Place the box in the circle, watching the numbers go from 1 to 13.
“Operation complete.”
Xing Chen rubbed his eyes, putting down his phone which was hot from continuous use.
It was past two in the morning, and school would start in a few days. Although graduate courses weren't as demanding as undergraduate ones, he still needed to adjust his schedule in time.
“Sigh, YJ.” In the last moment before turning off his phone, he glanced at the six-star Bard gifted by the main story, “If only Theresa were still alive, how great would that be? It’s not like she can’t be resurrected.”
But what was the use of saying such things? This story had already been written, so it naturally wouldn't change.
“Time to sleep.”
Turning off the light in his rented room, Xing Chen quickly fell into a dream.
How does that saying go? Sleep with your textbooks, and you’ll know everything in your dreams. Perhaps because he slept right next to his phone, in a daze, he seemed to arrive at the scene of the assassination.
A man, complained about by countless players, lay on the ground, and not far away, a pink-haired Sarkaz lay in a pool of blood. However, unlike the PPT, Theresa not only had her eyes open but was staring at Xing Chen’s direction with great surprise, a dark crown—the continuation of civilization—floating above her head.
In this obviously unreal environment, Xing Chen clearly realized he was dreaming. Since it was a dream, he wouldn't feel pain, and even if he was harmed, he would just wake up in his rented room, so there was nothing to fear.
Soon, Kal'tsit and others, realizing something was wrong, quickly arrived and surrounded Theresa and Amiya.
Theresa’s lips moved, as if she wanted to say something. However, everyone's attention was drawn to Amiya, and this slight movement was overlooked by the flustered crowd.
Finally, an unnamed Sarkaz noticed their unclosed-eyed Demon King and closed her eyes for her.
“What a strange dream,” Xing Chen thought.
However, since he was already here, it would be a shame not to look around properly, after all, it wasn't easy to have a dream with a specific setting.
He walked around the seemingly high-tech cabin, and could only say that it truly lived up to its description as an advanced creation of the Pre-civilization. He had, after all, been exposed to national key laboratories, yet he couldn't make any sense of it.
“Does this kind of technology really exist?” Xing Chen murmured to himself.
At this moment, the members of Babel had also adjusted their state and were preparing for the next task. At this time, the crown that should have been handed over to Cattus was still floating above Theresa’s head.
This piqued Xing Chen’s interest; players had argued for a long time about the power of the crown. He wasn't interested in the content of the debate, nor did he understand it very well; in his opinion, it was just a large, mobile hard drive, with built-in Wi-Fi.
There was no other way; the in-game descriptions were always vague, and not everyone had a copy of the lore book.
Passing by the crowd, he came to Theresa’s side and slowly extended his hand. The moment he touched the crown, a brief sharp pain came, and the scene before him instantly collapsed.
After the montage ended, he stood on a barren land, the giant Originium crystal clusters growing all around still reminding him that this was still within Kazdel’s territory.
“Sigh, a dead first love is the best first love,” Xing Chen looked up at the twin moons above, walking across the desolate land. A few Originium slugs crawled out from their underground nests, and after sensing footsteps, quickly scurried away.
“Strange, do I have a physical body again?” Not long after Xing Chen posed the question, he also felt the ground tremble.
“Phew, false alarm.” While reassuring himself, Xing Chen ran towards the direction of the vibration. Soon, a rift valley formed by a natural disaster lay before him. On the other side of the chasm, an aircraft carrier-sized landship was speeding in one direction.
This was Rhodes Island, Xing Chen hadn't even finished marveling when he suddenly felt something strange happening to his body. Looking down, a sharp knife was protruding from his chest.
He turned his head and saw several Sarkaz dressed in Military Commission uniforms. The opponent sharply pulled out the knife, then threw his “corpse” aside, walked to the cliff, and observed the distant Rhodes Island through binoculars.
“Um, I say, are you guys sent by Theresis to retrieve Theresa’s body?” Xing Chen said in his native language.
The Sarkaz naturally didn't understand what he was saying, but the pronunciations of “Theresis” and “Theresa” were recognizable.
A soldier, after getting permission from the captain, drew his knife, seemingly wanting to deliver another blow.
“Ding ding ding!!!”
His phone alarm went off, and the loud sound woke Xing Chen from his dream. Fortunately, the Sarkaz’s knife hadn't fallen, otherwise, it would have truly turned into a nightmare.
“It’s still early, I’ll go back to sleep for a bit, hoping for a different scene.” Xing Chen tugged at his quilt, trying to wrap it tighter. However, the other end of the quilt seemed to be pressed down by some heavy object, completely unable to move.
He reached out and fumbled, “Strange, when did the quilt I bought become so soft?”
With this question in his mind, he turned over, only to see a head of pink long hair come into view. Looking further up, a pair of black pointed horns vibrated rhythmically with their owner’s breathing.
“Is there such a good thing in the world?” Dreaming was easy, but dreaming what you wanted was not so easy. Xing Chen couldn't suppress his curiosity and reached out, doing something every normal boy had fantasized about.
“Speaking of which, how does a race like the Sarkaz, who often struggle to find their next meal, develop such a figure?”
While Xing Chen was still lost in his wild thoughts, Theresa’s eyelashes fluttered slightly. She slowly opened her eyes. The figure that had appeared when she was on the verge of death was now kneeling beside her, one hand still on her body.
And so, Xing Chen’s wild thoughts about Sarkaz anatomy hadn't even reached halfway when he heard a “crack,” and intense pain instantly transmitted from his arm to his brain.
“(Sarkaz language) Ah, I’m sorry, sir, are you alright?” Theresa, who had also snapped back to reality with Xing Chen, instantly realized what she had done and quickly removed her hand from him.
At this point, Xing Chen was completely awake. He realized two realities: one was that his arm seemed to be dislocated, but the problem wasn't very big; he just needed someone to set it back.
The other was that Theresa from the game had really come to reality, and her power was just as described in the game, like a Terra superhuman.