The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 582: Overlapping Dreams

Is this some sort of mischief?

Thirteenth Fragrance was stunned by Husky’s overly blunt words.

Even the other players who were watching them on the forum were stunned for a moment.

Delicious Wind Goose couldn’t hold back for a moment and laughed out loud.

He quickly cleared his throat and composed himself, explaining to Anan and the other players, “I suppose you could call it a reflex.”

“It’s pretty good too.” The corner of Annan’s mouth couldn’t help but rise for a moment, “If he gets into the character, Thirteenth Fragrance will be in trouble…”

Annan was unlike the players, who could live stream and leave a recording. Therefore, Annan’s actions in the nightmare wouldn’t have the same “detective” approach as Husky and Thirteenth Fragrance. Instead, Annan would prioritize roleplaying and advancing the plot.

Of course, part of the reason was that Annan entered the solo queue from the perspective of the “1st Player”.

Justice was “played by a bot”. His behavioral logic was restored to the original. Justice himself had a strong desire to control so that Annan had little free time after waking up. He could only conduct arbitrary investigations in the room.

What Annan saw was far less than what Thirteenth Fragrance saw.

From the perspective of the “2P” player Husky, it completed the fragmented parts.

For example, what Husky saw and heard after entering the dungeon instance was what Annan had no information about.

“A fleeting moment of anger. A never-ending remorse.”

Those were the two quotes that Annan heard when he entered the dungeon instance. Each player only heard half of the phrase. What Husky heard was the first part.

Later, when he entered the dungeon instance, the plot introduction appeared.

[Today is your 30th birthday and you’ve initiated a trade with “Trisino” for the third time.]

[Of course, you know what the name “Trisino” stands for: the pope of the Deity of Murder and Conspiracy “Tragedy Writer”, “Dream Eater”, “Wine Drinker”. 】

[At the same time, he is also your mentor, “Bone Healer” Trisino Seti.]

[There are no more than five people in this world who know his secret, and you are one of them.]

[In the previous two transactions, you successfully got what you wanted, but you also paid a corresponding price. In this transaction, you are determined to sacrifice your last friend — Frederick Melvin, whom you haven’t seen for seven years. You will officially bid farewell to your human identity.]

[According to the contract, you’re supposed to bring an Idol Wizard to Cinder Barren. When the star reaches the correct position, you can follow him into the “gap between dreams”. In other words, the “gateway to the dream world”.]

[At this place, the boundary between dream and reality is blurred. Reality can fall into a dream, and the dreamer can reach reality. Under your persuasion, Frederick is drunk and unconscious. He fell into a deep sleep.]

[— Where you are now is the Cinder Barren in his dream. To be precise, it is the “prophetic dream” that he dreamed of in the past.]

[Dream and reality, at this moment, reach an infinite cycle.]

[Let him believe that this dream is reality, and get the dream essence from his dry, dreamless corpse.]

At this point, Husky immediately got the main mission.

[Acquired the main mission: Wait and see]

[Convince Frederick that he is in a dream.]

[Kill Frederick.]

The introductory plot on the side of “Justice” explained the situation that Annan was confused about before.

Where is the dream?

At present, the answer was obvious. Both sides were dreams.

This deserted street was indeed Frederick’s prophetic dream in his childhood. That was why other than the two of them, no one else could see it. That was to reduce “variables”.

However, this was a prophetic dream that Frederick had in his childhood.

However, this did not mean that the [reality] outside was Frederick’s childhood. The correct statement was that both sides were dreams.

They were all dreams that appeared after Frederick got drunk!

There was something wrong with the drink Justice gave Frederick.

What they were now in was the prophetic dream that Frederick once had in his childhood.

To be precise, he “dreamed of his past self, the prophetic dream of [now]”!

It was Frederick’s dream within a dream.

It could be a coincidence of fate or careful calculation…

Dream and reality subtly overlapped here.

…Is this the clever calculation of “Dream Eater”?

Annan couldn’t help but feel a chill creeping on his spine.

There was a gap of sixteen years between the two plays of [Past] and [Future]. Frederick was about 15 years old back then, but Justice was over thirty now.

During Frederick’s childhood, Trisino showed him the mystical book “The Law of Similarity and Prophetic Dreams” written by the Tragedy Writer.

That was to allow Frederick to use the power of Prophet School and Idol School to dream of the future 15 years later. Even though Frederick was already the Idol Wizard of Silver Rank at that time, he was not a Prophet School after all.

The dreams spanned more than decades, but the clarity in the logical structure was maintained.

Even the Silver Rank Prophet Wizard could barely do this because the difficulty of “prediction” would increase as the amount of information increased and the time span increased.

Either it was far and blurry, or it was near and clear. The dreamer’s lens couldn’t be far and clear at the same time…at least Silver Rank could not do it.

Even if Frederick was a genius, it was impossible to easily achieve this level of a prophetic dream.

The evidence was… Except for this time, Frederick had never had a prophetic dream of this level.

This was the power that belonged to the deities.

15 years ago, Frederick dreamed of his present strength. 15 years later, he dreamed of the power of the past. Both were the proud works of the Tragedy Writer—

This was a grand drama that had been in the making for at least 15 years!

“No wonder, Nefertari said I died three times.” Annan was occupied in thoughts.

Three times indeed.

Firstly, “Young Frederick” was crushed to death by a boulder, and it was the [past] dreamed by the current Frederick after he was drunk.

The second time was when “Young Frederick” was killed by a throwing axe. It was the [future] that Frederick dreamed of when he came into contact with “The Law of Similarity and Prophetic Dreams”.

The third time…

It must be outside the dream.

The situation was scary and eerie.

Repeatedly waking up and falling asleep, turning into the endless cycle of dream and reality.

It was indeed a deity’s work.

Annan nodded, and he was just about to compliment them.

However, Husky looked at his plot introduction and read it to Thirteenth Fragrance.

Then, he looked suspiciously at Thirteenth Fragrance, who played “Frederick”, and questioned from the bottom of his heart.

“What does it mean?

“I know how to kill you, but how can I convince you that this is a dream?”