Hello, Arknights

Chapter 313: Dream Reality

"..."

"...Can you tell me what's going on now?" Ling Dengxian felt a little uncomfortable. After passing through the invisible passage of "another road" that Kuranta mentioned, when he could see clearly again, Huang, Heijiao and others behind him had disappeared. Instead, there were vast and strange streets. After a few dozen meters, he saw a blue-gray wall. The shadows of the surrounding buildings seemed to swallow up all the light, making people feel extremely uneasy.

Ling Dengxian felt very uncomfortable, as if his whole body was soaked in a swimming pool and a sense of illusion emerged from his limbs. Everything in front of him seemed to be loose and boring, as if they were made of foam, and there was a strong sense of rejection pressing on him.

He was very uncomfortable.

"Let me introduce myself first. I am the director of the Scepter and the Economy. People outside usually call me the Dream Jurer. You can call me Dream Jurer."

"The place we are in now is what we usually call a virtual dream reality, but remember, it is neither a dream nor reality."

Ling Dengxian could barely understand it. If it was a dream, his dreams had always been about that strange world, the towering city, the misty peaks, and the endless sea of ​​flowers. And if it was reality, that was nonsense.

Seeing that he did not raise any objections, Planster nodded and tried to access the communication. Once it was connected, he said: "Report to me."

"Reply, Director, everyone has been successfully gathered with your help and is looking for the traces of the fallen."

"Okay, finish it as soon as possible. This operation cannot be vague. As usual, leave the spatial void knot to me."

"Understood, please be careful, Director."

Planster looked at him again and motioned for him to follow him: "I thought you would have endless questions, but I didn't expect you to be so easy to ask?"

"Because asking now will only cause trouble. I'm following because I'm worried, not to cause trouble." Ling Dengxian followed, his hand on the hilt of the sword, ready to deal with danger at any time.

"That's good, but compared to the culprit I'm looking for, the situation I'm facing now is the real danger."

"And now I am spreading knowledge about the danger itself in order to reduce the risk."

Being stung by the words of the woman who called herself the Dream Jurer, Ling Dengxian said self-deprecatingly: "Danger? I can't beat you at all..."

"That's true, but if you use the white crown, it's hard to say."

Ling Dengxian's pupils suddenly shrank, but he quickly calmed down. Almost no one knew about the existence of the White Crown, but he was not surprised that the Scepter and the So knew about it. In Tobrand, Saria might have kept the secret for him, but since it was confirmed that the Scepter and the So were involved, his performance could not but be recorded.

In fact, he didn't know that he had also performed well when fighting against the first generation blood demon on the Ursus Ice Field. This was also recorded by Gu Fan and conveyed to the headquarters.

"Your expression changes are quite rich. You are not like our boss at all. He has a stiff face all day long but he is quite - oh, I'm off topic. Anyway, your danger lies in your Originium skills." Ju Meng suddenly came close, and Ling Dengxian resisted the urge to draw his sword.

"Your ability can weaken other people's Originium skills. You should have discovered it, right?"

Ling Dengxian nodded so that the conversation could continue: "But the effect is limited and cannot be completely offset."

"But sometimes this is already fatal. We can stand here well because of my, um, Originium skills. It's a bit of a stretch to bring you along. If you use White Flame again, I might be affected and unable to hold on to this position. Then both you and I will die in this virtual dream reality."

While the actor who played Ju Meng was explaining, the two did not stop their pace. Ling Dengxian didn't know where to go and it didn't look like he was looking for someone, while Quan Zhang and the director of the institute walked and stopped, but seemed to be chasing something with a purpose.

"It's like we are all on the same boat now, but this boat is made of straw. I wonder how long it can last?"

"Wrong," Nightmare shook his head and observed the various incongruous buildings and street scenes around him. "To make an analogy, it's like you are standing on a straw boat with a torch in your hand."

"What about you?" Ling Dengxian asked.

"You stepped on me."

"..."

A shrill cry for help was heard, and the two men moved their eyes and found a figure being chased by a group of strange-looking monsters. Although there was only dim light, Ling Dengxian recognized at a glance that it was an infected knight, but he noticed that this infected knight was not participating in the patrol.

He was about to draw his sword, but the actor who played the role of Ju Meng held down the scabbard and said, "Save your strength to help me deal with that big trouble later."

"He can hardly run anymore." Ling Dengxian said coldly, "I am not used to ignoring life. What's more, Yanwei has asked me for help."

"She's a nice person."

"No, this task is assigned to me." The actor who played Ju Meng sighed and said something to the secret communication device, which seemed to be a piece of data such as coordinates.

Ling Dengxian felt a little uncomfortable: "He is right in front of us, we can just reach out and -"

"Ahhhhh!!"

Blood splattered, broken limbs hit the wall and bounced to the ground, sticky liquid spread out a horrible carpet on the ground. The monster picked up the remaining limbs, as if curious about how the fragile prey died.

The next moment, the sword blade cut off its "head". The demonic figure was puzzled. It no longer had a camouflaged head, but it did not mean to fall down. In front of them, a prey that was more suitable for "research" appeared.

Planst sighed, then jumped down from the second-floor rooftop and landed steadily. Ling Dengxian didn't even look at her, but simply grasped the hilt of the white sword. He had used two swords briefly in the previous battle with the actor who played Ju Meng, but to no avail. Now, he didn't plan to use two swords, as he couldn't guarantee a smooth outcome.

After all, he promised not to use White Flame, but in the dual sword state he couldn't even keep himself awake for long.

"I am really disappointed in you now. You are so mean, arrogant and conceited."

“Arrogance is not necessarily ignorance, but ignorance always harbors some arrogance.” Planst sighed again, tapped his cane lightly, and his purple-red eyes surged with a radiant color.

"Your efficiency is too slow. You will be exhausted." As her voice fell, a large number of circuits similar to spells were instantly constructed, and all kinds of colorful marks appeared on the chests of the monsters. The next moment, with Planst's cane tapping the ground again, the densely packed monsters with strange shapes instantly disintegrated.

Ling Dengxian remained silent, and turned back to face the woman who was now full of oppression. He had already tested the strength of those monsters. They were not something that ordinary Rhodes Island operators could handle. Moreover, with such a large number, the actor who played Ju Meng could handle them all in a breath? !

"Why are you looking at me like a monster? Every profession has its own specialty. Only here can I maximize my strength. It would take some effort to achieve that in real life."

Planster shrugged and beckoned him to follow. "If you really want to save him—the pile of people on the ground—just follow me. I have to speed up."

"Hasn't he already?!"

"He's not dead yet. If we deal with the space void as soon as possible, he can still survive." Planst started to move, and quite fast. Ling had to run at full speed to catch up.

"Let me explain it to you again. The virtual reality is essentially a sea of ​​information. All things are made up of information fragments. Do these scenes look very similar to the buildings in Casimir's Knight Territory? Because their information is also mixed in. The appearance of this drop of 'water' is to pave the way for a certain existence. My mission is to erase the tiny threads, um... tiny tentacles, that extend from that existence. Never mind. Anyway, it's something of that kind. We are the only ones who can do this with the entire scepter."

Ling Dengxian was trying to catch up at full speed, and he felt uncomfortable, so he could only speak with difficulty: "One, one drop of water?"

"Yes, the sea of ​​information is endless. This small space is just a drop of water in the endless sea of ​​information."

"This is neither a dream nor reality, because it only has 'information' but no substance."

"In the reality we live in, information is transmitted and received by concrete and non-concrete substances, but the information here does not need a carrier, it itself is the carrier." The actor who played Ju Meng made a sharp turn, and Ling Dengxian almost hit a blue-gray wall.

“…I don’t understand.” He only has a high school diploma, and it takes him some time to digest this information.

"My people and the innocent people involved should now be called 'beacons'. They are different from those piled-up and mixed information, and they are also different in nature. That tiny tentacle is very curious about the form of our existence, so it creates some toys to hunt beacons.

"Just like just now, even if the beacon is torn into pieces, it will still exist for a while, so I said there is no need to save it. If you have that time, you might as well find the spatial void knot as soon as possible to understand everything. However, in order to prevent the beacon from being broken early due to accidents, the goal of my people in every operation is to try their best to find and protect them."

While speaking, compared to Ling Dengxian's performance, Planst was not out of breath at all, his speech was very clear, and his communication was accurate.

"As for us, you also feel the difference from reality, right? We are not beacons. We broke in through the channel I opened up. Unlike entering here through dreams and being forced to lose consciousness, we can do more things. For example, we are now traveling across the roof, while beacons cannot because they are not 'allowed'. But in the same way, once my ability fails and we fall into this drop of water, we will be torn to pieces by the information in an instant.

"Also, my people said that as a beacon, it would be toyed with by the existence that created this drop of water. There would be obstacles such as high walls and lights, but we would not."

"No, that's not right!" Ling Dengxian gasped and spoke with difficulty, "I saw... the wall."

"Then you bumped into it?" Planst looked back at him, and then Ling Dengxian's pupils shrank sharply. She pointed in front of her, where a blue-gray wall stood. The latter did not avoid or give way, but bumped into it... and bumped into it.

Can penetrate?! Ling Dengxian was very surprised, and Planster took the initiative to stop and wait for him, thinking that he would most likely hesitate.

But she was obviously overthinking it, as Ling Dengxian rushed in headfirst due to inertia and bumped into her.

"Why the hell did you stop!" Ling Dengxian was grinning from the collision, and the person who was hit was also in pain: "Are you a humanoid city defense cannon? *Casimir swears* My chest hurts. Normal people would slow down in advance when they see a wall, right?"

"You haven't lost weight either, and I was stunned for a moment when I saw you bump into it head-on..." Ling Dengxian pulled her up. The latter knew that this was not the time to worry about this, so she shook her head to confirm her condition: "It's okay... But considering your various performances, you'd better not get involved later. I'll deal with the space void, and you can just watch from the side... Forget it, don't watch it either, there's nothing to see, all light pollution, just be responsible for carrying me out."

"what?"

"What? We're here." Planst spun his cane, the outer shell fell off, and the sword in the cane was revealed. Ling Dengxian looked up and saw that they had arrived at a strange space. Judging from the surrounding architectural layout, he was very familiar with it. It was the venue for the knight's singles competition, but the place where the competition venue should have been was replaced by a large area of ​​mixed natural landscapes. A strange chaotic mist-like substance was surrounded by luminous geometric bodies and slowly flowed, giving him a strong sense of uneasiness.

"Pick me up later. You can always do this, right?" The actor who played Ju Meng threw away his coat, and then seemed to have mobilized some power. His long red hair moved without wind and gradually turned into a strange pink and white color. His eyes also changed from a beautiful crystal-like purple-red to a rare color.

The next moment, she drew her sword, and cut down the dome and the stage of the knight competition arena together, and the sword tip pointed directly at the target with violent and abnormal power.

Ling Dengxian looked up and was shocked to find that even the hazy sky had a neat trace.

He looked into the distance. Perhaps it was the characteristic of the sea of ​​information. As long as he wanted, he could see very far into the distance, even beyond the starry sky... Before he got lost in the countless celestial bodies with abnormal shapes, he withdrew his gaze.

He was considered half a magician, but he could not understand the flow of energy in the circuit of the dream-binding actor. In fact, ordinary magicians could not feel the flow of energy to infer the circuit of the magic formula.

Ling Dengxian did not realize the significance of this for a magician.

And he soon realized that what the actor who played Ju Meng said was right. This battle was not interesting at all, but rather painful to the eyes.

Arrogant people are not necessarily ignorant, but ignorant people tend to be more or less arrogant.

He planned to follow her advice and not cause more trouble.

It can be seen that the actress who played Ju Meng was really exhausted in this battle. When she tried her best to kill the target, she could hardly stand.

Following the instructions, Ling Dengxian extended a hand to her, and the latter accepted the help without hesitation and without any burden.

The actor who played Ju Meng was not seriously ill, but his face looked a little gloomy.

"What's wrong?" Ling Dengxian carried her and ran out.

“We’re still here.”

"...What do you mean?" Ling Dengxian felt increasingly uneasy.

"But this drop of water has indeed become unstable, which can only mean that... this space is empty, and there is a backup information source - you can understand it as an avatar, which is not as resistant as the original body and can exercise some powers, but it is destined to be unable to maintain the existence of this drop of water... The beacon... is in danger."

"You! What should you do?" Ling Dengxian knew that she had tried her best when he saw her exhausted look.

"I can still sense where it is... maybe..."

"The rest is up to you."

"Without using the White Flame and the White Crown, take care of that backup source of information and save your people."