Chapter 54 Dream’s First Experience
When Jima opened her eyes, she suspected something was wrong with her eyesight.
The room was now only in black and white, the shapes of objects becoming blurry, as if a Chinese painting had been splashed with water.
Jima was so frightened that she jumped straight out of bed, instinctively searching for George’s silhouette. Unknowingly, finding George had become her reflexive action.
In the place where George had been sleeping lay a fuzzy figure, all details obscured. Above the figure’s head was a bright “cotton” that resembled a dialogue bubble, emitting a faint light, enticing her to explore it.
Jima suppressed her curiosity first by pinching her own leg; it hurt. She tugged at her tail—more pain! She sorted through her memories and stated them aloud:
“I, the great demon king, almost fell victim to a nightmare during my promotion, but was saved by a dead virgin. I even had feelings for him, but fortunately, he was too stupid and didn’t do anything to me. My body is growing, and my previous reactions to him were purely physiological.”
She emphasized the phrase “physiological reaction.”
The memories were very clear; this should not be a dream within a dream—had I entered the dream world?
Jima felt a slight sense of relief as she approached the bright cotton. As she neared it, the “bright cotton” gradually became clearer, presenting a scene. Jima looked closely and confirmed that this was George’s first-person view as he rode his stallion.
George was riding his warhorse, galloping through the wilderness, his bragging louder than the sound of the hooves. It was obvious it was Sztuan. Suddenly, the ground collapsed, and a little girl dressed in black and white fell into the abyss.
Jima felt a wave of panic as she watched George fighting in the darkness, searching for her trace.
These were all fragments from the day; the dead virgin’s dream was just as boring as anyone else’s—grandiose and tedious.
Jima evaluated in her heart.
Now it was certain: she had arrived in the dream world.
Although the dream world was very mysterious, Jima had many questions in her mind. However, she wasn’t in a hurry to explore; instead, she opened her personal system interface to check the upgrade requirements—becoming stronger was her top priority.
“Upgrade requirements: Unknown, please explore on your own.”
What a scam.
Jima looked at George’s dream, her eyes glimmering.
Nightmares, by definition, should be monsters that give people terrifying nightmares. So, I’ll twist this dream, sow nightmares, and use the dead virgin as a test subject. Alternatively, why not let him have a circle cross my erotic dream?
Let a paladin dream of OOXX!
Jima thought this idea was brilliant. Not only could she harvest lust, but it would also make George feel guilty towards her.
She couldn’t wait and reached out to touch the dream; it felt warm.
George’s dream was reaching the final moment of a hero rescuing the beauty. George stood before a succubus, mumbling confusing words.
Jima inexplicably felt she could distort his dream at will. With a thought, the succubus girl in the dream had her clothes blur and twist, her dirty attire transforming into something clean.
How magical! Let’s put her in a school swimsuit, black and white stockings, make her butt a bit perkier, and George, hurry up and pounce on her.
Jima was so excited, just about to intensify her efforts when—
Suddenly, the dream became scorching hot. It burned enough for Jima to pull back her hands, taking a few steps back in fright as she saw that in George’s dream, the succubus girl had returned to her original state.
How frustrating! Fire and water were incompatible—harder than a rock.
Jima sighed with regret, her tail swaying left and right. It felt like something was stirring her hair, as if something was playing with it.
Is someone there?!
Jima quickly jumped up, spinning halfway in the air, leaning toward George, with emptiness behind her.
She frowned, focused her thoughts, and felt her hair being stirred. She reached back to touch it, and as expected, she grasped a set of wings that were significantly larger than she remembered.
“I almost forgot, I have a pair of wings.”
Jima stretched her wings, causing them to grow larger, making the whole room feel suddenly cramped. She extended her arm to align with her right wing, yet her arm was only half the length of the wing.
She attempted to flap her wings, but instead of the whirlwind she had anticipated, Jima flew straight to the ceiling. Startled, she covered her head, and instinctively flapped her wings once, causing her body to sway and narrowly avoid hitting her head.
Just like a bird growing up, instinctively knowing how to fly. Jima’s wings maintained a certain force, allowing her to “float” steadily in the air.
She wasn’t sure if it was her growing up or if she could fly in this dream. It felt about as strenuous as running; I can finally fly!
Jima retracted her wings, taking a few quick steps, she rushed to the window and pushed it open.
Outside was a street outlined in black and white. She joyfully flapped her wings, leaping onto the window frame, crouching down, and looking down at the street. A wave of fear washed over her, triggering her psychological shadow.
Taking a deep breath to overcome her fear of heights, she forcefully kicked off with her thighs. As her wings flapped vigorously, her body lightly lifted upward, the hotel below quickly distanced itself, and before long, she was soaring over the city, looking down.
The city of Shalin in her dream remained peaceful and quiet. The black-and-white outlined Shalin looked hazy as if shrouded in fog, dotted with countless softly glowing dreams, like a field of cotton waiting to be harvested.
Jima effortlessly spun three and a half circles in the air, even executing a cobra maneuver. The fear of heights in her heart had mostly dissipated.
Ha! I’m not afraid of heights anymore!
She circled in the air, imagining herself as a J-20, below was her domain; whoever dared to defy her would—
“Whoosh~~~ Boom!”
Jima pointed her finger at the imagined traitors, making a missile launching sound with her mouth. With a bang, the enemy exploded, the remaining ones dropped their weapons and surrendered to her.
If it weren’t for the growing fatigue reminding her that she still needed to explore the “nightmare upgrade method,” Jima could have played all night. She landed on the bell tower of Shalin, behind her the copper bell, sitting on the window frame with her legs swinging.
Panting, the excitement in her heart gradually faded, and she began to feel that she had been too childish just now; clearly, she had lived three lifetimes.
“It must be this body; it’s young, probably the size of a middle school girl, affecting me to be a bit more immature—that’s normal.”
Feeling justified in blaming her body, Jima looked down over the city, seeing dream fragments like pure white cotton.
She felt a sense of choice paralysis. After thinking about it, she decided to choose someone with whom she had a connection; this would facilitate feedback.
Immediately, a bald man jumped out of her mind. Thinking of this alchemist, whom she inspired to abandon darkness and step onto the bright path, Jima felt an urge to inspire him even more.
But unfortunately, she realized. She didn’t know where the bald alchemist lived, so she had to give up.
What about the heavenly warhorse? Last time, it reported me. Forget it, it’s just a stallion; it’s probably busy sowing seeds in the dream, and it’s hard to get feedback from a horse.
In the end, the hotel servant became the lucky main participant in her human experiment.
Last time, George had stood up for her, confronting that guard who harassed her. They complained about George for being easy to talk to, and after she defended herself, they would likely do something petty behind his back—like tampering with the food. Besides, she just got up in the middle of the night to eat.
Although George probably gave them a lot of money, it didn’t stop them from seeking revenge.
Jima believed that threats were far more effective than kindness. The best way to manage people was not to give them coins, but to find a tough guy and twist off his head.
So, she flew back to the hotel. According to her memory, she found the dormitory on the first floor; the door was tightly closed. But when Jima pushed, the door opened by itself. She walked in and saw four dreams hovering above the heads of four people in the room.
She browsed through the four dreams, searching for the servant’s dream. She was quickly captivated by a pale green dream; she soon discerned that the pale green represented rage, filled with desires of anger.
Jima leaned forward, making the pale green dream focus.
She actually saw George with a face full of blubber, boasting loudly:
“You added disgusting things to this soup.”
The dream flashed back as the dream’s owner remembered spitting into the soup while serving it.
Just a bit of saliva, what’s so dirty about it?
“No!”
“You’re lying!”
George shouted. Jima was sure that the dream’s owner had exaggerated subjectively.
In the end, in the dream, Jima saw George giving the dream owner a silver coin as a tip to change the soup, extra food money, and warned that if there was a next time, he would have to speak to the hotel owner.
However, the dream owner became even angrier. Clearly, there was no evidence, yet he forcibly assaulted him and flaunted giving money. The entire dream turned more obviously pale green.
No wonder it took so long for the food to be served; I was starving!
Jima touched the dream with her hands, feeling that to distort it, she needed to immerse herself in the dream.
It was as if plunging into thick fog, everything around her became blurry, and a gentle breeze suddenly blew in, dispersing the mist.
The surroundings suddenly changed to the familiar hotel. What was unfamiliar were the people; George was kneeling in front of the hotel servant, trembling like a clown in a play, banging his head and shouting, “I was wrong! I was wrong, spare my life!”
And the hotel servant was kicking George hard, with each kick making George tumble.
Beside him stood a girl who looked exactly like her, dressed in a white gauzy dress and wearing a hat, beautiful like an angel, hugging the servant’s thigh softly and saying, “Big brother, let’s play in bed together.”
A wave of goosebumps ran through Jima. Although she knew dreams lacked logic and were influenced by personal intentions, this was too disgusting.
First, she tried to explore her abilities within the dream, feeling her control was even stronger than she had imagined. With a thought, she wished to know what the hotel servant feared the most.
Instantly, the surroundings shifted.
In a damp temple, the hotel servant, still a child, looked up at the statue of a god holding a trident, which was the often-raging sea god, Anbori. A rambling priest recited the sea god’s might, and the servant in the statue saw a tsunami destroying fishing villages along the coast, also witnessing the god standing atop the tsunami’s waves wielding a lightning trident.
He knelt trembling on the ground.
Jima smiled, waved her hand, and the dream changed back to the hotel. With a thought, a trident made of lightning appeared in her hand, and she recreated the scene of a tsunami sweeping through the city from her memories into the dream.
In an instant, the world changed color; outside the window, the tsunami was destroying the entire Shalin city.
The hotel servant finally noticed Jima, saying, “You… who are you?”
“I am the messenger of the sea god.” Jima had now adopted the appearance of a bald, muscular man, “I came specifically to find you.”
The hotel servant’s legs went weak in fear, kneeling on the ground, unable to speak for a long time.
“What do you want to do to a guest named George?”
“I want to take revenge on him, secretly adding a harmful ingredient to his horse feed. And I’ll spread rumors that his servant is actually a chicken,” the hotel servant answered truthfully. In dreams, very few could maintain their sanity.
“I came specifically to warn you.” Jima raised the trident, and in an instant, lightning illuminated the entire sky outside, “You must listen to me.”
“I’ll listen, I’ll definitely listen!”
“Very well…”
