Chapter 243 Dream Weaving Corridor

["Dream Weaving Corridor" - Neural Roaming Terminal]

Type: Item Level: /

Energy: 3%

Description:

"Dream Weaving Corridor," from ancient temples to space fortresses, from Wilderness adventurers to interstellar wanderers, 99.3% neural-level authentic recreation.

Order now to infinitely renew your life experience card!

Note:

"We borrow the eyes of others to observe the world, yet we have never possessed their souls."

—Dr. Elize, Chief Researcher of the "Dream Weaver" Project. "When you can experience a century of great achievements in an hour, who would still be willing to endure the banality of reality? The most dangerous side effect of this equipment is that it reduces life to a cheap simulation you can quit at any time."

—Tech Ethics Activist Song Ying: Addiction Era

Warning:

Encryption key missing! Please manually enter the Dynamic Password!

His two "Secret Realm" experiences, along with the "Titan Umbilical Cord" Gravity Core that flashed across the scene when the Lucky Coin was tossed during his level-up, had helped him master [Gravity Control].

These events had long since caused a subtle shift in Xia Nan's understanding of the world.

On the surface, it might seem like an ordinary Western medieval fantasy setting, but beneath that, it was already mixed with countless creations of wildly different styles.

Even if he were to discover one day that a certain god's true form was a majestic, perfect man clad in radiant golden holy armor, sitting upon a golden throne connected to countless tubes and cables...

He wouldn't be too surprised—well, if that day ever came, he would probably be more terrified than anything else.

In short, when Luca walked into the room and took out the Metal Block, Xia Nan's attention naturally focused on it, and an Attribute Panel covered in dense text appeared before his eyes.

He immediately realized the item's uniqueness.

As he took it from Hai'an's hand, a cool, smooth sensation spread from his fingertips.

Xia Nan carefully examined the silver-white, oval-shaped metal, which was barely half the size of his palm.

"Dream Weaving Corridor—"

With the Metal Block's silver-white luster reflecting in his dark eyes, he compared it against the stats on the system panel, guessing at the item's purpose and origin.

First of all, this piece of technology was undeniably not a creation native to the Aifala Continent.

Perhaps, like the wooden sword [Azure Pine] he carried, it had originated from a Secret Realm.

It was just a pity that the gnome Luca mentioned was already dead; otherwise, he might have been able to extract some location intel regarding the Secret Realm.

After all, while accidentally entering Secret Realms before had carried certain risks, the encounters had ultimately rewarded him with precious attribute points and Feats.

This was exactly why Xia Nan, despite only being Level 1, possessed combat strength far exceeding Class Holders of the same tier, allowing him to punch above his weight. As for its purpose, based on the Attribute Panel's description, he roughly guessed it was some kind of immersive movie. Only, the perspective shifted from an off-screen audience member to the character itself, allowing the user to experience an entire lifetime in a short period.

Moreover, given the advertisement-like tone of the "Description" column, this so-called "Dream Weaving Corridor" was highly likely an entertainment product.

Xia Nan wouldn't mind personally testing out a device that claimed to let him experience another life within an hour.

However, the "Dream Weaving Corridor" currently seemed incapable of being activated.

For one, it only had 3% energy left, and Xia Nan had no idea if that was enough to run it.

Furthermore, the Attribute Panel prompted, "Encryption key missing, manual entry required."

Thinking of this, his gaze shifted to the tiny, shifting characters floating on the Metal Block's surface.

They belonged to no writing system he recognized, yet upon closer inspection, they seemed to follow a certain pattern, much like the numerical symbols from his past life. He tried lightly tapping those changing symbols with his fingertip, as if "entering a password."

There was a reaction!

Whenever his finger pressed a character, all the symbols across the panel's surface shifted, swapping positions and changing patterns in a completely new configuration every time.

This led Xia Nan to guess that if he needed to manually input a Dynamic Password, this was the method.

But he didn't know the password's length, nor was he clear on its composition. If he tried brute-forcing it, he might not crack it before the end of time.

Furthermore, if the terminal ran out of energy, he wouldn't even know how to "charge" it, or if electricity was even what it required.

Therefore, even though the Attribute Panel had given him a few guesses about its origin and function, he still couldn't start it.

"Well, did you discover anything?"

Sitting by the bed on the other side of the room, the half-elf Hai'an asked Xia Nan.

Thanks to his naturally cold, sharp appearance and excellent psychological fortitude, even with countless thoughts flashing through his mind, Xia Nan didn't reveal a single trace to the outside world.

Thus, in the eyes of everyone in the room, ever since he took the Metal Block, he had simply sat in the chair, deep in thought as he stared at the object, showing nothing unusual.

Facing the half-elf's question, Xia Nan shook his head without hesitation and gave a vague answer.

"The craftsmanship looks quite impressive; it might be the work of a master blacksmith. Though I don't know the exact meaning of these unknown characters on the surface, seeing how they shift, it should be some sort of magical item."

Since it involved his biggest Golden Finger, Xia Nan naturally wasn't going to reveal what he saw on the Attribute Panel to the group for no reason.

Therefore, he merely shared some safe, ambiguous thoughts that wouldn't expose his secrets.

Hai'an didn't notice anything amiss. After listening carefully to Xia Nan's analysis, he nodded gently.

His gaze then turned to Verol, who was sitting across from Xia Nan.

"What about you? Can you tell what it is?"

In the eyes of the people in this world, mages had always held an image of profound knowledge.

And they truly were.

Compared to warlocks, who were also Spellcasters but relied more on excavating their own bloodlines to develop abilities, or Warriors, who leveled up purely by tempering their bodies and refining combat techniques, the mage profession placed considerable demands on talent. Yet, no matter how good that talent was, basic fundamentals like memorizing spell models, meditating, and reading spellbooks could never be skipped.

Behind every grand mage whose name was praised by the world lay countless days and nights of hard work in the laboratory and at the desk.

That went double for a typical Academy Faction mage like Verol, who possessed memories of a past life where she had once reached the Transcendent Tier Grade; almost the moment Luca took out the Metal Block, her eyes had locked onto this oddly shaped item, and she immediately began analyzing it in her mind.

'This style—could it be from the Sea of Stars? No, I don't see any obvious traces of enchantment on the surface.'

'Or perhaps it was produced in some arcane master's laboratory?'

As mages with exceptionally active minds and strong exploratory capabilities, it was perfectly normal to accidentally produce items in bizarre experiments without even knowing their use.

'But—'

Verol's brows visibly furrowed.

Based on the shifting characters on the Metal Block's surface, she could judge that it was definitely some sort of magical item.

Yet, even when Verol focused all her spirit, she couldn't sense the slightest fluctuation of magic particles around it.

It was as if she were looking at an ordinary piece of metal.

This reminded her of the future disaster in her memories that had swept across the entire continent.

The weapons wielded by some of the enemies back then were exactly this type—insulated from magic, yet possessing effects equal to magical items.

She had even personally tested and inspected them; it was precisely because of this that she understood their characteristics so clearly.

Of course, this was the only similarity between the Metal Block in her hands and the weapons in her memory that had slaughtered countless lives.

It wasn't enough for her to draw a conclusion.

She would just wait to ask Luca where he found the Metal Block and thoroughly inspect the area later.

Right now, the timing of the Metal Block's appearance was what deserved the most attention.

It was the exact turning point in her memory that altered the dragonborn Sava's life trajectory, allowing her to transform from an ordinary Adventurer into a vital figure of the Alliance.

Could it be that Sava had relied on this very item to break through her talent limitations and grow to such heights in the future?

Thinking this, Verol's gaze shifted toward the room's doorway, looking at Sava, who was leaning against the wall with a stiff, expressionless face and her arms crossed over her chest.

Noticing the young mage's stare, the dragonborn paused for a moment before furrowing her brows and asking with a hint of sarcasm, "Why are you looking at me?"

"You don't actually think I can figure something out, do you?"

Her reaction perfectly matched her personality. It was entirely natural.

It didn't seem faked.

Of course, she couldn't rule out the possibility that the dragonborn had superb acting skills and had fooled her.

Having long planned to seize this future betrayer's opportunity, Verol naturally couldn't let this item, which was suspected to be tied to the turning point in Sava's life, fall into her hands.

Turning her gaze toward Hai'an and Luca, she took the initiative to speak. "I can't determine the exact use for this piece of metal, nor is there any key information to pinpoint its origin."

"But I've always been interested in these types of items."

"If possible, I'd like to spend money to buy it. I wonder if you would be willing?"

Hai'an didn't answer, his gaze turning to Luca beside him.

This honest guard who had grown up in the Wycliffe Family didn't think much of it, simply grinning and scratching his head as he answered, "Sure, I just picked it up randomly anyway; keeping it is useless."

"Just give me however much you see fit."

Hearing this and seeing that neither Hai'an nor the dragonborn reacted, Verol subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.

She opened her mouth, just about to state her offer.

Suddenly, a familiar voice that had cast a deep shadow in her heart rang out from behind her, "I'm quite interested in it too. How about—we discuss it?"

The smile on the young girl's pale face instantly stiffened.

Molten Scale Town, a secluded alleyway.

The towering outer walls blocked most of the scorching daytime sunlight. Shadows veiled the man's face, hiding his expression and leaving only a pair of eerie green eyes flickering in the darkness like will-o'-the-wisps.

He still wore the same metal armor stained with blood and grass clippings, a faint scent of blood wafting around him.

His right hand rested naturally on his sword hilt, a sharp, cold gleam exuding a deadly aura flickering at the scabbard's edge in tandem with his breathing.

Lawson stood quietly, his head slightly lowered, as if he were staring at the three corpses lying by his feet in front of him.

His gloomy, oppressive aura made the surrounding air feel as if it had frozen. Just the tiniest spark would be enough to detonate the brimming powder keg in his heart.

Of course, this couldn't be grief over the deaths of his former teammates.

In truth, the red dragon might bear part of the responsibility for the Hound Fang Squad's annihilation, but he had personally sent a few of those who could have survived on their final journey.

He was also the reason why the gnome Rogue Bogu, a dignified Level 5 Class Holder, had been reduced to this state, suffering severe injuries that left him weaker than a common thug.

The real reason Lawson had accumulated so much negative emotion in his heart was the heirloom treasure that had been on the dead Bogu's body—the item that was supposed to let him pioneer a territory like Duke Morton's ancestors, or at the very least, be returned to the Duke's estate in exchange for a handsome reward.

After leaving him as the sole survivor of the entire Hound Fang Squad, following two years of expending countless resources to finally succeed, it was gone.

And yet this damn, disgusting, bug-like slave trader beside him was telling him he didn't know where to start looking.

"L-Lord Lawson—"

The prominent figure in Molten Scale Town, whose very name made many ordinary townsfolk pale and whose nickname they didn't even dare utter on the streets—Rotten Toe—now faced a powerful Adventurer who could snap his neck with ease. He acted like a domesticated dog that had made a mistake, his legs trembling and his back bowed at an almost right angle as he trailed behind Lawson without daring to raise his head.

If the man so much as coldly snorted, Rotten Toe would likely fall to his knees immediately and kowtow for mercy.

"I-I do recognize these two men. They occasionally came to me for work."

"But they are both dead now, and I really don't know where the item went."

There was no response.

Rotten Toe could only feel the increasingly suffocating coldness in the air, along with the long, slow breathing from the depths of the shadows before him.

What he had just said was basically nonsense.

Lawson had inspected the three corpses on the ground.

The gnome Bogu was already severely injured and on the verge of death; any ordinary person could have easily finished him off.

But these other two thugs both died the exact same way.

They had their necks snapped without even leaving any obvious signs of a struggle.

The strikes were precise, swift, and packed with force.

Without a doubt, this third party who most likely stole the treasure was a professionally trained Class Holder whose strength far surpassed that of an ordinary person.

"Search!"

The cold, hoarse voice echoed through the cramped air of the alley, making Rotten Toe's body shudder twice. His legs gave out, nearly dropping him to his knees.

"Every suspicious Adventurer in town, and the family and friends of these two thugs—"

"Don't miss a single one. Find out everything!"

Hearing this, Rotten Toe, knowing he had survived, breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

His head couldn't help but lower even further as he asked respectfully and humbly, "Lord Lawson, what about these corpses—"

Turning around and walking toward the alley's exit, the cold gaze under the cover of shadows swept over him.

His body trembled as an echo that seemed to come straight from hell rang in his ears.

"Don't you keep a few dogs in your casino?"

"Chop them up and give them a good meal."

"Y-Yes—"