Jiyun District was bathed in pleasant weather.
The arrival of summer made many people reluctant to go outside. Air conditioners began to hum to life, offering a hint of salvation to the struggling populace.
If salvation wasn't found at home, one could seek it in subway stations or shopping malls.
Even insects dared only to hide in the shade, letting out the cries of their fleeting lives, cries that couldn't withstand the sun's scorching heat, yet were their entire existence.
Even the sparrows huddled in the shade, gasping for breath.
“Hoo—ha!”
Suddenly, a dark shadow shot from the sky like an arrow, plunging straight into the peacefully loafing flock of sparrows!
It was a kestrel, a black kestrel!
Even though it was black, it was undoubtedly a kestrel with a unique body color, not a black hawk.
A sparrow was imperiously pinned under the kestrel's talons, while the surrounding sparrows, startled, fluttered about in a panic, chirping incessantly.
“I've come for revenge, you stupid birds!” The black kestrel shrieked skyward, letting out the cry of an evil supervillain.
Because of the commotion outside, a child in the nearby house, who was enjoying an ice pop—a reward from his parents for finishing his homework—while basking in the air conditioning, curiously poked his head out to look.
“Mom, what are those sparrows doing?”
“They might be scared. Don't worry about bird matters, child.”
“Oh, okay…”
…
The sparrows in White District were incredibly strong in combat.
The black kestrel returned to the Zero One Office, covered in wounds. He saw Lin Yilin, dressed in a black sailor uniform, an ice pop in her mouth, flipping through a book.
“Ah, Illusion Mister, did you succeed in your revenge?”
“…No.” Zheng Fan hovered in mid-air.
“I see.” Lin Yilin didn't seem surprised by the news.
“Although my power is indeed limited in White District, a kestrel should still be more than enough to bully sparrows, right? How could this happen?” Zheng Fan transformed from a kestrel back into his human form, covering his face with his hands in shame.
“Why did the sparrows gang up and counterattack?! The sparrows I know aren't like this! Aren't they just a bunch of timid Glutinous Rice Dumplings ?”
Kestrel Zheng Fan was certainly more than capable of taking down a few sparrows alone, but after their initial panic, that flock of sparrows didn't scatter when disaster struck. Instead, they rallied their forces and launched a fierce counterattack.
They utterly defeated this super Illusion Mister.
This was the power of unity, a perfect example of collectivism triumphing over individualism.
“Some animals in Dadu are indeed more spiritual, probably due to the overlapping of worlds. And then a considerable number of these spiritual animals chose to reside in a corner of the White World. The sparrows Illusion Mister provoked might be just such a special group of small creatures.”
“There's such a setting? But I need to correct one thing: they provoked me first! These despicable local birds are too exclusive; they can't even tolerate a tiny Black Sparrow.” Zheng Fan said, annoyed.
“The pristine nature of the White World is said to have come at the cost of many sacrifices in the past; some things are just buried very deep.”
“Your power seems to be inherent to the White World itself, isn't it?”
“In a sense, yes.” Lin Yilin affirmed.
“Next time, I'll have to try bigger birds.” Zheng Fan bit his thumb, full of resentment.
Lin Yilin really wanted to beg him not to do this. Seeing his pathetic, unforgettable appearance of being unable to defeat sparrows made Lin Yilin both unable to watch and very much want to laugh.
Perhaps this was also Illusion Mister's “charm.”
“Oh, by the way, Illusion Mister. Regarding my dream last night, where I was caught in the Resident Evil movie world you once mentioned, and there were several other Illusion Misters whispering ‘warmth, twitching’ in my ear—do you have any idea about that?”
“Huh?” Zheng Fan turned back in surprise, quickly approaching. He slapped his hands together, intending to steady himself on the table, but forgot he couldn't touch it, then stumbled through the table and fell to the ground.
He got up from the ground: “Why wasn't it ‘cold, trembling’?”
“How would I know? Is ‘cold, trembling’ some kind of required procedure?”
“If an infinite flow story doesn't start with this trope, isn't its lineage impure?”
“What is infinite flow?” Lin Yilin asked first, then quickly pulled the conversation back to the original topic: “So, that strange dream was indeed caused by Illusion Mister, right? To be able to affect me while I'm sleeping in the White World, Illusion Mister has grown again.”
“Ah, I was just trying it out. It seems to have failed now.” Zheng Fan waved his hand.
“A harvest from absorbing the Dinosaur Hallucination?”
“Yeah, its singularity was quite large. I initially had some hope that it could be a breakthrough, but it still seems insufficient. I tried to further enhance my panic ability, but the result was that even your dream went awry.” Zheng Fan said helplessly.
“I should have used that Catfish Illusion to train this power back then. Why did Illusion Mister use it to strengthen my Earthworm instead?”
“Because the atmosphere was right.” Zheng Fan said with an expression that conveyed, “You really don’t understand,” “When a protagonist transforms into a new form, of course they need new abilities and new weapons for that new form, that’s the rule these days.”
“Where did that rule come from…? Did you waste a powerful ‘stat point’ for such a playful reason?”
“My own singularities, I can use them however I like. Why are you more anxious than me?” Zheng Fan said lazily, picking his ear.
“Because Illusion Mister’s half-baked dream power makes me very uneasy. I was mentally prepared for something to happen in my dream last night; words like ‘warmth, twitching’ made one think something significant would occur. But in the end, you made me fight zombies?”
It was rare to see such an expression of “disbelief” in Lin Yilin’s eyes, which even made Zheng Fan feel a slight twinge of guilt.
“It'll be better next time.”
“Will there be stable romantic dreams next time?”
“Next time, I'll let you experience the complete Infinite Horror.”
“…”
Lin Yilin’s profound gaze made Zheng Fan avert his eyes.
Binary Little Sister sighed and said, “So, Illusion Mister, is the new dream interference a further manifestation of your panic ability?”
Getting back to the point, Zheng Fan replied, “It should be. After all, in my understanding, dreams also hold many mysterious meanings, and compared to overt panic, dreams appear more covert.”
“This approach is commendable.” Lin Yilin thought for a moment, “Panic-type Illusions are among the top in terms of affected range among all Illusions, but precisely because of this, Dadu's control over panic is quite strict. Any hint of it is quickly extinguished. Moreover, the accumulation and growth of panic Illusions rigidly require dissemination, which means they cannot escape the mature surveillance system of the major districts.”
Like the Dinosaur Hallucination, it seemed like a big deal, but if it weren't for help from behind the scenes to suppress its impact when a large number of sightings first appeared, the Processing Bureau would have caught the initial signs and cut it off long ago.
And suddenly letting that Dinosaur Hallucination cause trouble and attack students, it’s likely that from that moment on, the Life Gene behind the scenes had already planned to discard it once its purpose was served.
What they needed had, in a sense, already been achieved.
For panic-type Illusions, achieving initial primitive accumulation within strictly monitored major districts is an extremely difficult task.
Zheng Fan also realized this, so when cultivating his panic ability, he subconsciously leaned towards the covert aspect of dream manipulation.