Chapter 287: The Means of Fortune Transfer Laid Out in the Dream World
“Xiao Han, what brings you to my place?”
In the office 8405 of the teaching building, Teacher Ji asked as she looked at the figure appearing at the doorway.
She had intended to conduct research on the Great Spellbook. Even though she knew her foundation was shallow and the probability of success was low, the Academy Head’s recent success had given her great confidence.
This was the first time she had witnessed the birth of the Great Spellbook at such close range!
So she had been organizing various related materials for days; there could never be too much preparation for something like this.
Without preparation, researching while searching for materials would waste a lot of time.
“Teacher Ji, what about the dream device you placed in 8401… Can I borrow it?”
“Of course you can use it. Why are you asking me? I brought it here for you to use, didn’t I?”
“Uh… okay. By the way, don’t you usually use the dream device?” I nodded quickly but still asked out of curiosity. The dream device had only been used briefly after Teacher Ji brought it, and since then, it had just collected dust. It must be quite precious since it hadn’t been spread throughout the academy.
“I do use it, but I don’t use this thing; it’s too cumbersome.”
“Is there something more convenient?”
“Well, remember what the Academy Head told you about the Truth Witch of the Soul finding a connection to dreams in the soul? Initially, dreams required external devices to access, but now they can be simplified into a spell directly. Once you advance to an Extraordinary Witch, you can learn it at the Grand Library or buy a ready-made spellbook. The Primordial Witch is quite generous in promoting dreams, but it’s limited to Extraordinary Witches.”
“So I…”
“Don’t even think about it. Just use that dream device and lie down comfortably. Isn’t that good enough?” Teacher Ji said with annoyance as she waved me out of her office.
“Alright…”
I shrugged at the closed door, originally planning to ask more, but she didn’t give me the chance. Since returning from the Academy Head’s office, Teacher Ji had visibly become busy, and she rarely spoke in the class group chat.
It seemed Teacher Ji also had to prepare for the Great Spellbook. I wondered how long her passion could last; hearing the Academy Head talk about time spans of hundreds or thousands of years was truly terrifying.
Back in the laboratory.
I activated the dream pod using the method I employed before. Although it looked different from the one I had used previously, the operation was fundamentally the same.
The Academy Head had instructed me to log into the Primordial Dream World using the dream device, but she hadn’t mentioned what I should do next. Did she expect me to wait for her to add me as a friend?
I closed my eyes and waited to enter the dream.
After feeling a wave of unfamiliar sensations, I slowly opened my eyes. Unlike the first time Teacher Ji brought me into a dream, and it wasn’t the pure white public space from the exchange contest; instead, I found myself in a vast open arena, a bloody scent filling my nostrils in an extremely unpleasant way.
I instinctively steadied myself, only to realize I was lying on the ground. I looked around, and everything around me resembled an ancient gladiatorial arena, with tall walls and stacked seating surrounding me.
I was on a piece of fairly level yellow ground, the bl**d seeping into the ground was visible everywhere, giving the entire arena a dark red hue, no wonder the bloody smell was so strong.
“What… what is this place?”
Although I was somewhat confused, I understood that I had entered a dream; could it be a random teleportation to some strange scene?
I instinctively checked my spellbook and magic source. Even in a dream, these should still be usable, just like during the exchange contest.
But upon inspection, I discovered that in this dream body, I had no trace of a spellbook or magic source!
At this moment, I was left with only a body that was somewhat stronger than before; nothing else.
Just as I was contemplating whether to exit, a voice suddenly dispelled my intention to leave; the voice… seemed to belong to the Academy Head.
“The outsider has awakened! Let us cheer for her with utmost enthusiasm! This will be the most primal and bloody wheel battle until the outsider exhausts her last bit of strength, then we shall devour her entirely!”
“What?”
I stared at the figure on the high platform, unsure of what was happening, but before I could respond, a roar like that of the abyss erupted, filled with “intense” emotions, echoing through the audience.
At this moment I realized that the audience was already full, no… they couldn’t even be called humans; they were merely distorted shadows.
But at this time, the Academy Head did not give me any time for explanations.
“It seems our sacrifice still lacks a bit of awareness, so let’s put some shackles on her to calm her down!”
With that command-like tone, I suddenly felt a weight on my neck; the cold, hard sensation made me realize I was locked in a metallic collar.
Just as it locked me in, I sensed something stirring within me accompanied by a flash of golden light. The fortune I had absorbed into my body could no longer gather as a whole as before; now it was splitting apart like peeling silk.
“This…”
Seeing the inexplicable movement of my fortune, I quickly reacted and glanced at the Academy Head. Was this the so-called fortune transfer that started without telling me?
I instinctively touched the cold metal collar around my neck. It seemed to contain a strange ritual that interfered with my fortune, leading to the current situation.
“Look! The outsider’s power has already been revealed; let our brave warriors seize her strength!” The Academy Head’s words had an enchanting quality; the audience, distinguished by their unclear forms, emitted the loudest roars.
At that moment, the golden Thread of Fortune began drawing closer to me, weaving into a golden battle skirt and weapon.
I instinctively reached out to grasp the golden greatsword; it felt contradictory, heavy yet manageable, able to be wielded with one hand without any issue.
Just as I was curious about how fortune could be used this way, a sound of grinding metal echoed; opposite me, a passage door opened.
Then a tall figure stepped in with heavy footsteps.
It was a shadowy figure. Although it had a distinct form, I could discern the aura radiating from it—it was a nightmare!
Were we getting straight to the point?
Or was this the Academy Head’s plan for the nightmare to seize my fortune?
However, regardless of the reason, the first nightmare that appeared hit me hard, sending both me and my weapon flying.
Unaccustomed to such a fighting style, I suffered a significant setback, and my battle skirt, formed from condensed fortune, dimmed a few shades.
I clumsily got back up. Fortunately, I reacted quickly enough to block with the greatsword, but that strike shook my hand painfully.
At this moment, I felt as if my insides were dislocated, sending waves of sharp pain through me. Without spells or protective shields, this kind of pain, while not unfamiliar, still hurt nonetheless.
In that instant, I clearly recognized the fragility of my body.
“Ugh… it hurts… d*mn it…”
Yet my fighting instinct reminded me that there was no time to m*an and complain.
Even though I understood this was a dream and I wouldn’t truly d*e.
After a few solid collisions, I adapted to this kind of fighting, although at the cost of my injuries.
But I found myself getting more and more into it.
Because I noticed that the more I got hurt, the more fortune slipped into the opponent’s body. I seemed to understand the correct way to approach my presence here; was it to transfer fortune in this manner?
What is this?
A ritual in duel form to forcibly seize fortune?
It seemed to perfectly match Teacher Ji’s description of the way to forcibly seize fortune—audience, fortune, confrontation, competition; the only difference was… the parties fighting for fortune were not the holders of the Fortune Seed.
I didn’t know how the Academy Head fooled fortune and the script, but this method almost achieved its goal at zero cost in the dream.
And the cost was my injuries and pain.
In the midst of fighting, my gaze met the Academy Head’s, who looked at me with satisfaction but didn’t say anything more. She seemed to simply be playing the role of a… host.
This straightforward fighting in terms of power and skill allowed me to quickly realize my shortcomings in combat; any mistakes would be offset by fortune, the only cost being that fortune would shift toward the opponent.
It felt as if fortune had become a decoration attached to me, something that could be seized by the opponent at will.
After several rounds of battle, I finally managed to defeat the nightmare with severe injuries, its massive body crashing to the ground, turning into an formless nightmare that screamed in terror as it was pulled back.
With that nightmare gone, the fortune it had seized from me returned to me…
“Wait…”
I stared in shock as the fortune came rushing back to me like fledglings returning to the nest; I realized my previous injuries had been in vain.
“It looks like our sacrifice is a bit tricky; then I’ll let more warriors take the stage!”
With the entrance of three consecutive nightmares, the scene became intense, absurd, and bizarre.
Once I grasped the situation, I hesitated no longer; it was just a matter of facing d*ath…
Although, I seemed to haven’t truly experienced d*ath even in dreams.
After resolutely facing d*ath, I reappeared in the center of the gladiatorial arena as if I had resurrected.
But my expression wasn’t good; it wasn’t the pain from d*ath that troubled me, but the voluntary act of facing d*ath hadn’t resulted in a transfer of fortune.
So… did everything still need to be built upon my suffering?
“Not enough! These few aren’t nearly enough! I want to fight them all!” I raised my head and shouted toward the Academy Head.
“Oh, look at her overestimating herself! She can’t even deal with the three in front of her and still dreams of fighting them all; let’s ask the audience if they agree!” At this point, the audience was roaring with strange sounds, but to my ears, it sounded like jeering.
“Fine…”
I sighed at that moment, then rushed toward the three nightmares again. With lost spells and other means, my only reliance left was myself and my fortune.
But that was enough. After a tough and grinding battle and several revivals, I defeated those three nightmares as if I were on a rampage, the lost fortune returning, but I didn’t care.
“Now, I’ll say it again! I want to fight all of you! To be blunt, the warriors in my eyes are just a bunch of weaklings. Is this the best you can do for a sacrifice? You think you can feasting on me? Dream on!”
“Since that’s the case, then we’ll indulge your desire; I hope you’ll still be as tough when the time comes!”
…
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Facing the shadow lying still on the ground like a corpse, the Academy Head finally removed her mask.
In the face of endless slaughter, d*ath, and revival, this was an extreme extraction of a person’s energy.
This reminded me of that time when Tan Han and I fought in a dream; had she already reached such an awareness back then?
As for me, I could only passively endure to reach this point.
“It’s nothing… at least… I haven’t lost consciousness…”
Even though this body had ample strength after reviving, I felt so numb that I couldn’t even prop myself up.
“Haven’t lost consciousness? I’m starting to be curious about what supports you to get this far. I didn’t plan to disperse your fortune so thoroughly in one go; after all, your fortune was gathered from dozens of extraordinary academies during the exchange contest. You performed quite well.”
“Thank you… but… why? If fortune can be so easily transferred… why go through all this trouble…”
“Do you think it’s simple? It’s not simple.” At this moment, Mei Linde crouched down, placing her hand on the iron collar around my neck and with a click, removed it, “It’s not simple. First, this, as you probably have noticed, has a kind of ritual on it that can interfere with fortune. Only by presenting the dormant fortune within you in another form can the next step of the plan proceed.”
“And then… you don’t have a Fortune Seed. While fortune is yours and cannot be directly taken away by others, without a Fortune Seed, the Threads of Fortune on you are like rootless duckweed, and methods will always be used to transfer it to others. The script does not prioritize the transfer of fortune; it only values those who have a Fortune Seed.”
“And on top of that… I went through a lot of trouble; even in dreams, is it easy?”
“Do you think the audience was merely a false existence in the dream? They were the sleeping consciousness of real people. I brought them in to be part of this fortune transfer ritual.”
“Were they… real people?!”
Hearing the Academy Head’s words, I was immediately shocked, reflecting on my rough state during that fight, frantic and mad… so embarrassing…
“What’s wrong? Don’t worry about it. When those people wake up, they won’t remember the specific contents of the dream, only vague images; so you can rest assured.”
“Is that so? That’s a relief…” After hearing the Academy Head’s words, I finally felt a bit more at ease, but before I could fully unfurl, the Academy Head’s next words startled me.
“And they will bear those nightmares, being forced to carry the transferred fortune into the script. Next, another event in the script will occur, the nightmare event. Not only at the Witch Academy but at other academies as well, the Children of Fortune will discover abnormalities, investigate the truth, solve troubles, and obtain fortune. Thus, the nightmare event concludes, the fortune distribution is complete, and the script enters the next phase. What do you think?”
“There… are other academies?”
“We should give a little sweet reward, shouldn’t we? It’s just an exchange of interests; I’ll sell that fortune at a good price. After this complete loss in the exchange contest, they will be like ants on a hot pot; no matter how much of a lion’s share we ask for, they will agree.”
“Is that… how it is?” I nodded and didn’t say anything more. Indeed, in the Academy Head’s eyes, fortune was just another resource that could be exchanged.
“Well then, it’s time to go back. You’ve worked hard today. Oh, by the way, if you don’t want to complicate things further, just don’t get involved in the upcoming nightmare event-related matters.”
