Chapter 150: Before Walking in the Dreamscape

Hiroyuki slowly opened his eyes.

As far as the eye could see, there was only a realm of chaos and gloom... To put it in a poetic way, though if one were to describe it unpoetically, it looked like footage captured by a waterproof camera submerged in muddy water.

"Is this... a success?"

Hiroyuki looked down at his feet, where the scenery was identical to the surroundings.

There was neither the sensation of stepping on solid ground nor the feeling of floating weightlessly; overall, it felt extremely subtle.

This was an experiment meant to confirm the usage method and effects of the Bakugon Ring.

By touching the back of the ring's main gemstone, an interface similar to the Taiga Key could be invoked, but it contained no interactive elements whatsoever. There was only a single line of text telling Hiroyuki what kind of special skill it could provide.

Dream Walking.

Could anyone tell Hiroyuki what kind of skill this actually was, and how on earth it was triggered?

In fact, Hiroyuki already had a guess. Just looking at the literal meaning of the skill, it was about walking in dreams, or walking through dreams. This reminded Hiroyuki of a certain famous mythological creature possessing a similar ability—

A nightmare.

To be precise, a nightmare beast.

In myths, legends, and storybooks, it is usually described as a black horse, though some tales depict it as a blackened version of a unicorn. It is a robust black steed with a fiery, flowing crimson mane and tail, bearing a horn on its forehead wrapped in purplish-black electric arcs, and hooves imbued with the power of chaos that allow it to gallop through the air, traverse people's dreams, and create terror and nightmares.

For a nightmare beast, human dreams act as portals, allowing it to easily teleport through the dreams of nearby individuals and travel tens of thousands of li in a single day.

Hiroyuki guessed that this "Dream Walking" skill was the ability to infiltrate a target's dreams and teleport between them. Since it involved teleportation within dreams, the phrase "loss of physical form" became quite easy to understand. Naturally, they couldn't just shove a full-grown human like Hiroyuki directly into someone else's brain; it probably transformed the user into an energy manifestation resembling "waves" or "particles" for transmission, which made much more sense.

Having roughly figured out what the skill was meant to do, the remaining question was: how did one activate it?

So, what kind of skill only required a description without needing to be actively used?

At this thought, Hiroyuki, who had over a decade of gaming experience, had a sudden epiphany—it was naturally a passive skill!

A permanent resident skill that, once equipped, remained effective for a long time without needing to be "used." Much like "Infiltration," the skill Hiroyuki currently kept active to adapt to planetary environments, it was a passive skill that did not require active triggering; as long as it was slotted into the light key, it would take effect directly until removed.

The method for using the light ring thus became self-evident.

Put the light ring on your finger, and then go to sleep.

Unlike Uncle Oda's method, which suppressed dream generation by calming brain activity, brain activity is actually exceptionally active when a person is dreaming. Therefore, instruments could not be used to stimulate brainwave activity—otherwise, how could anyone possibly sleep?

Consequently, Hiroyuki sat on the bed, staring in bewilderment at the two guardians standing rigidly to the left and right at the foot of the bed.

"You guys... are you really determined to watch me sleep?"

Clutching the blanket, Hiroyuki looked at the two of them with uncertainty. Just as he finished taking a shower, put on his pajamas, and lay down on the bed, these two uninvited guests had knocked on his door. One claimed he was there to stand guard in case something went wrong with the dream-walking experiment, while the other held a tablet, stating he was there to record the experimental process.

Taro had already confirmed that risks did indeed exist in using this light ring, yet he could not take Hiroyuki's place in the experiment for a very simple reason—Taro could not cast skills by using the light ring. Much like Tregear, he could only summon monsters directly.

As for why it was designed this way, Tregear explained as a matter of course that the light ring was originally intended for his own use, or to be tossed to weak humans or aliens to see how they would abuse it. Therefore, it only needed to distinguish the energy fluctuations of the user, making the light ring he designed capable of accommodating both demands—truly a flawless piece of work.

Taro: "..."

Hiroyuki: "..."

Hiroyuki finally understood why, in the Taiga TV series, he was always the one swiping the rings. Even if Taiga wanted to forcibly use the light ring, he had to forcefully take control of Hiroyuki's body and compel him to use it.

Very well, Hiroyuki understood, but...

Ever since he could remember, Hiroyuki had always slept alone. Having people in his room was one thing, but having them both stare right at him genuinely gave Hiroyuki a heavy sense of "pressure from their gazes."

"What, can't fall asleep with people watching you?"

Tregear looked down at Hiroyuki from above, his expression full of disdain.

"Are you a three-year-old child?"

"I think you have that backwards, Tregear."

"..."

Hiroyuki immediately pulled the blanket over his head.

Perhaps because they had quieted down, or perhaps because it genuinely was the time for Hiroyuki's biological clock to sleep, or perhaps... the surrounding environment made Hiroyuki feel safe. In short, after Hiroyuki relaxed his mind and body to close his eyes and rest for a moment, he drifted off to sleep before he knew it.

And thus, he arrived here.

Looking at the chaotic scene before him, Hiroyuki didn't know what to do for a moment, simply standing there blankly until a voice chimed in beside him.

"Oh, it seems to have succeeded. You've entered my dream."

Hiroyuki turned toward the direction of the voice and saw Captain Passato holding his coffee mug, sitting there suspended in mid-air—at least, Hiroyuki didn't see a chair.

Captain Passato had fallen asleep in the dormitory right next to Hiroyuki's an hour ago, serving as the designated "target" for Hiroyuki's dream-walking experiment.

"Yes, it seems so. In that case, I'll try to detach now..."

As Hiroyuki spoke, he reached for the light ring on his left hand—this was the method Tregear had told him for breaking out of a dream.

The negative effect of the Bakugon Ring was that, after prolonged use, the user would gradually forget that they were inside a dream, slowly begin to mistake the dream for reality, and eventually wander through the dream world like a mindless living corpse, drifting from one person's dream to another's for all eternity.

"Wait a moment, Hiroyuki."

Captain Passato stopped him just as Hiroyuki was about to remove the ring, and Hiroyuki halted his actions accordingly.

"Yes, Captain?"

Seeing Captain Passato stand up, walk toward him, and extend a hand, the captain said, "Show me the Taiga Key."

"Alright."

Hiroyuki unclipped the Taiga Key from his waist and handed it to the captain.

The captain took the key, examined it closely, and then looked up at Hiroyuki with a smile. "Hiroyuki, do you remember that your light key has already been taken away by Hikar and Tregear for research?"

Hiroyuki: "..."

Hiroyuki: "!!"

What, what on earth is this?

"So in a dream, if your subconscious believes you possess something, you will truly possess it."

The captain handed the Taiga Key back into Hiroyuki's grasp.

"And even after you realize that you don't actually own this item, it won't vanish because your subconscious has already created it. You can no longer 'destroy' it—or rather, you cannot eliminate it through your subconscious. Simply having your rational mind feel that 'it doesn't actually exist' is entirely meaningless, because it has unmistakably appeared before your eyes, which interferes with the functioning of your subconscious."

Hiroyuki understood now. Once an object had already appeared before one's eyes, no amount of mental repetition that "it doesn't actually exist" could convince one's subconscious to believe a fact that so clearly contradicted the information transmitted by vision.

The captain also seemed to heave a sigh of relief. "Well, I suppose we have plenty of room to maneuver then. Starting tomorrow, I will conduct subconscious training for you to prepare you for your upcoming missions."