Tang Ye took a few steps to the counter. He picked up the newspaper pressed under a music box. At first, he thought the article might offer so help, perhaps telling him what he needed to do. But after a glance, he found it was filled with trivial matters, like a factory worker receiving an award from the governnt, or a thief caught by an angry crowd.
"There’s really nothing aningful here."
Tang Ye furrowed his brow, but just as he flipped the newspaper over, he saw a paragraph written on the back: "Sorry, I don’t have much ti to tell you everything. This is the deepest layer of Dairya’s dream realm. By yourself, it’s impossible to escape. It can trap you here forever!... They... aren’t... aren’t all... Anyway, don’t try to use violence to solve any problems; it’s futile. Don’t wander around aimlessly, and don’t try to explore the edges of this world! Your identity is indispensable to Dairya. I don’t know if you’ve t her yet, but if you do, use all your charm to win her favor. Also, its attention isn’t on you right now. What you need to do is be honest, be quiet—at least until I die!"
"Also, the bottle of white..."
The ssage wasn’t finished, as if stopped just a bit short. Tang Ye felt as if a cat were scratching his heart, an uncomfortable feeling.
The handwriting on the newspaper was very sloppy; the person who wrote this ssage didn’t care about penmanship. So words were large or small, and Tang Ye almost couldn’t make out so of them. This suggested that Lu Xiaojie wrote the ssage in a very short ti, though unfortunately, she still didn’t have enough ti.
"What could possibly be next?"
Tang Ye looked at the dicine bottle, wondering what Lu Xiaojie might have written next, but after much thought, he couldn’t figure out the bottle’s purpose. It looked expired beyond description, certainly not ant for consumption.
"Wait a minute..." Tang Ye suddenly thought of a pharmacy across the street. Why not ask them?
With that in mind, Tang Ye set the newspaper down, opened the shop door, and stepped outside. It was already dusk. As soon as he stepped out, he saw a "Closed" sign hanging on the pharmacy across the street.
"Oh well."
Tang Ye had to head back. Perhaps he should take the dicine to the pharmacy tomorrow.
There were fewer people on the street now. Unlike when he had entered the Cloud Gorge Base’s dream realm, the people here weren’t afraid of the approaching darkness. They moved slowly, reminiscent of the real world before the Apocalypse, with couples strolling hand in hand and so business people in suits driving vintage cars—the usual sight of working people.
It was almost dark, and Tang Ye could see lights flickering in the distance. This city, resembling an 18th-century foreign city from the Lan Ou Continent, was gradually showing Tang Ye its charm and splendor.
It seed there wouldn’t be any more custors today. Tang Ye went back into the shop, also hanging up a "Closed" sign. Alone, he examined the dicine bottle in his hand, finally uncapping it to sll it. He needed to know what the dicine was for.
Phew~
He took a deep breath. With the keen sense of sll typical of a zombie, he quickly detected the scent of the pills inside.
It was a strange fruity aroma, sowhat nauseating, reminiscent of passion fruit. Not entirely, but it was peculiar—just similar. As for the other slls, Tang Ye found it hard to give an appropriate description.
However, a zombie’s sense of sll differs from a normal person’s. Their noses are used to detect living creatures, not strange substances. The only scents that could bridge the gap between human and zombie perception are the sll of blood and spiciness. To zombies, this fruity sll would be piercing to a normal human’s nose.
Unable to discern anything concrete, Tang Ye simply capped the bottle. He had no intention to test the effects of expired dicine. In other circumstances, he might have tried it, since zombies show no history of being poisoned to death. However, since Lu Xiaojie had been the one to give it to him, he was unsure if it was ant to tackle the Nightmare Zombie King, making him even more hesitant to try it.
"Forget it, let’s see if the sa thing happens later."
Tang Ye thought about waiting for the world transformation to gather more information from Lu Xiaojie. He contentedly fiddled with the music box, yet this wait extended to nearly an hour, without any sign of the worlds switching.
By now, it was completely dark, but nothing Tang Ye anticipated ca to pass. This night was just an ordinary night; through the window glass, he could see a stunning sky of stars, each as clear as at any night in a city teeming with factories.
The buildings on both sides of the street were brightly lit, silhouettes visible through other people’s windows. The streets weren’t entirely desolate. Occasionally, people walked by, carrying snacks or beers, chatting with friends and slowly disappearing into the rising night, bringing not gloom but a fantastical midsumr night’s feel.
"Really strange."
Tang Ye was a bit unaccustod to this sense of calm, feeling it was odd that nothing drastic had happened.
Click~
He turned off the music box and opened the door, stepping outside where the breeze from a distance was refreshingly cool.
Help! Is this really a dream realm?
Another half hour passed without the world transformation, and with the deepening night, Tang Ye realized waiting wasn’t getting him anywhere. He returned to the shop and went to the second-floor bedroom.
"Let’s see what tomorrow brings."
He lay down on the bed; instinctively he reached for his phone, realizing a second later that it wasn’t there. This automatic behavior was tornting—living without a phone would be a challenge for a while.
Turning off the lights, Tang Ye decided to use sleep to get through the length of the night. Before sleeping, he set a ntal trigger on himself so that if the world transformation occurred during slumber, he would imdiately wake up.
In the bedroom, gentle outside light filtered through the window, forming a gauzy veil in the air—beautiful and dreamy. Suddenly, though, Tang Ye turned over and sat up rigidly as a zombie would, realizing he had noticed a problem!
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