"I dreamed I was a butterfly, flying in the sky; then I awoke. Now wonder, am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?" - Chuang Tzu, Tao dream master
------------
Once again standing in the sky, Alex and Scott overlooked the grand civilization of cards. The city below was larger than life, a sight that never ceased to amaze.
Hades had left to explore Cardopolis while the two had a discussion.
"How can the cards be so sturdy ?" Alex wondered.
"Sir, the card minerals they extract are themselves very sturdy. On top of that, one ability of the card cultivators is to reinforce the material through their souls. Then there are the card mechanics who actually build and mold these cards to create these structures."
"How come I don't see any vehicles like cars?"
"In every inner world, the fundamental laws of nature are slightly different. Here in Cardopolis, the physical laws allowing such processes as ignition do not function in the same way as on Earth. As such, much of the technology from the outside world, such as mechanical engineering, simply cannot be developed here.
"I see..." Alex began to understand his world. "There's something else...That girl, Leena, is it possible I've seen her before. I mean...before awakening?"
Scott was astounded but replied. "It is indeed possible, Sir. While unawakened, there have been stories of chosen ones stumbling into their inner worlds while dreaming..."
"While dreaming?" Alex 's eyebrows raised.
"Yes, Sir. It wouldn't feel any different than a normal dream, except you would actually be wandering in a real place, your inner world...If you had done so, it's not impossible you may have seen her."
'...It's her' Alex now knew why she seemed familiar. Recently, he had a dream of observing a strange and beautiful girl. It's just that, he never thought she would actually be real.
"Sir, while it was uncontrollable before, now that you have awakened, you can actually enter Cardopolis at will while asleep, you can practice lucid dreaming!"
"Lucid dreaming?"
"Yes. However, you will still be an energy body, unable to interact with anything or anyone. If you travel without a General, then all of the citizens will also be unable to see you, Sir."
"I understand." Alex was deep in thought. Scott hadn't noticed but Alex felt like his heartbeat slightly accelerated, even though his energy body didn't have a heart.
"Sir, regarding the Seal cards..." Scott got back to business.
"You said we can use them to take items out of Cardopolis, right? So what can we take?" Alex was now excited to create a trading empire.
"Sir, I'm afraid there isn't anything I've found, outside of the Seal cards themselves, that would be worth the cost of such an endeavor."
"What cost?"
"Sir, anytime you take something out of Cardpolis, it consumes soul energy from both the God and the inner world. If you do it too much, the world itself may collapse, which would also lead to your death. When most chosen want to extract an item from their inner world, even a small one, they can only do such a thing once every year or two without causing permanent damage."
Alex frowned deeply at this news.
"Nevertheless, Cardopolis is actually quite amazing in this respect."
"How so?"
"The Seal cards have two important advantages. The first is that the cards themselves carry very little energy. The Lord should be able to extract a large number of them before creating any significant strain on the world. Second, the process of Sealing acts as energy compression. This means if the Lord ever chose to extract or deposit anything to Cardopolis, the cost would be significantly reduced."
"Deposit? So I can bring things inside as well?"
"Indeed, Sir."
Alex thought about it but there wasn't anything he wanted to bring inside now. Even if there was, he couldn't even afford to buy it. "How many Seal cards can we get?"
"Sir, Leena has provided us with several dozen. The process of creating Seal cards is time consuming but with our support, it should gradually speed up. I recommend we speed up the time flow between Cardopolis and Earth to 100:1 so we can produce more cards. Would you like for me to do so now, Sir?
Alex thought about it. It would make the world develop much faster and generate more Seal cards, but then he frowned when he remembered something. He saw a hazy image of a girl brushing her hair with a shiny green comb. She sat in a room across from a full-length mirror, humming a beautiful tune..."No."
Scott was slightly shocked as he only saw benefits to the time acceleration and no drawbacks, but he would not question his Lord.
'I couldn't watch her grow old and die...' Alex thought as he gazed at the passing clouds.