Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 735: The Same Dream

Translator: CKtalon

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Nine heads appeared from different parts of Shang Jianyao’s body. A total of 20 eyes stared at 102’s door in unison.

After a few seconds, the rash Shang Jianyao said smugly, “Haha, it didn’t take much effort to find it!”

He controlled the legs and walked to the door that looked no different from the ones surrounding it.

Swoosh!

Many arms stretched out from Shang Jianyao’s waist. They either gripped or pressed down, forcefully holding back the legs.

“If you want to die, don’t implicate everyone!” The cautious Shang Jianyao cursed the rash one.

“That’s right, that’s right,” another Shang Jianyao echoed.

“Does he really think he’s Yama Tiger? Back then, Yama Tiger was already an Awakened who had explored the Mind Corridor’s depths. Even if he accidentally entered the Kalendaria’s dream, he had a chance of discovering the door that led to the New World and escaping.” The honest Shang Jianyao scoffed.

The Old Task Force had preliminarily determined that Yama Tiger had already entered the New World. However, he was trapped by an existence for some reason and couldn’t return to the Ashlands freely.

It was impossible for him to be trapped in the Kalendaria’s dream and be unable to escape. If that happened, he would truly become a vegetable. Without the support of medical equipment, his body couldn’t maintain its vitals all this while.

At present, only powerhouses who had entered the New World could show such uniqueness.

The Shang Jianyao that sought novelty deliberated for a moment and said, “We can still open the door, but don’t be in a rush to enter. Observe the situation inside from the door.”

The calm and rational Shang Jianyao nodded. “If we aren’t doing anything, why did we come in? To prove that the dream that enveloped Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School is indeed a Kalendaria’s dream?”

He didn’t say that it was Master Zhuang. After all, Subhuti was also a Kalendaria. Furthermore, he was in charge of January. The room corresponding to ‘Him’ in the Mind Corridor also started with ‘1.’

After a round of nervous voting, the Shang Jianyaos barely came to a consensus.

The additional heads and limbs on his body retracted at the same time, returning him to his normal human form.

As the Democratic Association had already decided, Zen Master Redemption—who was calm and benevolent—had no choice but to represent the collective. He walked to Room 102 and gripped the brass handle.

He gently twisted it, and the vermilion wooden door slowly opened, producing a faint creaking sound.

It was dark inside, and he couldn’t see anything. Zen Master Redemption Shang Jianyao tried to take a step forward.

The world in front of him suddenly opened up as if he had come to another world. Above his head was the dark, gloomy, and indescribable sky. In front of him was a square made of cement. Behind him was an automatic extendable gate that was slowly closing. Opposite him and on both sides were teaching buildings and offices…

Without needing to recall, Shang Jianyao immediately recognized this scene—Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School!

He had just seen it, and it had left a deep impression on him.

Upon seeing that the gates behind him were about to close, Shang Jianyao quickly took two steps back.

He retreated to the Mind Corridor.

The vermilion door to Room 102 had closed at some point in time.

After staring at it for a moment, Shang Jianyao chose to return to the real world. He stood up from the gates of Tai City’s No. 1 Senior High School, walked back to Jiang Baimian and the others, and roughly described his experience in the Mind Corridor.

“102 leads to Master Zhuang’s dreamscape…” Bai Chen muttered to herself.

Jiang Baimian nodded and looked at Shang Jianyao. She thoughtfully said, “If you didn’t come out in time or if you took a few more steps forward, would you have fallen into a dream like we previously did? Would the corresponding thoughts be implanted into you, causing you to play a certain role inside? Then, you wouldn’t be able to escape, be unable to find your self-awareness, and be completely lost?”

“Definitely,” the calm and rational Shang Jianyao replied without hesitation. He believed that since the two dreams were identical in both the real world and the Mind Corridor, there wouldn’t be much of a difference in their effects.

“This is the danger of a Kalendaria’s dream.” Long Yuehong didn’t hide his fear.

This was different from the psychological trauma in other rooms.

Jiang Baimian made a terse grunt. “I’m wondering how Yama Tiger found himself in Room 102—Master Zhuang’s dream—and discovered the door to the New World?”

At the very least, Yama Tiger was still ‘fine’ in the New World and hadn’t been lost in Room 102’s dreamscape.

“He might’ve been lucky and stumbled into a certain key point, allowing him to find himself. It’s also possible that he made some preparations in advance. When acting as a student or teacher, he would always dream about the various scenes on the Ashlands in his fugue. Therefore, he had doubts and gradually realized the fakeness of the dream.” Genava gave the two situations that he believed were most likely the case after analysis.

Jiang Baimian suddenly sighed. “That’s not the point. The point is that if we have a way to contact Yama Tiger, we can grasp the secret to clearing this. Not only can this allow us to eliminate the anomaly in this Buddhist Holy Land more easily, but it can also help Hey clear a Kalendaria’s dream in the Mind Corridor. If that happens, it should be equivalent to him exploring the Mind Corridor’s depths.”

“What a pity!” Shang Jianyao immediately thumped his chest and stomped his feet. “Back then, I didn’t ask Yama Tiger for a way to contact him! He only knew how to shout ‘save me!'”

“It’s too late now,” Long Yuehong calmly pointed out. “Redstone Collection is far in the south.”

Jiang Baimian nodded slightly. “If we really can’t resolve the anomaly brought about by Master Zhuang’s dream this time, we should circle around to Redstone Collection when we set off from the company after we get some R&R.”

At this point, she looked at the sky. “Retreat from this city ruin first. We’ll come back tomorrow morning.”

The Old Task Force left Tai City Ruin through the entrance they took before night completely fell and found a place with a clean water source to camp at.

As they assigned night duty, Jiang Baimian suddenly recalled something and asked Genava, “Old Ge, what’s the name of the original character I played in that dream? I remember you mentioning that my name is Xu Qiao, right?”

“Yes.” The red glow in Genava’s eyes flickered as he proactively gave the names of the others. “Little Red is Zhang Huadong. Little White is Lin Yan. Hey is Du Shaochong.”

Lin Yan and Du Shaochong were the names he had confirmed through a process of comparison and elimination.

“Every character has a name. Every student and teacher there has a name, and it doesn’t seem to be randomly generated…” Jiang Baimian slowly said in a confused tone, “Even if the former Master Zhuang descended into this world and had really studied or lectured in Tai City’s First High School, it’s impossible for him to remember everyone’s names. After all, most of the people here are people he has never come into contact with directly. It’s impossible for him to know the other party’s name. Even the Kalendaria can’t make something out of nothing, right?”

Long Yuehong had such questions as well. Even though Pangu Biology had a school on every floor with very few people, he only knew his classmates and some of his schoolmates from other grades. It was impossible for him to know the names of all the students, teachers, and school workers.

“Don’t try to understand a Kalendaria’s power with a mortal’s mind!” The honest Shang Jianyao began to mock them. “Just because we can’t do it doesn’t mean that the Kalendaria can’t. Something as trivial as memorizing all the names of everyone in the school isn’t difficult for Old Ge.”

How can Old Ge be the same as us? Jiang Baimian wanted to reply, but she realized that this could naturally result in the words ‘how can the Kalendaria be the same as us’ after some thought. Therefore, she chose to shut up.

The scene immediately became a little awkward. Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and Genava suspected that Jiang Baimian would throw a heavy punch the next second.

After a while, Jiang Baimian deliberated and said, “The reason I suddenly asked Old Ge about the name of the role I played was that I realized that the remaining implanted thoughts contained some of the character’s memories when I recalled today’s encounter.”

Everyone’s thought patterns and behavioral styles couldn’t be separated from their past memories.

In the quiet camp, Jiang Baimian’s voice sounded ethereal beside the crackling bonfire. “I remember that the character always ranks in the top three in the cohort during exams. However, she’s relatively introverted because she has always been separated from her parents as she had been studying out-of-town and staying with relatives…

“I don’t remember any more. When I found myself, most of the implanted thoughts naturally dissipated.”

Bai Chen nodded indiscernibly. “Now that I think about it, my character has always been in poor health. She often suffers from a cold and a headache, so she takes leave to stay at home…”

“My character has an inferiority complex, a result of bullying from his primary school days…” Long Yuehong began to recall.

Shang Jianyao smiled. “I’ve mentioned it already. My character has excellent grades and is in the top ten all year round. He’s also very good at sports, but he likes to mix around with the bad students. He has a mischievous personality, is audacious, and dares to prank anyone.”

“Not only does every character have a name and a corresponding train of thought, but they also have background stories and past experiences…” Genava helped summarize. “Even for me, it’s not easy to assign more than a decade or decades’ worth of lives for thousands of people.”

Isn’t Master Zhuang’s dream too realistic?

Once one fell into it, it was virtually impossible to tell if it was ‘Master Zhuang dreaming of a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of Master Zhuang.’

“That’s one thing.” Jiang Baimian nodded slightly and looked around. “The other thing is that these characters are more or less similar to us.”

“I call this a matching principle.” Genava voiced his guess.

Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and the others thought for a moment and felt that it should be the case.

Jiang Baimian was just about to end the meeting when an idea flashed in her mind. She suddenly looked at Shang Jianyao.

“Don’t slap the face!” Shang Jianyao thought of something and raised his hands to protect his face.

Jiang Baimian ignored him and continued muttering to herself, “Logically speaking, there’s another point on Hey that can be used for a match, and there’s someone who is a match.”

“Which point?” Long Yuehong asked in confusion.

Jiang Baimian’s expression was abnormally solemn.. “Him being an Awakened in the Master Zhuang domain.”