茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Looking at Xia Libing, who had fallen asleep instantly on the bed, Xiang Kun could only pull over the quilt and cover her to prevent her from getting cold.

He untied her hair tie and let her hair loose.

Then he took out the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving from the drawer and placed it on the head of the bed next to the box holding the chopsticks.

Considering Xia Libing’s consistent style of action, she had made her intentions clear that she was going to attempt to experience the dream induced by the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving, yet she brought another emotion-infused object, the chopsticks, and intentionally placed them next to her head, which clearly indicated her purpose.

Sitting in the computer chair in the room, looking at the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving on the head of the bed, Xiang Kun did not immediately enter a responsive state but rather began to speculate in his mind about the possible scenarios he might encounter in the dream.

From his previous experiences with dream perception, the dreams and emotions triggered by the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving had a strong negative effect and subsequent influence, which was why, after obtaining the carving from Tang Baona’s grandfather, he had always kept it “sealed” in the drawer.

Regardless of whether the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving could successfully induce Old Xia’s dream, how to judge Old Xia’s state and limits after inducing it, how to provide her with aid and support in the dream state, when and how to terminate the dream, all of these needed to be planned ahead of time.

These issues should have been discussed and agreed upon before commencing the induction and before falling asleep, together with Old Xia.

But now Old Xia was too tired, she fell asleep instantly as soon as she arrived. It would not be appropriate to rouse Old Xia and shake her awake for discussion, and then let her sleep again, so Xiang Kun was left no choice but to make decisions and set guidelines himself.

After five minutes of considering various possibilities and thinking up several contingency plans, Xiang Kun began to interface with the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving. As expected, a flood of perceptual information followed, successfully inducing Old Xia’s dream.

It appeared that this emotion also had an effect on Old Xia.

Inside the dream, Xiang Kun observed his surroundings through Old Xia’s senses.

It was a dark and indistinct world, where he couldn’t see clearly. It was as if he was in space, limitless, yet there was an invisible actuality under his feet that allowed him to stand stably on the ground.

A strong sense of hunger led him to search continuously around him, hoping to find something to eat, but there was nothing. It seemed like there would never be anything.

Hunger, intense hunger.

His body was getting weaker and weaker, even to the point where he could feel life slipping away. He could feel his stomach continuously shrink, his internal organs failing, and his muscles constantly breaking down.

Xiang Kun felt that through Xia Libing’s dream perception, she was like a candle, continuously “melting.” She could physically feel herself being “dissolved” by hunger, moving towards death.

Just like hunger, this was the body’s most basic reaction, the most primitive feedback.

Xiang Kun could clearly perceive the source of Xia Libing’s fear. This was probably also the consequence of the treatment provided by Dr. Li when she was a child.

Or rather, this extreme hunger-induced threat of death and fear was the main method of “treatment.” Using this method made the young Old Xia integrate into the lifestyle of normal people, understanding what could be done and what absolutely couldn’t be done.

Experiencing fear from hunger and death in the dream, Xia Libing didn’t panic or become hysterical like ordinary people would, running around aimlessly.

Sharing Old Xia’s perception and emotions in the dream from a first-person perspective, Xiang Kun knew she was continually observing her surroundings, even though it was obvious there was nothing there at a glance.

It seemed that, even before waking up in the dream, Old Xia’s instincts were primarily rational. Rather than simply wanting to run or avoid when confronted with the strongest fears, she was thinking about how to “solve” them—even though logically speaking, this was a dead end with no solution.

Then, Old Xia saw a white door appearing in the distance. There was a window on that door, and on the window was a blurred face.

Old Xia quickly ran over, and as the distance closed rapidly, she slowed down when she saw the face on the window clearly.

It was a face with two rows of eyes, a total of eight eyes – it was a monster.

In an instant, the entire door merged with the monster, not just an eight-eyed head, but also a huge and weird body with eight arms, giving people a powerful perception—this sole door was also an impossible exit.

She was going to starve to death in this void. This was Old Xia’s innate perception in her dream.

The next moment, an intense rationality descended, and Xia Libing “woke up” in the dream.

Xiang Kun’s dream perceptual viewpoint was granted permission to transfer. The dream’s support shifted from him to the ten “super-connected objects” that had established special connections with Xia Libing.

Compared to the previous few times when Xia Libing’s dream was induced via chopsticks, this time she was slower in “waking up” in the dream.

Furthermore, in previous dreams, the emotions brought about by the dreams induced by chopsticks would quickly be suppressed by her rationality after Xia Libing “woke up”, but this time, Xiang Kun could clearly sense that the emotions brought about by the eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving – the fear of death from extreme hunger – remained, albeit somewhat weakened.

Though the emotions induced by the self-made chopsticks and the eight-armed wood carving when inducing the dream had some similarities – both were related to eating and hunger,

The former emotion mainly focused on “eating,” the satisfaction from eating, and the impulse for food. The latter, however, was more about fear brought by hunger, harm to the body, and the threat of death.

Undoubtedly, the degree of emotional intensity and negativity in the latter was much greater than in the former. Perhaps that’s why, even though he was already “awake” in his dream, Old Xia couldn’t completely suppress the negative impact of his emotions.

In his dream, Xia Libing observed the surroundings again. The void space instantly “filled” up. Other than the doorway that was still firmly blocked by the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster, everything else became solid. This was the room that Xiang Kun first dreamed about, triggered by using chopsticks – that enclosed room with nothing inside.

Without a doubt, this was where Old Xia’s fears were born.

Xia Libing walked straight towards the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster. The closer she got, the stronger her fear grew. Even in the dream, Xiang Kun could clearly see her slightly trembling. If it weren’t for the fact that he could directly feel Old Xia’s emotions in his dream, objectively speaking, she seemed more like she was suppressing excitement rather than fear.

But that didn’t stop her. She was very aware that she was in a dream, as well as what the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster represented.

However, no matter how close she got, there was always a slight distance from the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster, as if she would never be able to touch it.

Xia Libing thought for a moment, stopped trying in vain, and with nine coins and one tungsten steel ball appearing in front of her, the next moment, they disappeared, turning into a crispy pig’s elbow.

She ate the pig’s elbow in big bites. After finishing one, she manifested another, continuously eating.

However, after eating several, she found that neither the eating process nor the swallowing process relieved her hunger and the fear it brought.

She furrowed her brow in thought, looked up and at the empty ceiling, and said, “Chopsticks.”

Xiang Kun, who was observing Old Xia from the perspective of the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster, immediately knew that she was speaking to him and understood what she meant — she wanted Xiang Kun to sense that pair of chopsticks now.

Normally, during the process of perceiving other people’s dreams through “Emotion Infused Objects”, he wasn’t able to sense other “Emotion Infused Objects” at the same time. However, Old Xia’s dream was different. When she “woke up” in the dream and shifted the support of the dream to the projection of “Super-connected Objects”, Xiang Kun obtained the ability to sense other “Emotion Infused Objects”, as if he had “freed up his hands”.

During their last dream, he tried to sense Liu Shiling’s pair of chopsticks, successfully merging Little Fatty Girl’s and Old Xia’s dream fields. Even meeting together in their dreams for a “get-together meal”.

But this time, the “chopsticks” that Old Xia mentioned were certainly not Liu Shiling’s, but the ones that Xiang Kun had given her and were now also placed at her bedside.

Xiang Kun immediately sensed that pair of chopsticks, and shortly after, a figure appeared in Old Xia’s dream—the emotional projection of the chopsticks, which was Little Fatty Girl.

The Little Fatty Girl, representing appetite, and the Eight-armed Eight-eyed monster, representing fear, these two “Emotion Infused Objects”, two different emotional projections, miraculously appeared simultaneously in the same dream.

Xiang Kun knew that the fundamental structure of Old Xia’s dream had also changed significantly. This “system” was now both windows and Linux.

The emotional projection of the chopsticks, Little Fatty Girl, looked up at the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster nearby, moved closer to Xia Libing, handed her a chicken wing, then hugged her thigh, timidly looking at the monster.

While eating the chicken wing, Xia Libing finally felt satiated, which eased her hunger and therefore reduced her fear. The eight-armed, eight-eyed monster also seemed less terrible and smaller in size.

Xia Libing, with Little Fatty Girl clinging onto her thigh, was eating chicken wings whilst closely observing the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster. Occasionally, she would scratch and poke the monster with a surgical scalpel that she manifested.

Xiang Kun suddenly realised that Xia Libing was so interested in this eight-armed, eight-eyed wood carving, perhaps because she had heard of the collective hallucinations created by Xiao Pingguo, and seeing the illusionary effects he had on the car thieves at the abandoned factory, she also wanted to attempt directly interacting with the “Emotion Infused Objects” outside of dreams, engaging the projection of the “Emotion Infused Objects” for her own use.

Xiang Kun couldn’t help but wonder if Old Xia would be able to find a way to “physically manifest” the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster in reality using “Illusion Reality”.

Although, like the abilities developed by Xiao Pingguo, he could also create “illusions” to make others “see” the eight-armed, eight-eyed monster, “physically manifested” beings have essential differences from illusions.

Xiang Kun never thought about what the “physically manifestation” could be used for. It was purely based on his instinct that “this function seems hard to implement and to achieve. If it could be achieved, it must feel quite impressive.”

However, considering his previous attempts to “physically manifest” other dream objects, achieving that may not be so easy.

After the dream ended, Xiang Kun opened his eyes and found that Old Xia on the bed had not woken up. Instead, she was curled up on her side, sucking her thumb joint like a baby, her facial expression showing satisfaction, as though she had just had enough to eat and drink.

Perhaps she was overly tired tonight, or the dream had drained her. So, after the dream ended, she didn’t wake up but continued to sleep.

Naturally, Xiang Kun wouldn’t wake her. There was a lot to do the next day, and next, after he enters his deep sleep induced by his blood drinking, Old Xia would likely have to “stay up”. So, a good rest tonight was extremely important.

He rotated his computer chair to face the computer instead of the bed.

For fear of waking up Old Xia, he didn’t call Alice through voice, but through the keyboard.

After confirming that Alice would respond to him through text, Xiang Kun began to summarize the improvements of today’s game and reassigned tasks to Alice.

Unexpectedly, after Alice reported the progress of some previously assigned tasks as usual, Xiang Kun discovered something that somewhat surprised him.