A train station stood in the distance, utterly deserted.

No vehicles, no uniformed personnel.

The sky was a somber gray, drizzling rain. A small group of people huddled on the expansive platform.

Four or five, maybe, likely passengers.

The station's dilapidation was obvious, from the exposed red bricks of the platform to the old, poorly maintained rain shelters.

This forced the few passengers to huddle in a corner of the platform, seeking shelter from the rain.

At that moment, the gazes of those few passengers were all fixed in one direction.

Through the rain, about 30 meters away, stood a man with an umbrella.

He hadn't moved, remaining in that position for a good ten minutes.

Just as the passengers began to whisper among themselves, the man suddenly moved and began walking toward the platform.

Closer and closer.

He was indeed a man, of average build and decent looks, wearing a work jacket that was clearly several sizes too large for him, and below...

Below, he wore plaid pajama pants and cartoon fuzzy slippers.

The slippers were soaked with rain, making a squishing sound with every step.

Folding his umbrella, Jiang Cheng, who had been abruptly pulled from his sleep, looked up at the people before him.

Rainwater streamed down the umbrella's fabric, gathering into a stream and dripping onto the platform.

A petite, innocent-looking girl cautiously asked, "Are you a newbie?"

"Don't ask stupid questions," a burly man with a full beard glanced at the girl, then focused on Jiang Cheng's face after a brief pause on the slippers.

His gaze held the predatory assessment of sizing up prey, and after a moment, he said, "An interesting newbie, appearing here with such composure."

Five people in total.

Jiang Cheng didn't see anyone else near the platform.

Besides the pure girl and the bearded strongman who had already spoken, there was a woman around 35 years old with thin lips.

The woman had a mole near her lip and unremarkable features.

A balding middle-aged man around 50 years old, with a somewhat lecherous air.

And a young man dressed as a clerk, with his hair meticulously combed.

Unlike the others, the young man looked as if he had just been crying. Traces of tears lingered at the corners of his eyes, and his posture was unnaturally hunched.

Jiang Cheng scanned each person's face, one by one, finally settling his gaze on the bearded strongman. "Where is this?"

"We call it the Dream Realm, because every visitor arrives here from a dream," the strongman replied, "through a black iron door that doesn't exist."

Jiang Cheng nodded. This aligned with his experience. "What do we need to do?"

"Based on the scene that appears, find clues to complete the mission, and then try to survive in the process." He pointed to the rain in the distance and said, "Dream Realm is just the name given to this place by the first people to come here.

"Where this place actually is, what it is, don't ask, because we can't answer even if you do, because we don't know either.

"All you need to know is that after opening that door in the dream, you might see a village, a tall building, or even a forest, a snowfield, or a wilderness.

"Any scene that has appeared in our real world could appear behind that door."

"Any scene from our world can appear behind the door?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Yes."

"Then what's the difference between this place and our world? Or, in other words, isn't what's behind the door just our world?"

Jiang Cheng raised a pertinent, yet tricky question.

"But our world would never have two identical versions of ourselves appearing at the same time," the strongman's voice was somewhat muffled.

His words sounded awkward, but they weren't difficult to understand, at least not for Jiang Cheng, who frowned. "Are you saying that someone in the world behind the door... encountered themselves?"

"Yes."

The strongman seemed to feel either fear at mentioning this, or that it was pointless to tell a newbie who might not even survive this mission.

In any case, he ended the topic.

"After the mission is over, we can return to the real world?"

"Yes," the strongman nodded, his gaze shifting to the rain.

The rain was intensifying, and the whole world was shrouded in a dismal gray, and the sky was gradually darkening.

"Newbie," the woman with the mole near her lip looked at him and suddenly said, "If you die in this world, you'll be erased from the real world, aren't you afraid?"

"Missing, to be precise," Jiang Cheng corrected.

The woman's eyes widened slightly, and she looked Jiang Cheng up and down with interest.

She seemed to want to find something different about him.

"If you survive this time, I hope you don't mind being friends," the woman said.

Jiang Cheng ignored her and turned to the strongman.

The strongman stood at the edge of the rain, his gaze constantly darting around, a hint of anxiety between his brows.

"You're waiting for someone," Jiang Cheng said to the strongman. "There's still one person missing."

The strongman turned back, surprised. "How did you know?"

"Well... I also know that the person you're waiting for is a fat guy, and very agile."

The expression on the strongman's face could no longer be described as surprise. "There is indeed someone who hasn't arrived yet, which is why the mission hasn't started yet, but I want to know... how did you know? Especially the details about him being a fat guy and very agile?"

Jiang Cheng didn't answer the question. Instead, he walked to the strongman's side, cupped his hands around his mouth like a trumpet, and shouted loudly in the direction of the station entrance, "Hey...! It's safe here, come on out, we're just waiting for you!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a figure shot up from the rain about several dozen meters away, and then, to everyone's astonishment, ran towards the platform.

Two legs like sausages moved nimbly, avoiding puddles, and with a final leap, landed steadily on the platform.

At that moment, the words "Holy crap! He really is an agile fatty!" popped up in everyone's mind.

As soon as the fatty came up, he stared intently at the work jacket on Jiang Cheng's body. He was only wearing a khaki shirt on his upper body, which was already soaked through by the rain, and he was shivering from the cold.

"Can..."

"No!"

Jiang Cheng decisively interrupted the agile fatty's fantasy, and then wrapped his coat even tighter.

"What's... what's going on here?" the bald man, who hadn't said a word, asked, looking a little confused.

"We met on the road, I came to scout for him in exchange for a coat and an umbrella," Jiang Cheng said frankly.

The fatty, shivering from the cold, looked so miserable that no one wanted to pay attention to him. Only the pure girl felt sorry for him and lent him a scarf to tie around his neck.