Chapter 1 Fortunately, Nightmares Aren't Soap Operas

Fortunately, nightmares weren't soap operas; they didn't come in two parts. Hao Ren simply appeared in the same location where he'd left the Dream Plane last time. The pack of wolves that had attacked him then was gone, so the unlucky kid didn't have to relive the tragic scene of being reincarnated at the newbie village spawn point only to be immediately swarmed by monsters.

But the howls of wolves still came from all directions. Although they didn't sound nearby, it was enough to frighten Hao Ren, who hadn't seen much of the world. He deeply realized that this was lawless territory; animal protection organizations and rangers were in another world. Here, neither wolves nor he were protected, and frankly speaking, this was wolf territory; he was the outsider.

As the only outsider in the grassland occupied by the wolf pack, Hao Ren tightened his clothes to resist the coldness that spread from his body to his heart. He stepped forward, wondering if his brain had deteriorated from being with Lily for too long. Why did he have to put on his pajamas when he went back to his room to sleep?!

Based on his previous experience entering the Dream Plane, a person's physical condition in the Dream Plane was exactly the same as in the outside world, including the clothes they wore and their physical fitness. But Hao Ren had forgotten all about it. He, Vivian, and Izaaks had messed around with a bunch of preparations in the living room, and the final result was that he almost had insomnia and couldn't get in, and he was wearing pajamas!

Walking through the grassland, sinking deep with each step, Hao Ren looked down at his feet and couldn't help but sigh. "Damn it, and I'm not wearing shoes... If that crazy woman finds out about this, I'll be ridiculed to no end."

A voice suddenly sounded from the side: "She'll laugh at you, then post it on the local cosmic channel's message board, but it's hard to say how many likes she'll get. She's a well-known shitposter in this universe, to the point that she has to send her divine revelations to her followers several times—because no one reads them."

Hao Ren was startled by the sudden voice. He looked closely and saw a palm-sized metal block floating silently beside him. He was immediately shocked: "Terminal?! How did you get in here too?"

"Why can't I come in?" The data terminal said lazily, "Didn't the chief say that I'm responsible for providing guidance when you can't enter the Dream Plane? If I can handle the guidance work, why can't I come in?"

"But doesn't it require dreaming to get in here..." Hao Ren looked in surprise at the little device that had become almost sentient. "Has artificial intelligence advanced to the point where it can dream?"

"Dreaming is an inefficient and boring system maintenance method. I don't need that kind of thing," the data terminal's tone was arrogant. "Who told you that you have to dream to enter the Dream Plane? It's just that you have to dream to get in. If you can control your mental power to a certain degree, you have a chance to access the Dream Plane, but you're thinking about this too early."

Hao Ren knew that this data terminal would take every opportunity to bicker with its owner, so the smartest response was to pretend it was farting. He glanced at the vast grassland, feeling that it wasn't bad to have a companion who could talk, and maybe this terminal could have unexpected uses here. So he tentatively asked, "Can you conjure up a set of clothes for me?"

The data terminal was silent for a moment. "What are you thinking?"

"Isn't this a virtual world? Aren't you a supercomputer? I've seen it in science fiction movies. In a virtual world, you can organize data to create..."

Before Hao Ren could finish, the data terminal rudely interrupted him. "Who told you this wrong idea? The Dream Plane is a virtual world? Then why can you take things out of here, and why do people die in the Dream Plane?"

Hao Ren opened his mouth, admitting that he had carelessly applied his assumptions to this unknown territory. In fact, Raven 12345 had told him about the "reality" of the Dream Plane before, but Hao Ren's understanding was limited at the time, and he never quite understood the issue. Now... well, he still didn't quite understand, but he had learned to ignore the problem.

"Not even a pair of shoes..." Hao Ren sighed as he walked. "I can't stand walking like this. Is there anything to replace them?"

"Yes," the data terminal said in a steady tone. Just as Hao Ren perked up, it slowly uttered the second half of the sentence, "A strong spirit."

"...Hehe."

One man and one machine (isn't this combination strange?) walked in the night. Hao Ren was unwilling to stop casually. Even though his condition wasn't very good, he decided to keep walking. After all, he had entered the Dream Plane to temper himself. What was the point of coming in if he just waited to wake up naturally? Anyway, he would be forced out of here when he encountered a fatal threat (thanks to Raven 12345's little pill), so he wasn't worried about really dying. Now he was just quite curious about what kind of place this was.

He turned his gaze to the distance. Last time he left, he saw something that looked like houses in the distance. Those things were still there, which meant they weren't hallucinations. So let's take the "houses" in the distance as the goal.

One man and one machine (isn't this combination strange?) were silently on their way in the night. Just as Hao Ren was feeling a little bored, the data terminal suddenly spoke up: "I need to remind you of three things."

Hao Ren casually agreed, "Say it."

"First, resolutely abandon the idea that this is a 'virtual space'. Although the Dream Plane is not the real world, its impact on the real world is huge. If you die here, you will also die in the real world, and you can also bring things out of here. You have to figure out the specific 'bring out' mechanism yourself. Of course, you should already know this."

"Second, no matter what you see here, don't be surprised. Just accept it directly, and then slowly analyze the cause and effect after returning to the real world. If you have too strong of confusion here, it will cause your connection to the Dream Plane to weaken rapidly. It's not a good thing for the journey of experience to end prematurely."

"Third, don't you think it's stupid to have your data terminal floating next to you? I've seen people walking cats and dogs, but I've never seen anyone walking a PDA! Quickly put me in your pocket, did you hear me?! I'm a mobile device, but I'm not a self-moving device. Do you even know what a mobile device means... Don't go! At least tie a rope to me, okay? My hovering function is for emergencies, not for traveling..."

Hao Ren didn't pay any attention to this data terminal, which was as neurotic as Raven 12345. He just kept his head down and hurried on, so the data terminal's annoying noise rang in his ears for a full half hour. Hao Ren found that his physical enhancement was indeed very effective. He didn't even pant after running so far in the wilderness without shoes, and at least the soles of his feet were much stronger than usual. He walked like this for a long time, and the few small houses in the distance looked much closer. But just before he could breathe a sigh of relief, something hair-raising happened.

He clearly heard rustling sounds coming from the nearby bushes, and then a faint, fishy smell drifted into his nostrils with the night wind. It was the scent of wild beasts.

There were wolves, and they were the special, unbelievably huge black strange wolves of the Dream Plane!

The wolves hadn't arrived nearby yet, but they had clearly noticed the scent of prey here. Now these beasts were carefully setting up an encirclement, preparing a feast with their usual ambush tactics. But this time, Hao Ren noticed the surrounding dangerous aura very early—the last time the wolf pack appeared, he had been completely surrounded, and there were faint gazes in the surrounding bushes, but this time, he noticed as soon as the wolf pack took action.

Hao Ren deeply sighed that the adjustment pod was a remarkable thing, and then silently thought about how useful this little bit of progress could be: when he reacted, wouldn't he still be surrounded!

"I suggest you don't run," the data terminal's voice sounded in his mind. It seemed that this thing also knew that it needed to be concealed at the moment. "You can't outrun the wolf pack. Even with your current level of enhancement, you can only shake off a part of them, and you won't be able to break out of the encirclement."

"Face them head-on?" Hao Ren tried to calm his heartbeat. He knew that the wolves didn't know that he knew they were approaching—you guys can figure out what that sentence means. "I'm a little nervous."

"You weren't nervous when hundreds of undead knights were chasing you in the dungeon?" The data terminal hummed. "Don't worry, I'll pull you out when you're about to die. Now... get ready!"