-raising-like survival conditions, is just one round away from successfully winning first place.”
Lin Yilin was stunned for a moment. “Lamplighter? It seems Illusion has no chance to make a move there, does he?”
“You know about this too?” The Black Goat tilted its head.
“I heard it from Jia Jia.” Lin Yilin leaned back. “Pure Pure White Factor is very rare. If discovered, it would be taken away for secret cultivation. Jia Jia wasn't taken away due to her special family background. But with such a small base, those who can meet Dadu's expectations are few and far between. Lamplighter training was a method researched in earlier times to increase such talent.”
“Besides serving as important combat power against other worlds, Lamplighters are also quite important for maintaining the boundaries of the White World. However, the specific method of cultivation has never been revealed to the outside world. But, the gu-raising method… that's a bit strange.”
Lin Yilin pondered.
“How so?”
“Whether judged rationally or emotionally, talent cultivation conducted purely in a gu-raising model, unless the independent consciousness of the cultivated subject is erased, will be difficult to be truly effective once matured. I don't think Dadu would widely adopt this method of cultivation unless it's absolutely necessary.”
Zheng Fan continued, “Then there's a problem with that old woman and the Monastery model she presides over.”
This speculation aligned with some of the abnormal behaviors of the Monastery and Doris.
“If you're interested, pay a little attention, Illusion. Now you've finally reached a place my intelligence network can't reach either,” Lin Yilin said casually.
The seemingly casual words made a certain clumsy Black Goat feel a chill down his spine.
“Of course, I'm a super Illusion. This was bound to happen sooner or later,” Zheng Fan chuckled.
After speaking, he picked up Cheng Fei and directly entered Cheng Fei's body.
“Cheng Fei” rose like a zombie, changed his clothes from just underwear to proper casual attire, and put on a pair of sunglasses: “Anyway, I'm going to find the handsome guy. Bye-bye.”
Watching Zheng Fan's retreating back, Lin Yilin's fingers lightly tapped the table, lost in thought.