Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

In a dark room, the girl sat on her knees leaning against the wall.

Only when the electronic display screen placed in the corner flickers from time to time can people see the scattered wires on the ground clearly. The girl looked fixedly at a certain place, as if she would not leave even if the world came to an end.

The chains on her hands suddenly rubbed against the ground and made an unpleasant friction sound. Following the sound, the girl fell to the ground, a glimmer of hope flashed in her godless pupils, and she closed her eyes again and fell asleep.

There was a "squeak" sound from nowhere, and a window inlaid with iron bars appeared out of nowhere on the dim yellow wall. Moonlight broke into the gap and sprinkled on the ground not far in front of the girl. Immediately afterwards, a look of vicissitudes and struggling to pursue something appeared on the opposite side of the window.

"I imprison myself in a dream, but I can wake up from the dream again and again."

The middle-aged man muttered to himself, and squeezed the file in his hand tightly.

A strange smile appeared on his face, "That's why I'm so attached to you—"

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[[Hot Discussion] Does the so-called "collective nightmare" really exist? ? Did everyone really have the same nightmare these past few nights? 】

●Like the quiet moonlight

"'Between dreams and reality is the dwelling place of the soul. Whoever can pass through this road will be able to see the world on the other side.'

I heard someone say that~ but I can't see his face clearly, it seems that I haven't seen anyone near me since the beginning. I can't even tell the gender of the other person. His voice seemed to be voiced by thousands of people standing together at the same time, as if it could be anyone's voice.

Later, I tried to recall that voice, but I vaguely felt that it was actually the intertwined voice of countless people trapped in the abode of souls. They were calling for help to us dreamers, hoping that we could replace them The location of the place... Thinking of this, I suddenly broke out in a cold sweat, and at the end of the dream, the crawling monster chased after me the day before yesterday, and I really broke out in a sweat.

And one more thing! ! I heard that everyone mentioned the sentence I wrote at the beginning during the discussion, and they all said that they heard this sentence in a dream. However, I remember that when I was about to wake up, I heard another sentence. I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone. I don’t remember very clearly, maybe the original words are not like this, but I tried my best to restore it~

"Don't try to jump out of the circle of karma that contains you, because there is no place for you outside the circle. 』It’s almost like this. "

I stared at the dense text on the screen, and moved my thumb to slide up the screen a few times. The relevant responses seem to have been agreed in secret, and they all believe that the dream they had last night was like this. For a moment, it was as if a thousand bees were swinging around in my head, stirring my brain and making me buzz.

The slightly suspicious steps made me look away from the screen, and the girl handed me a coffee drink that the manufacturer had adjusted a little out of taste.

I hesitated for a few seconds before catching the bottle, and thanked me gently. The little hand that seemed to melt under the sun was received behind the girl. The light reflected in the water-blue pupils swayed with the movement of her head, just like a calm sea.

"Su Ruoyang, what's going on now? The online communities related to Seaside City should be blown up, right?"

This made me hand Xia Yinci my phone, "Hmm...the discussion is more heated than yesterday, and there are obviously more people claiming to have the same dream than yesterday."

I finally unscrewed the bottle cap, and Xia Yinci, who was beside me, gently stroked a strand of black hair behind her ear, and she took the opened lunch box and put it on the square railing, and softly groaned "I'm starting!" He picked up his chopsticks and forked a piece of luncheon meat into his mouth.

"You eat it too~ we'll talk after we're done~" Xia Yinci said heartlessly, and picked up another piece and handed it to my mouth.

"Um... you used this fork just now, right?" Before I could finish my sentence, Xia Yinci stuffed the luncheon meat into my mouth without a doubt when I opened my mouth.

"I didn't see you being so fussy when I was a child! How did you become so coy?" She gave me an annoyed look, not caring about sharing the fork at all.

I took a step forward and naturally stuck to the railing. What you can see from the roof is just the scenery on the playground. Normally, a group of high school students would appear early shouting lines they had heard somewhere, playing soccer passionately under the leadership of the football club, and immersing themselves in the afternoon, but today there were only female students in twos and threes on the track walk.

After a while, the male student who always took the lead in kicking the ball came to the center of the court with the ball in his arms. However, it is not an exaggeration to describe the number of participants as "very small".

"Just now you said that in the near future, those involved in the collective nightmare will never be able to wake up from the dream, are you kidding?"

Xia Yinci nodded her head without any hesitation when she heard this. It seemed that she didn't want to hide anything from me about this matter. I smiled, and there was a cry of goals on the playground. It's rare to be so frank with me.

"Nothing should happen. I thought so too. I thought it was strange. They must have been involved in this."

I quietly glanced to the side, Xia Yinci was playing with the balls in the box with chopsticks, the blue color in the blurred pupils rolled up the waves.

"If this continues, I might be trapped too..."

Xia Yinci muttered softly, then bit her lower lip lightly. As a result, her lips were a little pale, making her look rather sickly.

"What did you say? What do you mean you will be trapped too? Isn't it true that lucid dreamers will not be implicated?"

Surprised by my sudden accusation, I waved my hand, and the bento box slid down because of it. I quickly reached out to catch it, and helped it back to the railing. Recalling Xia Yinci's previous experience of being crushed by ghosts, I suddenly understood what was happening, and my eyes that did not stop until I heard the answer sank.

"I also had that dream last night. It's almost astonishingly consistent with what's said here." Xia Yinci handed the phone back to me, and the string of text just now was still displayed on the screen.

"But shouldn't lucid dreamers have collective nightmares? I remember you said that you couldn't enter the gap between dreams for a while because of your illness... Could it be that you came to school before you recovered from your illness?"

Xia Yinci hurriedly moved her hands to her chest and shook them vigorously, and the clump of dull hair on the top of her head also swayed from side to side.

"The illness is cured!! The reason why lucid dreamers cannot have collective nightmares is that dreamers have autonomous consciousness, so they will not change easily with the migration of dreams. Even if the dream changes to the general direction of collective nightmares, you I can also promise not to go there. But I still can't enter the state of lucid dreaming... so I was probably taken there last night."

While saying this, Xia Yinci's eyes kept wandering between me and the scene downstairs. Because the movement of tilting the head reveals the fair neck, the right hand can always rest on the neck.

I know the reason why she can't lucid dream now, she must know, but if there is a reason why she can't tell me, most of it is related to that thing that I have forgotten.

"I don't care about the others... Are you also trapped in that collective nightmare and unable to wake up?"

It's rare for me to talk to Xia Yinci in such an indiscriminate tone, so Xia Yinci was inevitably moved by my emotions, and nodded at me with trembling eyes.

"In that case, I can't stay out of it. When you said 'they got involved', who did you mean by 'they'?"

It seemed that something Xia Yinci didn't want to tell me was mentioned again, and her eyes obviously avoided it again.

Her right hand, which was stroking her neck, also reached into her hair, ruffling the ends of her hair restlessly.

"I don't understand, what is more important than you not waking up."

Suddenly, a voice came from the entrance and exit of the rooftop. The man held the book rolled into a stick and tapped his own shoulder back and forth.

The other party - Lin Yu walked towards the edge where we were rather impatiently.

"What kind of ginseng is involved, please tell me."

"Where did you eavesdrop on there?"

Xia Yinci didn't even look at Lin Yu, and she didn't even look at me, as if she was staring at something behind me, her body revealed a contemptuous arrogance, I didn't even dare to look at her. Although her voice was still clear, it was so cold that it was almost unfamiliar, which gave me the illusion that it was not Xia Yinci in front of me.

Lin Yu didn't seem to react for a while, and stared at Xia Yinci strangely, but didn't respond to her.

"Heh, I'm already on the verge of death, so why worry about other things?"

Xia Yinci only glanced at Lin Yu at this moment, as if she wanted to freeze Lin Yu's whole body, but under this situation, Lin Yu snorted and laughed.

"It's not an illusion... You also had the same eyes that day. In fact, teacher, I have pryed into the minds of many types of people. I have also tried to ponder your mind, but the answer is 'no solution'." Speaking of this, Lin Yu stared at Xia Yinci's frozen eyes, and said word by word, "Student Xia Yinci, there is really something wrong with you!"

"If you don't want to lose your life now, I advise you to get out immediately."

When the words fell, I actually felt Qianyan's temperament from Xia Yinci's body, which made me look Xia Yinci up and down.

The one standing in front of me is undoubtedly Xia Yinci, but her insides seem to have changed to someone else. Only on the day before the domination war started, I saw such a strange Xia Yinci, and that time was because Lin Yu denied the existence of the domination.

Even in this atmosphere where I couldn't help panting for any slight movement, I still mustered up the courage to interrupt the silence of frozen breathing, and stood in the middle of the two people's butt-to-eyes.

"This is not the time to discuss such things, is it? The most important thing is how to get you out of the collective nightmare, so I must know who 'they' are."

"Tell you what you plan to do in the future? Are you going to die alone? Or are you two going to die?"

Xia Yinci has absolutely no intention of backing down, her gaze made me dare not raise my eyes. In fact, the main reason is because I don't know how to answer her questions at all. Probably noticing that none of us answered what she meant, Xia Yinci turned around and closed the lunch box, squinted at me, and walked towards the entrance and exit of the rooftop.

"Let's stop here. I can take care of my own affairs." There was no coldness in the tone, and it was as if nothing had happened.

When the door was closed with a "click" and Xia Yinci's figure disappeared from sight, Lin Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief, and patted my shoulder with sympathetic eyes.

"Your little girlfriend is really scary. If you didn't shake M, life after marriage would be very difficult."

"What... What kind of girlfriend?? She's not!! And what are you talking about as a teacher!"

I quickly put aside his hand, and my whole body experienced a miraculous transformation from the freezing point to the temperature of the flames. I really wonder if he is so greasy in class, and I feel very worried about entrusting Su Eirin to the class he is in charge of. Let Su Huilin transfer to another class, it's better to stay away from this head teacher as soon as possible...

"Okay. I was just joking. There is no need to question my teaching level because of this."

"Hey, how do you know what I'm thinking? I'm not dreaming, am I?"

There was a violent shaking from the back of my head, and I realized that I was hit hard by the book in his hand, and I quickly rubbed the back of my head.

"You've written your thoughts so sincerely on your face, so I don't want to show you face if I don't read it out?"

"Am I so easy to understand...you don't need mind reading skills to know what I'm thinking..."

"Okay, let's get back to the topic! Do you have any clue about the "they" Xia Yinci mentioned? "

Those words made my palms tremble as I rubbed the sore spot. Trying hard to recall all the things Xia Yinci mentioned, it seems that he can't find anyone who can match this matter.

"You don't seem to know..." Lin Yu straightened up, and began to tap his shoulders with the book regularly, "Really, could it be that group of dream madmen who did it?"

At first I didn't pay attention to Lin Yu's words, after all, he seemed to have always had a big opinion on dominating the war, and it would not be strange to suspect anything about the Madman of Dreams. But I suddenly thought of something, I quickly raised my hand holding the phone, and hurriedly woke up the screen, the line of text immediately appeared in front of my eyes——

"Don't try to jump out of the circle of karma that contains you, because there is no place for you outside the circle."

This sentence was implicated in another sentence heard in the dream earlier. I racked my brains trying to recall that sentence, so the female's cold and high voice sounded again.

"Only by recovering all your memories can you jump out of the circle you are in now."

Carefully scrutinizing the words, I realized that these are two sentences with completely opposite meanings-the former advises to stay in place and not try to break free, while the latter explains the only way to break free. It is not impossible if this comes from the mouths of two different dream madmen. In the only scene where the 12 dream madmen were seen standing together, they didn't look united either.

"If it's the dream madmen... then what are they trying to tell us? There must be a purpose, right? Why are they doing this?"

"Warning us not to try to break the rules governing war? But if we do this, it should be us who have a collective nightmare, not these unrelated people." Lin Yu put down his hand when he said this, and finally unfolded the book, caught in it Under the arm, "However, since it is related to the dream madman, there may be someone who can provide us with information."

I couldn't help but raised my head in bewilderment. Lin Yu gave me a mysterious look, raised his head towards me, and motioned for me to follow. This scene always gave me an indescribable sense of disobedience, and it took me a while to realize that, as a teacher, Lin Yu was inviting students to skip class? ? Even though I thought so in my heart, I followed Lin Yu with a strange mood.

The coffee shop on the opposite corner of the street from the school, from top to bottom, a girl dressed in lavender short-sleeved, denim short skirt and a pair of sneakers walked slowly along the street outside my window, she pushed open the door left and right After looking around for a while, my eyes fell on Lin Yu and I who were sitting directly across from each other. She closed her right eye and pointed to the service desk to order a drink first, Lin Yu nodded.

"Meeting the tea cat, you still want to whet my appetite?" I really couldn't catch up with Lin Yu's thinking, so I couldn't help complaining at him, but Lin Yu shrugged indifferently. On the other side, the tea cat chose a drink and walked over here. The mole on the top of her eye bags is particularly eye-catching.

"What's the matter, Master? What's the matter with me?" Tea Mao tilted his head obediently, showing a loving smile. She actually thought of a pair of folded ears running out of her head. I can't help feeling that whoever named her really accentuated her features perfectly.

"I told you, don't call me that..." Lin Yu glanced at me before continuing, "Forget it... You should already know about the collective nightmare, right?"

"Do you think there's anyone here who doesn't know about this?"

The tea cat said while looking around the surrounding area. I saw a few people cast a concerned look here because of this word.

"Speaking of which, master, you should be more concerned about your own problems now, shouldn't you?"

"Don't call me that... I know my problem can't be taken lightly! Besides, I also have something I want to talk to William."

"What do you want to tell William?"

I managed to intervene in their conversation, Lin Yu's eyes turned to my side, he scratched the bridge of his nose and nodded his head.

"Well, that's fine. It's nothing to do with you guys. Remember William mentioned that the Master Clock is connected to our world?"

I responded of course. William had concealed this matter for a long time at the time, so when I heard his explanation, it was difficult for me to accept it. Naturally, I was quite impressed by this matter.

"Don't you think it's strange at all? One ruler clock is connected to one world, but we and Elus don't belong to the same world. After all, whose world is the second clock connected to? If our world is the same as If other clocks are connected, if we defeat the ruler of that clock, won’t we destroy our own world?”

For some reason, these words made the tea cat put its softly clenched hands in front of its mouth, narrowed its eyes slightly, and let out a light laugh.

"No, what are you laughing at? Is this funny?"

"How can I not laugh~" Tea Mao opened his squinted eyes just now, and his eyebrows were extremely soft, "William clearly said that 'one master clock connects several different real worlds', you I didn’t hear it clearly. There are more than 12 in the real world~ I think it’s because you have a big prejudice against William~”

"Yes...is it?" Lin Yu was choked up and couldn't answer. He gave me an embarrassed look. Lin Yuzhen didn't look like a teacher at all, but like a student in elementary school who was fully prepared to make a speech that he thought was invulnerable, raised his hand and wanted to be called by the teacher. On the contrary, although Tea Cat always has a flirtatious look in every gesture, it also has the temperament of a teacher's intellectuality.

"If you can't admit from the bottom of your heart that you are the ruler, you might really die."

"Well, I'm working hard for the time being... Besides, I'm working hard on your proposal." Lin Yu blushed for some reason, and probably noticed my puzzled gaze, and he quickly waved his hands Changed the subject, "That's why I will explore the issue of collective nightmares for my own problems too!!"

"I don't understand what's going on in your brain circuit~"

"Hey, are you qualified to say that to me? You are the one who exposes your strange brain circuits every now and then, okay?"

Lin Yu's knock on the table once again attracted the attention of everyone in the coffee shop. He looked around, coughed and sank into the back of the chair behind him, as if he could hide himself in this way.

"Okay... students came to me yesterday and today, and they were all students who had shared their troubles with me before. They came to me this time because of collective nightmares. One of the students mentioned that a senior sister was very concerned about this I know him quite well, so I found Xia Yinci based on his description..."

I noticed that Lin Yu glanced at me. No wonder Lin Yu suddenly appeared on the rooftop just now, it turned out that he came here specially to find Xia Yinci.

"Then I heard the conversation between Xia Yinci and Su Luoyang, and I felt that I couldn't stay out of it. Because I also had that collective nightmare last night. At first I didn't understand how I, as a lucid dreamer, could be implicated It was only after hearing their conversation that I realized that now that I am trapped on that deserted star, it is equivalent to losing the ability to freely control my dreams..."

For Lin Yu, the time for free activities is limited to reality. If he was locked in the dream, then he must have only a dead end.

"But I think you can regain the ability to freely control dreams after escaping from the deserted star, and you can also avoid the invasion of collective nightmare~ Why do you have to take a troublesome road?"

"I didn't expect you to think about this, I really can't hide it from you..." Lin Yu scratched his hair in trouble, he took a deep breath, looked directly into the tea cat's eyes seriously, and his tone was completely No joke, "Besides my own reasons, I don't want my students to be locked in a broken dream forever. My purpose is not just to save myself."

"So, please tell me if this matter is related to the dream madman! I have no one to ask except you!"

Lin Yu clasped his hands together, and there was a faint wrinkle on the eye sockets that he closed forcefully.

The drink delivered at some time has been held in the hands of the tea cat. She twirled the straw with a flat face, the colors in the cup swirled intricately, and tiny bubbles floated up. The tea cat glanced at me meaningfully, as if she had ulterior motives, but she quickly looked away, so I couldn't even tell whether her glance was an illusion or not.

"Okay~ Don't keep doing this action, it makes me a little embarrassed~ Actually, I don't know if the collective nightmare has anything to do with the dream maniac."

The description on her mouth is completely different from the expression on her face. I really can't see any embarrassment on her face. But Chamao has always been such a girl who doesn't show her feelings on her face.

After hearing Tea Mao's answer, Lin Yu put down his folded hands in disappointment. He and I looked at each other at the same time. I didn't expect the tea cat to hit a wall. Could it be that I can only ask Xia Yinci for clarification? But the look in her eyes just now was really chilling. Although it was mainly because Lin Yu was eavesdropping that caused her reaction, I was afraid that she would implicate me again.

"However, I did think of someone who might be able to tell you the answer."

At this time, the tea cat rested her head on her hand that was close to the table, and she looked at us flickeringly.

I always felt that she glanced at me intentionally or unintentionally, which made me feel that the glance just now was not an illusion.

"I remember Xue Xueer mentioned something to you~ It seems to be about a blog. If you start with her, maybe you can find clues~"

This made Lin Yu and I look at each other in blank dismay. When Lin Yugang wanted to ask, we found that the figure of the tea cat had disappeared in front of us, and the drink she ordered had also disappeared. Just like the conversation just now was a dream that Lin Yu and I had together. Lin Yu relaxed helplessly, and sank back on the back of the chair again.

"The tea cat doesn't seem to want to tell us about the collective nightmare. She probably knows that she is not good at rejecting others, so she just used her power to control reality and left."

Thinking of how the group of dream madmen used this power to dominate reality, I couldn't help but sigh that the way Tea Mao used it was too fresh and refined.

"But she also told us useful information. If we find Xue Xue'er, we might know something." I took the opportunity to comfort Lin Yu, but I didn't expect that instead of improving his complexion, he pulled down three black bars Wire.

"But, Xue Xueer and we don't seem to belong to the same world at all!!"

The words that Lin Yu uttered helplessly gave me a real headache. If we belonged to different worlds, we wouldn't be able to find the so-called vampire blog, because it might not exist in our world. The tea cat is also unwilling to help us. It is impossible for Lin Yu to find Xue Xueer, so I still have to go to the dream world and ask Xue Xueer to investigate.

"Then Xue Xueer is asking you, just tell him that I am willing to help her investigate that vampire! Then Xue Xueer should agree to help. In addition, I have a hacker friend here. Maybe if I am lucky, I can find that blog. In short, we will split up Bar!"

I moved my head. Although it is said that we are acting separately, in fact my task is just to tell Xue Xueer about it.

Xia Yinci also said that collective nightmares gather in this seaside city, Xue Xueer may not even have a shadow of collective nightmares in the place where Xue Xueer lives, and I am not very familiar with him, so I have to wonder if he will agree to me .

"By the way, I want to ask you something..."

Just when I was about to pick up the schoolbag on the chair and leave, Lin Yu stopped me again.

He seemed to be hesitant, as if he was planning to say something that he didn't know existed.

"What's wrong? Just tell me what's going on."

"When I was trapped in the deserted star before, I seemed to see you there..." At this point, he waved his hands hastily, and added, "Of course I'm not sure if I'm wrong! It’s just that the person looks a bit like you, and he disappeared before he had time to recognize you.”

"This..."

I couldn't help scratching my head in embarrassment, and even I felt awkward in my movements. I remember that in the phone call with Lin Yu, he said something like "If you also come to me to be lazy, I will feel very troubled". Although the tone is arrogant, the meaning should be to let me not die. I was the only one who contacted him and died, which is really embarrassing...

"That person, um, I was right... I actually accidentally died."

"Why did you die too? Did those dream stealers do it?"

This left me at a loss as to how to answer. Is Watanabe Kaede on the side of Dream Thief now? But he is still the ruler of clock number two, right?

It's because of this that I don't understand why he betrayed. If he can't win the domination war, he is also the loser.

"It's actually quite difficult to explain what happened, and I haven't figured it out myself. So don't ask for now."

Although I really want to find someone to talk about Watanabe Feng's matter, but Lin Yu has become like this, so I naturally don't want to add trouble to her.

Of course, I am also embarrassed to say Xia Yinci's side... After all, I made an appointment to wait for her at the ruler's clock, but somehow I was killed by the rebellious Kaede Watanabe. I can't be embarrassed about such a thing Say it!

"But...how did you appear there and then disappear? During this period of time, I had nothing to do and wandered around the deserted star, and saw many unconscious people. Among them was the No. I have a similar time control ability to you, and I saw the loli magician who was with us... But they didn't move, and they didn't disappear immediately."

"Elus died too?"

For some reason this was the first thing that caught my attention. Probably because Elus was the first person I really met in the dream world.

No wonder Kaede Watanabe suddenly appeared behind me, and I wondered why Elus didn't stop him. This made me clench my fists irritably.

It's okay to do it to me, why do you want to do this to Elus...

"Don't you know? I was quite surprised when I saw her. After all, she looks like our group favorite. Even the old guy William, he will definitely protect her." Speaking of Lin Yu He quickly stopped the car and said, "Ahem. I accidentally mentioned William again...but I don't know why I don't like this old guy."

"Forget it, let's talk about this matter later. I will definitely settle this account with him. I don't know much about the matter of the star, so let's discuss it next time."

In fact, this sentence was not only said to Lin Yu, but also to himself. Now the collective nightmare is more important. If Xia Yinci is trapped in the dream forever, I can't stand it. Lin Yu obviously understood the priority of the matter. Although his face was full of curiosity, he still held back his doubts and waved to me.

I picked up my schoolbag and headed out of the cafe.

Speaking of which, after Huang Xing met Lin Yu, I fell asleep a day later. At that time, I saw those two dream madmen.

According to the time calculation of the dream world, it should appear in that room after the instant of Desolate Star.

so.

I disappeared in front of Lin Yu, and the matter of retaining the memory of Huangxing——

It's all the work of that guy who calls himself "The Drifter."