Alex Kingdom sent explorers, headed by William, to the Black Soil Forest a while ago. They discovered an area in its depths covered by thick fog.
This fog remained in a fixed location and didn't disperse, no matter the wind's intensity.
Anyone who entered would lose consciousness and only wake up when taken out by others; those who went in and pulled back went crazy.
Alex decided to see for himself, so he ordered his subordinate to prepare for a trip to the black soil forest. After all, as a king, he has to think of things such as safety.
...
Lee looked at the new update to the code and nodded; for now, it's working well without any bugs.
She nodded and said to Rachel, "Will it really work?"
The new update to the code is for the exclusive purpose of harmonizing the dream world with a new formation she got from Rachel.
The formation is called 'Alternative Dream Life.'
Anyone affected would experience their lives in different situations.
The effect of the formation is easy to explain; it would make the dream more real.
The highest purpose of a dream is to become real.
The end goal of all of these experiments is to discover ways to make dreams real.
It is a test to see how effective the formation is.
Even though Rachel could provide the answer, it's better if Lee sees it herself; her concept mastery won't improve if Rachel tells her everything.
Mastery would only increase if one can find answers without help and intuitively understand a concept.
"Yeah, it would! Don't worry," Rachel assured.
Lee spent quite a bit of money buying the formation.
As for why 'Alternative Dream Life' would make a dream world closer to reality, it's a profound mystery of the concept of dreams that is really complicated to explain.
The simplified version is that the more details a dream has, the closer it gets to reality; the reason is not exactly this, but something like this.
'Alternative Dream Life' would add more details to a dream at the cost of some energy. It alone has a weak effect; if one only uses this one formation, it may take more than the universe's age to turn a dream world into reality.
But Lee didn't just use this formation; she also linked Alex Kingdom's dream world to Five Star Dream World.
Linking the two dream worlds also makes both closer to reality.
Again, a profound mystery of dreams: the more the dream worlds are connected, the closer they get to reality.
That is also a simplified version; the precise answer is too complicated for Lee to understand.
Why do they get closer to becoming a reality the more detailed they are? Why do they get closer to becoming a reality when they get linked together?
A dream grandmaster could answer all those, but Lee isn't a grandmaster, so she couldn't.
Of course, she knows the superficial answer: 'Reality is detailed, so as dreams get more detailed, they get closer to reality,' or 'When the two get linked, they get more detailed, so they get closer to reality.'
Even a mortal could think of those, so those aren't the reasons.
The true answer definitely has something to do with the creation and maybe even a link to illusions.
Lee continued observing.
One reason for these experiments is for Lee to improve her concepts to give deep, accurate, non-superficial answers to these questions.
The purpose is not to make these two specific worlds real.
She can turn these into reality much easier than all these troubles, as they are not ranked 12 or 13; she can forcefully turn them into reality using her complete laws and lots of energy.
The purpose is to research and learn how dreams work; if she wants to turn Alex, Karl's lasting dream, into reality, she can only use delicate techniques; without a dream universal law, brute force won't work.
The next step is creating a big dream world with millions of dream-related complete laws.
The last step is to utilize everything she learned and turn the baby Alex real.
...
After less than a month, Alex III came to the location himself.
He camped at a safe distance and ordered his troops to bring 'test subjects' to test it.
His soldiers went and brought whatever criminals they could find in the prisons.
One, named Matt, was a thief. He was lucky enough to be caught after the void-chasing problem went away, so they didn't kill him.
Matt's parents died on a trip to the capital city when he was young. He grew up on the streets and stole things because of food.
Or, that was at first.
After a while, he started stealing more than to fill his stomach. It became his job.
He had no regrets; in his opinion, he did things to survive, nothing more.
But, with the laws of Alex Kingdom, reasons are irrelevant; the fact is that he stole for profit.
The punishment is hard labor for 15 years!
But, after he served 10 days of his sentence, guards came and took him to a strange forest.
He looked around in confusion.
He saw a man in luxurious clothes, black hair, green eyes, and a long beard.
The man pointed at the thick fog and said, "Go in!"
Matt looked around and observed all the guards with swords drawn. It's not an option; he must go in to survive.
It's only fog, so what could happen?
He went in and lost consciousness.
..
Matt looked at his mother and father.
They had recently returned from a trip to the capital city. With the help of his family, he grew up well.
At 16, he went to a university for his studies. He studied there for years and graduated.
After twenty years, when he was 36 years old, the dual dream disaster happened.
He tried to hide in a safe place, but his link in the Five Star died, and the void chased him. he was discovered by soldiers and was killed.
...
Matt looked around and felt a familiar face.
His father and mother died a while ago in the capital, and the government provided foster parents.
He studied well and attended the best university with his foster family's money.
After twenty years, the dual dream switch disaster happened again.
Matt still died from craziness when his link died.
...
Matt looked around and found a familiar figure.
It was his father.
On a trip a while ago, his mother died while his father survived.
After a few years, his father remarried and kicked him out of the house. He died in homelessness.
...
Matt looked around and found his mother.
There had been an accident a year ago in which his father died ...
…
He experienced his life in different ways hundreds of times just in a short time.
After a few minutes, Alex III ordered his subordinates to pull Matt out.
They pulled the rope which tied to Matt and pulled him out.
William went forward to wake him up.
Those affected by the fog will never wake up or are crazy when they do.
William had already explained it to Alex, but Alex still wanted to see it himself.
In Matt's case, he woke up, looked around, and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"AAAAAAAAAA." No matter how hard William tried to silence him, he didn't stop.
Alex III thought carefully. "Does this fog make one crazy? It would be disappointing if it has no use."
He ordered more experiments.
They brought more people and threw them into the fog.
They threw them all in and pulled the first back after a second, the second after 2 seconds, the third after 5 seconds, and so on.
After a while, the one who remained in the fog for only a second woke up and looked around.
He was an illiterate beggar who could only write his name.
But the moment he woke up, his demeanor was different.
Most wouldn't notice, but Alex, who considered himself a good judge of character, felt astonished.
He went forward and asked," What do you feel?"
The beggar, Harry, smirked and said," Alex III! I pity you!" he said with contempt.
Now he knows how evil Alex III is.
Alex III rolled his eyes and ordered his guards to torture the poor man.
After a while, the look of wisdom disappeared and was replaced with begging, this time begging for them to stop torturing him.
He explained everything.
In the dream, he had another chance at life.
This time, he was accepted into the military academy, became a captain, and survived beyond the dream switch disaster.
His following sentences made Alex III's eyes widen.
The man said," You ... Your Majesty learned of a fog in the Black Soil Forest and came personally to investigate it. I was there with you. After a few months of investigation, you discovered that it's possible to predict the future using the fog, which you named dream fog."
The man then begged," Please don't kill me, your majesty."
Alex III felt annoyed and said," If you stop one more time, I'm going to really kill you! Continue." He was impatient to hear the rest of it.
The man continued," You started catching people and sent them into the dream fog to find a way for true immortality. Eventually, after one year, you found a plausible way."
He continued after hesitating," I don't know why, but Your Majesty intentionally spread rumors about yourself."
Alex III asked," What rumor?"
The man said," About you being immortal; you wanted everyone to believe you are immortal." The man said.
Alex III remained motionless and then smiled.
"Kill him!" he ordered.
"No, wait!" the man yelled.
"Do you have anything interesting to say?" Alex asked, frowning.
"I'll only say it if you promise to let me live," the man said with bloodshot eyes.
Alex III laughed and said," Guards, torture him!"
He won't let anyone set conditions for him.
After less than 30 minutes, the man began to talk.
"Did I really say it?" Alex III asked expressionlessly.
"Sob. Yes, your honor! Those were your exact words! You said everything is a dream!"
Alex III stroked his beard.
"Everything is a dream? How can it be?" Alex III thought it was impossible but decided to investigate it.
"Kill him!" he ordered.
The man begged," Please, no."
Alex III thought for a second and slightly changed his order.
"Torture him and draw everything out, then kill him!" he said emotionlessly.
The guards took the screaming man away.
Then, others started to wake up.
Those who remained for less than 100 seconds remained sane, but after 100 seconds, some went crazy and only screamed or tried to kill themselves.
Alex III ordered them to bring prisoners from around the country to test it. He would catch people from the west forest if there weren't enough test objects.
Then, he went to interrogate others who were pulled out.
The one who remained for two seconds experienced two lives.
In the first one, she died in childhood, and in the second one, she died shortly after the dream switch disaster.
"Throw her in again," Alex III ordered with an expectant look.
He wants to see if sending one in more than once is possible.
The poor woman was carried screaming and was thrown in. They pulled her out after 2 seconds.
After she woke up, she spoke of two other life experiences.
In the first one, she becomes the wife of a wealthy merchant and inherits the wealth after he dies in the dream switch disaster.
She lived for a long time and had a lot of helpful information.
What she said confirmed all that the beggar said.
In her second life experience, she died after living for a hundred years in poverty; she was poor, so she didn't know much.
Alex III nodded and ordered them to throw her in again.
They did it repeatedly, interrogating her about her life experiences each time.
If she refused, they tortured her and forced her.
The torture methods of Alex Kingdom are top-notch; they can do it in a way that doesn't fatally harm the body.
Finally, after around fifty cycles of throwing her in and pulling her out, her total number reached 100.
With the 55th cycle, she went completely crazy, only screaming and not saying anything, no matter how they tortured her.
"Okay, kill her!"
Slash!
Her head separated, and after her body twitched for a while, it stopped forever.
Alex III stroked his beard and ordered," Go get people of all ages, genders, jobs, etc., and try one by one to see if anything changes," he said.
Even William was disturbed by this cruelty, but he maintained his appearance and obeyed.
...
After a few weeks, Alex III concluded a few things: how long one can last without going insane has nothing to do with age, gender, sex, job, IQ, etc.
They failed to find any connection.
After many interrogations, Alex III concluded: "This world is actually a dream!"
He closed his eyes unwillingly.
It's not just this world; even the Five-Star world is a dream.
But because it's a dream, it can also be manipulated by dreams.
It is why Alex III, in those dreams, often spreads news of himself being immortal, trying to make people believe it.
If enough people believe it, it becomes true.
But it's not that simple.
In those dreams, Alex III failed most times.
The population of this country is not enough to make him immortal. Even this entire world lacks enough people.
Both people of this dream world and Five Star world must all believe Alex III is immortal for it to have a chance of becoming true.
It is a tall task.
This world is more achievable, but the Five Star world is challenging, and Alex III has only a few hundred years before he dies of old age.
"But why, in those dreams, did I always wait at least a year?" he wondered.
In all those dreams, he didn't start right away.
"Me in those dreams must have realized all of this in the first few weeks, so why wait?" he thought, stroking his beard.
He failed to find an explanation but decided to, like in all those dreams, also wait for a year.
For it to succeed, he needs to plan.
So, he ordered his soldiers to catch people from the West Forest country and throw them into the fog in masses.
Then, interrogate them and record everything.
He brought a team of trusted researchers and ordered them to analyze those records. After all, he couldn't do it all by himself.
His researchers came and delivered short books to him every day.
Researchers wrote all that may be useful in those books and removed the noise.
Alex III learned a lot from those notes.
With knowing the future, one can perfect the plan.
After a year, he finally launched his plan.