Chapter 26: Irene’s Talent
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation.
Irene possessed the ability to enter other people’s dreams—and according to her, not only could she slip into someone’s dream, but she could also influence its course to some extent. She could, for example, summon a dump truck by ringing the end-of-exam bell within the dream.
Honestly, if used well, it seemed like a formidable skill. It might even allow for advanced maneuvers like psychological suggestions, mental infiltration, or memory alteration.
But Yu Sheng was skeptical about how much of Irene’s boasting was reliable. So far, she was utterly useless even in dreams; she couldn’t even hide properly in the bushes.
And even in dreams, she was still trapped inside that oil painting.
Irene’s oil painting floated before Yu Sheng. The doll-like girl within the frame looked a bit embarrassed, and Yu Sheng couldn’t help but find her current state awkward—floating mid-air like that, she might as well have been hanging on a wall.
“You can only stay inside the painting even in dreams?” Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow, finally voicing his doubt. “I thought that since we’re in the mental realm, you’d at least be able to come out and stretch your legs…”
“That’s why it’s called a curse,” Irene replied helplessly. “I’m trapped in the painting in reality, and it’s the same in the spiritual world. No matter where I go, I can’t get out of this painting unless I find a suitable vessel—freedom? I don’t even have that in dreams.”
“Well, that’s… pretty unfortunate,” Yu Sheng said sincerely.
“But there are some differences between dreams and the real world!” Irene seemed eager to defend herself, perhaps feeling a bit hurt by his sympathy. “I’m a bit freer here than in reality. See, I can float around… Don’t laugh! And… and there’s more!”
Yu Sheng arched an eyebrow, genuinely curious. “Oh? There’s more?”
Irene thought for a moment, then struck a pose reminiscent of a video game character powering up. She began to exert herself within the oil painting, as if preparing to unleash some hidden ability. Yu Sheng, momentarily taken aback, watched intently for any changes in the doll within the frame. Then, in the next second, the surface of the oil painting shimmered with a layer of ethereal light!
As Yu Sheng’s eyes widened, the oil painting suddenly went “poof”—transforming into a poster straight out of the 1980s.
Irene now sported a vintage movie aesthetic, standing within the poster and locking eyes with Yu Sheng.
“I can change art styles,” she declared.
“……”
“You laughed! I heard you!”
Yu Sheng tried hard to keep a straight face. “No, I didn’t.”
“Inner voice!”
Deciding he’d had enough, Yu Sheng chose to ignore the doll. After all, the large fox was still lying nearby, and he hadn’t figured out her situation yet.
Feeling a bit hurt, Irene floated to the side, mumbling to herself. “I can turn into other things too—woodcuts, scrolls… I’m even studying how to become a relief sculpture. Then I’d have some depth, and you couldn’t say my character is flat…”
Yu Sheng couldn’t stand her muttering any longer and suddenly turned to her. “First of all, when did I say your character is flat? Secondly, ‘flat character’ doesn’t mean that—and turning into marble won’t make your character any deeper.”
Irene opened her mouth to retort, but before she could, she “poofed” back into her oil painting form—her transformation time was up, lasting less than three minutes in total.
Yu Sheng was dumbfounded. He knew the doll was useless even in dreams, but he hadn’t expected her to be this useless…
But this time, Irene didn’t seem disappointed. She finally noticed the white fox lying on the grass nearby—or rather, she finally sensed that this big fox seemed a bit out of place in the dream environment. Her curiosity piqued, she shifted her attention. “By the way, what’s with this fox? Why does she look so different from the rest of the dream?”
Seeing Yu Sheng’s puzzled expression, she added, “In a normal person’s dream, everything usually shares a consistent color palette. Even if the dreamer doesn’t notice, I can see it as an observer. Like your dream—the sky and the grass are all grayish, which is your dream’s ‘base tone.’ But this fox… she looks like she’s in the wrong movie set.”
She paused, eyeing Yu Sheng suspiciously. “Why is there such a strange phenomenon in your dream?”
Yu Sheng fell silent for a moment, then turned to look at the sleeping white fox. Slowly, he said, “Her name is Foxy.”
“I know, she’s obviously a fox…”
“I mean, that’s her name—Foxy,” Yu Sheng corrected her. “Remember when I told you about being trapped in that ‘Otherworld’? I met a fox—white fur, red eyes, lots of tails…”
Irene blinked, her not-so-reliable memory finally kicking in as she recalled what Yu Sheng had told her.
Her expression became a mix of surprise and disbelief. She stared wide-eyed at the giant fox, opening and closing her mouth several times before finally speaking. “What?! How did you bring her into your dream… Wait, no, how did you even have the ability to ‘trap’ someone…”
“I didn’t bring her here, and I don’t think she’s truly ‘trapped’ here. This is probably just some sort of shadow or projection? I’m not really sure,” Yu Sheng explained. “As soon as I fell asleep, I saw her, but I can’t wake her up no matter what I try.”
Irene looked back and forth between Yu Sheng and the fox, her gaze shifting as she tried to piece together the logic of this situation. It was clearly no easy task.
“I’ve never heard of anything like this…” she muttered, then suddenly turned to stare intently into Yu Sheng’s eyes. “Are you really human?”
Yu Sheng frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? If I’m not human, then what are you?”
But Irene continued to scrutinize him, her crimson eyes serious. “Alright, let’s review: a human, an ordinary person, unknowingly living in an Otherworld for a long time, then venturing into yet another Otherworld, encountering a dangerous entity. Not only did you escape alive, but you also brought back a ‘souvenir’ from that entity, cooked it, ate it, and remained perfectly fine. Now, you’re even storing another consciousness in your dream—the main body of which is trapped elsewhere.”
“All these absurd things happened to you, and you claim—you’re human? An ordinary human?”
Yu Sheng felt a bit uncomfortable under her intense gaze. He subconsciously looked away, thinking she didn’t even know about the ‘coming back from the dead’ part. Compared to that, the previous absurdities were nothing…
“Well, a lot of strange things have happened, and I’m confused myself,” Yu Sheng admitted. “But if you think about it, you’re one of the ‘strange things’ that’s happened to me recently.” He sighed. “Don’t look at me like that. I have no idea what’s going on either. I can’t wake Foxy up. If I could, maybe we could ask her what’s happening.”
Irene studied him for a moment longer, seeming to confirm he wasn’t joking, then slowly shifted her gaze back to the silver-white fox.
She thought for a long time.
“I have an idea,” she suddenly announced.
“An idea?” Yu Sheng perked up. “Let’s hear it.”
“I’ll try to enter this fox’s dream. If she’s dreaming right now,” Irene said, pointing at the fox. “She appears to be in some sort of mental lockdown. But no matter how well-guarded a mind is, dreams are hard to defend against. Maybe I can ‘see’ something. If I can wake her up here, even better.”
Yu Sheng was genuinely surprised. He had just been lamenting the doll’s unreliability, and now she was proposing such a sophisticated plan. “You can do that?”
“It’s not difficult, as long as she’s dreaming. Even if she’s not, your minds are clearly connected right now. I have ways to ‘squeeze’ over and take a look. But… there’s some risk, and I’ll need your help.”
Yu Sheng’s expression turned serious. “No problem. Tell me what I need to do.”
“Jumping between minds is like deep diving in unstable waters. If the connection between us falters, I might get trapped on the other side,” Irene explained earnestly. “So, I need a ‘rope,’ and you’ll be that rope.
“You need to dive with me, descending from your own dream into the depths of this big fox’s mind. You’ll also need to share some of the pressure so I can focus on navigating. And if something does go wrong… I’ll have to use a rather abrupt method to wake you up.
“Your awakening has the highest priority in this chain of dreams, and it’ll pull my consciousness back as well. That way, we’ll both safely return to the real world. But I should warn you, my method of waking you might not be very pleasant.”
“How unpleasant can it be?” Yu Sheng asked.
“Imagine dreaming that you’re taking the most important exam of your life, but you forgot to write your name. The bell rings, signaling the end, and before you can react, a dump truck crashes into the exam hall, turning you and your high school crush into paper-thin characters—literally flat,” Irene said, her analogy as bizarre as ever.
Yu Sheng couldn’t make heads or tails of her strange comparison.
But he figured it couldn’t be that bad. Waking up abruptly was a small price to pay. It couldn’t be worse than dying, could it?
Rather than hesitating, he was more eager to find out what was going on with Foxy and what was happening in his own dream.
“Alright, let’s do it,” Yu Sheng took a deep breath and nodded firmly at Irene. “What’s the first step?”
“Go over there and get as close to the big fox as possible… Just lie down on her tail.
“Then, hold onto my frame, close your eyes, and we’ll take the plunge within the dream.”