Buzzing!
The white light, its kinetic energy spent, plunged into the ground with one corner embedded in the floor. The body of the projectile still trembled, revealing the face of a playing card — the Seven of Spades!
On the white playing card, there were faint traces of purple — the blood of the fleeing figure ahead.
Even though its arm had been severely wounded, the small dark figure ahead showed remarkable tenacity, leaping almost without pause into a massive ball pit nearby.
Colorful balls burst outward, scattering across the floor and bouncing endlessly.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Several streaks of white light shot forth, each beam enveloping a playing card face within.
The thin, card-like playing slices now seemed to possess terrifying cutting power — everything in their path, balls and structures alike, was sliced cleanly in half. The entire ball pit collapsed, balls scattering everywhere, but the dark figure from before had vanished.
Thud! Thud!
A pair of black leather shoes scraped against the ground, producing a crisp sound.
The playing cards on the ground and on the walls, as if drawn by invisible threads, returned on their own to the newcomer's hand, forming a thick stack.
This person wore a sharply tailored suit, a top hat on his head, and a white mask covering his face, like a croupier in a casino.
Click! Click! Mechanical sounds emanated from his body. His head abruptly swiveled a full one hundred and eighty degrees to fix on a nearby spot, his body lurching wildly as he broke into a run that defied the laws of physics.
"Boom!"
The steel railing buckled and deformed under the direct impact, and then a building collapsed with a thunderous crash. White light shot out, and the supporting steel pillar of a massive Ferris wheel snapped. The giant structure came crashing down.
Amid the swirling dust, the scrawny dark figure from before scrambled out in a sorry state. It glanced back at the croupier, terror etched on its face, and ran even faster.
"Bang!" Suddenly, it collided with a figure ahead — a plump-looking person clad in a white protective suit, whose handsome face was visible through the transparent visor of the mask.
The small dark figure spoke a rapid string of words, but
"Don't worry, little one!" Leylin looked at the sentient being before him.
It was remarkably similar to a human — thin limbs and small stature, like an ordinary human child. Its face and body were covered in dark ash, obscuring its true appearance, with a crude garment of rough hemp draped directly over it.
The only notable difference from a human was the body itself. Fine purple patterns showed through, like tattoos, emanating an eerie, otherworldly sheen.
There was a wound on its arm, exposing the purple muscle tissue underneath. A massive concentration of dream power lingered around it, gradually knitting the wound closed.
Leylin's pupils contracted. He patted the small creature on the head, and the gentle fluctuations it released immediately soothed it.
Creak! Creak!
With that sound, a figure resembling a casino dealer from his previous life materialized before Leylin. A white mask concealed his original features.
The moment he saw the dealer, Leylin felt the small creature beside him clutch at his clothes tighter. Its unease had reached its peak.
"Is he the one who's been chasing you?" Leylin turned his head, then let out an amused chuckle. "Right, we can't understand each other!"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several playing cards shot straight toward him, but Leylin dodged them with ease.
"Fire!" He uttered the incantation in a calm voice. Although most of the rules within the Dream World differed from the outside, the
A mass of blazing crimson flame erupted and engulfed the dealer, scorching tongues of fire spreading outward in every direction.
The small creature beside him widened its eyes, clearly not expecting Leylin to be so powerful, but Leylin was frowning.
"A Tier 4 spell from the Wizard World — and it only has this much power in the Dream World?"
The Wizard World's system was a universal framework, but it was suppressed to varying degrees in different worlds. Clearly, within the Dream World, that suppression had reached its extreme.
After all, the dominant force here was dream power itself. It was only natural that an external power system would be at a disadvantage.
From within the flames, a dark figure slowly walked out.
The fire had devoured the dealer's black suit and even carved horrifying wounds into his body, the flesh continuously rotting away, yet there was not a trace of emotion in the creature's eyes.
"Another consciousness aggregate — what a pain!" Leylin's brow furrowed. The scarlet pendant on his wrist suddenly shot out a crescent of blood-red light, which collided with the dealer's playing cards.
Hummm! Light wings fluttered, slicing the cards in two. The crimson arc of moonlight, crackling with the energy fluctuations of a high-grade magical artifact, swept directly across the creature's neck.
Crack! Crack! The creature's body stuttered, explosions continuously reverberating across its form.
"Move!" Leylin, knowing the opponent wouldn't be easily dismantled, grabbed the little one's hand and broke into a full sprint.
"Boom!" Some of the red and white powder Leylin had scattered earlier suddenly mixed together, forming a complex energy attack that flooded the area behind them with a sea of surging power.
The scenery on both sides blurred past at terrifying speed. Under Leylin's frightening velocity, it took merely the blink of an eye for him to carry the little one out of the amusement park's boundaries and into the primeval jungle beyond.
Once they arrived, he could clearly feel the little one's breathing and heartbeat gradually returning to normal.
"Kalfgmaklmgalk!" the little one struggled, uttering a string of words.
"Right, we can't communicate yet!" Leylin chuckled, tapping a finger against the little one's forehead. A wisp of soul power seeped directly through.
Communication via soul power transcended language entirely — it was a higher plane of understanding. With Leylin's current mastery of the soul, comprehending a foreign tongue was practically instantaneous.
"We're safe here…" the little one repeated, and this time Leylin understood what it was saying.
"Who are you? You're so powerful! How were you able to fight off those monsters?"
The little one gazed at Leylin, eyes sparkling bright with undisguised admiration.
"Those monsters? Are there a lot of them?" Leylin asked instead.
Noticing the little one still seemed somewhat weak, he found a flat stretch of ground and pulled out several compressed crackers and pieces of white bread, handing them over.
The little one accepted them warily, sniffing at the food with curiosity before carefully nibbling at the pieces as though it had found some precious treasure.
What surprised Leylin even more was that the little one only ate a tiny portion of the food, carefully stashing the rest away for safekeeping.
Watching this, Leylin silently nodded, gaining a very clear understanding of just how scarce food was in the Dream World.
While the little one ate, Leylin was far from idle. The Chip quietly gathered all of its physiological characteristics and samples, with the purple patterns on its skin surface being of particular importance.
The patterns appeared to be innate to the creature, yet they held a certain attractive force toward the power of dreams. The wound on its arm had already completely healed by now, leaving behind only a single scar.
"Thank you for the meal, sir! You must be very wealthy!" The little one seemed quite curious about Leylin, particularly his protective suit and skin, which bore no markings of any kind.
"Wealthy? I suppose so," Leylin smiled. "What's your name?"
"
"All right then, can you tell me what just happened?" Leylin smiled and asked.
Although little Gillian was somewhat puzzled by Leylin's question, whether it was his smile putting her at ease or some sort of wizardry at work, she found herself unable to resist blurting out everything she knew.
……
After a long while, perhaps worn out from a full day of fleeing for her life, Gillian fell into a deep sleep wrapped in Leylin's blanket, while Leylin wore a pensive expression.
"So this is the Dream World? Bizarre and grotesque — even terrifying…"
According to what Gillian had told him earlier, she was a native of the Dream World. From the moment she was born, she had been wandering with her relatives from place to place. It seemed this land was riddled with danger; even when they occasionally found somewhere peaceful to stay for a few years, its destruction was inevitable.
This sort of thing appeared to be perfectly normal. Almost overnight, the land and homes they had would be obliterated, and her elders, long accustomed to it, would simply continue on their nomadic path.
And that amusement park from before — according to Gillian, it had been a "Node"!
In the Dream World, this sort of thing was extremely common. Nodes could pop up at any moment, sweeping in everyone and everything nearby.
The objects and structures inside were all very strange. Some they recognized, while others were absurdly bizarre to the extreme, and all manner of creatures could be found within them as well.
Some of Gillian's elders had reaped great benefits from Nodes, while others had died inside them outright. For them, the Nodes of the Dream World were places where danger and opportunity coexisted side by side.
And the kind of Node that spawned terrifying monsters was the most fearsome of all. Gillian had been terribly unlucky to be pulled into one — had it not been for Leylin's help, the little one would almost certainly not have survived.
"According to Gillian, her people are among the lowest of the low in the Dream World… They've never even made it out of this region…"