The invader's thinking response disappeared, but it was not because he was destroyed by himself, but because he somehow escaped from this "building" formed by distorted dreams.
Heidi frowned, sensing the information constantly transmitted back by the personality clones she had released, while her eyes swept across the "ward" in front of her.
As the invader's mental reactions disappeared, the ward quickly returned to its original appearance. The horrific and deformed scenes caused by the pollution gradually faded away. The walls that looked like dead flesh turned into neat white walls in the medical facility again, and the cracked and rotten scorched earth turned back into the state of the floor. Outside the ward, the eerie atmosphere that filled the entire facility was also quickly dissipating.
The Sea Emperor did not relax his brows at all. Instead, he became more alert to the strange changes at the moment, because this was not normal. The eroded and distorted dream was a closed structure. The invader's consciousness was the attacker of the dream, but it was also the part affected by the dream. If he wanted to forcibly leave the dream, it would definitely cause a lot of "noise". Of course, a "dream expert" who was strong enough could suppress this noise to a very small extent, but that invader... was not that strong.
Heidi knew her abilities. As an outstanding student who had studied at the Academy of Truth and had received meticulous instruction from her father since childhood, she had always been confident in the realm of dreams. She did not believe that the "invader" could escape from this twisted nightmare without her noticing. The other party must have hidden himself in some way, or was hiding in some cognitive gap.
She hesitated for a moment, then slowly walked towards the bed in the middle of the room. The strange elf girl was still lying calmly on the bed, her brows furrowed, with no sign of waking up.
Theoretically, this girl is the core of this dream. Her trap caused this distorted "medical facility" to appear in her dream, but normally she should have woken up by now, or even run away. The pollution he left here has obviously subsided, and it is reasonable for the trapped person to wake up in the dream immediately after the pollution subsides, because in most cases, people can do countless strange things in their dreams, but there is only one thing they cannot do, which is to continue sleeping in the dream. Even if it is a dream within a dream with layers of nested dreams, the human consciousness must be active in the last layer of the dream.
Heidi went forward to check the condition of the elf girl, then she hesitated for a moment, reached out to help her sit up, and then pushed her hard onto the bed, but to no avail. Her "patient" was still asleep, and the fall reaction was ineffective..."
Heidi looked serious and thoughtful, muttering to herself, isn’t this the last layer of her dream? The middle layer of the dream within the dream? That’s not right... Even if it’s the middle layer..." The fall reaction can be awakened.
She muttered, then suddenly stopped, as if she suddenly thought of something, turned around and ran out of the ward, her hurried footsteps echoing in the medical facility. Heidi ran quickly in the deep and long corridor. Along the way, she saw a personality clone she had released before. The "Heidis" holding golden cones were still wandering around the facility searching, checking the corridors, checking the stairs, or checking those empty rooms with a half-open door and a strange atmosphere. They looked busy.
Heidi ran through these personality clones. Every time she passed one, the clone would turn around and catch up, quickly returning to her body. The personality clones scattered to other parts of the facility also received the command, and appeared from nearby forks in the road, one by one returning to the original body. The medical facility was no longer the structure she was familiar with. The misplaced projection of the dream caused a large number of messy corridors, dead ends and forks to appear in the building, and some stairs were even upside down and twisted, connecting those rooms and halls that were not rational in terms of spatial structure, like an absurd abstract painting. It looked extremely weird.
However, such a chaotic space was nothing to Heidi, who often dealt with dreams. She easily identified the correct path, avoided the dead ends that would lead to infinite loops, and finally successfully reached the end of the road. A big door stood quietly in front of her sight, with the word "exit" written on it.
Heidi stopped, and the last personality clone ran up from behind her and quickly merged into her body. She took a deep breath and slowly walked towards the door, which was the exit of the medical facility and theoretically the boundary of this distorted dream. She put her hand on the door handle and slowly calmed her heartbeat. The boundaries of dreams are dangerous, they represent the "cognitive limits" of the dreamer.
As a "visitor", rashly crossing the dreamer's cognitive limit means that one's consciousness will fall into a huge "undefined" area. In this chaotic area dominated by the subconscious and no longer under the control of the dreamer, unwelcome intruders will encounter various dangers, and even... encounter those terrible things that linger on the edge of mortal reason and lurk in the world.
Heidi hesitated and continued to move forward, but it was not in compliance with medical standards. The amethyst pendant hanging on her chest was no longer hot. This was essentially just a cheap, shoddy product made of glass, and it was now ice-cold.
Feeling the coolness from the pendant, Heidi made up her mind. This magical pendant had never had any problems until now. She decided to trust its reaction. This step would at least deduct fifteen points in the professional course. The psychiatrist muttered something and pushed the door open with force. The expected huge darkness and chaotic shadows did not appear, nor did she see the terrifying abyss and spiritual objects.
Heidi stood at the edge of the dream, staring at the scene in front of her in amazement. A lush forest appeared in her field of vision. Everywhere she looked, there were towering trees that she had never seen before. The huge treetops with luxuriant branches and leaves overlapped and intertwined in the sky, covering the sky. There were also countless flowers, plants and shrubs covering the ground. In the middle, there were many small bushes of different heights and vibrant vines. The calls of unknown birds echoed between the giant trees from time to time, sounding novel and unfamiliar.
The sunshine filled the dense forest, and the vitality it brought was a scene that Heidi, who had lived in a city-state all her life, had never seen before. She could not even understand it all. She could not imagine why there were so many huge trees growing together, why the precious land was covered with strange plants but no human figures were seen, why she could not hear the sound of the waves but could only smell the scent of plants and soil.
She fell into confusion, a double confusion from the senses to the cognition. Even though she was a top student enrolled in the Master's and Doctoral programs at the Academy of Truth with a full scholarship, she was so dazed that she almost forgot where she was and what she was doing.
But fortunately, her professional qualities cultivated over the years and her strong mental self-control skills allowed her to quickly wake up after just a few seconds of confusion. She took a deep breath and forced herself to return to a state where she could think calmly. Then she looked back in the direction she came from. The "medical facility" was right behind her, surrounded by a large area of huge trees and countless criss-crossing vines. The walls were covered with unknown plants. The man-made buildings appeared abruptly in the forest, looking out of place.
But Heidi quickly made some judgments from this incompatible scene. The scope of the dream should indeed be limited to the interior of this medical facility. This strange place outside the gate is not the structure of a dream. Some kind of mutated marginal consciousness area can't see any elements related to the Plande city-state. It's all unfamiliar plants. Is it a scene in the subconscious of this elf? But even the elf city-states like Breeze Harbor or Moko don't have vegetation of this scale...
Or... this outside is the real last layer of the dream. The scale is too large, and there are so many details that her brain should have burned out long ago, Heidi muttered to herself in confusion, then she fumbled around and took out a colorful ball of yarn. She held the end of the yarn with her fingers and threw the ball hard into the distance, but the colorful ball of yarn rolled on the ground, jumping and spreading among the wet stones, soil and vines.
Heidi carefully stared at every moment of the rolling of the thread ball, confirming whether there were any blurred or abnormal places on the lines that fell on the ground. If there were, it would prove that this seemingly "detailed" area had hidden "cognitive holes". She must carefully avoid those holes to prevent herself from falling into a nightmare.
The ball of thread rolled smoothly to a far distance without any abnormality in the middle. Heidi breathed a sigh of relief and followed the general path the ball of thread had rolled. Finally, she took the first step towards this "weird place" covered with plants.
She had temporarily put away her revolver, and was only holding the "golden cone" for protection in her left hand. In this "marginal area" where the situation was unclear, it was best not to use things that made a lot of noise. Although the lush vegetation here looked pleasing to the eye, there might be something hidden in the silence of the surrounding environment. She must be careful not to awaken those beings who were sleeping on the border of mortal consciousness.
As she walked forward cautiously, Heidi couldn't help but gradually began to wonder: Did the cultist also escape from the dream in a similar way? Did he not "wake up" but run directly to this strange place outside the dream? Would there be any trap ahead? All kinds of thoughts ran through Heidi's mind.
But suddenly, her heart moved, and the next second, she suddenly looked up in a certain direction that her intuition pointed to.
Among eight unknown trees, in a small clearing in the forest, stood a figure with his back to himself.
It was a stranger wearing a light-colored coat in the southern style, with messy blond hair and a slightly hunched back. Although he was facing away, the two pointed long ears sticking out from the edge of his hair caught Heidi's attention at the first sight. An elf