Lin Xi never thought that he would dream about the exhibition on the first night after the failed jump.
If he could retain the ability to think in reality in dreams, he would attribute the dream to the strange Sunu sculpture. That thing was so ugly that Lin Xi admitted that he was scared by it.
Of course, part of the responsibility can also be thrown to John Bronson. If it weren't for the old man's madness, not many people would remember Taran Ida's obscure Sunu ancestry.
Or the problem could be attributed to Bronson, who firmly refused Lin Xi's request for sleeping pills and tranquilizers, and kept nagging Lin Xi that he should quit his dependence on such drugs...
But no matter what, he dreamed of the exhibition many years ago.
Oh, one thing that needs to be emphasized is that the Sunu cultural exchange exhibition itself was not a bad thing.
Lin Xi and Bryson had a lot of fun at the exhibition, and occasionally, Lin Xi would inadvertently think of that afternoon in her childhood.
Perhaps time itself will give a beautiful filter to human memory, or maybe the Sunu people at that time were just so lovely. In Lin Xi's memory, the exhibition was as strange as a fantasy, magnificent and wonderful, and every detail revealed an incredible dreamlike atmosphere.
However, Lin Xi and Bryce, who were having a great time at the time, did not know that the Sunu Cultural Exchange Exhibition was the last event for direct communication between the Sunu people and the people on Earth.
The Sunu people who were still on Earth at the time did not know that the madness without any reason had already erupted among their own people. However, not long after the event, the Sunu people who remained on Earth also became ill one after another. Their madness and morbidity eventually caused them to die miserably on a strange planet like cockroaches.
oh…
Wait, let’s get back to Lin Xi’s dream.
Back to that Sunu cultural exchange exhibition.
In his dream, Lin Xi stared blankly at the clubhouse that was decorated to resemble a termite nest.
A line of crooked words was hung outside the guild hall, written in Sunu. He stood on tiptoe to see it more clearly, but was bumped by someone and stumbled, almost unable to stand steadily.
There was a huge crowd of people around him, and the excited screams and laughter of children blended into the noisy background sound of this dream.
Lin Xi's vision was very low, and in this dream he was still the silent and shy child.
"Lin Xi, look - after the summer vacation is over, I will tell this to Teacher Anna - it's so interesting -"
Then, Bryce's crisp voice rang out.
Just like before, he pulled Lin Xi's arm and walked quickly towards the exhibition gate.
Lin Xi staggered forward, and Bryce's face looked like melted ice cream in the sunlight, with no clear features.
But his expression, his movements, and his voice were all so real, as if the past was echoing in his mind.
Lin Xi felt a little breathless.
A subtle fear gripped his mind.
He wanted to leave. He didn't want to enter the guild hall as eagerly and urgently as his childhood self had.
However, the dream flickered slightly, and he was already standing in the exhibition hall of the cultural exchange exhibition.
There were still a lot of people, but when Lin Xi looked around, they looked like Bryce, with blurry faces and ugly looks. Even their bodies looked bloated and sloppy, so blurred that there was almost no outline, just like a piece of paint hastily dotted on the canvas by an absent-minded third-rate painter.
In contrast, the Sunu exhibits at the cultural exchange exhibition are quietly guarding behind the glass covers in a dream, with even the decorative patterns as thin as hair being so clear.
Lin Xi walked around the huge exhibition hall in a state of extreme confusion and fear.
Sometimes Bryce would always be by his side just as he remembered, but more often than not, it was just Lin Xi.
The exhibition halls filled with Sunu people's daily necessities were one after another, connected by short corridors. In the dream, this exhibition was like a huge maze, enough to trap a person there forever.
Lin Xi felt as if he had been walking in those never-repeating exhibition halls for ten thousand years. He almost fainted, of course, provided that he could faint in a dream. When he came to his senses, he had come to a corridor - yes, the organizers had deliberately used several exhibition boards to divide the originally open corridor into a winding corridor.
Lin Xi looked at the display boards. Several of them were blurry, but one of them - a sign - was exceptionally clear.
It said Sunu Star Butterfly on it, and then below the line of English, someone wrote in an extremely childish brush: I like Star Butterfly the best!
That line of crayon writing seemed to be embedded in the display board, looking weird and out of place.
But the hazy passers-by around Lin Xi seemed to have noticed nothing.
Lin Xi stared at the words "Sunu Star Butterfly" with his heart pounding. He felt like some kind of animal being stared at by a wild beast. Panic and ominous feelings gnawed at his soul like little bugs, bringing a faint tingling sensation, but he could not control his behavior in the dream.
The surrounding environment melted, and Lin Xi had arrived at the exhibition area of the Sunu Star Butterfly.
People were crowded together.
This vast hall seems to be a gathering place for all the human beings on earth.
The completely irrepressible astonishment of reality was like a wave that kept rising and falling in the exhibition hall. Combined with the bodies of those people melting together, the whole picture looked like some strange experimental MV.
And in the midst of this noise, Lin Xi heard a special sound, very strange, shrill, and with an indescribable feeling.
"Yes, that's right. What you are seeing now is the most precious and sacred star butterfly on our Sunu planet. It is also our totem and spiritual symbol. This star butterfly is a rare individual that has remained active over the long years. We usually respectfully call it "Your Majesty the Prince" because its appearance and status are second only to the monarch butterfly in the entire butterfly nest..."
Lin Xi couldn't help but walk towards the voice.
Well, dreams are just dreams after all, and he can always get what he wants.
Lin Xike remembered that the actual situation was not so smooth. It took him a long time to squeeze in front of the rare and precious Sunu Star Butterfly.
But the docent was still there, as always.
The tall and slender Sunu man just stood there, his limbs were incredibly long and his skin was so pale that one could almost see his blood vessels through it.
From time to time, he bent down and spoke affectionately to the children around him. Whenever he spoke, the children who were closer to him would exclaim in amazement and hide in the arms of their parents behind him with a smile.
That Sunu man looked so amazing, but Lin Xi's attention was not on him at all.
Right behind the Sunu people, stood the largest bird cage Lin Xi had ever seen in his life. Of course, it only looked like a bird cage. If the star butterfly was just an ordinary exhibit animal, people could have used that cold and rough thing to trap it in it. But of course the Sunu people would not do that. They decorated the cage as well as they could. Even the metal objects looked like they could accommodate several people driving motorcycles in it. Their decorations made the creature in the cage look as luxurious, noble, and superior as a human aristocrat.
However, the fact that it is placed in an exhibition for earthlings forms an absurd contrast with its temperament.
The star butterfly named "Prince" looks a little similar to the butterflies we know, but that's all.
The armor with a mechanical luster is very beautiful. It is a very beautiful and charming girl. It is a very beautiful girl with a very beautiful figure. It is a very beautiful girl with a very beautiful figure. It is a very beautiful girl with a very beautiful figure.
The combination of the giant insect-like body and the beautiful wings was so grotesque, but at the same time had a kind of beauty that could not be described in human language - the kind that could give people goose bumps.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Just as Lin Xi looked up and stared at the huge star butterfly in fascination, the Sunu man suddenly appeared beside him like a ghost.
“… “
Lin Xi looked up at the pale face of the Sunu man, which was very different from that of the people on Earth, and said nothing.
But the Sunu didn't seem to care.
It spoke fluent English, but its strong Sunu accent made its words difficult to understand.
It looked at Lin Xi steadily, then suddenly opened its mouth and smiled.
Then, Lin Xi saw it turn its head and make a long, hissing sound towards the birdcage. At the call of the Sunu man, the lazy, dazed star butterfly landed.
It was almost standing in front of Lin Xi.
The Sunu reached out and grasped Lin Xi's wrist.
“Do you want to touch it?”
the Sunu asked.
Lin Xi still didn't answer it.
But the Sunu people didn't care about this. They just grabbed Lin Xi's hand and forced him to touch the inside of the birdcage.
Lin Xi touched the star butterfly.
He originally wanted to touch the star butterfly's wings that were as soft and beautiful as clouds, gauze, and mist. However, at the moment when his fingertips reached out to the star butterfly, the star butterfly's wings suddenly fluttered and stretched out in front of Lin Mao's eyes.
hula—
At that moment, the whole world was occupied by the wings of the star butterfly.
The wings, which were originally as hazy and dreamy as smoke, turned into an enchanting golden red after they opened. The fleshy veins gushed out from the body of the star butterfly, forming countless curled, trembling whorls.
Lin Xi's hand was pressed tightly against Xingdie's hard and rough sternum.
The star butterfly's scarlet eyes were fixed directly on him.
“… Wow, this little Earth friend is really rare. The Star Butterfly will only fully show its wings in front of the one it really likes. Hahaha, I never thought that it would show its wings in front of Earthlings… *&… ￥&t%$… “”
The Sunu man seemed to be startled. He looked at Lin Xi in shock and said.
And in the moment when the Sunu man was staring at Lin Xi's distraction, the dense tentacles behind the star butterfly began to slowly crawl towards the weak and warm human child.
One of them has touched Lin Xi's finger.
From the outside, those tentacles look like some kind of jelly, translucent, moist, and elastic, like some kind of children's food.
But when they touched Lin Xi, Lin Xi realized that it was just an illusion.
Those beautiful tentacles were as tough and powerful as a python, and they wrapped around his wrist with such force that they almost crushed his wrist bones.
Lin Xi's face turned pale.
He wanted to cry—scream and cry like any normal child would.
But he was no ordinary child.
Orphans like him have long been accustomed to quickly shutting up, being quiet, and staying still when experiencing great pain to prevent worse things from happening to them.
Even though he has become a member of the Bryce family, this nature still stubbornly remains in his body.
So he just froze instinctively.
No one knew how panicked he was at that moment. Lin Xi even heard people's friendly laughter and exclamations filled with admiration.
Oh no, maybe not everyone...
The Sunu man knew something was wrong.
Lin Xi even heard him speak a long passage in Sunu language.
It put its hand into the cage with a fake smile. It was very close to Lin Mao, so Lin Mao clearly heard another sound - the sound like something rough rubbing against each other came from the Sunu people's chest.
The star butterfly made the same sound.
But from beginning to end, Xingdie had no intention of letting Lin Xi go.
Finally, the Sunu called out to their companions.
Of course, Lin Xi, who was still a child at that time, could not understand these words, but now, he can understand them a little bit - of course, the premise is that this piece of Sunu language is not something he imagined in his dream.
The Sunu said...
I have a problem here, I need help... K is mistaken... K thinks this child is his mate! K is capturing K... This earthling will die... Trouble... *... %
The Sunu words began to become vague and garbled.
They don't even sound like Sunu, but more like a high-frequency wingbeat.
This is... *&%... %... you... like... *&%￥species...
Only a few words were barely legible.
But they sounded even stranger and more obscure than the friction sound.
While the Sunu man was trying to seek help from his companions, Lin Xi was still staring at the star butterfly.
Star Butterfly's face is slowly changing.
Its eyes, the scarlet bubble-shaped pupils, were split in two.
However, from two to four...
Finally, his eyeballs turned into densely packed red compound eyes.
Hiss…
Lin Mao heard the voice again.
"No…
Lin Xi knew that this was a dream, but the feeling of panic still reappeared vividly in his body.
He looked at the Sunu man beside him in panic, but the man had disappeared.
In fact, since some time ago, Lin Mao's side has become empty, without a single person.
The exhibition hall in my memory has become rugged and moist without me noticing.
The smell in the air changed from the dry exhibition smell mixed with popcorn, perfume, human sweat, etc. to a thick, moist, fishy and sweet smell.
The bright incandescent lights dimmed—no, they disappeared.
The glowing things were just moss covering the ceiling.
There were regularly spaced holes on the wall, each as big as a basketball, with some milky white or beige translucent insect eggs embedded in the middle of the holes, bulging and wriggling with a special rhythm.
Lin Xi could even see those disgusting maggot-like things flipping, trembling, and whispering under the translucent film.
Hiss… Hiss…
Then that horrible high frequency noise started again.
Lin Xi felt that the noise was like an invisible knife, which could almost pierce directly into his body through the vibration of the sound waves.
wake up-
This is a nightmare that is too horrible.
Lin Xi said to himself desperately in his dream.
But the dream was still so thick, so real, and so... dark.
hiss…
The sticky, tight feeling on her wrist made Lin Xi murmur uncontrollably.
Of course, when he turned his attention back to the thing in front of him, he had no time to panic about the pain in his wrist.
Star Butterfly.
To be more precise—the thing that used to be a star butterfly—
It is transforming little by little right before Lin Xi's eyes.
The black breastplate shattered, revealing the gray-white armor underneath!
Countless spider-leg-like things came from the armored carpenter's house, and they were like a magical beast, invading the jungle and the whole world.
Lin Xi almost sobbed just by seeing that thing.
However, at this moment, he couldn't even make any sound - the excessive fear had completely choked his throat.
He could only stand there blankly, like a weak little animal in the forest that could only pretend to be dead to escape, standing there motionless.
He let the appendages of that "thing" touch his body.
Then, pull him into the darkness little by little.
A more evil, more sticky, and more hot dream slowly surrounded me.
It was pure darkness where even fear or crying did not exist.
There, there is no passage of time, no reason, only something so dark that it can completely melt even human consciousness.
And that thing is gnawing at Lin Xi's soul.
…
“Ding…Ding…Ding…Ding…”
Being pulled out of a deep, unconscious dream by a communicator is a terrible experience.
And seeing that the call on the communicator actually came from Taran, the experience became even worse.
Lin Xi woke up from the narrow bed that was exceptionally uncomfortable. He grabbed the communicator and took a look, then covered his face tightly and uttered a painful groan...
Lin Xi had never felt that being awake was as painful as it was now. The severe headache almost made him faint again the moment he sat up.
Lin Xi staggered and took a long time to get out of his bed. He unconsciously looked back at his bed sheet, and then was stunned by the mess on the bed.
His pillow and bed sheets were soaked.
The pillow was soaked with tears, and on the bed sheet, a vivid human figure was imprinted by his own cold sweat.
Even his quilt had some suspicious stains.
Lin Xi endured the headache and stared at the last thing mentioned for a long time.
He was a little confused about what was going on.
Crying, cold sweats, anything else
He vaguely remembered that he seemed to have had a nightmare.
But when I think back carefully, that dream seems so vague and distant.
—But those fabrics can prove that, at least last night, the dream was really terrible for him. But this can hardly explain the stains on the quilt.
Lin Xike doesn't remember that he is the kind of person with heavy tastes.
“Ding-ding ...
Just as Lin Xi was staring at his bed, his damn communicator rang again.
“Fuck you.”
Lin Xi cursed, he grabbed the communicator and took another look at it.
Very good, this time in addition to Taran’s call, there is also a message from Alyssa.
Lin Xi hesitated for a moment, but finally he opened the message from Alyssa.
We found something in the statue's sealed container, and I thought you might want to come see it. —Message from Alyssa
"statue?"
Lin Xi felt that his thoughts were quite confused.
It took him a while to realize that Alyssa was talking about the strange fossil statue.
Alyssa’s words in the message were very vague, but Lin Xi felt even more depressed because of it.
After all, Alyssa knew his character.
If there wasn't any really tricky problem, she should have revealed some detailed information before he was summoned by the Great Demon Lord Taran so that he could deal with it smoothly.
But now, Alyssa simply brushed it off with the vague words "we found something".
Lin Xi already had a hunch.
"New trouble. Ha, I knew it—"
He murmured to himself.