Chapter 11: This Is a Dream

“This… using her own blood as seasoning?” Zheng Yichen watched as the blood in the cup was controlled by some unknown method of hers, dispersing into a mist of blood that merged into that piece of roasted meat.

The roasted meat overall appeared unchanged. The Little Lolita, who had not touched the meat earlier, now actively reached out and picked it up. As if expecting something, she extended a finger and lightly touched the meat. After waiting for nearly half a minute and confirming there was no change, she just slightly… oh no!

Zheng Yichen widened his eyes in shock, staring at the Little Lolita before him who had suddenly turned into a glutton. The elegant manner she had maintained earlier completely vanished. Even her small mouth, through some principle Zheng Yichen didn’t understand, took a bite that removed about one-tenth of the roasted meat!!

This, this, did she have some grudge against this Wild Boar?

Only after gobbling down half the meat in a few bites did the Little Lolita slow her eating pace. She picked up a handkerchief placed nearby, gently wiped the corner of her mouth, and began tasting it in small bites, as if savoring some rare delicacy. It made Zheng Yichen wonder if he had somehow evolved into a master chef?

Hmm, compared to the terrifying eating manner she had just displayed, this current demeanor was probably how a Little Lolita being fed should rightly behave, right?

His Dragon’s Claw hooked slightly, easily skewering a piece of meat on each claw. The taste? It felt pretty much the same as before, at least not much different from his culinary skills from the previous couple of months.

After finishing most of the Wild Boar roast, the Little Lolita barely managed to eat the remaining portion. Seeing she had no intention to eat more, Zheng Yichen nodded slightly. No matter how remarkable she was, she was just a little pipsqueak. How much could she really eat?

“I want to sleep… hmm, you wouldn’t understand.” The Little Lolita looked up at Zheng Yichen, reached over with one hand, pulled his wing which was resting beside him, and used it like a blanket to cover herself. Zheng Yichen thus became the bed.

“This…” What the heck? Where did this mysterious trust come from? Stunned by the Little Lolita’s action, Zheng Yichen was momentarily at a loss for what to do next. Seeing she was already sound asleep, moving even slightly would probably wake her. He was full and satisfied with drink, so he might as well sleep too.

Zheng Yichen, lying on the ground, slowly closed his eyes. This Dragon Body had an innate advantage when it came to sleep. Basically, it could go for a very long time without sleeping if needed, but could also fall asleep almost instantly when desired.

Since crossing over into this world, Zheng Yichen had hardly ever dreamed. But tonight, he unusually had a dream.

In the dream, he was no longer in his Dragon Body, but back in his original body. The location was no longer that deserted Town resembling a ghost town, but his familiar little nest. Everything in the room was arranged exactly as he remembered, giving him a momentary illusion that he had finally crossed back!

People always said crossing over was great. Well, he hadn’t experienced any good since his crossing. Not to mention spending most of a year living in the wild, he was almost caught by the Humans of this world for some unknown purpose. Communication was a major hurdle too. From any angle, life after crossing was no match for his original life!

What made him realize he hadn’t crossed back was the view outside the window. It wasn’t the familiar street, but a deep, boundless darkness that seemed to stretch on endlessly. Just looking at it gave him an inexplicable sense of dread, as if he might be swallowed.

“Hmm? You’re actually afraid of your own Dream?”

“Who… huh!? Who are you?” Zheng Yichen asked in confusion, looking at the Little Lolita who had appeared in his room. He was sure she wasn’t there when he observed the room earlier!

“Entering your Dream wasted a bit of time.” The Little Lolita, sitting on the bed, reached out and grabbed the blanket on it. Tilting her head, she examined the patterns on it. They were purely decorative and served no practical use. The material seemed to be cotton, very ordinary, but the craftsmanship was extremely fine.

Many things in a Dream aren’t real. Their form exists based on the Dream’s owner’s impression of them. The more profound the impression, the more real the object appears in the Dream. So, something like a bed is probably what a Dream’s owner can most perfectly materialize in a Dream…

“It really is a dream… huh? Wait! I can understand what you’re saying?” Zheng Yichen said in surprise, looking at the Little Lolita who was sniffing his blanket. Since it’s a dream, do things like smells… even exist?

He picked up a half-finished glass of juice sitting beside the computer desk and sniffed it. Hey! There really is a smell!

“I don’t know what language you speak, but in a Dream, we can communicate. This communication is similar to mental connection. What looks like a conversation now is actually information conveyed through mental communication, transformed into language.”

“Actually, I still don’t know what language you speak, and you don’t know what language I speak either.” The Little Lolita stared at Zheng Yichen with an exceptionally calm expression. “Also, your current appearance is your truest self, right?”

“Sounds impressive even if I don’t fully get it.”

“It’s fine. We have plenty of time to communicate.” The Little Lolita looked at the clock hanging on the wall. This thing was very different from timing tools like hourglasses, but with a little understanding, one could see it was a timing tool from Zheng Yichen’s memory.

She didn’t enter Zheng Yichen’s Dream through invasive means, but through other deceptive methods, achieving entry in the sense of being a ‘guest.’ It wasn’t an invasion, so she was accepted within Zheng Yichen’s Dream. Therefore, the information in the Dream, based on Zheng Yichen’s cognition, would also take effect for her.

For example, the numbers on that clock. In Zheng Yichen’s eyes, they were the characters he knew. In her eyes, they appeared as something else. Of course, if she didn’t want to accept that part of the information, the numbers on the clock would revert to the numbers from Zheng Yichen’s cognition.

Casually picking up one of the few books tossed on the table by Zheng Yichen’s bed, she found the content inside very scattered due to missing words and sentences. This wasn’t strange. Books were just products materialized by Zheng Yichen in the Dream. Unless he had completely memorized the book, its content couldn’t possibly appear complete.

Pulling out the book at the very bottom of the pile, she glanced at the cover — “Complete Bedtime Stories.” Opening it, she saw the content, while not entirely complete, was about eighty percent intact. This indicated the Dream’s owner had a rather deep impression of this book.

After flipping through a couple of pages, she was drawn to something Zheng Yichen had been staring at. “What is that?”

“Uh, my beloved Computer!?” Zheng Yichen rubbed the bridge of his nose, hesitated for a moment, then reached out and pressed the power button. To his delight, the thing actually seemed capable of turning on. Seeing the familiar startup screen, he almost teared up!