Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

The warm golden light fell on the rainwater that had not yet dried up on the street. Passers-by casually stepped into the pond, splashing crystal clear water with a "click". It was only when we took another step forward that the light was reflected again, but with the yelling of the owner of the cotton candy shop, the pond was dispersed by the next passerby in a hurry.

Rongtan Street at 7:30 in the morning does not have the atmosphere of waking up at all. Instead, it seems to have stayed up all night, and the remaining bustle dominates the street.

In this relatively hot weather, "Turkish ice cream" seems to be particularly popular. I saw the exotic shopkeeper flipping the cone in an exaggerated manner early in the morning. I just can't understand why it's so popular. If it was my turn to be teased and teased by the shopkeeper like this, I should feel anxious. Are all the consumers here shaking M?

When I woke up earlier, I received a text message from Lin Yu. After I explained my situation, he hurriedly asked me to meet here. I don't quite understand what's going on here with Lin Yu, and he doesn't seem to know either. He only knows that the owner of the blog is in danger and hasn't appeared since three weeks ago.

The crowd around me gradually thinned out, I looked around, and stopped at an alley that was quite remote compared to this neighborhood. Lin Yu seemed to be waiting here early in the morning, and stopped patting the ground after seeing me The soles of the feet walked towards me.

"You're finally here! I didn't see Xue Xue'er, are you sure she passed the entrance of Xinghai Tavern awake?"

"Actually, I'm not very sure. Before my consciousness was disconnected, her consciousness was still clear, so she should have come here successfully. But you also know that the time in all of our dreams is not synchronized, and no one can be sure that Xue Xueer came What time is it here... Maybe she will arrive later than us, or she may arrive before us.”

"Then if she is to participate in the domination war next year, will we be able to wait for her here next year?"

This made me not know how to answer. The players dominating the war do have the potential to come from different points in time. Most of the rulers came from the same time, because many people were invited in by the first batch of participants, and they will definitely invite lucid dreamers from the same world and the same time first. Xia Yinci invited me, who was close at hand, and with the help of the tea cat, pulled Lin Yu, who also met this requirement, into our team. But Xue Xueer is a novice recruited by Black Cat to fill in the vacant seats... who knows where they come from.

"Forget it. Let's find a place to sit first." Lin Yu pointed to the laptop on his arm and waist, looked around, and finally set his gaze on the alley behind him.

"Go to Taoyuan? Xue Xueer came here through the gate of Xinghai Tavern, so we should come out from the gate of Taoyuan. This way we can see her as soon as possible."

Lin Yu snapped his fingers after listening to my suggestion, turned around and walked to the depths of the alley, and I followed slowly.

But when we just saw the signboard of "Taoyuan Dreamland.", the sound of hurried but orderly footsteps from behind suddenly suppressed my heartbeat. I clearly felt a deadly chill hitting my waist through my clothes. This strange and dangerous touch made me think of a word that should not be associated with me—"gun muzzle".

Almost instinctively, I raised my hands above my head. Lin Yu beside him also pulled into the notebook and raised his hands high.

"Hey, what did we do, is it necessary to deal with us so generously?" Lin Yu's forehead was dripping with sweat, and he tried to ask the people behind him in a negotiating tone. But what is fatal is that the people behind have no intention of answering our questions at all. As if Lin Yu's voice never reached behind him, the situation remained unchanged.

Obviously there was only a slight resistance on my waist, but I felt a sense of oppression that made me unable to breathe, and even my breathing became heavy.

"Don't turn back, go forward. When I tell you to stop and stop, just nod your head if you understand." A male cold and normal voice came from behind. I nodded my head, although I felt inexplicable, but I couldn't disobey the order of this voice, and I didn't have the capital to resist at all as I was unarmed.

Holding the faint hope that someone will pass by here, I walked forward according to his words, and suddenly I couldn't feel the muzzle of the gun, but I knew it was behind me. As soon as I try to escape, it does what it does to be here. My poor hope was not fulfilled--except for the sound of our footsteps, one after the other, the silence was frightening. It seems that a devastating disaster broke out in this city at some time, and we are the only ones left who are fighting because of the famine.

Not long after, a "stop" command came from behind. Lin Yu and I stopped walking at the same time, touching the cold muzzle of the gun behind us again, and disgusting goosebumps appeared. I raised my head cautiously, and standing in front of me was a building exuding a solemn modernity. It's not the first time I've seen it, and the memory invaded the whole body in an instant.

"What are you looking for? Su Luoyang, please don't spy on things that you shouldn't."

The tea cat's lazy and never-energized voice rang repeatedly in my ears like a curse, and I heard myself making a sound from my throat. Only then did I realize that she was kindly reminding me not to set foot here again. The real sense of resistance pushed me forward, and Lin Yu and I had to separate due to oppression. The muzzle of the gun was pressed against my waist and sent me into the glass revolving door. The empty hall seemed to scream at me as unfriendly. breath.

"Oh, oh... what are you doing to my distinguished guests?!" There was a sense of tearing with the surrounding atmosphere, and the male voice with infinite emotions penetrated every corner of the hall, "Quickly put that Put down the cold things! Don't stick them on the backs of distinguished guests, this... is really rude!"

In an instant, the cold touch was withdrawn, as if the relief from being released fainted from the heart. The speaker just now came to us with slow steps. The middle-aged man who was biting the nails of his right hand restlessly looked at us, as if reaching out to touch us, but withdrew his hand tremblingly. A man's beard covers the entire chin and extends up to the sideburns. Thick brown hair with a few strands of silver intermingled with it was disheveled and dry, and neither praise nor blame was appropriate. The only thing is that the white coat is unbelievably clean.

"I'm sorry! I asked them to invite you here. I didn't expect them to be so rude. I thought it was inappropriate for them to kidnap the one in the early morning. I have taught them a lesson. I didn't expect them to go too far this time." The gun was fired! Don’t worry, I will definitely teach them a lesson, please don’t worry about it.”

"You...why did you 'invite' us here?" Lin Yu swallowed hard, and asked cautiously. The man waved his hand indifferently, took off his glasses, closed them leisurely, stuffed them into his breast pocket, and squeezed out a white-toothed smile. Suddenly he took a step closer to us, and I instinctively took a few steps back.

"Don't be afraid! It's so neglectful to stand up and talk. I want you to sit down and let's talk slowly." While explaining his intentions, he yanked his hair violently, almost wanting to rip it An uprooted posture. I was worried that I would offend him if I didn't do what he said, so I exchanged glances with Lin Yu and nodded.

The man smiled in satisfaction, and stretched out his hand to slide the watch on the other wrist. There was a suspected rolling sound behind him, and when he looked back, he saw a sofa on the originally empty floor. It seemed to beckon us to "sit down quickly", and Lin Yu and I sat on it hesitantly. Although it is a soft texture, it makes me unable to relax at all.

"Let me introduce myself. This is the Core Research Association, and I am the person in charge here. You can call me 'Professor Phantom', or a professor."

"Core Research Association?!" Lin Yu's eyes widened in disbelief, and he almost stood up excitedly. Not only him, but I was also really surprised. The Core Research Association is an organization of multiple scientific research institutions agreed upon and combined through an agreement. Some time ago, it also occupied the headlines for a long time because of its advanced inventions, and now it can be said to be a household name. Why did they come to us?

"Don't be so excited. We asked you to come here, and there is no other reason... But to tell you the truth, we have actually been paying attention to Mr. Su Ruoyang for a long time."

"Follow... me? Why?"

"You passed by our headquarters some time ago, and several of our scholars noticed you. Mr. Su Luoyang has the "taste" we are looking for." Speaking of this, he looked quite enjoying himself, and his extremely exaggerated smile showed Now on his face, "That is the unique temperament of lucid dreamers. With our device, we can distinguish lucid dreamers in reality."

"Ah, of course. We have been paying attention to Mr. Lin Yu for a long time, even longer than Mr. Su." The man who called himself "professor" seemed to realize that he had "neglected" Lin Yu, and he quickly stretched out his index finger He pointed at Lin Yu naggingly. The professor beckoned behind him, and suddenly the white box slid over here, reaching the professor's hand. The professor reached into the box, took out a document and placed it on the coffee table that rose from the ground.

Lin Yu was stunned for a few seconds, then stretched out his hand to open the document. It seemed to be a screenshot of a web page, and the illustration of a vampire in the upper right corner was particularly eye-catching.

"Mr. Lin also visited this blog in the morning? Let me guess... well, the computer in your hand should also have this webpage open?"

Lin Yu's frown became tighter and tighter. He quickly flipped through the information, and there was a screenshot file of a post with the words "precognitive dream". And the last few pages of this information are related people who have replied on this post, including Lin Yu's brief file.

"Let me tell you. We started to care about his blog because he investigated this post. Of course, there is a reason that we are studying dreams. But part of the reason is that the content of this post itself is different from ours. Related. The explosion mentioned above was caused by our experiment. The most important reason is that he has a large amount of lucid dream information.”

The experiment caused an explosion? This sentence made me shudder. I remember reading reports that the blast had hit many parts of the city, killing and wounding more than a thousand people. But the man in front of him mentioned this incident lightly, as if he didn't care about the impact of this incident at all.

"You guys... The bloggers of this blog will disappear, you are the ones who did it! Then the "they" mentioned in the last log refers to your core research association?"

Lin Yu's words made me think of "they" mentioned by Xia Yinci for a moment. Does it refer to the Core Research Society? Could the collective nightmare have something to do with them too?

"It seems that Mr. Lin should be very worried about the safety of that blogger, right? You don't have to worry so much. That gentleman is a rare talent, and we won't do anything to him no matter what. He should treat him well now. It's the basement here." The professor waved to Lin Yu with a calm expression on his face. As if he wasn't worried no matter what happened.

"Hey... isn't it just to imprison him? It sounds so nice." Lin Yu muttered quite dissatisfied. At this moment, he didn't seem to care about angering the man in front of him.

"'Collective nightmare'... are you investigating?" I took a deep breath and asked the professor. He leaned forward with an air of surprise that I should mention it.

"Ah! Could it be that that person was walking with you just now? No wonder she kept saying that she was waiting for someone after she came and asked me to send her away."

Lin Yu and I couldn't help but looked at each other. Appeared in the early morning and was waiting for someone... The professor was undoubtedly talking about Xue Xueer. It must be that Xue Xueer arrived here before us, but was targeted by this group of core research association guys, and was tied here before us.

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but sink my head guiltily. I was the one who brought Xue Xueer to Rongtan Street. In this way, wouldn't it be me who caused her to be tied up here?

"Oh, the two of you don't seem to be in the right mood to continue talking."

The smile on the professor's face disappeared in an instant, and the expression on the professor's face looked very gloomy. He took out the glasses in his pocket and put them on slowly, then raised his hands and clapped them. The sound of hurried footsteps sounded again, and a strong man in a black suit appeared behind us and lifted us up rudely.

"I told you to be gentle with my distinguished guests. If you acted rudely like you, wouldn't all my 109 distinguished guests be scared away by you?"

I gradually realized that the "honored guest" in his mouth had ulterior motives. His hands were slammed behind his back, which couldn't be connected with the word "gentleness".

"Forget it. You will always be so disobedient... Lock them up alone, ask for two different rooms..."

"But professor, I told you when I shut down the one in the morning." It was still the cold voice that ordered us to come here earlier, but when speaking to the professor, there was obviously a hint of respect. "There are not enough rooms—"

"Not enough!?" The professor suddenly turned around and shouted angrily. The man behind Lin Yu lowered his head because of this, but the professor's tone became gentle again in the next second. Let's put them in the rooms of the two sisters. It's up to you to choose who to lock in the sister's room, and which guest will the bad luck fall? No matter who it falls, it will be very interesting. You are good Enjoy the pleasure of deciding the fate of others! I still have something to do, so I will go first."

I really don't understand what is going on with his strange mood change, maybe he is a complete lunatic... The professor looked at us each with interest, then turned and walked towards the direction where the elevator door suddenly appeared. And Lin Yu and I were dragged into a corridor that stretched to the end of a deep place. Not long after, Lin Yu entered a room. And I watched the repeated dim lights, the iron door reflecting the metal texture and the marble floor under my feet, and I was pushed all the way to the end of the corridor before I let go of my hands. The man behind him stretched out his palm to touch the door panel, and the iron door opened with a "click", and I was pushed into this room by him with a malicious smile.

As soon as I entered the door, I almost tripped over the scattered wires on the ground, and I quickly grabbed the railing to stand firm. The room had to be said to be very dark, and there were bloodstains that had dried to the color of rust everywhere. The electronic display placed in the corner barely illuminates the dark corner. I scanned the room, and finally my eyes fell on the girl who let the little sunshine shine on her body.

The girl was wearing a thin hospital gown, curled up in the sunlit area. Her long purple hair was draped over her slender shoulders, revealing only her profile. I lowered my steps and walked towards the girl. Her exquisite profile made my heart skip half a beat. But just when I squatted down to observe the girl carefully, she suddenly opened her eyes, and then she jumped up and kicked my chest fiercely, the soles of my feet couldn't touch the ground for a moment, and I kicked hard Finally, he fell and hit the concrete wall, and then fell to his knees on the ground.

The shock enough to cause tinnitus was accompanied by the voice of the professor, "Which honor will the bad luck fall on?", and the bad luck obviously fell on me. Only then did I realize that the bloodstains in the room were not from the girl, but from the people who were locked in the same room as the girl. This made me suddenly despair. If I had known earlier, I would not have gone up to see her, but how could I expect a girl who looks so feminine to kick me against the wall in the next second.

The footsteps of bare feet touching the ground are getting closer and closer. I clutched my chest in pain and coughed vigorously. When the girl came up to me, I couldn't help raising my head. But at this moment, I couldn't help being stunned by the familiarity exuded by the girl. Not only me, but the girl's originally cold eyes also trembled suddenly.

The last time I passed by the Core Research Association, I saw the girl in front of me through the glass outside the building. She was staring at me with some indescribable eyes, and she seemed to say something to me, but I couldn't hear what she wanted to say to me because the sound was separated by the vacuumed glass between the layers. if.

The girl gently opened her cherry lips, but closed her lips again. His gaze was focused on me, and the trembling and soft eyes were so provocative and itchy. The chains of the handcuffs made a crisp sound of "jingle bells", and the girl stretched out her fist-like little hand towards me in a condescending posture, turned her back to face down, and slowly spread her palm.

The hair ornament in the girl's palm seemed slightly worn out. I looked at the girl's face in disbelief for a moment, and then looked down at the black cat hair ornament in her hand that was sticking out her tongue playfully. I didn't know how to speak for a while. I actually felt extremely dry tongue.

"Black cat? Why are you here? Wait, that professor Phantom said "that pair of sisters" before... so is the white cat also around here? And are you also locked up by the Core Research Association? But You and I shouldn't be in the same world, right?"

Seeing familiar people in such a strange and cold environment reassured me a lot. After throwing out all the questions in my heart, I realized that I had asked too many questions. And the black cat stared at me for a long time with eyes looking at novelty, then covered the corners of its mouth and let out a clear chuckle.

"What! I've been here all the time~ I was locked up by them seven years ago~ My sister was locked up in another room!" The black cat seemed to find it very funny, clutching its stomach and even bending over. bent down and laughed. "Really, if I didn't recognize you, I originally planned to torture the people who came in... You are lucky~"

"Then do I have to thank you?" Although my tone was still joking, I somehow felt like biting a sweet candy, but what came out was a sour feeling.

Judging from her tone of voice and what Professor Huan said, she should have tortured many people who were also imprisoned before I came in. Those people would definitely not come in to clean the room on purpose, that's why there are so many dried blood on the ground. If she really did nothing and was imprisoned here for seven years, those behaviors that were different from ordinary people in the dream would appear much more normal.

The black cat stretched out its hand with difficulty to hold back the laughter, and rubbed my head indiscriminately. It took a long time before it finally stopped laughing. Eyebrows are still charmingly bent, straightly putting my reflection into her pupils.

"As for your fourth question just now...you don't simply think that the scope of their penetration is only the whole world, do you? The Core Research Association exists in every real world~ It's just that you were imprisoned by them anyway. After I saw you for the first time, I was counting on you to save me~"

"So what you wanted to say to me at that time was a signal for help?"

I lowered my head and muttered softly. The scope of this war of domination extends to different worlds, and it is not uncommon for people to be imprisoned for several years.

But I never thought about it that way, thinking that every participant was like me, implicated for pure reasons.

But the world of dreams is by no means so pure.