Qin Luosong remained silent.
The cognition of a child, combined with dreams, gave birth to this endless seed of dreams.
Cheng Tingyu: "So in the game, choosing items related to water will increase the chances of survival—because in a child's understanding, fire can naturally be countered by water." She flipped through the document, pointing to a few lines in the middle, and said, "The iron shield in 901 that can indicate hostility turns red when it senses hostility. Its essence should be that the metal is being scorched by flames. In a fire, this shield obviously has no defensive effect, and carrying it around will accelerate the depletion of health and stamina."
Yu Zhishou: "So how did you finally clear the level?"
Cheng Tingyu: "Breaking the window to get out—the initial refresh point had a hint, 401 is very young, at most he can only hold a large piece of bread or a big bottle of drink in his hand—out of the three food items, you can only choose one, the other two will disappear. The essence of this matter is that a child cannot carry too much food at once, and the current time is very limited."
After looking at the document regarding the effects of different foods, Cheng Tingyu added, "Eating bread will deplete mental energy because it is not suitable for consumption in a dry fire scene, and opening mung bean porridge requires tools, which is also a hint towards the identity of child 401."
"Precisely because they are children, they need tools to open the can, and they must use a stool from the kitchen to reach and truly open the window."
"In order to increase the survival rate, before climbing out the window, you can cut down the curtains and tie them around yourself. The cardboard boxes in the living room indicate that the family has not been here long, which also suggests that there should be scissors in the room. At that time, I soaked the rope made from the curtains with water, and once everything was ready, I prepared to escape."
Cheng Tingyu: "The door can temporarily curb the spread of the fire. Opening it means the flames have reached the doorstep."
"Participants experience a severe drop in stamina within the instance. Even if they stand still, their health and mental values will continue to decrease—this is because the disaster has already occurred and cannot be stopped. We can only choose to escape."
"Some participants are quite fortunate and may hear murmurs like 'Are we there yet?' This might be the dream's way of reminding them that finding the true escape route doesn't take that much time."
Qin Luosong thought of something and asked, "After going upstairs, can we jump out from the windows of other rooms?"
Cheng Tingyu shook his head slightly: "I tend to think not."
"If we were to differentiate the levels of the dream, 401 is undoubtedly the closest to reality. The seventh floor and above are purely illusions, while the fifth and sixth floors contain certain elements of reality. However, in the real world, the children from 401 can't even enter the rooms on the fifth and sixth floors."
Cheng Tingyu smiled, "The inspection team has thought this through very carefully. The post didn't provide too much detailed information—if participants formed a mental inertia that they must move upwards after reading it, it would indeed be very difficult to solve."
Qin Luosong: "..."
This was indeed intentional on the part of the inspection team, but Qin Luosong didn't pay much attention to it at first, thinking it was just an excuse from his superior to avoid disclosing too much information.
Cheng Tingyu: "Those various magical tools in dreams are essentially just creations from children's fantasies, meant to protect themselves."
"'Dreams are but silhouettes of the future.' In the real world, the outcome of escaping through the window likely never occurred. The reason it became the correct path to pass through is probably because, in the moment before 401's consciousness fell into slumber, a vague thought had arisen—"
"If only I had the courage to jump out of the window."
"..."
No one spoke in the office. After a while, Yu Zhishou finally said, "The 'Dream Maker' collects all kinds of vivid and intense dreams. Perhaps the owner of this dream has already been transformed into His apostle."
After collecting the data, the two inspectors stood up and bowed slightly to Cheng Tingyu: "It has been confirmed that in the incident at Apartment No. 6, you made a significant contribution to quelling the disaster. We will report all the details truthfully and apply for a bonus and contribution points for you."
Yu Zhishou added, "The first bonus should be credited soon. As for the subsequent payments... considering you don't have official resident status yet, we'll need to go through an approval process."
Initially, to prevent improper fund transfers, F0631 City had a one-million fund payment limit for temporary residents. When Qin Luosong first saw this rule, he didn't pay much attention to it, clearly never imagining that he would actually encounter a day when he would need to use it..
In the outer district of F0631 City, there are some replicas with fixed areas that can be contained through certain methods, such as the former No. 6 Apartment—referred to as "former" because this replica has already been completely resolved.
The report was submitted to Bu Wushang, and the young and promising inspector remained silent for a while.
The first message she saw was that the dream instance had been conquered. However, before Bu Wushang had time to worry about the unsealed reality instance, she saw the line below—during the stay, a guest accidentally awakened the ability of the secret pupil, causing the power of the "Ancient Source" to extend into reality.
"..."
Bu Wushang stared at the words on the report, momentarily doubting whether the document in his hand was written by his subordinate stationed at Apartment No. 6 or by his subordinate before his death.
She knew more about the "Ancient Source," and of course, she understood that it was a force humans could hardly resist.
"The 'Ancient Ones' do not need to truly enter the real world; just a slight leak of their aura can, in a very short time, transform all humans in the area into mindless monsters."
That was an existence beyond human comprehension and description.
Bu Wushang continued reading, and then discovered the second message below—
That was still bad news.
"..."
In the inspector team's office, Bu Wushang couldn't help but hold his forehead, wondering if he had been working overtime too much lately and was starting to hallucinate.
The document showed that after traces of the "Ancient Source" appeared at Apartment No. 6 yesterday, the 01 copy was also brought over to retrieve the seed [Lantern Bearer], causing the containment of the 02 copy to fail.
However, amidst the many unfortunate events, there are always one or two good things.
The reason the copy was retrieved is that the dream seed was breached by a tenant in the apartment. She obtained the [Music Box - Lullaby], causing the "Ancient Source" host, "Secret Eye," and the invisible [Apartment Tenant] to fall into slumber. The team stationed in the apartment then initiated the cleanup procedure.
"[Music Box - Lullaby]..."
Bu Wushang had learned many secrets and knew that participants who successfully conquered the dreamscape dungeons would attract the attention of the "Dreammaker."
——That was a powerful being who had traversed an incredibly distant path on the boundary of realms, having already transcended the category of humanity, and needed to be referred to as "It."
Normally, the aura of an Ancient Source cannot be suppressed by the [Music Box - Lullaby], but the glance cast by the "Dreamweaver" within the Endless City undoubtedly weakened the power of the Ancient Source.
The document provided an explanation, indicating that based on the pollution level shown on the test paper, the cleanup work had indeed been successfully completed.
Due to the accident that occurred during the time of the old apartment, a rift had already appeared in that space, showing a tendency to evolve into a door leading to the present world for the "Ancient Ones." Now, it can be considered a blessing in disguise, as it allows the power originating from the unspeakable ancient entities to be completely eradicated.
The notes on the document also mentioned the identity of the guest who broke through the dreamscape instance—Cheng Tingyu, who came to City F0631 from the Wasteland District in October. An ordinary flesh-and-blood player, his advantage is remaining relatively calm in the face of danger, able to maintain his cognitive abilities.
Bu Wushang silently looked at the documents, then pulled out a blank sheet of paper and began submitting the report to his superiors.
"…The copy 'F0631-M-0851' at No. 704 Wutong Street in the outer district, codenamed [Apartment No. 6], has been completely eradicated due to an unexpected incident…"
For the residents, the breach of Apartment No. 6's replica wasn't entirely a good thing. For instance, Cheng Tingyu lost her quite satisfactory place of residence and the planned thirty-day vacation.
——On closer thought, apart from being a bit maddening and somewhat life-threatening, Apartment Six is actually quite suitable for poor people like her to live in. No need to work, three meals provided daily, and plenty of reasons to avoid socializing.
After completing the records, the inspector took stock of the situation of the apartment residents. The fifth and sixth floors, being the closest to the site of the power leak, saw most people experiencing varying degrees of mental issues. The residents on the third and fourth floors were relatively less affected, only moderately insane. Additionally, four people died in this incident, including the brothers Ji Shilu and Ji Shijiu. The former died instantly after a direct confrontation with the "Ancient Source" in the sea of consciousness, while the latter was found on the ground outside the building, having fallen to his death.
Ji Shiqi, who came with them, managed to cling to life, but he also had to be sent to a sanatorium in the outer district for an indefinite period of recovery.
The inspection team had a detailed process for handling similar issues. They considerately booked a month's stay at a hotel in the outer district for apartment residents who had nowhere to go, and they paid the full rent, regardless of how many days were left until the thirty-day period expired.
As for Cheng Tingyu, he received a transfer notification while having lunch.
[Dear user: Your account has been credited with 1,000,000.00 City Coins.]
——The inspection team's work is still very efficient.
The surviving guests who did not require psychological treatment were collectively accommodated in a nearly bankrupt hotel in the adjacent neighborhood, where members of the inspection team distributed room keys one by one.
Ms. Qin Luosong, who was handing out cards and sporting dark circles from continuous overtime, looked around and asked, "Where is Ms. Cheng from the Wasteland District?"
The colleague next to him answered, with a slightly puzzled expression: "She just left. Before she left, she specifically said not to keep the room key, as she had already decided where she would stay next."
Qin Luosong: "?"
She remembered that Cheng Tingyu was from the desolate district and shouldn't have a fixed residence in the outer city.
Cheng Tingyu placed all his belongings into the [cheap and good-quality backpack], hands in his pockets, and strolled through the streets of the outer district.
The leaves on both sides of the road have gradually withered away.
She did not brush off the inspection team; she had indeed thought about where she should live next.
Wei Xugui had previously rented a house in the outer district. Because her residence was relatively remote and not far from Apartment No. 6, the rent was very cheap. Cheng Tingyu already knew that the copy of No. 704 Wutong Street had been lifted, and the residents of the neighboring streets no longer faced the risk of being suddenly dragged into the copy while sleeping. She took advantage of this time to rent a house, just in time to catch the low prices before the rent increased.
There weren't many large-scale physical real estate agencies nearby, especially on Mulberry Street near Apartment Six. Cheng Tingyu carefully scouted the area and found that most rental advertisements were actually posted on the bulletin board outside the convenience store.
She copied down the useful information and found that the rent in the surrounding areas was roughly between nine thousand to twelve thousand city coins per month.
Converted to the pre-travel amount, it really isn't too expensive.
The bulletin board still had remnants of old advertisements that hadn't been completely torn off. In the same area, the rent for the first half of the year remained at a level of fifteen to twenty thousand per month.
It was probably because the news of Wei Xuguang being drawn into the copy had spread, so the rent dropped further.
Cheng Tingyu stroked his chin.
She now has some thoughts.