I barely felt any interruption in my consciousness, the transition into the dream was so smooth that I could only describe it as "like an antelope hanging its horns." It was like on a school day when I arrived early, and only a few cssmates were in the cssroom. I took out a random book to kill time, and when I looked up again, the cssroom was filled with voices.

  When I came to my senses, the living room was already filled with dense gray fog... No, this was no longer the living room. There were no walls or furniture around me, only endless mist. I was no longer sitting on the sofa either; somehow, I had ended up standing. The backpack and empty jar that had been in my arms were nowhere to be found.

  There was no floor beneath my feet, only yers of gray mist. I didn’t know how I was able to stand in this pce, but the sensation of walking on it felt like stepping on sand.

  My body also appeared strange. In terms of direct sensation and touch, it felt almost the same as usual. I could still feel my clothes and shoes on, but visually, my entire body seemed to be in a dim, foggy state, as if it was made of bck mist.

  This seemed to be a dream. I had been exhausted and fell asleep. Only then did I realize. Perhaps I should have entered the fire elemental form before I fell asleep, that way I wouldn’t need sleep. Now, I must use every moment to analyze and search for Ma Zao’s whereabouts. There was no time to waste on sleep.

  But since I was already asleep, I could only look forward. Having a dream shouldn’t take up much time in the real world. Besides, this dream seemed quite unusual.

  I had encountered this gray mist twice before. Once when I touched the bck jade in the basement; the other time was in a recent dream before my powers awakened, and the gray mist appeared at the end. I always kept the bck jade close to me, so perhaps the second time was also caused by the bck jade.

  Was I once again pulled into a dream by the bck jade?

  This seemed like an incredibly strange phenomenon.

  My mind was drawn to the phenomena that could not be expined by common sense, and my curiosity and desire for adventure took the lead.

  Staying here any longer probably wouldn’t bring any change, so I began to move forward through the dense gray fog.

  One minute, ten minutes, thirty minutes... I had no idea how vast this mysterious foggy dream was. I walked for a long time without discovering its boundary, even feeling as though I were treading water. Perhaps there was no boundary here. Without a timepiece, I could only rely on my vague sense of time.

  I didn’t know how long I had been walking. Though I considered myself patient enough, such a monotonous space still made me feel bored. That was when I began to wonder if there was any way to actively escape this pce. Clearly, there was no entrance or exit here. The st time I was able to escape from this gray fog space was when I regained my normal consciousness and emotions. Now, I had these conditions from the start, yet I was still trapped here.

  During this dull period, I also tried to activate my superpowers. Unfortunately, they didn’t respond to my call. They weren’t sealed nor blocked by any external forces. I’m not sure if this description is accurate, but many people have likely experienced the sensation of suddenly forgetting how to write a particur word, and that’s exactly how I feel now. It fits very well with the “dream” style.

  This feeling of being “defenseless” was quite rare.

  I often imagine what kind of life path I would have taken if I hadn’t become a superpowered individual.

  Without superpowers, perhaps I would have strived to become a war correspondent, or an adventurer, or even a mercenary living on the edge of danger. It’s even possible that I might have become a criminal disrupting social stability. Of course, it’s also very possible that I would have forgotten everything and become an ordinary, unremarkable person.

  After experiencing the enlightenment beneath the basement and realizing my true nature, it became difficult to imagine myself as the “ordinary me.”

  Compared to becoming a war correspondent, adventurer, mercenary, or criminal, I now feel that the version of me with unparalleled “extraordinary power” is, in fact, the weakest. It’s the version of myself that emerged after uttering words of weakness in a fourteen-year-old dream, on a path that extends into the future.

  The adventure beyond reality is clearly within reality.

  Even knowing this, I still cannot help but walk toward the world of fantasy...

  Suddenly, the sound of unfamiliar footsteps vaguely reached me from the distance in the thick fog, interrupting my thoughts.

  I raised my head alertly and looked in that direction.

  Those footsteps were not a figment of my imagination. The sound of footsteps from deep within the fog grew clearer and clearer, sounding almost identical to my own footsteps, like walking on sand. Soon, the footsteps came within a certain distance. A strange intuition rose in my heart.

  —The owner of these footsteps is someone “extremely terrifying.”

  This was the first time I had ever felt this way about someone.

  Especially after awakening my superpowers, I had never felt “danger” or “fear” from anyone. It was like coming into close contact with a rge carnivorous beast in real life, as opposed to watching it on television. The difference between these experiences is the “terror” that I felt.

  As this unfamiliar emotion rose within me, it seemed the owner of the footsteps also sensed something, and abruptly stopped moving.

  Then, a highly alert voice came from the other side: “—Who?”

  It was the voice of an adult male.

  I didn’t respond rashly, and the man on the other side didn’t speak again. The situation became stiff and tense. I watched the direction of the voice through the dense gray fog, and the owner of the voice clearly had his guard up as well.

  For a moment, it was like two unfamiliar hunters, each armed, encountering one another in the deep forest at night. Neither of us could tell whether the other was friendly or hostile, and we didn’t know whether we should retreat or continue approaching. Neither of us made a move.

  After a while, I decided to take the initiative and moved toward the other person. It seemed he had the same idea, as he moved at the same time. We soon came face to face.

  The figure of the other person emerged through the thick fog. Simir to my current state, his body also appeared to be composed of bck mist, and could only be described as “a silhouette.”

  He was much taller than me, at least around 1.8 meters. From his body’s outline, he seemed to have trained muscles, but he wasn’t overly bulky—he gave off an impression of being lean and toned.

  His scrutinizing gaze fell on me, as if he was assessing my level of threat. I had no intention of threatening him, but after his inspection, his vigint gaze seemed to increase, and his muscles were still tense.

  “Who?” he asked again.

  “That’s my question,” I replied. “Who are you, and why are you here?”

  After I asked this, for some reason, his tense muscles seemed to rex.

  “I came to this dream through a divine seal fragment,” his voice suddenly turned friendlier. “Are you the same?”

  Divine seal fragment?

  I didn’t know I had something called a “divine seal fragment.” If I had to name something, it would be the bck jade stone. I must have come here through the bck jade stone… Could the bck jade stone be the divine seal fragment he mentioned?

  Divine seal... I had heard that term before. It was mentioned by Ma Zao before she left.

  — "I will prove the existence of the apocalypse to this society, or find the divine seal and directly prevent the apocalypse from happening."

  Was the “divine seal” Ma Zao mentioned the same as the “divine seal fragment” this person is talking about?

  Should I pretend to know what the divine seal is and try to pry more information out of him, or should I just ask him directly?

  Before I could make a decision, this person seemed to have sensed the truth from my attitude.

  "I see, you don’t know what the divine seal is..." he murmured.

  Seeing this, I decided to ask directly, "The divine seal fragment you’re talking about, is it something that looks like bck jade? And what exactly is the divine seal?"

  He first nodded, likely confirming my first question, then answered my second: "The divine seal is a legendary artifact that can grant any wish."

  "Any wish?" I repeated in a tone that cked a sense of reality.

  "Any wish," he said. "At least, that’s what I know."

  The bck jade stone... is a fragment of a wish-granting artifact? I found it hard to believe. If this is true, no wonder Ma Zao said that finding the divine seal could prevent the apocalypse.

  But... since it has already become a fragment, does that mean the wish-granting artifact is no longer usable? Or is it that as long as the broken pieces are collected, the wish can still be granted?

  If Ma Zao's goal is to collect this bck jade, then should I just show it to her in advance so she wouldn't leave? However, at the time, my intention was to keep her from knowing that I encountered something strange, so naturally, I couldn't show her the bck jade.

  Moreover, all these specutions rely on the assumption that "the bck jade is really a fragment of the divine seal, as Ma Zao said." I didn't just blindly trust this person's words. Perhaps there isn't such a wish-granting artifact after all.

  Then, the person spoke again.

  "Would you consider trading the divine seal fragment in your hand to me?" His tone was very polite.

  "You just said that this thing can grant any wish, but now you're asking me for a trade. Don't you find that a bit contradictory?" I asked.

  "The one that can grant wishes is the complete divine seal, and the fragments do not have that power," he patiently expined. "Rather than holding onto this fragment, wouldn't it be better to exchange it for some tangible benefits? Don't you think so?"

  "You kindly answered my questions earlier, and I want to thank you," I said. "But I'm sorry, this fragment is still useful to me, so I can't trade it at the moment."

  If I find Ma Zao ter, the bck jade might become one of the bargaining chips to persuade her to stay. Although I didn't know what this person intended with the trade, I couldn't part with it now.

  "Is that so..." He gazed at me, seemingly calcuting something.

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