Chapter 1 The Intruder

The intruder's mental response vanished, not because she had eliminated it, but because it had somehow managed to escape the "structure" formed by the distorted dreamscape.

Heidi frowned, perceiving the information constantly transmitted back from the personality avatars she had released, while her gaze swept across the "hospital room" before her.

As the intruder's mental response disappeared, the hospital room rapidly reverted to its original state. The terrifying, malformed scenes caused by the pollution gradually faded away. The walls that had resembled withered flesh and blood transformed back into the clean white walls of a medical facility, and the cracked, rotten scorched earth returned to its original flooring. Outside the hospital room, the sinister and dreadful atmosphere that had permeated the entire facility was also rapidly dissipating.

Heidi didn't relax her frown in the slightest. On the contrary, she became even more vigilant about the strange changes occurring, because it was abnormal. A dreamscape that had been eroded and distorted was a closed structure. The intruder's consciousness was the attacking force, but also a part of the dream's influence. If it were to forcibly break free of the dream, it would inevitably cause a great "commotion." Of course, a sufficiently powerful "dream expert" could suppress this commotion to a very, very small level, but that intruder… wasn't that strong.

Heidi knew her own capabilities. As an outstanding student who had studied at the Truth Academy, and who had also received detailed guidance from her father since childhood, she had always been confident in the field of dreams. She didn't believe that the "intruder" could escape this twisted nightmare without her noticing at all. The other party must have hidden using some method, or concealed themselves in some cognitive void.

She hesitated for a moment and slowly walked towards the bed in the middle of the room. The strange elven girl was still lying calmly on the bed, her brows furrowed, showing no sign of waking up.

In theory, this girl was the core of this dream. Her captivity had led to this distorted "medical facility" appearing in her dream, but under normal circumstances, she should have woken up by now. Whether she ran away or not, the pollution that had remained here had clearly dissipated. After the pollution faded, it was only logical for the captive to immediately awaken in the dream, because in most cases, people could do countless strange and bizarre things in their own dreams, but they could never do one thing: continue sleeping in a dream. Even in a dream within a dream within a dream, a person's consciousness must be active in the last layer of the dream.

Heidi stepped forward and examined the elven girl's condition. After hesitating for a moment, she reached out and helped her sit up. Then, she forcefully pushed her backwards onto the bed, but it had no effect. Her "patient" remained asleep. The "falling reaction" didn't work…

Heidi had a serious and thoughtful expression as she muttered to herself, "Could it be that this isn't her final layer of dream? An intermediate layer of a dream within a dream? That's not right either… Even in an intermediate layer…" the falling reaction would still wake someone up.

She was muttering when she suddenly stopped, as if she had suddenly thought of something. She turned around and ran out of the hospital room. Rapid footsteps echoed in the medical facility. Heidi ran quickly through the deep and long corridor. Along the way, she saw the personality avatars she had released earlier. The "Heidis" holding golden cones were still wandering and searching in various parts of the facility, checking corridors, staircases, or the eerily empty rooms with half-closed doors, looking busy.

Heidi ran through the personality avatars. Each time she passed one, the avatar would turn around and chase after her, quickly returning to her body. The personality avatars scattered in other parts of the facility also received instructions and emerged from nearby intersections, one by one returning to the main body. The medical facility was no longer the structure she was familiar with. The displaced projections of the dream had caused a large number of messy corridors, dead ends, and forks in the road to appear in the building. Some of the staircases were even inverted and twisted, connecting rooms and halls that were structurally illogical like an absurd abstract painting, looking extremely bizarre.

However, such a chaotic space was nothing to Heidi, who often dealt with dreams. She easily distinguished the correct path, avoided the dead ends that would lead to infinite loops, and finally successfully reached the end of the road. A large door stood quietly in front of her, with the word "Exit" written on it.

Heidi stopped. The last personality avatar ran up from behind and quickly merged into her body. She took a light breath and slowly walked towards the door. It was the exit of the medical facility, and theoretically also the boundary of this twisted dream. She placed her hand on the doorknob, slowly calming her heartbeat. Dream boundaries were dangerous, as they represented the dreamer's "cognitive limits."

As a "visitor," rashly crossing the dreamer's cognitive limits meant that one's consciousness would fall into a vast "undefined" area. In this chaotic zone dominated by the subconscious, which was no longer under the dreamer's control, unwelcome intruders would encounter all kinds of dangers, and even… encounter the terrifying things lurking at the edge of mortal sanity, and lurking in the boundary.

Heidi hesitated for a moment and continued forward, which was not in accordance with medical regulations. The amethyst pendant hanging on her chest was no longer heating up. This inferior product, which was essentially just a cheap piece of glass, was now ice-cold.

Feeling the coolness from the pendant, Heidi made up her mind. This magical pendant hadn't had any problems until now. She decided to trust its reaction. "This step would deduct at least fifteen points in a professional course," the mental physician muttered, forcefully pushing the door open. The anticipated vast darkness and chaotic shadows didn't appear, nor did she see terrifying abysses and otherworldly entities.

Heidi stood at the boundary of this dream, staring blankly at the scene before her. A lush forest appeared in her vision. Everywhere she looked, there were towering trees she had never seen before. The dense and leafy canopies overlapped and intertwined high in the air, blocking out the sky. Countless flowers, grasses, and shrubs covered the ground. In the middle, she could also see many tall and short bushes and vibrant vines. Unidentified birdsong occasionally echoed between the giant trees, sounding novel and unfamiliar.

The sunlight filled the dense forest, bringing a vitality that Heidi, who had lived in the city-state since childhood, had never seen before. She couldn't even understand it all. She couldn't imagine why so many huge trees would grow together, why the precious land would be covered with strange plants, yet no one could be seen. Why couldn't she hear the sound of the waves, and her nose could only smell the scent of plants and soil.

She fell into confusion, a double confusion from sensation to cognition. Even as a top student with a PhD and full scholarship at the Truth Academy, she was momentarily dazed to the point of almost forgetting where she was and what she had to do.

Fortunately, the professional skills she had cultivated over the years, coupled with her strong mental self-control skills, allowed her to quickly regain consciousness after a few seconds of blankness. She took a deep breath and forced herself to return to a state where she could think calmly. Then, she looked back at the direction she had come from. The "medical facility" was right behind her, surrounded by a large number of huge trees and countless crisscrossing vines. The walls were covered with unknown plants. The man-made building appeared abruptly in the forest, looking out of place.

But Heidi quickly made some judgments from this incongruous scene. The scope of the dream should indeed be limited to the inside of this medical facility. This strange place outside the door wasn't the structure of a dream. The mutated edge awareness zone didn't show any elements related to the Pland city-state. All of them were unfamiliar plants. Was it a scene located in this elf's subconscious? But even elven city-states like Lightwind Harbor or Mokha didn't have vegetation on this scale…

Or… this outside was the real final layer of the dream, but this scale was too large, and with so many details, her brain should have burned out long ago. Heidi muttered to herself in confusion. Then, she felt around her and took out a brightly colored yarn ball. She hooked her finger on the end of the yarn and threw the yarn ball forcefully into the distance. The brightly colored yarn rolled on the ground, jumping and spreading between the wet rocks, soil, and vines.

Heidi stared intently at every moment of the yarn ball's rolling, confirming whether there were any blurred or abnormal places on the lines that fell on the ground. If there were, it would prove that this seemingly "detailed" place had hidden "cognitive voids." She had to carefully avoid those voids to prevent falling into the nightmare.

The yarn ball rolled smoothly into the distance, without any abnormalities in the middle. Heidi breathed a slight sigh of relief. Following the approximate path the yarn ball had rolled, she finally took her first step into this "strange place" filled with plants.

She had temporarily put away her revolver and only held the "golden cone" for self-defense tightly in her left hand. In this "edge zone" where the situation was unclear, it was best not to use those noisy things. Although the lush plants around her looked pleasing to the eye, the silence of the surrounding environment might hide something. She had to be careful not to awaken those who slept at the edge of mortal consciousness.

As she cautiously advanced, a question couldn't help but gradually arise in Heidi's heart. Did that cultist also escape the dream in a similar way? Not "wake up," but run directly to this strange place outside the dream? Could there be any traps ahead? Various thoughts swirled in Heidi's mind.

But suddenly, her heart stirred. In the next second, she suddenly looked up in the direction her intuition pointed.

Between eight unknown trees, in a small clearing in the forest, stood a figure quietly with its back to her.

It was a stranger wearing a light-colored southern-style coat, with messy blond hair and a slightly hunched back. Even though he had his back to her, the two pointed ears protruding from the edge of his hair immediately caught Heidi's eye. An elf?