Ordinary Chapter 26: Master of Dreams

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

The whole world had turned white, so white that it was blinding and made people suspect that if they stayed here for a while longer they would get snow blindness.

Shen Si subconsciously reached out to block, but it wasn’t only in front of him, his surroundings and even the sky and the ground were pure white. This white and the usual white wasn’t the same, evoking a kind of unsettling feeling, and Shen Si had to think about a minute before finally determining what kind of feeling this was.

It was a hospital room, or a cold operating room, or a solemn funeral scene.

It was the smell of death.

“The person who dreamed was Jian Nian?” The man opened his eyes incredibly wide.

All reference points disappeared, and only the blinding light in their eyes and the people who were still in the playfield remained and less than thirty people were still standing in the playfield. They looked around in horror, their faces in shock and fear, and there were also people who fell to the ground, their blood on the white was quite striking.

“No, this is not right! This is not right at all!” The man hissed, “I came in here to get out of the playfield safely, and no one told me the people who were supposed to protect me became the enemy!”

“Calm down.” Shen Si’s voice was steady, “It’s not the worst that can happen, you… Sir?”

“My name is Yun Lai,” The man’s eyes widened, “This is not the worst case scenario? Then what could be considered the worst case scenario? That Jian Nian is an S-Rank Survivor, he is now like this, obviously he is going to become our enemy, if he wants to attack we can’t stand up to him!”

Shen Si stood calmly in his place, “This is a dream.”

“What?”

“Because it’s a dream, there must be a way.” Shen Si walked forward, to the center of the white space, where the previously white figure had turned black, standing prominently like a black sculpture. “Since Jian Nian was chosen to be the master of the dream, this playfield will also be based on his mind, so as long as we know how he thinks, we will be fine.”

Yun Lai looked at Shen Si in a complicated way, “You mean to say that you know what Jian Nian is thinking?”

“Probably?” Shen Si answered perfunctorily, “He disappeared for three years, it is possible that he changed in those three years.”

Although Yun Lai felt it was very risky, there was no other way now. With the dreamer found, the dreamer also woke up, but the playfield didn’t disappear. Even stranger, in the end, how were they to get out? He had no idea, and obviously, he wasn’t the only one to think so.

If he could get out alive, he must deduct half of Jian Nian’s payment!

“Shen Si?” Like finally awakened from the fear of death, Yi Mingzi was sitting blankly on the ground.  Yi Mingzi didn’t leave the company right away after signing the papers, and he started looking for another job earlier. It just so happened that the company he liked was nearby, and the dismissal forms were taken care of, so he went to this company for an interview, and if he was lucky, he would be able to start at the beginning of next month.

Who would have thought that when he was leaving the company the whole world would change, the sky was no longer blue, but was blocked by a thick layer of black fog, the park became dark, as if it was a cloudy evening, furthermore, there were bird cages of all sizes floating in the air.

A playfield.

This was the first thing Yi Mingzhi thought of, then he almost went soft on his feet. Everyone knew that a playfield had a very high mortality rate. Although he also envied those Survivors who had a special ability, he didn’t want to use his life to gain one as well!

After that he walked inside with fear and trepidation, but in the end he met the white shadow and almost got killed.

“Are you okay?” Shen Si knelt down, “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine.” Yi Mingzi shook his head, his lips were white and he looked terrified, “Just now you were talking about Jian Nian?”

Shen Si didn’t answer, right now to answer or not to answer didn’t make a difference, Jian Nian was selected to become a dreamer which had been a foregone conclusion. His S-Rank Survivor’s identity at this time was not helpful in the slightest, and even became the source of everyone’s panic.

If they wanted to make an enemy of him…

“Last time you said it was a coincidence, and sure enough the person the forum wrote about was actually him.” Yi Mingzi closed his eyes, he put on a forced smile, only his pale face and trembling hands made this smile a little unsightly.

“I just didn’t want you guys to worry.” Shen Si helped Yi Mingzi up, “After all, the childhood friend I grew up with is an S-Rank Survivor who returned from the unlimited flow world, most people will panic when they hear about it, right?”

Yi Mingzi smiled and shook his head, “Yeah.” He put his hand on his chest, breathing heavily, because his fear hasn’t subsided yet, “After all, the legend of Jian Nian is very scary, in the case of suddenly meeting this terrible person unknowingly, you would be scared regardless. If it were me, I would also choose to hide.”

Clutching his chest somewhat hard, Yi Mingzi frowned fiercely.

Shen Si looked at him, “What’s wrong with you?”

“I… I don’t know.” Yi Mingzi opened his eyes, he breathed heavily, but was increasingly unable to breathe, “Suddenly, it’s so stuffy, can’t breathe… Heart… It hurts.”

His words just fell, when Yi Mingzi opened his mouth and his eyes wide, looking ahead, his eyes became empty, and in the next second, his body hit the ground hard with a thud as he stiffly fell down.

Yun Lai opened his eyes wide, and subconsciously took two steps back, his voice was full of panic, “What’s wrong with him?!”

Similar sounds of people falling came from behind him, so Yun Lai turned back to look behind him, and there were close to ten people like Yi Mingzi who fell to the ground without a sound. This bizarre situation made Yun Lai’s scalp numb, and he wanted to find a place to hide, but found that there was no place to hide here, there was only a white space.

Shen Si squatted down to check Yi Mingzi’s breathing, and then he decisively and promptly started giving Yi Mingzi cardiac resuscitation.

“What are you doing? He’s already dead!” Yun Lai came over and pulled Shen Si’s collar, “Those people are just as dead!”

“Not dead yet.” Shen Si didn’t stop his actions, “If there is enough time, he can still be saved.”

“What?” Yun Lai looked at him blankly.

Shen Si didn’t answer, he just kept doing the fairly standard first aid technique for one minute, two minutes…, and after the fifth minute Yun Lai heard a cough as Yi Mingzhi, who lost his breath, opened his eyes. He looked like he was still having difficulty breathing, but it was good that he had the ability to breathe on his own.

“Alive?” Yun Lai looked at Yi Mingzi in shock, “What the hell is going on here?”

“He had a heart attack.” Shen Si wiped the sweat stains on his forehead.

“This colleague of yours has a heart attack?”

“Not really, it’s impossible to let a patient with heart disease work as a guide, especially a guide like us who hike a lot.” Shen Si sat on the ground and sighed, “The one with a heart condition is Jian Nian.”

Shen Si looked towards the black being with a glance. Like Yi Mingzi, there were others who fell to the ground, and the rest of the people were screaming in terror. In the absence of first aid, after a heart attack most were certain to die. Once one’s cardiopulmonary function stopped for more than ten minutes, ¹ the person was basically dead, even if they had a miracle, the brain would also have irreversible damage because of lack of oxygen.

So far there had been no deaths in the playfield, or they had yet to die.

“You mean, all these people fell down because of a heart attack?” Yun Lai had surprise in his voice, “And the reason is simply that Jian Nian has heart issues?”

“This is Jian Nian’s dream, anything is possible.”

Yun Lai couldn’t help but look at the person standing in the middle of the white space in the distance. The black figure with Jian Nian’s face stood there like a still image. If not for these fallen people, Yun Lai would even treat him as a background. As a dream master, did Jian Nian dream that he had a heart attack?

“Something like a dream is just too special, it is something unpredictable, and there are people who don’t dream.” Shen Si let Yi Mingzi lie flat to relieve his breathlessness, if they couldn’t get out of the playfield, and Yi Mingzi could not get timely treatment, he could only try to relieve the symptoms.

“So instead of this being Jian Nian’s dream, this is Jian Nian’s memories.” Shen Si lifted his head to look at the black figure, “He was like this once.”

At that time, Jian Nian was only thirteen years old, and he only had one friend, Shen Si. He often waited around the school for Shen Si to come back, and this wait lasted for a month until that day, when Shen Si came out of the school gate and saw Jian Nian, who suddenly collapsed. He was so pale that he couldn’t even stand up because of the intense angina and difficulty in breathing, and he had already fainted when Shen Si ran over to him. He could get out of danger, because he was carrying special medicine with him.

“So that’s it.” Yun Lai suddenly realized, “So that means that Jian Nian’s most vivid memories are being reconstructed right now? But, aren’t you a tour guide?” Yun Lai looked at Shen Si, “Why are you so skilled in first aid?”

“I’ve done training.” Yi Mingzi had not regained consciousness yet, so Shen Si stood up after placing him properly, “I am a tour guide, not quite the same as ordinary tour guides, since we have to go to the mountains, and the area we were originally responsible for is slightly more difficult, so we must carry medicines with us and learn first aid.”

Yun Lai, who didn’t understand a guide’s job, didn’t delve deeper into it. For him, Shen Si knowing first aid was advantageous, as he was able to save Yi Mingzi on the spot, so maybe he could also save him in the future.

“So what do we do after that?” Yun Lai asked Shen Si.

In the current situation, if Shen Si’s judgment was correct, then the person who knows Jian Nian best in the playfield was definitely him. They were childhood friends who grew up together, and may even have a deeper relationship, but he never thought that they also have a time when they had to rely on each others’ memories.

If they could get out alive, half of the payment that Jian Nian lost would be given to Shen Si.

“I don’t know, I’m not a Survivor, so there’s nothing I can do about the playfield.” Shen Si stood still, and glanced at Jian Nian who was also standing still, “Maybe we can wait a bit.”

“Wait?”

“Wait for Jian Nian to really wake up.” Shen Si’s voice was calm, “He should still be sleeping.”

Yun Lai paced from side to side, in his slightly frayed and wrinkled suit, “How can we get him to wake up?”

“I don’t know.”

Wasn’t this a complete lack of progress?

Yi Mingzhi kept coughing on the ground, his hands flailing about, struggling because of his difficulty in breathing, which only made him suffocate faster, so Shen Si swiftly courched down to hold his arms down. Yun Lai frowned at them, and after a moment he came over to help Shen Si secure Yi Mingzi’s hands.

Yun Lai wasn’t a ruthless person, on the contrary, his reputation had always been very good, since he was able to steadily press the head of those bastard brothers, his ability and reputation could be credited.

After the initial panic, Yun Lai gradually calmed down.

Those who had heart attacks weren’t moving, only this guy was saved by Shen Si’s efforts. It was so hard to have one person alive, so they couldn’t let him die again.

Since Shen Si said that they could only wait, they would wait, otherwise could they still attack Jian Nian? He was an S-Rank Survivor.

Shen Si watched Yi Mingzi with a calm gaze. His aura of calmness relaxed Yun Lai a little, Shen Si was a magical person, but this kind of mentality may also be a good thing. At least he could maintain an unusually rational and calm mentality in any environment, although it sounds a little non-human.

Yun Lai was relieved when Yi Mingzi, who was lying on the ground, gradually calmed down. He was just about to open his mouth, when in the next instant he saw a figure from the corner of his eye, and Yun Lai couldn’t even react.

“Shen Si! Be careful!”

Before Shen Si could turn around, something hard hit him on the head, and the powerful force made Shen Si fall directly to the ground. The place where he was injured before cracked again, blood quickly soaked through the band-aid on his forehead.

Shen Si barely got up from the ground when the sound of footsteps came from behind him.

“Ha ha ha ha ha! It’s almost like even God is helping me!” Zeng Ren let out a piercing laugh, “It’s great that that guy was chosen to be the master of dreams and turned into a monster! You didn’t have a heart attack, did you? What luck, but it’s okay, give me your luck and die for me obediently!”

Shen Si wiped the blood from his face, his dark eyes not even reflecting the slightest emotion, absent from hatred or horror, as if he was just looking at the air.

“It’s useless to hold on.” Zeng Ren laughed and held up his trigram, “The contract is established! Your luck is mine now!”

Shen Si didn’t say anything, he didn’t even have any expression. The atmosphere was strange to the point of awkwardness, Zeng Ren couldn’t help but stop laughing, he looked at Shen Si with a strange look on his face, “You’re not afraid?”

“Of course not.” Shen Si stated.

Zeng Ren’s eyes widened, “Did Jian Nian not tell you who I am?!”

“The Doomsayer.” Shen Si narrowed his eyes slightly, “A doomsayer who uses the props in his hands to swap luck with other people, causing all the people whose luck was swapped to die in the playfield, right?”

“Then… then why did you…”

Quickly taking two steps forward, in the moment when Zeng Ren was caught off guard, Shen Si sent a flying kick and directly kicked the trigram in Zeng Ren’s hand. The prop landed on the ground with a crisp bang, a piece of the trigram’s edge even broke down, whileYun Lai who was in front of Yi Mingzi opened his eyes wide.

What the hell?!

“It seems like you never considered whether your opponent would fight back.” Shen Si turned around and landed another kick. Zeng Ren who was completely unable to react was kicked in the stomach. He took three steps backwards before rolling to the ground covering his stomach.

“Cough, cough.” Zeng Ren was rolling on the ground holding his stomach, his face was white, and it looked like he was in too much pain to get up.

Yun Lai hurriedly stood up, “Shen Si?!”

“It’s okay.” Shen Si wiped the blood from his forehead, “Jian Nian was often bullied when he was young, and I always helped him chase away the bullies.”

Who could’ve imagined that Shen Si, a quiet and gentle-looking person, was actually a school bully?

But it was true, since Jian Nian was a person who was bullied by his peers, Shen Si was his only friend. He wasn’t worrying at all about those kids treating him as an enemy, which could only mean that Shen Si was very intimidating in the hearts of his peers, so he could make friends with Jian Nian without fear.

“…Even if you resist, so what?” Zeng Ren lay on the ground, his voice broke, accompanied by laughter and painful cries, sounding distorted and terrible, “The contract… has been established… and you can do nothing about it… soon… soon you will die… and I… will live!”

Shen Si walked over to pick up the trigram on the ground, with its broken off a corner, but it didn’t look like it made any damage to its integrity. Just then, a small drop of something cool dripped on Shen Si’s hand, so he stared at the raindrops on his hand, and after a moment he looked up, and from the white sky rain started to drizzle.

“What is this? It hurts! It hurts so much!”

“It’s so cold, it hurts! Help! Someone help me!”

“Ah!”

Screams came from all directions, and when Shen Si looked around, as far as the eyes could see, everyone was screaming in agony, trying to avoid these raindrops like animals during a catastrophe. He could see Yun Lai taking off his own suit to block Yi Mingzi’s head, the rain fell on his clothes and smoke came out.

It was like acid rain…

“Ah!!!” Zeng Ren let out a pig-like scream, rolled on the ground, his body in pain, but he couldn’t avoid this rain. Shen Si looked at the abacus in his hand emotionlessly, which was decaying bit by bit where it got hit by the rain.

“Shen Si?” Yun Lai looked at Shen Si, who was completely unaffected by all the rain, with shock in his eyes, “You don’t feel uncomfortable?”

“Not really, it’s just ordinary rain.” Shen Si threw down the trigram in his hand, then took off his jacket and threw it on Yun Lai, who was bewildered and hugged his clothes, only after three seconds did he realize that he couldn’t feel any pain while under Shen Si’s clothes.

The rain turned into ordinary rain, does that mean…

Yun Lai looked at the clothes in his hand.

No way, because this was Jian Nian’s dream, Shen Si was the most special existence in this playfield, so even his clothes had the effect of resisting acid rain? What kind of amazing luck was this…

Facing the rain, Shen Si walked up to the black figure, which swallowed up Jian Nian earlier, so in a sense, he was also Jian Nian.

Only a meter away, Shen Si and Jian Nian were face to face. The rain soaked through Shen Si’s clothes, and he stood like this for about ten seconds, when the black figure slowly reached out his hand, but he didn’t continue its actions, and only held his hand flat, in a retaining gesture.

He was longing after and retaining someone.

“Actually, although I broke up with you, I don’t hate you.” Shen Si looked at him with a rare bit of gentleness in his voice.

Although Jian Nian was a very dangerous person, his love was paranoid and crazy, with an unimaginably terrible ** ² , but at the same time, Jian Nian was also a very simple person, and apart from his drastic methods, his love was pure and deep.

Shen Si had never denied this.