Chapter 32: He Fails to Wake Up

"Hmm…"

The pungent smell of disinfectant rushed into her nasal cavity, which seemed to be mixed with some other medicines. Sakura sat up with her head covered and shook it slightly, and the slender ears on her head swayed. With the physical fitness of a fusion warrior, Sakura's vision gradually became clear, and her perception of the surroundings gradually recovered.

"Here it is..."

"Sakura? You're awake~"

Elysia's surprised voice came from beside her, and almost the next moment she felt her breath coming to her side.

"How was it? Did you sleep well? Are you awake now? Can you see the cute me clearly?"

"...I'm fine, Elysia... what's going on now?"

"...The Eighth Herrscher raided the base. Its special power caused too many people to fall into their dreams. Although Dr. Mei and her team made drugs to resist mental attacks, many people still fell asleep."

Elysia said softly.

"Sakura, you were like that before, but luckily, you're awake now."

"Really... it was... a dream..."

As if she hadn't fully recovered yet, Sakura muttered to herself in a trance.

So, marrying Wang before... was it all my dream?

"…By the way, where are Rin and Wang? How are they doing?"

Although still a little dazed, Sakura quickly came to her senses, quickly grabbed Elysia's arm, and asked.

"Don't worry, Rin, she's safe. She's just looking for him..."

Elysia opened her mouth, but finally turned sideways, revealing Wang lying behind her, and Dysdopia who was further away.

Unlike the others who had fallen into deep sleep, most of the others were in their own sweet dreams with peaceful expressions, smiles on their lips, and perhaps even some ambiguous mumblings. However, Xiwang had his brows tightly furrowed and his body twitching slightly. It was obvious that he was not having a sweet dream. He even had inexplicable wounds appearing on his body from time to time, and they appeared very strangely, as if the wounds were caused by his body itself.

As for Dysdopia, her situation was even worse than Xiwang's.

The terrible situation made Rin subconsciously move closer to Xiwang. She gently held his hand, trying to comfort him who was still in the nightmare.

"He and Dysdopia were pushed into a nightmare by the Eighth Herrscher."

Mei's voice came from the side. She slightly pinched her brows, which were becoming more and more furrowed due to long hours of work. Mei brought a group of researchers to stand beside Sakura, and then briefly explained the current situation to Sakura.

When the Fire Moths discovered that the base had been invaded by the Herrscher, they immediately sounded the alarm and tried to gather combat troops. However, the unique mental abilities of the Eighth Herrscher were too difficult to prevent, and it was even harder to defend against intentional targeting and sneak attacks. Soon, most of the people in the base fell into a dream. If targeted drugs had not been distributed in time, the entire base might have been paralyzed.

When no one was falling into a coma anymore, Dr. Mei and others began to study how to wake people up, and for this purpose they urgently developed a batch of drugs for trial. The first to use them were Rin, Xiwang, and Desdobia. All three of them were fusion warriors, and even if there were problems with the drugs, they could recover with their strong physical fitness.

But now, after the injection of the drug, only Rin woke up. Xiwang and Desdobia did not wake up either. Even their originally peaceful sleeping faces became hideous and painful.

"Rin, can you tell me how you woke up? This may help us research drugs."

Mei asked Rin; she urgently needed to know the situation in the [Dream] and try her best to ensure that the two fusion warriors would not be targeted and killed by the [Herrscher]... As the precious fighting force of the Fire Moth, they must not die like this.

"…I'm sorry, I'm not sure either."

Rin recalled everything in her dream, but her memory of the dream had become vague at this moment. She opened her mouth, but in the end, she could only shake her head in disappointment and said with a hint of apology.

"I just realized that I was [dreaming] and then woke up."

"So... was that a sweet dream you were having? At least it was a sweet dream in your opinion."

"Yes."

"…It's the same as what others said."

Mei frowned but didn't doubt it.

Although it is very difficult to wake up on your own after falling into the dream of the Herrscher, it is only "very difficult." It's not that no one has woken up, but that the number of people is really very small... Mei naturally asked those people, and the answers she got were all the same. After they realized that they were dreaming, they woke up naturally, and the dreams they had before were all "sweet dreams" without exception.

Coupled with the happy expressions on their faces when they were sleeping, Mei speculated that everyone was having a [sweet dream], and when people completely sank into the [sweet dream], they would naturally die... This is the killer move of the [Eighth Herrscher].

After all, reality is so cruel, and everything in dreams is so beautiful. Ordinary people will follow the instinct of [pursuing beauty] and choose dreams, and then fall into the trap of the [Eighth Herrscher]. In addition, the overly realistic [dream] will make it difficult for people in it to realize that they are [dreaming]. Therefore, once they are caught, it is difficult to wake up, and they can basically be sentenced to death.

But now... looking at the painful expressions on Wang and Dysdopia's faces, Mei felt that they still underestimated the [Eighth Herrscher].

Mei believes that each of the fusion warriors has the ability to escape from the dream. In fact, Xiwang and Dysdopia had both shown signs of "waking up" before, Dysdopia a little later, and Xiwang showed the same sign at the same time as Rin. But in the end, only Rin woke up, while the other two fell into nightmares and even had physical problems.

That's why Mei came to ask Sakura about her specific situation, but the answer she got in the end was of little help... Now it seems that the Eighth Herrscher is deliberately targeting the fusion warriors, and Sakura has avoided the targeting of the Herrscher either because of luck or for some other reason.

"... Let's temporarily stop researching drugs that can wake people up. Others can't withstand the targeting of the Herrscher. What about the exploration of the Dream Realm?"

Mei rubbed her head tiredly, sorted out her thoughts, and then spoke.

"Observer No. 24 has been confirmed dead, and Observer No. 25 is ready."

"Then continue. We now need to find the physical coordinates of the Herrscher and destroy him. Only in this way can we officially end this Honkai Impact... Elysia, go to the Deep Place to find Aponia and ask her to help. I will get permission from the higher-ups. Also, contact Mobius and tell her to prepare for the fusion warrior surgery immediately. The requirement is to use the genes of Mayuri. As for the candidate... let the higher-ups find it!"

"Roger."

Mei arranged everything one by one, trying to resolve this [Honkai Impact] as soon as possible. The ability to make people fall into a sweet dream and then die peacefully is too dangerous for people today.

"Is there anything I can do for you, Doc?"

Sakura asked.

"Be prepared for battle, Sakura. Once we obtain the physical coordinates of the Eighth Herrscher, you need to go there and destroy it immediately."

"Good."

Sakura nodded in agreement. With her abilities, she was perfect for this task.

"......"

When everyone left, Sakura looked back at Xiwang, who was still trapped in the nightmare, gently held his hand, and whispered softly.

"…Thank you, Wang."

Although her memory of the dream became blurry, she still had some impression of the last scene she saw, the last thing she realized, and the last rain that fell.

Coupled with what Dr. Mei said earlier—that she and Xiwang both showed signs of "about to wake up"—combining these two things, the truth of the matter is not difficult to guess.

Being able to fall into the same [dream] with each other and accept such a close identity in it... Even if it was just a dream, Sakura was very happy.

"...Thanks."

Sakura once again said with a smile, with the purest joy, and then... restrained her expression, suppressed the happiness in her heart, and stood up to leave.

Whether for the sake of one's duty or for the sake of one's loved ones... this [Honkai] must end.

We will defeat [Honkai]... for sure.

Sakura tightened her grip on the knife and walked forward firmly.

......

.........

[Dream] is a very magical place.

It is the place closest to death and the so-called "fate", so people can see their deceased relatives in dreams, or do magical things like "foreknowledge".

But in the final analysis, dreams also exist based on human beings themselves. Everything in dreams will change due to one's mental state, knowledge, experience, and memory, and will show different trends based on the subconscious.

The so-called seeing deceased relatives and friends in a dream means that one misses them and, based on one's own impression of them, one imagines a "living relative or friend" in the brain; the so-called "precognitive dream" is also the result of the brain's deduction of the future based on the information already available to the individual, and that's all.

A so-called sweet dream is when the brain, based on existing information, makes an event develop in the direction one expects, or even the most ideal state, while a nightmare is the opposite, making an event develop in a bad direction.

Although dreams are derived from reality, because they are based on people's "thinking," they are often not bound by objective factors in reality. Therefore, dreams are endowed with many things that do not exist in reality. Dreams thus have fantasy, illusion, and unreality elements, and people use this to distinguish between reality and dreams.

So, when a dream is shaped to be almost indistinguishable from reality, how can one tell that one is dreaming?

When the situation in your dream is countless times better than the reality, or even exactly your ideal life, how can you make up your mind to wake up?

[I do not understand]

In the pure white [dream], she...it expressed its doubts.

[I clearly set up the dream according to your best ideal situation... You get married to the person you like, and she doesn't mind the person of the opposite sex hidden in your heart. The two of you pay attention to you together and are even willing to live under the same roof with you... I even let the person of the opposite sex in your heart become your lover. What's wrong with this? ]

[Even that big star is quite fond of you, even little girls are keen to get close to you... As long as you want, you can even easily open a harem without worrying about wealth]

[They are even willing to accept your "hobby" and help you bring those... "medicines" when you forget]

It looked very confused, looking through the candy box in its hand, and then casually threw it back, letting it disappear in mid-air.

[It has come to this, what else are you dissatisfied with? ]

But the only response it got was the azure water blade.

[Don't waste your energy. The one in front of you is just a phantom... and after losing the home turf of "Rain Water," your threat is far less than you imagined.]

It said calmly that in the [dream], or the spiritual world, it had overwhelming power and could easily undo scenes and change the weather.

[How about you answer my questions and I let you go? ]

In response, it was answered by a blue water jet.

[I don't control the person you care about now. Logically, I don't have any hatred towards you. I even arranged you and her to be in the same dream. When you sent her away, I didn't stop you. I can even say that I owe you a favor. Why can't you answer my doubts? ]

"......"

The azure attack paused for a moment, and then attacked even more violently.

[What a hassle... You don't want to sink into the dream, but you don't want to answer my questions. This makes it difficult for me.]

It held its forehead with a hint of distress.

[Then... I can only ask you to die.]

So it raised its hand and gently pushed in the direction of Xiwang. As it moved, Xiwang's body fell backward uncontrollably, fell into a gap that appeared at some point, and fell into the abyss.

Then, the surroundings returned to their original pure white appearance.

[…Is it time to solve it? ]

Changing from its previous relaxed and steady appearance, it stepped forward cautiously, first tentatively stepped on the restored pure white with its feet, and then stepped forward and patted it with its hands, as if to confirm that the area was compacted.

[Okay, okay... As long as that guy enters my nightmare...]

It wiped the non-existent sweat from its forehead as if in fear, and muttered to itself.

[Damn it, why is this guy's spirit and memory so heavy? Even heavier than those old guys. I have already confirmed that it's only been more than 20 years...]

When it first came into contact with Xiwang's dream, it was able to confirm that Xiwang's memory lasted only for more than 20 years in total. However, when it wanted to tamper with the dream and insert some things into the memory, it found that this guy's spirit and memory were so "deep" that it took a lot of effort to give him an impression of a "lover".

It wasn't that difficult to pull him into the [dream], so why has the subsequent processing become so troublesome? I can't solve it even if I want to, and I can't kick him away even if I kick him.

It's like a big sack filled with books placed on the top of a bookshelf. It's easy to pull it down from the shelf, but it's extremely difficult to put it back on. When you open the sack to reduce the weight inside, you find that you can't open it, and you can't directly pierce the sack... It's really a headache.

But fortunately, it still has a way. It just needs to drag him into the [nightmare] he fears the most and continue to weaken his spirit. When he is the weakest, it can solve this big trouble in one fell swoop.