Under Klein's explanations and reassurances, Allen felt considerably more at ease and decided to observe for a few more days to see whether the nightmares would continue.
After seeing the renowned surgeon out with a smile, Klein's expression suddenly turned grave, as though he were mulling something over.
His earlier interpretation of the dream had been on the mark. The pitch-black tower, the layered walls and doors blocking the way, and the silver-white giant serpent—all of it truly symbolized the predicament
But the crux of the matter was that this was almost certainly not a revelation Allen's spirituality had obtained on its own. If it were, he couldn't have waited until last night—until he dug out that paper crane—before having such a dream. He should have experienced something similar long before Will Auceptin left the hospital, back when his spirituality had unconsciously sensed that something strange was going on.
So Klein suspected that this dream had been implanted into Dr. Allen by someone else, with the paper crane serving as the medium!
Klein had activated his Spirit Vision to examine the handicraft carefully but found no traces of spiritual luminescence on it. Still, his intuition, his instinct, told him there was something extraordinary about that paper crane—something that perhaps involved the most ethereal, most elusive, and most awe-inspiring concept of all: fate.
That child called Will Auceptin was no ordinary person… It seemed the marvel likely wasn't the Tarot deck but rather the boy himself. The silver-white giant serpent was a symbol of danger, and this had to do with factors like misfortune and luck. Could it represent the "Mercury Serpent," Sequence 1 of the Marauder Pathway—the "Mercury Serpent"? Klein's thoughts raced down various tangents, yet he couldn't confirm any of them with certainty.
He turned his attention to the question of how the dream had been implanted.
Given Klein's current level of mystical knowledge, this wasn't something too complex or difficult to understand. He quickly arrived at a line of reasoning.
"First, we can rule out the influence of resentful spirits or ghosts. That would tint Allen's aura with hues of blackish-green, and I saw no such traces just now.
"There are roughly two ways to implant a dream without the dreamer showing any abnormal signs. The first is a Beyonder ability similar to 'Nightmare'—like what Captain Dunn does—relying on guidance to achieve the goal, and the practitioner can't get too deeply involved, or they'd leave traces as well. The second method is far more subtle and sophisticated.
"The principle of dreaming works like this: the astral body roams through the Spirit World, and certain details that were noticed unconsciously during waking hours are transformed, under external stimulation, into symbolic revelations. Alternatively, the astral body may directly receive revelations related to the self from outside, then relay them to the spiritual body, to one's own spirit. Since the owner is in a state of sleep, this manifests as a dream.
"So the second method is to implant dreams through the Spirit World!
"First, use certain miraculous means to fabricate the desired revelations, then naturally allow the target's astral body to encounter them while roaming the Spirit World. Once fed back, the target will dream exactly what someone else wants them to dream, without leaving the slightest external trace.
"This is something I cannot accomplish right now. Even in my spirit state, where I can barely leverage a fraction of the power Above the
Klein paused in thought, then added one more possible speculation: Dr. Allen had been subconsciously primed through the paper crane—the moment he dug it out, he would have the corresponding dream.
This would be easy to confirm. All he had to do was use a spiritual channeling on Dr. Allen, and he should be able to find the relevant traces… But would performing spiritual channeling on him be too intrusive? Or perhaps he could borrow that "Nightmare Candle" from Father
He decided to go Above the Gray Fog and divine the degree of danger first. If it was acceptable, he would sneak into Dr. Allen's house tonight, using the Dream Talisman and similar means to secretly observe whether the dream's origin was direct guidance or indirect fabrication.
However, given Klein's strength and level, finding traces of the latter would be extraordinarily difficult. He didn't have much confidence in that.
This didn't mean that simply sitting beside Dr. Allen and meditating would allow his astral body to roam the same region of the Spirit World. Sufficient positioning was required to accomplish that.
According to the descriptions in the Secretum, the Spirit World's existence was quite extraordinary. It overlapped with the real world entirely, completely and totally, which was why anyone could receive revelations from the Spirit World at any time. But the Spirit World had no concept of up, down, left, or right—past, present, and future could all converge there simultaneously, like a bizarre ocean compressed from countless streams of knowledge, information, and phantasmal spirits, utterly different from the "world" as understood through normal concepts and logic.
Precisely because of this, revelations obtained from the Spirit World could only come in the form of various symbols, never direct answers. And precisely because of this, the region of the Spirit World one's astral body roamed depended not only on one's physical location and the time of day, but also on the current state of one's body and mind. Without a corresponding method of positioning, it was impossible to locate and find someone's astral body in the Spirit World, even if you were standing right next to them.
And also because of this, an astral body's exploration of the Spirit World had its limits—one did not dare venture too far in. If it became lost and couldn't return to the body, the owner would be reduced to an imbecile. In worse cases, they would become a vegetable.
And if one wanted to physically enter the Spirit World, using it as a springboard to complete a teleportation, that was even more perilous. The slightest lapse in attention could lead to becoming permanently lost, never able to return to the real world, until one rotted away and died.
Haa… Klein exhaled and temporarily set the matter aside.
He took out his pocket watch, checked the time, and realized he had been thinking for so long that his breakfast had gone completely cold. Mike the reporter still hadn't arrived, which meant the assignment would most likely be postponed by a day.
Not one to waste, Klein finished the remaining food, then went Above the Gray Fog to perform a divination. To his surprise, the revelation indicated that this matter carried no danger whatsoever.
With that done, the agreed-upon time had already passed. Without further hesitation, he changed into a thick jacket, put on his flat cap, grabbed his vocabulary booklet, and left 15 Minsk Street.
His original plan had been to accompany
As for Liv and her family, old Kohler would be the one to warn them.
Now that Mike had postponed everything by a day, Klein had even more room to maneuver and no longer needed to worry about mistakes or surprises.
………
Combining the address old Kohler had mentioned with the revelations from his divination, Klein ventured deep into the East Borough. Under the watchful gazes of passersby—some wary, some guarded, some numb, some greedy—he found the room on the third floor.
Two sets of bunk beds were crammed inside, with tattered bedding spread across the floor. Every available inch of space was piled high with miscellaneous belongings.
Klein looked straight at the bottom bunk of the farthest bed and called out: