Chapter 3: Dreamscape: Absurd yet Real

In the endless darkness, a bright spot appears ahead.

It’s a pure white dot, growing little by little…

Then, Du Qiu feels a vast expanse of white before him, like a giant vortex, and in an instant, he falls into it.

For a moment, he feels as if he has become myriad beings, with countless bright spots appearing before him, each shining like a star.

He notices that these stars are constantly flickering, as if there is some pattern in their twinkling.

Du Qiu is clearly feeling the flickering of these points of light, but he is completely confused.

What place is this? They say they are stars, but they don’t look like it at all. Are they planets? But do planets emit such white light?

Moreover, these points of light are not as big as planets.

However, this area, like an ocean of stars, is very vast, but when Du Qiu tries to sense its size, it seems to be only tens of thousands of square meters.

As Du Qiu is both shocked and sensing these points of light, a strange feeling arises as the number of light points he perceives increases.

That’s right, he actually feels as though he is controlling a certain territory.

As time passes, when he senses all the light points, he suddenly realizes that he has occupied the core part of something.

At this moment, Du Qiu forgets that he is in a dream. After he has taken over this ocean of stars, some peculiar information attracts him.

“…Elements are being separated and purified…”

“Antimony elements are being separated and purified…”

“Tungsten elements are being separated and purified…”

“…”

Du Qiu doesn’t know where this information comes from, or why it is presented in a language he can understand.

Actually, there is a lot of this information, but Du Qiu only understands a bit over half of the elements; he is clueless about the others, and the displayed text confuses him.

For example, “sell element,” what is that supposed to be? Du Qiu doesn’t understand at all and decides to ignore it.

At this moment, he seems to think that he is in a dream, and the things seen in a dream will be presented in one’s mother tongue, perhaps.

Huh, why does he know he is in a dream and yet he cannot wake up?

And why is he receiving this information?

As he ponders this, a vast scene suddenly appears above the sea of stars.

In the image, a huge device with a cylindrical center is shown, and as the camera zooms in, the hollow interior of the cylinder is revealed, with various colored materials mixed together.

These mixed materials are rapidly spinning, and an invisible hand seems to extract some of them from the mixture, throwing them onto the cylinder wall.

There are many holes in the cylinder wall, and the extracted materials are sucked away by a strong suction coming from the holes.

As time goes on, the huge mass of mixed material in the hollow center gradually shrinks until only a clump of gray material remains, then the spinning slows, and it finally falls down.

At the bottom of the cylinder, this gray material is likewise sucked away by some force from the holes at the bottom.

Then, a message is received.

“Primary separation program complete!”

Du Qiu watches somewhat inexplicably: if there is a primary, wouldn’t there be an intermediate or advanced? Will the process continue down below?

As he thinks so, the scene of the cylinder starts again with another lump of mixed material, and the process he had just watched begins once more.

Sure enough, Du Qiu receives a message.

“Primary separation program initiated!”

As time passes, the process he just saw is repeated until the intermediate gray material falls, and he receives the message, “Primary separation program complete!”

At this point, Du Qiu seems to understand that this scene he is seeing depicts a process of separating elements from some mixed material, and it’s still the primary stage.

But, will he continue to watch this process in the dream again and again?

Thinking so, Du Qiu can’t help but look around at the sea of stars.

As he does so, he receives some information.

“Intermediate purification program initiated!”

“…Elemental purification in progress!”

“…”

“Antimony elemental purification in progress!”

“Tungsten elemental purification in progress!”

“…”

These bits of information, indeed, match those initial primary separation messages.

Du Qiu thinks this as a scene suddenly replaces the one he was just shown.

Whenever a purification message for an element is indicated, in the image one can see, as if in the void, an elemental substance spinning and changing shape, eventually forming a solid pure sphere.

Around the solid pure sphere, some substances still circle, then these substances suddenly fall down, and the pure sphere flies upwards and disappears from the image.

This process is repeated, and colorful pure spheres rise.

Du Qiu seems to understand that this process is probably further purifying the elemental substances that have gone through the primary separation program.

Sure enough, the last piece of information he receives is “Intermediate purification program complete!”

Looking at this, it seems to be a process of purifying materials, separating various elements from a lump of mixed materials and then purifying them.

There are primary and intermediate stages, so there should be an advanced stage as well.

Du Qiu thinks and starts to look around the sea of stars again, indeed receiving some more information.

When he sees this information, Du Qiu can’t help but be stunned.

“Material gathering program in operation!”

Hmm, is it a different program?

Du Qiu quickly sees the image change again.

Looking at the presented image, Du Qiu is completely astonished.

He sees a square forest of huge machinery, with tentacle-like pipes around it.

He counts them; there are 49 pipes. They seem to go deep into the ground, transporting countless ores inside them.

Then, in the image, numerous ores are first crushed by invisible forces, then transported below, washed by some liquid, and sent away.

Du Qiu sees at least more than ten liquid washes or filters, and the final materials sent away are the mixed materials seen at the start of the primary separation program.

This process is also displayed in an endless loop, as if the 49 pipes will never tire, not stopping until they have completely devoured the earth.

Du Qiu suddenly thinks of material gathering, elemental primary separation, elemental intermediate purification…

Could this be a huge mineral collection and refining machine?

Is he inside this huge machine?

But where in this huge machine is he? Why are these images displayed, and why can he receive those messages?

A series of questions arise in Du Qiu’s mind.

He has these doubts because the dream feels too real, but there are so many incredibilities.

It makes the entire dream seem absurd yet real.

But, this is perhaps what a true dream is like.

As Du Qiu wants to see more images, he suddenly seems to detach from something.

Opening his eyes, the sunlight shines through the gaps in the curtains, casting light on the bed.

An alarm clock on the bedside table is ringing…

He has been woken up by the alarm!

Last night’s dream had new changes that made him forget the time in the dream; it felt like he hadn’t dreamt much until daylight came.

Sitting up, he looks around at himself, no changes, and turns his head to look at the pillow on the bed with complicated eyes.

He reaches for it, opens the pillowcase, and feels for an object inside.

It’s a crystal-clear cubic crystal pillow!