Kefulu had seen countless dreams.
On the day she was born, she had browsed through all the dreams in Bibo City—some bizarre and fantastical, some terrifying and grotesque, and others… scandalously indecent.
In this place, imagination painted freely atop the canvas of common sense, creating boundless, whimsical worlds.
She was curious—deeply curious—about the dreams held by the girl in her arms.
Was it a childlike world made of candy and innocence?
That might suggest its dreamer was pure and naive.
Or perhaps a nightmare—twisted and abstract, where monsters chased her through a realm of fear?
That would hint at someone deeply lacking a sense of safety.
Kefulu had made many guesses before entering.
But she never imagined she’d end up in such a normal place.
A nation.
Standing atop a cliff, Kefulu looked down at a small kingdom nestled below, surrounded by endless green meadows.
Yes.
There was no better word for it than nation.
“Welcome, Unlucky Number 10777.”
!
The sudden voice behind her sent a chill down Kefulu’s spine.
Instantly, her body went on high alert.
“No need to be so tense. I’m Number 10776.”
In front of her stood a nightmare girl.
She had the classic nightmare appearance—arrowed tail, bat-like wings, an attractive face, and a lively, sunny demeanor.
Just as she opened her mouth to explain, a flash of white light blinked before Kefulu.
With a dazed thud, Wu Yi dropped into Kefulu’s arms and opened her eyes.
“Huh? I can see… again…”
Her mind was still foggy, her thoughts scattered.
She couldn’t even remember who she was.
“Welcome, Number 10778. Perfect timing. Looks like I only need to explain this once.”
“Where is this?” Kefulu asked coldly.
“This is Princess Wu Yi’s dream prison… or rather, a part of her dream.”
“Wu Yi’s dream?!”
Kefulu was confused.
She had clearly entered the dream of that frail little priestess, so why…?
“Oh, I know what you’re thinking—‘I clearly entered a weakling’s dream, so why am I in Wu Yi’s instead?’ Don’t be surprised. Most nightmares here are like you. They just wanted to casually raid a dream for a meal, but somehow triggered a defense mechanism and got thrown in here…”
The little nightmare girl shrugged and fluttered in midair, gesturing ahead. “Come on, I’ll take you into the city.”
“The city?”
“Yup. So many nightmares fell in here over the years, we figured we might as well make something of it. Built a city, built a society… it’s got a population in the hundreds of thousands now.”
“……”
Kefulu found it hard to even call this place a dream.
In a normal dream, due to limited brain processing power, only a small patch of the world near the dreamer gets fully rendered.
Anything beyond the central field of vision tends to blur out—low-resolution textures, or just pure black fog.
But this place… was completely different.
Every blade of grass, every mountain and stream was rendered in stunning detail.
Scarlet carp leapt through the creeks that ran through the city.
Dandelions danced in the sweet breeze, spinning white windmill blades as they passed.
As they entered the city gates, the smell of roast chicken drifted from street stalls.
Inside a tavern, dreamy nightmare girls giggled and flirted.
One commanding-looking nightmare teased a meek, shy one—only to provoke the jealousy of a nearby swordswoman, who promptly picked a fight on the spot.
“Wait… aren’t nightmares all female? How did you even make people…?” Kefulu asked, twitching at the corners of her mouth.
“This is the dream realm, silly! Don’t let the boring mechanics of reality box in your imagination,” the little nightmare said, shrugging. “Anyway, let me take you to a place to stay. We haven’t had newcomers in forever… what, maybe 120 years?”
“One hundred and twenty? Wu Yi’s not even that old,” Kefulu said in disbelief.
“Time flows differently here,” the nightmare replied, pointing toward a giant clock tower.
She continued, “By outside time, I entered ten years ago. Back then, I was under orders from the Divine King to infiltrate the Ballad Department and steal intelligence from one of their songstresses. I was also supposed to find out why so many of my predecessors had gone missing… well, I figured that out.”
She shrugged again. “They’re all here. Some of them already have great-grandkids running around.”
Oh no.
Kefulu quickly grasped the situation—clearly, Wu Yi had set up some kind of defensive mechanism in the dreams of her subordinates.
Anyone attempting to enter her dream to steal information—be it a nightmare or a dream-walker—would be forcibly redirected here, to this Prison of Dreams.
And if this place was designed as a jail, then escaping would not be easy.
“Watch out.”
The little nightmare suddenly tugged Wu Yi aside.
Still woozy, Wu Yi stumbled away—just in time.
Thud! Something crashed down from the sky, hitting the exact spot she’d just been standing.
The ground cracked with the impact.
“That’s a fragment of Wu Yi’s dream,” the nightmare said, picking up a small, purplish-black stone. “She occasionally seals parts of her dreams—desires and such and tosses them down here. Let me see… this one smells like… yep, ‘I want roast chicken.’”
“You can smell them?” Kefulu asked. “There must be tons of Wu Yi’s information down here, right?”
“Oh sure. But over the last hundred-plus years, most of what falls is stuff like ‘I want pineapple buns,’ ‘I’m craving barbecue,’ ‘I miss roast duck,’ or just endless variations of ‘Ahhh I’m so hungry I want xxxx’… That’s like ninety percent of it.”
“And the rest?”
“The rest are things like ‘Ugh, another typhoon,’ ‘I want to go on an adventure,’ ‘It’d be nice to have a girlfriend,’ or ‘Even a 2D waifu is fine, just give me one that doesn’t glitch out.’ Stuff like that.”
“No serious intel? Like her location, or current status?”
“Nope. But we can deduce some things. I know a detective who specializes in analyzing these fragments. I’ll take you to her in a few days.”
The little nightmare wagged her tail as she led Wu Yi and Kefulu to a small house.
She flew inside after pushing open the door and gestured for them to enter.
The furnishings were homey and lived-in—a classic two-bedroom layout.
“This is the house I share with my lover. She joined the Dream Frontier Expedition today, so she’s out adventuring. You two can stay here for the night.”
Naturally, Kefulu didn’t want to linger any longer than necessary.
“Is there no way to leave?”
“Huh? Leave? Why would you want to leave?” the little nightmare looked at her in confusion. “This place is a paradise for nightmares!”
“……”
“Normal dreams are so limited. You walk a few steps and everything turns into pixelated mush. But here… our expedition teams still haven’t found the outer boundary. We keep discovering new species, new treasures!” She rubbed her hands together in excitement. “Nightmares feed on dreams but in this Prison of Dreams, we’ll never go hungry again. No more scrounging through the lifeless, grey dreams of corporate drones… This place is heaven!”
Maybe that was true…
But Kefulu was no nightmare.
And she hadn’t forgotten the reason she came here in the first place.
She raised her arms, still holding the dazed, innocent-looking girl gently in her embrace.
“Please. Take us to meet the detective—right now.”
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