Chapter 1 Meeting a Human in the Dream Plane

Finally seeing a living human in the dream plane, Hao Ren felt an inexplicable surge of joy and almost shouted out loud. The expression on his face was so obvious that the young woman on horseback not far away raised her eyebrows in surprise, "Did you really break your brain when you fell?"

"Uh, no, no, it's just that I'm a little excited to see a living person in this desolate wilderness," Hao Ren quickly waved his hand and returned to normal. Only then did he have the opportunity to take a good look at what the first human he had encountered in the dream plane looked like.

The other party looked about twenty years old, perhaps even younger. She wore a light brown leather vest over a white shirt, and her lower body was dressed in peculiar, easy-to-move clothing that seemed to consist of an outer skirt and a pair of undershorts. A long sword hung at her waist. Her face was vibrant, her eyes were bright, and she looked full of energy. Her skin had a healthy tan, and her neat, shoulder-length hair made her look quite spirited. The animal the girl was riding on also piqued Hao Ren's curiosity. Although he had mentioned riding a horse, this creature was much stockier than horses on Earth. Moreover, there were two protruding keratinous plates that resembled bone plates near the shoulder blades of its forelimbs. Its tail was fluffy and thick, and it had no mane behind its neck. It could be said that other than the basic shape reminding people of horses, it was a completely different creature - probably a unique beast of burden in the dream plane.

"What are you looking at?" The girl on horseback frowned and glanced at Hao Ren. "Did you really break your brain when you fell?"

Hao Ren realized that staring at a girl he had just met was quite impolite, and quickly waved his hands with a dry laugh, "No, I got lost in the grassland. I was just surprised to see people."

"Oh," the young woman nodded, curiously sizing Hao Ren up and down. "Strange clothes, and no luggage, and lost in the grasslands... you look like you have no money. Not worth robbing, what a disappointment. Well, I'm leaving."

Hao Ren was speechless when he heard the other party casually utter the words "robbery". Seeing her turn around to leave, he quickly stepped forward to stop her, "Hey, wait! Can you give me a ride..."

"What a thick face." The data terminal's voice sounded in his mind. Hao Ren automatically ignored the thing.

"Give you a ride?" The young woman raised an eyebrow. "Why? I don't know you, and you look very suspicious."

Hao Ren was dumbfounded, thinking how come things didn't develop according to the usual script. If it were a normal script, he should have seized the opportunity to embark on a new adventure with the newly acquainted knight girl. Why was the person in front of him so impervious to reason?

"I'm lost," Hao Ren spread his hands. "And look at my condition, can I walk out of the grasslands by myself? There are more wolves than people here. Are you really going to leave me to die?"

"Although there's nothing wrong with that..." The young woman frowned and thought for a moment. "But whatever, it's pretty close to Lunbeier Town here. I can give you a ride, but I need to know who you are, where you came from, and what you do. Most importantly, do you have money? After all, I'm a mercenary. I don't do business without money."

Hao Ren was stunned by this series of questions, complaining inwardly why he couldn't meet the kind of gullible, brain-dead girl from other stories. He should have asked the silly wolf king more about human society when he was here last time. Now he didn't even know a human place name. Where was he supposed to make up an identity?

"Uh, what do I look like?" Hao Ren thought for a moment, and spread his hands very simply. "You just saw me fall from the sky. I guess there aren't many normal people who can fall from the sky, right?"

He could only hope that the other party could really use this as a guide to imagine something. After all, "falling from the sky" was the only breakthrough point at the moment.

"Oh right, you fell from the sky," the young woman nodded. "Right, you don't even have any luggage. With just this outfit, you definitely didn't walk into the grasslands yourself - could you be one of those crazy mages? Did something go wrong with the space teleportation?"

"That's right, it was a problem with space teleportation." Hao Ren nodded vigorously, thinking that this world really had something that matched his situation. He had successfully fooled her on his first try. But before he could be happy for a few seconds, the strange girl asked a question excitedly, "Then can you conjure a big fireball for me to see? I've been studying magic recently!"

You're a female mercenary with a sword hanging on you, what kind of magic are you studying!

Hao Ren never expected that the situations that protagonists in novels and TV dramas could easily get away with would be so troublesome in reality. It was really more difficult to fool a living person with a normal IQ than a two-dimensional character. The one in front of him didn't even look particularly smart, but she was already giving him a cold sweat. In the end, he simply spread his hands with a full show of rogue spirit, "I can't conjure it. I was stunned when I fell. Believe it or not, I'll just walk out myself..."

"Yo, mages really have a temper," the young woman chuckled. "Forget it, I'll give you a ride. Anyway, mages are all rich - it's half a day's journey from here to Lunbeier. It's not too much to charge you two hundred Gina, right? And I'll let you ride with me, how about that?"

Hao Ren was dumbfounded: How would he know what a Gina was? He hadn't even seen what the money in this world looked like! But the person in front of him was obviously someone who wouldn't budge without money. So he gritted his teeth and reached into his pocket, explaining while slowing down his movements, "Well, I came out rather suddenly, and I don't have any money on me. And look at my situation... I don't have the energy to teleport back to get money for a while. I can only ask you to take me for a short ride..."

The strange girl didn't say anything, just watched Hao Ren's movements very seriously. She knew that although most mages were not very normal, they were popular for one thing: they were very rich. They could easily make a potion or some small thing that could prolong life and sell it to the nobles for a big profit. Anyway, they were much richer than ordinary mercenaries. The guy in front of her who had rushed out looked like the kind of civilian mage who was easy to deal with. She liked to know such people the most: they were rich and profitable. After all, they were all stupid from studying all day.

"Do you think this will work as payment?" Finally, Hao Ren finished his nonsense, and really couldn't slow down his movements anymore. After whetting the appetite of the girl opposite him, he took out a shiny, hexagonal object from his pocket. "It's just a little thing I made myself when I was bored."

"You actually dare to take out this device!" The data terminal roared in Hao Ren's mind for a long time. "I should have been prepared the moment you reached in!"

"What is this?" The strange girl looked curiously at the metal plate with blue light constantly wandering on the surface. "An alchemical item? A synthetic ore? Or a failed magic lamp? What's it for?"

"Actually, it's a very magical thing," Hao Ren said, tossing the data terminal up and down while giving the latter an order in his mind, "Hurry up, show that you're worth a lot within three seconds. Make this girl believe that you're worth her taking a stranger across the grassland for half a day!"

"You wait, I'll take your x-ray and post it on a gay dating website when I get back." The data terminal also said fiercely, and then reluctantly floated in the air and began to play the tune that Nangong Wuyue had blown before.

"Wow, a music box?" The strange girl was very surprised. "And it can fly... Music boxes are very common, but why would you make a flying music box?"

"Just think of me as having too many artistic cells with nowhere to vent." Hao Ren didn't want to explain anymore.

"Okay, deal. This looks pretty valuable. Just a music box is enough for the fare, not to mention it can fly," the strange girl pointed to the space behind her. "Get on, and don't touch anything you shouldn't. I can stab you to death with one sword at this distance. After we get to Lunbeier Town, this music box will be mine."

Hao Ren sweated, wondering if the local customs were fierce or if he had just happened to meet a fierce one. He awkwardly and clumsily got on the horse, trying not to make any impolite moves, while communicating with his data terminal in his mind, "Can you not play the sad music?"

"You sold this device! Even if I'm downgraded again, I can be exchanged for a top-of-the-line interstellar shuttle on the Macro World market, you know? And you just exchanged me for a chance to ride a horse with a girl!"

"Stop talking nonsense, can't you find a chance to fly back yourself?"

"...Oh right."

"Speaking of which, I suddenly thought of a way to make money, we can..."

"Dare to say it? I know more than two hundred gay dating websites. Do you believe I can call three thousand gays in minutes?"

Hao Ren: "..."