茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

The perceptual changes were significant, as if entering a new world.

Xiang Kun knew that within the influence of the black circle graffiti on the windowsill, there were people sleeping soundly, who had been successfully led into her “Dream in A Dream” by Old Xia.

But when he understood the situation in the dream, Xiang Kun was somewhat surprised.

The owner of this “Dream in A Dream” happened to be someone he and Old Xia both knew.

On the night of the 29th, when he had just returned to Citong City and met with Old Xia at a café, they encountered someone shadowing Old Xia. They ended up fighting and capturing two “bad guys”.

The officers in charge of their case back then were two district police officers, one old and one young. The older was surnamed Xu and the younger was surnamed Zhao.

Now the “protagonist” in the dream was clearly Officer Xiao Zhao.

In the deserted streets, Officer Xiao Zhao, in his casual clothes, hid nervously behind a car.

A giant figure of about four meters, with a dozen arms and a forehead full of eyes, wandered the streets, seemingly looking for Officer Xiao Zhao.

Seeing that this was Officer Xiao Zhao’s dream, Xiang Kun was already quite surprised and astonished. Seeing the multi-armed, multi-eyed giant in Officer Xiao Zhao’s dream was even more unexpected.

Although the image of the giant wasn’t exactly the same as the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving. The number of arms, the connection of the arms to the body, and the arrangement of the eyes were all fundamentally different.

However, Xiang Kun had an intuition that the giant in Officer Xiao Zhao’s dream originated from the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving.

He clearly knew that his current intuition was derived from a large amount of super-sensory information that his brain could not yet process and was not unfounded conjecture. Moreover, in this dream environment, intuition is sometimes even more reliable than direct sensory information in the dream.

However, he could also judge from the form of the giant that Officer Xiao Zhao’s cognition of the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving was probably based on other people’s descriptions.

After all, from previous instances, whether it was causing hallucinations in reality through “co-manifestation projection,” or projecting emotions in a dream from the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed Wood Carving, the overall body structure, such as the arrangement of eyes, the number of arms, and the way they are connected to the body, should be consistent with the wood carving, even though some details, such as the size, clothing, and skin condition of the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster, might differ.

If the people who saw the hallucinations and had the nightmare described the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster in reality, there might be some unclear points, but in the dream, the image of the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster from the subconscious should not be distorted so severely.

Xiang Kun quickly guessed where Officer Xiao Zhao might have heard about the image of the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster – the three car thieves who were affected by his “Super Sensory State” emotion projection range in the abandoned factory.

As per the news he heard later, all three car thieves eventually went to the police station where they were arrested.

One went crazy, two went to confess.

They would have told the police about the “hallucinations” they saw in the abandoned warehouse.

Although they went to Yun Gang Area Office to turn themselves in, and Officer Xiao Zhao wasn’t there, being in the same city of Citong, it is estimated that he must have heard something about this incident— even his old classmate, Li Peiye heard quite a bit of news, let alone Officer Xiao Zhao who is within the same system.

But hearing about it is one thing, dreaming about it is quite strange.

Keep in mind, this dream is triggered by black circle graffiti and, based on past experience, it mainly calls up recent events the dreamer has been focusing on.

The incident at the abandoned factory on the outskirts of Yun Gang District took place over half a month ago. It seems unreasonable that Officer Xiao Zhao would still be thinking about it, especially since it wasn’t his case.

Moreover, the police would normally not believe the description given by the car thieves. As per the description given by Li Peiye at his classmate’s wedding, the police took it as a joke. This is the normal reaction.

Could it be that Officer Xiao Zhao took those “rumors” seriously?

Or… did Officer Xiao Zhao get scared by that “rumor” due to his timid nature?

Well, based on Xiang Kun’s brief interaction with Officer Xiao Zhao on the night of the 29th and the cognitive model established from this interaction, the likelihood of the latter seems almost zero.

While Xiang Kun was puzzled, Officer Xiao Zhao’s dream underwent a dramatic change, from an empty city street to the sky.

Officer Xiao Zhao was actually riding on the back of the multi-armed multi-eyed giant, soaring in the sky, flying from the city to the suburbs.

Soon, verdant trees came into view, entering the region of Zi Huan Mountain.

Naturally, Xiang Kun knew it was the handiwork of Old Xia, the “Dream Director”.

In the afternoon, he had already discussed in detail with Old Xia how to tell a “story” in the dream to guide the person into finding the bodies on Zi Huan Mountain after waking up.

The choice to invoke a dream in someone from the district branch dormitory, to directly make a “Dream Call to the Police”, instead of randomly finding someone near Zi Huan Mountain for a dream invocation, to discover the bodies and report afterwards, was because they were afraid that if a commoner was guided by a dream and went to the mountain to see the bodies, it would cause a great mental shock, possibly triggering some negative impacts.

However, at that time, they could not have expected that they could invoke a dream in Officer Xiao Zhao, and Officer Xiao Zhao would also happen to dream of a giant monster resembling the Eight-armed, Eight-eyed monster.

Old Xia apparently took the liberty of altering the “script” she had previously discussed with Xiang Kun and added the giant into the plot.

In the beginning, Old Xia did not have the ability to make such a large-scale influence in the “Dream in A Dream” so quickly, but Xiang Kun found a method. When he was in the “Dream in A Dream”, aiding Old Xia’s “Super-connected Objects Projection”, he could significantly increase her efficiency in editing the “Dream in A Dream” and could also directly involve himself in the construction and editing of the dream.

Xiang Kun turned himself into a “What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get Super Plugin” that Old Xia could use in the dream, quickly actualizing her ideas.

It was precisely because of this support, that despite Old Xia never physically being on Zi Huan Mountain, where Xiang Kun found the body, he could roughly reconstruct the location in a dream, with the help of Xiang Kun.

The giant with multiple arms and eyes carried Officer Xiao Zhao, flew into Zi Huan Mountain, then slowly began to decelerate, deliberately showing Officer Xiao Zhao his surroundings and their route.

Though some details in the dream differed from reality, and some areas blurred and unclear, as long as the general terrain and some distinctive landmarks remained the same for reference, it would allow Officer Xiao Zhao to “find the horse by tracking its footprints in his dreams” after he woke up.

If Officer Xiao Zhao couldn’t find the place, they could always try to induce the dream a few more times…

When the giant arrived at the final location, it put down Officer Xiao Zhao. All of its hands then pointed towards a cave not far off, as though inviting him to enter.

Officer Xiao Zhao’s fear of the giant in his dream had largely vanished after being carried for such a distance. He cautiously walked up to the entrance of the cave and peered inside.

There was someone inside, their face indistinct, their body enshrouded in fog, reaching out a hand to him and hoarsely crying, “Help me…”

Officer Xiao Zhao was startled and reflexively took two steps back, but he immediately rushed into the cave, extending his hand to help the person.

Under Old Xia’s control, the dream ended there and dissolved.

Zhao Feng opened his eyes, waking up from the dream.

He sat up on the edge of the bed, glanced at the pitch-black sky outside the window, checked the time on his phone, furrowed his brows, and began to recall the dream he just had.

This was not the first time he dreamed of the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster that he had discussed multiple times with his old classmates from the police academy.

Usually, when he woke up, he had difficulty recalling his dream. At least most of the content and details were unclear — he could barely tell what the dream had been about.

However, in recalling the dream he just had, all the details were incredibly clear.

He was actually carried by that monster, flying through the sky and into the mountains!

He was also clear that the mountain he entered in his dream was Zi Huan Mountain.

The final landing spot of that monster, that cave, was located in a relatively secluded area within Zi Huan Mountain where few people ventured.

Why would he dream such a dream?

Does Zi Huan Mountain really have a cave like that?

What does the person asking for help in the cave mean?

Zhao Feng wondered if he dreamt this because he had read a post about a phoenix battling a calamity on Zi Huan Mountain during the day, and been discussing the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster hallucination seen by numerous suspects with his old classmates this entire time.

Actually, during this time, he and his old classmate, who worked in another city, had made more discoveries.

Through further tracking the six suspects from the previous two cases, they found that the six who had all had hallucinations of the multi-armed, multi-eyed monster had undergone significant changes in their behaviors and characters.

There were two main manifestations. One, they sincerely repented, actively confessed their past crimes and wrongdoings to the police and the procuratorate without prompt. They even confessed things that were morally wrong but not illegal.

The other manifestation was extreme nervousness, strong delusions of persecution, constant fear, sleeplessness, and suspicion of everyone.

Among the six suspects, four showed the first type of behavior, and the other two showed the second type — one from each case.

The suspect from Citong City, who wielded a kitchen knife and ran to Yun Gang Branch claiming that someone wanted to kill him, has already been submitted for mental evaluation by the procuratorate.

Compared to the latter two, the former four suspects, who were sure to be jailed according to the judicial process, were in excellent mental condition and very optimistic. They were full of hope for the future and were ready to accept the upcoming trial.

The contrast between them was very stark, with a huge difference.

Zhao Feng and his old classmate both believed that these suspects’ abnormal behaviors were very likely related to their hallucinations.

However, this assumption, lacking hard evidence and with both cases already closed, made it inappropriate for him to bring it up with his partner, Old Xu. He could only continue to investigate during his leisure time with his old classmate.

Since he was always thinking about these matters, it was only normal for him to dream such a dream.

However, after lying back down, Zhao Feng found himself unable to fall asleep. His mind kept replaying the scene from his dream where the multi-armed monster carried him flying and the person in the cave reaching out to him.

So, he got up again, rubbed his face, picked up his phone, and opened the map app. He began to compare the “route” from his dream with the actual geographical features of Zi Huan Mountain.

Then, he was amazed to find that the route from his dream and reality could be matched.

Moreover, this route was one he had never taken in reality.

As dawn approached, he finally couldn’t help but get dressed and leave his house. He didn’t take his unit’s car or notify Old Xu. He simply hailed a taxi straight to Zi Huan Mountain on his own.

I recommend a very unique classical fantasy novel called “Deer Demon Chases Deer”.