"Are you just going to stand outside and watch?"
Chen Ke and Parker stood on the open ground, where they faced a black portal that seed like a tear in the fabric of the dinsion itself. Looking from the outside in, they could see nothing but darkness.
Yet to call it a door that couldn’t be entered.
Chen Ke placed his hands on the dark portal, as if caressing a black mirror, and even saw stairs extending downward.
"There’s no way, we can’t get in," Chen Ke crossed his arms and stared motionlessly at the black door.
Lucina lay on the windowsill, looking down at the open area. Chen Ke wouldn’t let her co down because she was an ordinary person. Who knew where this black door led? He didn’t want Lucina to have an accident.
"Maybe you should try breaking it," Parker suggested.
"I think that would be useless. It’s clearly so kind of barrier," Chen Ke shook his head.
"We’ve already found one green gem, and Diana even activated it for you," Parker said, puzzled.
"This isn’t quite as the prophecy indicated... The green gem is gone now," Chen Ke said.
In a prophesied future, those six green Holy Diamonds should have been in Chen Ke’s possession, not like now where the gem had flown out the window, fallen beneath the Floating Island into the sea of clouds, becoming a column of light, with no visible end either below or above.
And a circle of stone pillars on the open ground had one broken, the shattered stones piled at the edge of the area. There were twelve pillars in total, and if one green gem corresponded to each pillar, that ant Chen Ke still had to find eleven more green gems...
This differed from what everyone had said. Hainerd and Slavin had told Chen Ke there were only six gems.
"Parker, maybe they were all wrong. There are actually twelve of these green stones, look, corresponding to these pillars... For each one found, one breaks off and a column of light appears," Chen Ke pointed to the nearby pillars and column of light, pondering other issues as he spoke.
Parker stroked his chin, observing near the pile of stones. He walked around the black door again; no matter which way he walked, the door still faced him.
"Twelve? Double the amount now? Well, we have plenty of ti. Sooner or later, we’ll find them all, maybe then we can go down," Parker didn’t seem too concerned.
"It’s not just about what’s below. I’m more concerned about what this black door ans," Chen Ke looked towards the black door.
"Huh?" Parker was confused.
"Sothing tells it wants to speak to . It should be right here, but I’m not sure if it might end up killing ," Chen Ke shook his head.
"You’re saying there’s soone inside?" Parker was startled and stepped away from the black door.
Chen Ke didn’t reply. As he’d been pondering just before, he wondered whether another mber of the Divine Descent Sect was hidden inside. With the foundation’s modus operandi, adding an extra layer of security wouldn’t be out of the question.
In Opportunity City, he feared nothing, but at the Illusion Dream Center, he had to carefully consider all his actions. He certainly didn’t want to encounter another old man with a white beard who would seal his abilities without a word and leave him a phantom to fight.
"Could the Green Diamonds be a trap, targeting everyone who tries to collect them?" Parker wondered.
"It’s unlikely... this is the end of the world, only we know about this place, and no one else can factor it into their plans," Chen Ke said.
"Didn’t you say that Spiritual Energy doesn’t work here? Why do we still have abilities?" Parker suddenly asked.
"Over there." Chen Ke pointed towards a distant cliff, and Parker followed his direction.
"This Floating Island is like a physical manifestation of a dream. In that cliff area, it’s the Deep Sleep Area, where no Spiritual Energy can be used," Chen Ke explained.
"But here, and over there." Chen Ke pointed at the ground beneath them and then at the apartnt building. Parker brought his gaze back.
"This is the Light Sleep Area, which I control. Whether anyone I bring here can use their Spiritual Energy in the Light Sleep Area depends entirely on my thoughts," Chen Ke said.
"That sounds really reassuring," Parker said.
"But I don’t know what counts as... Have you read Freud’s interpretation of dreams?" Chen Ke asked.
"Clearly not," Parker admitted, spreading his hands.
"Human sleep is divided into 5 stages, naly, the sleep onset stage, light sleep stage, deep sleep stage, deep sleep stage, and REM Stage. You see, the Illusion Dream Center has a Light Sleep Area and a Deep Sleep Area... If we liken the doors to the sleep onset area, then only the deep sleep and REM stages are missing here," Chen Ke said.
"What’s the difference between these stages? Isn’t it just getting deeper into sleep?" Parker asked.
"If it were just about sleeping... that would indeed be the case. But here, we are immortal. The world of Opportunity City is soone else’s dream. Freud wrote that dreams are random combinations of fragnted information from reality. They represent the deepest unconscious desires of humans, and also serve as a stress protective function... Opportunity City is a foundation in my world, a man-made dream. They planted their desires into the mind of a god, making it dream 999 tis until, bang! The god died, and I took over, continuing this 999th dream. Now, I have a bold idea that this Floating Island is a clue, hinting sothing very important," Chen Ke said while pacing along the cliff’s edge with his hands clasped behind his back.
"They’ve wanted you to restart the entire world," Parker said.
"Yes, restarting the world could be analogous to the REM Stage, which follows the deep sleep stage, a special sleeping phase where the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids. During this ti, people are prone to dreaming and waking up easily - isn’t that similar to the concept of a restart? Resetting the world, entering the 1000th dream," Chen Ke said.
"The door is sleep onset, the island’s cliff is light sleep, the apartnt is deep sleep, restarting the world is REM... Hmm, Chen Ke, I understand what you an. This black door, is it the dream’s deep sleep area?" Parker analyzed.
"No... it’s not... The deep sleep area is the 999th iteration of Opportunity City, the closer to the deep sleep stage, the further from reality. Biblical powers beco stronger too. This island’s hint to is actually very clear. It is trying to tell that this dream is still incomplete...," Chen Ke said.
"How could that be... According to what you said, all five stages of the dream have been assembled," Parker said.
"But rember, this is a god’s dream, Parker," Chen Ke reminded.
Parker was montarily speechless.
"Rember the stagnation of ti? How does this dream world we are in interfere with the real world? The link is ti. A critical ti point is in the year 2137, which is a unique year," Chen Ke said.
"And you’ve already t soone from the year 2137; maybe the ti stagnation has already been triggered," Parker said.
"I don’t know, but I’ve been thinking about one thing, about the fluidity of ti, and how we perceive this fluidity. For instance, we are in the year 2009, so for us, 2137 is the future, but for soone from the year 2137, going to 2009 is also their future..." Chen Ke said.
Reviews
All reviews (0)