Chapter 1 A Suitable Campsite

The trio found a suitable place to set up camp beneath a giant rock near the shore, finally settling down for the time being.

Here, with their backs to the sea, a massive, grey-brown rock stood like a small mountain on the barren stone beach. The lower half of the rock had a naturally eroded hollow, like a natural cave, which served as shelter. Thanks to the favorable terrain, they didn't have to worry about the cold sea breeze blowing in at night. The hollow in the giant rock also faced the primeval forest, making it easy to observe any activity there—though even the forest wasn't worth guarding against. Izhaks had lit a circle of green demonic runes around the camp, and these eerie, evil flames were enough to keep any wild beast at bay.

It wasn't until they settled down in this small camp that Hao Ren realized how thoughtful the vampire back home had been in preparing their luggage. In each suitcase, he found a large piece of plastic sheeting and vacuum-packed fleece blankets, as if she had foreseen that Hao Ren and the others would be sleeping on the ground. Seeing this arrangement, Hao Ren couldn't help but wonder: how on earth did a vampire with this level of domestic skill survive this long?

Near the small camp, Izhaks used slightly more normal magical flames to create a roaring bonfire to resist the somewhat cold night wind on this planet. The three of them simply ate something under the alien beach night and began to talk about their wonderful journey today. Hao Ren was the first to express his opinion—he felt like he'd been exiled.

"To be honest, I really feel like I've been screwed again," Hao Ren said with a look of heartfelt pain. "Aren't we supposed to be working for a god? In any normal script, we should have some special treatment. Why is it that when we work for Raven 12345, we have to provide everything ourselves except for the travel expenses? Luckily, Izhaks is with us, otherwise I'd even have to figure out how to make fire by drilling wood..."

Izhaks smiled innocently: "So, so far, I'm just a walking, talking lighter, right?"

"Don't be pretentious," the data terminal muttered, lying on Hao Ren's leg and playing a movie. "Your treatment isn't bad. I've condescended to be your TV, what are you still dissatisfied with? But seriously, can't you have some taste? You're using such a high-end holographic projector to watch small-budget detective films. My processor is ashamed. Oh, right, the fat guy who just appeared is Criminal Number Two."

Hao Ren felt that a PDA with its own aesthetic sense, haggling with its owner over movie choices, and casually dropping spoilers while playing movies was simply too anti-human—the damn data terminal had been putting a red box around all the masterminds since the first scene of the movie. How could anyone enjoy watching TV like this?

"You're really addicted to watching TV with your TV?" Nangong Wuyue had been watching Hao Ren bickering with the data terminal with great interest. She felt that she had encountered countless interesting things since she met Hao Ren, the most interesting of which was having the opportunity to go on this alien journey. This made her determined to stay at Hao Ren's house from now on.

"What are you doing?" Hao Ren noticed that Nangong Wuyue had been tinkering with something small in the firelight and asked curiously.

"It looks like a conch, but it's different from the ones on Earth. There are a lot of air holes on the shell," Nangong Wuyue waved the grey-white cone-shaped object in her hand. "I'm trying to see if I can open up the air holes and use it as a musical instrument."

As she spoke, Wuyue had already processed the conch she had picked up at some point, and she put it to her lips and blew on it. At first, it was just a rather chaotic whistle, but after adjusting the airflow a few times, the conch actually made rhythmic sounds that resembled music.

Hao Ren watched this scene in amazement, gaining a new understanding of the siren's musical talent. He simply turned off the data terminal and put it back in his pocket, then lay down on the ground and quietly listened to this strangely styled siren song.

The night was now deep, and the sound of the waves could be clearly heard from behind the giant rock. The monotonous crashing sound made people drowsy. The jungle in the distance was completely quiet, and the roars of the strange beasts that could be heard during the day had all subsided. Only the rustling of trees and a strange, insect-like sound could occasionally be heard. Among all these sounds, the unknown tune played by Nangong Wuyue was the clearest and most captivating. Hao Ren felt that the noisy and chaotic sounds around him were gradually fading away, and only the whistling conch flute became clearer and clearer. It slowly seeped into his ears, into his mind, and into his consciousness.

Finally, the whole world quieted down, and the sound of the conch echoed in the empty space, with nothing else.

A sudden sense of weightlessness struck, causing Hao Ren to "wake up" in an instant.

He suddenly opened his eyes, and the sound of the conch flute in his ears had disappeared at some point. He could only hear the whistling of the wind rushing past his ears. The feeling of weightlessness and the whistling of the wind around him both indicated one thing: he was falling rapidly from a high altitude!

"Holy crap!" Hao Ren was stunned to find that there was a grassland below him, and he was in mid-air. He only had time to let out an exclamation, "What the hell is going on...Bang!"

Hao Ren fell heavily to the ground. If this height were to befall an ordinary person, they would probably die on the spot or be severely disabled. Fortunately, the only thing he could be proud of now was that his body was particularly strong, so he only had a feeling that his whole body was about to fall apart, but he didn't suffer any real damage. He lay on the ground pretending to be dead for a while before finally baring his teeth and grimacing as he propped himself up. After spitting out the grass stalks in his mouth, he looked around in astonishment: "This is... Holy crap, the Dream Plane?"

What came into view was the familiar grassland, and the wild grass around him was quite different from that on Earth and quite soft. Hao Ren rolled over and jumped up from the ground, staring blankly at the rising sun in the distance.

This was the grassland of the Dream Plane, and judging from the time, it was morning—this was the first time in a long time that he had seen the Dream Plane during the day.

"It looks like you accidentally entered the Dream Plane." The voice of the data terminal came leisurely from his ear, which made Hao Ren feel relieved for a moment: although his partner made him gnash his teeth most of the time, it was always reassuring to have a familiar "person" by his side at this time.

"How did I suddenly get in here?" Hao Ren looked around in confusion. "Didn't you say that you need special self-hypnosis and mental guidance to get in?"

"The siren's flute," the data terminal floated in front of Hao Ren. "Although I don't know much about the siren race, the music played by that little girl can indeed cause mental resonance in the audience. That's probably what happened. It accidentally pushed you to 'this side'. Well, she probably didn't mean to. That girl is still blowing hard in your ear. She didn't even notice that you were asleep."

"Oh," Hao Ren didn't care that Nangong Wuyue had accidentally pushed him into the Dream Plane. He was just very curious about another thing. "Why did I fall from the sky?"

"Do you remember the last time you left the Dream Plane?"

Hao Ren thought for a while: "Uh, I remember being blown into the sky by a prairie hurricane."

"That's it. You teleported out from a place dozens of meters above the ground, and you'll be back in the same place when you come in next time," the data terminal shook its body. "Oh, great, we've figured out another rule of the Dream Plane..."

"Great your ass!" Hao Ren really wanted to slap this hopelessly annoying thing away, but he was afraid that his hand wasn't as hard as its shell. Just as he finished speaking, a burst of light hoofbeats suddenly came from behind him.

"Oh, there really is someone!"

Hao Ren heard a very young voice coming from not far away. He quickly stuffed the data terminal into his pocket, then turned around and saw a young girl riding a "horse" looking at him curiously.

Humans, humans living in the Dream Plane!

At this moment, Hao Ren didn't even bother to observe what the other person looked like. He was most excited that he had finally met the first native of the Dream Plane! Thank the crazy goddess, this was the second big surprise he had encountered in the Dream Plane after meeting a group of funny black wolves last time!