Chapter 116 Sync Error

Hao Ren clearly remembered taking out the Gray Fox mercenary badge. Based on his previous experience traversing the dream plane, even a spirit body entering that world could carry items through the wall of reality—such was the unbelievable yet undeniably bizarre characteristic of the dream plane. He had discussed this phenomenon with the data terminal, believing it might be based on information-level influence: the moment one passed through the wall of reality, whether it was the spirit body in the surface world or the dream plane, both would simultaneously change, gaining or losing items as if undergoing cloud synchronization. But now, upon carefully checking himself, he discovered: the badge was gone.

"Could it have been left in the slums?" The data terminal floated over, scanning Hao Ren with a blue light. "You don't have a metal badge on you."

"I remember it being right here," Hao Ren pointed to the chest area of his shirt. "I even touched it before 'logging out'... Right, I even took off my shirt in the dream plane to wrap your wound; it seems like there aren't any traces left on the clothes now either?"

Based on past experience, the "dreamer" would undergo changes the moment they logged out of the dream plane. For example, they might be covered in dirt from another world or exhibit injuries sustained "in the dream." Yet Hao Ren suddenly realized that he was exactly the same as when he had fallen asleep; he hadn't been able to bring anything back from the dream plane.

"Could there have been a problem when you logged out?" Vivian frowned. "Interference or something?"

"No… Wait!" Hao Ren suddenly thought of something and immediately checked his dimensional pocket. He remembered throwing the data terminal's new body into the dimensional pocket before leaving the dream plane. Compared to things held in hand, the dimensional pocket created with imperial technology should be more reliable.

However, after searching, Hao Ren could only face the unexplainable situation: "It's gone… Terminal, your new body is gone."

"Frankly, this unit doesn't miss that shell at all," the blue light on the data terminal's surface flashed rapidly. "But this situation is truly unsettling… It seems you couldn't bring anything back from there, right?"

"The experiences in the dream plane don't seem to have affected my surface-world body," Hao Ren looked down at his hands, feeling puzzled. "But the things I brought from the surface world can still be used properly; at least the gold is still gold."

Lily and Vivian leaned forward in unison, both utterly astonished by the current situation. Lily's tail wagged vigorously. "How come you only encounter strange things this time?"

"The mapping relationship between the dream plane and the real world might have really changed, and the magnitude of the change is bigger than we imagined," Hao Ren said while taking the data terminal. "Connect me to the probe drone swarm. I want the cosmic background radiation readings for the dream plane in the recent period, and any other data that might be useful. See if there are any obvious changes compared to the past."

The data terminal didn't waste any time at this point and immediately opened a holographic projection. A constantly changing human face formed from light appeared on the screen. As mentioned before, the probe drones released by Hao Ren were rapidly multiplying in the dream plane's universe, building a drone kingdom at an exponential rate. The human face before him was the collective consciousness of this probe swarm, or rather, the "interface" used when this collective consciousness communicated with its creator. Hao Ren had set this image for the swarm not long ago because he felt that his sentries should have a cool-looking appearance and not always be a bunch of cold graphs—at least a holographic human face looked more high-end than a spreadsheet.

"Good evening, Inspector," the face on the holographic projection greeted expressionlessly, its voice stiff and rigid. "The swarm is operating normally. Do you need to check the recent expansion parameters?"

"No, check something else." Hao Ren said, and had the data terminal send the requested intelligence to it.

"Understood, querying, please wait." The drone mother consciousness replied and sent back a report after a few seconds of silence. "Data has been sent. The swarm determines that no observable mutations have occurred in this universe. The aberration degree of all basic parameters is within acceptable range."

"No changes?" Hao Ren couldn't fully understand the complex data report, but he could still see that the two line graphs were at least similar in shape. "What about the mapping relationship between the dream plane and the surface world? Are there any changes?"

"The Wall of Reality is an undetectable phantom barrier. The swarm does not have the ability to observe it. The swarm apologizes for this."

Hao Ren paused and slowly waved his hand at the swarm consciousness. "Okay, continue your observation mission."

The holographic projection dimmed, and the data terminal's voice sounded: "At least from these observation data, the dream plane hasn't changed recently. If the mapping relationship of the Wall of Reality had undergone large-scale fluctuations, it would inevitably be reflected in the basic parameters of the dream plane. After all, that would mean the physical laws of the two worlds were colliding again."

Hao Ren crossed his arms and didn't say anything, his mind filled with questions. At this time, Lily suddenly suggested: "Why not just do an experiment?"

"Experiment?" Hao Ren looked at Lily questioningly, wondering what this quick-witted girl had thought of.

"Go to Holletta, use the hibernation pod to forcibly lock onto it, or let the spirit body enter, and see if you can bring things out of it," Lily said, looking Hao Ren up and down with disdain. "I can think of it, but you can't?"

Hao Ren slapped his head: "... I just got stuck in a rut!"

If he naturally entered a dream now, he would be teleported to the war-torn Zolm, but the "dream channel" leading to Holletta was still recorded in the hibernation pod. If he forcibly locked onto it with the device, he could still reach Holletta through the dream.

Hao Ren immediately decided to test it according to Lily's suggestion. Vivian was a little worried: "Why not talk about it tomorrow? You've already 'teleported' once today. Can your spirit handle it?"

Lily also grabbed Hao Ren's arm: "Landlord, let's talk about it tomorrow! I'm already sleepy for you."

After speaking, she yawned widely, squeezing out tears.

"You're the one who's sleepy," Hao Ren poked Lily's forehead, telling her to go back to her room to sleep. "You go rest, Vivian can watch. I'm just doing a test, I'll just grab something over there and come back. It won't take much energy."

Lily tried her best to keep her eyelids open: "Then I'll wait for you to finish the test… yawn."

The loyalty of a faithful dog is touching—so Hao Ren decided to go quickly and return quickly.

He carried the data terminal and came to the basement with the two girls, and quickly set the hibernation pod's working mode. Before lying in, he sighed with some emotion: "Speaking of which, it's been a long time since I used this... Since finding the Tana Gusu rift, we've always been directly entering in physical form."

Lily nodded, and fell asleep standing right in front of Hao Ren.

The lid of the hibernation pod slowly closed, but it reopened in less than a few minutes: as Hao Ren said, he really just went and returned, presumably grabbing something over there and returning.

Vivian greeted him: "How is it?"

Hao Ren sat up from the "coffin" with a subtle expression on his face. He raised his hand, holding a delicate crystal glass in his hand.

"Borrowed from Becky," Hao Ren looked at the cup he had just brought out of the dream plane with confusion. "You can still bring things from Holletta to the surface world."

This situation completely confused him and Vivian (except for Lily, who was sleeping while standing). The two didn't believe it and experimented several more times on the spot. Hao Ren sank into different places in the dream plane through the hibernation pod's guidance, including the Holletta grasslands, Tana Gusu, Aioi, and a small asteroid that happened to pass near Aioi. Hao Ren "logged out" from these different places into the real world, bringing out all kinds of strange things, including plants from the grasslands, gold from Tana Gusu, and seawater from Aioi. It was very easy to cross the Wall of Reality with these things.

The only thing he couldn't bring anything from was Zolm.

In the last test, Hao Ren briefly returned to Planet Zolm. He found that the Gray Fox mercenary badge had miraculously returned, and his dress was still the same as when he left the slums before. This time he tried to take away a piece of broken iron he found in the slums, but when he returned to the surface world, his hand was empty.

Things on Planet Zolm cannot be brought to the surface world; some kind of force seems to be blocking the outflow of information from that planet.