茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

As for Xiang Kun, he sat on another bed, waiting for Old Xia to fall asleep.

Tonight, they still had a plan to enter their dreams – to guide Little Fatty Girl’s dream world and attempt to help her reestablish the individual connection with the “Custard Pie”.

Originally, Xiang Kun planned to use a combination of Old Xia’s and Little Fatty Girl’s dreams to let Little Fatty Girl self-sustain her dream world. After all, she is not like Old Xia who can “wake up” in her dream and actively use “super-connected objects” to project dreams for control. She can only perform such passive operation.

However, when two dreams are combined, Little Fatty Girl only dominates half of it, and she does not fully rely on her own control of the “super-connected objects” to sustain her dream which means the probability of failure is still high—especially as she didn’t remember the “Custard Pie” appearing in the shared dream with Xiang Kun last time.

So after hearing the content of Old Xia and Little Fatty Girl’s communication in the room, Xiang Kun came up with a new plan. Before leaving, he left behind a “black circle graffiti” for Little Fatty Girl, with which Old Xia had established a connection, and quietly told her it was a “magic rune” that could connect her to the “Roasted Chicken Wing Sister” in her dream.

Yes, his new plan was to connect Little Fatty Girl’s dream world through Old Xia’s “dream within a dream”.

Generally, the foundation of the “dream within a dream” guided by Old Xia is her “super-connected object projection.”

But Xiang Kun speculated based on Little Fatty Girl’s connection to the “Super Sensory Item System” that if Old Xia guides Little Fatty Girl into a “dream within a dream”, it might produce different results.

As to how exactly, they would have to find out through experimentation.

After confirming that Old Xia had fallen asleep through his senses, Xiang Kun also closed his eyes and began to sense the chopsticks in the backpack on the bedside table, guiding Old Xia into the dream.

Afterwards, as planned, Old Xia also guided Little Fatty Girl’s “dream within a dream” in her dream.

Inside Little Fatty Girl’s “dream within a dream”, just like in her previous dreams, she was still dressed in that unique cloak with cat ears, a typical “little magician” appearance.

However, the scene was no longer the peak overlooking the mountain ranges as before, but the interior of a palace.

Of course, the palaces in Little Fatty Girl’s dreams would surely be different from any palace in reality.

The walls around her were pink, with various decorations of Garfield, full of strong animations and girlish style, and even the whole environment felt somewhat 2.5D. It was very unreal – even though Xiang Kun and Old Xia knew it was a dream.

The furniture in the palace didn’t have any “noble” feeling, many of them were just like the furniture in room 706 next to Xiang Kun’s, like the sofa, coffee table, even a television appeared abruptly.

The only thing that seemed a bit “courtyard” was probably the long dining table in the middle, but the food on the table was nothing “court” or “noble” at all. There were french fries, shrimp chips, BBQ, grilled chicken wings, spicy rabbit meat, dry pot rabbit, cumin ribs, chopped pepper fish, all kinds of snacks and main dishes mixed together, there was even a big hot pot, with more than ten kinds of ice cream next to the hot pot…

When Little Fatty Girl’s “dream within a dream” was just triggered, it didn’t feel much different from when Old Xia guided others into a “dream within a dream”. But soon, the entire dream world began to experience dramatic changes.

This dramatic change was not a dramatic change on the sensory level, the environment or theme of the dream, but it came from the dream’s foundation.

Xiang Kun clearly felt that the underlying structure of the dream, initially supported by Old Xia’s control of “super-connected objects”, was now being “taken over” by the “super-connected objects” controlled by Little Fatty Girl just shortly after they entered the dream.

In terms of personality, there’s no doubt that Little Fatty Girl is soft and somewhat blurry, unlike Old Xia, who is decisive and planful. But, when observing the connection established and control ability over Xiang Kun’s “Super Sensory Item System”, her ability itself is very strong.

Currently, Old Xia controls ten “super-connected objects”, including nine coins and a ball bead, whereas Little Fatty Girl controls six “super-connected objects”, including five coins and a piece of A4 paper.

In terms of numbers, Old Xia clearly has the advantage, but Xiang Kun is well aware that their methods of controlling the “Super-connected Objects” are completely different, with significant disparities in their level of control and their ability to govern dreams. When the Little Fatty Girl controlled only two coins, her pure dominion was much stronger than Old Xia’s control of ten “Super-connected Objects”.

The only difference is that Old Xia can consciously exert subjective control, whereas the Little Fatty Girl’s understanding of this ability remains vague, both in dreams and reality.

As a result, within this subconscious-dominated “dream within a dream”, as Xiang Kun refrains from “interfering”, the Little Fatty Girl’s subconscious naturally takes over the control of the underlying “Super-connected Objects” in the dream.

And that was precisely the outcome Xiang Kun had predicted and hoped for.

This was dominance on a rules-based level.

In this way, despite having this “dream within a dream” not established by the Little Fatty Girl herself, it is de facto supported by her own “Super-connected Objects”. To some extent, this has greatly “restored” her dream in which she established a connection with the “Custard Pie”.

What Xiang Kun did not expect, however, was that after the underlying dreamscape was “taken over” by the Little Fatty Girl’s instincts, Old Xia directly “projected” and “embodied” within this “dream within a dream”. Rather than acting of her own free will, she was at the mercy of the Little Fatty Girl’s dreamscape.

In the Little Fatty Girl’s “dream within a dream”, Old Xia was noticeably taller than her real-life self, probably surpassing 1.9 meters based on the scale of her and the Little Fatty Girl.

Old Xia was also dressed in a distinctive robe similar to the Little Fatty Girl’s, except without a hood, her signature ponytail slightly swaying as she moved.

It was clear that her robe was even more extravagant than the Little Fatty Girl’s.

As for her looks, her eyes were bigger than in reality, shining like stars, very spirited, and her skin seemed to glow with a soft radiance, exuding a sense of sacredness and nobility that made her appear somewhat two-dimensional, less like a real person.

Clearly, since both their abilities originated from Xiang Kun, and since he was also present in the dream, the Little Fatty Girl’s subconscious, connected through the “Super Sensory Item System”, could recognize that the “guest” in the dream was Old Xia, and projected her accordingly based on her understanding of Old Xia.

Xiang Kun could immediately understand why Old Xia’s projection in the Little Fatty Girl’s dream looked like this.

To the Little Fatty Girl, Old Xia’s image was very “tall”, a psychological height. Old Xia was like a role model, even an idol to her.

Seeing Old Xia suddenly appearing in the palace, the Little Fatty Girl was not surprised at all, as if it were expected, and greeted naturally: “‘Chicken Wing Sister’, you should eat roasted chicken wings, these are particularly delicious! Also these, these are good too! These too, they are very fragrant…”

However, Xiang Kun knew that this was not because they had informed the Little Fatty Girl about their plans for a dream meeting that night. The Little Fatty Girl was still primarily controlled by her subconscious in her dreams, and remained in a state of confusion.

Compared to the projected Old Xia, Xiang Kun in the dream was still “full-view”, able to determine for himself the angle from which to observe the dream.

“Little Lingdang, where’s ‘Custard Pie’?” Old Xia didn’t pay attention to how high and two-dimensional she looked in the Little Fatty Girl’s dreams, and directly initiated the conversation, seemingly casually asking.

“Sister, do you want to eat a custard pie? Let me see where it is…” The Little Fatty Girl lifted the hem of her robe, stood up on her chair, and scanned the table.

Old Xia reminded her, “I’m not talking about food, but the cat, your big ginger cat Custard Pie.”

“Ah! Right, where is Custard Pie?” The Little Fatty Girl froze for a moment, then turned her head and shouted to the door: “Chocolate! Ice cream! Where is my Custard Pie?”

As soon as her voice fell, the palace door opened, soft light poured in, and two stout warriors in silver armor entered first, with an Arabic numeral “1” carved on the front of their armor, their looks were lovely and adorable, just like Baymax from Big Hero 6.

Following the two silver-armored warriors was a floating “magic carpet”, and on the carpet was a cat with a disproportionately large head and ears – this was none other than the “Custard Pie” projection that Xiang Kun had once seen in the Little Fatty Girl’s dream.

And behind that “magic carpet” were three silver-armored warriors, at least half the size of the two earlier ones, but looking exactly the same.

The moment he saw the big-headed cat, Xiang Kun had ascertained through his perception that “Custard Pie” had reestablished its individual connection with Little Fatty Girl.

This method of establishing connections was truly very, very special.

In a sense, within Little Fatty Girl’s own “network,” the status of the Super-connected object projections of “Custard Pie,” “Chocolate,” and “Ice Cream” were all the same.

Of course, at the power level, there were substantial differences.

“Custard Pie! Where did you run off to? ‘Roast Chicken Wing Sister’ wants to play with you!”

Little Fatty Girl immediately hopped onto the “Magic Carpet” and controlled it to fly in front of Old Xia. She then picked up the big-headed cat and handed it to her.

Old Xia took the big-headed cat, which looked nothing like the “Custard Pie” in reality and had been completely turn into a 2D image, and observed it closely for a while.

She knew that all projections within the dream represented Liu Shiling’s subconscious perception of various objects or abilities. Analyzing these could help her better understand Little Fatty girl’s development approach and system construction method.

So after observing the obedient “Custard Pie,” Old Xia turned to the five silver-armored, short, and fat soldiers, two big and three small, and asked while observing, “Who are they?”

Little Fatty Girl sat cross-legged on the “Magic Carpet,” looked back at the five silver-armored soldiers, and proudly introduced the larger two, “This is ‘Chocolate’, this is ‘Ice Cream’, they have followed me for the longest time, and they’re the strongest! The three at the back are ‘Lemon Tea’, ‘Green Bean Cake’, and ‘Sachima’, they just arrived last week, they’re new soldiers, they still need practice!”

“How powerful are they?” Old Xia followed up on Little Fatty Girl’s words.

“They can fly! They can charge! They can even generate electricity! Oh, and… they can combine! Transform into ‘Barbie Warriors’! But not real ‘Barbie Warriors’…” Little Fatty Girl scratched her chin, thinking while responding.

“Where did they come from?” Old Xia asked again.

“From ‘Uncle Bald’, the same as ‘Roast Chicken Wing Sister’!” Little Fatty Girl replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“What’s your ‘Uncle Bald’ like?” Old Xia instantly followed up.

“Uncle Bald…” Little Fatty Girl murmured to herself, beginning to think.

At this point, a huge figure began to appear inside the palace, coalescing from a mass of light.

Xiang Kun immediately felt that this coalescent figure was Little Fatty Girl’s cognitive projection of him, and he could project a part of his perception into it, to materialize himself in Little Fatty Girl’s dream like Old Xia.

It didn’t take long for Xiang Kun to discover that the light had coalesced into a very handsome, tall, and well-armored bald elf with a bow and arrow as tall as himself.

He looked like an archer, but besides a quiver on his back, he also carried a heavy shield as tall as himself, and he even had a magic wand at his waist.

Well, in Little Fatty Girl’s cognition, within the ability system she constructs, Xiang Kun is indeed an all-capable omnipotent warrior, a melee magician…

The palace was getting brighter and brighter, the light forming the bald elf was getting stronger and stronger, and the bald elf’s figure was getting bigger and bigger, exceeding two meters, four meters, six meters, quickly reaching the top of the palace.

But he didn’t stop coalescing, he directly pierced through the palace roof.

Or to put it another way, the entire palace’s roof directly turned into a light point and dispersed, while the elf kept getting bigger.

The rate at which he expanded and grew larger dramatically increased. Soon, the light shaping the bald elf went from coalescing to spreading and exploding, and then it filled the entire dream space, every corner, every spot.

The bald elf, or maybe Xiang Kun, had completely dispersed, or more accurately, was everywhere.

And with that, the dream fell apart.

…

Around ten A.M. the next day, Xiang Kun and Old Xia headed to the airport to pick up Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er, who had arrived in Star City.

“Brother Xiang, how did you sneakily kidnap Old Xia to Star City? You didn’t even mention it in the group chat!” As soon as they met, Yang Zhen’er complained with dissatisfaction.

“Old Xia and I came to look at a research institution’s building design in Star City and also visited Liu Shiling for a meal. We were supposed to go back late last night, but since you guys were coming, we thought we might as well meet with Liu Shiling together.” Xiang Kun explained.

He wasn’t lying. That morning, he and Old Xia really did visit a research institute in Star City. Although they weren’t allowed to enter, they saw everything they wanted to, using the “Super Sensory State” in conjunction with “Super-connected Objects” and “Emotion Infused Objects”.

Yang Zhen’er asked in confusion, “What are you looking at a research institute’s building design for?”

Xiang Kun replied, “Didn’t I tell you before? I plan on making a breeding research center in Chongyun Village. Old Xia has been helping me a lot with this lately. You must’ve known about this…”

“Wait… are you guys serious about this?” Yang Zhen’er looked astounded, and turned to Tang Baona, “Nana, are they serious?”

Tang Baona helplessly replied, “Xiang Kun never said he was joking.”

Yang Zhen’er turned to face her cousin, “You mentioned before that you wanted to quit your job to help Xiang Kun. Have you… resigned? Does your third aunt know?”

Xia Libing simply replied, “Not yet. My third aunt knows.”

Yang Zhen’er scratched her head, “A doctor who studied psychology and psychiatry, running off to research breeding… Eh, can’t say much, Nana and I, two accountants, are all focused on researching game development and operations, we’re not much better.”

Yang Zhen’er then looked at Xiang Kun with a “melancholy” expression, “Brother Xiang, Brother Xiang, I never would’ve thought, half a year ago when I pulled you into playing a card game, we three would all resign because of you… Ah? As I recall, you had just become unemployed then. Could this be… unemployment contagion?”

Tang Baona laughed and slapped her butt, pushing her towards the airport exit, “Unemployed my foot! Nobody forced you, you quit yourself, okay? If you regret it, go back and beg your dad on your knees now, I’m sure you can even pick up your old job!”

“Go away, am I such a thick-skinned person? I’ve told my dad that if I don’t do well this time I won’t go back!”

“Didn’t you sleep at home last night? You even said on WeChat that the pork rib soup cooked by your mom tastes a bit too worse than Brother Xiang’s…”

“My ‘going back’ isn’t going back physically, it’s psychologically, you know! Hey, Nana, wait, are you planning to drive me away and then take my shares? I wouldn’t have thought, even you, Nana, are seduced by capital…”

With Yang Zhen’er around, there was indeed no dull moment. They jested all the way, called a car at the airport exit, and headed straight to the kindergarten to meet with Little Fatty Girl and Shiling’s Mom, to eat together.

After all, Tang Baona and Yang Zhen’er had only each brought a small backpack, so they didn’t need to go to the hotel to drop off their luggage first.