Chapter 148: Chapter 147: "A Dream Within a Dream?
And he cast a plea for help with his eyes.
It was quite apparent that the old man might really only remember that his task was to guard the tomb, and such needs had probably never crossed his mind.
These two girls were indeed very dedicated, and they didn't mind the old man's somewhat stinky socks; they approached, knelt down on the ground, and used their mouths to help the old man take off his socks, an action that made his heart rate suddenly skyrocket.
"It's over..."
Looking down at the two young girls in front of him, the old man murmured in a trance, "This is a sin, oh how could I do this, at my age corrupting you two young girls, this is a great sin."
"No, no, you girls should go," he urged.
Chen Miao smiled as he watched the situation in the guard room and again waved his hand, signaling Hungry Monkey and others to draw the curtains of the guard room so as not to disturb the old man's family bliss.
After all, they had guarded the cemetery for him for so long; they deserved some kind of gesture in return.
He wasn't worried that the old man would die from an overly high heart rate of excitement right there and then.
Being a seasoned supernatural being, the old man's physical condition was surely not poor. Could he really die just like that?
...
After doing all this, Chen Miao lay back down in his own coffin, stretched his tired yet content body, and yawned. With the time difference corrected, it was time to descend into several secret realms tomorrow once he woke up.
His level was still too low.
Without venturing into secret realms, there was no way to gain experience. The rewards from the Hell Bus were generous, but it notably lacked experience points.
The experience given by major events was plentiful, but who knew when the next big event would occur.
Level was still very important.
This time, he had obtained several items, many of which were restricted by his level, and some were constrained by single-dimensional attributes of his body.
Tomorrow he would see if he could perfectly clear two E-rank secret realms and give Nothingness Space a level up in the process.
It's worth mentioning—
His first D-rank item, "First Show of Sharpness," would be reclaimed in three days' time because the second phase of the task was incomplete. The task for the second stage was—to enter the top 100 of any Fengtian City ranking within fourteen days.
For him at the moment, it wasn't too difficult a task.
He had numerous ways to complete it.
Whether it was perfectly clearing another secret realm or showcasing his true combat power in a Combat Power Evaluation Secret Realm, it would be quite easy to make it into the top 100 of either leaderboard.
But looking at the magic staff in his hand, he always felt some helplessness.
He had become accustomed to using this staff, but the preservation mechanism was truly disgusting. Supposedly, no one in the entire Federation had ever managed to permanently keep this item. The highest record was by someone from Jingjiu City who had upgraded it to S-rank.
But that was all.
Dozens of days later, the person failed to complete the task to advance to SS-rank, causing the item to be reclaimed.
The conditions to acquire this item were actually very strict: only after becoming a supernatural entity and then perfectly clearing the first secret realm one encounters could one obtain it. Despite such stringent conditions, there were not a few who had completed them throughout the Federation; even Fengtian City had its fair share.
Still, acquiring this item was the simplest step in the mission chain.
What followed, how to preserve the item, was the real challenge of the task.
With so many powerful families in Jingjiu City, none had managed to completely preserve this item to date. Was it because the subsequent preservation tasks were too difficult, or were those families simply unwilling?
"..."
Chen Miao, lying in the coffin, looked at the staff he held aloft in the air and had a premonition that if this item could really be kept forever, it might become a key in this world?
Yes, a key. Your next read awaits at M-V-L
He always felt that this mission chain was not intended for players to truly retain the item, after all, it was too difficult; hardly anyone could accomplish it. It seemed more like a selection process, filtering out someone strong enough.
And then to trigger some sort of mechanism.
Lost in wild thoughts, Chen Miao drifted into a fuzzy sleep, and he seemed to dream of something soft licking his chest.
It's so good to have money.
Chen Miao mumbled unconsciously in his sleep.
...
The next day—
The familiar 2,000-lumen light bulb, the familiar way of waking up, Chen Miao opened his eyes expressionlessly and, after a quick wash, stretched and smoked his morning cigarette at the cemetery gate while checking the unread messages on his wristwatch.
There were quite a few messages.
The Fengtian City government was inviting him to make a trip.
And they had moved up his one-on-one duel with Sang Biao to today.
Messages like these indicated that he had to make a trip to the city today. If there was time in the afternoon, he could also visit a secret realm; if not, then his plans would have to be postponed again.
...
An hour later.
Yuan Buping, Hungry Monkey, Chen Miao, and Wen took a car to Zhou Shen's office, where city leaders would come to discuss matters with Chen Miao.
"Miao."
Zhou Shen took a box of AI pills from under the table and placed it on top, looking meaningfully at Chen Miao: "Do you know why these things are contraband?"
"The rumors out there say it's because they're affecting the turnover of the federal-operated clubs. Isn't that right?" Hungry Monkey spoke up in surprise: "But from what you said, it seems like there are other factors?"
"That reason is part of it, but not all."
Zhou Shen paused before he continued: "Remember, I told you some time ago that these things might be legalized over time, and even be used to increase Skill Proficiency in dreams?"
"The real reason these things are banned is that they make it all too easy for people to blur the line between reality and dreams."
"Let me ask you, if you're a loner in real life with no connections, your job is not going well, and you have no love life, but in your dream, you are the king of the entire world, which would you choose to believe is the real world?"
"Yes, most people would choose the second."
"This leads many people to become lost in their dreams, especially when the cost of making AI pills is so cheap."
"That's the important reason for the ban, but that's not the main thing I want to talk about today. The latest news from Jingjiu City is what I'm going to tell you about next."
Zhou Shen took a deep breath and said word by word: "We all know that in dreams, you can't create something from nothing, and you can't violate the laws of physics; it's like a reality where you can freely create."
"But when those scientists who can make AI pills take one and enter their dreams, and they make a factory that can produce AI pills in the dream, and then they take another AI pill in the dream, do you know what happens?"
"A dream within a dream?"
Hungry Monkey was somewhat bewildered: "Dreaming in a dream? Are you saying the Federation already has people doing this? I don't want to know the benefits of doing this, I'm just curious about the mindset of the first person to try it."